With the release of the brochures for the 2011 Disney Dining Plan to the general public this past weekend it has caused a panic for people planning a Disney Vacation for next year. If you look over the pdf’s you will notice that there are a lot of missing restaurants including one of my absolute favorites San Angel Inn. I am here to tell to quote you a line from one of my favorite non Disney movies.
Don’t Panic!
Right around this time last year I was planning my vacation for Jan of 2010. The 2010 Disney Dining Plan PDF’s came out and it was missing a ton of restaurants. You want to talk about anxiety I was on the phone in a matter of minutes asking where are all my restaurants!
For the rest of the year I called once a week asking for any updates. I had the DDP page bookmarked and checked for PDF updates religiously. But by the time our trip came in the first weeks of January there still was no news.
I picked some other restaurants, a few I wasn’t crazy over and descended on Walt Disney World. On our second day at the parks we were in Mexico Pavilion around lunch time and I walked over to San Angel Inn to complain about not being on the Disney Dining Plan. Before I could get the complaint from my lips the hostess told me they are on the DDP now. My jaw hit the floor! Without skipping a beat she asked me how many for lunch. I felt like a king strolling to that table. Sorry Biergarten maybe next time.
After having a great lunch I proceeded to call Disney and check on other locations that might have been added. Sure enough the remaining hold outs have stepped up and are now available. I was able to get 2 more reservations that I wanted and felt relieved.
So I am living proof that what you see on the Disney Dining Brochures now are not necessary of what is available at the time of your vacation. Keep checking, keep calling, and ask the restaurant when you are there cause you never know unless you try.
Our trip was the 2nd week of January so even if your favorite restaurant isn’t on the list now that doesn’t mean that it might not be added later.
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I wish they would eliminate this dining plan altogether. The quality and the quantity of food at WDW eateries has suffered greatly since the inception of the dining plan. Years ago, whenever we went to WDW, {which was several times a year} one of the things we looked forward to most of all was eating at the restaurants, which, at one time, were pretty much all really great places to eat. The dining plan has done a great job of making places to eat less then stellar, and in some cases, downright crummy. Keep it up, Disney. your loosing a lot of faithful guests.
Dead on Chip!! I think it has something to do with contract negotiations between Disney and the restaurant operators. I haven't looked but I bet if I did I would find that the Disney “owned” eateries are all there while those operated by third parties are, in some cases, missing. You are right, they generally all show up eventually. It's another one of those – it happens every year – Disney moments!!
Ken
I went through that panic last year too. It is a contract negotiation issue with the places that aren't Disney owned. They don't usually confirm until the very last minute.