Prix fixe at BOG

[Stefani P.]

Pretty sure you wont be able to share. That's the point of fixed price.

That was also my assumption. Darn it!!

 

[Ilovemyprincesses]

I do think a lot less people go to LeCellier since the change, less people go to CRT and now less people will go to BOG. They will still make the money by charging the people that do go more money. We have done CRT but not since the change to 2 TC. It’s not worth it. The food isn’t that good. We have only done LeCellier once since the change to 2TC and I thought it wasn’t as good as it had been and since the tables are so close I had someone’s child from the next table kicking me through dinner. Now we won’t be doing BOG. My kids love it but they are Disney adults and even though they will eat the nicer food I just feel like for $200 we can do better.

I think they did this because of the cupcake crowd and the adrs being hard to get. The restaurant is nice but the cupcakes are not that great.

 

[MJ6987]

I severely doubt the "cupcake" crowd is 100% to blame for this change but I bet it did lower the average price per head. The "average" Disney guest would never even consider making a dining reservation and not eating. This is a board of Disney fanatics (and there are other boards), so I feel that skews a bit towards us seeing posts about it more than it actually happens everyday. However, that coupled with a lower than average dining cost, high demand, and a proven example in Le Cellier; from a business perspective, this is a no brainer. If the food is truly better, $55 isn't too bad, but I have my doubts because they're going to want volume just as they did before on the la carte menu. They will want to keep the tables turning over fast, keep the tables packed in, and I feel food quality won't live up to the hype. They should have done this for Breakfast first (i.e. mandatory prix fixe). I'm not paying $25 for that, but on a dining plan I would use a QS credit--essentially the opposite about how I feel for dinner where I'd pay cash but not use two TS credits!

Oh well, finally a reason to try Skipper Canteen for TS at the MK.

I saw posts of people asking about just ordering dessert / a cupcake on a daily basis on the main (and very popular) UK based Orlando Facebook group. This group is very much visited by "average Disney guests". And for every post there were dozens of replies saying stuff like "ooh, that's a good idea - a character meal for the price of a cupcake!!" Etc. This must have had some impact.

 

[Wubar]

I saw posts of people asking about just ordering dessert / a cupcake on a daily basis on the main (and very popular) UK based Orlando Facebook group. This group is very much visited by "average Disney guests". And for every post there were dozens of replies saying stuff like "ooh, that's a good idea - a character meal for the price of a cupcake!!" Etc. This must have had some impact.

Bet they are just pleased as punch with the new changes.

 

[HopperFan]

I'm surprised that BoG is being called a "character meal" here. It has never been a character meal. Yes, it's likely that you can take a picture with the beast (we have at every single dinner), but that's it. WDW has never guaranteed that you will be able to see the Beast, it does not show as a character meal when you search the WDW Dining list, and just being ale to take a pic with one non-speaking character, IMHO, does not constitute a character meal. Very different from the other meals where you have 4-5 characters coming to your table to interact.

I think they broke it down to the per person spending and all the split entrees, dessert-only, soup-only orders made the bean-counters go "hmm, for the popularity of this restaurant, we are falling behind our targets." There is a fixed cost to provide staffing, linens, silverware, and turn over a table. If that costs the restaurant $5/table and the table is only making $35, it looks bad on that spreadsheet. Especially, when you compare it to other places.

I mean we know it isn't technically but it is the ONLY way to meet the Beast and he is a big deal. You can meet just about every character at the real character meals for free, sometimes in more than one place .... but the Beast, this is it. That alone is worth the price, and in some's mind they are paying for the character.

I do think a lot less people go to LeCellier since the change, less people go to CRT and now less people will go to BOG. They will still make the money by charging the people that do go more money. We have done CRT but not since the change to 2 TC. It’s not worth it. The food isn’t that good. We have only done LeCellier once since the change to 2TC and I thought it wasn’t as good as it had been and since the tables are so close I had someone’s child from the next table kicking me through dinner. Now we won’t be doing BOG. My kids love it but they are Disney adults and even though they will eat the nicer food I just feel like for $200 we can do better.

I think they did this because of the cupcake crowd and the adrs being hard to get. The restaurant is nice but the cupcakes are not that great.

Yup. I was hard pressed to use 1 dining credit. A good steak, easily had outside the world. A small space with inches between me and strangers, hearing their whole conversation, bumping elbows. It's a small supposedly intimate space but it's anything but. Once it went to 2 credits, there was no way I had any interest in going back.

 

[Princess Serendipity]

On the subject of Le Cellier/signatures inside the parks, I do think there is a hidden value to them, especially for people that enjoy signatures in the first place and aren't at Disney all the time and have to be a little more miserly with their vacation hours.

A good steak, easily had outside the world.

The problem here is that when we're inside a park, we're not outside the World. Leaving the park, even to go to a resort, even, say, a Monorail resort, wastes a lot of time. This is the main reason Le Cellier and Brown Derby were always on my ADR list- they were available lunch signatures I could have without having to leave the park. (I'll agree with HopperFan though, Le Cellier really, really needs to space their tables out more. There's absolutely nothing that immediately kills the experience of a restaurant for me than going and either finding myself at mouse-sized two top or practically on top of another table. Or high noise levels. )

But I'm one of those people that even if I'm in the parks, I will still want a good meal at a sit down restaurant- I just don't like hamburgers and spaghetti and sandwiches that much, especially on vacation. I'd just like to be able to get said meal without having to leave the park, travel to another resort somehow (whether waiting for a bus/boat/monorail), then waiting for said transportation and travel time back to said park, waiting in line to get back in, and then going through bag check again. Granted, one or two full meals a day is plenty for us at Disney World, but still. As it is now, Magic Kingdom days usually entail either BOG, CRT, or a (usually very late) dinner at a Monorail signature or AP.

 

[HopperFan]

The problem here is that when we're inside a park, we're not outside the World. Leaving the park, even to go to a resort, even, say, a Monorail resort, wastes a lot of time. This is the main reason Le Cellier and Brown Derby were always on my ADR list- they were available lunch signatures I could have without having to leave the park.

I think you misunderstood, I don't leave the parks to eat. What I meant is I can get just as good a steak when I'm not at Disney, in a restaurant that doesn't charge the maximum for me to practically sit in someone's lap. There is simply nothing special about that restaurant, (including the food) to warrant paying those prices/credits. It was one thing when it was one credit and they had a lunch menu, but not now.

I'm at Disney to be in the bubble, I'd rather eat at one of the restaurants that are more creative and offer me more value for my money. BOG is a perfect example. The current dinner is nothing special and not worth the money - if they pull of the flavor that they are describing for the new menu then I get good food and great venue. Fingers crossed.

 

[KateP85]

I don't understand why people want to add more characters in order to make it 'worth it' - again, I know I'm in the minority but I don't like character meals, and look at the size of the Beast, he'd be a liability walking around that restaurant!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I saw posts of people asking about just ordering dessert / a cupcake on a daily basis on the main (and very popular) UK based Orlando Facebook group. This group is very much visited by "average Disney guests". And for every post there were dozens of replies saying stuff like "ooh, that's a good idea - a character meal for the price of a cupcake!!" Etc. This must have had some impact.

Agreed. This "strategy" was all over other WDW forums and FB pages as well.

 

[Princess Serendipity]

I think you misunderstood, I don't leave the parks to eat. What I meant is I can get just as good a steak when I'm not at Disney, in a restaurant that doesn't charge the maximum for me to practically sit in someone's lap. There is simply nothing special about that restaurant, (including the food) to warrant paying those prices/credits. It was one thing when it was one credit and they had a lunch menu, but not now.

I'm at Disney to be in the bubble, I'd rather eat at one of the restaurants that are more creative and offer me more value for my money. BOG is a perfect example. The current dinner is nothing special and not worth the money - if they pull of the flavor that they are describing for the new menu then I get good food and great venue. Fingers crossed.

I mean, I agree with you on all points, honestly. I wasn't going there because I thought the food was phenomenal, I was going there because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie, I love that castle, and I love the Beast (and we did our reservations so that we always managed to get a good table where we weren't right on top of people so it wasn't too bad). And also because quite frankly, food options for me inside the Magic Kingdom are slim. And I'm with you on the whole "I can get better or just as good outside of Disney for less." It's just that when I'm inside the bubble, I try to plan to get the food/experience I want as conveniently as I can get it. As I said, usually, we hit a resort signature after park closing or do like in park signature or something to save time (or BOG or CRT for the experience/ambience). It's why I'm a proponent of more in park signatures, and why I want them to be good signatures and not "oh it's just 2 credits" or "good food but cram as many tables in there as they can."

I'm also crossing my fingers that the new menu will be up to the standard they're trying to sell.

I don't understand why people want to add more characters in order to make it 'worth it' - again, I know I'm in the minority but I don't like character meals, and look at the size of the Beast, he'd be a liability walking around that restaurant!

I actually don't want them to add more characters either, and as I said, this is my favorite movie and I enjoy character meals sometimes! The place is so crowded and so tightly packed as is. The study is kind of tiny anyway and Belle's dress is huge, the other character costumes are huge (Gaston himself alone is roughly the size of a barge), and...I don't know. The new menu and whole prix fixe thing says they're trying to go for a more upscale French castle dinner feel (even if their motivations are...entirely something else and we all know it), and more characters would detract from that. But then again Be Our Guest has never been an establishment to shy away from contradiction before, I suppose.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you order three courses now it is $55. Sure, we can debate if it was worth it.

Now, you are simply being forced to order the three courses.

 

[sharonabe]

I don't understand why people want to add more characters in order to make it 'worth it' - again, I know I'm in the minority but I don't like character meals, and look at the size of the Beast, he'd be a liability walking around that restaurant!

He already walks around the restaurant; he just doesn't stop at tables. He walks in and around each room before heading to his meeting spot.

 

[HopperFan]

I mean, I agree with you on all points, honestly. I wasn't going there because I thought the food was phenomenal, I was going there because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie, I love that castle, and I love the Beast (and we did our reservations so that we always managed to get a good table where we weren't right on top of people so it wasn't too bad). And also because quite frankly, food options for me inside the Magic Kingdom are slim. And I'm with you on the whole "I can get better or just as good outside of Disney for less." It's just that when I'm inside the bubble, I try to plan to get the food/experience I want as conveniently as I can get it. As I said, usually, we hit a resort signature after park closing or do like in park signature or something to save time (or BOG or CRT for the experience/ambience). It's why I'm a proponent of more in park signatures, and why I want them to be good signatures and not "oh it's just 2 credits" or "good food but cram as many tables in there as they can."

I'm also crossing my fingers that the new menu will be up to the standard they're trying to sell.

I was not talking about BOG

That aside .... I just don't think there really are any restaurants in the park I would classify worth 2 credits. OOP for HBD, and a pass on LC & Tiffins. We will see how this pans out.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I think it is a great change, but $55 for two TS credits is crazy! If you are on DxDP it is pretty much one of the worst uses of credits out there

Not necessarily. If it's like other prix fixe meals, it will include an appetizer. And of course a drink and dessert.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Alright, so we have been told that the pricing will be $55/$35 or 2 DDP credits. Most of the responses that I've read favor the $55 as being a decent price for a 3 course meal, the $35 as being a poor value for the children's meal, and the usage of 2 DDP credits as being a waste. I concur. Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? It's shouting to me that the attractive, $55 OOP price will not last long. After all, they're going to have to make the cost in line with the 2 DDP credits.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I personally think reserving a table for an appetizer and a cupcake is smart. Is it cheating the system? Is it being greedy?

It's being unreasonable toward and inconsiderate of your server.

Your Disney “adults” who eat like birds

Point of interest: birds eat about 50% of their body weight daily - from a raven's 4% to a hummingbird's almost 100%.

 

[Princess Serendipity]

I was not talking about BOG

That aside .... I just don't think there really are any restaurants in the park I would classify worth 2 credits. OOP for HBD, and a pass on LC & Tiffins. We will see how this pans out.

Aha. Well you were indeed correct, that was quite the misunderstanding on my part. I ran with "There is simply nothing special about that restaurant, (including the food) to warrant paying those prices/credits. It was one thing when it was one credit and they had a lunch menu, but not now." I guess. My apologies!

We used to do the Deluxe Dining plan and basically had all the credits we could want and did lots and lots of signatures. We've since decided that said dining plan is just too much food and out of pocket (and a room discount) is just a better way for us now.

I'm still thinking that this not a 2 credit meal, honestly. It's moving into crass territory to say these sorts of things, but CRT makes more of a production of things and gives you souvenirs, and at an actual signature, an appetizer-entree-dessert-drink meal for the two of us (two actual adults, not "disney" adults) could routinely run $150 before alcohol. I suppose $110 isn't too far from that mark but...it really should be a good meal for that kind of money/credit usage.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

It's being unreasonable toward and inconsiderate of your server.

Point of interest: birds eat about 50% of their body weight daily - from a raven's 4% to a hummingbird's almost 100%.

So, I better not just go to Denny's for a cup of coffee anymore? @@

Gah. Only when discussing Disney do so many people have an opinion about how others spend their money.

 

[DisBuckMan]

"Value" can be such a funny thing...especially with the DDP at BoG.

People rave over the perceived "value" of BoG breakfast on the DDP, simply because of the $25 price tag. The food is in no way worth nearly that much, but it's considered a value simply because of the price point...1 QS credit for "$25 worth" of food.

However, harsh judgment has been cast down on this dinner being a 2TS credit, and no one has tasted one single mouthful of it thus far. The judgment is simply because of a price point of $55 will cost 2TS credits.

Quality truly doesn't seem to matter at BoG in regards to the DDP. Price point rules.

 

[kaytieeldr]

So, I better not just go to Denny's for a cup of coffee anymore? @@

Do whatever you darn well want. I'm sorry I wasn't more explicit; I expected people to understand that my comment is in reference to Be Our Guest - the restaurant being discussed.