Hahaha, I should probably stop posting! I'm not on the ball tonight, it seems. Price is a definitely a factor that weighs in when it comes to value of credits, and probably the one that gets thrown around the most because it's probably the most tangible/visible. I don't think it's exactly fair to say it's the only factor being taken into account, though. We're also discussing: will the new food actually taste better? This is going to be 2 credits but the restaurant is very crowded and some people complain about the cafeteria-like feel. And to me, there's this strange sort of disparity there if you take the actual pricing (yes, again, price tag, but with a side of psychology) into account. Breakfast is $25 for quick service breakfast? and a quick service credit (I agree I don't think the breakfast food is worth $25 by the way). Dinner is a three course meal that costs $55 and is two table service credits. I feel like that's a really weird, mindboggling jump in credit value for what may not be a proportionate jump in monetary/actual food value and that might be causing some of the problem? I don't know, that might just be me. Value isn't necessarily always just money but also comfort, taste, atmosphere, perception, a number of factors that can quite often end up being more than the sum of its parts.
The biggest thing holding Be Our Guest back for me, more than the price right now, actually, is that it is so crowded and busy and the food isn't that great. If the new food IS that great (I did say it does need to be a good meal), that's a huge step in the right direction. And if miracles happen and they actually take some of the tables out so the place isn't so packed, that would be incredible.
Edit: Fixing up the bit about breakfast vs dinner a little to better convey what I meant about it.
I think there are two separate concerns to take into account here.
1. Will the improvement in the purchased product be enough to justify the increase in cost to the guest?
2. Paying Cash has a clear advantage over using
DDP at this restaurant.
My thoughts on 2: People who purchase DDP want there to be value in it. If I'm committing to basically pre-paying for my meals, I want to make sure that I get at least a
marginally better deal. It's like getting an slight online discount for a show/concert when you buy the ticket ahead of time, guaranteeing their income, rather than paying at the door/box office day-of. Now its like, 'oh you bought online ahead of time? thanks! But, now it will cost YOU 2 prepaid tickets instead of 1'.
Of course, after enough complaining, Disney is probably going to change things again and say 'ok well now the OOP cost is $100/adult, so now DDP essentially saves you $10!'
My thoughts on 1: I don't mind that they raised the cost and maybe are attempting to improve the product. But it does make it far more difficult for me to take my young kids to their favorite restaurant. I can't fault them for it though. It's as if I took my kids to a park that just had a slide and they loved it. Then the next year they add a swingset and a jungle gym to the slide and say, but we're going to charge you admission now. Stinks that I can't take them to the free park anymore, but at least they may get something better (?)
Now that's the real question. Did they improve it in a way that actually makes it better? So far it looks like they just shifted their target client from a family with young kids to a more adult-oriented client base. Kids can be notoriously picky with food. Even if they offer more upscale dishes on the kids menu, a majority of kids with simply look for their chicken fingers and french fries (which they will probably not finish anyway). Parents are not going to want to pay $35 for a meal for a 3 year old.
When Volkswagen started selling the Beetle it was one of the cheaper cars available. Then when they re-released it in the US, their goal was to resell it to the same people that loved it when they were younger but at a more premium price. I hope that's not the direction BOG takes. While Disney is constantly reselling us our youth, I enjoy Disney because I get to share my youth with my kids and watch them enjoy theirs. Not trying to over-dramatize this (fail), but just being honest.
Good point.
