Mouse Extra

The Disney Dining plan has many many advocates. Especially when its free. But now, Disney had released the costs of the Magic Your Way dining plan. For the first time, the costs of the plan depend on when you go. The 2010 pices are $41.99 per adult (ages 10+) $11.99 per child (age 3-9) per night  for travel dates: 1/01/10 – 2/11/10 ; 4/11/10 – 6/03/10 ; 8/15/10 – 12/16/10 For other dates, its a whopping $46.99 per adult (ages 10+) $12.99 per child (age 3-9) per night.

I am not a fan of the plan. First of all, Disney food in general has become more homogenized over the last few years. Expensive items like filet mignons and the like have been removed from menus because they didn’t want dining planners getting too much bang for their buck. Worse yet, I have seen several families fighting over getting snacks that don’t count on the plan.

There are many patrons who take advantage of the plan. And, in fact, it’s not a bad deal. You do get one table-service meal (although they have since got rid of the appetizer part of it), a quick service meal and a snack for that price. You can save money that way for sure. And when it’s free, it’s a no-brainer. But now you pay more during peak months. Is that fair? After all, it’s the same food.

Today’s posting is from Mike, contributing writer to Mouse Extra.

TouringPlans.com is reporting this morning that Disney, in about as a quiet a fashion as you will ever find Disney doing anything, has launched a new online Dining reservation service for restaurants at Disney World.  Yes, that’s right.  You can now book those illusive ADR’s from your own home on the internet.  You must go to the Restaurants page at Walt Disney World section of the Disney website to do so.

Les Chefs de France

Just taking a quick look at the website, it appears the 90 day booking windows are in place.  It also seems to be rather easy and straightforward system to work with.  If you have never looked at the restaurants page, it is a rather nice and well done site to begin with.

This was certainly a long time coming, though I do understand if Disney held out on this until they could be sure of a way to prevent widespread abuse of the system and a resulting increase of unused reservations.  There does appear to be some security measures in place, by I think only time will tell if they really work.  Until then, this has to be seen as a great step and a big improvement for those who like to do their own travel arrangements.

On our last trip to the World, we finally had a chance to try Wolfgang Puck’s at Downtown Disney. For those who don’t know, there are, in fact, three different Wolfgang Puck eateries. At the Marketplace, there is the Express which serves an abbreviated version of Wolfgang Puck’s menu. Over in Downtown Disney, you can either go to the Cafe or the more upscale Dining Room which is on the second floor. We chose the Cafe which is big, open and very noisy.

The food was also average at best. The Butternut Squash soup was superb but the tortilla soup was rather boring. The pizza was soggy, meaning I still haven’t had a good slice at the Mouse. The only decent piece of pizza is at Pizzafari. The Rigatoni with Sausage was pretty good but certainly nothing above a B grade. The fettuccine dish was also average.

Overall, I would skip this restaraunt when going to Downtown Disney. In my opinion, I would stick to the House of Blues and perhaps Raglan Road.

Today’s review is from Mike, contributing writer to Mouse Extra.

The much anticipated T-Rex Restaurant has opened at Downtown Disney.  The droos opened yesterday and our friends at WDW New Today already have some great coverage of the place.  Take a look at their video and photos.

It does appear interesting to me and I am looking forward to trying it out when I get to Walt Disney World in January.  But I will be completely honest here.  It does not seem to distinguish itself all that much from the Rainforest Café.  The T-Rex audio-animatronics are impressive, but certainly not all that technologically advanced.  But I will reserve judgment until I can experience it myself.

Disney announced late yesterday a change in the name of the Disney Dining Experience program that offers members discounts at Walt Disney World restaurants.  Upon checking my emails first thing this morning, I got this message from the folks at the Disney Dining Experience…

Greetings,
On the occasion of the 13th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, we are pleased to announce that we will be launching a new name for the Disney Dining Experience.

Our Festival, which will take place from September 26 – November 9, 2008 will celebrate Cities in Wonderland, and following that theme, your dining club will be named Tables in Wonderland as of September 15, 2008.

This new name will not alter any of your current benefits. We have simply decided to do this to help distinguish your membership from any other dining privileges at Walt Disney World Resort that bares a similar name to the Disney Dining Experience.

You may continue to use your current card until expiration and your renewal card will reflect the new name, Tables in Wonderland.

The first thing that really caught my attention was the use of the word “Wonderland”.  Doesn’t that sound strange to you?  I mean, Disney has not used that phrase at all in advertising and marketing plans in recent years.  Creating something like this without using the word “dreams” has almost become a shock to the system.

But besides that the change is just a name change, and I honestly would be happy if they called it whatever they wanted.  The program is not really changing and that is good news.

Screamscape.com has some interesting details via a press release on what we can expect to find in the upcoming T-Rex Café set to open this fall.  This is the first example of what is to come from the new Downtown Disney, so a lot is riding on this newbie.

Guests will be greeted with life-size animatronic dinosaurs that live among cascading waterfalls, bubbling geysers, a fossil dig site and much more. There will be a meteorite shower every 20 minutes and an aqua bar complete with a 6,000-gallon shark tank and a large octopus with mechanical tentacles. A full-size skeleton replica of Argentinosaurus, one of the largest of the dinosaurs and copied from a museum specimen about 125 feet in length, looms over the entrance, joined by a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

The only reason I am posting this is because I want to read what you the fans think of what you see hear.  The cynical Disney addict has been saying that this will be no more than a re-themed Rainforest Café.  But this looks a lot more elaborate than your average Rainforest and much more interesting as well. 

Yes, the animatronics could be ciraca-1964 and turns this into a giant cheese-fest, but let’s stay positive.  I mean a shark tank is cool in almost any form…unless this turns into some sort of Nemo-ized shark tank…