Over the weekend, Disney announced changes coming to its popular Tables in Wonderland discount dining program. The changes were effective Sunday, October 4, 2015.
If you aren’t familiar with the program, guests purchase a card annually, which offers the following benefits:
- 20% Discount on food and beverage at participating restaurants. The discounts include alcohol.
- Complimentary Resort Valet Parking as well as complimentary Theme Park Parking, for the express purpose of dining.
- Invitations to exclusive special events. These events carry an extra cost.
While the basic benefits are not changing, the price for the card is increasing significantly. Florida residents will now pay $175 per year for the card, while Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members will now pay $150 annually. The prices are up from $125 and $100, respectively. There are no discounted renewal rates for the Tables in Wonderland Card.
Tables in Wonderland will also continue to observe Black Out Dates instituted in 2014. These include the following:
- Mother’s Day
- Easter Sunday
- Independence Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Eve
- Christmas Day
- New Year’s Eve
- New Year’s Day
In addition, TiW members will continue to be subject to the following blackout dates at specific locations. New for 2015 and 2016, Le Chefs de France in Epcot’s France Pavilion joins the line up of restaurants imposing seasonal blackouts. Here’s the full list of locations and dates:
1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickey’s, ‘Ohana (Dinner Only), Cinderella’s Royal Table, Le Chefs de France, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, and Le Cellier Steakhouse: November 22-28, 2015 and December 20-26, 2015; March 6-27, 2016; May 29-June 18, 2016; November 13-27, 2016; December 19-25, 2016.
Cinderella at 1900 Park Fare in Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
For a full list of participating restaurants and more details about the discount program, please visit our Tables in Wonderland page.
We want to hear from all of you: does Tables in Wonderland represent good value for you? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts below.
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We just bought our annual pass vouchers (just before the price went up!) and were considering Tables in Wonderland…but now, with the price increase, it’s just not worth it for us. You’d have to eat nothing but table service (at TiW participating restaurants) for something like $750 to make it worth the cost!
The blackout dates are not insignificant. Wow.
I agree Anna! I wonder if they’re planning to eventually phase this program out? A woman in a Disney FB group says they’re at WDW right now and claims they’ve been to “lots of restaurants” who have said they will “no longer be accepting TiW after the end of the year”. I’ve asked her to specify which restaurants have indicated this but so far she hasn’t responded. I’m taking her statement with a grain of salt, however I wonder if there might be a kernel of truth to it?
That is a big increase! I was thinking about taking next year off from Tables and now I have $50 more reasons why. I have done a lot more quick service restaurants while staying at Disney and really don’t miss the sit down restaurants that much. It is usually $100 to sit down at any table at WDW and there are times the service and experience don’t measure up.
So, am I correct in understanding that Tables In Wonderland saves you 20% at the participating restaurants, but they tack on an automatic 18%…for a net savings of 2%…? This doesn’t seem like a particularly good value…particularly when the cost of the program is $175.
I think the savings for outweigh the increase. I have had two card over the past few years and found several hundred dollars in savings each trip (more saving when I had 8 guest with me). However, it depends on dining habits, number of guest with you, and other things like days at WDW. If you consume adult beverages, it is a bigger savings. I hope it becomes part of the magic bans and annual pass options in the future. I love it.
Now that parking is included in all seasonal passes we will be dropping our Tables in Wonderland.
I just bought mine for this year in September. I won’t purchase it again with such a steep price increase.
I heard tables will be ending soon
Any word as to why the whole week before Thanksgiving is blacked out in 2016? That’s the week we are going this year and now I’m freaking out that Disney is projecting such huge crowds for that week that they decided to make it a blackout time next year! Help!
Meaning the week beginning 11/13.
They really are trying to get Annual Passholders and Tables in Wonderland totally outpriced. I’m so thinking of not renewing anything anymore…… if I only didn’t Love Disney so much, heavy sigh.
It’s crazy to have such a large price increase and not get anything for it. I’m starting to wonder if Disney really wants repeat guests like pass holders and tables in wonderland guests!
I am surprised the price increase is so much! We intentionally choose sit-down restaurants because of TW. I doubt we will renew at that price. I am curious why there are so many price increases? The economy is worse and Disney keeps getting more and more expensive!
Ouch! We’ve enjoyed TIW for a number of years and what an increase.
Because of the blackout dates we had little reason to use are tables in Wonderland card the last times we were there. Fewer and fewer restaurants seem to accept it . Nowadays we will go to a place like Brown Derby or California grill & just got some wine and apps to get some atmosphere but not pay some of these ridiculous entree prices. There are times, particularly in the last year or two, where we’ve had lousy service and resented forking over a 20% tip. I grow tired of people who just accept these prices and say ‘well its disney’. They charge these prices because they can and apparently there are plenty of wealthy people who have no problem paying it. Tables in Wonderland used to take the edge off, but not really anymore. In fact we’re going to skip the annual pass next year too. There are simply not enough new things to keep us interested at these prices and the pass holder room only rates haven’t been that good either for the times when we travel . There are so many other ways to spend our vacation dollars.
I have saved several thousand dollars with my TIW card over the last few years….another $50 is nothing
DJ — No official word from Disney, but our best guess is that they expect large crowds at that time. Hopefully with all the things you can schedule ahead of time nowadays, it won’t be too big of a hassle if the crowds are large. Best of luck! 🙂
The cost of TIW at $100 for APHs was pushing any true value. The benefit of a 20% discount is reduced to a mere 2% due to the automatic addition of an 18% gratuity regardless of party size or service provided. You basically get “free” tips with TIW. Increasing the cost to $150 for APHs definitely makes it non-renewable for us. The cost exceeds benefit gained.
Thanks for your answer, Brooke. I’ll hope for the best!
Wait, this whole complaint with the 18 % gratuity…..are you people not tipping then?
Yes, so it covers your tip, but without it were you not going to leave one?
Sort of confused by the complaint.
And the first commentor, Tabbie, no, it wouldn’t be $750 to make up the $50, it would be $250.
Guess some people just like to complain.
Wow, I got my first Tables in Wonderland card on September 27. Glad I missed the price increase. With the new price, you have to spend $750 on Disney food to see $150 in savings. That takes a long time as a party of 1. I got the card because I’m taking my sister and her four kids in February. As a party of 7, the 18% gratuity is not optional, so we will really see savings. By myself before the card, I was keeping my Disney tips to around 15%, so the automatic gratuity is cutting into the benefit too.
I started with this program 8 years ago, when it was still Disney Dining Experience. It was only $60, open only to Florida Residents, and included Victoria and Alberts, and they didn’t tack on 18% gratuity
This is a big increase, and with the new tiered AP passes, I feel the value is gone. It is really only worth it if you have a large group of people or you are eating at a sit down every night for 2 weeks
Bummer! Wished we had known in advance the date of the increase. We went to guest services the morning they put the new prices into effect to renew. Stinks ’cause, had we known, my husband could have gone the day before. And saved $50.
Is Ti W worth it? Definitely if you eat at least one table meal per day at participating restaurants. We used TiW on 3 trips (6 people, total of 13 days) last year and saved $750 dollars! Yes, I kept receipts and did the analysis. Soooo worth it! A much better deal that buying the dining plan which has gotten way too pricey!
Guest Services said my new membership will expire in Nov 2016.
Ive read rumors online also that TiW won’t be sold after the end of this year in favor of other types of dining perks, but what/for whom (AP, DVC, ?), I don’t know.
Uh, those of you saying you only get a 2% savings because you’re “forced” to tip are terrible….would you really not tip otherwise?! Yes, TIW is a savings because you should always work in the cost of a tip BEFORE you go out to eat…so if something says it’s $25, you should know that it’s going to cost you $30 after tip. THEN you get 20% off with TIW.
That said, you do have to dine at DIsney quite often in order to see the savings and the return on the investment but that’s how TIW is for…people who visit Disney OFTEN, like residents with APs.
Mike V and Danielle get it….and the program is not geared toward those people that are spending only $750 on meals, poor tippers, etc. Disney doesn’t factor those people into their decisions. The program is designed to reward those that spend real $$$ on table service/signature dining, and those that do spend do not mind another $50 at all. A drop in the bucket is well worth keeping the program active
Food quality goes down every year. Now this increase.
I’m done with TIW and pretty much with Disney TS restaurants. It’s an easy walk to the Swan/Dolphin where not pandering to the DDP allows higher quality better food without planning 180 days in advance LOL!
I agree that the DDP has lowered the quality of food property-wide. I love my TiW because it allows me to eat the way I want…appetizers instead of entrees, etc. I typically just paid the bill, only adding “extra” gratuity if the server was above and beyond. The increase, however, will make me think twice about automatically renewing it every year- I’ll have to look at the start of each trip and see if it’s worthwhile.
We have used TIW for over 10 years. It has saved us a lot of money. I am getting concerned over the rapidly changing policies at Disney but will buy the annual pass and TIW when they come due. Our DVC member ship helps defray the cost but the magic is being challenged especially with some restaurants not being in the program.
We usually tip 20% so the discount really saves us $.
Have shifted our vacations to DCL trips. Talk about expensive, but we love DCL. I worry about the future of DVC and Disney. They are pricing many people out of the Disney experience I guess because they can?
Because of the restrictions on TIW, we used it less on our last 10 day trip than ever before. I find that because we had TIW we would spend a lot of time booking table service meals using the discount to justify this. Not only is this more difficult in recent years to reserve what you want but adding on a no-show fee of $10 per person really stifles any spontaneity. Also we’ve seen the wait times grow longer even with the reservation.
This time, we spent more time ‘grazing’quick food,and, not only did we have a bigger variety but we saved a lot of money and had more time to do other things in the parks. The money we saved easily offset the 18% discount on the much fewer table service meals we had. The change was really quite liberating! Has anyone else experienced this?
I agree with many that the increase is an effort to prove the program out. I also as a non hotel first have had trouble getting reservations making utilizing the value even harder. No renew for me.
To the members who say they are only saving 2%. That’s if you don’t tip. I would hope the if you get good service you would tip at least the 18% they add on. The increase by 1/3 is a lot all at once. If most of you only come once in a while I’m sure it no longer pays. But if you are here for a while,especially without kids, we have saved that much just on our bar tab after two trips. I guess we all will have to just keep track for the year, just renewed mine and they gave a free month, to see if it’s worth it. Think happy thoughts.
We live in Celebration and are annual pass holders. We spend at least once a week at Disney and eat out far more than once a week and the blackout dates are truly an inconvenience and totally ridiculous. The price increase alone this year is a little crazy. There needs to be a better solution.
I was surprised last night when I found out that Les Chefs de France does not honor the Tables in Wonderland membership discount for dinner (would be nice if it was clearer during the reservation making process on the My Disney Experience App since I would have scheduled a different reservation). Odd, since I was trying to find restaurants accepting the membership I renewed last month literally moments before finding out annual passholders are now getting similar discounts without paying the ever climbing membership fee.
So, on principle, I refrained from ordering appetizers and drinks that night (which is no big deal since we dine in similar restaurants fairly routinely), the restaurant probably lost our on more income then the meager 20% last night since I lost my appetite after finding out this restaurant does not value our repeat business (we tend to do more lunches when we dine in the park when it is hot outside choosing to spend our evenings enjoying the attractions when the weather is nicer over the summer, guess i never noted that Les Chefs is lunch only when I have enjoyed lunch there many times in the past). I did cancel an upcoming reservation we had for December, since I belong to the dining club it does not sense to dine in places which does not recognize the membership I invested in.
Since I choose to support businesses which value my repeated business (ie- I am platinum level with my hotel rewards chain and usually purchase memberships and passes by the year and not by the day), I likely will elect not to visit Les Chefs on future visits (including Lunch) finding such a minor discount for a price point higher then the community outside the gates of the park both disappointing and bordering on offensive. Noting how the restaurant menus over the years have been escalating in price with disappointing menu changes, I may need to change my dining habits in the years to come.
EPCOT does not have an exclusive of French Onion Soup and well prepared ducking in a cherry sauce, I just had a very similar entree at a nice restaurant we often dine at in Treasure Island priced quite fairly, accepting reservations without any wait on a crowded night when we arrive on time. I can accept the sacrifices of dining in a crowded theme park, however when I am investing more and more to receive less and less, at some point it is time to reassess my decisions.