Wine & Dine Plan

[Disney_Barbie]

Anyone tried this yet, and if so what are your thoughts?
We're into wine & often order a bottle at a nice dinner. We're thinking of doing the Deluxe dining plan, so we'll have our fare share of "nice dinners".
We enjoy wine quite a bit, but are not exactly conesours (sp?) We generally stear clear of the cheapest wine option on the menu, but don't go too far up from there. Generally pick the 2nd or 3rd from the bottom. (I hoped that I saved receipts or something from nice WDW diners in the past, to determine how much we generally spend on a bottle, but can't find any.)
Anyhoo, with that above information about us in mind : any disney dinning experts have an opinion, should we spend $39.99/nt on the wine & dine plan, or for can we get a somewhat decent (as far as our tastes, go, just slightly above the cheapest) bottle for less than $40.

I could determine for myself if I could somewhere locate wine lists for Citricos, Callifornia Grill, ect. But I can't find them anywhere :(

[SBETigg]

I don't think you can get a really decent bottle for under $40 at most Disney restaurants. I could be wrong. I haven't priced lately. I do know when we went to Chefs de France last (about five years ago), our favorite French red which retailed for about $9 a bottle here (inexpensive, but decent to us) went for $42 on the menu there. The markup is pretty incredible.

So, if you're thinking that decent is something that could retail for under $10 in your local wine store, there's a slim possibility you might find it for under $40 on a Disney wine list. But if decent to me is about $12-25 at a wine store, I would expect to pay about $45 or much more at a Disney restaurant. Does that help or make it more confusing?

I could be wrong on the markup. I'm going on past experience and what I recall. We normally spend more than $40 on bottles in restaurants if we go by the bottle vs by the glass. So my question, as more of a wine lover but not entirely a wine snob, is if the bottles they offer for the wine and dine are worth the markup. I don't want to end up with something I wouldn't normally enjoy drinking at $40 a night if I see the wine list and think my taste range starts in the $60 or more range. In both of our examples, it would definitely help to know what they consider fits the package. We're doing the wine and dine package for our next trip with deluxe dining (a three night romantic escape without the kids) in April and I plan to report my findings. Until then, I don't know what you might find. My understanding is that the package entails a select list to choose from and not just anything on the regular list.

[Disney_Barbie]

EXTREAMLY helpfull, thank you!
I agree that my typical wine tastes are in the $10-$15 range if purchasing in the liquor store. And I know resturants obviously have a large mark-up and I'm fine with that. But since I couldn't find much as far as receipts or menus, I had NO CLUE how much we typically spend on a bottle in WDW resturants.
But thank you, your advice was very helpfull. I'll be very anxious to hear how your April trip goes w/ the wine & dine plan, especially since we seem to have similar wine tastes and since our trip too, is a 3-nt romantic anniversary trip. I'll be anxious to hear how the "wine & dine" options in certain "romantic" resturants was.
Thanks for the advice.

[SBETigg]

You're welcome. I hope someone else who may have used the plan comes along wih some more detailed info. We plan on eating at Jiko, Citricos, and California Grill if this helps you any. We may do the wine pairings at Citricos and use our bottle credit at Mizner's Lounge at another time, if that works out to our advantage. I will definitely report in, as I see you're going later than we are. This will give you the chance to add or drop the feature in time for your trip. I do like the ability to pay in advance along with the DDP.

[Natazu]

We haven't used the plan but I spent some time looking into it (in the interest of completeness). Here's the deal:
If you are going to order a bottle of wine with pretty much every dinner and don't mind the mark-up*, the W&D plan is a good value. For 1 W&D coupon, you can get a bottle up to $54, that's the break to 2 coupons. The 2 coupon choices rarely get above $89 so they are not very good uses of the plan. There are many good choices but inevitably, the bottle you want isn't on the plan.

*The mark-up (from standard retail not wholesale) at Disney is 80% to %250 depending on the restaurant, so the Valpolicella Ripasso (La Colombaia) you bought at home for $18.99 is going to be about one dollar too high to be offered on the W&D plan for 1 entitlement.

[Natazu]

You're welcome. I hope someone else who may have used the plan comes along wih some more detailed info. We plan on eating at Jiko, Citricos, and California Grill if this helps you any. We may do the wine pairings at Citricos and use our bottle credit at Mizner's Lounge at another time, if that works out to our advantage. I will definitely report in, as I see you're going later than we are. This will give you the chance to add or drop the feature in time for your trip. I do like the ability to pay in advance along with the DDP.

Heya Sherri. I have some bad news. Citricos is not doing the wine flights anymore. If you ask for Giovanni for your server, he will be happy to help pair your food with select wines. He has an extensive knowledge of the Citricos/V&A wine cellar.

[Natazu]

EXTREAMLY helpfull, thank you!
I agree that my typical wine tastes are in the $10-$15 range if purchasing in the liquor store. And I know resturants obviously have a large mark-up and I'm fine with that. But since I couldn't find much as far as receipts or menus,
If you want to let me know what you like or where you're going, I've got several of the wine lists.

[SBETigg]

Heya Sherri. I have some bad news. Citricos is not doing the wine flights anymore. If you ask for Giovanni for your server, he will be happy to help pair your food with select wines. He has an extensive knowledge of the Citricos/V&A wine cellar.

I might do that. We'll see. We're probably sticking with the wine option on the plan because the DH is very excited about having it all paid in advance and not thinking about it later. But you confirmed my suspicions on the list and markup, so thank you.

[Disney_Barbie]

If you want to let me know what you like or where you're going, I've got several of the wine lists.

Thank you. I LOVE any extra input.
We only drink Reds for the most part, we don't tend to be HUDGE Merlot fans, but like pretty much all other reds (Cab, Shiraz, Chianti, Pinot Noir) Although we do enjoy a bubbly from time to time (if there is a sparkeling option on wine & dine we might do a bottle of that on our anniversary)

At the moment our dinning defs are :
Flying Fish Cafe (never been)
California Grill (been, LOVE IT, got a bottle of wine, but we can't remember what we got or how much we paid for it)
Citricos or Narcossees (can't decide between the 2, never been to either)

And our dinning possibilites are :
Coral Reef (been there, loved it, but always gotten mixed drinks)
Tutto Italia (never been)
Les Chefs de France (never been)
Le Cellier (been there, LOVED it, can't quite remember but I think we got individual glasses of wine)
Spoodles (never been)
The Wave (never been)

Any insite on wine options from these would be MEGA helpfull. THANK YOU!!!

[PlutoPlanet]

I got a glass (and then another) of a Cote du Rhone at Chefs de France. Loved it. My wife got the Sancerre by the glass and loved as well. She did not like her Canadian or Oregonian white at Le Cellier.
The French wine was just better.

[Natazu]

Thank you. I LOVE any extra input.
We only drink Reds for the most part, we don't tend to be HUDGE Merlot fans, but like pretty much all other reds (Cab, Shiraz, Chianti, Pinot Noir) Although we do enjoy a bubbly from time to time (if there is a sparkeling option on wine & dine we might do a bottle of that on our anniversary)

At the moment our dinning defs are :
Flying Fish Cafe (never been)
California Grill (been, LOVE IT, got a bottle of wine, but we can't remember what we got or how much we paid for it)
Citricos or Narcossees (can't decide between the 2, never been to either)

And our dinning possibilites are :
Coral Reef (been there, loved it, but always gotten mixed drinks)
Tutto Italia (never been)
Les Chefs de France (never been)
Le Cellier (been there, LOVED it, can't quite remember but I think we got individual glasses of wine)
Spoodles (never been)
The Wave (never been)

Any insite on wine options from these would be MEGA helpfull. THANK YOU!!!

I have some of those in jpg and pdf. Send me an email and I'll be glad to send them to you.

[Disney_Barbie]

I have some of those in jpg and pdf. Send me an email and I'll be glad to send them to you.

Got your email. Thanks so much for your help :mickey:

[jcvalenti]

Being a bit of a wine collector (and self-admitted snob), I usually hit WDW during Food & Wine.

For the most part, it's a good bet that restaurant markup on wines is greatest on the cheap wines (where a $10 bottle can go for $45, easily), and least on expensive bottles.

The best "deals", at least as far as markup, that I've run accross in WDW are at the Coral Reef (where a terrific Napa Cab like Frank Family can go for $70, "only" $25 over sticker price), Il Mulino (where you could get a terrific drinking bottle of Vietti Barbera d'Alba Tre Vigne for $45 (only 20 over retail) and the California Grill (where their high end wines barely are $25 over retail, such as a 2004 Merus we enjoyed for about $240 on our last visit).

Bottom line is that the wine markup in WDW is usually exorbitant - as it is in any captured vacation destination (such as a cruise or Las Vegas) ... but there are relative "values" out there.

Just as a general rule, though, I just refuse to spend $40 on a $9 bottle (400% markup). It just kills me. I'd rather splurge for a $70 dollar bottle, just so the "markup" is "only" 30% or less.