News Walt Disney World Adds Water Park Perk for 2025 Resort Guests

[pdude81]

I wonder if this is a precursor to longer hours at whichever park they have open, at least when they don't have to close it for cold weather. Otherwise it will cause more frustration than bookings.

Until or unless they bring back DME with luggage transfer. But they might want to save that lever for later.

 

[John park hopper]

So you arrive before your room is ready but you get a free water park day--now you have to dig through your luggage for a bathing suit in the lobby--where do you change. Wear your bathing suite on the plane

 

[jpinkc]

This wasn't the next lever I thought they'd pull, though there was a good bit of muscle behind it.

Are those at the top starting to understand?

No they arent its only good on check-in day. You cant check in til 3pm, I think. Most people arent arriving at 7 to 10 am. So its a Nothing Offer for 85-95% of guests. Its just something they can use in the Proxy fight I guess. Its useless. The earliest arrival we have ever done was Noon. When the kids were small. Most times we are arriving in the afternoon of the check in day.

 

[doctornick]

Quite bluntly, if this were something that a large number of guests would utilize, they would sell it, not offer it for "free". The only reason it is even being offered is because most people won't willing or able to use it and so to looks like a value add without much real output by Disney.

But nonetheless it is something more than previous. And for the people who can and will use it, great for them. It doesn't harm anyone else who won't use it.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

So you arrive before your room is ready but you get a free water park day--now you have to dig through your luggage for a bathing suit in the lobby--where do you change. Wear your bathing suite on the plane

Bring a backpack as your personal item to store under the seat on your flight. Keep the bathing suit in the backpack. Change in a bathroom stall at the water park (assuming they don't have changing rooms - I've never been to them before, so I don't know).

 

[John park hopper]

This offer is so transparent ---nothing offer and won't cost Disney much

 

[HauntedPirate]

I think the point is that they want it to be used in the afternoon mostly when the water parks are less utilized as opposed to having people go to the water parks in the morning when they are the busiest. Also, it is a way to try to get some folks doing something/spending money (buying food, etc at the water park) that they might not otherwise be doing.

The water parks are busiest in the afternoon during colder months. Summer months, sure, morning is better.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Bring a backpack as your personal item to store under the seat on your flight. Keep the bathing suit in the backpack. Change in a bathroom stall at the water park (assuming they don't have changing rooms - I've never been to them before, so I don't know).

You still have to get to your resort, then bus to AK, then bus to that day’s water park.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Quite bluntly, if this were something that a large number of guests would utilize, they would sell it, not offer it for "free". The only reason it is even being offered is because most people won't willing or able to use it and so to looks like a value add without much real output by Disney.

But nonetheless it is something more than previous. And for the people who can and will use it, great for them. It doesn't harm anyone else who won't use it.

They could offer to slap you for free. That’s something they didn’t offer before. Just because most won’t take advantage of it doesn’t make it a good offer.

 

[Indy_UK]

I wonder if long term this ‘perk’ becomes more of a hindrance with people complaining to front desk about not getting the opportunity to take up this awesome ‘perk’

 

[Joel]

They could offer to slap you for free. That’s something they didn’t offer before.

Well, not literally.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Well, not literally.

No, but that's not the point. Offering something 90% of guests can't or won't take advantage of doesn't make something good. It's all about optics and trying to fool people.

 

[nickys]

So you arrive before your room is ready but you get a free water park day--now you have to dig through your luggage for a bathing suit in the lobby--where do you change. Wear your bathing suite on the plane

There’s this thing called a planning ahead. Put the swim stuff somewhere easily accessible.

And Disney provide this new fangled concept of a building with little cubicles at the water parks. They call them changing rooms. They even have showers and lockers and provide towels to onsite guests.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

You still have to get to your resort, then bus to AK, then bus to that day’s water park.

That depends on where you're staying and if you have a car. The number of guests driving cars seems higher since DME went away, so that's less of an issue for some. It's obviously not meant to appeal to all guests, but there are definitely some who can and will use it - and none of the other perks appeal to all guests, either. Nothing was taken away when they announced this, so it's really a harmless thing. People who use it get a nice bonus. Those who don't aren't missing out on anything compared to what they can get now.

 

[Drdcm]

That depends on where you're staying and if you have a car. The number of guests driving cars seems higher since DME went away, so that's less of an issue for some. It's obviously not meant to appeal to all guests, but there are definitely some who can and will use it - and none of the other perks appeal to all guests, either. Nothing was taken away when they announced this, so it's really a harmless thing. People who use it get a nice bonus. Those who don't aren't missing out on anything compared to what they can get now.

You see. Eliminating DME was actually a gift for us. If they still had it, we wouldn’t be able to as easily enjoy this wonderful and generous perk.

TBH… I’ll probably use it. I like super early flights- usually cheaper and less likely to be delayed.

 

[Nunu]

I guess it would've been too much to expect that they made this "perk" available to use on any day during your resort stay.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I guess it would've been too much to expect that they made this "perk" available to use on any day during your resort stay.

I think the idea is to give the early arrivers a time-killer while they wait for their room to be ready and also to use up some of the unused capacity of the water parks. For me, I'll probably skip this unless we have an early arrival and take our niece with us. Otherwise, we usually stay DVC so the pools and slides there are nice enough for us. At a value resort? No water slides and minimal theming at the pools, so the water parks would be more appealing.

 

[SplashJacket]

Yes I was excited initially to hear about this perk, but honestly I think it's more of a throwaway thing for most guests. The split-stayers are the happiest, it's the best benefit to them.

They should have made it "1 water park day" during your resort stay for 2 nights or more. I'm guessing that would have cut too much into water park sales.

The other obstacle is the weather. Your arrival day only doesn't give you much latitude if the weather is too cold or rainy.

I think what people are missing, is while this is obviously less useful for people who stay in a WDW resort for their entire vacation, this encourages split-stays for people previously not planning to stay at a WDW vacation during their vacation.

If I’m going to Orlando for a week, say I spend 3 park days at Universal and plan to do Disney for a couple days. This encourages you to actually move resorts in the middle.

Additionally, if you were planning on going to Disney for a full week, this encourages guests staying off site to transfer hotels to Disney property in the middle of the week.

Obviously, this isn’t effecting 90% of rooms, but in terms of occupancy and bookings, they’re just trying to squeeze out another 10% or so of occupancy, so it doesn’t need to move the needle for everyone, just a smaller percentage.

Also encourages locals who have annual passes without water parks to make a staycation of it and book a night or two.

I definitely see travel agents using this to their advantage. Travel agents book huge volumes of Disney trips and increasing perceived value of their bookings helps them sell trips (and helps Disney by getting more total bookings) and I believe this will be an effective tool to help boost perceived value.

It’s a perk I would’ve used in 2023 had it existed. To me, it’s a great perk, especially considering a vastly superior water park experience (Volcano Bay) exists down the street. Incentivizes me to actually visit these parks.

 

[Willmark]

I think the idea is to give the early arrivers a time-killer while they wait for their room to be ready and also to use up some of the unused capacity of the water parks. For me, I'll probably skip this unless we have an early arrival and take our niece with us. Otherwise, we usually stay DVC so the pools and slides there are nice enough for us. At a value resort? No water slides and minimal theming at the pools, so the water parks would be more appealing.

That’s the crux of the argument though isn’t?

People want stuff to do. (In a sense), Disney does not have “enough” (I.e. capacity) stuff to do. So they look around for “low cost capacity” and use as the bare minimum that it is.

Disney doesn’t want people to do stuff. They want people to spend $.

Guess which one wins?

 

[Disstevefan1]

It’s a stupid, worthless perk.

Once again Disney makes folks jump through hoops to get something.

If Disney really wanted to give a perk, it would have been any day during your stay.