$25 for parking is crazy. I used Lyft for the few days I visited on the 3 week trip I have just come back from and it cost me about $30 a day return trip and I didn't have the cost of the hire car, gas, parking and someone picked me up after a long day at the park when we were tired.
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News Parking Fees increase effective October 16 2018
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Yep, APs or Uber/Lyft/Bus is the best way to avoid there onerous fees..
OG Runner
Well-Known Member
A broad all encompassing incorrect statement. I have always been a huge Disney fan. I had not even gone to Universal until this year.
I have argued against the parking fees from when they were beginning. To now, already, having them increased is wrong on many
levels. I did learn though, from the first go around, Disney doesn't care what we think about the matter and they are still going to be
squeezing that rock for the last drop of blood.
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
The parking fees are necessary to help keep the riffraff from taking up all of the available theme park parking while they spend their day at Disney Springs and the resorts.
PeoplemoverTTA
Well-Known Member
Actually, it's worse than that - you can already have a character come to your event. We had Mickey Mouse at the cake cutting after our wedding at the Swan in 2014 and it was $900 for 30 minutes.
I'm sure that rate has gone up in the last 4 years. Still can't believe I paid it, but it was my wedding and it was a nice surprise for guests (he also came in his tux, although that didn't affect the price).
disneyflush
Well-Known Member
I didn't know that was an actual option but it definitely makes sense. Tough to pay a bunch of money for all the parts of a wedding and then balk at the price of something you know will be a memory forever. Just curious, what price point for Mickey would have made you say, "Ehh, I'd love to have him here but that is too much."
PeoplemoverTTA
Well-Known Member
Probably $1,200. We paid cash for our wedding, and paid for it ourselves (zero debt). It was small, 20 people, and we spent in areas we knew would make memories rather than extravagances that are for show only (for example, our "reception" was a private dessert party for Illuminations, Mickey coming, etc).
disneyflush
Well-Known Member
Kudos to you both for sticking to a budget! $1,200 would provide that comma factor so I can understand that would be tough line to cross. Thanks for the response!
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Wow! that is obscene
matt9112
Well-Known Member
yeah that sounds amazingly absurd. than again i think DVC contracts are absurd too and they sell like hot cakes.
PeoplemoverTTA
Well-Known Member
It was, but I knew it would be special for my family. They traveled far to be there and I wanted to do as much as I could to make it memorable. I actually wanted Mickey and Minnie, but $1,800...just no.
The_Jobu
Well-Known Member
How much of that do you think actually went to the CM in the suit?
$10.
Maeryk
Well-Known Member
New parking trams and the fuel to run them. Lights. Staff. Maintenance. Road expansions to the roads TO the parking.
You know, the same reason part of the cost of your airfare goes back to the airport.
OG Runner
Well-Known Member
That does not explain why Disney even began charging an extra parking charge for their guests staying on property.
The room charges have been plenty high enough to cover the parking lots. There are no trams at the hotels on
property. Disney had operated most resort hotels for 20 or 30 years without charging for parking. Now they are
increasing the parking rates within less than a year. It is a money grab, and it doesn't matter how many other resorts
do the same thing it is wrong.
Maeryk
Well-Known Member
You call it a money grab, others call it an industry standard that they never implemented before.
So paying for standard operating costs is now their excuse/defense for raising parking fees by over 10%? I'm not buying that (no pun intended).
Leading by example and the "Disney Difference" are dead and buried, courtesy of R. Iger and R. Chapek (assist to post-heart attack M. Eisner), replaced now by following industry-standards and all-brand, all-the-time.
Leading by example and the "Disney Difference" are dead and buried, courtesy of R. Iger and R. Chapek (assist to post-heart attack M. Eisner), replaced now by following industry-standards and all-brand, all-the-time.
Lensman
Well-Known Member
So should we combine the two and call it an industry standard money grab?
I think it's a combination of the recent business practice of charging more by disaggregation of pricing of optional services and Disney wanting to provide a slight pricing preference for DME guests. I don't think either pricing practice is benign.
Maeryk
Well-Known Member
Nope. But it's a gentle nudge that they want you staying on property.. You can skip the parking charge by taking an uber to the park, or by buying a room. But it benefits Disney to have fewer civilian vehicles on the property, and for people to use their already running mass transit network. It allows them to control the flow of people better, leads to less road congestion and issues with the lots and staffing, etc etc etc.
Everyone is paying part of that "fee" one way or another.. either out of your room rate, or your parking fee. But I do think lot crowding may be a looming issue for Disney, as they build more and more rooms and towers.. and they are very much trying to encourage people to use DME or taxis to come. And the benefit there is you are less likely to go off property to the competition if you don't have your own transportation. (And by competition, I mean food, hotels, other parks, everything).
But I've never pretended Disney was a benign organization that was built to be a charity. It's a people trap built by a mouse, and always has been. One I'm more than happy to support.