Not "charge me less money" - more like "stop taking away a benefit that was previously included as a perk of an on-site stay to reduce park hours and create an experience that costs money to attend".
I'd argue that it's so much more than that. Yes, there are some here who will post that Disney is an evil corporation and everything is too expensive regardless of what they're charging.
There are others, I'd say the majority minus those mentioned above and the Disney defenders, who get the whole free market deal and accept that Disney can charge what the market will bear.
The problem is multi-faceted:
- Maintenance seems to be lacking (Condition of the Monorails is a good example but there are others)
- Cutbacks on staff
- Mandatory resort fees (not sure if this was just floated or if this is now in effect)
- Premium parking (yeah, you don't have to pay it)
- a record year in attendance for both Florida and Disney
- Cuts in entertainment and M&Gs
- Cheapening of the experience (no more resort-specific mugs is off the top of my head, using paper napkins at TS restaurants instead of cloth)
- The $150/head After Hours Deal
- The cutting back of park hours
- The Bungalows out in front of Polynesian (your fancy $500 lagoon-facing room is now blocked by $3000 Bungalows) - it's not horrible, but some may see it as a finger int he eye.
- Stagnant parks.
- Recent new additions being a bit lackluster
- New things coming taking a very long time and it's a bit of "too little, too late". Prices/fees are being raised now. New things still have a few years to make an appearance.
- The selling of the park multiple times a day which impedes others paying the normal ticket to enjoy the parks into the night (think Halloween and Christmas) without paying more.
- There are other instances of either cutbacks or increased costs but they're just not on the tip of my tongue right now.
There's so much more to this than, "People just want to complain for the sake of complaining," or, "People just don't want to pay." There are many long-time Disney loyalists who've been visiting WDW for decades who understand it's a set of theme parks and they're there to make money who are getting turned off by all of this.
That's the thing that's kind of amazing about it - it's seen as a huge cash grab by Disney in both cuts and new fees/special ticketed events, etc... It's almost like they're trying to off their long-time fans - to see where the breaking point is.
Imagine that you have a resort and you have guests who love the place and come back quite frequently - some once a year, many several times a year. Now let's say you wanted to start getting rid of them. You'd pretty much do everything Disney is doing right now. Everyone has their breaking point and for some it's already been met. For others, it's still a ways off.
These are loyal customers who've been dumping out their wallets at WDW for decades, quite freely and willingly.
What if they added these:
- Check-in courtesy fee $25 (the CM behind the desk has to be paid, after all)
- Mandatory laundry fee $10/day
- Mandatory utility fee $10/day
- Ticket purchase convenience fee $10
- Before Noon Special Ticketed Event: $150 - gets you exclusive access to a park before noon
- Expanded the After Dark event to be 6PM-midnight
The point is that you could come up with all sorts of fees and gimmicks and, at some point, people start wondering, "Well, what's the cost of my room covering?," and some defender will say, "That's obvious: The walls, ceiling, and floor." Or perhaps, "What does my ticket to the MK get me?," and, again, some defender will state, "Well, that's obvious, it allows you daytime access between the hours of noon and 6PM. If you want to meet Mickey, though, it's a special ticketed event!" It all gets rather silly and eventually people just have enough of it and go elsewhere.
It's a lot more than just a simple statement of, "People don't want to pay..."
