Disney forcing us to $pend even more at their re$ort$

[UNCgolf]

This is fair, and you’re right that his post was suggesting something different from my own point. To clarify, I’ve no problem with the complaints themselves (as you note, I’ve voiced some of my own recently); I just wish the rhetoric were less charged and hyperbolic (I’d like to see terms like “forced” and “abused” dropped).

Oh, I agree that using words like "forced" and "abused" is also silly. If you're that livid about it, you should probably take a step back and look at whether going to Disney is actually worth it to you.

It was really just the "you don't have to, stop whining" thing that drives me crazy. That always feels, at least to me, like an attempt to shut down any discussion whatsoever.

It's not like people don't have legitimate complaints, especially about things like the parking fees.

 

[networkpro]

Ok, we get it, you are not happy with the pricing and service offering changes. May I suggest you examine other venues?

 

[Lilofan]

Ok, we get it, you are not happy with the pricing and service offering changes. May I suggest you examine other venues?

Some I know did. They spent the money on home improvements instead.

 

[SteveAZee]

Agreed, repeat visitors spending patterns are different. We already know what the deal is.

It seems to me TWDC loves the first time visitor, uninformed visitor the most.
These visitors may return home with with a less than magical experience, but Disney hopes these memories will fade in a few years, ready for their next visit.

It's possible these folks may never return too.

No worries, there are plenty of first timers that will show up.

That said, I did a quick Google search and it says 70 percent of guests return!!! I do not think this is accurate !
View attachment 595576

I can only suspect that many people return because a WDW experience has a learning curve. First time visitors get some of the whole experience, but see that there's a whole lot more to get out of it as well that they were unaware of or unprepared for. I've felt that way early on... next time I go it'll be better because I've learned more about the system/process and can make more of it 'next time'.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Spot on. A WDW vacation itself is entirely OPTIONAL.
Folks should consider staying at the MANY HIGH QUALITY off site accommodations and using some of their stay at Universal and SeaWorld.

I did a new hotel at Universal on my last trip in 2019. The rate was great, the hotel was good and I spent two days at Uni as well as two days at WDW. Saved a bundle and was still in the middle of everything. All anyone has to do is to muster up the courage to get on I-4 for a few miles for WDW and use internal transportation for Uni. Honestly everyone is scared to death about I-4 and although one has to stay alert, it isn't really that difficult to maneuver. Back in the old days my philosophy was always, drive like the natives and you will be fine. Be overcautious and you will be a nervous wreck and miss out on a lot of interesting things.

 

[HM Spectre]

My main issue here is that each subsequent "big" trip with a resort stay and in-park dining has been less of a value for me than the one prior.

I went from (This is worth it -> This is still worth it but not as much as before -> I don't know if this is worth it -> This is definitely not worth it) in way too short of a time.

And yeah, I get that I can stay off property and "opt out" of a lot of this ridiculousness but I've never been compelled to do so before. Now, I don't know what compels me to stay on property apart from the feeling of being in the bubble. It's been made very obvious at this point that we're expected to pay more for less. And maybe that's by design... to take advantage of "once in a lifetime" vacationers but that's bad news for us who enjoy the parks more often.

And to those who keep suggesting that people stop complaining about this, realize that every price change or corner cut that is met with silence just encourages them to find other areas to cheap out. It won't be long before they come for things you really care about and you'll be the one upset.

 

[Qscout]

The loss of MDE is a big one for us, coming from UK airport transfers is a big deal, being able to get off a long flight and not have to worry about how to get to the resort was good. With no MDE we will need to pay for transfers, we might as well hire a car which makes staying off resort more appealing.
Our last trip we price compared on and off resort, by the time we hired a car and paid fuel and car parking it made staying on resort or off resort much off the same price wise. MDE will change this, but to be honest staying off resort appeals as we can have a better choice of good and could even cook ourselves, is there was a budget self catering option in Disney we would be sold in an instant.

 

[mattpeto]

The loss of MDE is a big one for us, coming from UK airport transfers is a big deal, being able to get off a long flight and not have to worry about how to get to the resort was good. With no MDE we will need to pay for transfers, we might as well hire a car which makes staying off resort more appealing.
Our last trip we price compared on and off resort, by the time we hired a car and paid fuel and car parking it made staying on resort or off resort much off the same price wise. MDE will change this, but to be honest staying off resort appeals as we can have a better choice of good and could even cook ourselves, is there was a budget self catering option in Disney we would be sold in an instant.

Magical Express remains the thing that bugs me the post. I'll miss the autopilot part of that trip.

Naïve and stupid me, I still hope Disney rethinks this and brings it back in 2023 in some form and fashion. I'd gladly pay for it (if reasonable, Mears Connect pricing is fine), then not have it at all.

Or maybe if you add Genie+ for all the days in your trip (at least 4 days), you get it for free - something like that. I don't think we've seen the extend of Genie (and G+) at all yet.

 

[LittleBuford]

With no MDE we will need to pay for transfers, we might as well hire a car which makes staying off resort more appealing.

A third option, and far cheaper than hiring a car, is taking an Uber or Lyft. You can book one using the airport wifi.

 

[Goofyernmost]

My main issue here is that each subsequent "big" trip with a resort stay and in-park dining has been less of a value for me than the one prior.

I went from (This is worth it -> This is still worth it but not as much as before -> I don't know if this is worth it -> This is definitely not worth it) in way too short of a time.

And yeah, I get that I can stay off property and "opt out" of a lot of this ridiculousness but I've never been compelled to do so before. Now, I don't know what compels me to stay on property apart from the feeling of being in the bubble. It's been made very obvious at this point that we're expected to pay more for less. And maybe that's by design... to take advantage of "once in a lifetime" vacationers but that's bad news for us who enjoy the parks more often.

And to those who keep suggesting that people stop complaining about this, realize that every price change or corner cut that is met with silence just encourages them to find other areas to cheap out. It won't be long before they come for things you really care about and you'll be the one upset.

I have a bit of an advantage on the offsite compelling factor. When I went there the first time there were only a couple of Hotels onsite. The Poly and the Contemporary plus a few independent Disney endorsed hotels near the shopping area. Based on the difference in price and the fact that I don't think I was even aware of the onsite hotels until after I got there the first time. As the number of hotels onsite increased so did their rack rate publicized. I just loved the outside hotels and the outside dining facilities along with the other activities offsite and never even after almost 40 years of yearly visits, one of which was onsite, I have remained convinced that staying onsite was not close to worth the literal hundreds of extra dollars it cost to do that.

The idea that we should quite whining because no one is forcing us to go is so BS. We aren't whining we are complaining because something that we planned as a large part of our lives to make sure that we got to WDW as often as we could has now become unavailable. Even if we didn't spend as much as some because we didn't stay at the always overpriced, overhyped and psychologically attempted to imprint (in many cases successfully) the idea that it isn't a complete experience unless you sell a kidney and give them the money. We are not forced to unwillingly go to WDW. Duh! We are being forced to not go due to unnecessary greed to raise profits above millions. This works in more then one direction.

I was able to get around that anger by staying offsite and at least could sleep at night knowing that I wasn't throwing money down a rat hole. I went for one thing only. I went for the parks. The parks are what I loved and enjoyed on every visit. I couldn't possible care any less about a themed pool or a themed resort made up of molded plastic and giant vacuum cleaners directly aimed at my wallet. That took the fun out of it for me.

After a lot of thought and discussion with others I am now straddling the fence to thoughts about Genie+. Some have put up a good argument that the concept is that by monitoring and charging that minor $15 for it, pass by pass control theoretically could make the standby smaller, but then the other side is, I agree but the complexity of this system makes me wonder how well any of it will work. Does anyone remember the cluster that was generated when Fastpass+ came out. That didn't have the complexity of Genie. They traditionally have left a lot of details unproven and therefore nightmarish when it was introduced. It wasn't all that impressive even up until the introduction to Genie.

This is a complicated, at best, system that intertwines in a whole lot of situations that must be monitored and reacted to in real time for tens of thousands of people at any given moment. I think technologically it was less complicated to get a man on the moon, and we all know we can't even do that anymore. Do we know of anyone that can build an algorism so strong that it won't became just another bigger cluster? I guess we will have to see, but in spite of my reservations about just how well this will work, that isn't what is stopping me. What is stopping me is the surface look at something that will require a whole lot more money then just high admission prices to just see what we used to be able to see for just the price of admission. I said it before... "Wake me when it is working".

 

[Disstevefan1]

I did a new hotel at Universal on my last trip in 2019. The rate was great, the hotel was good and I spent two days at Uni as well as two days at WDW. Saved a bundle and was still in the middle of everything. All anyone has to do is to muster up the courage to get on I-4 for a few miles for WDW and use internal transportation for Uni. Honestly everyone is scared to death about I-4 and although one has to stay alert, it isn't really that difficult to maneuver. Back in the old days my philosophy was always, drive like the natives and you will be fine. Be overcautious and you will be a nervous wreck and miss out on a lot of interesting things.

And there is always Uber or Lyft. Even with this extra cost, you can still save a bundle.

 

[Goofyernmost]

And there is always Uber or Lyft. Even with this extra cost, you can still save a bundle.

Absolutely, You don't have the freedom of exploration because that would cost way more then a car rental, but it would easily get you to anyplace onsite that you wanted. I have a personal need to have a vehicle available whenever I want it, in my immediate vacinity and for whatever mood hits me. I am aware that not everyone has that particular hang-up. The one time I stayed onsite, I even had a rental because I might find a internal need to go someplace else. I did!

Spoiler

I attribute my respect for law and fear of confinement to be the reason that I have stayed out of legal trouble and have been a model citizen all my life. Now in my 70's I am less concerned about that. How much time am I risking really?

 

[UNCgolf]

A third option, and far cheaper than hiring a car, is taking an Uber or Lyft. You can book one using the airport wifi.

I think it depends on how much driving you plan to do. If you're going to stay off-site and drive to and from the parks every day, as well as potentially elsewhere, renting a car might be cheaper. I imagine Uber/Lyft rides to/from the airport are going to see their prices skyrocket with the elimination of DME. I had to pay almost $70 to get home from the Atlanta airport the other day and it wasn't even at a busy time; I used to only pay $25-30 for the same trip a couple of years ago. If you end up taking them 2-3 times a day to get to/from Disney property and maybe an additional trip or two you could easily be looking at another $50+ a day.

If you're staying on-site and using Disney transport for everything then it's a different calculation.

 

[LittleBuford]

I think it depends on how much driving you plan to do. If you're going to stay off-site and drive to and from the parks every day, as well as potentially elsewhere, renting a car might be cheaper. I imagine Uber/Lyft rides to/from the airport are going to see their prices skyrocket with the elimination of DME. I had to pay almost $70 to get home from the Atlanta airport the other day and it wasn't even at a busy time; I used to only pay $25-30 for the same trip a couple of years ago. If you end up taking them 2-3 times a day to get to/from Disney property and maybe an additional trip or two you could easily be looking at another $50+ a day.

If you're staying on-site and using Disney transport for everything then it's a different calculation.

You're quite right, but I was basing my statement on the assumption that the poster was happy to use Disney transport once they were on property (which is what they appear to have done in the past after using DME to get to the resort).

 

[UNCgolf]

You're quite right, but I was basing my statement on the assumption that the poster was happy to use Disney transport once they were on property (which is what they appear to have done in the past after using DME to get to the resort).

I just saw they mentioned staying off-site was more appealing now -- my comment was based around choosing that option.

 

[graphite1326]

To be clear, no one is forcing you to do anything. If you don’t like the prices, or just can’t fit it in your budget then you don’t go.

Are the prices a lot higher than they used to be? Yes. But what isn’t, right now? I work in retail and we have raised prices on a lot of items that are popular, mainly because of low supply and high demand. It’s just a business decision.

Why does someone always have to say this. We know this.

 

[Archie123]

Why does someone always have to say this. We know this.
View attachment 595700

Why does someone have to post something as silly as Disney is "forcing" us to spend more money at the resorts?? We know this isn't true.

 

[Bastet]

The loss of MDE is a big one for us, coming from UK airport transfers is a big deal, being able to get off a long flight and not have to worry about how to get to the resort was good. With no MDE we will need to pay for transfers, we might as well hire a car which makes staying off resort more appealing.
Our last trip we price compared on and off resort, by the time we hired a car and paid fuel and car parking it made staying on resort or off resort much off the same price wise. MDE will change this, but to be honest staying off resort appeals as we can have a better choice of good and could even cook ourselves, is there was a budget self catering option in Disney we would be sold in an instant.

Virgin and TUI are offering transfers on holidays for 2022

 

[unmitigated disaster]

As someone who works in the hotel industry - though not Disney - we're in a pandemic. Housekeeping is limited. People are also deciding to go for better paying jobs.

It's not uncommon for hotels - especially if they are small or independently owned - to have 2 night minimums, especially on weekends. I'm actually a little surprised Disney hasn't implemented this at some of the hotels before this.

 

[Lilofan]

As someone who works in the hotel industry - though not Disney - we're in a pandemic. Housekeeping is limited. People are also deciding to go for better paying jobs.

It's not uncommon for hotels - especially if they are small or independently owned - to have 2 night minimums, especially on weekends. I'm actually a little surprised Disney hasn't implemented this at some of the hotels before this.

I believe housekeeping at one time was a labor intensive job. Apparently with limited services it does not appear to be but it is still an important job that leaves a first and lasting impression.