Disney Survey on implementing a $15 resort fee

[Coaster Lover]

Sadly, as much as we complain, I think most people will just bend over and take it. And don't think it will end at $15... oh no... they'll start at $15 for a year or two and if they don't see a significant drop in bookings, it'll be up to $20 in a couple years. And they'll find a way to spin it. I mean, if you are a family of 4, if you bought the standard Magic Band at the park it would run you $13 each, so if you were already staying 5 nights (a pretty standard advertised number), you would be paying $75 for the resort fee, but the cost of the Magic Bands alone could be spun to account for $52 of that, so you spin it that for an extra $1.15 per person per night, not only are you getting the Magic Bands but you are also getting "x", "y", and "z" and all of a sudden it seems like a reasonable deal and first time guests just accept it while those of us who have gotten used to having all of these things 'included" feel slighted.

 

[willtravel]

By making it a separate line item they do not reduce it with discounts or pay commission to TA's

Gotta get EVERY penny!!

So basically, whenever they give a blessed discount of up to 25% off, (which they have already raised the price to counter the discount price) it will be countered again with a resort fee per night. Hence, no discount. Sure doesn't create any brand loyalty.

 

[WDW Vaden]

I believe that this isn't about just getting more money from hotel guests. I suspect (only my opinion), that this is step one to one day getting everyone to pay a resort fee. Remember, the entire property is a resort. Actually, I'm surprised that Disney doesn't charge a resort fee to everyone just to drive onto the property, then another fee to park.

 

[PhilharMagician]

You brought up an interesting example. I never used the "free" valet parking perk - I was too cheap to give a tip each time, so I just parked and retrieved the car myself. Apparently other DVC members felt the same, because the perk was eliminated instead of increasing the maintenance fee.

I know I am not the majority, but I used it all the time when I had a rental car. Thankfully the DDE/TIW card also covered the valet when dining at the resort.

The loss of valet was not a big loss, but nonetheless a lost DVC perk.

 

[ThemeParkJunkee]

Has anyone else heard about the "ala carte" pricing model survey? Someone over at DIS got one. They could only remember a few of the prices such as $5 for magic bands, $20 for 60 day access to FP+. The survey started with the $350.00 Deluxe room then gave suggested prices for DME, parking, WiFi etc. It looked like when it was all added up it would come out the regular hotel rate.

Why am I not confident that the $350 figure is anywhere in the realm of possibility.

 

[Hyperspace Hoopla]

Here's my problem. My wife and kids (8 and 3) love WDW. They love everything about Disney. We've gone twice a year for the past seven years.

My wife and kids don't care how much I have to pay for park tickets, or resort fees. They could care less about service cuts, because hey - there's a new meet and greet. Dad will wait in line for two hours while we go on rides.

So I've had to cancel our May trip. For the first time since 1997, we're not going to WDW in May. First, I can't afford it and second, they cancelled SWW - so why bother? Anyways, my family doesn't think evil thoughts about Disney - they think 'cheap old dad can't afford to take us to WDW.' Somehow I'm the bad guy, and I hate Disney for that.

 

[mouse_luv]

 

[copcarguyp71]

Is anyone really and truly surprised at this? MM+ was a debaucle and cost a ton of money. Fact of the matter is the pixie dust addicts will still go and they will continue to give less while charging more. Status quo.

 

[andysol]

Here's my problem. My wife and kids (8 and 3) love WDW. They love everything about Disney. We've gone twice a year for the past seven years.

My wife and kids don't care how much I have to pay for park tickets, or resort fees. They could care less about service cuts, because hey - there's a new meet and greet. Dad will wait in line for two hours while we go on rides.

So I've had to cancel our May trip. For the first time since 1997, we're not going to WDW in May. First, I can't afford it and second, they cancelled SWW - so why bother? Anyways, my family doesn't think evil thoughts about Disney - they think 'cheap old dad can't afford to take us to WDW.' Somehow I'm the bad guy, and I hate Disney for that.

My wife and kids love WDW too- but everytime one of these things happen, I tell my wife about it. She trusts me in not supporting a company that pulls this garbage as much. Its not that we can't afford it- it's just that I don't want to support it. Still have our May trip, as we have APs (that I wont be renewing) and are DVC (although Ive now rented 350 of my 450 points for 2017), but cancelled two of the dining reservations (that will get snatched up by some pixieduster- enjoy BoG).

My suggestion for you? Go spend the same amount of money you would have spent at Disney elsewhere and take them on a vacation in May. Theres a big brave world out there ripe to explore with way better values than the modern day Disney gives you. You're doing the right thing- Cancel that WDW trip and spend that money elsewhere.

 

[JohnWD]

Here's my problem. My wife and kids (8 and 3) love WDW. They love everything about Disney. We've gone twice a year for the past seven years.

My wife and kids don't care how much I have to pay for park tickets, or resort fees. They could care less about service cuts, because hey - there's a new meet and greet. Dad will wait in line for two hours while we go on rides.

So I've had to cancel our May trip. For the first time since 1997, we're not going to WDW in May. First, I can't afford it and second, they cancelled SWW - so why bother? Anyways, my family doesn't think evil thoughts about Disney - they think 'cheap old dad can't afford to take us to WDW.' Somehow I'm the bad guy, and I hate Disney for that.

So you cancelled your vacation because there may be a resort fee and the ticket prices went up similar to every year? And Disney cancelled your favorite - SWW? That will be tough to explain... I'm teasing you here - most of us have to make hard decisions based on finances. I know it is disappointing - missing the family time in a magical place is really bad.

 

[andysol]

So you cancelled your vacation because there may be a resort fee and the ticket prices went up similar to every year?

Eh, you forgot the end tag of "While offering less by making park-wide cuts and firings after showing record Q1 profits"

 

[BrianV]

So you cancelled your vacation because there may be a resort fee and the ticket prices went up similar to every year? And Disney cancelled your favorite - SWW? That will be tough to explain... I'm teasing you here - most of us have to make hard decisions based on finances. I know it is disappointing - missing the family time in a magical place is really bad.

I know you were teasing but ticket prices increase every year at a rate far exceeding salary raises. There is a point where 5% increases compounded annually become too much for people to pay.

 

[wdwmagic]

I am not surprised that they might introduce a fee but really do not get why they would do a survey about it. What do they expect people will answer? “Yes, Disney, please bring this fee on! I’ve been dreaming about having a fee on top of nightly rate! Can't believe it is finally coming!”

I mean, seriously.

Well we have a poll going at: Disney is considering adding a nightly resort fee to its resort hotels, and out of thousands of votes so far, 21% say it doesn't impact their decision to stay at a WDW resort.

 

[BrianV]

Well we have a poll going at: Disney is considering adding a nightly resort fee to its resort hotels, and out of thousands of votes so far, 21% say it doesn't impact their decision to stay at a WDW resort.

Oh, the mere presence of the fee doesn't impact my decision to stay there. Ill look at the whole cost including the fee and decide whether I want to stay. But the fee on top of price increases and cuts might make.me think differently.

 

[note2001]

Well we have a poll going at: Disney is considering adding a nightly resort fee to its resort hotels, and out of thousands of votes so far, 21% say it doesn't impact their decision to stay at a WDW resort.

The results seem to be fairly conclusive that we won't stand for the fees.
However, take into consideration the poll participants are 100% people who follow threads on the topic and listen to vlogs, we're the educated group of those who attend Disney. I know many people (my own sister, and best friend are two) who don't care to be educated. They look for the word "sale" when buying and think they've gotten a deal. They'll feel the pinch in their wallets after the fact, but in general won't notice or care about the fee. There are too many people out there like them to count. We're just a minority.

Do the Universal hotels have fees?

 

[AMartin767]

I just received a survey from Disney basically asking how I would feel about a $15 resort fee. They put this in a question that basically said that if you booked a room at a deluxe resort for $350 per night and there was a $15 resort fee for Magical Express, Wifi, Children's activities, and a few other things I cannot remember, how likely would you be to stay at this resort. Another question asked if I was aware that there were resort fees at other non Disney resorts. It then asked how I felt about those resorts. It then asked how I would feel about Disney if they implemented a resort fee.

So it looks like Disney is looking into the resort fee gravy train. Once this below the line pricing starts, who knows how far it will go. I think that CET in Vegas has a $35/Night resort fee. You used to get 2 bottles of water for your fee, but they took that away.

This makes it even easier for my wife and I to decide in staying off property. With the already unbelievably exorbitant prices that Disney is charging for these Resorts, they are out of their minds to think that this is something that will be accepted by everyone. Maybe a lot of people will accept it? But not me and not my wife.

 

[NelleBelle]

[QUOTE="cmoliver68, post: 7122342, member: 95676

For those staying off-site, clearly you are saving money even with the resort fees. However, to the person who booked at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, you will be paying for the room, plus a $25 resort fee per night, plus $20 parking fee per night, plus $20 per day park parking fee (unless you are an AP holder) so your savings may only be an illusion.[/QUOTE]

We took those fees into account and for a 2bd/2ba room, we are still only paying $800 for 7 nights (excluding Disney's rip-off parking). Compared to the price we were going to pay to rent points for a villa, it was a no-brainier and I lost the argument to stay on-property (and after reading some threads here, am no longer complaining)

But this is an excellent point...the resort fees and parking, etc may blow any savings you think you may be getting. If we hadn't been able to score such a great deal at WBC (and prices were all over the place) then we likely would've rented a home further off property (and Mama wouldn't be quite as happy )

 

[jaklgreen]

Ohhh that's an amazing idea^^^^ continental breakfast is something most hotels everywhere else does.

I never understood why the lower cost hotels offer free breakfast but the ones that we pay double or even triple can not bring themselves to throw us a bagel in the morning.

 

[Brad Bishop]

This will go over as well as American Idol Experience, Go.com and Michael Ovitz's tenure all rolled into one.

I still can't believe that they use go.com.

It really ought to just be disney.com and then either:
- disneychannel.disney.com, or disney.com/disneychannel
- wdw.disney.com or disney.com/wdw
- disneyland.disney.com or disney.com/disneyland

...so on and so forth.

You don't want to confuse your audience. Does anyone remember 'buy.com' and their idiot domains: buygolf.com buybooks.com buygroceries.com buycds.com... They had 1000s of domain names all buy*.com which is not only stupid expensive but confusing for the user.


Regarding the resort fee: I hate them. I avoid resorts with such silly fees. Just tell me the price to stay there. Don't say, "oh, the price is $x..." and in mice-type state, "...plus a $25/day resort fee for services you won't likely use.."

 

[Jen Marie]

One of the reasons we stay at Disney is because they do not have all the fees. We NEVER stay at places that charge all the extras like that. Guess we will have to choose not to stay at Disney anymore.