POLL: Will transportation within WDW - (bus/boat/Skyliner/monorail) remain free?

[Heppenheimer]

If it causes people to go to the parks less and spend less money there, than no, Chapek World won't do it. If charging for transportation has no effect on guest spending, then expect Chapek to make some announcement about "Story-telling, metaverse, guest experience, blah, blah blah, seamlessly link payments for on-property transportation to your smart phone blah blah blah, new features on the MyDisney experience app, blah, blah..." Wait, Bob, what was that about paying for transportation now?

 

[Vacationeer]

They'll call it a la carte, like the budget airlines.

You can fly to Orlando for $20!
(I'm exaggerating for emphasis here, no need for anyone to correct me)
-$20 for carry-on
-$20 per checked bag
-$5 for soda
-$50 to select your seat
-$20 for boarding priority
-$25 in fees
-$5 convenience fee

lol It's a deal!

That sounds like Spirit!
I can maybe find a $20 flight and chip in $20 to share a carry on,

just not sure if I’ll make my room check-in on Day 1 or Day 3.

 

[Goofyernmost]

An insignificant amount of non-resort guests fall into users of buses.

True in my 48 trips the only time I ever used the buses, boats, etc. was the one time I stayed onsite. Other than that, it was far more quick and more handy to just use my car to go between parks. There is nothing worse then being tired and sore feet and having to travel to a different park to get to your car. That one time I stayed onsite, in spite of being a bus driver (non-disney) I hated the experience and felt like a sardine. I have used the Monorail to go between Epcot and MK. I'd park in the Epcot lot in the morning, immediately jump on the Monorail to MK, spend whatever part of the day that I wanted in MK then go back to Epcot for the evening and when I done for the day I was in the same place as my car. Other than that I used my car or rental to go where I wanted.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I agree in theory, but I can't wrap my head around their decision to discontinue Magical Express. Of all the puzzling operational decisions they've made recently, that's the one that really jumps off the page as egregiously short-sighted.

I knew that was going to happen the minute they announced that resort hotels were going to charge for parking. You have to have pretty big cojones to charge $600.00 a night for a place to sleep and then charge people to park there on land that was paid for 50 year ago. If it wasn't a theme park that is a lot of things but not anything that isn't called a luxury, it would have been the worse decision ever.

Now like days of old, they no longer have to worry about paying the bill to get you from the airport. Like most any other vacation things you can get yourself there either by private car or by rental. They collect an additional $20.+ per night in new revenue from those that will opt to rent a car and Disney not have to pay to carry them back and forth to the airport and for anyone that knows anything about buses, that ain't cheap. It is actually genius planning. They will make more from one carload parking on top of what they won't spend to drag your butt there. Once people decide, like I did years ago, that it was so much easier to see things like Universal, SeaWorld or Lego Land, etc. with your own wheels and with phone apps like Waze. They may start to regret it, but it will take a while for people to get that message.

 

[woody1]

At the beginning, when WDW first opened, on to about 1980? they did charge for the Monorail, Boats and Buses, it was included in your park admission, all others who didn't have a Park ticket or who were not a Resort guest had to pay $2.00 per day to use. Of course at that time there was only the MK, Disney Village, and Fort Wilderness, no where near what the transportation system is today. If you were at the CR, there were ticket windows with turnstiles at the escalator up to the Monorail platform, you would show your ticket or pay the fee. I don't think it would take a lot to improvise this system again, since they had already done it in the earlier years, and i am sure they have considered it many times since then, but with the expanse of the transportation system setting this in motion would be a large expense and slow the movement of guests getting around the resort considerably.

 

[Vacationeer]

The genius of DME was it felt 100% like a gift from WDW. It wasn’t from the goodness of their heart. It was an incentive to book WDW over others and it kept people’s spending in the bubble. 3 things over the last 2 decades changed the math for WDW. Guest familiarity with Uber/rideshare and grocery/goods delivery, and as DVC expanded a shift to shorter more frequent trips. That’s what I suspect anyway.

 

[jloucks]

I agree in theory, but I can't wrap my head around their decision to discontinue Magical Express. Of all the puzzling operational decisions they've made recently, that's the one that really jumps off the page as egregiously short-sighted.

This is a significant deterrent to our return. One of several.

It also blatantly represents their attitude towards cost savings -vs- guest experience.

 

[jloucks]

You have to have pretty big cojones to charge $600.00 a night for a place to sleep and then charge people to park there on land that was paid for 50 year ago.

Ha, yea, that is another way to put it. ...and I totally agree.

 

[Married5Times]

"bean counter" is considered offensive these days.

how do you figure that?

same game as "shrink", "cop", "fly boy", "cager", "squid", "jarhead", "daredevil", "grunt", "ditchdigger",

 

[larryz]

At the beginning, when WDW first opened, on to about 1980? they did charge for the Monorail, Boats and Buses, it was included in your park admission, all others who didn't have a Park ticket or who were not a Resort guest had to pay $2.00 per day to use.

At least 1992. I have a ticket from that year stating that WDW was collecting a transportation charge on behalf of WED Transportation, Inc.

 

[Goofyernmost]

At least 1992. I have a ticket from that year stating that WDW was collecting a transportation charge on behalf of WED Transportation, Inc.

I know I took the Monorail across from MK and Epcot a number of times in the 80's along with the Monorail from TTC to MK and if I recall the ferry to and from MK. I have pictures of us on that in '83. I cannot speak for the buses because I had no reason to take one back then. I know I never paid anything to ride either one of those. I think parking was $1.50 for the day because we stayed offsite. I always thought that all that changed and all transportation became free when Epcot opened, but I am not positive about that.

 

[Figments Friend]

Back in Ye Olden Days of the 1970s and early 1980s, WDW required Guests to buy 'Transportation' tickets to be able to use the boats, monorails, and other transportation options.
It was not included with your Park Ticket admission until the multi-day 'WorldPassport' ticket media was rolled out in 1982 with the opening of EPCOT Center.

So it's not impossible to imagine this could be reinstated at some point down the road...
Absolutely nothing should surprise anyone when it comes to Chapek and his tag team coming up with further ways to exploit a means to increase the 'yield'.

Think of how they could market this from the 'nostaligia' angle-
Just in time for the (end of ) 50th Anniversary..!

-

 

[Wilbret]

So many of the other hotels/resorts in the area charge for parking and add on fee after fee, it's kinda silly.
Their room will show up in the price range you want (i.e. if you are using a travel site).

$149/night
$34/day resort fee
$15/day parking
$10/cleaning fee
$8,000 in taxes

You know the people that run the resorts are just bouncing around from one hospitality company to another, and they have all these great ideas.

Who would have thought that many grocery stores/walmart/target would move almost exclusively or exclusively to self checkout?
Same prices you pay to have a human do the work, but now you get to do the work!

 

[Smooth]

 

[Moka]

My instant response to this question was a solid yes, it would remain free. But then I remembered it's Disney so it's never out of the question that they could charge for transportation again like they once did. But I'm still going to say yes for the time being. At least for the monorail and boat. I wouldn't be shocked to see a charge for the Skyliner.

 

[erasure fan1]

There will always be some free transportation. I voted they will start charging. The way they slip it in is similar to genie plus. They will reduce the free bus service so you either pay for express service or wait 2+ hours between buses. As far as the monorail or boats go, it would be fairly simple to make it like the drink mugs. Pay as you go or prepay for the length of stay.

 

[Raxel7851]

Back in the “Old Days”, you had to show your resort ID card to board the bus from your resort to the MK. I remember staying at FW and the FW bus would drop you off at the TTC, then you could take the ferry or Monorail. The buses didn’t go to the MK back then. I’m fairly certain you had to show your ID each way. I don’t remember if you had to show it for boarding the Monorail. And it was a paper card, so you needed to be careful with it. At that time though it was just the Contemporary, Poly, and FW.

 

[DfromATX]

Yes, at least they will let us think it's free, but nothing actually is. More like included in the cost already.

 

[larryz]

I don’t remember if you had to show it for boarding the Monorail. And it was a paper card, so you needed to be careful with it. At that time though it was just the Contemporary, Poly, and FW.

Just on the resort loop.

 

[James.Green]

Probably keep it free but have an up charge for priority seating. Skip the line at the monorail/bus station at the end of the night type of thing. Lot of people would be interested in that I bet. And after a while, everyone will have to pay for it it if they want to get anyplace in under 2 hours, so Disney could keep it “free” but still charge pretty much everyone for it.