News Walt Disney World Adds Water Park Perk for 2025 Resort Guests

[DisneyFanatic12]

Unless you’re staying on DVC points there’s a minimum 2 night stay to book these days I think.

Are you sure? I’m a local so we almost exclusively do one night stays. I’m not the one booking, nor do I own DVC personally, but I believe we booked a bunch of one night stays this year. Couldn’t find anything online about a rule change, though someone else might be able to confirm!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Oh, I think 1 in 33 is high. It is really hard to do **anything** on your arrival day, let alone go to a water park that closes early.

It sounds like a great idea

…months in advance

By the time you wrestle the troops on and off a plane - with our horrific low class airport and airline service - you aren’t exactly looking to hit the hot concrete in your bare feet

Just my take

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Unless you’re staying on DVC points there’s a minimum 2 night stay to book these days I think.

No minimum stay at dvc

 

[nickys]

Unless you’re staying on DVC points there’s a minimum 2 night stay to book these days I think.

Not the case. DS booked one night at POP recently, and did it online.

 

[lentesta]

Oh, I think 1 in 33 is high. It is really hard to do **anything** on your arrival day, let alone go to a water park that closes early.

My original math was wrong. I think it's more like 1 in 4 guests could use it:

• I forgot the offer was only for the day of check-in
• Less than half of flights into Orlando arrive before noon

 

[mattpeto]

My original math was wrong. I think it's more like 1 in 4 guests could use it:

• I forgot the offer was only for the day of check-in
• Less than half of flights into Orlando arrive before noon

Yes I was excited initially to hear about this perk, but honestly I think it's more of a throwaway thing for most guests. The split-stayers are the happiest, it's the best benefit to them.

They should have made it "1 water park day" during your resort stay for 2 nights or more. I'm guessing that would have cut too much into water park sales.

The other obstacle is the weather. Your arrival day only doesn't give you much latitude if the weather is too cold or rainy.

 

[Disstevefan1]

The addition of this water park "perk" is typical Disney. They add this knowing a fraction of a fraction of the guests will use it.

Its a fake perk Disney can call a perk.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Haven’t read through the entire thread yet, but has anyone else realized that having water parks open until 5pm many, many months won’t entice anyone to go there after they arrive? Not to mention the (current) horrid bus service to/from (All Stars and Coronado are the only resorts with direct bus service as of Wednesday)? And the Florida weather variable as well.

This is a desperate attempt to get people to book on-site with a throwaway offer under the guise of “something for FREE!!!1!!”.

Edit: Ok, some have posted about this. Glad I wasn’t the only one.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Haven’t read through the entire thread yet, but has anyone else realized that having water parks open until 5pm many, many months won’t entice anyone to go there after they arrive? Not to mention the (current) horrid bus service to/from (All Stars and Coronado are the only resorts with direct bus service as of Wednesday)? And the Florida weather variable as well.

This is a desperate attempt to get people to book on-site with a throwaway offer under the guise of “something for FREE!!!1!!”.

Edit: Ok, some have posted about this. Glad I wasn’t the only one.

Its a "Fake Perk"

 

[lentesta]

I think it's more of a throwaway thing for most guests.

I'm confident that resort front desk CMs are never, ever, EVER going to hear questions like:

• We didn't use our free water park admission yesterday. Can we move those to today?
• We didn't use our free water park admission yesterday. Can we get a refund or credit?

You might laugh. I was on the Dream in August and the guy in front of me in line was asking for a refund for the "food" portion of his cruise because his family used room service instead of the main dining rooms, and "room service is free."

 

[wdwmagic]

I'm confident that resort front desk CMs are never, ever, EVER going to hear questions like:

• We didn't use our free water park admission yesterday. Can we move those to today?
• We didn't use our free water park admission yesterday. Can we get a refund or credit?

You might laugh. I was on the Dream in August and the guy in front of me in line was asking for a refund for the "food" portion of his cruise because his family used room service instead of the main dining rooms, and "room service is free."

Yes I think this will be a significant issue for the front desk.

And add to that, "My flight landed at 5pm and Typhoon Lagoon closed at 5pm"

 

[nickys]

My original math was wrong. I think it's more like 1 in 4 guests could use it:

• I forgot the offer was only for the day of check-in
• Less than half of flights into Orlando arrive before noon

I wonder how many people arriving in the evening stay offsite for their first night. Or stay in a value WDW room before switching.
Both those groups could decide their first day will be a water park day instead of buying a park ticket.

I’m thinking for U.K. (and other) guests annoyed that they don’t sell 21 day tickets anymore. The 14 day tickets can be used over 18 days. If they arrive in the evening, stay offsite for the first night and then getting a free water park day on check-in day, when they’ll be tired after the flight, means they don’t need the park ticket to start until technically Day 3.

 

[Brian]

I'm confident that resort front desk CMs are never, ever, EVER going to hear questions like:

• We didn't use our free water park admission yesterday. Can we move those to today?
• We didn't use our free water park admission yesterday. Can we get a refund or credit?

You might laugh. I was on the Dream in August and the guy in front of me in line was asking for a refund for the "food" portion of his cruise because his family used room service instead of the main dining rooms, and "room service is free."

A buddy of mine is a front desk GEM at one of the resorts and mentioned there was a weird and brief stretch of time when guests were asking for credits for the free round of mini golf that came with the 'Magical Extras' card for vacation packages.

 

[doctornick]

Yes I was excited initially to hear about this perk, but honestly I think it's more of a throwaway thing for most guests. The split-stayers are the happiest, it's the best benefit to them.

They should have made it "1 water park day" during your resort stay for 2 nights or more. I'm guessing that would have cut too much into water park sales.

The other obstacle is the weather. Your arrival day only doesn't give you much latitude if the weather is too cold or rainy.

I think the point is that they want it to be used in the afternoon mostly when the water parks are less utilized as opposed to having people go to the water parks in the morning when they are the busiest. Also, it is a way to try to get some folks doing something/spending money (buying food, etc at the water park) that they might not otherwise be doing.

 

[mattpeto]

I think the point is that they want it to be used in the afternoon mostly when the water parks are less utilized as opposed to having people go to the water parks in the morning when they are the busiest. Also, it is a way to try to get some folks doing something/spending money (buying food, etc at the water park) that they might not otherwise be doing.

On the surface, it's an excellent perk.

It's just not a "realistic" perk not many will be able to take advantage of, unfortunately.

Logistical hurdles await. First off the flight needs to land early enough. Then you need to drop luggage off at bell services, change into swim gear, sunblock up, then generally hit two buses to get to a water park.

Oh the water park closes at 5 pm. Oh and it's cold today.

In the end, it's MOSTLY no bueno.

 

[Disstevefan1]

What is bad about fake perks like this, time will pass and eventually the Disney Data folks will do their number crunching and say "Resort guests do not take advantage of their perks".

 

[mattpeto]

What is bad about fake perks like this, time will pass and eventually the Disney Data folks will do their number crunching and say "Resort guests do not take advantage of their perks".

I wouldn’t go “fake”. It’s a disingenuous perk.

 

[Disstevefan1]

On the surface, it's an excellent perk.

This is EXACTLY what Iger was going for.

Iger is all about talking about stuff and actually doing nothing.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I wouldn’t go “fake”. It’s a disingenuous perk.

A by any other name smells just as bad...

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

My original math was wrong. I think it's more like 1 in 4 guests could use it:

• I forgot the offer was only for the day of check-in
• Less than half of flights into Orlando arrive before noon

Yeah. And even if you are on a flight that arrives before noon, MCO is terrible and takes forever. Just getting your luggage and getting to transportation and then taking said transportation is easily another 1-2 hours.