Sadly, this increase in parking fees doesn't surprise me one bit, as I have become accustomed to higher and higher prices at WDW. Higher and higher prices, I may add, without even a remotely-close-to-commensurate increase in attractions, experiences, etc. Disney has every right to charge whatever they feel they can charge for parking, tickets, food, etc. And people are free to pay those prices or take their entertainment dollars elsewhere. But looking at this increase not in a vacuum of the now but in a more broad time frame, Disney has increased it's annual profits for the past 3 FY's, going from $3.96 billion in FY 2010 to $6.13 billion in FY 2013. What have guests received for an increasing amount of their vacation dollars? A wristband system that seems to be hated more than it's loved, a C-ticket ride copied from DL, an(other) overpriced eating establishment, a couple of meet-and-greets, and eventually a D-ticket coaster, but that's just at MK. In Epcot, there's been.... umm... at DHS they've added... Well, at AK there's... hmmm... Yeah, beating a dead horse there, I know, but it's absolutely frustrating as hell that the last E-ticket addition was E:E, now almost 9 years ago, and prior to that it was 10 years since RnRC.
Disney seems to be of the mindset that if you charge the most, then people will think they are experiencing the best. I cannot figure out any other explanation for their semi-to-annual price increase merry-go-round and subsequent lack of investment in significant, new attractions in *any* of the 4 parks. The profit they have been raking in since 2010 (
$20.5 billion in net income in that time) has gone where, exactly? Stockholder dividends? Executive pay, bonuses, etc.? I don't know, but I can virtually guaran-damn-tee they haven't funneled more than 10-15% of that back into their cash cow in Orlando in capital investments. Instead, TDO cuts live entertainment, refuses to spend $2000 to fix a nickelodeon, and saved what I'm sure was a boat-load of money by not storing the Spectromagic floats in an indoor storage facility.
So, does this mean that paying the most for parking will translate into your parking experience "being magical" and thus Disney will market the bejeezus out of it as the best one around and it's part of "making Disney memories" or whatever unimaginative, unoriginal trash they are passing off as a marketing campaign this year?
*pixiedustSNORT*
Or, maybe the increased parking fee is just to help pay for all of the monorail track maintenance they are doing so that they monorails can run all day, every day. Oh wait...
Speaking of the monorail, my wife and I were talking about transportation last month while at WDW for her running the Princess half-marathon. This is based on nothing but her observations and is nothing more than a theory, but I think she's on to something with this. She mentioned the number of new buses and the new ferryboat dock being built at the TTC, and said (paraphrasing) that she thinks Disney is spending more money on buses and docks and related things because they're planning to eventually phase out the monorail to MK and the monorail resorts because, "they think it costs too much to keep running the monorail when buses are cheaper in the long run". Disney would just keep the TTC-to-Epcot line going just long enough to figure out a way to shut that down as well. What made me mad was that as I thought more about what she said, the more I realized what she was suggesting was completely plausible and definitely seems to fit into the TDO "cut costs wherever we can" mantra. And as someone who has enjoyed and LOVED the monorail since roughly 1979, when he was about 8 years old, thinking about that even possibly happening es me off in ways I cannot properly explain and so thoroughly that I don't have the words to describe my level of anger at the thought/specter of not being able to ride the monorail in the future. But I can sum up what my actions will be quite simply - I will never spend another dollar at WDW if Disney were to shut down the monorail. Period. End of story. Our DVC ownership would be sold as quickly as possible. I would put my money where my mouth is and I very honestly and quite literally would never set foot on WDW property again. Because to me, the monorail being gone means "the magic" is dead and I have no reason to go there anymore, because the monorail has been such an integral part of the whole WDW experience for me during my life and for our family over the past 15+ years.
