bhg469
Well-Known Member
I love this. I really hope disney re thinks this. It cannot be interpreted in any other way. It is simply greed. Every cost they have is built into the regular costs, adding additional fees is dishonest and unnecessary.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
News WDW Resorts to add fees for parking
- Thread starter The Visionary Soul
- Start date
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Don't worry Disney is so arrogant they WILL add these fees because all they can think about is losing those Dining dollars to other non-Disney restaurants not realizing that much of the reason for dining offsite is not everyone wants to plan their meals 6 months in advance
bhg469
Well-Known Member
The irony is that they are chasing my dollars away.
I come into florida every year for work for about 10 days or so. Every year I try to get a day off and visit one of the theme parks. This year I won't be going to either because after the insane price of a park hopper and then in addition I will have to pay parking. Nevermind I would only be going in to eat, maybe ride two rides and then spend a bunch on gifts for my wife. The recent hike was the last straw for me. Yes, I could stay multiple days on a visit by why? I can do everything I want to do in a day or two. Until star wars, you story land and Pandora are open, then maybe it will be worth 5 days for me. I used to be an addict but now... Not so much.
L.C. Clench
Well-Known Member
Wait a minute! I thought it was okay if Disney did this because everyone else does it. You mean to tell me that there are people who buck "industry standard"? I don't believe it.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Same here I used to fly through MCO take a long layover visit parks hit a ride or two eat buy some gifts for friends/family and head back to MCO but Disney has become so unfriendly I just stopped this in 2015 when I let AP expire.
I now do the same thing at UNI some times I just hit city walk just for eating and shopping because I CAN be spontaneous and I don't need to pre-plan each visit months in advance.
I still can't understand Disney's cavalier attitude about the impact of their money grabs. So I would guess you spent a minimum of $200 on a quick visit? I would bet that's a conservative estimate.
How many people are they driving away? How long can they sustain this business model? The attendance numbers are dropping. People think the parks are crowded, but that's the result of "right sizing" their staffing and attraction capacity.
I know that these boards represent a very small population, but I still believe that Disney's fan base of repeat vacationers is diminishing. I used to be a walking advertisement for WDW. Now, I warn my friends and family about the amount of pre-planning that's required if you want to eat at a specific TS or ride popular attractions.
Resort fees are going to drive even more people away.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Can we cut through all the BS for a second and someone confirm what is ACTUALLY being kicked around? How will these fees or whatever impact a guest staying on property with a rental car? I suspect the answer is "not at all."
jakeman
Well-Known Member
My understanding is that a fee of an indeterminate amount is being considered as a resort fee and for parking. The date, amount, and patrons affected has not been established.
Or Disney are going to take your first born and sacrifice it to Ra.
Hard to tell with the rhetoric in this thread.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Sorry, why SHOULDN'T non-resort guests be charged to park at resorts? Sounds like a major loophole that's currently allowing the off-property people to skip out on paying for parking, then taking resort transportation to the parks. This doesn't sound like a new fee, it sounds like it's closing a loophole.
To add, a new, separate fee for on-property guests would be terrible. I'd be surprised if that's what we end up seeing.
DisneyFans4Life
Well-Known Member
During peak times, you can't park at the resorts unless you have either a dining or resort reservation. A couple years back we went to the Poly for dinner on July 4th and the guard had to confirm we had a reservation before they'd let us in.
I don't understand why they wouldn't just enforce this rule all the time. To me it's simple...in order to park at the resort you must either have a resort or dining reservation.
Or...to take it a step further (and to prevent those who have a breakfast reservation from parking and leaving their car all day), you pay to park with the guard, get your ticket validated at the restaurant and then upon your exit, you provide your validated ticket to the guard and you get your money back. Your exit must be within a certain amount of time in order to get the refund.
I don't understand why they wouldn't just enforce this rule all the time. To me it's simple...in order to park at the resort you must either have a resort or dining reservation.
Or...to take it a step further (and to prevent those who have a breakfast reservation from parking and leaving their car all day), you pay to park with the guard, get your ticket validated at the restaurant and then upon your exit, you provide your validated ticket to the guard and you get your money back. Your exit must be within a certain amount of time in order to get the refund.
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
Well if you are just visiting one of the resorts to shop or to have lunch, being charged for parking while you're there becomes a major deterrent. We do that a lot, and don't go into the parks. If they offer free parking for APs with "free parking" level passes, or validate parking if you make a purchase of any kind in the resort it would be a non-issue to charge non-resort guests for parking for me.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
I think that's a smart way to do it. Eliminates pool hopping and other abuse but allows flexibility for "legitimate" visitors.
Lets Respect
Well-Known Member
They need to stop the abuse of the three-hour rule (not sure if it's a written rule)
People park for free with their ADR, eat a sandwich and a glass of water and then park there all day while they go to the park to avoid the TTC or sometimes the Epcot lot
Because you have to eat anyway right?
I would rather they cut back on this rather than add fees all over the place
It's easily accomplished with gates and timed tickets. You stay over the three hours, you pay a hefty parking fee.
People park for free with their ADR, eat a sandwich and a glass of water and then park there all day while they go to the park to avoid the TTC or sometimes the Epcot lot
Because you have to eat anyway right?
I would rather they cut back on this rather than add fees all over the place
It's easily accomplished with gates and timed tickets. You stay over the three hours, you pay a hefty parking fee.
jakeman
Well-Known Member
Oh I'm not putting a horse anywhere in this race, because whatever my opinion is, it's wrong and I don't care enough to defend it.
I'm just relaying facts as I understand them at this point in time.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
I completely agree with this.
Side note to the thread.. I went to book a Great Wolf Lodge Weekday stay April 12th-14th (no Friday or Saturday night). Here's their room prices.. excluding the $29 per night resort fee.
And their rooms are hideous btw.lol
This is relevant to me because it makes me second guess choosing this as part of a week instead of 3 nights at WDW for a similar price...and resort entertainment/activities included at WDW , as opposed to all of the additional charges that I will have at GWL during those 2.5 days.
Disney isn't looking so bad..if it wasn't for the Easter Crowds.
Attachments
Last edited:
Lets Respect
Well-Known Member
Why would they give APs "free-parking passes" at the resorts? Just trying to get inside their brains. They already give the free parking at the parks which makes sense
Do local APs really go to the resorts just to eat an overpriced QS lunch and look at a mostly-generic gift shop?
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
Yes, for a lot of reasons. We go to enjoy the seasonal decorations. We go for TS and QS lunch/dinner which are often discounted for people with APs (or TiW), and we go to look at the resort specific items in the shops.
Why wouldn't we get free parking at the resorts, since we already get free parking everywhere else? I have no problem charging people to park at resorts who aren't there spending money in some way though, even if they have an AP. We don't need to park at a resort and go to the parks, we can already park at the parks for free. The only drawback is people who pool hop. We don't do that ourselves but I can see it being a problem, so if you have an AP (or not) and are there without buying anything, charge them to park.
If I was a local, I'd go to the resorts to eat or to have drinks. After all even when I'm there on vacation, I'm not paying for great food I'm paying for the great atmosphere. It's the same with the gift shops, the merch IMO is crappy, but the theming is fantastic.
Lets Respect
Well-Known Member
Because parking at some resorts is is very limited unlike the parking at the parks?
It's the same reasoning behind pool hopping. When something is a limited resource, it needs to be limited to the people staying there
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
So what you're saying is that AP holders shouldn't be able to use the benefits that come with our APs because you may not get a parking space if we do? You're also saying that Disney should limit income from their resorts to people who are staying at their resorts?
That doesn't make sense at all. I'm all for preventing freeloaders from freeloading, but unless they take away our AP benefits we should be able to use them without extra fees.