News WDW Resorts to add fees for parking

[Alice a]

Welp, further validates my decision to just continue staying at Swan and Dolphin.

Booked a 3-nite stay at the dolphin last week for a trip next month- my favorite hotel on property was $32 a night more than the cheapest available moderate (Coronado springs) including the resort fee and parking fee, and now its an even better deal with the new parking fee.

That said, i expect the S&D prices will go up now, too, as all the people that refused to stay there out of moral outrage over the resort and parking fee will start booking there.

Funny enough, we only booked this last-minute vacay as a 'farewell WDW' trip, as I expected prices and crowds to take off starting with Toy Story land opening, and we had already dropped our APs and started visiting only once a year or so when already in town for something else.

There are a surprising amount of former APs here in Charleston- we drive, since Charleston is 6 hours away. One of the perks of visiting WDW was the relative proximity, but as prices go up and our airport grows, the price of a long weekend WDW trip is comparable to a trip to Austin or DC or Nashville, etc.

 

[ELG13]

Can anyone clarify if the cabins at fort wilderness would be charged a parking fee? i would think they'd be similar to the campsites but they weren't specifically mentioned in the announcement as exempt

I would think the cabins are since they average around $300. They can't charge for a campsite but you'd better believe a cabin will be. The fee schedule I read only mentioned campsites not being included so, I think it's safe to say cabins are. Which is crazy bc you park at your cabin! Wonder if golf carts will be a separate charge for parking as well

 

[tk924]

... I do think this will help with 2 problems WDW has, too many cars parking at the Parks and traffic on the roads.

I'm not so sure this will change the amount of cars at WDW. How many people here will honestly change how they travel to WDW? How many will stop going to WDW altogether? Probably very little.
I posted this before many pages back... this will not keep us from going to WDW or even driving our car there but it will cause us to alter how many days we would normally stay at WDW for every future trip.
The money has to come from some where so that's how my family is going to deal with it. Yes, we'll be losing at least one day, if not more, for each future trip in order to compensate, but if many others do the same, then WDW will lose much more.
Again, Disney hasn't priced us out... yet.

 

[GhostHost1000]

wow Disney is getting a TON of bad press over this move... oh well they can't be too surprised here

what seems even more dirty to me is the parking prices are tiered. Why is that exactly? ... other than those staying at deluxe resorts may be able to afford to pay more than those at a value.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Mears goes away? Interesting

Just a question... How would transport be impacted if Uber or lyft or some new driverless system were to cause mears to be acquired or fold in the longterm?

 

[matt9112]

Welcome news and smart business. Get people onto the busses and out from behind the wheel. Should cut down on traffic and congestion across property.

building wider roads with you know all that land works.

 

[SourcererMark79]

wow Disney is getting a TON of bad press over this move... oh well they can't be too surprised here

what seems even more dirty to me is the parking prices are tiered. Why is that exactly? ... other than those staying at deluxe resorts may be able to afford to pay more than those at a value.

Exactly. No other rational behind this move.

 

[matt9112]

You have to narrow the list down considerably to get at what I was talking about. I'm excluding locals. Obviously nobody is going to fly from Ft. Lauderdale. I'm also not especially concerned with DVC or other pass holders, since this doesn't apply to them. Of people 1) far enough to fly and 2) normal non-DVC, non-passholder guests, drivers are a minority.

pretty sure these fees apply to pass holders no? isn't only DVC excluded?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'd wager the largest volume of people staying at the poly/etc are not leaving WDW every day for meals, etc. Are people making grocery runs, etc.. yes. Are people visiting non-WDW... sure. But that kind of traffic isn't the ones leading to mass congestion... or the need to get people off the roads. Where I bet the number of people are using their cars is to avoid being on the buses/etc is far more.. and much more of an impact -- their travel patterns would be a lot more similar with other people on property, etc.

My point being is... simply putting the cash fees as 'just gravy' is disingenuous IMO. They could easily allow people to have cars for all the valid reasons people do and still constrain and even greatly reduce... their churn on property. They KNOW a large portion of their customer base as valid and unchanging reasons to have a car on property. They also know charging an extra $100-150 a trip is going to largely **** off their customer base.

So why would you put those things together unless the potential $$ outweighs the negative consequences and punishing LEGITIMATE customers who are doing exactly what you want... coming to WDW and staying all week and being loyal. When you said penalize 'everyone' - that's exactly who Disney is penalizing in this choice.

They could easily have moved to a exit pay system with validation options. A model that would allowed 'loyal' guests to have 1 exit for free.. so they never pay for a full length stay. You could add validation for people that actually buy a entree... you could have validation for those that ACTUALLY leave in under 3 hours. This is a proven model that is used WORLD over... Disney has to invent nothing.. and would have achieved the goal of discouraging in/out behavior and avoided penalizing ALL the use cases Disney wants to embrace.

Instead they goto a model that penalizes ALL resort guests... still gives F&B their free parking exception that is impossible to enforce reliably and cheaply.. and lines their pockets with guaranteed revenue week to week.

And we still argue $$ isn't the lead factor? I say baloney.

Remember.. you lead into this not arguing 'strengthing the captive lock on customers' - you said "Get people onto the busses and out from behind the wheel".

DME can do fine on its own for ensuring people are WDW-locked. Penalizing those who go the extra mile to have a car, or need a car.. disney is just giving them the finger.

I see where we're disconnecting. I'm not claiming that Disney's goal is reduced congestion and traffic. That was my own personal reason for liking this.

 

[jakeman]

what seems even more dirty to me is the parking prices are tiered. Why is that exactly? ... other than those staying at deluxe resorts may be able to afford to pay more than those at a value.

Well...perhaps they are taking the US Government approach and allowing those with more means to pay their "fair share" of the parking cost?

 

[John park hopper]

Disney may be making the false assumption that all people staying at the deluxe resorts are all wealthy. I wonder how many people save over the course of a year or more inorder to afford the onetime stay at a deluxe resort. Really I don't think Disney cares--- soak the rich soak the poor it all adds up to the same $$$$$$$

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

wow Disney is getting a TON of bad press over this move... oh well they can't be too surprised here

what seems even more dirty to me is the parking prices are tiered. Why is that exactly? ... other than those staying at deluxe resorts may be able to afford to pay more than those at a value.

There's really no excuse to tiering...because they can't justify it for any reason other than: we're gonna price it based on what we think is "means"

Now...the deluxe parking lots tend to be smaller...so i can a flimsy excuse there...but the moderates are "motor lodges"...none there.

The tiered pricing never really made any sense...but you have to say something and nobody does.

It's all that MAGIC

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Well...perhaps they are taking the US Government approach and allowing those with more means to pay their "fair share" of the parking cost?

Ohhh...you bad boy...

 

[larry47591]

I see where we're disconnecting. I'm not claiming that Disney's goal is reduced congestion and traffic. That was my own personal reason for liking this.

It does the opposite for us. We usually drive to the resort and don't drive again till we leave. We are already booked 4 times this year but next years 4 trips we will stay off property and drive to the parks instead. Also we will save so much staying off property that we are getting Universal passes as well. This year we are giving Disney over 12,000 dollars before food. Next year it will be about a 3rd of that. This was finally the push I needed to leave Disney property. So in that case I guess I like it.

 

[Mainahman]

It does the opposite for us. We usually drive to the resort and don't drive again till we leave. We are already booked 4 times this year but next years 4 trips we will stay off property and drive to the parks instead. Also we will save so much staying off property that we are getting Universal passes as well. This year we are giving Disney over 12,000 dollars before food. Next year it will be about a 3rd of that. This was finally the push I needed to leave Disney property. So in that case I guess I like it.

We do the same. Drive till we get there, then use the busses. The bad experience with overcrowded busses and long waits this past trip and then this up charge may have us looking at off site as well as the potential upgrade to a Deluxe or mod.

 

[LSLS]

So is nobody going to talk about the fact that parking at a deluxe costs MORE than parking at the parks? So if you go rent a big house and just pay your daily parking fee, you will be paying LESS in parking than if you stay at Old Key West.

 

[Horizons '83]

Whats that, a $5 difference?

 

[Rickster7]

Billions of dollars in tax cuts, but that isn’t enough! Gotta keep feeding the beast.

 

[21stamps]

Parking fees for those staying at the resorts IMO won't do anything to reduce the number of cas parking at the parks. I wouuld guess most people who drive and stay on site park their cars and use on site transportation to the parks not their cars.

I drove to 2 parks one day in November. Never again.
Went back to our room, parked the car, took an Uber to MK.

 

[21stamps]

So is nobody going to talk about the fact that parking at a deluxe costs MORE than parking at the parks? .

People have been talking about it. I think I mentioned at least 5x that I would like to see mandatory valet, OR, set pricing for all visitors.