I'd like to "put my foot down" and say I'm not going to take it anymore ! but I can't and most likely won't. The world is a "Mess" with everything impacting on each other and costs are going up and up. I realize companies have to remake their losses but when greed comes into play the consumer must pay. I see company profits continue to rise so when is ENOUGH ? why must it necessitate that the fans must pay without a glimmer of any type, ANY TYPE ! of a Thank You for your patronage ? We plan our next trip shortly after a 2 year hiatus due to COVID and from what I see all these new changes don't appear encouraging. To me it appears WDW has taken the fun out of VACATION and now it appears to be a obtuse scheduling marathon. We really don't truly know what to expect on this trip I am very apprehensive but we will see what we will see, it will be truly depressing if our immense LOVE for Disney World come to an unfortunate end. I hope not.
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What will it take to stop you from going to WDW?
- Thread starter Pepper's Ghost
- Start date
We broke even well over a decade ago, so there is no point in adding the initial cost to the room anymore. Someone that recently bought, sure, that would make sense, but once you break even with the initial investment, it's dues only for the next several decades. Yes, those go up, but historically, the regular room rates have gone up much faster.Conveniently not mentioning the cost of your DVC "investment".
Oh, and DVC is NOT an investment like some people seem to compare it to. It is simply a way to prepay for deluxe accommodations. Nothing else. Some keep mentioning the discounts but if that's why you bought in, then you're doing it wrong. We expected zero discounts when we bought ours.
I agree completely. I mention this in first post. To be so arrogant as to quote myself...
This bolded bullet is where I agree with your sentiment. Unfortunately, the poll only allowed 10 max choices. I had to combine nickle and diming with overpricing because I wanted to get as many completely different reasons in as I could, and of course "other". You can choose not to vote due to your distaste for the way I squished these two together, but I think it's more appropriate if you simply vote for it.
I agree tho. Nickle and diming is a deceptive way to cheat people out of their money, while overpricing is simply saying if you can't afford X amount, we're not interested in your patronage. Absolutely different points which takes me to a point a made a few posts ago. Again, arrogantly quoting myself to illustrate the crappiness of nickle and diming....
"In all seriousness, would anyone be shocked if Disney installed EZPass at the beginning of each Land and as you pass through into the new Land, they collect a $3.50 toll for each magic band that passes through??? Sounds ridiculous right? Probably not that far off tho. I'm not sure they realize it, but that's how effing ridiculous some of their nickle and diming has gotten."
Maybe you could list some of the nickel and diming charges as that might help people understand a bit more.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
Completely agree, I’d rather pay $170 for the ticket upfront (with “free” FP) rather than pay $150 for the ticket plus another $20 for G+.
In the end it’s the same price for the same product but one feels like nickel and dining and the other doesn’t.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
I recently found a spreadsheet on my computer from when I first looked at DVC in 2014 and Wilderness lodge would have been around $11k for 100 points, now it’s twice that.
Still kicking myself for not buying, it seemed like so much money then but it hindsight it would have paid for itself already.
We also wish we would've bought in earlier.
I have absolutely zero basis for what I'm about to say
...I don't think these crowds (like now) are here to stay. I truly think people are taking these trips now to make up for cancelled trips and to get in trips while Covid is "gone" for now.
I think next year will be back to "normal" crowds.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
You must have missed the quotation marks around investment.
Actually, I guess I could be wrong about nickle and diming.... unless you need to park a rental car at a resort since they got rid of Disney's Magical Express to cut costs and magicalness I suppose. Or trying to get the "full experience" with the evil Genie+ system to keep up with everyone else. Or maybe it's paying extra per person to get a "FP" to an E-ticket ride to not wait in line for 3 hrs.
Not being condescending with this next sentence, but just explaining my point. Nickle and diming is the attempt to hide the true total cost of something by charging bits and pieces along the way... ala carte if you will. Now, you might say well that's great to not have to pay for things if you don't use it, but these things all used to be included in your ticket price, hotel costs, etc. So now they're cutting services of which the cost was already included, and then charging you extra for other stuff. Charging for parking? That's insult to injury. Why charge for parking that's been there for years, or decades even? It's almost like they don't want you staying on property. Think it's a coincidence that they coincide the charging for parking with the elimination of Disney's Magical Express? They don't want to pay to get you to the parks anymore, but they also don't want you to have a ride while you're on property. That means, find your own way here, and then be stuck here unless you want to pay more. Or, we'll recoup some of that money you would've paid on property for your meals with parking charges which cost them nothing and they don't even have to give you food. So, want to freely leave property? Pay us some money for that privilege.
I feel the same way when states add tolls to what used to be freeways. Bought and paid for, but now we're just going to take some coin out of your pocket for the convenience of using them which used to be free. If they build a new road and add tolls to it, I can understand that because they're trying to recoup some of the cost if not many times over, and it's a new convenience you can choose to use or not. Start charging for something that was previously already included in the cost, and you're really just sticking it to people. And the worse part is the nickle and diming so you don't realize how much it all really adds up to.
E-ticket FP now... let's say $20 for quick entry on FoP or Rise. That's not that terrible, right? Multiply that by everyone in your party, let's say 4, and suppose you do that once a day for different rides in different parks over the span of a week. Just assuming that's the average for a family, that's an additional $560 for the trip. That's $560 for something that was free a couple months ago per family. So then, just don't pay for that, right? Okay fine. You just made those people have a worse experience waiting in line for an extra 15 hrs or more each for their trip when again, it was free a few months ago.
If they need the $$s, just increase the price to $250 per day per person if that's your goal. Don't hide the cost by charging bits at a time so that a family gets home and realizes they spent $1,000 more on their Disney trip than they had planned because they ate the elephant one bite at a time instead of swallowing the whole thing and knowing what they were getting into.
Another argument I suppose is to be better at managing your money and realize what you're getting yourself into. I have no truck with that argument and think everyone should do that. I just don't think Walt would be proud to deceive those who hadn't thought that far ahead and end up struggling to pay the credit card bill afterwards. Btw, this isn't me. I have an analytical mind and am lucky enough to afford the cost increases. I just don't like the deceptive practice of hiding the costs with little numbers like $20 when if you think it through you realize it's really $560. Just raise the cost of a ticket and be honest that's what you're doing. I have no problem if Disney had done that instead. Others would be unhappy with the massive price increases, but at least you know what they're doing.
That's an excellent lead in!! I love it. You could be right. That guess is as good as any guess I suppose. I think people of lesser means will get bit by the price increases one time, and the alleged lesser experience and might not be back quite as soon.I have absolutely zero basis for what I'm about to say
I don't think these crowds (like now) are here to stay. I truly think people are taking these trips now to make up for cancelled trips and to get in trips while Covid is "gone" for now.
I think less year will be back to "normal" crowds.
This actually might be a blessing for those who crave smaller crowds. In a year's time, we might be back to the smaller crowds of 20 and 25 years ago.
LOL. You said in one sentence what took me an essay.
So out of all that you listed a few things. The parking fee that some have to pay does suck and is really inexcusable. Just raise the rack rate. I say some of course, because those of us that are DVC don't have to pay the parking fee, so doesn't affect us.
I completely agree that stopping Magical Express was also a sucky move. We did use it a few times, and liked the service. They really have no good reason for ending the service either.
As far as Genie+ goes, the system has been live long enough for people's reviews along with tips and tricks for it. If someone goes to Disney without doing any research, then that is on them. Do I like or want Genie+. Heck NO. We loved FP+ as it fit the way we vacation. Will we pay for Genie+? Not during our upcoming vacation, as we want to see how it goes if you don't buy in. That will determine what we might do on our future trips.
So price increases. Yes, Disney has raised prices on everything, but so has everyone else. COVID is partially responsible, and other factors make getting the goods to WDW a lot more expensive. They are not just going to eat the extra cost, so we pay more, just like we're paying a lot more at the pump and at the grocery store.
What restaurant is that at?
La Hacienda in Epcot.
Sorry, the response wasn't totally directed at you, but I see people refer to it that way all the time and I'm just trying to make them understand what it really is.
Tuvalu
Premium Member
Chips and salsa have never been free at La Hacienda.
However they were at San Angel Inn ~ any update on that?
We've never eaten there (it's on our list), so we didn't know about that. So they gave you chips, salsa, and queso for free in the past?
They were free at La Hacienda for a few years or else whatever server we had really liked us.
They weren't free after this last trip.