Disney Resorts to start charging parking fees....

[DISNEY1975]

Considering how much Disney is now saving because of the tax cut, how can this be justified?

Best post of the day!

 

[DCpoohfan]

Best post of the day!

Seriously! If I got a $2 billion tax break I think I would take it easy on price increases. But this is probably why I’m not a billionaire.

 

[Dean1953]

I have enough DVC points to stay my first and possibly second night at a DVC resort. Then, I move into a timeshare for the week(or weeks occasionally). If I stay more than a week, I drive. I have an AP partially for the free parking at the parks. If they ever get rid of that, no more AP for me.
This new charge may not affect Disney now but will affect them when the U.S. Hits the next downturn.

 

[lemonjello]

Let us not forget that they are opening a club 33 in every park. The price of membership is outrageous, but you know there will be people clamoring for membership. This is also a huge money grab for Disney. I am very upset about this parking business, and will probably stay off site from now on.

 

[disneydreamer781]

So first they give some non Disney hotels 60 day FP+. Now this. Why are they trying to drive guests to stay off site?

Didn't Black Panther already surpass $1 billion in sales? Now they just look greedy.

Just wait, because here it comes...$25 for your first 3 FP+, $5 for each one thereafter. $30 for Magical Express, $10 if they collect your luggage. Charge for hydro use. Charge for water use. No more free wi-fi. Get rid of the free toiletries, coffee, tea, plates and cups. No more free ice. Build a credit card machine into the wall safe so you have to pay to use it. I could go on and on. They should hire me as I can make them millions with my great ideas!

Seriously though, although this change doesn't affect me, I'm still angry about it. It's a sign of what's to come.

I don't think how much money they make from Black Panther has anything to do with Parks and Resorts. Some of this is to get people to stay on property and lack of parking at some resorts like for instance, CRT & BWV. Also, the new Minnie Van is starting to make sense now. It's actually cheaper than parking at my deluxe resort of choice next trip.

 

[DISNEY1975]

"Everyone else does it"? I've stayed at plenty of hotels and don't pay for parking. Yes, maybe in NY or Boston where you have to use a garage but that is not the case in WDW.

I usually stay at on opffsite property my first night or 2 in Florida as I dont want to pay the $600/night if I arrive at 4pm or if I want to visit another non Disney attraction. Most do charge for the parking, BUT...their rooms are a bit larger and their prices are usually in the $100 range per night. Paying an extra $10 - $15 for parking is not a big deal.

Paying $600 to be close to the theme parks, on the monorail loop, and renting a car because said monorail is rarely working and the free transportation wastes valuable time on my vacation, all to struggle to find parking at the end of the day is more than enough. They should pay ME $24 a day for my aggravation.

 

[aoconnor]

This is such a poor move on their part. How many people even drive - maybe 30-40%? So take the $24 parking fee x 35% and raise deluxe room rates by $8.40 instead. No one would probably have even noticed that, but now they are leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth with yet another upcharge.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Disabled valet parking was free at the resorts. How will this work with the new charges? (of course after you register the car with the required documents)

Valet parking use to be free for resort guests who were staying at the resort. A perk that bit the dust years ago.

 

[Skippyboo]

I booked a May 4 one night stay at the Orlando Drury Inn for $137 at the end of my Pop 6 night stay. No resort fee, no parking charge, free evening kickback with 3 alcoholic drinks so that’s dinner, free breakfast and free soda and popcorn for a large King room.

Put in a DVC Rental availibity request for end of September. May just stay at Drury instead of Disney if DVC rental isn’t available

 

[disneydreamer781]

Let us not forget that they are opening a club 33 in every park. The price of membership is outrageous, but you know there will be people clamoring for membership. This is also a huge money grab for Disney. I am very upset about this parking business, and will probably stay off site from now on.

That doesn't bother me too much. It's not like I have to join and if I don't I can still enjoy the parks but when I'm staying at a Disney resort and need to park I have no other choice but to pay.

 

[Airb330]

This is such a poor move on their part. How many people even drive - maybe 30-40%? So take the $24 parking fee x 35% and raise deluxe room rates by $8.40 instead. No one would probably have even noticed that, but now they are leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth with yet another upcharge.

Don’t worry they’re doing that too. The rates at the monorail resorts are borderline crazy. They aren’t the four seasons, awesome location or not.

I agree with everyone that the rates they picked are quite high. If you’re going to introduce a relative BS fee, you’d think they’d make it a palatable $10 per night or something. It’s revenue that didn’t have any or much cost associated with it.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Does anyone have the email to complain? Because I want to complain...

In addition to the general email address, elliott.org provides executive-specific ones:
http://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/disney-world/
http://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/walt-disney-company/

3) A few comments about why the fees are different at Values, Moderates and Deluxes, when a parking space is a parking space. I suppose it's a progressive approach - while the Values are paying less in actual dollars, they are paying a higher percentage of fees relative to their stay. Assuming an average nightly rate for each tier (Value - $125, Moderate - $250, Deluxe - $400), the parking fee at the Values adds about 10% per night to the cost, versus about a 6-7% increase for the Moderates and Deluxes. Even though the Values have a lower fee, you could argue they are impacted more.

Next step: Disney raises the Value rates to lessen the impact.

 

[Lewdannie]

How much does it cost per day to park at MCO? I wonder if many folk driving to Orlando will park there, or nearby and just catch DME.

 

[Disneyliscious]

FUN FACT:

There are 15,248 hotel rooms on Disney Property (does not include campsites; source wdwmagic). There is at least 1 parking space for each room. If you consider HALF capacity at each hotel that would be 7624. If you do the AVERAGE cost of parking at $19, thats $144,856 PER DAY for parking fees. In a years time, that's a $52,872,440 revenue increase per year.

 

[lemonjello]

That doesn't bother me too much. It's not like I have to join and if I don't I can still enjoy the parks but when I'm staying at a Disney resort and need to park I have no other choice but to pay.

I know no one is going to make you join club 33, I am just pointing out that it is another way for that Disney is going to make a lot of money. I don’t understand why they had to add resort parking fees.

 

[Tksolomom]

Didn't read the whole thread so maybe these issues have need addressed. We go in Oct but booked last Nov., will we be charged?

We're at Board Walk on rented DVC points, will we be charged?

One in our party has a Pa Disabled Parking tag, will this be honored?

Bill From PA

1. If you booked before March 21, you will not be charged.
2. I am not sure, it says members, you may be if you are renting points. I don’t know if you have to show your card or not.
3. No, people with handicapped passes are not charged.

 

[ShadeDK]

All of the strange terms of this give up the lie: the fees are not because parking is at a premium at WDW, but just because they can charge the fees. Once that's out of the way - rationality and fairness are out the door and they charge whatever they want wherever they want to whomever they want. If parking was at a premium, all guests (resort or non-resort) would be paying, and you'd see similar prices charged across property. There's no justifying it because there's no justification behind it.

As for the price disparity among tiers, that's a tough one. If the Values were paying $24 a night like the Deluxes, that translates into about a 15 -20% increase per night in costs to stay there. Even at $13, that's about an 8-13% increase per night at typical Value prices (by comparison, the Deluxes will see about a 3-7% increase per night as a result of this). Not arguing in favor of any of this, but I'd also note that the Deluxes typically have about 1/2 to 2/3 of the rooms as Values - not sure how that translates to parking (couldn't find those figures) but if it's comparable then it looks like the pricing means each resort could generate about the same amount of fees for parking based on rooms.

One final thought: you might've noticed that the fees result in around a 10% increase per night at the Values. Since the Values typically only see about 10-15% as part of promotional discount rates, well - congratulations, Value guests, the discount for your next magical stay just went to pay for parking.

 

[disneydreamer781]

I know no one is going to make you join club 33, I am just pointing out that it is another way for that Disney is going to make a lot of money. I don’t understand why they had to add resort parking fees.

I'm not surprised but yeah I don't understand it either for registered guests. It's one thing to charge day guests, even though that stinks, I can better understand it because of lack of parking particularly during that time.

 

[akl432]

I haven't seen a concrete answer for this question: If you stay offsite and only want to visit a resort for a few hours to look around and eat in the quick service food court, will there be a parking fee to do that?

 

[disneydreamer781]

I haven't seen a concrete answer for this question: If you stay offsite and only want to visit a resort for a few hours to look around and eat in the quick service food court, will there be a parking fee to do that?

That's a good question. I have read day guests don't have to but I'm not sure if they have to be onsite guests.