And The Beat Goes On!

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

I bet the folks who rent out houses near Disney are loving this idea ......

I already pay extra to stay onsite - I am not willing to pay even more to get the benefits (parking, emh, magic band etc) that I already get for paying that extra $$$. We normally go down 3 - 4 times a year - seriously thinking about making it twice a year and staying offsite

 

[Darcy03231]

Exactly. We hit that point this year. We've stayed onsite every summer since 2008. This year, the prices were just too much for me. I found a house offsite for less than it would have cost me to stay at a moderate. and since I now won't have the dining plan, we will be eating breakfast at the house most mornings, and carrying sandwiches with us for lunch, so Disney not only loses out on the hotel stay, but also on dining, because for the most part, we will be having just one meal a day, instead of 2, and sometimes 3.

Same here. We eat breakfast at the villa, snack in the park, and eat dinner off-site somewhere. Once I got over the initial hurdle of renting a car and staying off-site the rest has been easy. We've found we've had better meals and it's been a lot less expensive. WDW would have to come up with some substantial discounts to get us to go back to staying on-site.

The other thing I've found since staying off-site is we tend to venture out and try other things in the Orlando area. Quite honestly WDW has lost quite a bit of money from our family over the last few years. Since we're not in the "bubble" we're not spending all of our vacation dollars there. In fact, we didn't even get to WDW last year. We spent 10 days in the Orlando area and planned to hit the parks for a couple of days (we have some left-over days on non-expiring tickets), but we were having so much fun doing other things we just didn't make it over there.

 

[unwritten01]

Or maybe Mr. Iger hasn't been happy with the performance of his 401k lately.

As a Fidelity Contrafund holder I look forward to seeing Disney contribute to an increase in my 401k. See that will give me more money to then turnaround and give back to Disney to then increase my dividend to then give back to Disney..coincidentally around $15 minimum each year..

The biggest benefit we have is Free Dining (when we can get it) which helps reduce the overall cost per night - 6 kids... I am thinking this will be the last time onsite though to branch out to Universal, Legoland, etc and eat offsite / less onsite. The character meals we have done numerous times, and they can see them in the parks without the added cost. I will just pretend I am at a football game to deal with the cost of a soda and pretzel.

NOTE: at any given time my beautiful wife retains the right to completely over rule my decision.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

NOTE: at any given time my beautiful wife retains the right to completely over rule my decision.

As if it was ever your decision to start with, if she's anything like mine.

 

[unwritten01]

Sounds like they would be very good friends.. lol..

hope she doesn't read this..

I am scared..

 

[starjazz]

Bit of a rabbit trail here, but....

Can I just add that staying off site does NOT equate to needing a rental car? We just stayed at Windsor Hills for a week in Feb, and used shuttle only. Worked absolutely perfectly. No parking fees, totally reliable, pick up and drop off whenever we wanted, just a phone call away. Ran us $50 per day round trip. I gave our driver $60 per day with tip which for the flexibility, was SO worth it.

 

[JimmyV]

I already pay extra to stay onsite - I am not willing to pay even more to get the benefits (parking, emh, magic band etc) that I already get for paying that extra $$$.

This is exactly right. If one has to feel the Disney magic of staying at a hotel owned by Disney; and has to have the Magical Express option, and has to get Magic Bands included in the price of their resort; and has to be able to buy a Dining Plan; and has to have a 60 day window for FP+; and has to have a 180+10 window for ADRs, then fine. Those perks are available to anyone and the cost for all of that is the difference in price between a Disney hotel and a comparable non-Disney hotel, (as in the example I cited above...$589 for the Beach Club versus $216 for the Swan). But once all of those perks are accounted for in the $373 per night difference, (or $348 if you add in the resort fee charged by the Swan), what is the extra $15 for? It can't be for the perks of the resort, because those are already baked into the existing price difference. The $15 can only be seen as a price hike under a new name.

Back in the day, when resort fees were first implemented, it used to be that many services came at a cost. You paid for the use of the gym. You paid for local phone calls. You paid for internet. You paid for printing in the business center. And then hotels came up with the "resort fee" and built all of those things into the fee. Local calls became free, (or more accurately, "included"). The gym became free. The newspaper was free. Printing your boarding passes in the business center was free. Pool toys were free. The internet became free. While it was true that not every person used all of these services, at least there was some tangible benefit that could be visualized against the fee itself. But I just don't see what it is that Disney now charges for that is going to be folded into the new fee. And if the answer is: "There isn't anything", than this is nothing but a fraudulent way to hike prices by $15 per night without calling it a price increase. People can complain all they want about the Swan and Dolphin adding a $25 resort fee. But I can tell you unequivocally that when they did that, they wiped out fees in other areas that used to be charged. What fees is Disney now going to wipe out if and when it starts to charge its fee?

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

This bothers me, too. One reason I choose Disney is because it feels very "all inclusive." When I stay at a Disney resort, I don't pay extra for parking or ME or the monorail or the boats or the playgrounds or the resort pool or the campfires or the movies. To me, that feels classy. It feels as if I am on vacation. I know the cost of my vacation before I go.

Resorts that charge fees and charge for parking do not get my business. I don't stay at the Swan or Dolphin because of the additional fees. I do choose to stay onsite because Disney, at least right now, feels classy.

I hope they realize that with every little "fee" they add, some of the magic is lost for me.

Disney is different from their competitors right now. Unfortunately, things like adding fees and not letting guests bring food into the parks (another rumor) and all of the other cuts in the magic will make them go the way of Six Flags. Not a good path, IMO.

 

[jsmla]

The regular dining plan went up by 3%. If Disney raises a la carte pricing by 3% (which is likely...and at BoG, the increases were significantly higher than that), then the debate rages on becomes the pricing will be a wash. But as you note, if the a la carte pricing goes up by 7%, or 10%, then the DP actually becomes more attractive, if that is the way one likes to eat. It's hard to say, since Disney didn't create the DP to save people money. They created the DP to trap people into eating all their meals on site.

It used to be a decent deal for us back in the days when it included appetizers and tips. DH the uber carnivore tended to do very well. These days, not so much.

 

[Livvie]

Bit of a rabbit trail here, but....

Can I just add that staying off site does NOT equate to needing a rental car? We just stayed at Windsor Hills for a week in Feb, and used shuttle only. Worked absolutely perfectly. No parking fees, totally reliable, pick up and drop off whenever we wanted, just a phone call away. Ran us $50 per day round trip. I gave our driver $60 per day with tip which for the flexibility, was SO worth it.

You can rent a car and pay for parking for a week for about half the cost of what you spent.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

Bit of a rabbit trail here, but....

Can I just add that staying off site does NOT equate to needing a rental car? We just stayed at Windsor Hills for a week in Feb, and used shuttle only. Worked absolutely perfectly. No parking fees, totally reliable, pick up and drop off whenever we wanted, just a phone call away. Ran us $50 per day round trip. I gave our driver $60 per day with tip which for the flexibility, was SO worth it.

$420 for a seven day trip.

We're paying $150 for a rental car for the week, and $140 for 7 days parking = $290.

 

[MommytoaPrince]

I know that it would be pure speculation at this point but if (and that actually means "when") they decide to implement this fee, will it only pertain to new reservations or because they are not increasing the price they agreed upon at booking, can they just implement it and we will have to start paying it at check in?
Basically, the 12 nights that I already have booked and paid for, could they charge me the resort fee if it is implemented before my stay?

Hope that makes sense!

 

[prestoncaldwell]

I know that it would be pure speculation at this point but if (and that actually means "when") they decide to implement this fee, will it only pertain to new reservations or because they are not increasing the price they agreed upon at booking, can they just implement it and we will have to start paying it at check in?
Basically, the 12 nights that I already have booked and paid for, could they charge me the resort fee if it is implemented before my stay?

Hope that makes sense!

I have been through exactly this scenario in the hotel industry. We instituted the fee and waived it for guests that raised a fuss over it. Did this for several months until all reservations made before the change had been fulfilled.

 

[tarak]

This past weekend I purchased 3 day tickets to Universal for some future trip. What I noticed right away is the tickets were over $600 cheaper for us four. That's a big savings.

If you buy an annual pass, which isn't that pricey, you can apply APH as a room code. I threw in a random date in May and it took the price for a 2-queen room at Portofino Bay in the club level from $469 to $324. The cost of the AP I bought this past January was about $300, if I recall. Stay two nights and you've pretty much covered the cost of your pass. There weren't any non-club rooms for the date I checked, but I assume there's a decent discount for those, too.

 

[RedAngie]

Disney has BTDT pre-EMH--you paid $10 (E-Night) for the privilege of staying a couple of extra hours in MK. This was actually a worthwhile charge because there were no more than 5,000 people there and usually way less. After 9/11 the Disney bottom line was in trouble due to travel fears and the poor economy. It came up with EMH along with pretty healthy resort discounts to entice folks to stay on property and to visit WDW. I believe Disney would love to do away with that EMH perk OR find a way to profit from it.

I thought EMH was instituted BEFORE 9/11, then cut temporarily afterwards as a cost saving measure due to lower hotel occupancy. And of course Disney spun the elimination of EMH as being a perk that very few guests wanted or used. People wanted, according to Disney, a character or two hanging around the hotel lobbies. So Disney was just listening to their guests' requests.

So if I chose to pay the add on for EMH, does that mean Disney can't cut back the schedule unexpectedly right before my trip.

Wait.... don't bother. I already know the answer.

Sure they can. Because Disney knows you never really wanted those EMHs to begin with.

 

[mom2rtk]

Sure they can. Because Disney knows you never really wanted those EMHs to begin with.

Ah! So you're saying they cut them due to popular demand?

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I have been through exactly this scenario in the hotel industry. We instituted the fee and waived it for guests that raised a fuss over it. Did this for several months until all reservations made before the change had been fulfilled.

So in your situation, why did the hotel decide to implement the fee? I can't think of any other reason other than to hide the true cost. All of the things listed in the OP's screenshot we already get for no additional charge. Is there any reason other than furtiveness to add such a fee rather than just raising room rates?

 

[prestoncaldwell]

So in your situation, why did the hotel decide to implement the fee? I can't think of any other reason other than to hide the true cost. All of the things listed in the OP's screenshot we already get for no additional charge. Is there any reason other than furtiveness to add such a fee rather than just raising room rates?

To make more money while advertising competitive room rates.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

To make more money while advertising competitive room rates.

So... to take advantage of the fact that a lot of people don't pay attention and only see the competitive room rate rather than the actual cost they are paying for the room.

Sigh. I think a lot of the problems of the world would be nonexistant if people would actually pay attention.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I haven't read through this entire thread, so please forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but one of the reasons resorts implement resort fees is to offset commissions that need to be paid to third party vendors. Disney's standard commission to TA's is 10% on room-only reservations and packages. If a room is $400 a night, that boils down to $40 going to the TA. So, if Disney implements a "resort fee" which is separate from that room price, they have just offset the cost of that commission by $15. That's a pretty high percentage. When you look at mods and values, it will offset it even more. In essence, they are recouping a lot of what they have to pay out to TA's, Orbitz, etc. And, of course, in probably the majority of cases, people are booking directly through Disney so Disney doesn't have to pay any commission on those bookings. In essence, they are passing the cost of paying those commissions on to the consumer. This would be a HUGE moneymaker for WDW. It leaves a very bad taste in my mouth though. These were all supposed to be "magical extras" that came with your "magical" onsite stay. Yes, it would be better for optics to imbed these fees in the room price (which they've been doing for years anyway). But to raise room prices AND start charging a resort fee? Bad form WDW! Bad form.