Rant incoming....
I've read all 5 pages now. And good Lord, enough is enough, Bob Chapek. Quit it already with the nickel & diming of Disney park guests. Seriously. Planning and managing a trip to WDW has now become so complicated that it's like planning the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Just bear with me on this for a sec.
This past spring, we took my MIL to
Disneyland for a short 3-day visit. We stayed at the Park Vue Inn - a 5 min walk to the Esplanade (big open space in between the DCA & DL entrances). MIL had a handicapped accessible room on the 1st floor. And she arranged for an ECV to be waiting there at the hotel when she checked in. Like at any WDW resort (well, up until now), the ECV was basically waiting there when she checked in. It was great. SO convenient. My MIL has a hard enough time getting around now that there is literally no way that she could have joined us to go to dinner or anywhere that evening on arrival day if she didn't have that ECV or a wheelchair.
On another DL trip, a couple of days before our arrival at the DL hotel, I injured my foot doing yard work at home. I was able to hobble through the 1st day ok, but that evening, it was obvious that I was in a bad way. I was in a lot of pain and limping and hobbling around. The concierge downstairs at the DL hotel helped me rent an ECV from a local medical supply company. That totally saved the rest of my trip because the DL ECVs are not allowed to be taken over to the DL hotel. If this new WDW policy were to also apply to the DL on site resorts, then my trip would have been seriously screwed up. Yucko! No thank you!
So what if this was at WDW after this stupid policy goes into effect? What are our options? Well, not much really. Oh...but you can rent an ECV or wheelchair AT WDW...sure, but that's only AT each individual park and you can't take it on any of the transportation and you have to turn the ECV or wheelchair in at the park's main entrance at the end of your day. This won't work for a lot of disabled people.
Just think of the logistics of even getting from the check in desk at any of the WDW on site hotels to your room. In many cases, it can be a 1/4 mile walk. For somebody like my MIL, that's just not possible. So what's a guest to do?
I mean...think about it...what if your flight arrives late? Then you've missed your meet-the-wheelchair/ECV-delivery-person time, so you have to rearrange the meet time to pick up your disability transportation/mobility aid/device. What are you supposed to do in the meantime? I can just predict what Disney will do. An announcement about a new "service" where you can rent an ECV on site which you can take anywhere "on property" for the "low" price of $150/day. Well, forget it. In that case, I'll skip WDW altogether.
When you add that on top of all of the other complicated logistical decisions that you have to make in order to try to minimize having a lousy time waiting 1+ hour each time you want to go on a ride, well, it's just too much.
- increases in ticket prices
- on site hotel rates
- the insanity of making ADRs for TS restaurants 6 months ahead of time.
- don't get me started on having to reserve FPs. And heaven help you if somebody in your group actually wants to go on an attraction a 2nd time. Say your prayers because sometimes it'll take divine intervention to get another FP for that ride. Otherwise, it's a 90 min wait for you, kiddo.
- Magical Express & luggage delivery logistics - think of the hassles you might have had getting your bags delivered to your room in the middle of the night.
- You don't want to pay a small fortune for bottled water and you don't like drinking smelly pond water? Well, forget that now. Set aside time to meet the delivery person at the front reception/check in desk. And then figure out how you are going to haul your big delivery of groceries & bottled water to your room all by yourself. You know, since now you'll have to pay a fee for Bell Services to haul it for you the 1/4 mile to your room. Gee, a rental car would work out great for that...but you now get charged $25/day to park as a guest in that on site hotel. Might as well just forget all that and stay at a fancy resort off site and save yourself an arm and a leg instead.
- Check in process - sometimes it can take forever. God forbid there's a problem with your room because then you basically have to go down to the check in desk to get it sorted out. But oh wait! You can't do that, can you, because you need a wheelchair or ECV and yours hasn't been delivered yet!
- Memory Maker/Photo Pass - spend an arm and a leg for Photo Pass, but now they're replacing real live breathing PP photographers with automated cameras. FORGET IT! I'm not spending almost $200 for that! Forget it. I'll just use my iPhone for pictures.
- And now...the icing on the cake...no more accepting any deliveries for you at your on site hotel. You have to be there to pick it up in person. All of the transportation logistics alone and getting your bags delivered to your room can take forever and now add this on top of it. I mean, holy cow, now you've practically got to plan an extra day or 2 ahead of time just to unpack from what feels like a major cross country move to WDW before you can actually go DO anything.
We were seriously considering another WDW trip in a couple of years. But now? I'm not so sure. Planning and going on a WDW vacation now feels a lot more like work than it does an actual vacation.
Disney is starting to make it pretty clear that they don't really care much anymore about their theme park customer base.
