Disney Resorts will start charging for parking?

[BoardwalkFamily]

Wow. I am in total shock over this one, now that they are "leveling the playing field" if you will with off-site hotels and Universal, for those guests with cars, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[dhardawa]

Here is my thought. They don’t want you there with a car. With a car, you can run to the grocery store, go to dinner totally off property, go to the beach for a day easily, visit Sea World, etc. In other words, you can spend your money elsewhere. They want you trapped at Disney with no way to leave where you’re forced visit only their parks, eat only from their extremely overpriced restaurants, and buy their souvenirs without extensive planning on your part to get off the property using something like Uber that will probably cost more in the end.

 

[ajwolfe]

Here is my thought. They don’t want you there with a car. With a car, you can run to the grocery store, go to dinner totally off property, go to the beach for a day easily, visit Sea World, etc. In other words, you can spend your money elsewhere. They want you trapped at Disney with no way to leave where you’re forced visit only their parks, eat only from their extremely overpriced restaurants, and buy their souvenirs without extensive planning on your part to get off the property using something like Uber that will probably cost more in the end.

I'm not saying I don't agree with this but I guarantee there are plenty of folks like us that drive and still never leave the bubble once we enter it.

 

[OddDisneyFan]

All you folks who are trying to defend Disney by saying that they were leaving money on the table or that they’re trying to keep you onsite are really missing the point. The “free” resort parking is a perk to draw people to a Disney resort property versus a non-Disney property. If folks are going to pay either way, suddenly staying at a Disney Springs hotel or other close offsite option becomes more competitive. I suspect that few dollars were lost to off-site dining by folks with cars--that sounds like a good idea, but when you spend all day at the parks like we do, you’re eating onsite anyway. The times when we leave the parks early, the last thing we want to do is jump in the car and fight the local traffic to eat offsite.

What this tells me is that Disney isn’t hurting for occupancy at their resort properties, and enough people have cars there that the additional revenue is well worth the cost in process and public relations. In reality, everyone has been paying for parking in the room rate, but the cost of parking space to Disney is nothing. This is just a way for them to gouge without pricing their rooms to a wildly uncompetitive point.

To the poster who mentioned that staying at Swan or Dolphin with the additional fees prices up about the same as a Disney moderate, I’d really like to know the secret to those rates. We normally stay at POR in a standard room, and I’ve never been able to get Swan/Dolphin pricing anywhere close to the same rate.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

It's only a matter of time. Disney has slowly and steadily been losing the Magic for our family. The keep chipping away...

My guess is they will not only charge a resort fee, but you will also be charged for Magical Express and FP in the next few years.

They have already been testing paid FP at club level.

 

[Judique]

IMO this is a stupid move on Disney part. They're going to kill the goose who laid golden eggs. With the amount of DVC inventory, I suspect most WDW visitors are repeated guests who doesn't do the park every single day. Those who drove probably want to do stuff outside. Those who flown most likely already don't rent a car. $19/night in moderate hotel is a lot (they have the space). On top of the park fee, the dining and everything else. Now they're going to drive people offsite, Uber in, or park elsewhere. People are going to cut short their 10+ day trip.

DVC members still won't be paying for parking.

 

[OddDisneyFan]

Here is my thought. They don’t want you there with a car. With a car, you can run to the grocery store, go to dinner totally off property, go to the beach for a day easily, visit Sea World, etc. In other words, you can spend your money elsewhere. They want you trapped at Disney with no way to leave where you’re forced visit only their parks, eat only from their extremely overpriced restaurants, and buy their souvenirs without extensive planning on your part to get off the property using something like Uber that will probably cost more in the end.

If you have a car, you could simply stay offsite and Disney would lose the hotel revenue. I suspect that they would much rather you stay onsite and take day trips offsite than to stay offsite. If you've never rented a car from the on-site Car Care Center, it's easy and convenient. I believe that the Swan/Dolphin, though non-Disney hotels, also have car rentals. If folks want to go offsite, there's really nothing that Disney can do to prevent it--if it becomes uncompetitive to stay onsite, folks will simply stay offsite to do what they want.

This year we considered an offsite townhouse rental, but opted instead to pay an extra $600 for the week to stay onsite at a Moderate. That's pretty close to the point for us where staying onsite isn't worth the convenience. A couple hundred more and it would have been about double the price for less than 1/4 the room versus staying offsite.

With Disney's recent organizational changes (Parks and Resorts being joined with consumer/retail) I suspect that they're going to play every card they can. They don't really care if it reduces repeat visits because the increase in revenue from new revenue streams is likely predicted to be greater than the lost revenue from folks who reduce their repeat visits (or opt to stay offsite). No doubt a team of beancounters has this all modeled well. Whether the model turns out to be accurate, only time will tell.

 

[puck]

This is mainly about legalized TAX EVASION. In Florida hotel rooms are taxed 6% extra on top of the regular sales tax of the county. So when a hotel charges you $30 for a “service package” and $20 for parking in an area that doesn’t have limited parking like WDW what they are doing is saving 6% on that $50 instead of it being included in the price of the hotel room and therefore taxed at the higher rate. Multiply that by the tens of millions of hotel rooms rented out every year in Florida. I think I’ll be contacting my State Representative about this. The State spends BIG BUCKS paying for our extensive roads, interstates and other amenities for tourists We need the tax money brought in to pay for the infrastructure needed for tourism.

 

[kymom99]

This is mainly about legalized TAX EVASION. In Florida hotel rooms are taxed 6% extra on top of the regular sales tax of the county. So when a hotel charges you $30 for a “service package” and $20 for parking in an area that doesn’t have limited parking like WDW what they are doing is saving 6% on that $50 instead of it being included in the price of the hotel room and therefore taxed at the higher rate. Multiply that by the tens of millions of hotel rooms rented out every year in Florida. I think I’ll be contacting my State Representative about this. The State spends BIG BUCKS paying for our extensive roads, interstates and other amenities for tourists We need the tax money brought in to pay for the infrastructure needed for tourism.

That's an interesting point although I doubt it would be considered illegal.

 

[OddDisneyFan]

This is mainly about legalized TAX EVASION. In Florida hotel rooms are taxed 6% extra on top of the regular sales tax of the county. So when a hotel charges you $30 for a “service package” and $20 for parking in an area that doesn’t have limited parking like WDW what they are doing is saving 6% on that $50 instead of it being included in the price of the hotel room and therefore taxed at the higher rate. Multiply that by the tens of millions of hotel rooms rented out every year in Florida. I think I’ll be contacting my State Representative about this. The State spends BIG BUCKS paying for our extensive roads, interstates and other amenities for tourists We need the tax money brought in to pay for the infrastructure needed for tourism.

Disney doesn’t care about the tax, they just pass it on to the customer.

When millions of tourists come to Florida, they’re paying all kinds of taxes. Sales taxes, hotel taxes, tolls, gas taxes, etc., not to mention injecting millions into the pockets of Floridians who also pay taxes. Florida, and Floridians, would be far worse off if Disney alone were not there, not to mention all of the ancillary development that Disney’s presence has created. The state should pay BIG BUCKS to maintain public infrastructure for tourists because Floridians derive BIG BENEFITS from it.

 

[puck]

Disney doesn’t care about the tax, they just pass it on to the customer.

When millions of tourists come to Florida, they’re paying all kinds of taxes. Sales taxes, hotel taxes, tolls, gas taxes, etc., not to mention injecting millions into the pockets of Floridians who also pay taxes. Florida, and Floridians, would be far worse off if Disney alone were not there, not to mention all of the ancillary development that Disney’s presence has created. The state should pay BIG BUCKS to maintain public infrastructure for tourists because Floridians derive BIG BENEFITS from it.

All businesses look for ways to avoid paying taxes so that they can charge less and undercut their competition or make more profit. So yes, if they MUST pay taxes they pass them on to the consumer. That’s economics 101. If they can avoid paying taxes they will. That is why they spend millions every year on accountants, to save billions.

Anyone in the hotel industry will tell you the invention of the “service fees” was to avoid raising room rates and therefore avoid the additional occupancy taxes. (Also because of the way business travel is charged but that is a separate rant) Their bean counters got so excited over their savings that they had the brilliant idea of charging for parking in areas that never had before since parking was not an issue as it is in big cities.

While Disney charging for parking is a personal irritation I can accept that it is an OPTIONAL fee and so shouldn’t necessarily be included in the room rate and taxed at that rate. Since “resort service fees” are NOT optional they should NOT be exempt from the occupancy tax. That is blatant tax evasion and should be illegal. Hotels are charging customers twice for the same service and only paying taxes on part of that service. If I don’t use the gym or pool I shouldn’t have to pay an EXTRA “resort fee”. That should be an optional charge for only those using those facilities or it should be included in the room rate. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Well they currently are, lol. The bureaucrats that deal with the hotels are obviously playing footsie with them to the detriment of Florida residents. My taxes keep going up, my services keep going down. The only reason to put up with the tens of millions of tourists is so they pay for our state’s costs. When they don’t my costs go up and I still have to deal with obnoxious tourists over crowding and trashing all the beaches and state parks.

And yes I realize there would be few people in Central Florida without Disney. So what? It would still be farm land, we wouldn’t need eight lane highways in the middle of the state, and the tourists would still pay to come to our beaches to escape their snow. We would need less infrastructure since most people would fly into Miami to hit the beach and north and central Florida would still be filled with sleepy little towns instead of sprawling suburbs of angry northerners telling everyone how they do everything better in Chicago and New Jersey. This would not hurt my feelings.

 

[OddDisneyFan]

I’m not going to continue a tax debate, but [solvent] businesses pay taxes from revenues they generate from customers. As long as all businesses are subjected to the same tax liability (such as occupancy taxes), the competitive playing field is level in that regard. When businesses can’t avoid higher taxes, they simply hire fewer people and provide fewer services to their customers. Any responsible company or individual works to pay as little tax as legally possible.

With respect to the additional fees, parking most certainly is NOT optional if you choose to (or must) drive a car. We used to fly, but that became prohibitively expensive, so now we spend 2 days in the car (each way) to drive. The parking fee covers an amenity (parking) just as the resort fees cover amenities. I do agree that the amenity fee at places like Swan and Dolphin should be optional, but they would likely make a case that most people would opt to use some or all of the amenities and pay the fee anyway.

With respect to tourism, I’m not sure what to say to someone who obviously doesn’t understand what a massively positive impact Disney’s decision to pitch a tent in central Florida has been for the state and its residents. It’s likely true that without Disney, Florida would have a lot more farmland. It would also have significantly less tourism, entrepreneurs, good jobs, modern conveniences, population, and wealth. For anyone who prefers that arrangement, there are many, many other places that can provide it—and I reckon would love to trade it for what Floridians have with the theme parks, warts and all. The tourists pay for themselves many times over.

 

[tzolkin]

To the poster who mentioned that staying at Swan or Dolphin with the additional fees prices up about the same as a Disney moderate, I’d really like to know the secret to those rates. We normally stay at POR in a standard room, and I’ve never been able to get Swan/Dolphin pricing anywhere close to the same rate.

It’s totally dependent on the dates and what conventions they have going on. Sometimes the rates are like $300 per night so that would be significantly more than a moderate. But, I just clicked a random week in August (20th-26th) and the rate for a standard room at the Dolphin is $156. The rate for a standard room that week at POR is $232-259 (weekday/weekend prices).

The resort fee ($28) and parking ($20) brings the Dolphin price up to $208. That’s less than rack rate at POR. Of course, you may be able to get a discount at POR that would make it cheaper. 20% off would be about $195. But I would still consider a $13 difference to be “about the same price” (And I would find the Dolphin to be a better deal for the extra few dollars due to its location)

We have also received lower pricing with the nurse discount. I believe our rate was $144 last time we stayed at the Dolphin.

 

[OddDisneyFan]

It’s totally dependent on the dates and what conventions they have going on. Sometimes the rates are like $300 per night so that would be significantly more than a moderate. But, I just clicked a random week in August (20th-26th) and the rate for a standard room at the Dolphin is $156. The rate for a standard room that week at POR is $232-259 (weekday/weekend prices).

This is good to know. We have been going to Disney for several years, mostly in the spring or fall, and I don’t recall seeing an “all in” price for Swan & Dolphin anywhere close to $200/night—for us it always seems to be $300+. We started going to POR when the rates were around $160/night, but those days may be gone. Earlier this month we paid rack rate at POR for a garden view (cheapest available when we booked) which worked out to $280/night with tax. Swan/Dolphin was almost $100/night more from what I recall. We have a slight preference for Epcot over the other parks, so if we could hit a good deal at Swan/Dolphin that might be better for us.

I do try to avoid convention center hotels because I’m forced to attend conventions for work and generally hate them; I don’t want to be on vacation with a bunch of people at work. There may be less risk at times when offered rates are lower, though.

One of the pluses for us with Disney and Walt Disney Travel Company has always been the flexibility on moves/cancellations, though in all the years we’ve gone we have never rescheduled nor canceled. Anyone know the policy for Swan/Dolphin, assuming a direct booking?

 

[tzolkin]

This is good to know. We have been going to Disney for several years, mostly in the spring or fall, and I don’t recall seeing an “all in” price for Swan & Dolphin anywhere close to $200/night—for us it always seems to be $300+.

Another tip is to keep adjusting the dates. Sometimes it’s just one or two of your dates that are crazy expensive and that pushes up the average price per night for your stay. (Ex. If the first 4 nights are $160 rate, but the 5th is $450 that will increase the average to $220/night. Making your 5night trip start a day earlier may keep the price at $160 by avoiding that one expensive night. Or maybe one of your dates there’s only a premium room available; the system will put you in a premium room for the whole trip.)

They are also sometimes limited if there are events going on (like there might only be a 4 or 5 day stay available between two sold out days). We have done split stays if there are specific dates that we want to go but are unavailable. (Like one night at Caribbean Beach before moving to the Dolphin, or a few days at the end of the trip at Yacht Club with a major discount, etc.)

 

[OddDisneyFan]

Another tip is to keep adjusting the dates. Sometimes it’s just one or two of your dates that are crazy expensive and that pushes up the average price per night for your stay. (Ex. If the first 4 nights are $160 rate, but the 5th is $450 that will increase the average to $220/night. Making your 5night trip start a day earlier may keep the price at $160 by avoiding that one expensive night. Or maybe one of your dates there’s only a premium room available; the system will put you in a premium room for the whole trip.)

That actually is a good tip, and I'm glad that you mentioned it. Also, I've had experiences traveling other places where the nightly rate has changed based upon *how* the booking was done. For example, I've occasionally received lower nightly rates by using multiple bookings (same room type, same hotel, same dates) versus a single booking which spans multiple days. Not sure why that was, but always figured it was some algorithm at work in the booking process.

 

[PurplePeopleMover]

I don't have a problem with them charging for parking since just about everywhere we stay already does it, i just wish they'd also charge day visitors.

 

[OddDisneyFan]

I don't have a problem with them charging for parking since just about everywhere we stay already does it, i just wish they'd also charge day visitors.

At first I’d agree, but this isn’t in Disney’s best interest. Day visitors who are parking to spend money at the shops or restaurants will just skip it if it costs money just to browse. We sometimes do this even if we stay offsite, and I can promise you we wouldn’t bother if there was a fee to park.

 

[PurplePeopleMover]

At first I’d agree, but this isn’t in Disney’s best interest. Day visitors who are parking to spend money at the shops or restaurants will just skip it if it costs money just to browse. We sometimes do this even if we stay offsite, and I can promise you we wouldn’t bother if there was a fee to park.

True.

 

[Marionnette]

At first I’d agree, but this isn’t in Disney’s best interest. Day visitors who are parking to spend money at the shops or restaurants will just skip it if it costs money just to browse. We sometimes do this even if we stay offsite, and I can promise you we wouldn’t bother if there was a fee to park.

If you're just "browsing", you're not spending. It's possible to validate for parking for someone who has spent a minimum amount in the shops. Or provide a voucher, equal to the parking fee, which is only valid for use at the specific resort's shops and restaurants on that day and only for 3-4 hours following the time that the vehicle is parked.

I find the new parking fees and non-fees patently unfair to the guest who is staying at the resort (and spending a lot more than the day guest). BWV is my home resort and the parking situation is so horrible that the DVC website has had a warning about limited parking availability at the Boardwalk for several years now. If they're going to start charging overnight guests for parking, then they had better guarantee those guests that there will be spaces available whenever they return from the parks. And a good way to ensure that would be to implement a system that penalizes the parking scofflaws that use the YC/BC/BCV and BWI/BWV lots as their free parking for EPCOT and HS.