Disney World eliminates outside vendor drop off services

[Spridell]

And what is the policy going to be regarding medical devices?

Oxygen, dialysis equipment, etc.....

I am traveling in October and December and have a "lift chair"being delivered to my room for both trips.

A "lift chair" is not something you can meet them at the corner and take it into your room yourself.

This opens up many cans of worms for sure.

 

[mshanson3121]

I don't think groceries are affected. View attachment 439437

Well that would be good. It's so confusing where the original post says "food services"

That is hard to bring the groceries to your unit. Do you cook a lot? I found the cooking to be more of a pain when we rented a DVC unit!

No cooking (we stay in a value room), but we ordered all breakfast, lunch and snack items, plus our daughter's meds. So: bagels, cereal, milk, fruit, cheese, crackers, chips, garnola bars, nuts, juice, fixings for PB&J sandwiches etc... Making as much food as we can is just one of the things we have to do in order to be able to go to Disney. We can't afford to eat out for all meals.

 

[toocherie]

I just spoke with Buena Vista who said their understanding that grocery delivery WAS included in the new policy--so I think we need to wait and see when the "official" Disney policy is released. He said no one has seen an official directive from Disney and this decision was dropped on them two days ago verbally.

 

[Rschall]

No cooking (we stay in a value room), but we ordered all breakfast, lunch and snack items, plus our daughter's meds. So: bagels, cereal, milk, fruit, cheese, crackers, chips, garnola bars, nuts, juice, fixings for PB&J sandwiches etc... Making as much food as we can is just one of the things we have to do in order to be able to go to Disney. We can't afford to eat out for all meals.

That is a good idea! Next time I will just do that.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Just because groceries aren’t included right now doesn’t mean they aren’t coming. Won’t surprise me if that announcement comes soon.

 

[toocherie]

I think that is a big concern area.

Well, not to cross promote too much, but the Dreams Unlimited Podcast just posted an episode about mobility device and about buying your own and how to travel with it and how going through the airports and stuff is

Spoiler: it is apparently very easy and a good solid scoter seemed like a reasonable price (would pay for itself in like 4-5 rentals) ... might be an option

Yes--I just bought a GoGo Sport scooter--it was approx $1250 with tax--my scooter rentals for a week in WDW are usually right around $220 on average so it will take at least 5 but not much more trips to recoup the cost--plus I use it more often at Disneyland. The issue for me is a concern with damage to the unit in airplane handling OR the unit having an issue while at WDW. I know if something breaks here in California where to take it. I will have to find and listen to that podcast.

 

[toocherie]

I wish they would instead. I would gladly pay a fee instead of trying to coordinate a delivery.

I called Kingdom to confirm, and reserving our stroller before October 1 will (for now at least) allow us to use Bell Services in the spring.

I just talked to Buena Vista Scooters about a trip in January and they were not as positive about going into 2020. At the end of the day without something concrete from Disney in writing there is no way of knowing--his "understanding" was that the grandfathering would only apply through the end of 2019. But who knows?

And I would gladly pay a fee too--I even mentioned that to him--he said he thinks Disney "just doesn't want to deal with it anymore." And maybe they are cutting staff at the bell services level?

 

[toocherie]

Just because groceries aren’t included right now doesn’t mean they aren’t coming. Won’t surprise me if that announcement comes soon.

Buena Vista told me the policy DOES include groceries.

 

[toocherie]

The video from Kingdom strollers said 3 deliveries morning and 3 afternoon on weekdays and 5 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon on weekends.

Ok--I come from the West Coast. Most times my flights don't get in until late evening. That's great if they do three deliveries "in the afternoon"--that doesn't help me.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I just talked to Buena Vista Scooters about a trip in January and they were not as positive about going into 2020. At the end of the day without something concrete from Disney in writing there is no way of knowing--his "understanding" was that the grandfathering would only apply through the end of 2019. But who knows?

And I would gladly pay a fee too--I even mentioned that to him--he said he thinks Disney "just doesn't want to deal with it anymore." And maybe they are cutting staff at the bell services level?

Yeah that’s why I added the part in brackets.

It seems too good to be true that they would give us time to grandfather ourselves in, and that it would extend for a long time, but we need to book eventually anyways so might as well try.

 

[toocherie]

It seems too good to be true that they would give us time to grandfather ourselves in, and that it would extend for a long time, but we need to book eventually anyways so might as well try.

I figure since you can cancel upon 48 hours' notice better to make the reservation now "in the hopes" that the grandfathering does extend into the new year.

 

[bluezy]

I wonder if Disney will start providing these services /rentals directly and then offer the feature that you don't need to be there to meet the outside vendor as a perk of renting directly through Disney - this way they get in on the $

That is exactly what I thought when I first read about this today. I figure within the next week or two Disney will announce that they will now be offering ECVs/wheelchairs/strollers for rent at all of their resorts. They're missing out on a bunch of money by only offering them in the parks. People need those things at the resorts as well so I'm surprised Disney hasn't capitalized on that sooner. It might have been that years ago it was more cost effective for them to allow outside vendors to take care of those needs but now for whatever reason, it makes more financial sense to offer those rentals themselves (hypothetically) and make it more difficult for outside vendors to offer those things. Disney gets to grab a bigger piece of the rental pie.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

I’m guessing this is a liability issue. If there is something wrong with the scooter or stroller at pick up, the rental company says “it was fine when I dropped it off.” If there is a problem when the company picks it up, the renter says “it was fine when I left it.” Then Disney has to either prove it wasn’t their fault or pay to have the repairs. If this applies to groceries, then same concept. The grocery company says the order was right when they dropped off and Dis way tampered with it.

Does it stink? Yes. But from a business operations standpoint I totally get it. Enough bad apples ruined it for the whole bunch.

 

[Summer2018]

That is exactly what I thought when I first read about this today. I figure within the next week or two Disney will announce that they will now be offering ECVs/wheelchairs/strollers for rent at all of their resorts. They're missing out on a bunch of money by only offering them in the parks. People need those things at the resorts as well so I'm surprised Disney hasn't capitalized on that sooner. It might have been that years ago it was more cost effective for them to allow outside vendors to take care of those needs but now for whatever reason, it makes more financial sense to offer those rentals themselves (hypothetically) and make it more difficult for outside vendors to offer those things. Disney gets to grab a bigger piece of the rental pie.

They would be stupid not to provide these for their guests.

I don’t need a wheelchair in Disneyland, but WDW is just too vast for me to go without one. It really makes me rethink our upcoming trip next summer. If I cannot count on renting a wheelchair for my entire stay, we won’t be able to go. My knees just won’t hold up. I’m certainly not buying a wheelchair for use in WDW every other year.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I would be surprised if WDW gets into the stroller business. Their rental prices are so much higher for so much lower quality, that they would have to seriously tweak that to compete with all the outside stroller companies. I think it would cost us more than double what Kingdom Strollers charges to rent a lesser quality stroller from Disney, and that’s obviously just the in park ones they offer today. Anyone think Disney is going to get better strollers for less money?

They can’t make it much more inconvenient that this move to pick up/drop off the strollers. Avoiding that pick up/drop off meet up is unlikely going to be worth a much higher price and lesser product to most, IMO.

 

[Searc]

My main concern is mobility devices like wheelchairs. For guest like my fiance, he can't get around the resort without it. If its not already at the resort when we arrive, its going to be a huge issue for us.

How does he get around in an airport? From the plane to transportation? If he truly can't get around without one, bring a scooter with on the plane.

 

[Brianstl]

How does he get around in an airport? From the plane to transportation? If he truly can't get around without one, bring a scooter with on the plane.

Every airline I know provides wheelchair service.

 

[Spridell]

How does he get around in an airport? From the plane to transportation? If he truly can't get around without one, bring a scooter with on the plane.

Wheelchair from the plane directly to car or bus waiting for pickup is how most airlines work.

 

[PrincessNelly]

How does he get around in an airport? From the plane to transportation? If he truly can't get around without one, bring a scooter with on the plane.

He uses a wheelchair whenever we travel somewhere that requires excess walking, like WDW.
We use airport services at the airport. They meet us at the car with a wheelchair when we depart and when we arrived back at MCO, they met us at Magical Express drop off. They also grab our luggage for us both ways and assist us through security.

Also, just "bring one with you" is easier said than done for us. I am not able to lift his wheelchair on my own so that would complicate things for us.

 

[bluezy]

I would be surprised if WDW gets into the stroller business. Their rental prices are so much higher for so much lower quality, that they would have to seriously tweak that to compete with all the outside stroller companies. I think it would cost us more than double what Kingdom Strollers charges to rent a lesser quality stroller from Disney, and that’s obviously just the in park ones they offer today. Anyone think Disney is going to get better strollers for less money?

They can’t make it much more inconvenient that this move to pick up/drop off the strollers. Avoiding that pick up/drop off meet up is unlikely going to be worth a much higher price and lesser product to most, IMO.

Disney was testing one or two new style strollers (more like normal strollers -- not the kind they currently have in the parks. There are pictures out there somewhere) at DHS (I think...might have been AK) a few weeks ago. I thought maybe they were going to be changing out all of their park strollers but now I'm thinking they were testing them for eventual use at resorts as well. I'm pretty sure the stroller(s) they were/are testing could be folded up which didn't seem like a necessity in the parks but if people can take them on the buses and take them back to their resort room.....

Our stroller days are way behind us but if I was renting a stroller at Disney and they offered a stroller that was similar in style and features to an outside vendors offerings, I'd be willing to pay a bit more simply to have it available when I arrive and not have to worry about meeting someone to get it. I would not pay extra for their current stroller offering regardless of the convenience.