**eeyore** said:
I should probably have said that it is currently "complimentary"! I'm sure they've got it "built" into the pricing somewhere (along with a boatload of profit!). I guess what I meant was, do you think they will start charging above and beyond the room price? For example, will they advertise "Add DME to your package for "only" $20/per person"?
It was announced that DME will remain complimentary through 2011.
I posted the following a few weeks ago, but still addresses this topic:
I'm not naive enough to think that anything a company calls free is truly free. But I will share my exact experience with you, my evidence that, at least for a time, DME was TRULY free.
I went to WDW May 8 - 14, 2005. DME started May 5, 2005. I booked the trip back in October of 2004, before there was any public knowledge about anything called Disney's Magical Express (but certainly Disney knew it was coming!). Prior to actually booking the trip, I knew there were 4 different weeks I could have potentially traveled. Two of those weeks were just before DME started, one was the week I traveled, and one was a few weeks later in May. ALL 4 PRICES WERE IDENTICAL.
So at least for me, DME was truly free. How else to explain the identical prices pre-DME and post-DME?
The other way to look at it is Disney doesn't have to pass along the savings because they earn so much more BECAUSE of the "ripple effects" of DME. I posted this "math stuff" on another board a while back. DME costs Disney between $50 million to $85 million dollars per year. 10,000 guests per day, 365 days per year, so that's 3.65 million DME users per year. That means
DME costs Disney between $13.70 and $18.63 per passenger.
So they not only might entice more people to stay on-property because of the perk of luggage service and free transportation, but I think the big payoff for them is that people who take DME don't have access to the non-Disney world. No grocery stops -- they have to buy the overpriced Disney groceries at the resort gift shops (since so few people know that grocery delivery from off-site is available). No rental car to go off property to non-Disney restaurants.
You don't think that's worth $13.70 to $18.63 per person to them?
PLUS, there's the intangible of the guests having more money to spend in the first place. If I take DME instead of spending $120 on a private ride (or more on a rental car), that's $120 more I have to spend on-property. I might take my wife to a very fancy dinner that I otherwise might have been too cheap to do. I might buy my kids more crappy souvenirs with that extra money I have, or I might buy my kids' teachers a souvenir, or my nephews, or the neighbor's dog, or whatever.
IN OTHER WORDS,
IF EVERYONE WHO RIDES DME EATS ONE MORE WAITRESS-SERVICE MEAL THAN THEY USUALLY WOULD, DISNEY TURNS A PROFIT ON DME. IF THEY EACH BUY ONE ADDITIONAL SOUVENIR T-SHIRT, DISNEY TURNS A PROFIT ON DME.
Math pretty much makes the argument. And of course it ignores the strong possibility that Disney's great marketing of DME has caused people to stay on-site who previously stayed off-site, and of course if I stay at Pop Century Disney makes A LOT more money off me than if I stay at Best Western. In the end, your assumption that Disney has to charge us for DME is a flawed assumption.
They earn much more money because of DME than DME costs them. 
).
I don't think Disney is in the habit of publicizing figures, although since the airport is paid a per passenger fee, the exact number is probably a matter of public record SOMEWHERE. Not that I know where ....
