The views expressed here are of my personal opinion and not those of the disney company.
IMHO I think there's a conflict of interest with you since you work at the fort and I always said I would hate if somebody from the fort joined this board. Nothing against you but somebody working at the fort knowing everything we do may be a disadvatage.
My biggest worry about the outside rentals from the beginning was that FW would see a decline in cart rentals and possibly charge a trail fee or ban outside carts altogether. I hope neither changes because I like bringing my own cart.
As for the outside rentals I could care less. I do think GCE made a mistake by bringing a truck with his name on it and the size stands out a ton. The truck I saw had GCE on the door and it appeared to be a roll back tow truck. If they can bring them on a pickup then more power to them.
If the fort does charge for personal carts we'll adjust to it by coming less. There's no reason to charge us when we're already paying a premium for sites.
it shouldn't matter that I work there. This is not my first position with disney, and I understand the frustrations about GCE not being allowed to come in, but still, hardee's doesn't sell their hamburgers @ McDonalds.
also, I know i'm not the only person that reads these forums. particpates, prolly, but not the only one that reads, there are managers and coordinators that are reading.
no, not off hand but it SURE as heck isn't NEARLY as much as they charge for them, per cart, per day. no way no how. they are MORE than a rental CAR, for heavens sake! MORE than some sites! that is downright ridiculous; I would never ever rent from disney again, regardless of any new rule. We have bikes and we have feet, looks like we'll be using them more on our next trip!
This is true, and when people ask outright, "do i need a cart?" i say this, no, you don't, but if you have little kids, and you don't wanna wait for buses or walk, it's highly recommended. it's your choice, and more power to you for walking and using your bike
when I worked in other resorts, even when i had a cart to use, I preferred a bike!
Besides the other replies, my concern is they don't have enough carts.
My guess is Disney knows this and GCE just got too big for their britches. The truth is Disney has a right to prevent business from being conducted on their property. In this case, though, they need eachother somewhat. These outfits make some money and Disney doesn't have to stock, service and store 400+ carts. Disney probably tolerates the situation as long as liability issues or blantant violations don't occur. I love the Fort and hope Disney thinks about this. It's not the price that bothers me but the availability. Coming from Indiana it's not practical to bring one. I did one Fort visit without a cart. NEVER AGAIN.
here's the catch, sure, there aren't enough for every family, but you can make reservations a year in advance, and cancel the day before your reservation is for with no penalty. I've noticed some places still require 20% if you cancel.
Just a little simple math, and you can figure out that Disney makes amazing money on carts..... PAAAAA LEEEEESSE!
New golf cart... $6000 and that is way way too high, they buy them wholesale or better
Rental $50 a day
6000/50= 120 days, now I will give you even they only have them rented 1/3 of the time.... that means the cart is paid off in 1 year. Now I will give you $8 a day for maintenance etc so that is the difference between the 50 and the real rental, and then when you are all done, they can sell them or trade them in on new ones and probably get $1500 for them. So if they keep a cart for 3 yrs, I would conservatively say they NET $13,500 off of EACH cart!!!
There are things missing from your math, like, ... my paycheck, a girl has gotta eat, and if you saw me, you prolly would say i need to eat more!
sure, money is made, but that's what business is.
