ME elimination affect on rental cars and parking

[irazabul]

I haven't seen, or may have missed, any discussion yet on the huge impact this will have on the rental car market. I imagine many will opt to rent cars creating a huge demand - I imagine rental rates will go up, availability and availability will go down. Also, parking will be more difficult, traffic will likely increase. Personally, I think this move is overall a bad business decision by the Disney braintrust.

 

[Sandisw]

I am not sure that will be the case, Not everyone wants to drive. And, remember, cash guests who rent a car are paying for parking as well so it may not be the most economical thing.

I think many will opt for other ways to get there and there will be services similar to DME...Mears has already said as much,

I know we will not rent cars flying in to MCO unless it’s our only option.

 

[RivShore]

Disney certainly has the data on usage of DME, hopefully they crunched the numbers to ensure they can handle the increase. I think they probably saw a major shift to ride share the last few years and that's where they expect most to shift to. Also I remember using Mears before DME and it was very reasonable, I expect they will fill the gap with something very similar to DME.

 

[Upatnoon]

I haven't seen, or may have missed, any discussion yet on the huge impact this will have on the rental car market. I imagine many will opt to rent cars creating a huge demand - I imagine rental rates will go up, availability and availability will go down. Also, parking will be more difficult, traffic will likely increase. Personally, I think this move is overall a bad business decision by the Disney braintrust.

The day is coming where people won't own cars at all. Rideshare will morph into driverless services. You won't need parking lots at all. This is coming, it's just a question of how soon.

 

[irazabul]

The day is coming where people won't own cars at all. Rideshare will morph into driverless services. You won't need parking lots at all. This is coming, it's just a question of how soon.

That's a great point...but not in 2022! Hopefully soon after tho.

 

[DVC Fanatic]

That's a great point...but not in 2022! Hopefully soon after tho.

I would expect many of the current resorts (2042), will expire before we see driverless cars on a large scale. It will take years of infrastructure changes, or someone to own a fleet of driverless cars once approved on current infrastructure.

I believe resorts like OKW, with limited parking, will be impacted the most if people turn to rental cars. I know when we stayed there a year ago, between the construction and employees parking in guests spots, I had to park and walk back to our building multiple times.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

As a BWV owner I am very concerned about the parking situation. We will most likely have to move to renting a car and the first night we come back from Universal and cannot locate a spot in the lot and have to park across the street it will not be pretty. They will need to stop allowing visitors to the Boardwalk area to park in the main lot. You also already have many park goers who park in the lot by the gas station and walk over to save on parking and to get in line early for DHS. This will only get worse with more people moving offsite and more onsite guests having cars. Yes, I know many will use rideshares, but not all. There will be a decent uptick in rentals. Imagine being a BW hotel guest and paying for parking and not being able to find a spot?

The extra cost will come out of our budget. We will stop at a grocery store on the way in and eat more meals in our villa. We will also spend more time at Universal and do shorter trips and spend some time at the family home at Siesta Key. While I am very sad about ME leaving it might actually lead for a better vacation as we will venture outside of the Disney bubble.

 

[Sandisw]

I would expect many of the current resorts (2042), will expire before we see driverless cars on a large scale. It will take years of infrastructure changes, or someone to own a fleet of driverless cars once approved on current infrastructure.

I believe resorts like OKW, with limited parking, will be impacted the most if people turn to rental cars. I know when we stayed there a year ago, between the construction and employees parking in guests spots, I had to park and walk back to our building multiple times.

OKW was built though well before DME so they must have felt the parking matched the trends of who does and does not drive.

Being the original DVC, they would have expected full occupancy so it being busier would not impact this particular resort.

Honestly, less will rent cars then many think will, IMO. I know we won’t from MCO unless it’s a big traveling group and then it might be one so we can do the grocery one. Traveling alone I’ll always do something else.

 

[Yinn]

I know we will not rent cars flying in to MCO unless it’s our only option.

I think this is the piece that's the difference for me. MCO is generally twice as expensive to fly into than SFB. If I'm going to need to rent a car and drive anyway, I'll most likely fly into SFB to offset the cost of a rental and hope to make up that driving time by avoiding some crowds.

However, realistically I'm a believer in the high speed rail - as long as they still take luggage. At 80mph it should be about a 15 minute ride to Disney Springs from MCO. I wouldn't mind relaxing at Disney Springs for lunch/dinner before going to the resort. There's opportunity to pick up supplies if necessary.

For us we usually take MGE to the resort and then another bus out to eat anyway and/or collect supplies for our trip. So as long as they still take luggage, this would give Disney Springs some of my money while making it more convenient for me. I can't imagine I'm the only one...

 

[drusba]

Disney probably figures dropping ME will cause no worse of a change on rental cars than what the situation was a few years ago. Before then there were no resort parking fees, the adoption of which has likely resulted in fewer Disney guests renting cars. Any addition to car rentals that might be caused by taking away ME likely will not increase the total number who will rent cars and want to park at the resorts to a level greater than that which existed before parking fees were adopted.

And before such parking fees were adopted, parking a rental car at a DVC resort was not a major problem of concern except at BWV, which always had parking issues, beginning long before ME was even created.

 

[CarolMN]

We will most likely go back to booking a town car/limo service for RT airport transportation, at least until we see how the parking goes at the BWV. As an added bonus, it will probably be quicker than using DME, even if we make a stop for groceries.

Parking at the BWV has been an issue for sometime - it's been very easy to see for those of us who stay in standard view villas. The lots empty after EPCOT closes. (This may have changed during the pandemic). It''s been OK when Disney monitors the lots and turns away guess not registered at BWV/BWI. This usually only happens during F&W, though. Instead of charging for overnight parking, I wish they would charge non-registered BWV/BWI guests for parking on an hourly basis.

We can live with the change, but are disappointed to lose the "free" option.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I have to agree it will have some effect. Until we know what Mears service will look like it's hard to say. For us, we won't Uber/Lyft because we have kids so we rent a car. Mears should solve that problem for families but if the cost is very high then I can see some families choosing to rent a car and even willing to pay a little more to do so.

 

[crisi]

We seldom rented a car before ME (using a car service or taxis) and post ME, we will just use Lyft. We've used rideshare services all over the world to get from place to place. (In London, definitely flag down a taxi at least once. The tube and your feet get you everywhere you need to go, but a taxi in London is a tourist experience of its own). I suspect that there will be a lot more Uber and Lyft rides.

One of the reasons we never rented cars is that when the kids were little we rented a car in order to get carseats. We reserved carseats. And the rental agency did not have carseats. We spent two hours with little kids, in the parking garage, waiting for carseats to show up. Then, when we turned in the car, they overcharged us. I really try not to rent cars.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I used ME about 50% of the time and ride share the other 50% of the time. ME can take a long time, so we were often opting ride share to get to Disney faster, especially once MCO began letting Uber’s pick people up at the airport. Occasionally we’d do a one way car rental if we needed to do some other non-Disney things along the way.

However, I feel for families who need car seats and people with disabilities or limited mobility where ME was especially convenient. It was a big differentiator for Disney. And it felt like part of the experience that the Disney bubble started when you landed in Orlando.

 

[tjkraz]

We were renting cars for many years before DME and my observation is that DME caused prices to increase rather dramatically. Maybe something to do with rental car companies still having to cover their overhead with lower volume. Also their target customer would have shifted from vacationers who needed to be wooed with low rates to business travelers who are not as cost conscious.

For rental car companies, the end of DME is a prime opportunity to grow their market share. But they'll still be competing with Mears, rideshare, town car services, etc. Seems counter-productive to respond by raising prices. Especially when they know many rental customers will also have to factor Disney Resort parking fees.

 

[BillPA]

Anyone know the current cost of a taxi (van) WDW to/from MCO? Will they have child card seats? Thanks.

 

[keishashadow]

Rental car rates bumped dramatically a year or so ago. Guessing that they aren’t replacing their fleet at the same degree now when the cars age out.

Parking at the BWV has been an issue for sometime - it's been very easy to see for those of us who stay in standard view villas. The lots empty after EPCOT closes.

Absolutely. Good luck trying for any spot after 3 pm. Read more than a few reports of those who would book BW for breakfast, park, then go directly to MGM for the day.

This usually only happens during F&W, though. Instead of charging for overnight parking, I wish they would charge non-registered BWV/BWI guests for parking on an hourly basis.

For those who are actually dining at BW, why not the sort of system wherein you get 2 hours free via stamped on your receipt? Otherwise, full fare due.

My other thot is for non-guests, valet only or designate a smaller section of lot. Main section exclusive to guests, to be accessed by key cards/MB/whatever it takes.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

Amazon Go should put a store in DS.

I'm waiting to see what happens but will likely rent a car at this point. As with all changes, I'm sure this won't be as catastrophic as it seems just like all Disney changes. Im hoping they find a replacement for the baggage services as soon as possible because that's the key to me. If my bags still go to my room and I can still check them in at the resort for departure then I'm a mostly a happy camper although DME was such a delight for the children on the way to the resorts.
I am left wondering though, why would someone choose to stay on property now for a 100-300% mark up? When I'm not on points and I have to rent a car anyway, I'm going to look to ABNB etc. Heck, I may get really wild and go to Universal or eat dinner off property!

 

[AvidDisReader]

We are all missing the obvious, Disney is going to buy a Rental Car Company and make some kind of rules that only that Rental car can park in their lots -- LOL.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

Sounds like a good time to start looking at alternative airports. We almost did this last year. Tickets to Tampa were much cheaper, but we decided the hassle of getting to the hotel made MCO worth it. Now, not so much. I bet getting a rental will be easier elsewhere too.