NO MORE free valet parking for DVC members.

[Chuck S]

I was asked to participate in a DVC survey via a postcard in the mail this past week. Just got around to doing it this evening. Quite a few questions regarding membership benefits such as dining discounts, tour discounts, Cirque discounts, and shopping discounts and how important they were to me and how often I used them. Nothing regarding valet parking. Also quite a few questions regarding exchange use and would you recommend DVC to others. There were a few places where you could give feedback and I sure did in the area asking why I would not recommend DVC ... basically I said lack of communication and respect of members. My answer probably had something to do with the taking away of the free valet parking with no communication to membership. Guess they are preparing for the meeting in December. I know I will be at that meeting with bells on.

Don't worry, they don't even have to offer an open mike or answer member questions at those meetings, though they have traditionally done so. If you've ever been to one, you know the real business meeting is the board meeting, that is fully scripted (as is the members meeting) and the board meeting allows no comments from the members at all. If it gets to heated or intense, they'll simply shut it down.

My grandson decided to be born last night ......4 weeks early!!

Congratulations!!!

 

[Tara]

Yes that is the case but it ISN'T that simple

You are expected to tip EVERY time you do this so it is WAY more than $12
THIS is why it is a rip off

In my opinion it IS that simple, and tipping for service rendered is not a rip-off. Why WOULDN'T you be expected to tip each time? Someone is providing a service, parking the car and returning on foot, then retrieving the car on foot (often running). The reason it's such a good deal is that the price for the service is incredibly low, particularly. Clearly you disagree, but that's okay with me. That doesn't affect my opinion of the value of Disney valet. As I've said, I always paid for valet parking for our trips prior to DVC and will pay again now that the perk has been eliminated.

 

[waltfan1957]

Now that's stupid. They think the limo is going to be parked?

thats not what they said.

 

[queenie82]

In my opinion it IS that simple, and tipping for service rendered is not a rip-off. Why WOULDN'T you be expected to tip each time? Someone is providing a service, parking the car and returning on foot, then retrieving the car on foot (often running). The reason it's such a good deal is that the price for the service is incredibly low, particularly. Clearly you disagree, but that's okay with me. That doesn't affect my opinion of the value of Disney valet. As I've said, I always paid for valet parking for our trips prior to DVC and will pay again now that the perk has been eliminated.

My POINT is that nothing in the US is ever the price it says it is.
$12 + tips
So valet is NOT $12 per day. It is $12 PLUS tips every time you get the car moved.

Although YOU may assume this given you live in a tipping culture not ALL people do. So I think it worth mentioning the FACTS of the matter.
A couple dollars here or there may be nothing to you but $12 is $12 and $2 is $2 and it adds up. A couple of moves of the car and you are over $20.

 

[Doctor P]

Here's what I don't understand.....It is $12 lousy dollars. Seriously, there isn't a lot you can buy in WDW for $12. Obviously at some locations (BW for one) $12 is a good value for what you are getting.

It's perfectly acceptable to drop tens of thousands of dollars on membership, hundreds of dollars on admission tickets, more hundreds on food, but people don't want to pay $12 for valet parking? It's twelve lousy dollars! Seriously--get over it! And if you can't get over it--move on!

Per day, not per visit. $12 PER DAY. And if I was getting value for that and had a choice, I wouldn't complain. I actually prefer self parking, but Disney made self parking at the valet resort so impossibly incovenient and unpredictable that we have never self parked for a resort stay where there was valet.

 

[photobob]

"Similar to other fee-based services, such as additional housekeeping service or additional room amenities, only those Members who choose to valet park will be charged, instead of increasing the annual dues for all Members to cover the costs."

How much longer will ME be free? We that drive help to subsidize this costly benefit with our maintenance fees. I know this is a "complimentary" service, not a "fee-based service", provided to anyone staying at a Walt Disney World where the valet was only complimentary for DVC members. As long as ME is a free service for any WDW resort guest, surely it will remain so for DVC members. Right? Sorry if this strayed off topic I'm just wondering out loud here.

 

[crisi]

"Similar to other fee-based services, such as additional housekeeping service or additional room amenities, only those Members who choose to valet park will be charged, instead of increasing the annual dues for all Members to cover the costs."

How much longer will ME be free? We that drive help to subsidize this costly benefit with our maintenance fees. I know this is a "complimentary" service, not a "fee-based service", provided to anyone staying at a Walt Disney World where the valet was only complimentary for DVC members. As long as ME is a free service for any WDW resort guest, surely it will remain so for DVC members. Right? Sorry if this strayed off topic I'm just wondering out loud here.

We don't know that. We don't know if member fees subsidize ME or if the contract with Mears for ME is paid completely out of Hotels or Marketing and Promotions and no fees are passed to DVC. We also don't know how our "free" valet was paid for - whether that was being paid for by Mears as a cost of getting the contract, or if member fees were subsidizing it.

My guess is ME will be free until the current contract with Mears is up. When Mears goes to renegotiate the contract, they'll operate from a stronger position and Disney will be in a money saving mode they weren't in with the original contract. Its unlikely at that point that DVC members will get "free" ME.

Remember when they put in ME there was a lot of speculation here that we wouldn't get it - it doesn't do Disney that much good to give it to DVC members for free - we are already captive. And when we did get it, there didn't seem to be a corresponding increase in the transportation line on the dues. So it doesn't appear that we are currently paying for it - they probably looked at it then as DVC members just taking up "extra" capacity on the buses. But there are a lot more of us now than there were in the negotiation for the initial ME days - and a lot more of us proportionally to CRO guests - they've been adding DVC rooms, but have not been adding CRO rooms.

 

[GNX231]

I think this is sad. It seems to me that we (the dvc members) just keep getting things taking away, and the guy who never been too wdw who only goes once gets better services. I could go on and on four hours but i also have a great marketing strat. For the dvc team with regards to all these services.

 

[hakepb]

I think this is sad. It seems to me that we (the dvc members) just keep getting things taking away, and the guy who never been too wdw who only goes once gets better services. I could go on and on four hours but i also have a great marketing strat. For the dvc team with regards to all these services.

In regards to Valet, we are now being treated exactly the same as "the guy who only goes once", same service, same price... and DVC members pay much, much, much less for their accomodations to get that same service. "The guy" should be ticked we got such a great deal.

 

[jade1]

We don't know that. We don't know if member fees subsidize ME or if the contract with Mears for ME is paid completely out of Hotels or Marketing and Promotions and no fees are passed to DVC. We also don't know how our "free" valet was paid for - whether that was being paid for by Mears as a cost of getting the contract, or if member fees were subsidizing it.

My guess is ME will be free until the current contract with Mears is up. When Mears goes to renegotiate the contract, they'll operate from a stronger position and Disney will be in a money saving mode they weren't in with the original contract. Its unlikely at that point that DVC members will get "free" ME.

Why don't we know?

Remember when they put in ME there was a lot of speculation here that we wouldn't get it - it doesn't do Disney that much good to give it to DVC members for free - we are already captive.

Disagree. ME eliminated our trips to US and other FL destinations, we added more points and just stay at WDW. Without ME we always rented a car, which allowed us to dine/shop off site as well.

 

[DebbieB]

Why don't we know?

Every single cost isn't broken out in the budget we receive. I would suspect that ME is included somewhere. While you think ME is "free" at WDW resorts, I'm sure that it is included in the room rate. Mears isn't doing it for free so that cost is being charged somewhere. Same thing with housekeeping, if you stay on cash with CRO, it is included in your room rate, it's really not "free".

 

[crisi]

Why don't we know?

We don't know whose budget valet used to come out of or whose budget ME comes out of now. So if you are making the claim that other DVC members dues are subsidizing ME - we don't know that.

Disagree. ME eliminated our trips to US and other FL destinations, we added more points and just stay at WDW. Without ME we always rented a car, which allowed us to dine/shop off site as well.

Yep, but not at nearly the same profitability level as someone who is staying CRO. We will have a little margin in dining, souvenirs, park tickets, etc. But in the end, the dollar value of the average DVC guest isn't what the average CRO guest is.

 

[DVCBELLE]

In regards to Valet, we are now being treated exactly the same as "the guy who only goes once", same service, same price... and DVC members pay much, much, much less for their accomodations to get that same service. "The guy" should be ticked we got such a great deal.

Yes, that guy pays much much less for that trip...

but in the long run - I will spend many more dollars at WDW than that guy will ever think about!

Initial investment (including financing): $19,200
Annual dues - for me is about $750
Annual Dining Plan: $700 (and my kids are still kids)
Annual Souveniors: $200
Annual tickets: $800

I figure Disney is getting at least $2500 a year from me - over the course of my contract - I will probably spend over $120,000 at WDW. And I am points poor. I would venture to say there are very few people outside of DVC that commit that much money to Disney over the course of their lifetime.

There is such a thing in business called rewarding customer loyalty. I have heard echoed on this thread MANY times that people would not feel comfortable reccomending DVC to a friend. How much does that hurt their overall sales? After all - if your members aren't out there championing the cause - you have a lot harder sell.

 

[crisi]

But does Disney care if they get one person who spends 120,000 at Disney or 50 who spend $2400?

 

[tammymacb]

"Similar to other fee-based services, such as additional housekeeping service or additional room amenities, only those Members who choose to valet park will be charged, instead of increasing the annual dues for all Members to cover the costs."

I've never used "additional housekeeping" As a matter of fact, I've never used housekeeping's services at all. Since my longest stays are Sun-Fri, ( and those are rare ) the only housekeeping I receive, is the cleaning before and after my stay.

At what point do you think that Disney should do away with all "extra" housekeeping? It's a service that is paid for in my dues, yet, I've never used it. ( Or ME for that matter ) Why should I pay for that?

 

[jade1]

But does Disney care if they get one person who spends 120,000 at Disney or 50 who spend $2400?

Probably not, but how about 300,000 (and climbing) that spend 120,000?

 

[DVCBELLE]

But does Disney care if they get one person who spends 120,000 at Disney or 50 who spend $2400?

If they truly don't care - why would they have ever started DVC?

Probably not, but how about 300,000 (and climbing) that spend 120,000?

And I only own 150 points and I bought in around $80 a point....now the points are around $112. In addition, I am points poor. I would imagine my DVC invetment is much lower than others.

DH and I have always thought we would add on when this contract was paid off - which is next spring but have decided we don't want to commit anymore vacation dollars to Disney right now. If I need more points - then I will rent them.

 

[jade1]

Yep, but not at nearly the same profitability level as someone who is staying CRO. We will have a little margin in dining, souvenirs, park tickets, etc. But in the end, the dollar value of the average DVC guest isn't what the average CRO guest is.

What about the lost business to the competition?

 

[crisi]

If they truly don't care - why would they have ever started DVC?

They want the steady income of visitors and the initial cash influx from DVC sales. But once we join, we are low margin visitors. The "base" - not the "cream" The people you can depend on to cover your fixed costs, not the people that are going to pay your bonuses on get you making your numbers.

 

[DVCBELLE]

They want the steady income of visitors and the initial cash influx from DVC sales. But once we join, we are low margin visitors. The "base" - not the "cream" The people you can depend on to cover your fixed costs, not the people that are going to pay your bonuses on get you making your numbers.

And therein lies the problem - this attitude towards members who have dedicated a large chunk of money are not considered as valuable as customers who over the course of their life MIGHT drop $10,000 at Disney.