Paid parking is coming to WDW resorts March 2018

[MickeyMinnieMom]

The site is being glitchy again! Do you all think they are taking down the parking info, yet again?

Who knows. This site is glitchy half the time I go to it. They are — at least theoretically — opening W&D early registration today. Maybe that’s related in some Rube Goldberg kinda way. Train wreck Disney IT.

Hard to say, but you can bet Disney reads social media and the Disney Boards such as this one and has heard the backlash.

I’m sure they monitor various social media sites, but can you recall them ever changing a policy before it’s even in place because of that? If they went by DIS, they would NEVER change ANYTHING!!

 

[Disneylover99]

I'm really curious of how (or if) they are going to give priority to the guests paying for parking spots vs day guests who aren't paying to park at a resort. Are they going to have numbered spaces? You get assigned a spot when you check in? If they do that, surely they wouldn't number it the same as your room number. That just screams security issue. Is there going to an area gated off that requires hotel guests to use their magic band to access it? Will they have day guests parking out in the farthest spaces? If a guest has to pay to park, they at least should have better parking locations than those just coming to visit for a few hours.

My upcoming trip was booked in Jan, so it won't be affected in regards to paying to park. However, it definitely is going to make me think twice about any future visits.

Yikes! I hope not. I would hate that. Imagine pulling in and someone is in your spot, but there are still several spots available, so you have to park in someone else's spot to tell the front desk. That would be a nightmare for everyone.

 

[Krandor]

I'm really curious of how (or if) they are going to give priority to the guests paying for parking spots vs day guests who aren't paying to park at a resort. Are they going to have numbered spaces? You get assigned a spot when you check in? If they do that, surely they wouldn't number it the same as your room number. That just screams security issue. Is there going to an area gated off that requires hotel guests to use their magic band to access it? Will they have day guests parking out in the farthest spaces? If a guest has to pay to park, they at least should have better parking locations than those just coming to visit for a few hours.

My upcoming trip was booked in Jan, so it won't be affected in regards to paying to park. However, it definitely is going to make me think twice about any future visits.

I bet parking is general admission for everybody.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

These greedy half wits:

Robert.Chapek@disney.com

george.kalogridis@disney.com

robert.a.iger@disney.com

And the number crunchers who realized they could easily make $50m a year on this (based on some conservative figures I worked about, um, 40 pages ago at this point) which is about 4% of the total profits for all of Disney parks and resorts - so 4% boost for doing basically nothing - every executive / analyst / etc would love that

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm really curious of how (or if) they are going to give priority to the guests paying for parking spots vs day guests who aren't paying to park at a resort. Are they going to have numbered spaces? You get assigned a spot when you check in? If they do that, surely they wouldn't number it the same as your room number. That just screams security issue. Is there going to an area gated off that requires hotel guests to use their magic band to access it? Will they have day guests parking out in the farthest spaces? If a guest has to pay to park, they at least should have better parking locations than those just coming to visit for a few hours.

My upcoming trip was booked in Jan, so it won't be affected in regards to paying to park. However, it definitely is going to make me think twice about any future visits.

At the resorts where parking is limited (say, the Poly) they will turn away day guests now who don’t have an ADR so my guess is they will do the same: yeah, you theoretically could park here as a day guest but not enough open spots so you can’t right now

 

[Disneylover99]

At the resorts where parking is limited (say, the Poly) they will turn away day guests now who don’t have an ADR so my guess is they will do the same: yeah, you theoretically could park here as a day guest but not enough open spots so you can’t right now

Is this a standard procedure all day now? Or do you mean only at peak times when it gets really busy.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Is this a standard procedure all day now? Or do you mean only at peak times when it gets really busy.

When it is crowded they will turn people away so I figure same thing going forward. If there are plenty of spots then say guests can park, if not, sorry

 

[ChipnDale79]

Disney is getting killed on social media, if you look at disney world's facebook page there are a ton of 1 star reviews from the past couple of days.

The parking fees made the local news social media pages all the way up here in Charlotte.

I shared an article on facebook, i had a friend comment on it and complain about how ridiculous this charges are, she wasn't the only one, but this comes from one of those disney nuts that is positive about everything. She doesnt complain about anything disney does, nor does she complain about anything in her personal life to anyone. When she complains, its because something isn't right.

Almost every single person that I know personally that enjoys disney as much as we did, has said something either via text to me or on social media. I've never seen a response like this from a disney move.

I think disney crossed a line with a lot of people.

 

[dreiwhit]

Article is brutal but right and is how I feel.

Its brutal, but very true.

Before our last trip, my wife was reading reviews of WDW to me from a travel site. It was an eye opening, non-Disboards perspective. Most of the reviews were brutal. It did open my eyes, since before then all I would read would be on Disboards. There are a lot of folks out there that aren't too happy with WDW even before they started charging resort guests for parking.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

People who are unhappy with something are always far louder than those who are happy with it or couldn't care less one way or the other. Always been true, and clearly shows that much more now with social media. I always take online reviews of ANYTHING with a huge grain of salt. I certainly never draw longterm conclusions based on an initial response online to anything. The only place where this seems to take hold is on a political issue -- those are enough to scare the daylights out of many executives these days, apparently -- a lot of knee-jerk reactions there.

 

[dreiwhit]

Who really thought this was a good idea?

Someone who only cares about the bottom line and sees their guests as ATMs.

 

[zillayen]

Its brutal, but very true.

Before our last trip, my wife was reading reviews of WDW to me from a travel site. It was an eye opening, non-Disboards perspective. Most of the reviews were brutal. It did open my eyes, since before then all I would read would be on Disboards. There are a lot of folks out there that aren't too happy with WDW even before they started charging resort guests for parking.

Do you mind sharing the site? It was interesting - when we were there a few weeks ago I chatted with at least 3 people who were there for the first time and said they would never come back. Staying at the Yacht Club and they were really disappointed in the hotel for the price, upset at how crowded the parks were, disappointed in the food, etc. As a "veteran," I thought we had amazing luck with the weather and the crowds and everything else, but I don't think WDW always gives people a good impression.

 

[SaharanTea]

Does seem to encapsulate many feelings here! He could have said $168 for a week at deluxe instead of “nearly $200”, but he does seem to capture a segment here for sure.

Does Disney typically cave to bad publicity, though??

But you also have to pay taxes on that parking fee, correct?

 

[Aron1012]

Frommer's article was a good take on this debacle. I guess Disney is convinced there product is invincible in this thriving economy, but I have heard more negative comments about trips there in the past year than anytime prior. Seeing the list of "fundraising opportunities" a few pages back probably has contributed to that. Wouldn't be the first company to start a downward trend from corporate greed.....

 

[Iowamomof4]

But you also have to pay taxes on that parking fee, correct?

I'm sure I read somewhere that taxes were included already in the price.

 

[loveshak22]

Disney is getting killed on social media, if you look at disney world's facebook page there are a ton of 1 star reviews from the past couple of days.

The parking fees made the local news social media pages all the way up here in Charlotte.

I shared an article on facebook, i had a friend comment on it and complain about how ridiculous this charges are, she wasn't the only one, but this comes from one of those disney nuts that is positive about everything. She doesnt complain about anything disney does, nor does she complain about anything in her personal life to anyone. When she complains, its because something isn't right.

Almost every single person that I know personally that enjoys disney as much as we did, has said something either via text to me or on social media. I've never seen a response like this from a disney move.

I think disney crossed a line with a lot of people.

A ton of 1 star reviews on FB is an understatement - LOL! I checked last night before I went to bed and there were 51K 1-star reviews and this morning it shows 65K!!! And that's just overnight. I don't know what it was yesterday morning! I wish I would have looked at how many 1-star reviews there were when I started reading them yesterday around 3:00 when there were already a ton posted!

 

[ChipnDale79]

People who are unhappy with something are always far louder than those who are happy with it or couldn't care less one way or the other. Always been true, and clearly shows that much more now with social media. I always take online reviews of ANYTHING with a huge grain of salt. I certainly never draw longterm conclusions based on an initial response online to anything. The only place where this seems to take hold is on a political issue -- those are enough to scare the daylights out of many executives these days, apparently -- a lot of knee-jerk reactions there.

Ehh social media and message boards have been around for awhile now, disney up charges are nothing new. I think this one is a little different. I know i've never seen this type of reaction to a move disney has made before.

 

[ChipnDale79]

A ton of 1 star reviews on FB is an understatement - LOL! I checked last night before I went to bed and there were 51K 1-star reviews and this morning it shows 65K!!! And that's just overnight. I don't know what it was yesterday morning! I wish I would have looked at how many 1-star reviews there were when I started reading them yesterday around 3:00 when there were already a ton posted!

I read somewhere that it was below 30k prior to yesterday

 

[SaharanTea]

I'm sure I read somewhere that taxes were included already in the price.

I thought I had read the opposite, but I'm entirely unsure so you win the sureness battle.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Ehh social media and message boards have been around for awhile now, disney up charges are nothing new. I think this one is a little different. I know i've never seen this type of reaction to a move disney has made before.

It does seem like a louder reaction, but I still wouldn't personally draw any conclusions this soon after release. Discontent catches fire online. Dies down in time unless political ransom is being held. And even then, sometimes.