Parking cost more....Really!

[LBIJim]

They could either charge off-siters to park or raise everyone's ticket prices $17 per day and offer "free" parking.

$20 a day to park at Six Flags.

Some are even more. Six Flags in NJ was $22 last year, $30 for preferred close-in parking. Handicapped patrons pay the lower $22 for access to the close in lot.

I
And we have stayed offsite and have driven to the parks. And you want to know what the husband has said whenever we did that? "Disney kicks *butt* with their parking lots!" Yes, exclamation point!

.

Disney has always had the most efficient, well maintained parking lots of any theme park. (!!!) It's not cheap to operate them. I have no problem with Disney charging off site guests. Resort guests are already paying for "free" parking or "free" DME through high room rates.

Jim

 

[SweetMissy]

I just never understood the paying for parking. I mean you are spending a ton of money on tickets already not to mention food and souvenirs. Why gouge people with parking as well. Most of these places own the parking lots so let us park there for free. It's really ridiculous!

Greed! Apparently even Disney with all they charge for everything else loves to commit one of the deadly sins. It is sad and insane. $17! Another reason to stay on property and I'm sure that's why it increased.

 

[SweetMissy]

Hey fellow New Englanders! And we have the highest average ticket prices for these events as well. Enjoy raising the banner today!



Parking lots cost $$$ to build, maintain and staff. Your park ticket prices do not cover this. I for one, would rather have those off site guests subsidize those costs for us on site people(that may not even need to park a car). The costs need to be covered. Sound like a pretty nice on site benefit for those staying numerous days and have a car. I would prefer they not add another $10 to my park ticket. Plus, I would guess a majority of on site visitors use the buses and Disney transportation. Why should those guests have to pay higher ticket prices so others can park their cars for free. That is just 2 reasons. I can come up with a few more if you like. I can't park on the streets around here without putting $2 in the meter.

Ok, that does make sense. Shouldn't bug me, I always stay on property. I just feel bad for people who don't or people who only are able to go to disney once in their lives...another added expense on an already overpriced (yet worth it) vacation.

 

[SweetMissy]

Why not? "Everyone else does it" seems to me a reason that is usually used to excuse something that shouldn't be.

Exactulutely!

 

[Ravenne]

Although $17 is a lot for parking and can definitely add up, I think it's pretty much in line with parking at other places. Universal also recently increased theirs to $17. When we go to our local amusement park, I think it's $14-15. Parking is just expensive, period.

I'm really glad I'm not the only one who thought this with the parking price increase. Our local amusement park is $10+ per day. The last time I went to a concert it was $17...for what, a 4 hour show? At least you're at MK longer than 4 hrs typically. Inflation sucks.

 

[davedmaine]

I mentioned the increase in parking prices to my husband who exploded. Now, we are annual passholders so it doesn't affect us. We can stay anywhere we want and not pay to park (at this time). And we have stayed offsite and have driven to the parks. And you want to know what the husband has said whenever we did that? "Disney kicks *butt* with their parking lots!" Yes, exclamation point! Because they do. with trams and safe walkways before, during and after. Security people up in lifts, and - this is very well known - if you know when you parked your car and then can't find it after the park is closed or whenever you are leaving, Disney can and will drive you up and down the section where your car should have been parked.

Yes, what a service. We should be grateful for the increase

 

[flicx]

They gotta pay Bob Iger's million dollar a week plus salary with something!

 

[ponyboy]

Why not? "Everyone else does it" seems to me a reason that is usually used to excuse something that shouldn't be.

I don't use the parking lot, have never used the parking lot and don't ever plan on using the parking lot and I'd rather not have to help subsidize the people who do use it.

As far as I'm concerned, they could offer free parking, stop any maintenance, turn off the lights at night and not patrol for people breaking into cars. Sounds fair to me.

 

[DVC Jen]

One more reason to stay on site

 

[shepd]

This is really starting to get bad. My trip was going to cost (hotels are already paid for):

$15 x 12 = $180 parking
8 day water park fun 'n more (2 adults, 1 child) = $1047

Which, at the end of december, worked out for us Canadians to $1227 CDN (dollar was at par then)

With the dollar sinking and Disney rising:

$17 x 12 = $204 parking
New ticket prices = $1117

Which with the Canadian dollar buying 88 cents US means $1501 CDN, or, for me, an almost 20% increase!

I guess I'm lucky I'm travelling during the less popular time, since to make up that difference I'll be parking at DTD and wasting an hour or two on the bus. Disney, you're killing your international visitors here! Either that or spend exactly $0 on anything while I'm at the parks.

 

[maxiesmom]

Greed! Apparently even Disney with all they charge for everything else loves to commit one of the deadly sins. It is sad and insane. $17! Another reason to stay on property and I'm sure that's why it increased.

It is not bad for a business to be greedy. That is what they are there for, to make money. It always makes me when people complain about a company wanting to make as much money as they can.

Look at it this way: They have to get the funds to pay for the upkeep of the parking lots, trams, and all of those CMs somehow. And they are not forcing you to pay for parking--you can always choose to stay on site and not pay.

I'd much rather they offer free parking as a perk to the on site guests who are willing to pay more, and charge those who stay off site.

 

[ConnieB]

That is not the point... The point is to make it more attractive to stay on site against staying outside. In effect, you can tack $17 or $20 to the price of your off site room per day...

That theory doesn't work for our family......now we do have APs so the parking isn't an issue, but even if we didn't it doesn't work:

Just looked at a value room at Disney.....$163 a night for a 300 square foot room with 2 beds, a bathroom and not much else. Off site I can get a 1500 or so square foot condo with 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2 or more baths, a full size kitchen, a living room, a dining table that will seat 6 or 8, a washer/dryer for under $100 a night (there are also quite a few homes under $50 a night, but I wanted an average price not one of the handful of cheap, but very nice places). So, add $20 of parking and I'm at $120 or so....still cheaper than onsite and a LOT more room....and we save more because we can eat a nice warm breakfast at home.....and if so inclined dinner as well, saving even more. But even for those that don't want to cook on their vacation the condo/parking combo is enough savings for a CS for a family of 3 or 4 at least.

But I do agree that the parking costs going up are likely Disney's way of spreading some of the extra cost of the MDE/FP expenses to those that aren't staying onsite. But, as Disney does so much to entice people to stay onsite the offsite condo owners are having to drop their prices which benefits those who don't want to stay onsite.....so it's a win win for us offsiters, lol. I stayed at a house (not condo) about 3 years ago and recently looked at it for a fall trip....it's cheaper by about 1/3 now than it was all those years ago.

 

[Art 1]

Ok, that does make sense. Shouldn't bug me, I always stay on property. I just feel bad for people who don't or people who only are able to go to disney once in their lives...another added expense on an already overpriced (yet worth it) vacation.

It is not an overpriced vacation. It's a properly priced or even under priced vacation. When profits and attendance figures fall drastically then it will be over priced.

 

[Texas Barbie]

This is really starting to get bad. My trip was going to cost (hotels are already paid for):

$15 x 12 = $180 parking
8 day water park fun 'n more (2 adults, 1 child) = $1047

Which, at the end of december, worked out for us Canadians to $1227 CDN (dollar was at par then)

With the dollar sinking and Disney rising:

$17 x 12 = $204 parking
New ticket prices = $1117

Which with the Canadian dollar buying 88 cents US means $1501 CDN, or, for me, an almost 20% increase!

I guess I'm lucky I'm travelling during the less popular time, since to make up that difference I'll be parking at DTD and wasting an hour or two on the bus. Disney, you're killing your international visitors here! Either that or spend exactly $0 on anything while I'm at the parks.

Good luck with that. DTD is a mess right now with the construction, and eventually they will charge to park there too.

 

[ConnieB]

This is really starting to get bad. My trip was going to cost (hotels are already paid for):

$15 x 12 = $180 parking
8 day water park fun 'n more (2 adults, 1 child) = $1047

Which, at the end of december, worked out for us Canadians to $1227 CDN (dollar was at par then)

With the dollar sinking and Disney rising:

$17 x 12 = $204 parking
New ticket prices = $1117

Which with the Canadian dollar buying 88 cents US means $1501 CDN, or, for me, an almost 20% increase!

I guess I'm lucky I'm travelling during the less popular time, since to make up that difference I'll be parking at DTD and wasting an hour or two on the bus. Disney, you're killing your international visitors here! Either that or spend exactly $0 on anything while I'm at the parks.

Except you appear to be blaming the change in Canadian/US exchange on Disney? The increase you describe is due to the CA dollar only buying 88 cents US.....but in fact the only increase that DISNEY is causing you is 12 days x $2 more in parking or $24. Yeah, that's an increase, and never fun, but Disney shouldn't be the blame for the change in exchange rates. And...exchange fluctuates often, so keep checking and maybe next time it gets a bit more equal you could buy your tickets online and not beat yourself up for not having done so in December.

Hopefully you got a nice price on your hotel so you could always look at it as you SAVED money even with the increased parking cost by not staying on site. Our trip in May I'm saving about $110 a night staying off site (vs staying value onsite) so the increase in parking would still be worth staying offsite. (We have AP so it actually doesn't affect us, but saving $110 a night even if we had to pay the $17 for the parking is still a substantial savings....plus we have 5 times as much space).

 

[ConnieB]

Good luck with that. DTD is a mess right now with the construction, and eventually they will charge to park there too.

While anything can (and does) change with Disney, they have said that DTD parking will continue to be complimentary:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...own-disney-visit-at-walt-disney-world-resort/

 

[maxiesmom]

Parking at DTD to avoid paying for parking at the theme park lots will cost you more in time wasted then parking at the theme park. When you factor how much your tickets cost and how much time you will waste, you are making a bad situation worse. Wasting 4 hours a day (12 hours actually, if you figure out the per person cost) to save $17 makes no sense at all.

If you can't afford the extra $2 a day to pay for parking you really shouldn't be spending $$$$$ on a trip to WDW, imho.

 

[Art 1]

This is really starting to get bad. My trip was going to cost (hotels are already paid for):

$15 x 12 = $180 parking
8 day water park fun 'n more (2 adults, 1 child) = $1047

Which, at the end of december, worked out for us Canadians to $1227 CDN (dollar was at par then)

With the dollar sinking and Disney rising:

$17 x 12 = $204 parking
New ticket prices = $1117

Which with the Canadian dollar buying 88 cents US means $1501 CDN, or, for me, an almost 20% increase!

I guess I'm lucky I'm travelling during the less popular time, since to make up that difference I'll be parking at DTD and wasting an hour or two on the bus. Disney, you're killing your international visitors here! Either that or spend exactly $0 on anything while I'm at the parks.

Disney is not "killing" you. Your sinking Canadian dollar is.

 

[SweetMissy]

It is not an overpriced vacation. It's a properly priced or even under priced vacation. When profits and attendance figures fall drastically then it will be over priced.

No, IMO it's an overpriced vacation. We've gone on numerous vacations and disneyworld is by far the most expensive. Even their cruises are more expensive than a non-disney cruise. I'm NOT complaining because we love disney and for us, it is worth it. I'm just stating my opinion. Everything at disney is overpriced. I remember in one of the gift stores on Main St. seeing a little girl's princess dress for $80! I couldn't help to complain out loud to hubby about that when I saw the price tag, lol...I was just shocked. I'm also aware that prices have to go up to pay for expansions and increasing wages...I just feel bad for those families who like I said can't go or can only afford to go once or twice because of the price and all the little extras you have to pay for.

 

[Art 1]

No, IMO it's an overpriced vacation. We've gone on numerous vacations and disneyworld is by far the most expensive. Even their cruises are more expensive than a non-disney cruise. I'm NOT complaining because we love disney and for us, it is worth it. I'm just stating my opinion. Everything at disney is overpriced. I remember in one of the gift stores on Main St. seeing a little girl's princess dress for $80! I couldn't help to complain out loud to hubby about that when I saw the price tag, lol...I was just shocked. I'm also aware that prices have to go up to pay for expansions and increasing wages...I just feel bad for those families who like I said can't go or can only afford to go once or twice because of the price and all the little extras you have to pay for.

A trip to WDW is not over priced though. It will only be over priced when enough people stop going and buying to effect profits. Really, a trip to WDW is probably underpriced. They probably have room for some more price increases. I know this might not make sense to you but it's just they was it works. And besides, a trip to WDW is a luxury, and prices for luxury items never make sense. There are plenty of people buying that $80 dress every day and not even blinking an eye when they do.