Resort fees

[freediverdude]

Slightly different issue but this brought to mind another Disney topic.

Years ago, there used to be a lot of really unique shopping experiences at Disney, both in the parks and in the hotels. I strongly suspect that many of these locations didn't bring in a ton of money but they enhanced the guest experience with novel offerings that couldn't be found anywhere else. The theory was to look at the overall retail operation of the park as a whole so if one store did great and another did not so well but was a guest favorite, that was okay. At some point, from what I've heard, they started focusing on each store standing on its own. That's when we started to lose those unique places that weren't really pulling their own weight. The Liberty Square silver shop went away. The boutiques on Main Street disappeared and the Emporium expanded to swallow them all. Stuff like that. So that square footage is surely generating more income now but the guest experience has been homogenized and diluted.

I too think this might play into the in-park per guest spending, rather than just being about higher prices. 10-15 years ago I used to come home with hundreds of dollars worth of souvenirs each trip (often on only a 2 or 3 day trip). Often I would come home with about 10 new pins, a Mickey plush or two in all those different outfits, a t-shirt or two, plus whatever special was being sold at the time (anyone remember Pal Mickey? Or the series of interactive light-up pins for 100 years of magic?).

Fast forward to the Emporium era, and most of the time I walk into a shop and look and say, "Eh, nothing I really have to have in here" and leave. Nowadays I come home with usually $100 worth or less, mostly just a t-shirt or two. That's not budget issues, it's disinterest in the merchandise.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

most of the time I walk into a shop and look and say, "Eh, nothing I really have to have in here" and leave. Nowadays I come home with usually $100 worth or less, mostly just a t-shirt or two. That's not budget issues, it's disinterest in the merchandise.

TOTALLY agree, and have felt that way for a LONG time, and my last visit was over 3 years ago. I also started to feel like that about the Disney Stores - used to be - they were my "fix" in between visits, and made me excited just at the thought of going there. Besides them carrying less and less adult and plus-sized stuff, the merchandise got "bland and meh". Probably why almost all of them around me closed down. Don't remember the last time I was in one, much less BOUGHT something in one. I will say I have found some cool stuff at Shop Disney Parks online in the last couple years, but higher prices have cut my "have to have it" budget WAY down!!

 

[samsteele]

I felt this way too (same-same ubiquitous plastic junk all over WDW) for years until about a yr or so ago when WDW started to bring in some unique park & resort specific items. The Haunted Mansion store at MK is incredible. Now, I only find a few things there that I really want (like an appetizer plate or two, coasters or a t-shirt for a niece as the prices are top shelf for high end items) but it was the first real contemporary push at WDW for specific, unique merchandise. DIS Springs now has some really decent stuff at the Marketplace Shops. I would rate it right now as 75% plastic common junk vs. 25% unique, interesting items in WDW shops. The resorts now have unique branded items including clothing. A huge improvement over the situation even 3 yrs ago. And it is getting better. Merchandise/souvenirs may be the one thing where WDW has actually started to listen to repeat guests.

 

[EricInPA]

Next candidate for a merchandise overhaul should be the Briar Patch. Turn that place into a Big Thunder/Splash Mountain store and they will have (too much of) my money.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

The Haunted Mansion store at MK is incredible.

I agree, Sam, the Haunted Mansion stuff is some of the "cool stuff" I was referring to buying online for friends who love Halloween! And I always used to love "resort specific" stuff, and the videos I've seen of the Marketplace Co-Op would interest me too.

 

[Shanti]

The overhead involved with them figuring out & monitoring who did or didn't pay the resort fee, & carefully screening services as a result, would nullify the profit WDW would make from the resort fee. If they ever institiute a resort fee, I guarantee you that it won't be optional, just as it typically isn't optional at other locations.