Walt Disney World Parking Fee now $9 dollars

[bicker]

Except that Disney doesn't see use of the transportation system as an exclusive perk for people staying at the resorts.

I took the earlier poster's message as saying that he felt that Disney "should" do so.

To be fair, though, Disney does hold that resort guests have priority on resort-to-park transportation whenever they wish to enforce it.

It's in Disney's interest to keep as many people moving throughout WDW property as possible.

In more ways than that which you mentioned. Guests enroute from attraction to attraction aren't occupying the attraction. In that way, transportation also helps reduce needed capacity.

 

[Principessa1284]

When we went to Disney in May, we went to Chef Mickey's for Breakfast, then to the Magic Kingdom afterwords. So we parked at the Contemporary, and they gave me a 3 hour parking pass. I was not about to have breakfast, go out, go all the way around the kingdom, come back in, pay to park, park, then take the tram/boat. That's a waste of a good hour. So, we chanced it (hoping our tiny little rental car wouldn't be towed away) and left the car in the Contemporary lot. Everything worked out fine and nobody seemed to mind.

But to add onto that, I hate paying for parking whether it's $5 or $9, but $9 really hurts a skrimping college student who has to save and save and still goes way into debt for a 6 day trip. I know they have to charge to park, but maybe offer a senior and student discount?

When I went to a concert at Jones Beach (on Long Island) over the summer, I had cash on me to pay to park, and when I got there, there was no booth and I was confused. Then I pulled out my ticket & receipt & they had already charged $5 or something like that for parking. It didn't hurt me, but for those who got dropped off or for 8 people who came in a van, that make me go ouch.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Boo paying for parking.

 

[bicker]

I'm not sure I like the alternative, i.e., building the cost of parking into, what? admission tickets? That means that folks who have already paid for parking as part of their room rates would pay twice! That wouldn't be fair.

 

[safetymom]

If you are going to give discounts to seniors and students then others would feel they need a discount. How about the locals that visit the park? Surely they deserve a discount on parking?

If you can afford to go to Disney you can afford to pay for parking.

 

[Another Voice]

...the cost of parking into...

Which brings up an interesting point.

What exactly is WDW's "cost of parking".

They don't anything on the land - it was all purchased with cash back in the 1960's. They don't pay property tax, because the Reedy Creek essentially taxes itself. Any of the construction costs of the lot have long since been amortized.

How about security, maintenance, lighting, etc.? Well, my local shopping mall provides all of that as well for free. And to they don't charge me sixty bucks to get inside the mall to spend more money, yet I'm paying Disney a lot of dough up front to visit their establishment.

What are we paying for?

 

[Maistre Gracey]

How about security, maintenance, lighting, etc.? Well, my local shopping mall provides all of that as well for free. And to they don't charge me sixty bucks to get inside the mall to spend more money, yet I'm paying Disney a lot of dough up front to visit their establishment.

What are we paying for?

Gee, I guess I should start going to your mall.
I can only speak for the mall close to me here in Connecticut, but we don't have Disney attractions in ours.

MG

 

[peter11435]

Which brings up an interesting point.

What exactly is WDW's "cost of parking".

They don't anything on the land - it was all purchased with cash back in the 1960's. They don't pay property tax, because the Reedy Creek essentially taxes itself. Any of the construction costs of the lot have long since been amortized.

How about security, maintenance, lighting, etc.? Well, my local shopping mall provides all of that as well for free. And to they don't charge me sixty bucks to get inside the mall to spend more money, yet I'm paying Disney a lot of dough up front to visit their establishment.

What are we paying for?

Do ever go to WDW?

 

[YoHo]

Gee, I guess I should start going to your mall.
I can only speak for the mall close to me here in Connecticut, but we don't have Disney attractions in ours.

MG

And that's why you pay addmission. He makes a valid point. What are you paying that $9 for? The land has been paid for, the asphault amortized a long time ago. Reedy Creek sets the taxes, so any taxes paid would go to itself. What are you supporting here?

The example of a mall which charges no admission fee, simply charges the stores for the parking facilities which are then built into the merchandising cost which item for item is probably cheaper then anything you'd by at WDW.

Why does parking cost anything at all?

 

[Maistre Gracey]

And that's why you pay addmission. He makes a valid point. What are you paying that $9 for?

That's not the way I read it, but it may be the way AV meant it.
Since his last sentence was talking about the cost of admission, I associated it with that.

I don't see anything wrong with spreading around the cost.
All of you are all smart enough to know that if parking were so called "free", it would only be buried in the cost of admission, or food, ect...

MG

 

[YoHo]

Granted, but I would guess that at $9 they're making millions more then they need to support it.

Again, Malls seem to do well by charging the stores and those same stores are still generally cheaper item for item then anything you might buy at WDW. No, that charge is to pay for ABC family and other boneheaded moves.

 

[raidermatt]

All of you are all smart enough to know that if parking were so called "free", it would only be buried in the cost of admission, or food, ect...

Careful. If you read the transportation thread, you might find that you are mistaken...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure AV was talking about the parking fee, not park admission.

Yes, if it were "free" the fee would most certainly be built into the prices of other things. But the point is that we should understand that the reason the fee would be built in elsewhere isn't to cover any actual costs of operating the parking lot (ok, the very small costs of operating the parking lot). It would be built in elsewhere because certain margins are required of the resort, and if revenue from one spot goes away, it either has to be made up somewhere else, or costs have to be cut to maintain those margins.

Whether that's the most optimal way to make pricing decisions for WDW is another matter.

 

[Another Voice]

A shopping mall is able to provide all of the services that Disney provides in their parking lot* - yet a shopping mall doesn't charge for parking nor do do they have an "admission charge" where a parking fee can be hidden.

Yet parking for WDW is high and rising. Why? A parking lot in a city downtown has to pay taxes, probably the morgage on the land, utlilities - a whole range of costs that WDW doesn't have to pay.

So when people shrug off something as "prices are going up all over the place", step back and think for a second. Are costs going up, or is this nothing but a hidden price increase?


* - and yes, a shopping mall near me not only built two large parking structures (with no charge), they also provide several parking lot trams.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

A shopping mall is able to provide all of the services that Disney provides in their parking lot* - yet a shopping mall doesn't charge for parking nor do do they have an "admission charge" where a parking fee can be hidden.

Yet parking for WDW is high and rising. Why? A parking lot in a city downtown has to pay taxes, probably the morgage on the land, utlilities - a whole range of costs that WDW doesn't have to pay.

So when people shrug off something as "prices are going up all over the place", step back and think for a second. Are costs going up, or is this nothing but a hidden price increase?


* - and yes, a shopping mall near me not only built two large parking structures (with no charge), they also provide several parking lot trams.

The stores pay rent to the mall management. Out of that rent comes parking lot security, repaving, garages, etc...
Where do you think the stores get the rent money?
Clearly some of the money your wife pays for that sweater ends up paying for the parking garages.

You can hide the cost anyway you want, but these things are not "free".

MG

 

[Another Voice]

Clearly some of the money your wife pays for that sweater ends up paying for the parking garages.

Yea, the mall gets a couple pennies from the cost of the sweater.

Disney gets 60 bucks for walking through the turnstile, twenty bucks for lunch, five bucks for a coke and a cookie, thirty bucks for dinner, two hundred a night for my hotel room AND they get the whole fifty bucks for the cost of my wife's sweater on top of that.

How come Disney can't manage to squeeze parking out of all of that when my shopping mall can manage with so little?


The real answer is because we're all dumb enough to pay for it. Parking fees have nothing to due with parking costs - it's just another revenue stream for the company.

 

[Aintdisablast]

Anybody know if DL ever charge for parking prior to the Evil Ones arrival ?

When did WDW start charging for parking ? Didn't manning post mention it was $4.00 back in '72 ? Is this correct ? Isn't $4.00 in 1972 dollars equal to $18.00 or $19.00 by todays standard ?

 

[YoHo]

I believe Disneyland charged $1 and I thought that was WDW's price too.

But that's not fair, because the entire price structure was completely different what with the ticketbooks.

 

[Aintdisablast]

I believe Disneyland charged $1 and I thought that was WDW's price too.

But that's not fair, because the entire price structure was completely different what with the ticketbooks.

"But that's not fair" ??? What kind of response is that ?

What do ticket books vs park pass have to do with charging for parking ?

If you do manage to explain why it was okay for DL to charge a buck back in '55 to park, then I guess I can assume they dropped the fee once once they converted over to a pass, right ?

Did WDW ever use a ticket book ? I thought that concept was scraped long before MK opened.

What does DL charge now for parking ?

 

[DancingBear]

The real answer is because we're all dumb enough to pay for it. Parking fees have nothing to due with parking costs - it's just another revenue stream for the company.

Yeah, but it's a pretty conventional revenue stream for entertainment venues. It's hard for me to get worked up about this item.

 

[DancingBear]

"But that's not fair" ??? What kind of response is that ?

What do ticket books vs park pass have to do with charging for parking ?

If you do manage to explain why it was okay for DL to charge a buck back in '55 to park, then I guess I can assume they dropped the fee once once they converted over to a pass, right ?

Did WDW ever use a ticket book ? I thought that concept was scraped long before MK opened.

What does DL charge now for parking ?

WDW did have ticket books. The point about the pass system was that you really didn't pay much just to enter the park, only for the attractions you went on, so parking could be viewed as more of an admission fee.

But, yes, it was another revenue stream at DL also.

 

[Aintdisablast]

WDW did have ticket books. The point about the pass system was that you really didn't pay much just to enter the park, only for the attractions you went on, so parking could be viewed as more of an admission fee.

But, yes, it was another revenue stream at DL also.

Not trying to be arguementive, just asking because I don't know: If you had no intention on riding a ride in DL back in the days of the ticket book, could you enter DL free of charge just to look around ?

When were all the ticket books scrapped ?