Why hasnt disney Built more Monorail Hotels?

[momof3disneyholics]

That makes noe sense. It would cost millions to just add a station to existing monorail track. That cost has to be passed on someplace, and it's not going to happen at a value resort. Value resorts are built with value in mind. You get minimal amenities, based on the rate you pay.

ANYONE CAN afford a deluxe, they choose not to. You can save longer, stay less nights, take less trips. It comes down to your priorities. Do'nt expect deluxe amenities at a value resort. Amenities cost money to offer, they are not free. That cost has to be recouped someplace. Or were you thinking they would do it to be charitable?

Anne

Anne

Maybe the price could be recouped in what Disney charges for tickets? or with the 25.00 t-shirts? Disney is definately not suffering when it comes to being able to afford things. They save money with the cheap labor that they have for one thing.
It would be nice for Disney to consider families that are on a budget that would still like to be in the middle of the magic to stay at Disney. Not just over in the corner in the value resort. I don't agree that everyone can afford a deluxe.

 

[eclectics]

Hey, no fair bringing hard facts into this!

Don't be surprised if someone posts an entire spread sheet! I've learned many a fascinating fact from these boards!

 

[ducklite]

Maybe the price could be recouped in what Disney charges for tickets? or with the 25.00 t-shirts? Disney is definately not suffering when it comes to being able to afford things. They save money with the cheap labor that they have for one thing.
It would be nice for Disney to consider families that are on a budget that would still like to be in the middle of the magic to stay at Disney. Not just over in the corner in the value resort. I don't agree that everyone can afford a deluxe.

Then you are passing the cost of bringing a value onto the monorail onto everyone else. Not going to happen. You want it, you pay for it, end of story. Going to WDW and staying at a monorail resort is not a God given right.

It all comes down to what you determine to be priorities in your life. People have kids, that's a choice. People don't work overtime, second jobs, or are SAHM's. Again, choices. People don't strive for an education to be able to have higher earnings, another choice. I'm not saying any of those things are right or wrong, there is no right or wrong, it's what you feel is a prioritiy. But to complain that you are 'left in the corner' because the choices you made gave you a particular circumstance, that's just absurd.

Other than making sure citizens of the US have basic needs, such as food and shelter, I don't like the idea of being forced to subsidize anything with my money. Especially paying more for admission so that people can pay less for a resort stay. Again, you have the option of staying at a deluxe. Work a second job, take courses to be able to get promotions at work, take less trips or shorter ones, whatever it takes. But YOU need to make the sacrifice, don't expect others to make it for you.

And BTW--DH and I have a comfortable life. But to get to that point we took a lot of steps. I supported us (barely) with a job that I hated while he went back to school f/t to get his masters. We both have worked second jobs at one point or another to be able to have "extras". We limited out family size to one child. So yes, I practice what I preach. We made sacrifices in order to have the lifestyle we have. We never expected things to be handed to us, or others to subsidize us.

Anne

 

[TDC Nala]

WDW is never going to be like Universal. Disneyland is rather like Universal, there are only two parks and they're built within walking distance of each other. You can run back and forth between the two parks all day if you want (and have a hopper ticket). WDW has far too many venues and far too much land to be built like that.

If you hang at MK mostly I can see the allure of monorail resorts. I'm an Epcot person and prefer the Epcot resorts. My priorities have changed over the years and I'm now at Downtown Disney far more than I'm at any one theme park. Some sort of rail option to DTD would be great since it takes a long time to get there by bus, due to the route the buses take in order to stop at the Marketplace first. I think I may be staying at Saratoga Springs in the future although my points are at the Beach Club Villas, because the SS buses don't have to take that route, they just pretty much drive around the corner.

I do stay at Pop Century a lot and don't consider it to be in a corner anywhere. It's pretty centrally located. You can't walk to any parks from there, but all their buses are direct for now and their transportation takes far less time than the bus transportation from some of the deluxe resorts.

 

[Sammie]

Maybe the price could be recouped in what Disney charges for tickets? or with the 25.00 t-shirts? Disney is definately not suffering when it comes to being able to afford things. They save money with the cheap labor that they have for one thing.
It would be nice for Disney to consider families that are on a budget that would still like to be in the middle of the magic to stay at Disney. Not just over in the corner in the value resort. I don't agree that everyone can afford a deluxe.

I totally agree that not everyone can afford a deluxe resort, and why should they.

Everything in life is not equal, many can not afford a BMW to drive. But there are less expensive cars to purchase.

I think Disney has done a great job of providing a wide range of choices in the cost of on property resorts.

I am sure many would love to be able to afford to stay over in the corner in the value resort. But they can't even afford that.

 

[bicker]

I wonder if anyone has any hard facts on the cost ratio between the monorail and the bus line.

I'm sure Disney does, and their decision is apparently to continue operating the current monorail and not build more.

Disney usually never has a problem with shutting things down that aren't cost effective and one wonders if the monorail is so very expensive to run, why Disney hasn't attempted to shut it down before

Probably because what already exists does provide sufficient return, but the building of more wouldn't.

I'm sure all these "internal studies" have been done by Disney. Too bad we can't take a peek!

But we can: We can watch what Disney does. That's as good of a peek as we can hope for.

 

[eclectics]

But we can: We can watch what Disney does. That's as good of a peek as we can hope for.

Yes, that's all we will ever get, I suppose. I would love to be a fly on the wall for some of the "suits" meetings though. One can only imagine the COP discussions. That one does prove that Disney does listen to us, at least on occasion. If any ride is costly to maintain and repair, it's COP. Don't think that when it was downgraded to "seasonal" there weren't plans to close it permanently. Rumors flew and the fans and guests had a collective loud hissy fit. Now COP is open full time and getting refurbed to boot! I would imagine a similar scenario if the monorail was fiddled with.

 

[Disneyjosh229]

It would be nice for Disney to consider families that are on a budget that would still like to be in the middle of the magic to stay at Disney. Not just over in the corner in the value resort. I don't agree that everyone can afford a deluxe.

Disney dosent have to consider families on a budget! As long as rooms are sold out, people are standing in lines for hours and people keep buying $3 bottles of water, they don't need to revise prices. How can you possibly say that Value's aren't in the "middle of the magic" ? You are within a 10 min car ride of every attraction on the property!

Bottom Line Is...

Yes, trips to Disney are very expensive, regardless of where you stay, it costs money. Some decide to spend the extra money on a nicer room thats on the mono, while others chose to stay longer, in a cheaper resort. Why should I have to pay for your decision?

 

[bicker]

I would love to be a fly on the wall for some of the "suits" meetings though.

I did that for over six years. I can tell you it isn't half as interesting as it may seem.

That one does prove that Disney does listen to us, at least on occasion.

They're always listening -- or at least watching our purchasing behaviors. The COP situation was as likely as not a great example of the Hawthorne Effect on a customer-base.

 

[eclectics]

They're always listening -- or at least watching our purchasing behaviors. The COP situation was as likely as not a great example of the Hawthorne Effect on a customer-base.

Ah, manipulated into feeling important! Oh well, we did get the ride back!

 

[Waggy182]

Originally posted by sotoalf:
Do you have evidence to back up your statements? I know for a fact that, for example, the land between the CR and TTC was discovered to be too unsteady to support a hotel foundation, let alone a hotel. Also: the assertion that operating the monorail costs LESS than running a bus fleet is simply wrong.

Do YOU have the evidence to back up YOUR statements? The land is the same surrounding the SSL. The GF was made "steady", as was the CR and POLY. Unbelievable that anyone would think those were the only three that could be built around SSL.

Originally post by Ducklite:
The estimated cost to build a monorail far exceeds the cost to buy a fleet of buses. It would take over thirty years to break even. The monorail was originally built without cost in mind, when Disney was raking in bucks and shareholders were happy.

Again, it would be most helpful if you would read what is painstakenly written. I did not state a word about construction, I spoke of operating costs, and using the existing mononrail track on the Epcot route. Also, the original monorail was very much built with cost in mind, and to think it was built "when Disney was raking in bucks and shareholders were happy" is ludicrous. Walt Disney World (not named until the dedication ceremony) was built due to Roy's financial savy and relationship with lenders. Disney was not "raking in bucks" at the time. Read your history.

Originally post by Ducklite:
That land isn't envirnmentally sensitive, however it's not stable enough to build on. Some of the land on the Epcot line IS environmentally sensitive. Disney is committed to Environmentality, and they have dedicated a large part of the plot as greenlands.

See above response to sotoalf.

Originally posted by bicker:
Not when you amortize in the cost of construction, with any reasonable time horizon.

See above response to sotoalf.

Originally posted by minnie61650:
Before the MK was even built plans were in place for 4 hotels to be on the monorail line.The Floridian hotel is on the land that was set aside and dedicated to be the Future Asian Resort Hotel (A). The Future
Vanetian (B) Resort was going to located between the Poly (5) and the Contemporary (8). A fifth hotel was going to build on a monorail spur which ended at the future Persian Resort (C). That resort would be located just to east of the Mk and North of the Contemorary and would built with much of the hotel being on /over the water of Bay Lake. So even though the GF was not built until 18 years later a hotel was planned for that area at the same time the monorail was planned.
I got this picture and my info from my"The story of Walt Disney World"
Commemory Edition Book 1971.

Thanks, Linda. I have that book and was wondering if anyone else would post that photo. I can defintely see more resorts around SSL in the future as the need arises.

In the end, we can talk this to death and then resurrect it and beat it some more, but we won't get it done. The corporate level makes the decisions, we just sit back and watch.

 

[CharlesTD]

I think a full DVC only resort would be perfect on that stretch of the monorail between TTC and Epcot.

 

[Suzanne74]

When we were there in early September I was surprised at how crowded the Monorail was and how long we usually had to wait for a train.

I agree - the last 2times we went to WDW (may 2005, sept 2004) the monorail was bogged down with people and longer wait times inbetween. They must have stopped using some of the trains. We stayed at Poly and the boatride was so much quicker then the monorail because of all the stops. It always seemed that they stopped at Contemporary FOREVER it was very annoying. People stuffed in like sweaty sardines since everyone knew it would be 10-15min for the next one. It is a shame but I actually prefer the buses over the monorail now - that is how bad it has gotten.

As far as the OP question, I just don't see how they would be able to pull it off. They would have to close that Epcot line for a long period of time and the it would be bogged down with people getting off and on instead of an express route to Epcot. Personally, I think because of cost issues we won't see the monorail expanding anymore. If so, I think they would have linked something else a long time ago.