Paid parking is coming to WDW resorts March 2018

[tlmadden73]

It's obviously not Disney, but Las Vegas' has parking fees, that are higher as well, and it may be costing them visitors. I guess only time will tell if the fees have in impact on visitors coming to the Mouse.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/lasve...s-may-mean-fewer-visitors-20180501-story.html

Hopefully the outrage is enough that this deceptive "fee" concept can be eliminated across the board. Just man up and charge what you need to charge - all inclusive. No customer likes being nickel-and-dimed to death on things they really have no option to opt out of.

People like "free" things. Most suburban hotels give you free breakfast. In reality, it isn't free .. the hotel could probably charge $10+ a night less, but people like that value.
If the Hampton Inn started charging guests a $10/person "breakfast fee" instead of just raising their prices $10 -- you'd have a lot of upset customers that may just do business elsewhere. I don't see it worth the risk, but I am no business major.

I just don't understand the concept of places charging people to PARK to come to their establishment when that is how people use it. In most cases, the parking lot isn't used for anything else but THAT establishment. That's basically like a cover charge. What if Best Buy started charging a cover charge just for walking in the door? What if Target charged a shopping cart fee? What if table service restaurants started charging a "dinnerware cleaning fee"?

The goal of a business is to make money. Putting barriers (fees) just for your customers to drive to your place is just lazy to me. It's saying .. we want to raise prices but hopefully our customers are too dumb to realize that a parking fee IS raising the price.

Fees seem to do nothing but anger consumers, which seem opposite of what businesses (especially VACATION businesses) should be striving to do.

Just price what you want and let the customers decide what the best value is.

 

[UncleMike101]

Hopefully the outrage is enough that this deceptive "fee" concept can be eliminated across the board. Just man up and charge what you need to charge - all inclusive. No customer likes being nickel-and-dimed to death on things they really have no option to opt out of.

People like "free" things. Most suburban hotels give you free breakfast. In reality, it isn't free .. the hotel could probably charge $10+ a night less, but people like that value.
If the Hampton Inn started charging guests a $10/person "breakfast fee" instead of just raising their prices $10 -- you'd have a lot of upset customers that may just do business elsewhere. I don't see it worth the risk, but I am no business major.

I just don't understand the concept of places charging people to PARK to come to their establishment when that is how people use it. In most cases, the parking lot isn't used for anything else but THAT establishment. That's basically like a cover charge. What if Best Buy started charging a cover charge just for walking in the door? What if Target charged a shopping cart fee? What if table service restaurants started charging a "dinnerware cleaning fee"?

The goal of a business is to make money. Putting barriers (fees) just for your customers to drive to your place is just lazy to me. It's saying .. we want to raise prices but hopefully our customers are too dumb to realize that a parking fee IS raising the price.

Fees seem to do nothing but anger consumers, which seem opposite of what businesses (especially VACATION businesses) should be striving to do.

Just price what you want and let the customers decide what the best value is.

Yup...
It appears that the upper Management at Disney has the mentality that if they whiz on our shoes and tell us it's just rain we'll believe them.

 

[DebbieB]

Just wait until they add resort fees, oh my......

I'll be down the road at Universals Endless summer family suite for far less than Disney charge for the all star resorts, even after all the added fees

I stayed at Universal 2 weeks ago. At Portofino, parking was $33 per night. We paid $290 a night including tax for the room. Nice thing was it included Express Pass.

 

[DebbieB]

Sure they can - the plate reader picks up plate number at the same time the MB reader identifies MDE profile: bam, plate number is now associated with an MDE profile, and that profile is attached to a resort stay. If the plate is an Uber car, the exit plate reader registers the car exiting the same day and no parking fee will be charged. If it's a rental, the exit plate reader does not log an exit & the system registers the plate staying overnight and charges a parking fee to the resort portfolio connected to that MDE profile. Makes no difference who owns the car as the plate reader isn't accessing a database, only connecting a plate number to a MB, and that MB is associated with an MDE profile, and that MDE profile is associated with a resort stay portfolio. That's my understanding, anyway.

Interesting. We stayed at AoA last week, used an Uber from Polynesian to AoA one night. They asked to scan my magic band. I don't think they scanned the band for the Uber when we arrived, we transferred from Universal.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

It's obviously not Disney, but Las Vegas' has parking fees, that are higher as well, and it may be costing them visitors. I guess only time will tell if the fees have in impact on visitors coming to the Mouse.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/lasve...s-may-mean-fewer-visitors-20180501-story.html

We are staying in Vegas at The Palazzo (five star, all suite hotel) soon and they don’t have parking fees.

Of course, they do have a ridiculous $45 a night resort fee (which is common among hotels in Vegas), but the total we are paying per night to stay at the Palazzo, including the resort fee, is about the same as what Disney charges to stay in a Little Mermaid room at AoA (not including parking). So that’s a difference.

Also, I don’t have the warm, fuzzy feelings about Vegas that I have so enjoyed having about Disney. We expect Vegas to be seedy. We have quite different expectations of Disney.

 

[CanuckMickey]

I think Disney should be disgusted with charging parking fees for hotel guests. We stay at the Polynesian Hotel every year and the rooms run around $450/night. I know that us paying an extra $24/night to park is not going to kill us but it is the principle. Disney has to realize that eventually even the true diehard Disney fans will get tired of being nickle & dimed to death and start staying at hotels off Disney property. I would think that a company that just made over a billion on the new Avengers movie, could cover the cost of parking for hotel guests.

 

[kiki02]

I think Disney should be disgusted with charging parking fees for hotel guests. We stay at the Polynesian Hotel every year and the rooms run around $450/night. I know that us paying an extra $24/night to park is not going to kill us but it is the principle. Disney has to realize that eventually even the true diehard Disney fans will get tired of being nickle & dimed to death and start staying at hotels off Disney property. I would think that a company that just made over a billion on the new Avengers movie, could cover the cost of parking for hotel guests.

Absolutely the principle and seriously tacky.

 

[Planogirl]

Plus I fully expect resort fees at some point and of course prices will continue to go up. I'm only one but I won't pay it.

 

[larry47591]

Has anyone actually been charged parking yet?

 

[PrincessV]

Just had a one-night stay at CSR, booked before March 21: was not charged for overnight parking. My MB also didn't work to open the parking gate on the Casistas side when I first arrived, but I was behind a line of cars that weren't able to open it, so not sure that was specific to me; we all had to push the button to have it opened remotely.

 

[rteetz]

Just had a one-night stay at CSR, booked before March 21: was not charged for overnight parking. My MB also didn't work to open the parking gate on the Casistas side when I first arrived, but I was behind a line of cars that weren't able to open it, so not sure that was specific to me; we all had to push the button to have it opened remotely.

You booked before March 21st so you were in the window to not have to pay.

 

[PrincessV]

You booked before March 21st so you were in the window to not have to pay.

Yep, exactly. But others who did the same have been charged anyway, so I kept an eye on it.

 

[rteetz]

Yep, exactly. But others who did the same have been charged anyway, so I kept an eye on it.

Have they? I haven't seen any reports of that.

 

[PrincessV]

Have they? I haven't seen any reports of that.

I saw at least one report of it somewhere on the DIS, but also a friend of mine (IRL, not on the DIS) had it happen.

 

[rteetz]

I saw at least one report of it somewhere on the DIS, but also a friend of mine (IRL, not on the DIS) had it happen.

Interesting, did they dispute it? The website specifically states if you booked before the 21st you don't get charged.

 

[PrincessV]

Interesting, did they dispute it? The website specifically states if you booked before the 21st you don't get charged.

Oh yeah! She saw the charge in MDE and went to the front desk to have it corrected. The CM didn't seem to know anything about the magic Mar. 21 date, but it was settled once a manager was called in. This was at POR.

 

[rteetz]

Oh yeah! She saw the charge in MDE and went to the front desk to have it corrected. The CM didn't seem to know anything about the magic Mar. 21 date, but it was settled once a manager was called in. This was at POR.

Ok, glad they got that taken care of. This is the first report of actual charges happening that I have seen too.

 

[PrincessV]

Ok, glad they got that taken care of. This is the first report of actual charges happening that I have seen too.

I can't remember what thread I saw the report here on the DIS - I feel like it wasn't one of the couple main ones about parking fees. It was a similar report.

 

[tlmadden73]

Oh yeah! She saw the charge in MDE and went to the front desk to have it corrected. The CM didn't seem to know anything about the magic Mar. 21 date, but it was settled once a manager was called in. This was at POR.

I can see that easily happening. I wonder if the booking before March 21st exception is simply a "policy" that the guests have to police themselves.

Has anyone determined what they do to prevent people from "bending the truth" and just saying you are there to "visit" the resort to eat or shop?
I am still hazy on how they determine to charge you for parking or not. Do they just charge everyone by default and remove the fee if:
1) The system has you using Magical Express
2) You booked before March 21
3) You talk to a manager to explain you arrived via Taxi/Uber.

I modified my booking (via website) to add a day to my vacation. I wonder if that changes my "booking date" and have to be on the lookout for this fee during my November vacation.

 

[lucas]

I can see that easily happening. I wonder if the booking before March 21st exception is simply a "policy" that the guests have to police themselves.

Has anyone determined what they do to prevent people from "bending the truth" and just saying you are there to "visit" the resort to eat or shop?
I am still hazy on how they determine to charge you for parking or not. Do they just charge everyone by default and remove the fee if:
1) The system has you using Magical Express
2) You booked before March 21
3) You talk to a manager to explain you arrived via Taxi/Uber.

I modified my booking (via website) to add a day to my vacation. I wonder if that changes my "booking date" and have to be on the lookout for this fee during my November vacation.

I'm wondering all the same things.

We are checking into POP Century next week and for the 1st time ever, I have done the on-line check-in and plan on skipping the actual guard's lane at the booth. (This plan is all based on from what I have read here.) Yeah right, we'll see how this all goes down!!