Disney Resorts to start charging parking fees....

[dachsie]

First, compelling DIS UNPLUGGED podcast today. (Thank You!) The Disney reorganization offered particular insight to various shifts to further "profitize" aspects to vacationing. As I understood the conversation, it appears that the parking fee is one area where it will help to increase the profit margin expressed to shareholders, as well as offset costs to give a better "balanced financial picture" in the new organizational structure. What this means (to my understanding) is that there appears greater incentive to increase more fees and types of income, than there is risk of capital loss when applying fees and other types of income.

Doesn't hurt that the execs will get huge bonuses either. Their profit margin apparently wasn't big enough?

 

[Tksolomom]

I am a DVC member and I co planned to guest services this week. In the email, I said that although the change didn’t impact me directly that I was very disappointed in their decision. Today I got a canned email that said the same thing I emailed them. It won’t impact me directly because I am DVC, have a nice day.

 

[disneyholic family]

I am a DVC member and I co planned to guest services this week. In the email, I said that although the change didn’t impact me directly that I was very disappointed in their decision. Today I got a canned email that said the same thing I emailed them. It won’t impact me directly because I am DVC, have a nice day.

you should send your email to george kalogridis at george.kalogridis@disney.com
you'll get a call back..

.

 

[yaya74]

Just got my call back from Mr. Kalogrisis's office! I just sent the email after 5pm last night and did not put my phone number in it. They really did look me up to get my number! Big Mickey is watching! The woman I spoke to had the same talking points I have heard others have had. She says that they will "monitor" the day parkers, for whatever that will mean. She also started in with the "keeping in line with the industry standard" and I very politely stopped her right there, and explained that Disney is an industry leader, and yes, other hotels charge for parking, but they are hundreds of dollars less a night. She then started to argue that Universal Resorts charge for parking, and I just so happened to have recently booked Royal Pacific and Portofino and I could quickly rattle off those room rates and how they are literally hundreds less than what I was looking at Disney. She seemed to run out of talking points then, but "thanked me" for my feedback. I do not envy her job at all! I was careful to be kind and polite, but not agreeing with what I do not agree with.

I have not gotten anything back from the email I sent the regular customer service email address when this all broke last week.

Did you mention that you get UNLIMITED EXPRESS PASS by staying at Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific?? If Disney offers UNLIMITED Fast Pass by staying at one of the Deluxe Resort without adding a cent to their current existing price, I really don't mind paying that $24 overnight parking! My family stayed at Portofino Bay last summer and we had a great time with that unlimited express pass. Enjoy your trip to Universal Studio!!

 

[ElenaJane]

Did you mention that you get UNLIMITED EXPRESS PASS by staying at Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific?? If Disney offers UNLIMITED Fast Pass by staying at one of the Deluxe Resort without adding a cent to their current existing price, I really don't mind paying that $24 overnight parking! My family stayed at Portofino Bay last summer and we had a great time with that unlimited express pass. Enjoy your trip to Universal Studio!!

I sure did! I said not only are the rooms $300 cheaper A NIGHT at Portofino, but it is also a beautiful themed resort and has the unlimited express passes! She did not have any talking points to refute that. I might just have convinced her to take her family to Universal this year.

 

[ZuuL]

I sure did! I said not only are the rooms $300 cheaper A NIGHT at Portofino, but it is also a beautiful themed resort and has the unlimited express passes! She did not have any talking points to refute that. I might just have convinced her to take her family to Universal this year.

The only negatives I’ve ever gotten out the the express passes is they’re not free, sadly. And the last time we used them they didn’t really help the wait times. Though that may be due to how many people are now able to get them. Where as when they first started it was very limited.

 

[fla4fun]

I am still undecided as to whether I will be planning any more WDW trips or not. I have a trip booked for next month, and it's the first time in my life I'm just not looking forward to it, even though the parking fee won't apply. They have taken the happy out of my "happy place". I may book more through third party sites, if there are codes available. If I can get a cheaper rate than Disney offers, plus cause Disney to pay a commission, I may not feel quite so bad about paying the parking . . .

 

[Mike J]

So I just stumbled across this. I made an orbitz res for All Stars last night around 1am Eastern. I’m hoping I made it in before the cut off due to time zones but would they (Disney) tell me if I called? I didn’t see this disclosed during the reservation process on Orbitz and I even tried going through the motions this morning at the Disney site for the same room and it also made it to the payment page with no mention of a parking fee.

 

[KrazeeK120]

So I just stumbled across this. I made an orbitz res for All Stars last night around 1am Eastern. I’m hoping I made it in before the cut off due to time zones but would they (Disney) tell me if I called? I didn’t see this disclosed during the reservation process on Orbitz and I even tried going through the motions this morning at the Disney site for the same room and it also made it to the payment page with no mention of a parking fee.

My guess is that it’s the Eastern time zone that matters. If it was after the cutoff in the Eastern time zone, I suspect you’re out of luck.

My other guess is that the parking fee won’t be mentioned anywhere when booking. I’ve stayed at a few other hotels which charge for parking and it’s not mentioned when booking. The parking information is elsewhere on the website (as is the case for Disney). The fee isn’t applicable to everyone, and it’s not paid up front, so it’s not part of the booking process.

These are just guesses, like I said.

 

[abbiep]

I hope someone at Disney is reading these post. I am set to go on a Disney Cruise next Saturday and had a room booked close to Port Canaveral. This morning I thought I would check into staying the one night at a Disney resort. Its only one night and it gives us the opportunity to stay at a resort we wouldn't normally stay at. I was about to click the purchase button when I went back and reread about the hotel and saw the 24 per night parking. I was like what the what.... are they nuts. I was going to pay almost $700 for a room and now they are going to charge me 24 extra. Nope, I will stay where I originally booked. So, while I am only one person, they just lost $700 from me plus whatever we would have spent at the resort for food, gifts etc. I am sure that I am not the only one. Also every other year we stay on site while we go to DW and pay the extra cost to stay there verse staying off site. One by one they are chipping away at the perks that I was willing to pay extra for. IN the future we will probably start looking to stay off site. So Disney, while in the short term you will be making a little more money, in the long term you are going to loose a lot more money. Good luck to the geniuses that came up with the revenue increasing plan.

 

[KenHutch]

Plus those guests that stay onsite for like 10 days. Those are going to be some hefty fees, especially at $24 day (Contemporary)

Our average stay 10 to 12 days.

 

[OhAmbs]

Just modified my reservation for the last week of August. Didn't see anything about a parking fee being added on and our res # stayed the same. I'm interested to see how this works and the system 'knowing' my initial booking was done before March 21st.

 

[gmar1210]

Our average stay 10 to 12 days.

And you drive your own car to the parks or fly in and use the bus?

 

[sbd78]

So we are staying at POR late May/early June. My friend who lives in Florida is planning on making a reservation there and meeting us for a couple of days. I was concerned because when I've looked previously, only royal rooms were showing up. Like us, they are a family of 5 so they can't stay in a royal room. I've checked again over the last few days and several other room types that sleep 5 have opened up. Could this be because people are cancelling because they are angry over the parking fee?

 

[KenHutch]

And you drive your own car to the parks or fly in and use the bus?

We drive in and I would not be directly affected by this (thanks to the Marines I have one of those slightly broken license plates). But this is my last onsite stay. For our 2021 trip I will be at the Swan/Dolphin and I will save several thousand dollars.

 

[Gryhndmom]

So we are staying at POR late May/early June. My friend who lives in Florida is planning on making a reservation there and meeting us for a couple of days. I was concerned because when I've looked previously, only royal rooms were showing up. Like us, they are a family of 5 so they can't stay in a royal room. I've checked again over the last few days and several other room types that sleep 5 have opened up. Could this be because people are cancelling because they are angry over the parking fee?

Hmmm...maybe....arguement could be made that yes rooms opened up as people who had reservations made are making a point with Disney and then it could be rooms opened up due to other reasons.

 

[BarbieGal457]

So we are staying at POR late May/early June. My friend who lives in Florida is planning on making a reservation there and meeting us for a couple of days. I was concerned because when I've looked previously, only royal rooms were showing up. Like us, they are a family of 5 so they can't stay in a royal room. I've checked again over the last few days and several other room types that sleep 5 have opened up. Could this be because people are cancelling because they are angry over the parking fee?

I would think that might be because it's getting much closer to packages being due to be paid in full and people might be canceling for that reason? I'm not sure how many people would cancel trips so close to the start date over this, especially when they wouldn't be affected by it, assuming their reservations were made before today. Not that it's not a possibility, i just think there are probably a bunch of other more likely reasons for such close-to-start cancellations.

 

[PrincessV]

FAQ for online reservations....

View attachment 310123

You should have called.

I wasn't switching form room-only to a package - it was room-only to room-only at a different resort. And I never, ever call because I don't have that kind of free time in my life to be on hold for an hour, lol! It's all moot, as I'm staying offsite anyway, but I will be very surprised if no one has problems with booking yesterday for free parking and then trying to switch to a discounted rate. We'll see!

~~~
In other news, a summer discount is out today - shocking! I went through the booking process, just to see... no mention anywhere of parking fees. The language is still on the Parking page and in the resorts' info pages, but nowhere in the booking process.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I wasn't switching form room-only to a package - it was room-only to room-only at a different resort. And I never, ever call because I don't have that kind of free time in my life to be on hold for an hour, lol! It's all moot, as I'm staying offsite anyway, but I will be very surprised if no one has problems with booking yesterday for free parking and then trying to switch to a discounted rate. We'll see!

~~~
In other news, a summer discount is out today - shocking! I went through the booking process, just to see... no mention anywhere of parking fees. The language is still on the Parking page and in the resorts' info pages, but nowhere in the booking process.

Some repeat visitors are going to be in for an ugly surprise.

 

[lucas]

I hope someone at Disney is reading these post. I am set to go on a Disney Cruise next Saturday and had a room booked close to Port Canaveral. This morning I thought I would check into staying the one night at a Disney resort. Its only one night and it gives us the opportunity to stay at a resort we wouldn't normally stay at. I was about to click the purchase button when I went back and reread about the hotel and saw the 24 per night parking. I was like what the what.... are they nuts. I was going to pay almost $700 for a room and now they are going to charge me 24 extra. Nope, I will stay where I originally booked. So, while I am only one person, they just lost $700 from me plus whatever we would have spent at the resort for food, gifts etc. I am sure that I am not the only one. Also every other year we stay on site while we go to DW and pay the extra cost to stay there verse staying off site. One by one they are chipping away at the perks that I was willing to pay extra for. IN the future we will probably start looking to stay off site. So Disney, while in the short term you will be making a little more money, in the long term you are going to loose a lot more money. Good luck to the geniuses that came up with the revenue increasing plan.

The last time we went on a DCL cruise, we had to pay for parking in Cocoa Beach at the Hilton Homewood Suites (right by the port). I couldn't believe it as they have lots of parking spots available.