It takes me an hour and fifteen minutes to drive to Disney from my home. While it would be possible for me to fly, it would be wildly impractical, time-wise and cost-wise. I pretty much have to have my car with me at Disney in order to get myself and my family there.
We have APs and take many day trips, but we prefer spending a night (or more) on property. We really enjoy the resorts. We've stayed in almost all of them. When I get the Disney "urge," I will often check and see what's available for that night, book a room, and surprise the kids. I do that probably 4 or 5 times a year. In this manner, I am procuring a room that was pretty definitely going to go untenanted that night if I had not paid for it. A win for Disney, and for me.
Disney has its flaws. I've noticed. The creme brulee at the patisserie has gotten more expensive at the same time it has gotten significantly smaller. Just a few years ago we enjoyed amazing evenings in the parks in January/February and September/October when crowds were so light it felt like we had the parks to ourselves. That NEVER happens anymore. Ride lines are longer because they don't run the full ride during slower times. But I've always seen Disney as a glass half-full. An $8 pretzel--well, a pretzel tastes so much better at Disney! A $300 character meal--with Mickey! Overwhelming crowds--so many people experiencing the Disney magic, yay! Overflowing trash cans--well, I'm only noticing this because the parks in general are so clean that it stands out in contrast. A horrible website with awful IT, incredibly uninformed phone CMs, someone who WORKS at Beach Club not being able to tell me where their laundry room is--welllll, not everything about Disney can be perfect. I rationalized, I justified, I made excuses, and I tolerated everything that was wrong with Disney because I truly loved everything that was right.
I can't rationalize the resort parking fee. I just can't find a way to make this ok. This is cognitive dissonance at its finest. I LOVE Disney, I want to continue to love Disney, but they're making it SO HARD! It's like being hit by a boyfriend you're crazy about. You want to excuse his behavior--it was just this one time, he'll never do it again, you must have made him really mad, he's just sensitive--because you love him so much, but he HIT you!
I'll still go to Disney. For now, anyway. We have reservations for 6 nights at the end of May. We'll still go. But I'll never pay for parking. And I'm afraid I won't be looking at Disney from a glass half-full perspective anymore. A $300 character meal will just be an overpriced, mediocre lunch with people dressed up in costumes--easy to pass that up. I don't care to add any more Disney t-shirts to my collection. I wouldn't say my love for Disney has gone, but the feeling has...changed. I had to call in to Disney on Tuesday to make some modifications and I was on hold listening to some Disney "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" music. I would usually hum along in the Disney spirit, but this time I just found it annoying and artificially cheerful. I went online to make some ADRs for our trip, but I ended up just saying forget it, I don't want to give Disney any more of my money. We'll still eat, but it won't be dessert parties and character meals.
I wrote an email and in return got a form letter that didn't even address my concerns. It made me feel even worse. I do think writing in is worthwhile, because while I don't think they're going to backtrack on this, it may give them pause before they initiate any more changes. "Time to raise prices? Uh, maybe not so soon after all the backlash about parking fees. Start charging resort fees? Uh, remember the fallout from the parking fees?" I don't want them to forget this anytime soon. I know I won't.
We won't be renewing our APs next year.