Paid parking is coming to WDW resorts March 2018

Will the new resort parking fees impact your travel (planned or future)?

  • Not at all

    Votes: 234 28.6%
  • I might consider staying off site

    Votes: 245 30.0%
  • I will keep my currently booked trip, but will not stay on site after that

    Votes: 161 19.7%
  • I will cancel my booked trip and stay off site instead

    Votes: 37 4.5%
  • I will not be returning to Disney parks in the foreseeable future

    Votes: 79 9.7%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 61 7.5%

  • Total voters
    817
According to a WDWMagic source DVC will get two cars per room included in their stay. If it does happen it won't happen within the next couple weeks but will happen within the next fiscal quarter.
ETA: Never mind - I missed the "DVC" part of this.
 
Add me to the list of people who don’t stay at hotels that charge for parking. I have three 11 night trips on property booked for this year, and don’t have an extra grand to throw away on parking. This is something that is really going to impact people who live just a few hours drive away. Who wants to fly from Daytona to Disney (or is that even feasible)? I don’t buy the argument that everyone does it, or even that everyone has a choice to fly. Not every hotel does, and not everyone has the ability to fly. If it comes to pass, I will have to cancel one of my trips to cover the parking on the other two, and spend the extra vacation week sitting on my porch watching the grass grow. Or just cancel them all and go elsewhere on relatively short notice. Fun times . . :headache: :furious:
 


A lot of us DVC members have felt Disney is catering more to the “once in a lifetime” or big spenders the past few years with more hard ticketed events, less EMH etc. That same crowd won’t really notice a few hundred dollars for parking. Those of us that travel to Disney often will notice but Disney figures we’ll either pay up, or leave and somehow a “once in a lifetime” guest will make up the difference.

This strikes me similar to the airlines and baggage fees. Everyone complains but they earn a small fortune because after a while the masses forget and don’t care. Hotels have been doing the parking fee or resort fee and generally it has worked. Keep hotel or air fare rates “lower” on first glance but make up for the difference in fees.
 
One of the reasons I don't stay at Swan or Dolphin is because of the resort fee. Yeah, they may look cheaper than the Disney Epcot resorts, but factor in that resort fee, and a lot of times they are about the same.
I’m generally a fan of the Swan and Dolphin, but I agree with your overall point.

Every Disney room rate comes with round trip airport transportation for everyone staying in the room. Five people in a moderate room? That’s five DME tickets. I don’t think too many people do the math on how much a la carte airport transportation costs.
 


WHOA, hang on... is this really happening??? Or still speculative? It's hard to tell from the posts so far.

If it is real, or is likely to be soon, it's incredibly depressing; I'm starting to feel like Disney is actively trying to drive me away at this point. First my FL AP got more expensive with more restrictions. Then resort prices increased faster than my income, so we gave up Deluxe stays altogether, reduced our Mod stays, and started staying offsite a lot more. Paying for parking each day of a resort stay would have to be the final straw; I simply cannot afford it. After almost 30 years of regular visits, calling it quits because I can't afford to park my car - which is the only I can travel 90 miles to WDW - is just too much!

(tl;dr: Mickey keeps showing me in no uncertain terms that my financial kind is unwanted, but I guess I'm just to stubborn to throw in the towel.)

RE: Bolded. THEY ARE. Seriously, they have said as much. They are trying to drive away some of the guests, to make the remaining guests have a "more premium" (actual Iger quote) experience at a higher cost. They are pushing up prices, charging for things they didn't in the past and they will keep doing so until enough people stop going. They are trying to find the price point now that turns people off.
 
A lot of us DVC members have felt Disney is catering more to the “once in a lifetime” or big spenders the past few years with more hard ticketed events, less EMH etc. That same crowd won’t really notice a few hundred dollars for parking. Those of us that travel to Disney often will notice but Disney figures we’ll either pay up, or leave and somehow a “once in a lifetime” guest will make up the difference.

I thought DVC gets 2 cars at no charge?

That said, I think the hard ticket events are much easier owning DVC.

Almost embarrassed our Platinum Plus AP was $505 tax included, and Deluxe rooms under $100 a night in dues, as well as more and more choices of DVC Resorts.

My guess is Riviera will be open to DVC as well, another to try-and with the gondola. Can't wait.
 
Last edited:
This really *bleeps*. We refuse to buy DVC because we are from FL, live close by and get Military discounts so no need. We have gone every year when in the states and since DH retired from USMC and the State of Fl we try to go more often and stay Deluxe. Just made a ressie on Monday and this would eat up the discount we got. I can see paid valet parking but charging guests is ridiculous!
 
They have been charging parking for overnight guests since at least 2011 if not way before that. The only guests that are exempt from that fee at DLR are those staying on DVC point reservations.

No they weren't. They used to charge what they called a "resort fee" and rolled parking into that. They dropped the "resort fee" and started calling it a straight parking fee a few years ago. It started off as being $14, then went to $15 and is now $20.
 
RE: Bolded. THEY ARE. Seriously, they have said as much. They are trying to drive away some of the guests, to make the remaining guests have a "more premium" (actual Iger quote) experience at a higher cost. They are pushing up prices, charging for things they didn't in the past and they will keep doing so until enough people stop going. They are trying to find the price point now that turns people off.

I find from reading here and elsewhere that there are quite a number of people who don't mind this approach though, although I don't actually believe that is what is happening.

For us it just means spacing out our trips even more so we can afford to stay where we want - which for us is on-site Epcot Resort area. We like to travel other places, so all of our vacation budget can't go to WDW - now we have to save an extra couple months to pay the increases. Which we will do until we don't want to, but for now Disney is still one of my favorite places to visit. :)
 
Last edited:
This feels like a low blow. Resort prices are already insanely high. Adding in parking costs on top of that is just highway robbery.

We are among the group that flies in and rents a car for the week. I don't like using the Disney transportation. There's nothing wrong with it per say. I just find it easier to take a car so we don't have to switch busses all the time in order to follow our plans.

As an AP holder, we already get free parking at the parks. We started staying onsite a couple years ago purely for convenience. It's nice to live in the bubble. :) That being said, we have paid a lot less to rent a house off site. We always have lots of room, our own pool, and a fairly quick drive to the parks. I gave up some of those amenities to stay onsite. Free resort parking is one of the perks IMO. If I have to start paying $20 a night just to park my car, I'm going to start questioning if staying onsite is worthwhile to me. This year alone we'd have to pay $350 extra just to park where we sleep. That's crazy! I'd think they would rather we spent that cash on the restaurants or park souvenirs.
 
I am not surprised but I cannot figure out the exact reason. Is it:

1. the obvious, WDW charges more because it can (the fallback to the industry standard model)?
2. WDW wants to further discourage venturing off property (I really thought the majority of people who stay on property, do not generally venture off)?
3. WDW is running out of parking spaces?
4. WDW is losing guests due to "cheaper" hotel rates elsewhere so they break out the parking "cost" to compete with online search engines?

I think it's "1" but wonder...

Or 5. They are amping up security and will use the money from parking to pay for it?
 
RE: Bolded. THEY ARE. Seriously, they have said as much. They are trying to drive away some of the guests, to make the remaining guests have a "more premium" (actual Iger quote) experience at a higher cost. They are pushing up prices, charging for things they didn't in the past and they will keep doing so until enough people stop going. They are trying to find the price point now that turns people off.

Oh they're not just pushing away those with smaller wallets. They're pushing those with the money to spend away as well. I'm willing to spend a premium but only for a premium experience which Disney World I'm sorry is no longer providing. I sold my DVC contract at BLT several years ago in anticipation of Disney's new priority towards those who are addicted without limits and will spend without adequate compensation. Charging for things they didn't in the past does not provide more benefit for increased cost. Theres a line between just raising the price beyond the average consumer but providing exemplary service thus justifying the cost vs just raising the cost without an experience which justifies the increase.

I can't even park my Tesla at ANY of the onsite resorts and plug in because Disney claims there is "no demand for electric vehicle charging at resorts". Universal has chargers, Chargepoint managed to get approval from Disney for a handful of points at Epcot, AK, TTC and the DS garages but only a handful and most are always occupied. Will maintenance let me borrow the plug they use to charge their golf carts? Sometimes but not often enough for me to rely on it. What exactly am I getting for this new premium expense?
 
I’m generally a fan of the Swan and Dolphin, but I agree with your overall point.

Every Disney room rate comes with round trip airport transportation for everyone staying in the room. Five people in a moderate room? That’s five DME tickets. I don’t think too many people do the math on how much a la carte airport transportation costs.
Except you can rent a car for a week for dirt cheap if you try. But if charging for parking then yeah-the equation changes.

This will certainly add fuel to fire for the onsite/offsite debate.

Lots and lots of cheap villa rentals with no resort or parking fees (maybe 5 minutes farther out than those that charge the fees?) + car rental+ parking at parks is still gonna be less than onsite and now ? parking at resort fee....especially with food cost savings.

And if the tiering of resorts goes away and priced according to transportation options (ie monorail, walking distance and skyliner)...plus this will further cut bus transport down to get people to use the alternate transport...

So what happens when the next economy crash happens and all those "once in a lifetime" guests don't happen and they have priced out the repeat guests?
 
Except you can rent a car for a week for dirt cheap if you try. But if charging for parking then yeah-the equation changes.

.....So what happens when the next economy crash happens and all those "once in a lifetime" guests don't happen and they have priced out the repeat guests?

I doubt Iger cares about that potential. By the time that happens he will be long gone riding the wave of fame while is replacement has to shoulder the responsibility.
 
At DLR, you get three hours of free self parking if you dine at a table service hotel restaurant. The restaurant validates the parking ticket.

Just to add, Napa Rose and the Spa validate for 5 hours. If you are not eating at a TS restaurant it is $20 for the first hour and $10 for each additional hour with a maximum of $60. I personally hope Walt Disney World implements this for people visiting the hotels. Parking was horrible at the Poly the last time I stayed there.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top