My husband's response to the news about the parking fees was "Good. Maybe now it will be easier to find parking at the Deluxe Resorts." At least as far as the deluxe resorts go I think the fees might be beneficial for those who drive their car and are willing to pay for parking. Besides AKL, when we have stayed at a deluxe resort we have always struggled to find a parking space (speaking specifically about the Poly, BC, and CR). We also found parking to be much more crowded at ASMu during our January trip compared to times we have stayed there even right before Christmas. I'm hoping that between the people who say they will no longer stay on property and those who will decide not to rent a car that it will be easer to find a spot.
In my experience, a lot of that is super hot air, people complain about prices and say
this time they've gone too far. Some people follow through, many don't, most I suspect don't even think about it. Unless you're the super planner type you're not even likely to realize most of the fees they tack on, so I don't think this is going to have much impact at all. The whole resort is seeing record numbers of visitors and rising, parking fees aren't even going to put a dent in that.
Some of this is also going to be dependent on what kind of parking situation you are used to. We live in a city where parking in general is a nightmare and where even parking for restaurants, shopping, etc. is often valet only. Even if it's free valet there is $ associated with tipping. So we don't find charging for overnight parking to be an unreasonable change - it's something we already deal with on a daily basis at home.
I live and work in NYC, I completely understand tight parking and expensive parking, I have chosen to eschew a car because of the hassle (not the cost) and use mass transit all the time, and believe me, our transit is not as nice as Disney's. I only use a car at Disney for time/comfort purposes, and my tolerance for driving and dealing with driving related things is pretty low. If there was a major parking problem at the resorts or parks I went to, I wouldn't do it. I deal with transit problems here on a daily basis, so I do understand how frustrating it can be.
It won't deter us from staying on property but we tend to be pretty easy going about things. I often read a lot of complaints about things on the boards about things that are not really WDW's "fault". We have found parking to be an issue at WDW resorts lately so I don't necessarily see the parking fees as greedy but as an attempt to improve the problem. Just like I have seen people complaining about dirty bathrooms lately. Yes, I have also noticed that the bathrooms have not been as clean as they have been in the past. But I have also ALWAYS encountered a CM actively cleaning the bathroom. The difference I have noticed has been that guests are much more rude and inconsiderate. I can't tell you the number of times I have heard a mom in a stall frantically yell at her young child NOT to flush the toilet because of germs. It seems like no one flushes the toilets anymore. If the auto toilet doesn't flush, then push the little button and flush the darn thing yourself! And I can't be the only one who has been frustrated when you enter a stall only to find that almost an entire roll of toilet paper has been literally stuffed into the toilet which has clogged it. Mounds of toilet paper are also strewn all over the floors in MANY stalls. I have also encountered people allowing the faucet water to run when it doesn't shut off automatically which sprays additional water all over the counter. And I have seen people just toss paper towels onto the floor - not even trying to get it to go into the garbage bin. Even if you had more than one CM stationed in a bathroom for their entire shifts it would be STILL be impossible for them to completely rid the bathrooms of these guest created issues. Dirty tables at QS? It used to be that people would do at least a quick clean up after themselves at a QS restaurant and quickly wipe a table of crumbs, spills etc, throw away their trash. Now I see tables littered with trash, spilled drinks, and dribbled condiments. It used to be that a CM walked around with a rage and simply did a quick wipe of the table top to get the table ready for the next party. Now they are doing a full on cleaning and clearing of multiple tables. If people would show some common courtesy and respect both to other guests as well as cast members I think there would be a lot less complaints. We have also encountered a LOT of people who purposely park their car ACROSS several parking spaces in the the resort parking lot or purposely park in the middle of two spaces. I understand that some people with special needs sometimes require extra space to get into and out of their vehicle but I am talking about people who are taking up additional spaces because they don't want their car to get dinged. I have not encountered that anywhere as often as I have at a WDW resort. That only contributes to the parking problems at the resorts.
As far as prices go, as my husband told me that "Disney is a business not a national endowment or national park". I think because WDW has always been such a great, family friendly vacation destination some people have unknowingly interpreted that to mean that it should also be affordable for most families. It costs money to keep WDW a family friendly destination. Think of what the atmosphere is like at other theme parks that are not family friendly. I would rather pay more money for the family friendly environment at WDW than pay less and deal with some of the things that happen at other theme parks. There are MANY vacation destinations that I would LOVE to visit. Unfortunately many of them are simply beyond what we consider to be an affordable range for our family. I don't complain about the resort or destination because it is not affordable and assume they have greedy business practices, I simply accept that WE cannot afford it.
I find it contradictory that so many people have been complaining about the increase in crowds lately but then also complain that WDW is getting too expensive. From a financial perspective the best way for Disney as a business to take care of the crowds is to "get rid" of the people who spend less money at WDW and "replace" them with people who will give WDW the most money. Then they will have less people spending the same (or much more!) amount of money. Every time I read that someone has decided they will no longer visit WDW, I just think "Perfect. I'm sure the people who are complaining about the crowds will appreciate one less body."
Does it suck to be out-priced from a WDW vacation? Absolutely. Is it any different from not being able to vacation somewhere else because you can't afford it? Nope.
I completely agree with you on all of these points. I frequently get in to debates about the economics here and elsewhere, and point out that as a business Disney is doing what they absolutely are supposed to do. I've been to a lot of other theme parks and will pay the premium for the Disney experience every time. I'm well-paid and I don't believe that Disney owes anyone, myself included, a discount or a free pass. Nobody is entitled to a Disney World vacation, a lot of people don't accept that, but that's the truth. That's all fine. They can have my money.
My problem isn't with the price of things. It's that in the past it was always a stream of "we've introduced this new cost as part of a new offering" or "we're raising ticket prices and opening Toy Story Land/Star Wars Land/Pandora" or "The dining plan went up but here's new restaurants". It was definitely a premium experience catered for people willing to spend the money. The problem here is that "this is a new fee because we can get away with it". There is no pretense, there is no attempt to hide that it's just profit. Fine, it's a parking fee, it's a reasonable (compared to NYC tourist areas) fee, it's not unexpected. However, it indicates more of this shift in thinking that the customer is merely a mechanism to convey money from one bank account to another. Disney magic was/is a real thing, and their success is founded on people loving that feeling and that treatment to the point that handing over their money was a distant concern. More and more, we're being treated as drainable money taps and not people on vacation. The problem isn't the price increase, there will always be price increases and Disney will always be expensive, but when they start taking more money just because they can, and making it clear it's because they know we will pay it somewhat blindly, that's just starting to get insulting.
Matt