Has Disney Jumped the Shark? Charging for Overnight Parking for Resort Guests

My family has enjoyed Disney World vacations for close to 30 years now.  My husband and I spent our honeymoon there in 1993.  I've been known to hop down there for a weekend to see a particular band during one of the festivals or join a group of friends who are there.

 I've watched the nickel and diming increase through the years.  We stayed at the Yacht Club for our honeymoon in 1993.  Including airfare, hotel & tickets it was around $3000 for 10 nights.  Nowadays they advertise "specials" that a family of four can stay at a value resort for four nights, complete with tickets, for "less than $2000."  That doesn't include airfare.  I watched park hours cut in favor of time that people could pay to be there for special events that were an extra charge.  We found ways to afford our vacations, staying in timeshares outside of Disney that gave us more options.  When the family was older and we came into a bit of money, we bought into the Disney Vacation Club so our whole family could be together every two years for a vacation.

Today, Disney announced that it will now be charging resort guests to park a car overnight at the resort:
Effective for reservations made March 21, 2018 and thereafter, standard overnight self-parking is available to registered Guests for a fee that will be applied to their hotel folio upon check-out. All parking fees include applicable tax.
Standard Overnight Parking charges per Resort Category:

Disney Value Resorts: $13 per night
Disney Moderate Resorts: $19 per night
Disney Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts: $24 per night
Complimentary standard parking is available to Guests staying at the Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. Each campsite provides parking space for one (1) motorized vehicle.
Complimentary standard self-parking is available for dining, shopping, entertainment, and recreation experiences at Disney Resort hotels.
Disney vacation Club Members will not be charged for standard overnight self-parking when staying at a DVC Deluxe Villa, regardless of whether they use vacation points or another form of payment. Members also will not be charged to park when using vacation points to stay at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel.
Registered Guests of Disney Resort Hotels, select Annual Passholders, Premium Passholders and Disney Premier Passport holders will continue to receive complimentary standard self-parking at Disney Theme Parks.

So this means that whatever rate you are paying to stay at a resort, tack that much more per night to stay there if you drive down or rent a car.

Stating that "free parking" at the theme parks is a benefit of staying at a Disney Resort is a joke when they are charging you to park there.  You are paying to park now, one way or another.  In fact, standard parking is $20 per day so it costs less to park at the theme parks than to park overnight if you are staying at a Deluxe resort.  You save a whopping $1 with a stay at a moderate resort.

I would have understood charging day-guests who don't dine at restaurants or bars at the resorts.  That was the announcement that was expected.  There has been a problem of people trying to get out of the fees to park at the theme parks by parking at the resorts and taking the bus to the theme parks from there.  This has resulted in overcrowded buses for resort guests, on top of the insult now of having to pay for parking while staying on Disney property.  This does nothing to alleviate that problem.

The Disney discussion boards and Facebook groups are all over this.  Yes, I understand there are hotels that charge to park.  Not all do, contrary to what the Disney defenders are staying.  Most of the ones that do are in cities where parking is at a premium.  I have only paid for parking in Washington DC and Boston when we stayed there.  Otherwise, I have never paid to park at a hotel.  Disney's parking lots are not full.  Space is not a premium.  It is not being done to solve a problem.

Why is it being done?  The guess is two-fold.  One is a money-grab, obviously.  The other is to discourage people from renting cars or driving there and then leaving Disney property.  Disney has a program known as "Magical Express" that brings people to and from Orlando Airport to their Disney Resort that is a complimentary service.  There are many people who don't avail themselves of this service as they prefer to have a car and would rather pay to rent a car.  If the parking fees discourage renting a car, then people are trapped on-property to spend money and are less likely to go off-site to eat, or visit Universal Studios, Sea World, or other Orlando area attractions.  I imagine it might be a boon for Uber and Lyft drivers, though.

There are hotels on Disney property known as "Disney Springs Resort Area" that are not owned by Disney.  I stayed here several times over the year but none of them had parking fees when I did.  Even if they did, when I stayed at the Doubletree it was on an employee rate that was so relatively cheap I wouldn't have complained about the parking fee.  These hotels charge around $10 per night to park plus a resort fee.  Disney hasn't started charging that - yet.

I can honestly say for my family this is a dealbreaker.  Our family always driven down as a way to save money and for the convenience of having a vehicle while we are there.  The next reservation we have is in December and we will be camping.  I'm glad for that - they don't charge to park at the campground.  After that is it our biannual stay with our DVC points.  I'm curious to see how that will work if there is more than one car traveling to the resort.  There's nothing that details that, yet.  It has the potential to add $168 to the stay for anyone who drives who is not a DVC member.  I'm waiting for clarification on that point.  It could make us look at another Disney Resort in Hawaii or California to use our points.  We will not stay there again on-site with parking fees added.  I will go for a lower cost stay wherever it may be.  When I fly down it is a non-issue since I don't rent a car if I stay at a Disney resort.  I don't have any plans to do that at the moment, either.

The question becomes, how much of a dealbreaker is this for people?  The continuous rising of ticket prices, high resort rates, and cost of food has made it hard for many families to afford it.  It's been reported that Disney World attendance figures were slightly lower for 2017 as opposed to 2016, which was also slightly lower than 2015.  It wasn't a dramatic amount, but there was a slight drop.  Is this the time - after just raising ticket prices - to add in a new fee that has the potential to force attendance to dip even more?

It will be interesting to see just what happens.




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