Disney considering $15 a night resort fee?

[crazy4wdw]

I thought I'd post this over here on the resorts board. There a thread on the news and rumors board and on WDWmagic that WDW is considering adding a $15 a night resort fee to cover Magical Express, Magic Bands, parking, and extra magic hours.

What does everyone think of this possibility?

http://www.disboards.com/threads/resort-survey-on-resort-fees.3490625/

http://www.wdwmagic.com/resorts/wal...a-nightly-resort-fee-to-its-resort-hotels.htm

 

[ArielRae]

Disney has already been pushing the $ limit to see what they can get away with so I wouldn't be surprised by this. DH and I are already researching off property accommodations cause of issues recently experienced with Disney's resorts they past few vacations.

 

[disneykelly]

Resort fees probably can't be escaped from my booking an off property hotel. In fact, those have probably been charging a fee for decades.

 

[samsteele]

WDW resort guests already pay for these "perks" via higher than normal/outside the bubble room rates. These on property services were part of my room rate and I justified to myself paying more than $100/night at a Value resort because I received them in the package. It will drive more guests offsite.

 

[lorimay]

UGH.......

 

[gwynne]

I thought I'd post this over here on the resorts board. There a thread on the news and rumors board and on WDWmagic that WDW is considering adding a $15 a night resort fee to cover Magical Express, Magic Bands, parking, and extra magic hours.

What does everyone think of this possibility?

http://www.disboards.com/threads/resort-survey-on-resort-fees.3490625/

http://www.wdwmagic.com/resorts/wal...a-nightly-resort-fee-to-its-resort-hotels.htm

Well, we fly in. We don't rent a car, and we don't use Magical Express.
I pay for a towncar because it's faster and easier, it works for us. So they would be charging us 15.00 per night for a couple of magic bands, and extra magic hours that we likely won't use. Not impressed.
The room only rate isn't cheap. I think WDW needs to remember they've more than already received a "resort fee".

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We drive and have never used Magical Express, we do use the other services mentioned in the original post, but IMHO this is why we already pay a premium to stay at the on site resorts. If this new charge became a reality this might send us off site.

 

[BabyFu18]

I hope they realize we all basically pay a "resort fee" built in to the higher room rate that Disney charges. I'd rather Disney just charged a fee for magical express and a fee for magicbands, that way if you want to use those things you could add them on to your package reservation or whatnot.

I don't think they should charge for extra magic hours, magic bands or magical express really, because those things have always been a "perk" of staying at a Disney resort so I think they should continue to offer that as an incentive for people (but in reality they probably don't need any incentive to get people to stay on property).

If they have to start charging a resort fee, it's just one more thing to push people who are already on the fence about staying on property into either taking less trips, shorter trips, or staying off property completely.

 

[SharonLowe]

If they want to charge a fee for those services, can we decline the fee and not use the services?? I don't use Magical Express, almost never use EMH and would happily not use it if I had to pay extra for it, I can reuse my magic bands, and rely on my mobile service rather than wifi at the resort. Such a stupid move on their part - everyone hates resort fees and most resorts are moving away from charging separate resort fees. I will stop staying on Disney property if it comes to this.

 

[DebbieB]

I was checking around and Disneyland used to have a $15 resort fee and stopped it. Instead, they started charging $15 a day for self parking. That's more fair, only those who use it are paying. Out there parking is more at a premium, they also charge at Downtown Disney.

 

[disney world dreamer]

to be honest after i started staying onsite i never thought i'd consider anything else but between this and the apparent 3% not to mention the recent ticket price hike and the ever increasing room rates i've just about had it!

haven't done the math yet but i'm pretty sure that my family could stay offsite, rent a car, pay for parking, pay for food OOP, and purchase new MB's for much less than staying in even a value resort at this point!

sure we'd be giving up a couple things like EMH, the disney "bubble", stress free transportation, 60 FP+ selections, and 180+10 ADR's but really i think we could easily get over those things if we are saving an incredible amount of money.

prior to starting to stay on property we stayed in Davenport.
it worked out fine for my parents and us kids for 30 years and it could easily work again.

sorry that my post sounds so harsh but i am shocked at how much disney thinks they can charge and get away with it.

 

[mickeynut1]

Well, we fly in. We don't rent a car, and we don't use Magical Express.
I pay for a towncar because it's faster and easier, it works for us. So they would be charging us 15.00 per night for a couple of magic bands, and extra magic hours that we likely won't use. Not impressed.
The room only rate isn't cheap. I think WDW needs to remember they've more than already received a "resort fee".

This is us as well. We sometimes rent a car, but only when I find a rate that is less than or equal to a car service. We only use the car for r/t transfer between MCO and our resort as we use Disney transportation to/from the parks. We have never used morning EMH and have used evening EMH once (maybe twice) since it was implemented, so like you, we would be paying $15/nt for magic bands. If changes like this start to take place, we wouldn't hesitate to stay offsite and do non-Disney things around Orlando and/or start vacationing else where.

If they have to start charging a resort fee, it's just one more thing to push people who are already on the fence about staying on property into either taking less trips, shorter trips, or staying off property completely.

I agree!

 

[DSLRuser]

as long as us lemmings continue to keep the hotels at a +90% occupancy rate, the price will continue to increase. Resort fees are something that can be tried and easily turned on or off if the response is not positive. Where as a straight bump in room rates for $15 has a snowball effect on marketing materials and printed media.

 

[jbharr1]

I think they have to pin a resort fee on something tangible. For instance Aria charges it's fee for access to fitness center, free local calls, free wireless and airline boarding pass printing. I've never used any of these nor do I know many people that have.
I'd like to see disney add a parking fee before resort fee. Parking fees are far more common. You can't go to any major city and get free parking at your hotel. Well not in NYC, Boston, Chicago or NOLA per my experience.

 

[disney world dreamer]

I think they have to pin a resort fee on something tangible. For instance Aria charges it's fee for access to fitness center, free local calls, free wireless and airline boarding pass printing. I've never used any of these nor do I know many people that have.
I'd like to see disney add a parking fee before resort fee. Parking fees are far more common. You can't go to any major city and get free parking at your hotel. Well not in NYC, Boston, Chicago or NOLA per my experience.

but consider the reason behind why big cities charge for parking... there aren't many spaces.
at WDW there's plenty of parking spaces at the resorts and i've noticed that a number of them are not used.

 

[ellie05]

I think is just ridiculous. If they said hey we are charging a resort fee, but you will get extra benefits I could potentially consider it being ok, but to say hey we are charging you resort fees in the already existing amenities and services they offer is not ok. Basically they are just increasing the rate.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I too think this is ridiculous. They're already pinching every penny out of us travelers they can. But they're only seeing $$$ signs and ways to increase that bottom line, and this is another way to try it.

 

[Tiggr924]

I'm very disappointed by this possibility. They recently raised the prices on almost anything they can. The whole purpose of the things on the list were to be "perks" or "incentives" to stay on property. And I'm sure long ago they were factored into the cost. To turn around now, and plan to add this charge is insulting. More of a reason to stay off property....

 

[MissKIA]

I thought their whole schtick what was the benefit of staying there is to get all of those extras. Now they want to charge extra for them? So now what is the benefit? It's gone.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You won't be able to decline the fee. I can't think of any current hotel that charges one that allows guests to decline it, even if the guest states they will not be using the covered services. Although some of them do give exemptions for guests at the top tier of their loyalty programs.

Swan and Dolphin have used nightly resort fees for years. They started at about $10 a night and they did allow the guest to decline. Now they are $25 a night and mandatory unless you are Starwood Platinum.

Offsite resorts will probably have a cheaper room rate than a Disney resort (they almost always do), but they will likely have a higher nightly resort fee than the $15 that Disney appears to be proposing.