What will be your breaking point? Resort fees?

[ToffPrincess]

Resort Fees are one thing but I would say the Crowd numbers. I came over Easter and some days you couldn't move and there were no fast passes available at all for the rest of the day. I don't want to be forced into paying for extra Fps or to queue for a hour for a ride like Small World. I am shocked to hear that Easter is nothing compared to Summer and Christmas time crowds. No no no!!

 

[fla4fun]

Resort fees would probably be my breaking point, as there is no way to bypass them. I can work around the parking fee by having a friend drop me off and pick me up. I feel both fees are nothing but a cash grab, and I will not pay them. So for me, the Disney Springs resorts, although cheaper including the fees, won’t be an option for the same reason. I don’t know if I will renew my AP at the end of the year or not. We’ll see what is happening at the time. I have had an AP since the early 80’s, so it will feel strange not to have one.

 

[abinormal]

My family only has one recent trip under our belt, and I’m hoping to get back one or two times more while my kids are young. But I don’t have the experience of growing up with Disney trips or multiple visits per year.

That said, I was happy with the experience we had at the parks for the cost. What would turn me away from future trips would be if crowds and waits increased significantly at my preferred time of year, if tickets became unaffordable to me, or the extra paid parties and events became the only way to do the things I wanted to do.

Now resorts? I’m already out. We stayed off site last trip and I was considering a split stay at a moderate or deluxe next time. But the “room check” issue put that right out the window. I will not stay anywhere that insists staff will enter daily for no reason, and I don’t want housekeeping either. So that’s that. Then the dogs and parking fees just solidified it. The ridiculous nightly rates don’t do anything to help either.

 

[twentyco]

They lost me with the resort parking fees.

Me too. Tauck will be getting the money for my 50th birthday vacation, rather than Disney.

 

[dkrauss]

I'm kind of there. Last year, we stayed at boardwalk thanksgiving week. We paid $440 per night and had free dining, upgraded to deluxe. This year, free dining doesn't cover that week, and the boardwalk is $517 per night. $80 more per night and we haven't eaten yet? That's just too much.

If free dining was the driver for your Disney vacation you're going to be upset...........Disney looks to be sun setting Free Dining. They're making it more difficult to get each year. In the end they don't need it anymore. Last year they were at 90% capacity on rooms for the YEAR! That's full up. Free dining was a way to get the crowds back after 2001........it worked but unfortunately people EXPECT it now.......plan around it. Those who do that will need to adapt.....

Doug

 

[katallo]

We recently stayed onsite and found one "new" thing so annoying. The room inspections. We had read about them but after experiencing it my DH said he was done! We spent a day at the park. Arrived at rope drop and returned to the room for a shower and nap before going back at night. After falling asleep, there was pounding (SERIOUS pounding) at our door. Startled, my DH went to the door and they said they had to inspect the room. He told them we were resting and couldn't come in. Let's just say, they were not happy. They kept saying it would only take a minute. DH said not at this time. Of course, at that point, rest was interrupted. I can only imagine how people feel with napping children.

 

[SweetSerenity]

I, unfortunately, am getting to that breaking point.

I, like so many of you, grew up with Disney. My mom gave me Cinderella on VHS when I was a small child and took me to Disney as often as she could make possible, which wasn't all that often, but it was enough to instill a love of it in me. I was fascinated by Walt Disney, who created Disneyland so his children would have a place to go. It was meant to be a place for all families from all walks of life. Sure, it was a business with the intention of succeeding, and money was required for its survival. But, I feel like in the past few years Disney has become all about the money and not about the families who walk through its doors everyday. Again, I know it's a business, but there are practically fees for every little thing now. The price of tickets has drastically increased over the past decade, you can pay to stay extra in the parks, there is a tour at Animal Kingdom that basically, for $250.00, guarantees availability to ride all the important attractions, and now to drive to the resorts and stay there, there is a parking fee. It's all getting to be ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, Disney is an amazing company with wonderful customer service, but I can't help but wonder when the line will be drawn in the sand and enough will be enough. Never, likely.

I can only adjust my income so far and every year it becomes more expensive to basically do the same things. It truly breaks my heart to type all this out. I dream of taking my future children to Disney one day. I want them to experience the true magic that I did growing up, but I don't know if that will happen. We are going in November to celebrate our anniversary, and we will have a wonderful time, I'm certain of it. But, it could be the last trip for a while.

 

[verleniahall]

ours was paying to park at the resort - we cancelled our on-property reservation, and changed up how we were using our timeshare this year - staying at Westgate Lakes, now doing Seaworld and US and IOA and only MNSSHP

 

[BK2014]

3. Charging for parking. When you add up the cost of parking at the parks during the day and the cost of parking at night at the resorts you end up with a significant price for most people's budget for a vacation. Poor value. That's wrong.

Don't you get free parking at the parks if you are staying at a resort? So you shouldn't be paying two parking fees.

Why would you want to go visit somewhere whose policy is to protect you from some unidentified threat?

It seem like protecting people from identified threats would be the easier part of security. Yes, I want a Disney to try and protect me from threats that have not been identified yet. (This is not an endorsement of the room check policy.)

 

[MCC Retired]

The Resort Overnight Parking charge is the change maker for us.
Have been AP members for years and always stayed onsite when we could get a good AP Room Only rate.
We are letting our AP expire and will only visit when those FL Res. 3 Day Ticket Deals come out.
Will still stay Onsite but not tempted to visit as often without the AP.

 

[margot31]

If the military discounts get removed....one reason we have been able to make so many trips since moving back to FL is the military tickets on the deal. I am an AP but that is also to balance off some of the other things we would be paying for to be able to make all our trips.

 

[fhtpdw20]

Disney is no longer a given vacation for me. Disney has very little in the goodwill bank of this long time customer. It will now be on a case-by-case basis whether a I plan the next trip based on experience of current trip. My tipping point is DOGS. I will not spend the money Disney requires to stay in a kennel. The fact that they promise the moon but don't enforce their policies puts them at risk of my walking away. People do whatever they want and they know Disney will turn a blind eye to it with no consequences. The security at the resorts and parks is a PITA but it is unfortunately a sign of our times. If they start charging for Magic Express, that will be the final nail in Disney's coffin. Some people will splurge for salon nails, shoes, handbags ect..; Disney is my one money splurge. As an example, I got fed up with the experience of going to movies. I said no more and have not stepped foot into a movie theater since the 1990s. Disney is on a very close parallel track to the same fate.

 

[DisLiss]

Because we live quite a distance from Orlando and do not wish to drive, transportation tend to be a bigger pain for us then the actual room & ticket rates. So in the past, our breaking point (aka the reason we haven't gone when we wanted to go) had nothing to do with the costs of the resort itself and everything to do with the costs involved to get there. We aren't frequent flyers so we don't have any credit cards or programs that allow us ways of getting deep discounts on flights. Same with taking a train. (Plus, we'd want rooms on the train, not seats, so again, the transportation costs increase.)

Maybe in the future when our kids are old we will travel by air or rail more and will then have discount opportunities but for now, when I think of going to Disney, I groan at the cost to get to and from more than anything.

 

[bryanb]

I wish the hotel industry would regulate itself on mandatory resort fees, so that I don't have to call on the government to do so. Unless the fees are for reasonable optional services that you can actually decline, all they really do is mislead consumers as to the actual room rate on hotel booking websites.

People who sort by price on Expedia or other sites will see the $150 (+$30 resort fee) room first before the $175 (+$0 resort fee) room, and probably more people will click on the "cheaper" hotel first. This practice is really quite awful, and I applaud Disney for not giving into it (yet!). If they started charging a resort fee, it just makes it much harder to figure out the real price of staying.

I feel lucky to be able to afford vacationing at WDW at all, with the total cost. As ticket prices and hotel prices keep going up, I wouldn't say I hit the breaking point, but I certainly have taken longer breaks and more trips to other destinations. The worse that gets, the less often I'll go. I'm sure they wouldn't really miss me though... until there's an actual hit to attendance and occupancy rates, at which point they can start bringing out new promotions.

 

[nascargirl]

Because we fly into Sanford we rent a car. The airport that we use at home does not have round trip into MCO. We feel lucky that we can afford Disney and annual passes each year but for how long I am not sure. It is a shame that they now have to charge for parking. Will it be a deal breaker for us...time will tell.

 

[sbd78]

Because we fly into Sanford we rent a car. The airport that we use at home does not have round trip into MCO. We feel lucky that we can afford Disney and annual passes each year but for how long I am not sure. It is a shame that they now have to charge for parking. Will it be a deal breaker for us...time will tell.

Found out the hard way once there are more than one Orlando area airports. Several years ago we booked flights through Allegiant and on their website, they refer to it as "Orlando" when you are booking. I didn't do my homework and when I went to book the ME, I realized we weren't flying into MCO. Ooops! We ended up renting a car that trip. Glad I learned my lesson before these parking fees began!

 

[Spencer Wright]

In reading this and other threads, I think one big tipping point will be when people actually try other vacation spots, especially in FL, and either cut down or cut out WDW.

I'm sure most of us (myself included) have said after a trip or fee/policy introduction, they are done with WDW for a bit, while actively planning a future trip. That was me last year.

But Universal and other places are really stepping up their game, and if that happens, then WDW will be in trouble!!

I have seen a lot of people on these boards as well as people I know try Universal, or in the case of my father go to the FL Keys and love it, while spending much less money. Disney needs to start paying more attention to competition!

 

[AquaDame]

Crowds. We're already having far less fun than we used to because no matter the time of year or added extras to avoid it, you just can't find a quiet time. I'm intrigued by the new stuff coming down the line, but if it stays this bad we will stop going.

We've already started going elsewhere more often (and in many cases we spend MORE money doing them, sorry Disney, you're only worth so much! )

 

[Rickat96]

Crowds. We're already having far less fun than we used to because no matter the time of year or added extras to avoid it, you just can't find a quiet time. I'm intrigued by the new stuff coming down the line, but if it stays this bad we will stop going.

We've already started going elsewhere more often (and in many cases we spend MORE money doing them, sorry Disney, you're only worth so much! )

Only thing I have learned though-addition of Pandora did not thin out the crowds, and just shifted higher wait times to FOP an Navi. Toy Story land looks small, Star Wars land looks small also. They can boast the new places, but its really not large enough to make a difference.

 

[Dean Marino]

DVC Owners.... we fly in 2x per year. Never a car .

Our breaking point is very likely going to be old age .