- Joined
- Apr 18, 2018
Transportation dues for Riviera are $1.34 per point which is exceptionally high (Poly and VGF are $0.65 and $0.46 respectively and those both share monorail costs). It's odd because gondolas are supposed to be cheap to run and CBR/Pop/AoA have over 5,000 rooms also sharing the costs. Perhaps they're being extra conservative and it will turn out to be less.
That is the primary reason Riviera's dues are so high. 2020 wages are likely also baked in, but the transportation line item is double or more the other resorts.
They are paying the loans they are paying operational and replacement costs. The actually upfront cost is something they can’t explicitly charge.
The Disney Company should be paying the capital costs of building the gondola system - annual dues should not be paying for any loan or pat of the cost to construct the system. Annual dues will pay for operating the gondolas, though.
If they apportion the costs of operating the gondolas the way they do for the boats between Epcot ad DHS, they will divide the total by the number of resort stops. So since the gondola has 3 resort stations, - at Pop Century/Art of Animation, CB & DRR, Member dues at DRR should bear the cost for 1/3 of the operating & maintenance expense. I agree that buses are way more expensive than the gondolas (think of the labor costs) and DRR will have buses to AK & MK. I've been told that the DS merchants generally pay for the DS bus service and of course, each resort helps pay for the Magical Express bus service
Actually, the people who rent rooms at Pop and AOA should be paying for the whole line from Pop to CB BY THEMSELVES, because 99% of the people using it will be POP/AOA. So, How much are they paying for that mile of the line? They should also be paying a share of the costs for the rest of the line, from CB to HS and from CB to Epcot. The people staying at CB should definitely be paying a large part of the cost of the CB to HS line and the CB to Epcot line. The people at Riviera should also be paying a portion of the cost of the to Epcot, to CB and to HS.
There are 2880 rooms at Pop. 2000 rooms at AoA. Caribbean Beach has 2100 rooms. Riviera will have about 300 rooms.
Now, I have heard figures that say that the gondolas cost about $5 million per mile to install, and will be much much cheaper than that to run, maintain and operate every year. That is why Disney put them in. They will be much cheaper than buses in the long run.
Okay, so if the line from POP/AoA to CB is about a mile long, then it should have cost about $5 million to build (and maybe $1 million per year to run), which, as I said, should be being nearly 100% paid for by Pop/AoA. That means, that, with almost 5000 rooms at Pop/AoA, then the cost works out to about $3 per day, per room, for construction costs, and I can't see it costing more than 70 cents per day, per room, to operate and maintain it.
The line from CB to HS is about another mile long, which would cost about $5 million. Then CB to Riviera to Epcot is about 1 1/2 miles long or about $7.5 million to build. If there are about 6 million points being sold at Riviera, then it means that the cost for each point IF RIVIERA IS PAYING FOR THE WHOLE THING by themselves, HS to CB to Riviera to Epcot, then their costs at Riviera would STILL only be a bit over $1 per point, and that would only be for 1 year. Theoretically the price would drop to about 1/5th of that per year to keep it running. But, if you assume the cost of the CB to HS and CB to Epcot is bourne proportionately, with each hotel or resort room that has access paying for its share, then the $5 million for CB to HS and $7.5 million for CB to Epcot is $12.5 million. But divide that by 5000 rooms at POP/Aoa plus 2000 rooms at CB plus 300 rooms from Riviera, or $12.5 million divided by 7300 rooms equals a cost of $1700 per room, per year. Or about $4.70 per day. So, if a room at Riviera costs, say, about 30 points per day, on an average, then THE ACTUAL CONSTRUCTION COSTS, IF SHARED FAIRLY, FOR EACH POINT AT RIVIERA WOULD ONLY BE $4.70 DIVIDED BY 30 POINTS = 16 CENTS PER POINT. And operating costs would be about 1/5th of that, but let's round it up and say BUILDING it (which should only be a cost this year) AND RUNNING IT, together, should only cost about 20 cents per point.
So, how does Disney justify charging $1.34 per point for transportation costs, when the Riviera share of the Gondola cost should only be about 20 cents per point? And, again, that only in the first year. It should drop to about 5 cents per point after the first year.