Disneylover99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
Yes. That makes sense.Probably meant book now for a September trip.
Yes. That makes sense.Probably meant book now for a September trip.
Sorry, but I totally disagree. I know of no one who made a trip to WDW while I was growing up. No one. Based on your trips, you were not lower middle class. I'm thinking you don't really know what that means. Lower middle class did not mean trips every year, at least not in this part of the country. Heck, I didn't fly until I was 29. Even car trips were pricey.
You really need to consider yourself privileged to have gone on those trips. Your experience is not common to the middle or lower middle class as I lived it. Maybe your mom was a killer budget master.
Hmmmm .... okay. Afford doesn't come into the picture for us. I think many of us are used to paying 3000 - 5000$ per trip all total so the extra 24$ x # of days is not a deal breaker. However those of us who do the planning(yes I do the planning for our house and love doing it) for the trip have seen a sharp incline in prices over the last 5 - 10 years(mainly the last 5 or so). That would be great if there where added value but overall there is not, in fact I would say there has been a bit of a decline. As I have been planning the last 10 years I have seen increases in the prices to stay at resorts of all level, the price increase of park admission, the price increase of APs, the price increase of TIW membership. Don't even get me started on the preferred parking garbage that sprung up the last few year. Nothing like showing up at AK super early and parking at one of the farthest spots from the entrance(honestly I think there are some parking spots at AKL that were closer then we got to park last time.
So yes we can afford it but as we plan and we see our dollars getting less and less return, we start to think about alternatives. For some that is trying Swan and Dolphins, for others that might be staying offsite completely(maybe even giving Universal a try), and for others that might mean going to a completely different destination. I guarantee there are some who will choose the later 2 choices and that will achieve the opposite of what Disney intended.
In the end(and I am just speaking for our family), we go to Disney because on our vacations to the World we seemed to come closer together. We all treat each other better and we are willing to go on rides and attractions that we might not normally go on by ourselves but since our Wife or Son want to go on it we are game(does this make sense?). We also go for the Nostalgia, I can remember our first time staying onsite we were on the Nemo ride 7 year old son next to me, 4 year old in my lap listening to the characters sing "its a big blue world". Every trip since then that part of the ride takes me back and for a brief moment my sons are 4 and 7 again(I also like to pretend I am not 42).
With every one of these little cash grabs Disney is losing a little peice of that. Who is to say that if we try Universal, or take that trip to the beach that we might not find the same happiness and Nostalgia? Would we then feel the need to come back and pay 24$ a night for the privilege of parking at a Disney Resort?
We went a lot when I was a kid. I’m 44. My dad worked a middle class paying job and my mom stayed home and babysat neighborhood kids. It probably helped that we live in GA and drove, and guess what, we stayed offsite! Made it affordable for us.Then count yourself very lucky. We were definitely middle class and a trip to WDW was well out of reach. We were lucky to drive 4 hours and spend time near the lake.
Btw, I'm 51 years young. My mom worked in a factory and my dad was a retail manager. Trips to WDW were not in the budget. You were very fortunate.
The tax collector and license tag office are combined, but drivers licenses are at a separate office, at least in my county (a neighbor to Orange). I found out the hard way going to the drivers license office by mistake when I needed to do a tag transfer, waited, then had to go to another office and wait again. My tag office is usually less crowded and more efficient than the drivers license office, but you can make an appointment at the drivers license office, which does help.i looked it up...apparently in florida, the tax collector's office is the DMV....or at least in orange county (where WDW is)...
you get your drivers license there, tags, etc.
so have we gone off topic?
Yes, book now for Sept. Sorry I wasn't clearBook in September? Do you mean book now?
I am still waiting to hear how they will handle if there are two vehicles on the booking but one of them will only be there a few nights, instead of the whole stay. That will play a big part in our decision whether we go back, as no one wants to pay a parking fee for nights they aren’t there. I usually stay 11 nights, and my sister joins me for 2-3 nights mid trip, but both names are on the reservation. Have they even addressed partial stay parking at all? With car rentals on property I could see people renting for a couple days when they have off property things planned, instead of renting for the whole stay.
I emailed George and was very polite but mentioned my discontent. I also mentioned I had recently bought into DVC so that’s who called me back...DVC. I’m playing phone tag with Emma but she’s supposed to be back in the office tomorrow so we’ll see if I get a call then.
Sorry I don’t believe that. $4,000 with airfare, plus hotel, food etc. flight alone cost that or more from the US (family). Unless you went by yourself.
Good to know. I guess that’s what I will expect.DVC called me back too which is disappointing as they have nothing to do with this or the implementation of the fee. The very nice woman I spoke to was essentially "gathering info" and taking notes on my concerns to "pass along". I would have preferred to speak to the office responsible for this nonsense, but oh well.
I haven't either. I sent my email 3 days ago. So many people have stated they emailed and received a phone call back the next day. I feel like nobody is going to respond to me at this point.
I complained to guest services about an issue on my last trip in Dec. I did not get a call at all. I got an email back saying if I wanted to talk to someone I would have to call them. That was my experience. It seems the people on this thread that are getting call backs are writing directly to George Kalogridis. I haven't heard of anyone getting a call back from guest services yet. If anyone has let me know. I wrote to them first and haven't heard a thing other than they received my email. I plan on writing to Mr. Kalogridis myself and I will let everyone know if I receive a phone call.You’ll get a call.
FWIW, I emailed Guest Services a few years ago with an issue and it took a week to get a call back. The GS CM told me then that they will call everyone back who emails them. My issue I needed resolved required a lot of back and forth. She warned me that her department was extremely behind, and I should expect it to take 7 days to receive any reply from her.
Fast forward to this year, and I’ve needed to contact GS twice already. That same department that was a week behind, is now 2 weeks behind.
(Btw, this is just another example of Disney cost cutting measures that irritates me. Why can’t they just staff accordingly?)
Anyway, when people on this thread were saying they were already getting called back, I was shocked because it happened so quickly. Perhaps they expected an increase in complaints and temporarily upped the staff?
Anyway, that’s my take, based on my experience. I could be completely wrong though.
I complained to guest services about an issue on my last trip in Dec. I did not get a call at all. I got an email back saying if I wanted to talk to someone I would have to call them. That was my experience. It seems the people on this thread that are getting call backs are writing directly to George Kalogridis. I haven't heard of anyone getting a call back from guest services yet. If anyone has let me know. I wrote to them first and haven't heard a thing other than they received my email. I plan on writing to Mr. Kalogridis myself and I will let everyone know if I receive a phone call.
Man, every Facebook post from Disney is getting slammed in the comment section about the parking fee. People are relentless with all the sarcastic comments.
This is turning in to a PR nightmare for them.
Seems to be going down the 'social justice' route...if It gains too much momentum they'll be doing a lot of damage control. They just need to look down the road at Sea World as to what can happen when the public is unhappy with the way you run things.
As others have mentioned,it isn't the parking fee itself, but that people are at the 'ENOUGH !' point. The bubble has burst for quite a few to realize just how off the price/benefit ratio has gotten.
I need to make at least one more trip to get money's worth from annual pass...then done. Sure Star Wars will be tempting, but the craziness from it will put me off for quite a while i think.