Walt Disney World Parking Fees increase effective today

Oct 16, 2018 in "Parking Fees"

Posted: Tuesday October 16, 2018 8:02am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World has increased parking fees at its theme parks effective today, October 16 2018.

Preferred parking: car or motorcycle – Now $50 per day, up from $45
Standard parking: car or motorcycle – Now $25 per day, up from $22
Oversized Vehicle Parking: Shuttle, Limo, Camper Trailer, RV, Bus or Tractor Trailer - Now $30 per day, up from $27

Registered Guests of Disney Resort Hotels, select Annual Passholders, Premium Passholders and Disney Premier Passport holders continue to receive complimentary standard self-parking at Disney theme parks.

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PeoplemoverTTAOct 26, 2018

Good question! A family friend was a CP back in the 90s and ended up as a top tier "friend" of Mickey and Minnie. She traveled the world making appearances "with" Mickey and Minnie, appeared as Sorcerer Mickey in Fantastic, in the televised Christmas parade, etc. I know that those performers get paid for an entire 8-hour day regardless of how long they work. But everyday friends of Mickey and Minnie? I can't imagine how much they get. Sad. Mickey was such a trooper, too. We were married on the beach, and he went out on the sand and everything. My guests were sweltering, so I can only imagine how poor Mickey was doing. I feel like with all this talk about it I should include a picture :)

monothingieOct 26, 2018

I’m sorry this thread has been all over the place, I thought the discussion was about new roadways ramps and bridges, not resurfacing parking lots. That would be such a minor expense comparatively speaking your take on it would be right on.

flynnibusOct 26, 2018

Usually large scale projects that include expansion or significant altering would come from a larger initiative. But things like periodic upkeep, resurfacing, infrastructure refresh, etc... such things are typically funded from reserves, not issuing debt. Because they are predictable, inevitable expenditures... they are not seen as 'capital improvements' but rather ongoing upkeep. You're looking at major expansion efforts like Pandora, SWx2, new ships, etc included in that number when you look at long term debt. Not topics like resurfacing, equipment overhauls, etc. As much as people want to point at parking and say "its the same as its always been" - parking lots are expensive to maintain. It's just the intervals are measured in years, not months, etc.

monothingieOct 26, 2018

A lot of the capital projects are built by issuing debt. Looking at their cashflow statements over the past couple of years, issuance of long-term debt has increased substantially over the past five years. So I'm not really sure how trivial operating revenues or expenses would affect the decision of whether or not to undertake or fund capital improvements. I was also under the impression that capital projects were handled separately (organizationally) within TWDC. Basically at end of project, ownership transfers to other corporate structures within the company.

OG RunnerOct 26, 2018

Sorry, but your first statement is wrong. The parking fees are at the resorts. You pay your $500 plus for your room at the Grand Floridian, and you will pay an additional $25.00 a night to have your car at the resort. This is not parking for the parks, it is a parking fee at the resorts.

OG RunnerOct 26, 2018

Oh I see, so, as I sure your parents said to you at one time or another, "If everyone jumps off a bridge ....." I have visited Disney World since 1986. I have stayed at different hotels from the Polynesian to POP Century. Disney has always touted that they are different. I guess not!

flynnibusOct 26, 2018

It would be incredibly lame of them to not use part of their parking fees to fund capital reserve funds for transportation related projects. To dump all the parking fees into a general fund would always make departments fund capital improvements from scratch. That's not sound practice to make departments more sustaining.

MaerykOct 26, 2018

Nope. But it's a gentle nudge that they want you staying on property.. You can skip the parking charge by taking an uber to the park, or by buying a room. But it benefits Disney to have fewer civilian vehicles on the property, and for people to use their already running mass transit network. It allows them to control the flow of people better, leads to less road congestion and issues with the lots and staffing, etc etc etc. Everyone is paying part of that "fee" one way or another.. either out of your room rate, or your parking fee. But I do think lot crowding may be a looming issue for Disney, as they build more and more rooms and towers.. and they are very much trying to encourage people to use DME or taxis to come. And the benefit there is you are less likely to go off property to the competition if you don't have your own transportation. (And by competition, I mean food, hotels, other parks, everything). But I've never pretended Disney was a benign organization that was built to be a charity. It's a people trap built by a mouse, and always has been. One I'm more than happy to support.

LensmanOct 26, 2018

So should we combine the two and call it an industry standard money grab? I think it's a combination of the recent business practice of charging more by disaggregation of pricing of optional services and Disney wanting to provide a slight pricing preference for DME guests. I don't think either pricing practice is benign.

HauntedPirateOct 26, 2018

So paying for standard operating costs is now their excuse/defense for raising parking fees by over 10%? I'm not buying that (no pun intended). Leading by example and the "Disney Difference" are dead and buried, courtesy of R. Iger and R. Chapek (assist to post-heart attack M. Eisner), replaced now by following industry-standards and all-brand, all-the-time.

MaerykOct 26, 2018

You call it a money grab, others call it an industry standard that they never implemented before.

OG RunnerOct 26, 2018

That does not explain why Disney even began charging an extra parking charge for their guests staying on property. The room charges have been plenty high enough to cover the parking lots. There are no trams at the hotels on property. Disney had operated most resort hotels for 20 or 30 years without charging for parking. Now they are increasing the parking rates within less than a year. It is a money grab, and it doesn't matter how many other resorts do the same thing it is wrong.

MaerykOct 26, 2018

New parking trams and the fuel to run them. Lights. Staff. Maintenance. Road expansions to the roads TO the parking. You know, the same reason part of the cost of your airfare goes back to the airport.