Disney said to be testing "resort fees" in surveys

I travel with one pair of shoes per day plus a spare pair, so a backpack is out :-p

Sure, a weekend somewhere can be taken care of with a backpack. A week somewhere, on the other hand, really can't.

I'd rather deal with an airline that wraps normal operating costs up in the charge for airfare than one that's gaming me for additional profit.

I agree I'd rather pay one price and not worry about hidden fees. When we went to Disney in November we flew Southwest. All carry ons and checked bag were included in the price. The only option I paid for was priority boarding(I think an extra $18 per ticket at the time.) That was worth it to me to make sure we all got to sit together.

We have been looking at vacation options for this year and Allegiant Air is advertising $45 one way from Harrisburg international airport to Myrtle Beach. Then I was looking at the hidden fees. $30 per carry on and $40 for a checked bag. That would be $130 in bags one way with 3 carry ons and one checked bag. It's only $10 less than our tickets would cost round trip. $530 total. I didn't even look to see what other hidden fees there are. It annoys the heck out of me. We could cut down on luggage, but we typically take everything in our carry ons and check an empty bag to bring back souvenirs and other items from the trip.

Disney's considering the same thing and that's annoying considering their price to stay on site already. I understand what Gonch is saying it is becoming common. I notice it more when staying in a hotel in a major city. They have parking fees etc on top of the rate, but it's not listed in fine print when booking.

If I looked for the bigger regional airports (Baltimore or Philadelphia, ) I am sure that I can get those tickets a comparable price of the total amount of Allegiant with all the hidden fees. The only advantage is a 20 minute ride to the airport instead of an hour and a half.

I had friends go to Vegas over the winter. They bought some all inclusive prepaid package that included the room, some meals and show tickets. They showed up to check in, thought they were all paid and got upset when they were asked for more money for their hotel room. Whether the fine print talking about the fees were hidden too well or if they just didnt read it I dont know, but when they got back their strongest memory was how they got cheated by the fee and it is the first thing they tell people about their trip. If Disney does this I can see that sceen playing out over and over again. It seems silly to me to put all this work into a magical arrival just to taint it with something so un-magical.

Coasterfantom2 said:

I agree I'd rather pay one price and not worry about hidden fees. When we went to Disney in November we flew Southwest. All carry ons and checked bag were included in the price. The only option I paid for was priority boarding(I think an extra $18 per ticket at the time.) That was worth it to me to make sure we all got to sit together.

We have been looking at vacation options for this year and Allegiant Air is advertising $45 one way from Harrisburg international airport to Myrtle Beach. Then I was looking at the hidden fees. $30 per carry on and $40 for a checked bag. That would be $130 in bags one way with 3 carry ons and one checked bag. It's only $10 less than our tickets would cost round trip. $530 total. I didn't even look to see what other hidden fees there are. It annoys the heck out of me. We could cut down on luggage, but we typically take everything in our carry ons and check an empty bag to bring back souvenirs and other items from the trip.

If I looked for the bigger regional airports (Baltimore or Philadelphia, ) I am sure that I can get those tickets a comparable price of the total amount of Allegiant with all the hidden fees. The only advantage is a 20 minute ride to the airport instead of an hour and a half.

So with the fees broken out you pay "X" and with the fees buried you pay "X". I don't see the difference, especially if going the broken out fee route saves me 140 minutes of round trip driving time.

Why must Disney resort to these fees? (I'm sorry, it had to be done)

I consider price (total cost including fees), convenience, and comfort when booking air travel. I have flown ultra low cost carriers (Spirit and Frontier) when they have best met my needs. The optional fees are clearly spelled out on their respective websites, so it is easy to compare the total cost of the trip. It is not necessary to pick your seat, bring a carry-on, or have a Coke. Only the people that use these amenities are required to pay for them, so the person with just a personal item is not subsidizing those that pack everything they own.

Resort fees are different. A person of average intelligence should still have no trouble comparing the total cost of the room, but it just seems cheesier. There is no purpose to splitting out the resort fee other than trying to slip one by the inattentive travel planner.

I'd suggest that your last sentence is applicable to airlines, though. They likewise are trying to slip one by inattentive buyers.

Heck, I work in a theatre box office and with the few options involved in buying tickets online to our show -- and we're not trying to slip one by inattentive buyers -- we deal with inattentive buyers all the time. ("Well, we just assumed these tickets were for today when we bought them.") Not everyone is a savvy consumer and these fees take advantage of that.

Don't get me wrong; I agree with you in the big picture. Fees are avoidable. (Heck, resort fees are avoidable once you lower your standards enough to stay in a hotel with no fees.) For myself, though, I'll book on Southwest.

When you currently stay at a Disney resort, event though you are paying more than outside hotels, you feel like you are getting something extra because parking, shuttle, etc are included in the price. Adding a fee for these items just takes away from the overall perceived value of the package. "If one havs to pay for parking, they might as well stay at an outstide (and lower price) hotel......"

A Disney vacation is becoming pretty miserable overall when you look at how much it costs, the crowds you usually have to battle, all of the now-required pre-planning with Fass Pass + etc. They keep on increasing prices, but people keep coming. Someday, they may hit that pricing point where it actually decreases the crowds to where it is a nicer experience. I guess you get what you pay for, but currently going to Disney you are paying too much for an overcrowded experience.

super7* said:

A Disney vacation is becoming pretty miserable overall when you look at how much it costs, the crowds you usually have to battle, all of the now-required pre-planning with Fass Pass + etc.

Clearly not, because....

They keep on increasing prices, but people keep coming.

...apparently there are a lot of people who feel they're getting a good to excellent value out of their Disney vacation.

Someday, they may hit that pricing point where it actually decreases the crowds to where it is a nicer experience.

I think it's more likely they'll continue to aim for the pricing point right before the pricing point that lowers the number of people in the parks and decreases in-park spending.

Yeah, I don't imagine it's a particularly miserable experience with the number of people showing up. As someone who goes spontaneously without any planning at all, it's still a pretty good time.

What Disney is doing it trying to gough the people going there as much as they can until going there makes it miserable and not that great of a value. With the dollar in a decline compared to that of the Euro and pound. Then it's a good value from that point of view.

Right, because Disney, as a company, like most businesses, is devoted to not being a successful business.

What Disney is trying to do is to make as much profit as they can -- I know, isn't it weird that for-profit businesses try to make a profit? -- while still delivering an experience the majority of their guests find worth the value. Which, clearly, most of them do.

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." - Yogi Berra

slithernoggin said:

Right, because Disney, as a company, like most businesses, is devoted to not being a successful business.

What Disney is trying to do is to make as much profit as they can -- I know, isn't it weird that for-profit businesses try to make a profit? -- while still delivering an experience the majority of their guests find worth the value. Which, clearly, most of them do.

Maybe with all this extra profit they will bring back the jobs they exported to Indian contractors. /s

Yeah, you don't understand what that story is about.

They should totally outsource ride operations to a call center in India.

Slither, You are correct but Disney is making a killing and shouldn't be charging a resort fee at all. When is the public going to say enough is enough with all these fees they are adding on. The fees are pure profit to them and it has nothing to do with making the experience better. Disney is treating the public as suckers by constantly going up on their ticket prices and the new fees. That is why I don't go to Disney since the price of admission doesn't cover the experience level.

Good thing for them that 20 million people disagree with you.

Screamlord said:

Slither, You are correct

Finally, something we can agree on :-p

....but Disney is making a killing...

You say a killing, I say substantial and sustained profits.

When is the public going to say enough is enough with all these fees they are adding on.

When the public feels they're not getting a satisfactory value for their vacation dollars. Which, I think, will be no time soon.

Disney is treating the public as suckers by constantly going up on their ticket prices and the new fees.

Disney is treating the public as intelligent, adult consumers who have many options when considering where to spend their vacation dollars. Disney successfully makes a Disney vacation attractive to a broad range of consumers.

Disney doesn't raise prices on a whim. They raise prices in line with what their research tells them the market will bear. Sometimes they're wrong, most of the time they're right.

This has been a standard at most ski resorts for about 20 years. We travel quite a bit in the winter for skiing and they used to call it a "destination marketing fee". Apparently enough people freaked out about paying for marketing that they changed it to a "resort amenity fee". There's usually some sort of village with shops and restaurants and supposedly your'e paying for the use of that, and for them to build fires to sit around and stuff like that.

I don't like it because it just feels like another cash in, would rather have it just rolled into the price of a condo rental. Not sure if this is even possible at Disney but one way we get around it is to rent directly from an owner rather than booking through the resort. Their condo fees they pay cover all of that and it's also taxed differently. The downside is you sometimes get a weird or flaky owner. We've had some issues but thankfully never any horror stories.