Universal Orlando imposing $4 fee on Uber rides

That's fair. The complaints from 18 years ago about $6 fees seem silly now, though.

I'm a parking fee apologist, especially in cities. That space is valuable. Pittsburgh way undercharges for parking. I can park downtown during a game within walking distance to the stadiums or arena for $6. It costs me that much to round trip on the bus.

eightdotthree said:

I'm a parking fee apologist

Does that mean you apologize for the parking fees?

a·pol·o·gist

a person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial.

eightdotthree said:

Pittsburgh way undercharges for parking. I can park downtown during a game within walking distance to the stadiums or arena for $6.

SHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Ha ha. And people still complain...

"People gotta park." is the new "People gotta eat."

Honestly, I have no problem with the cost of parking in general. It is what it is.

I find the psychology interesting though (and we've talked about this several times) in charging an obviously "extra" fee vs "hiding" it by rolling it into the gate. I mean call it free parking and add $5 (or whatever the parking fee/avg # of guests in each vehicle is) to the gate.

To me, it's all just the cost of visiting. The number is the same to me regardless of which line item the accounting department puts the revenue in.

I play the "total cost of attendance" game too. But there might be a reason to charge for parking specifically: The parking lot has a capacity, and so does the park. If the parking lot might fill before the park does, you want to do something to encourage people to car pool or use other mechanisms to get there.

As for the US vs. EU: the importance of cars generally is just different. Parking charges are the tip of that particular iceberg.

I tend to favor a la carte pricing over all inclusive. Pay for what you use/get rather than what the average guest uses/gets. There are administrative issues to consider which often push businesses to all inclusive models. And there is the power of "free." Increase ticket price by more than the a la carte price of parking and some people will love getting "free" parking.

For many venues, price you pay for parking is more for convenience than a place to keep your car for a few hours. Same lot can get $30 for Indians game but $10 for Browns game. Based on proximity to applicable stadium. I am fine with parking further away for less. For events where people tend to leave at the same time, you can usually walk away from the venue faster than you can drive on be on your way faster if you park further away. Sometimes (weather often the reason) its worth the premium to park closer.

Amusement parks typically have limited parking spots. Separate charge for parking encourages car pooling which is better for the parks in terms of a limited resource.

eightdotthree said:

a·pol·o·gist

a person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial.

I know. I took a class in Apologetics in seminary. I just think it's funny.

I, too, chalk up the cost of parking as an overall expense of admission. Ask me to pay shipping on something I buy online, though, and that's completely different.

You can usually find free shipping at this point particularly if you look for it. But often there is an option that requires you to pay shipping with a total cost less than the free shipping option. For many, that ends up showing the power of "free." My wife totally falls for "free" breakfast at hotels.

Included breakfasts at hotel are great, I always eat breakfast and instead of driving somewhere and either waiting >1 hour getting a good breakfast at a restaurant, or getting a fast food breakfast (yuck.). I can get a decent to fantastic (Depending on hotel) breakfast in less then an hour with no commute and get an earlier start on my day.

Lord Gonchar said:

Honestly, I have no problem with the cost of parking in general. It is what it is.

I'm the same way. A few days ago I went to an NHL game and parking at the arena was $22. A few weeks ago, I went to a low level college football game at the same sports complex and parking was $30. Other than both were brief eye rolling moments, I paid and didn't think twice about it.

Same goes for tolls. I recently attended a wedding on Long Island and the Verrazano Bridge toll was something like $17. And I didn't even get my windows washed for it. It is what it is.....I paid and wen't on with my life.

Back to Uber, I don't rent cars when I'm in Orlando and back in September I Ubered it from WDW to Universal and back for HHN. I was dropped off (and picked back up) in the new top floor of the parking garage. It was very easy and simple in my opinion. Even leaving HHN at 12:30am in droves, I was able to find my Uber in just a few minutes. I was pretty impressed with the ease of the new system there.

I'm flying into LAX in January and I plan on Ubering it from the Airport. I've been following the complete mess that they are having with their new centralized ride share pick-up area and I hope the kinks are resolved before I have to use it.

But as for the new Universal location, my experience was nothing but positive. An extra $4 ain't going to make an ounce of difference next time I do it.

I've said it before, but in my experience, the ride share situation in Central Florida including MCO transfers is very good (along with a horrible yellow cab situation). In many scenarios, there is really no reason to rent a car there and just ride share it everywhere you need to go. At least that's my playbook when I'm there.

GoBucks89 said:

You can usually find free shipping at this point particularly if you look for it. But often there is an option that requires you to pay shipping with a total cost less than the free shipping option. For many, that ends up showing the power of "free."

I mean, I have an Amazon Prime membership - and if it's not on Prime, I generally won't buy it. I'm willing to spend a couple of extra bucks on the product itself (not over retail, of course) to avoid paying "shipping" costs - even if it's baked in. I just don't like paying for shipping.

Raven-Phil- But Prime is different for 2 reasons... First, it’s not free. You paid for the Prime membership to get “free” shipping, and also Prime is 1- or 2- day shipping where non-Prime can take up to a week.

A.) I know it isn’t actually “Free”, but I have utilized my prime account enough in the last 3 weeks alone that I have gotten my money’s worth out of the membership. I flat out said I don’t mind paying an extra couple of bucks overall as long as it doesn’t go over retail.
B.) You reinforced my point - not only is shipping “free”, it’s also much faster, and when I spend money on something, I don’t like to wait around waiting for it (or for it to potentially get lost in the mail)

I'd buy Prime for the TV alone.

I didn't even want to touch on that one because that adds an entirely different layer to the discussion, but the content on there is worth the price of admission by itself. The benefits of Prime these days are amazing, and a far cry from when the service first started.

We're canceling Prime when it comes up again.

In the past year, our delivery experience has been horrible. They constantly arrived late to the apartment complex, so the shipping would be delayed a day (sometimes two!) because the office was closed. When Amazon agreed to start delivering to the actual apartments, we would still get delay notices because they "couldn't find the apartment." This is on top of "your delivery is almost there" notices, checking and seeing they were "3 stops away," and then watching them take 2 hours to arrive as the driver goes everywhere but our location.

We started shipping to local Amazon lockers. We have two within 2 miles of the house. The one that's more convenient typically makes a 2-day shipment into a 4-day shipment. Amazon couldn't explain why, but we suspect it's because the lockers are full, so they can't guarantee the 2 days.

A couple weeks ago, I had a 1-day guarantee at checkout that became a 3-day delivery to a different locker. Looking at the tracking information (all Amazon vehicles), it took 24 hours to go from a distribution center to the local fulfillment - 15 miles away.

When I went on to complain, I was given a $5 "credit" - which can only be used for specific products on Amazon. I asked for a $5 refund and was told that wasn't possible.

I know this is anecdotal and maybe only a local issue. But it's not worth the $100+ each year. We can start to bundle our things together to get the same shipping we're getting for one or two items. We weren't using any of their other offerings, so even that wasn't worth keeping it.