New Overnight Parking Fees for Disney World Hotels
Walt Disney World has announced that it will charge hotel guests for overnight parking. Rates will vary by resort tier, with Vale Resorts charging $13/night, Moderate Resorts will be $19/night, and Deluxe Resorts $24/night. Valet parking at Deluxe/Villa resorts will increase to $33/night. Disney Vacation Club guests staying on points or paying cash at Deluxe Villas will not pay for overnight self-parking.
Note that this does not impact free parking for Annual Passholders at the theme parks, nor does it impact those visiting a resort hotel for dinner or shopping. (Although we wouldn’t be surprised to see purchase validation soon required for resort visitors.) Guests staying at campsites in Fort Wilderness will not pay for overnight parking. It’s presently unclear whether drivers with valid disability parking permits will be charged (we’ll update the post later about this once we receive clarification).
The new Walt Disney World parking charge applies to guests who book reservations on or after March 21, 2018. The one positive in this news is that if you book a reservation today or in the next week–even for a trip in December–you won’t be subject to the new parking cost. So that’s at least one way to postpone the sting of this new fee for a little while longer.
Walt Disney World has indicated that this change is to bring their Florida hotels more in line with industry standards. Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels, the Swan & Dolphin, Universal Orlando on-property hotels, and most Orange County Convention Center area-hotels charge for overnight parking.
During our recent stays at the Disney Springs hotels, we noticed pricing around $20/night (+/- $5), which was fairly surprising given the surplus of space. The swamps of Florida are not exactly San Francisco or New York City, where the space is limited and has a high per square foot real estate value.
Known for its “blessing of size,” Walt Disney World fans have long thought that there are certain lines Disney wouldn’t cross, with parking and resort fees being one. We can empathize with the many fans who are frustrated by this, but to them we’d also say that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is basically a license for Walt Disney World to print money. We’ve said that before, but perhaps it needs to be reiterated. It will draw historic crowds to Florida, many of whom will be first-time visitors or lifelong Star Wars fans willing to pay just about any price to live out childhood dreams. As demand is about to soar, you can expect prices for just about anything at Walt Disney World to increase.
This is particularly true with supply-limited items, such as hotel rooms, parking, and theme park capacity (tickets). Obviously, we’re not fans of paying more to visit Walt Disney World, either, but it’s a reality we all must face.
While we’ve historically been quite averse to Walt Disney World’s various cash-grab up-charge offerings, we’re actually becoming a bit amenable to them, as they represent optional ways to pay more, rather than necessary ones that impact all guests equally.
If Disney management has certain revenue projections that they are attempting to hit (and they certainly do) through a mix of optional and mandatory price increases and upcharges, we prefer the ones we can avoid. This is sort of where we’re at with the parking fee: it makes us cringe, but at the same time, if it’s in lieu of an across the board hotel rate increase of, for example, $10/night, we’ll take it.
Since Walt Disney World operates by the same laws of supply and demand and consumer price sensitivity as every other business, it stands to reason that this fee will impact both future rate increases (slowing them slightly) and guest behavior (pushing more people off-site or causing them to skip rental cars). The latter means a decline in hotel demand–but that will be more than offset by the coming increase in demand once Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens.
As such, we’re sure there are still significant hotel price increases coming between now and 2020, but minimizing those to the greatest degree possible via optional fees (in other words, not resort fees, which are anti-consumer and really should draw more scrutiny from the FTC) would be our preference.
We’ve written articles (here on page 2 and here) that delve into the current hot economy and its impact on Walt Disney World, so we won’t rehash those here. Suffice to say, record-high consumer confidence and new projects that will be huge guest draws is a perfect storm for higher prices at Walt Disney World.
Interest in those additions is unlikely to subside until well after Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in 2021, but the same cannot be said for the economy. That cooling off has its own set of negative ramifications for guests, but one silver lining is that it will also cool off Disney’s pricing trends.
Other than that, we don’t really know what else to say about this news of overnight parking fees for Walt Disney World guests. It’s understandably frustrating, especially for long-time fans who have experienced a noticeable shift in policies and practices. While Disney has always been a business, there’s was a time when it felt like a responsible one that tried to balance shareholder interests with guests ones, adding value that was commensurate with added costs. Maybe that was never the case, and maybe it still is.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What do you think about the new overnight parking fees at Walt Disney World? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
In years past we have taken our kids several times to Disneyworld. Its been only a couple years since our last visit and we were thinking about it again this year (2018). For years i could budget around a similar price range. Weve always rented a car just for the convenience. As much as Disney transportation is a nice perk the lines can be ridiculous at times. I was shocked to price out our trip at several hundred dollars more for the same tier resorts and now this will add an additional $100-$150 to the trip. Ive never questioned a Disney vacation expense because of the past value for the dollar. I feel Disney has lost sight of their target market. This latest fee I hope is not the start of nickel and diming people. It sure feels like it. One thing i don’t like is taking away something that you’ve offered your guests for free in the past. Unfortunately a Disney trip will not be in our near future if at all unless we stay off-site which will kill the magic. Im glad my kids have had the opportunity to enjoy the experience. I just wish Disney would try to keep the costs down for future families.
I did want to add that your non equating of parking fees and resort fees shows … well, a Millennial bias. Many, many, many WDW visitors either drive their own vehicles or rent them so as to not be be a prisoner of Bob Iger and Co. There has been no need for parking fees for 46.5 years. This is all about abject greed. And, no, Disney was never like that in the 70s and 80s and, one can make a case, 90s. This is typical 21st greed. Anything goes. Bastardized capitalism. The fact one can simply not have a car and then not be bothered by this is a weak, weak argument. That’s akin to someone holding a gun on you on a bridge and saying ‘You can always jump.”
ABJECT GREED.
They now also man toll plazas up to close. None of this, it’s 9:15 and the MK closes at 11, so parking is free deal. This is a company that now charges $45 for preferred parking and if you get there early they are filling the lot across from you at less than half that price.
A lot of WDW Guests are, simply put, not very smart or savvy. You know the ones, they call WDW get a quote for a $300 room at a moderate motel and book it without a second thought.
They nickel and dime at every opportunity. … Why I always check Rapid Fill and if it isn’t working (like say now at Roaring Fork), don’t pay for Coke. Because my lifetime loyalty mug ended when a mid-level VP decided to close what they viewed as a ‘costly loophole.’
Today, I went back to the local Disney outlet store and returned and rebought merchandise to save a whole $6. Disney’s management and policies are not only showing the company for what it is, but pushes people to try and get whatever they can from them.
I hate justifying bad behavior, but Disney has brought it on themselves.
Disney has the right to charge for whatever and we get to choose whether or not we want to pay for it. I do understand that.
However, this move has two logical issues.
1) $13/night per car is way, way more than maintenance for the lot costs. This makes it feel like a penalty for driving rather than the cost of the amenity.
2) Why is parking singled out? Some people don’t use the pools, drivers don’t use magical express. Why aren’t those things separate costs? Are you paying for a resort stay, or are you *just* paying for the cost of the room? If the answer isn’t consistent then that is an issue.
For what it’s worth, I think it’s fine for them to charge for amenities separately as long as they are clear on the policy and consistent. Magical express should have a corresponding fee and be funded completely from that; otherwise this policy is insulting. And from what I’ve been reading, most people don’t support a fee for magical express… Because they use the service. Realistically I don’t think Disney will do that; the whole point of all this is to reduce the number of cars on site to create a captive audience, and free magical express does that. Since they are required to have parking, their best solution is “penalize people with cars.” If they continue down this path, more repeat customers will feel more like they are in a Disney prison rather than a Disney bubble, and at the next economic downtown there will be less of that core repeat business (the people who really care and follow this kind of news) to carry them through. There is a key, fundamental difference between “I don’t want to leave this bubble” and “I literally can’t (without paying for Uber which Disney likes to pretend doesn’t exist).”
Unfortunately I don’t think anyone at Disney is forward thinking enough to care about that. Emphasis is on current projects and a five year plan. Common in companies when important people are on the way out: inflate the stock, jump ship; who cares what a few years later looks like?
I am wondering if they are trying to lead people to take magical express and not get a rental car and forcing onsite guests to use the bus around the resort. Doing this will relieve the immediate need for parking at the parks and leave spots for the offsite guests who have to pay more than 20 dollars for a spot instead of the resort guests who get a free spot at the parks. I have been several times in the recent past where the parking lots have been full and they had to redirect guests to other parks and bus over.
You know, if Disney would use some of these price bumps to pay their employees livable wages it would be less aggravating. I get that they need to pay for all this new awesome stuff and for their very high priced CEO. I doubt anyone is hurting though, other than the cast members who make our trips magical.
22030 Stage Coach dr.
With the price increases, it’s getting more difficult for the average family to afford a vacation to the happiest place on earth. I recently visited WDW, stayed on-property, and was astounded by the price increase from my visit a couple years prior. I’ve been a lover of WDW for years, and as an adult I’m beginning to find it hard to justify the cost. I worry that other families, with children who dream of going to WDW, will never be able to.
Absolutely agree.
I have visited WDW 6 times in the last 4 years but am seriously considering never visiting again. How much do they think the “average” family can afford o pay? They are pricing themselves beyond the reach of many.
Would Walt Disney have condoned paying for parking? I doubt it.
Makes me very sad
I went for the first time in my life three year ago, at 25. And I broke the bank to do it. All I want is an annual pass, which I could make a case for – but all the other crap that costs/comes with it makes it hurt too much. I see families with annual passes, and wonder how the hell they do it. Let alone the ones with passes to SeaWorld and Universal, too.
Heck, my old boss has renewed his passes for almost fifteen years. Says they haven’t even gone the last two years, but they cannot imagine paying the current (or even recent) prices.
I’m so sad for future families. And even for me, heh. I just want to go again. And.. I just cannot.
Actually, I had just bought Discover Disney tickets two weeks ago, and hadn’t narrowed down date or hotel (and wanted to be on property to maximize time and not wait through traffic), and with this news – we need to decide and book now. And that’s.. just unfortunate. Money shouldn’t be the sole reason we decide. We should be able to have a normal vacation, and it shouldn’t be forced. I shouldn’t have to stress about this. I’m not horribly off, financially, or irresponsible with money. This is just.. getting more and more crushing.
Having stayed on site ten days ago, it’s sad to see the parking charges coming in, it will have a knock on effect, I will not hire a car again, & I can see other visitors doing the same, I’m from the UK, this will have a knock on effect on shopping & car hire firms, & then the economy, Disney has been pushing its guests closer to the edge, bad enough having dogs on site another no no,
This is absolutely ridiculous. One of the perks of staying on site used to be free parking!
Not everyone flies to Walt Disney World. It is more affordable for my son’s family of 5 to drive. Now if they want to stay on property they will have to pay for parking. It’s ridiculous for Walt Disney World to compare themselves to other hotels in the area. The amount of money you pay to stay on property is always more than other hotels in the area. Time to start staying elsewhere. Disney is pricing themselves out of reach for a middle class family vacation.
I agree. You hit the nail on the head.
Instead of complaining on a blog post, try emailing Disney Guest Relations.
[email protected]
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/help/email/
Done and everyone else should as well. Do they have social media sites that we can hammer on them as well?
My daughter and I have visited WDW at least once a year for the past 10 years. I’m at the point that I’m not sure we’ll be going back. I almost always rent a car because we like to eat at various restaurants on Disney property. It is SUCH A PAIN to try to use Disney transportation to do this. We can usually rent a car pretty inexpensively and get ourselves to the various places we want to go easily. If I didn’t rent a car, I wouldn’t go to these places because it is just too much work. I feel like WDW is just becoming too much effort to really enjoy anymore. In fact our last trip in December was to Universal. Yes, they charge for parking, but we didn’t need a car at Universal. We could easily walk from our hotel to every place on property.
My family and I have travel to Disney World a couple of times a year for the last 9 years and have been three times in the last 7 months. We are planning a trip in mid june, since we bought annual passes last September. Our last trip waa the first time that we had ever stayed off property, with the crazy price increases and upcharges for everything we will not be going back for a while and we definitely won’t be staying on property ever again.
Oh boo hoo. If you can afford to go 3 times in 7 months and paying for parking is the tipping point you need to reassess your financial priorities.
Greedy move, in my opinion. We don’t usually rent a car; I doubt we will from now on. You pay a big premium to stay on property and shouldn’t have to fork out even more. I’m in the camp though that no hotel should be charging to park your car, I feel taken advantage of when I’m charged for that or the myriad of resort fees that hotels seem to be coming up with. I’m a huge Disney fan and even I’m starting to feel like we will start cutting back on the number of vacations we spend in Orlando. It is bad enough you have to fork over money to park at the the parks for the privilege of paying handsomely to enter and spending more money inside; this in my opinion, is ridiculous.
I was appalled by what I read. How could they just start charging extra after extra. I live in Florida and love going to Disney, and was looking forward to going more often once I retire in May. Well I see that has been squashed.
No mention of Minnie Vans. Could this be designed to push people who use their car on site to use the Disney taxi-like service instead?
Any ideas if the DVC guest perk is good for all DVC members, or just those that buy direct from Disney? I know you probably just have to guess/assume, which is what I’m looking for.
As of right now, it’s good for all DVC members.
Another thing of potential interest: I don’t think it’s a ‘perk’ when you stay at a DVC resort using points. I haven’t combed through membership documents to confirm, but I’m almost positive our maintenance fees pay for parking lots, meaning that Disney is already charging us for parking and cannot charge for it again–at least when staying on points.
Again, don’t take that as the gospel (I’ll review the documents when I have a chance) but I’m about 90% sure Disney cannot charge an additional fee for parking without removing those expenses from maintenance fees.
I don’t see this as a straight cash grab, but it is a round-about one. What I think the Disney play is here is to limit people driving rental cars onto, and bigger still, off of Disney property, primarily to pick up groceries, eat off campus and go to external theme parks. I am sure some analysis was done to see that people who do Magical Express and are stuck on campus spend x more than those who drive in and have external options. It isn’t good news at MCO rental car counters I’m sure, and is good news for local hotels, external condo rentals and the sales folks at DVC. As mentioned above, it will also cause people to game much more and park at Disney Springs and find their way to Saratoga Springs and a bus in. Next step would be to scan magic bands at the buses, which is likely coming someday due to security issues.
Overall, it is what it is and our choice is to buy the product at the price given or shop elsewhere. You are getting less for your money for sure, and the creeping higher costs for the value is troubling, but any business can raise prices in various ways and the choice is ours to go somewhere else if we don’t want to pay. For me, I don’t like it, but I likely won’t stop going to Disney, I will however, think twice about renting a car next time, which is exactly what they want.
Well said.
But why penalize the car rental companies? You need to penalize Disney for this sort of behaviour. Sure companies can do whatever they want but perhaps Disney needs to hear the consumer by a nice social media blitz. It has been done before and it can be done here. If the sheep are not willing to wake up, then the fox will keep coming.
We started staying off WDW the last several times we visited.
It is really unfortunate that Disney has lost touch with the majority of the people that visit. They are dangerously close to alienating many. I know we will be rethinking how many times we go and even exploring alternatives. The magic they promote is disappearing.
I don’t like it! I feel like they are nickel and diming us. It’s not like they don’t have the space. IMO they are being greedy. Smh
If you don’t like it, don’t go. Disney has never been about handouts. They have to deliver profits to stock holders. Until they see a negative impact to the stock holders due to decreasing attendance they will keep raising rates. Disney is not a charity. Vacation someplace else.
Chris, Where’s the love? Disney is one of a kind, but we only go once every 4 years or so to remember the magic. Frankly it is too expensive to do annually even before these fees. It’s always our highest out of pocket vacation (as far as value is concerned) and we go to some pretty spectacular destinations around the U.S. many times at what is considered a “luxury” level. I know complaining for a product people will consume anyway ca be trying, but maybe not so mean. Just because we spent thousands for a family of four to go to disney in 2018 doesn’t mean it was easy….or affordable….it was just a cost we found ourselves willing to pay. Every fee does make it a little harder, that’s all.