BrianR
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2018
So for a semi-fun, semi-serious comparison, I compared the "Happiest Place on Earth" with the "Sweetest Place on Earth", HersheyPark in Hershey, PA.
Why? Both locations are company towns. Not City Centers, not Inland Empires, etc.
Hershey Park has 2 official resorts (Hotel Hershey, Hershey Lodge), and 1 official campground (HersheyPark Camping Resort). Perks are similar (shuttle to the park, extra access to the park the night before your day ticket) but also different.
If you take your car, you pay to park at HersheyPark.
Some offers include discount tickets and breakfasts.
Day guests to the resort go to the famous Spa and dining, however the overlap of that and the park is relatively minimal, as the savings ($15) vs. the hassle (shuttle bus every 30 minutes) isn't beneficial.
Disney, instead of using the standard, did the inverse.
Instead of pulling the park parking for "free" perk, they fronted the charge at the resorts. If you stay at a Deluxe and are visiting a park that's not closest to your resort, you are 95% more likely to drive to that park, since in essence you paid the same amount as just paying to get into the park.
They made day access to the resort parking way too easy and created an incentive to do so for the MK Monorail and Epcot resorts. This adds unnecessary stress to the entire network, and not focused parking to the park lots and their relatively expansive space (latest crush on Epcot Seasonal Festivals excluded).
If all things are equal and you're driving a car there, and paying to park at a resort, you can guarantee that daily park vehicle traffic will significantly increase. Which if you hear some of the "devil's advocate" reasoning is what Disney is trying to minimize.
If they truly want to minimize daily traffic, this is the objective targets to hit:
Remove incentive to drive to park from a resort, i.e. get rid of the "free parking" perk.
Remove incentive to day park at a resort without spending AT THAT Resort for a window no longer than x amount of hours, if exceeded pay a significant hourly rate to exceed preferred parking rates at the parks, and if high enough (3 hours over), 50% higher than the preferred parking daily rate at the nearest park.
Increase the frequency and reliability of on-site transportation to meet or exceed time targets vs. driving. Some of that is using alternate means (gondola / monorail / boat), another would have to be dedicated bus lanes and interchanges to prevent holdups. This also minimizes the amount of vehicles needed for operation (at an inherent infrastructure cost).
Why? Both locations are company towns. Not City Centers, not Inland Empires, etc.
Hershey Park has 2 official resorts (Hotel Hershey, Hershey Lodge), and 1 official campground (HersheyPark Camping Resort). Perks are similar (shuttle to the park, extra access to the park the night before your day ticket) but also different.
If you take your car, you pay to park at HersheyPark.
Some offers include discount tickets and breakfasts.
Day guests to the resort go to the famous Spa and dining, however the overlap of that and the park is relatively minimal, as the savings ($15) vs. the hassle (shuttle bus every 30 minutes) isn't beneficial.
Disney, instead of using the standard, did the inverse.
Instead of pulling the park parking for "free" perk, they fronted the charge at the resorts. If you stay at a Deluxe and are visiting a park that's not closest to your resort, you are 95% more likely to drive to that park, since in essence you paid the same amount as just paying to get into the park.
They made day access to the resort parking way too easy and created an incentive to do so for the MK Monorail and Epcot resorts. This adds unnecessary stress to the entire network, and not focused parking to the park lots and their relatively expansive space (latest crush on Epcot Seasonal Festivals excluded).
If all things are equal and you're driving a car there, and paying to park at a resort, you can guarantee that daily park vehicle traffic will significantly increase. Which if you hear some of the "devil's advocate" reasoning is what Disney is trying to minimize.
If they truly want to minimize daily traffic, this is the objective targets to hit:
Remove incentive to drive to park from a resort, i.e. get rid of the "free parking" perk.
Remove incentive to day park at a resort without spending AT THAT Resort for a window no longer than x amount of hours, if exceeded pay a significant hourly rate to exceed preferred parking rates at the parks, and if high enough (3 hours over), 50% higher than the preferred parking daily rate at the nearest park.
Increase the frequency and reliability of on-site transportation to meet or exceed time targets vs. driving. Some of that is using alternate means (gondola / monorail / boat), another would have to be dedicated bus lanes and interchanges to prevent holdups. This also minimizes the amount of vehicles needed for operation (at an inherent infrastructure cost).
