11 Hidden Charges on Your Disney World Bill

newsflash disney world is super expensive and some people don't even know the half of it as a guest you save up money all year round to go on that oh so special disney world vacation only to find these sneaky hidden costs making your bank account a whole lot less magical if you're not expecting these added costs they will definitely be an unpleasant surprise when they appear on your post vacation tab [Music] hey everybody it's aj for disney food blog and today we're going to talk about those sneaky hidden charges in disney world now some of these charges can be avoided and we'll tell you how but others well you're gonna have to cough up the extra dough but knowing is half the battle and it equips you to budget appropriately so let's get started first up is that overnight parking at resorts and by resorts we mean hotels if you decide to drive to disney world and you're staying at one of their hotels expect to pay an extra 15 to 25 dollars per night for parking yup you heard me right what was once a complimentary convenience for guests is now something you're gonna have to budget for ahead of time just to put it in perspective for you let's say you and your family are staying five nights at the polynesian village resort lucky you because you're staying at a deluxe hotel though that's gonna put you at the upper end of the parking price so 25 bucks per night at the end of your five nights day you'll be charged an extra 125 dollars for that parking privilege but don't think you can just escape this charge by staying off site if you take your car to disney expect to pay for it period even if you're staying off property disney's gonna charge you to park your car in the park slots each day unless you're a member of an affinity group that gets free parking the way to avoid these parking costs well don't drive your own car or use a rental car at disney world use the free until 2022 magical express to get you to and from the airport after that you can use disney's transportation such as the shuttles monorails skyliners boats etc available to all disney guests to get you around property for free but don't forget relying on disney transportation can add hours of travel time to your day and since time is money especially in disney world you'll have to weigh your options to see what the best bottom line is for you me personally i go lots of places every day i don't just go to one park and stay there all day long i'm usually in meetings i'm usually late for about a million things during the day in disney world and so i do choose to bring a rental car and pay for parking because it just makes more sense since i'm usually only at disney world a few days at a time and the extra transportation time with the free transportation just sucks up my whole day so i pay the parking costs to have a car there but it's really up to you and you want to crunch those numbers you want to figure out are you the kind of family or the kind of group that goes to the park in the morning stays there all day rope drop to fireworks or do you guys hop around go to lots of different places also are you only there for a short time do you need to get lots of different places very quickly or are you there for you know a whole week and you've got the opportunity to sort of take a leisurely bus ride from here to there whenever you need to so think through it and see what the best choice is for you all right new transportation costs at the beginning of 2022 disney's magical express will be no more instead you'll be able to take a new shuttle service to and from the orlando international airport called mirrors connect mirrors by the way is the same company that ran magical express so it's basically the same service but starting in january won't be free anymore prices were recently released from years connect standard service which is listed on the website as being a shared service with large vehicles and monitored wait times that's basically magical express will be 16 each way for adults and 13.50 for kids now mirrors connect used to also have a premium service listed on their website but it appears the premium service has disappeared and been replaced with something called express service but the description of this service is still the same this one will provide you with limited wait times and direct service which i'm assuming means no additional stops along the way to drop people off at their hotels before you get to yours prices for this service are two hundred dollars for a round trip for four passengers and fifty five dollars for each additional passenger so you can break that down to like about fifty dollars per person generally so in the future will there be a way to avoid hidden prices from the airport to disney and back again not unless you know someone who lives in orlando who wants to be your personal chauffeur and also on the docket is airport transportation to disney is the brightline high-speed train slated to open in about five years brightline's going to transport guests between orlando international airport and disney springs according to current plans it will also have a price tag but we don't have an estimate on that yet other transportation options that aren't new but will cost you include ride sharing to and from the airport that car rental option and possibly the return of minivans which are disney's exclusive ride sharing option so at this point starting in january 2022 no matter what you're gonna pay to get to and from the airport so that's definitely something you want to work into your plans okay number three on our list is a hundred dollar authorization hold and tourist tax all right i know you just got so bored when i said that but this is something you need to know about it's a big truth bomb when you book a room at a disney hotel they may put a hundred dollar hold on your credit card on top of what you already owe for the room along with any other outstanding expenses this hundred dollar hold is for incidental expenses basically anything you'd buy and charge to your room like room service upgraded wi-fi or any other charges you haven't already paid ahead of time now don't panic if you see this hefty added fee think of this like a deposit you'd put down for an event space if you don't charge anything to your room you'll get the hundred dollars back after your stay but it can be scary to see that hundred dollar charge you weren't expecting so be prepared for that and again if you don't use it or don't charge anything to your room then you'll get that hundred dollars back it's just a hold so that disney can guarantee you have that money available if you do charge something now let's talk next about tourist taxes for out of state residents this is going to bump up that final total for your hotel you're going to see a certain price listed on the disney world website that's going to say this is how much it's going to cost you to stay in this room for a night and then when you actually pay for it it's going to cost you a bunch more and here's why let's say you're staying at disney's art of animation for 284 dollars per night 284 dollars is the price tag you're seeing on the website when you book now orange county accommodation tax that's going to add an extra dollar 42 per night for your stay no big right orange county tourist development tax that's going to add 17 and 4 cents per night for your stay okay it's getting a little pricey we're staying multiple nights and last but not least the florida state accommodation tax is going to tack on 15 and 24 cents per night for your stay so you're actually looking at paying around an extra 34 dollars per night on top of what disney is listing on their website as the price tag for your hotel so that can be serious business 34 bucks per night and remember if you're seeing a more expensive hotel it's gonna cost you more per night for all those taxes so when you're making your budgeting plans for your hotel don't just look at the price listed think about all of those taxes and fees that are going to be added on that's pretty common for hotels i'm sure you've experienced it before but when you're trying to budget out your trip sometimes that's something that you don't see until the very end of your trip you don't see kind of all those taxes added on and it's also in small print when you book your hotel so it's you know not something they really kind of highlight for you so in order to offset some of those costs take advantage of booking disney hotels with discounts and that will help take the extra sting off of those prices currently disney world's having a summer deal that's going to last until september 29th where you can save up to 25 percent on your resort stay and fyi disney's usually always running some sort of a hotel deal we've talked about this on the channel before but we haven't talked about it for a while there's a special offers link at the bottom of the disney world website if you go click on that that'll tell you all the special offers and hotel discounts that you're eligible for right now and they're always running something you should never pay rack rate for your hotel they've always got something going on so go check that out and make sure you take advantage of it also just a couple of little extra things to be aware of disney world premier visa card holders can earn a 300 statement credit after spending a thousand dollars on purchases and the first three months from opening your account so if you decide to use your card for your hotel stay then you've got some money that you can also use to well probably hand right back to disney let's be honest if you're a us military member make sure to check disney world's website for special discounts on your resort stay and park tickets the most recent discounted deals are good until december 17th so that special offers tab is going to help you out a lot to find out how you can sort of mitigate those added taxes and fees the extra charges that you're going to get on your hotel even if you book with a discount but at least that discount offsets hope that all makes sense all right automatic gratuity for large parties this is a surprise hidden cost when you're at restaurants so if you're traveling with a party of six or more an automatic 18 gratuity will be placed on your bill at disney world table service restaurants technically disney isn't supposed to charge gratuity if your sixth party member is under the age of three but it has been known to happen it's totally up to the restaurant's discretion so if it happens to you don't be surprised now when tables in wonderland returns which will impact annual pass holders dvc members and locals gratuity will always automatically be added at the end of your table service meal but not at quick service locations and the disney dining plan also has automatic gratuity added as well did your server do an outstanding job and you want to show your appreciation beyond the 18 you can always increase that amount just let your server know i'm sure they'll be very appreciative but don't be surprised when that automatic 18 gratuity is tacked onto your restaurant bill if you fit any of these particular groups and be sure to check your restaurant build to see if an automatic gratuity has been added because sometimes the server doesn't tell you that it's already been added and then you end up giving a 20 gratuity or whatever your standard is on top of that 18 gratuity without even knowing that you've now essentially been charged twice for tip so definitely look at the bill see what you're being charged for and look to see if a gratuity's already been added all right cancellation and no-show fees change your mind about your disney plans this is going to cost you if you need to make a resort cancellation the disney world website requests that you cancel 30 days out to receive your full refund now there are different rules depending on your reservation type if you're only booking a room called a room only reservation you can cancel up to five days in advance without a cancellation fee if you book a package your cancellation fee is going to vary depending on what package you've booked and how you've booked if you're booking a room through expedia for example most of their hotels are fully refundable just double check on the website to make sure your hotel isn't a special case whether you're booking through a third party or disney's website and you don't cancel within the cancellation time frame or you are a no show you will have to pay the full amount of the package or the first night on a room only booking this also goes for experiences like savvy's workshop if you don't cancel at least one day before your reservation you'll be charged the full amount for that experience at savi's of course that's gonna be a 219 charge for a lightsaber you never built now you'll also have cancellation fees for restaurants these vary based on if you've prepaid for a meal or not usually it's ten dollars per person if you're a no-show so if you have six people in your party and you just decide not to go to one of your dining reservations that's going to cost you 60 bucks and believe me that can add up because when i when i was going to disney world with a baby and babies i don't know if you're aware are very unpredictable and sometimes you know you can't make it to a dining reservation that you had planned to go to or you go to a dining reservation and it's a disaster and so those cancellation fees really can add up i think there were days that i missed multiple reservations because of things like nap times or other issues we won't get into that now that you know i had to pay lots of cancellation fees so keep that in mind and also prepaid meals like cinderella's royal table they're gonna keep your whole payment if you don't show or don't cancel within the cancellation window so read all that fine print now some special experiences have cancellation fees too like vip tours and behind the scenes tours at disney world you'll receive a cancellation fee for your private vip tour quote equal to two hours at the booked rate per tour if you do not provide at least a 48-hour notice unquote now per hour those vip tours are in the hundreds and so that will set you back quite a bit of money backstage tours have a similar cancellation fee if you don't show up for your tour or cancel at least 48 hours in advance then you're just gonna have to kiss that money goodbye now before you book that disney vacation make sure to read all the fine print that goes for flights car rental off-site hotel we have a blog post on dfb right now detailing all of the refund and cancellation policies right now and we do update that regularly and here's an important tip remember that right now due to covet 19 many companies are offering flexible cancellation policies so that's why the fine print is especially important for example right now i can change and cancel flights on certain airlines with no change fee that's a huge deal disney's updated refund and cancellation policies for many of their parks hotels cruise ships and adventures by disney vacations so pay attention my friends mark those cancellation deadlines in sharpie in your planners or in bold on your google calendars with notifications every 10 minutes because it's really really important not to get slammed with tons of cancellation fees if you've got to change your plans okay let's talk about disney world tickets prices for disney tickets aren't ever set in stone especially when it comes to peak season so if you go to disney's website and look at their ticket visit guide it'll show you the standard ticket price point 109 per day now disney's not very sneaky when it comes to telling you how much it's going to cost to add park copper and park hopper plus privileges on top of that they tell you flat out it'll be an extra 65 to 85 on top of your daily park ticket but this is what you're gonna find in the fine print first off the price per day of your ticket decreases with the more days you spend in the parks disney's tagline for this is the longer you stay the less you pay per day so disney is intentionally trying to give you the vibe that you're going to save money by staying longer which sounds like a win-win but really it's a win-win on disney's part if they keep you in the parks longer they keep you spending more money on food souvenirs and other experiences for longer so let's say you've selected the number of days you want to be in the parks and chosen your park ticket option this is a hypothetical scenario i'm just going to choose the standard park ticket without the park copper now you're going to keep on scrolling to finish up your payment and well well look what we have here disney will ask you to select a starting point for your vacation on the calendar below some days sure are still at 109 but that's not true of all the days now let's take a look at the september schedule for instance towards the end of the month when we're starting to get towards the 50th anniversary the only day that costs that low low price is september 26th then those prices start to increase creeping up to 122 to 125 dollars per day and if you jump on over to december when the holiday festivities start happening no 109 price ranges in sight you're gonna have to pay around 126 to 149 dollars per day that could be a giant 40 extra per ticket per person per day on the other hand there are select days that will cost less than what's listed initially these prices can be found early in september and they're going to range from paying 106 to 108 dollars per day instead not a huge savings but hey it's better than paying 40 extra if you're paying for peak prices for your disney park tickets double check your hotel as well hotel prices are going to fluctuate just like the tickets will hiking up during peak seasons and weekends and don't get us started on surge pricing for food character meals have been known to bump up pricing during busy seasons as well so there are a whole bunch of hidden price increases that you may not know anything about because of course disney is advertising that hundred and nine dollar price they're not really talking about all of the search pricing and the changes based on the popularity of the time frame that you're going so be sure to check that out that money adds up big time all right now let's talk photo passes those prices can sneak up on you too it's fun to go to photographer cast members around the parks and get those professional park beacon shots at cinderella castle tree of life spaceship earth it's extra fun when the photographers add a little spice to your photos by including magic shots or zoom shots right like being able to hold tinker bell or ramy or a bunch of balloons that's totally adorable oh and don't forget those in ride pictures too those are going to be added to your photo pass as well so you can remember your wild bug-eyed expression after launching 0-60 on rock and roller coaster such great memories now at the time of getting the pictures uploaded to your my disney experience account all you have to do is scan your magic band or park ticket no charge is necessary you get to see all your pictures with the photopass watermark and ooh and all over them but when you get home and have to decide which pictures you want yeah that's when you begin to realize how much those cutesy shots are actually going to cost you getting all your memory maker pictures for one day is going to cost you 69 now let's talk about how you can save on that if you know in advance you're going to want all of your photopass pictures from your trip you can purchase memory maker before you get to disney world for 169 and that'll cover all the days of your trip if you decide to purchase your photopass pictures during or after your trip then a memory maker is going to cost you 199 so that's an extra little 30 fee there but what if you just want one special photo do you have to purchase the entire day's worth of pictures just for one special moment not at all each individual digital copy is 16.95 however the my disney experience app doesn't advertise this you're gonna have to go directly to disney's website to make single photo purchases so you gotta figure out for you how many of those photos do you think you're gonna want if you're gonna want all of them then save the money and buy it beforehand and then you get all of them for that low low price of 169 bucks but if you're not going to buy a ton of your photo pass pictures to hang all over your walls and frames and stuff then go for the single purchase photo for 16.95 that's a lot less than 169 dollars and a lot lot less than 199 now if you do decide to go ahead and buy the memory maker take advantage of it study up on all the photo pass points and magic shots get your money's worth there are hundreds of different photopass opportunities around the parks so track down those photopass photographers and pose like there's no tomorrow but be aware that buying those pictures will cost you extra no matter which way you slice it all right disney dining plan my friends disney just announced their dining plan is coming back this fall now there are still a lot of questions will the dining plans look the same as they did back in 2019 will disney make updates or changes to pricing all we know is that with the previous version of the disney dining plan even though disney promoted it in a way that made you think you were gonna save all kinds of cash money we usually found it difficult to actually break even so if you're looking for a way to budget for your trip the dining plan can actually sink you a little further into a disney world money pit if you're not super smart about it so how can you be smart about it do the following no credit left behind prep ahead of time to use all of your dining credits second way to be super smart about it get bang for your buck buy the most expensive things you can with your credits choose the stake in the lobster at table service restaurants drink the alcohol that's included don't use table service credits on breakfast which is the cheapest meal of the day unless it's an uber expensive character meal use snack credits on the most expensive and unique snacks shameless plug we have full ebooks that list out every single snack in every park show you a picture give you the pricing as well as a review so there's no better way to plan for snacks than those ebooks find them at dfbstore.com use code youtube for a discount if you want more tips for the dining plan we've got a couple of videos around here that'll definitely help you out okay now let's talk vacation package deals disney vacation packages usually consist of park tickets room dining and any extra experiences all wrapped up in one nice convenient purchasing bundle disney tries to convince you that buying these package bundles is gonna save you some serious moolah and sometimes they can but it's the way they market these packages that could really trip you up in terms of hidden charges we have a video discussing the different ways disney manipulates you into spending more money like this which you can totally check out after we finish up here now disney likes to put in the big bold print that you can save all this money if you get a vacation bundle for a six night stay but in reality that bundle is still available to you if you're only planning on staying two nights too this is just more fine print mumbo jumbo so no you don't have to book a six night trip to get that deal disney just uses that as an example in their marketing that just so happens to kind of look like a requirement but it's not if you can't or don't want to do a week-long trip you do not have to you can get the same deal when you're staying fewer nights so the lesson here of course is always read the fine print don't skip out on a potentially great package deal just because you're staying fewer nights than disney would like you to stay read over the details and check to see if this deal can still apply to you and your travel party fyi dfb will always tell you the minimum night booking number in our blog posts about these hotel discounts so you don't have to search it out for yourself if you are in a situation that you have to search it out for yourself know that you usually have to click through at least two links to get to that information that tells you what the minimum night stay is so if you see the thing on the website you have to click the you know more info link and then once you get over there sometimes you have to click another link to the more info and then you get to the minimum night stay sometimes our writers even have to make fake bookings we book like two nights or one night and we make fake bookings to get to the point where we can see how few nights you actually have to do to get that same deal like we go through the process so that we make sure we're giving you the right information so you can rely on us for that but if you need to search it out yourself that's how we do it and remember disney wants to keep you on property just as much if not more then you want to stay there because that means more moolah for them so of course they're going to give you the example of staying a whole week okay next on our list is no more free magic bands okay once upon a time you could score a free magic band for staying at a disney hotel this is no longer the case you got to pay for your magic bands now magic band prices currently range from 1999 to 34.99 though hotel guests can sometimes get standard one color magic bands for a discounted price so why is disney making you pay for these now we're guessing a couple of reasons magic bands are still useful they still get you into your hotel room they hold your payment info they keep track of your park tickets however they're not as essential as they used to be disney's trying to push the disney magic mobile function on your my disney experience app which holds all the same functions as the magicband does on your phone this isn't a bad thing the mobile app is free to use but this is causing magicbands to become more of a cute useful accessory rather than a necessity and since disney would rather use your phone anyway they're gonna make you pay for the band now disney's probably charging for these bands also because they can sure it's frustrating to have to pay for bands when we were able to select styles complimentary before but for those who've traveled to disney before and know the excitement of receiving those bands in the mail well you might just be willing to fork over more cash to experience that unboxing thrill again so disney understands us emotionally my friends they know what makes us tick but yeah you gotta add that to your budgeting now magic bands are not free any longer and if you want to use them you're gonna have to buy them but a bonus positive piece of news you can use old magic bands so if you already have magic bands that you know and love just use those they're already linked to your account so they're gonna open any hotel doors or pay for anything you want to pay for in the parks as long as they're linked to your account okay and the last one we're going to talk about here hidden charges on your disney world fail is the new fastpass system yep i've been talking about the disney genie plus a lot on dfv lately but it really is a hot topic of conversation right now the old fastpass system that used to come complimentary with your disney world theme park tickets has been kicked to the curb and replaced by disney genie plus which is starting up this fall for 15 per person per day you'll be able to book lightning lane selections that's the new name for fastpass and these will allow you to skip those standby lines lightning lane works a lot like the max pass system over in disneyland you choose an attraction you choose an arrival time and once you ride you make another selection as many as you want but just one at a time however some rides won't be available under the standard lightning lane disney genie plus prices if you're wanting to skip the giant lines for hot ticket attractions like rise of the resistance seven dwarf smine train or the new remy's ratatouille adventure you're gonna have to pay even more for the privilege of skipping the main line disney calls these quote individual attraction selections unquote but molly at all ears calls them fancy rides which is what i think we should go with so yeah wanna ride rides free want to ride rides with lower weights 15 dollars per day want to ride fancy rides with lower weights even more monies on top of that disney hasn't announced yet how much those fancy rides are going to cost us but prices will be based on ride popularity and park attendance so disneyland paris just implemented a similar system going off that general pricing you could be shelling out an extra 20 to 25 dollars per person per ride yep that's closing in on a hundred dollars for your family of four to ride one ride without waiting in the standby line so when disney genie plus launches expect some new line items to show up on your disney budget that were definitely not there before okay i know that was a lot to take in but i'd much rather have you know now than get hit with a massive credit card bill you weren't expecting after your trip when you're ready to forgive me for this video you can just let me know now for the good news around here we're in the business of helping you save as much as you can as you prep for and experience your disney vacation we write blog posts about ways to save put out the alerts on discounts and even write posts reminding you when a discount is about to end so you can take advantage of it before it's gone for real we write them every month we also let you know the cheapest days to go to disney world and give you the brass tacks on how much it's gonna cost you to go to disney world at certain times of the year and we break down for you in our dfb guidebook how to figure out if the dining plan is the right choice for you so if you're ever looking for more disney world deals and discounts stick with us sign up for our newsletter the link is in the description of this video and never miss another update on ways to save in disney world we have got you covered we do all the research so you don't have to so stick with us y'all thanks for listening i know this has been a tough one tough pill to swallow but it's going to be helpful i promise thanks for watching as always this is aj for disney food blog and we'll see you real soon you

Channel: DFBGuide

Views: 164,340

Rating: 4.9346213 out of 5

Keywords: disneyfood, disney, disney world, disneyland, disneyvideo, disneyvacation, food, disney parks, disney travel, disney tips, disney guides, disney planning, disney trip, disney how to, disney vlog, disney vlogger

Id: KEsgnmusN4c

Length: 27min 26sec (1646 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021