WDW’s new dog policy

Walt Disney World
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I’ve just read about the new policy on allowing dogs in some guest rooms at some on-property resorts.

Two thoughts . . .

First, it makes me sad because I’d so love to take my dog to WDW, but getting him from the UK to Florida is the hard part.

But second, $75 per night at Yacht Club? Are you kidding me? I only ever stay at dog friendly hotels in the UK and I do so perhaps half a dozen times a year. They’re always upscale hotels and I’m outraged if I’m asked to pay more than £10 (=$10) a night. Excuse me, but $75 is taking the pee.

Many hoteliers will tell you that it’s humans who create the most mess in hotel rooms, not dogs. Most dog owners — especially the ones who spend thousands of dollars on a vacation and love their dogs enough to take them with them — are super-responsible.

I do not believe for a second that having a dog in a room costs Disney $75 per night in extra cleaning costs. This is price gouging pure and simple.

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I’m with you - it should be a flat fee, since an ill-behaved dog is just as likely to make a mess in 2 days as 10.

I love dogs, but I am a Rope Drop to Kiss Goodnight type, so going back to let them out once or twice in a day would be a lot of time - especially since you are paying more in hotel fees than you would for a pet sitter at home! The only way I could see this being helpful is if I were on an extended roadtrip and only stopping at WDW for a few days…

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I always read your posts in your U.K. accent

This one in particular struck a hilarious cord with me. Not because of what you said just how I’m hearing it.

:joy::joy:

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I Love dogs but I would leave mine at home. Here’s the deal, to you he or she is great, but to others after being in the parks all day and then hearing your dog all night or finding dog hair in the room is not a pleasant experience. Some people are Alergic to animals dander or hair and Disney has to take extra steps to get rid of this. Now let me give you another example without telling you what restaurant I am talking about. My wife and I went to have dinner at an expensive Disney resort restaurant and upon being seated what should we discover, but a long hair poodle at the table right next to us. I am sorry but when we eat we don’t want a animal next to us while eating. We notified the restaurant about the situation and were told that the dog was a Special Duty type dog. Now this was kind of strange as they bought him in a baby carage and tried to hide him under the table between the family. Will never eat at that establishment again. You may love your animal but I do not, so leave him at home. DocHopper

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Actually, I think that they are taking the Mickey…

I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, I think that they are price gouging, but to be fair I do not know how much it costs to do a “de-dogging” cleaning.

On the other hand, I do not think that dogs should be allowed in the first place, so Disney is justified to change get an inflated price to discourage it. It is not fair to the dog to be locked up in a strong place all day, so why make it easy for people to do this?

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I am in two minds about the dogs being able to attend Restaurants/Disney as I have a friend who has a drastic allergy to dogs and comes out in hives at the slight touch of animal fur, and I also know many people with service dogs due to my volunteer work. I guess I’m of the mind that Pets should be left at Home or in the kennels, and Service Animals should be welcomed.

Service animals can be multiple different types of animals (mostly dogs however) and I know that certain breeds of dogs can be specialists in different areas.

On our trip to Disney earlier in the year we were seated next to a lovely lady who looked and acted no different to anyone else that day except she had a service dog with her that she was trying to keep out of sight.

On talking to her (mostly because I tried to explain service animals to my DD and why she should never try to pat, touch or distract them) she apologized for it’s presence (to which I told her there was no need) and I found out that she suffers from bad episodes of epilepsy and balance issues (among other things) where she can stop responding or making rational decisions. Her dog was there and trained to assist her in per-empting these attacks to ensure that she was adequately prepared. I’m sure there was a more in depth explanation that was more technically correct and that I got the public consumption response however it didn’t really change the end message.

That dog may not appear at first glance to be ‘needed’ as most people seem to think of service animals as guide dogs for the blind, however, it was clear that the animal served a purpose and assisted her in her daily life.

Another example is that of Diabetic assistant dogs, to which, as a Diabetic I’ve had a lot of exposure to and understand the positive impact one of these animals can have. These dogs could be all sorts of breeds and don’t necessarily need to be a ‘labrador’ as most people seem to think. These dogs literally save the life of their owners by alerting them of incoming low sugar levels prior to the handlers losing their brain function and muscular controls (they can sense this via scent on the handlers sweat) and are fantastic for alerting the handler of attacks that can kill them. If you want more info on this I’m happy to discuss in PM’s not a worry as I don’t really want to clog up this discussion too much.

As for the fees and charges for the 75 a night, I too agree that it’s far and above what should be paid for pet attendance but I’m guessing it’s a combination of Disney Price Gouging and the overlook of the possible issues that having non trained (non-assistance) pets frequent the Disney bubble.

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Hahaha!

Yeah, I wont be staying anywhere that has dogs. Too unpredictable… what if it’s confused being away from home and barks all night? Not something I’d like to deal with!

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I have no problem with service dogs whatsoever, and think it’s sad that people feel the need to try and keep them out of sight.

Pets are totally different!

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I am all for Service animals. I know what they are, what they do, and how they look. They can be any type of animal but as stated mostly dogs. If you have ever seen a trained service animal you can tell instantly the difference. They are not carried in a baby carriage or dress in baby clothes. Most have identification identifying them as service dogs. They definitely have papers indentifing them as such. In my case a few years back, at a Disney Resort Restaurant, there was no denying that this animal was NOT a service dog but rather a babied pet. Management turned a blind eye because the group were affluent. That aside I see now where at least two resorts are going to allow up to two pets in a room. These are the Port of New Orleans Riverside and oddly enough, The Yacht Club resort. Now have you ever stayed at a motel and were beat from a long drive only to hear the barking and scratching of a dog in the room next door. If you tried to contact the management about the issue nothing was done. Disney states they will have a policy in place to prevent this. Good Luck with that. Ever wait 5 hours for your bags to arrive via Magical Express service? Contact management and get blown off for the next two hours. Unfortunately in my upcoming vacation I happen to be staying at the Port of New Orleans Riverside. In booking there was no mention of this new policy change. I had to find out about it out here. This new policy is going to cost Disney because I for one will not tolerate animal noise in the room next door or even if I can hear it at a distance. After a long day in the parks, it’s something I don’t need and pay one heck of a lot of money not to. you can’t do without your animal, stay out side of Disney Property as far as I am concerned where the prices are reasonable and competitive . Service dog are the exception, though if they are truly Service dogs you will never hear them because they are trained to be calm and silent. DocHopper

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I agree with the lot.
If it didn’t have a coat or identification then I 100% agree with your assessment.
Apologies for the misunderstanding and if I came across as uppity :slight_smile:

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I am a dog lover and I understand the need for some owners to travel with them. I would think Disney would have specific pet friendly rooms if this is something they are going to move forward with. Much like back in the day hotel rooms were smoking and non smoking.

As much as I am a dog lover, my wife, not so much. Ok not at all. Ok wont even go near one. She has already made it clear to me that I cant even consider a room in any of the Disney properties that allow pets. She said just cross them off the list right now.

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I am very concerned about the dog policy because we are staying at AoA in less than three weeks, we already booked it (almost a year ago) and they just added dogs now. My DD5 is TERRIFIED of dogs unless they are perfectly calm and well behaved (like most service dogs, for example), because there was a biting/snapping incident with a dog we were walking near and she has never gotten over it. Terrified. I train dogs as my second job so we are working hard on the fear, but it is very intense right now and will absolutely ruin her day if she is afraid of being near a dog when she leaves her room.

Because I no longer have a choice and will be at AoA, would anyone recommend putting it in my room request/calling WDW and ask not to be on the same floor as dogs if possible, or would you just cross your fingers and hope no one has a dog on such short notice?

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I’d put it on your room request. However, I’ve just seen an article about POR and apparently they have only had 4 requests to bring a dog, and 100 asking not to be near the dogs. You’re probably safe either way. My DS13 is terrified of dogs though - all dogs including service dogs, which was fun when there was a blind child with a guide dog in his school! I’d make the request.

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I don’t want to get argumentative because this is a very friendly forum.

BUT . . . I do get a little bit defensive when it comes to dogs. Well, my dog. There seems to be a real prejudice against them from some people, who imagine all kinds of terrible things that dogs will get up to.

As I said, I travel with my dog all the time and he’s never stayed up all night barking. Unlike — perhaps — your baby, who is always allowed in hotels. Or your teenage son and his mates, who sneaked in bottles of beer and are now egging each other on to see who can do the most irritating thing at two in the morning.

What? Your baby’s not like that? Your kids are immaculately well-behaved? Well, guess what: so is my dog.

All this being said, even if I could find a way to get my dog from England to Florida, I wouldn’t bring him on a Disney trip. The cost — $75 a night is only the start, then you’ve got doggy daycare to add in — would be huge, and he’d hardly be much better off than he is if I leave him at home with friends. OK, he’d be able to sleep with me each night, but he’d be away from me throughout the day: pretty stressful for him.

Dogs are like children — they behave themselves if they have responsible parents. I was in a dog-friendly hotel once that had four dogs in the dining room at breakfast. Every one of them was calmly lying on the floor next to its owner. No barking, no fighting, no trouble of any kind.

As I said in my original post, I suspect people who are shelling out thousands for a Disney vacation, plus $75 a night for their dog, and who are so concerned about their dog that they bring it with them on vacation, are probably responsible owners with very well-behaved dogs. I know I am, and mine is.

:heart::paw_prints:

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I hope I didn’t offend you with my saying I’d rather stay in a non-dog friendly hotel. It’s not the dogs catalyzing that response, it’s my daughter’s fear. If my daughter were extremely afraid of crowds, I would avoid Disney because of crowds, and take a trip to the country. Because my daughter is afraid of dogs, I try to avoid them in situations where we don’t have a choice but to pass them every day, like dog-friendly parks around town, until we can get her more comfortable in a controlled environment. It has nothing to do with a prejudice against dogs, it has to do with the situation. I should hope if a dog is afraid of people, one would avoid taking a dog to a place with crowds.

Dogs are family members. They belong wherever their family goes. The right thing for me to do in my situation is not ban dogs, but avoid them if possible. Hopefully that makes sense.

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I should have been clear that my opinion is not the only valid one!

If people had giant spiders as pets and Disney allowed them to bring them with them and walk them around on leads, I would boycott Disney and not come within a thousand miles of WDW!

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I’m not sure I entirely agree with that, but I do understand your point. unfortunately not everyone IS responsible- with pets or children. My concern is about unfamiliar environments and confusion for the animals causing discomfort for others, not to mention the poor dogs!

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This conversation has provoked a question that has never occurred to me. Why are dog owners so adamant about bringing their pets with them wherever they go? What I mean to say is, you don’t see reptile owners wanting policy changes to allow their pets. Or spider owners, or fish owners, or really even cat owners. Why dogs? For full disclosure, my dog has been in more states and countries than most people I know. We have always taken him with us everywhere and sometimes have struggled to find hotels which was infuriating to me. For his own safety and comfort, we no longer travel with him because he cannot see or hear well and my parents can care for him at home. Nonetheless, back to my original question, why aren’t other pet owners having the same issue? Is it because those animals are easier to sneak in? Or because those owners aren’t as passionate about bringing their pets along? I hope this question isn’t a Pandora’s Box, but rather more friendly conversation.

And as far as the Disney aspect, I would hope that @galuchies_463555 is correct, that they have set aside a certain block of rooms in a specific location of each resort - and perhaps only one resort of each tier would suffice the demand? Yacht Club (Deluxe), POR (Moderate) and AoA (Value). I also hope that those rooms are located within immediate access to a designated potty area. It seems I remember reading that pets were allowed during Hurricane Irma and the lawns were no longer suitable for lounging afterwards. And while I am all for allowing pets in pet specific areas, I feel like they should be contained in that area - due to allergies, fears, etc. of the general population. I realize service animals are already allowed in all areas, but they are actually fairly rare. I would think the dander from one dog here and there isn’t as likely to trigger an allergic reaction as if dozens were in an area together.

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Sorry, but that’s just scientifically inaccurate. I love dogs, I do, but a dog, for reasons completely unknown, can and will snap. Maybe they sense danger. Maybe they just didn’t like the way someone was looking at them. Maybe they were just scared. Maybe a little kid poked them in the eye when you weren’t looking. You will never truly know.

And to paraphrase the line from Jurassic Park: “When a baby freaks out, it doesn’t eat the other guests.” Babies and children, at worst, are annoying. Dogs, at worst, are dangerous. How they act at home doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll act the same in a completely foreign environment. You’re working with thousands of years of animal instinct here and it can manifest into rather unexpected behaviors.

Again, I love dogs, but I’m with DocHopper on this, if you can’t be without your furry friend, I feel it’s better that you stay home. But at the very least, I hope, like it’s already been said, that Disney does set aside specific spots for the reasons mentioned (allergies, potty requirements, fearts, etc…)

Service dogs, however, are completely exempt from this for obvious reasons.

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Well, let’s ban dogs altogether, then. Let’s have a giant cull of all dogs across America. You know, because they’re so wild and dangerous.

But let’s keep to the twisted interpretation of the Second Amendment. Hell, let’s compensate dog owners for the loss of their dogs by giving them semi-automatic hunting rifles. Then we’ll all be so much safer.

I’m out.