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Disney's current position regarding electric chargers

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Larry Chanin

President, Florida Tesla Enthusiasts
Moderator
Aug 22, 2011
4,937
814
Sarasota, Florida
I sent the following email to Walt Disney World Resort:

As you no doubt are aware, many folks are interested in switching from gasoline burning vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs). In my case I have an electric vehicle on order and I regularly visit Disney World. I was disappointed that I was unable to find anything on your website that discusses, electric chargers installed at Disney resorts, or any plans that Disney has in this area. I am organizing a club in Florida comprised of several families who have, or are planning to purchase electric vehicles. I would be happy to pass on in our next newsletter any information that you can provide regarding Disney's plans to support the EV community.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Lawrence Chanin

Here is the response that I received:


Dear Mr. Chanin,

Thank you for contacting us regarding the Walt Disney World Resort.

I am very sorry for the disappointment you experienced when you learned
electric car chargers are not available on Walt Disney World property.
At this time, we have no plans to install chargers due to the lack of
demand from our Guests.
However, I wanted to personally assure you that
your feedback has been taken seriously and let you know how much we
appreciate your comments. Our Guests' feedback allows for our continual
growth and the preservation of the magic Walt Disney dreamed about.

Mr. Chanin, thank you again for your honest and constructive feedback.

Sincerely,

Meagan Casey
Guest Services
Walt Disney World Resort

For those of you interested in demonstrating that there will be a demand for electric chargers at Walt Disney Resorts, here is their email address:

WDW Guest Communications <[email protected]>

Larry
 
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Yes, there are other competing resort alternatives, a point which perhaps might be driven home to Disney management with sufficient reminders from their former Guests who happen to drive electric vehicles. :wink:

Here's an excellent example:

The Star Island Resort And Club

They have two level 2 chargers available to guests only.
They claim to be about 4 miles from Disney World.

Larry






 
Ditto vfx. I've been nagging Disneyland ever since I got the Roadster.

Although apparently there is a hack to get to a 110v outlet in the Mickey & Friends garage. I haven't personally tried this yet but appreciate the info from whoever posted it: Disneyland - Mickey & Friends Parking Garage - Anaheim, CA - Recargo

If I'm there for the day, that will at least add enough to make me more comfortable about the round trip since I'm 85 miles away.
 
Ditto vfx. I've been nagging Disneyland ever since I got the Roadster.

Although apparently there is a hack to get to a 110v outlet in the Mickey & Friends garage. I haven't personally tried this yet but appreciate the info from whoever posted it: Disneyland - Mickey & Friends Parking Garage - Anaheim, CA - Recargo

If I'm there for the day, that will at least add enough to make me more comfortable about the round trip since I'm 85 miles away.

Don't know the garages well enough. Was just at the park on business last month. As usual I called and looked around and asked parking attendants (always useless). Important to note that employees buzz around in electric golf carts so there are plug-in places (and power for EVs) everywhere. Would it be best to start with Downtown Disney parking? Or maybe the Grand Californian parking garage like Torrey Pines did?
 
Torrey Pines

Sorry, what or who is Torrey Pines?

Mickey and Friends is the big structure if you follow the signs from SB I-5 to "Theme Park Parking". If you pull in through where you pay they'll guide you to ramps to the floor they want you to park on. What he seems to be saying on Recargo is that when you get to the level they are parking you on, ask the first attendant trying to guide you to let you go to the right (to the East side) and park in the last row on that side by the wall rather than in the row they are currently filling so you can park by a 110 outlet. Again, I haven't done this yet--it's just my reading of what he's saying on Recargo combined with my own pretty good familiarity with that structure.

If you're staying at a hotel, you could always ask the valet if you can find a place by a 110 outlet, or if you self park try to find one. No idea if that would work.

But it is ridiculous that Disney so far has refused to put in any dedicated EV support. I really hope this changes soon.
 
Sorry, what or who is Torrey Pines?...
But it is ridiculous that Disney so far has refused to put in any dedicated EV support. I really hope this changes soon.

Torrey Pines is a beautiful similarly craftsman hotel (near you)
resort_pic.jpg
Three Blinks inside.

Disney Grand Californian
grand-californian-downtown-disney.jpg
Californian-hotel-front.jpg


The question is how do we get Disney to put some plugs in for us like their golfcarts?
 

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Hawaii is really on it's way with cars and charging. Makes more sense than just about anywhere (as Martin said long ago)

This is good info to approach Anaheim and Florida with. Do you have so wide pictures that show a row of them in Disney context?
 
Hawaii is really on it's way with cars and charging. Makes more sense than just about anywhere (as Martin said long ago)

This is good info to approach Anaheim and Florida with. Do you have so wide pictures that show a row of them in Disney context?

This is the best I could find.

userUpload.jpg


Recargo says that there are 27 chargers. I have seen other reports of as much as 34 chargers.

Larry
 
Surprising and interesting that Disney does not have any charging stations. On the other hand its good to see that the competition is looking forward.

Yes, that's a point I made to a representative with Disney Guest Communications in a phone conversation this morning.

I sent another message to Disney last week highlighting the fact that we discovered that Disney now has chargers at their Hawaii resort and is furnishing them for their employees at Disneyland, and I questioned whether guest communications was aware of this when they responded to me earlier regarding the lack of demand. Since I provided my phone number they called me to say that nothing had changed, that is Disney World Resort has no plans install chargers for their guests. I asked the representative how we could help Disney change their mind. His response was to email Guest Communications.

[email protected]

It would be helpful for Florida residents to who plan to travel to Orlando with electric vehicles to make their opinions known to Disney that the lack of chargers at their resorts could hurt business.

Thanks.

Larry
 
I sent out an e-mail to our club members regarding this situation asking them to make their opinions known to Disney.


Here's an excerpt from one of our member's requests to Disney.

I have received an e-mail stating that Disney has no plans to install electric charging stations for electric cars. I'm convinced that totally electric cars will get more and more popular beginning this year, and I would certainly like to see Disney on the forefront of supporting this.

I am a Florida resident with annual passes for both Disney and Universal Studios, and spend as much vacation time as I can at both of these areas, but tend to spend more of that vacation time at Disney. I expect to have my Tesla Model S, a totally electric passenger sedan, by October of this year, and I have a second electric car, the Tesla Model X, on order to arrive in 2014. I (and I'm sure many others) would appreciate having the opportunity to safely charge a totally electric car while at Disney. In fact, installing electric charging stations at EPCOT would be totally consistent with the original concept of EPCOT as Walt Disney himself expressed it.... it was the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow". He envisioned electric transportation, rather than gasoline powered transportation, with the Monorail System that is such a well recognized feature and system of transportation there. Installing charging stations for electric cars would move that dream of his one step further into what he saw as the future.

Larry