The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [16]
FREE PARKING
If you’ve decided to stay offsite and rent a car (dumb!) or are a local driving in for a day trip, you’ll likely be shocked at the cost of parking. $14 to park isn’t necessarily outrageous by Manhattan standards, but when you consider you’re paying $14 for the privilege of spending hundreds more for tickets, food, and merchandise, you realize that it’s just another cash grab. They know you’ll pay the $14 because it’s a relatively small amount in comparison to what you’ll be spending throughout your trip, and if you’re willing to shell out all of that cash you’re certainly not going to turn around and go home because of an overpriced parking fee. It’s the first of many times during the day that Disney bends you over and gives you the shaft.
But you don’t have to take it! There are ways to get free parking at WDW!
At the Resorts:
It used to be that you could pull up to the far right gate at Magic Kingdom, tell them you were visiting a friend at The Contemporary, and they’d let you through without paying, no questions asked. Same thing with The Boardwalk as free parking for Epcot. But I guess eventually Disney caught onto this trick and they stopped letting people through the gates unless they had a valid, verifiable dining reservation. However, this is fairly easy to deal with as long as you plan in advance. A few days before your trip call Disney Reservations and make reservation at one of the restaurants in the hotel where you want to park. They’ll put you on a daily list, and the person at the gate will check that list and let you through. During peak seasons they’ll give you a 3-hour parking pass, but I’ve found that if you “accidentally forget” to put the pass on your dashboard you’ll be able to park in a resort lot all day without being towed.
Here are some resort/restaurant suggestions for each park:
Magic Kingdom: O’Hana at The Polynesian. Park and either walk over to The Magic Kingdom or take the monorail two stops over. Or if you’re really feeling adventurous and don’t feel like worrying about the 3-hour limitation, you can pretend like you’re driving to the Polynesian lot but instead continue past the resort (at this point you’re out of sight of the main gate attendants) and circle back around to the regular Magic Kingdom lot, effectively bypassing the main gate parking fee.
Go right at the Main Gate and circle past The Polynesian for free parking
Epcot/DHS: Flying Fish Café at The Boardwalk. The Boardwalk has the biggest lot (including an overflow lot across the street) and from the lobby it’s a 5 minute walk to the International Gateway at Epcot, or a 15 minute walk to DHS. You can also take one of the complimentary boats to either location. FYI, They WILL enforce the 3-hour limit during The Food and Wine Festival at Epcot.
Animal Kingdom: Nope, nada, nothing. There are no resorts within walking distance to Animal Kingdom. However, if you’re lucky you might be able to make a reservation at The Rainforest Café and either get free parking or get your parking validated inside the restaurant.
If all else fails you can always park for free at Downtown Disney. However, there are NO busses from Downtown Disney to any of the parks. So you’ll have to take a boat or bus to a resort, and then take a bus, boat, or monorail from that resort to the park you want to visit. Of course, after all of this transferring you’ll probably have wasted an hour of your precious vacation time, so it’s