Driving Disney World. Advice?

[JenMuse]

I've heard that if you are dining at one of the resort hotels, you can park there for free. Question: how early can you take advantage of that free parking? Say you want to be in the Magic Kingdom for rope drop but your dining reservation at the Contemporary isn't until 8:00pm...can you park at the Contemporary at 8am?

Yep, I'm looking to save myself $14 . . . well, not saving actually, re-directing $14 from parking to dining. I'll only be driving & parking for two days of my trip.

[Sleepy90]

I've heard that if you are dining at one of the resort hotels, you can park there for free. Question: how early can you take advantage of that free parking? Say you want to be in the Magic Kingdom for rope drop but your dining reservation at the Contemporary isn't until 8:00pm...can you park for free at the Contemporary at 8am?

Yep, I'm looking to save myself $14 . . . well, not saving actually, re-directing $14 from parking to dining.

Looking at your ticker I am assuming you are staying on site at Port Orleans, assuming that this is correct and you are driving then you will be given a car pass at the hotel. Show your pass to the attendants on any of the park entrances and you do not pay parking at any of the parks, this will also apply at any of the hotels just make sure your pass is on show at all times while parking.

[JenMuse]

Looking at your ticker I am assuming you are staying on site at Port Orleans, assuming that this is correct and you are driving then you will be given a car pass at the hotel. Show your pass to the attendants on any of the park entrances and you do not pay parking at any of the parks, this will also apply at any of the hotels just make sure your pass is on show at all times while parking.

I'm staying off site the first 2 days of the trip (Hilton Vacation Club) . Then moving to Port Orleans for the last 3 days. I don't really mind paying for parking for two days, but I'm considering splurging on lunch with an Imagineer and need to cut a few costs to make that happen.

I hate driving though, so I'm also considering skipping the rental car altogether and booking taxi service for those 2 days...

[Amy]

Looking at your ticker I am assuming you are staying on site at Port Orleans, assuming that this is correct and you are driving then you will be given a car pass at the hotel. Show your pass to the attendants on any of the park entrances and you do not pay parking at any of the parks, this will also apply at any of the hotels just make sure your pass is on show at all times while parking.

I'm staying off site the first 2 days of the trip (Hilton Vacation Club) . Then moving to Port Orleans for the last 3 days. I don't really mind paying for parking for two days, but I'm considering splurging on lunch with an Imagineer and need to cut a few costs to make that happen.

I hate driving though, so I'm also considering skipping the rental car altogether and booking taxi service for those 2 days...

Just be aware that the taxi fees can get you. I don't remember exactly, but I think I paid around $20 for a taxi from the All Star Sports resort to the Contemporary for my early morning train tour. We live in the country so the price was a bit of a shock to me On the days the various parks open early, the transportation also starts early. You might check if that is the case for the morning you are eating at the Contemporary.
Definitely let us know if you dine with an Imagineer ~ that sounds awesome!

[dstrawn9889]

park at DtD, boat over to POR, then catch Disney transport to the MK...

[SorcererDonald16]

I've heard that if you are dining at one of the resort hotels, you can park there for free. Question: how early can you take advantage of that free parking? Say you want to be in the Magic Kingdom for rope drop but your dining reservation at the Contemporary isn't until 8:00pm...can you park at the Contemporary at 8am?

Yep, I'm looking to save myself $14 . . . well, not saving actually, re-directing $14 from parking to dining. I'll only be driving & parking for two days of my trip.

In my experience, Contemporary has one of if not the strictest parking policy at WDW, specifically because of how close it is to MK and the tendency for people not staying there to want to park there and walk over. They have almost always told us you can park there for 3 hours, for dining purposes, shopping, just looking around, etc. They seem stricter to me in the morning when we are over there for Chef Mickey's than the couple of times we went there for California Grill.

We always have another resort's pass on the car at the time, so I don't know how that impacts it. But I don't think you could manage parking at 8am with an 8pm reservation.

[JenMuse]

Priced out avg cab fare and looks to be about $60 a day plus the trip from airport to hotel...which even with parking fees makes the rental car cheaper. I'll just pay the parking fee and not worry about it. Time in bed and in the parks is more important than the parking fee.

[Amy]

Priced out avg cab fare and looks to be about $60 a day plus the trip from airport to hotel...which even with parking fees makes the rental car cheaper. I'll just pay the parking fee and not worry about it. Time in bed and in the parks is more important than the parking fee.

Definitely. And if you only need to pay the parking fee for a couple days, that doesn't amount to much. You could always park at Downtown Disney, bus it to a resort and go from there.

[Len90]

Wait can't you get transportation from your hotel to the parks? Have you checked to see if the Hilton you are staying at has a free shuttle service or some other form of shuttles?

I personally think that renting a car is a great thing for Orlando. I know you will be pressed with the parks but the car will be a huge benefit for moving hotels and if you have time you can hit up the Orlando Premium Outlets. If you don't want to take a car there is the Lynx bus. There are two Lynx stops in the WDW resort. One is at the DTD area and the other is at the TTC.

[theBIGyowski]

DW and I rented a car on our last trip. We did this because we knew we wanted to do some grocery shopping at the Super Walmart and we had a few off-property places we wanted to go to. When we priced what it would cost for a taxi all those times, it came out cheaper for us to rent a car. Plus, having the rental car gave us more flexibility based on the schedule we had for those days. We also ended up saving about $30 in groceries compared to what we would have paid for food and drinks at our resort and in the parks.

We were staying on Disney property the whole time, so we rented from one of the places at The Dolphin and just returned the car there a few days later. It was a little more expensive compared to renting at the airport...but the time saved was worth it. We just took a bus from AK to the Dolphin one day...picked up the car...and then on the day we returned it we dropped it off at the Dolphin and then walked over to Epcot and spent the day there.

[JenMuse]

This particular Hilton does not offer any shuttle service. I think their clientele all end up renting anyway so it seemed unnecessary to provide that service. Having the car does mean I can stock up on breakfast items at a grocery store; since I'll have a full kitchen, might as well give it some use.

A few years ago I stayed at the All-Star Music for a few days, then rented a car on site (Alamo at the WDW Car Care center), drove over to the east coast to be in a wedding, then drove back a few days later where I turned the car in and switched to Pop Century. So I'm pretty familiar with the rental options. I'll probably do something similar. Rent at the airport, drop off at the Car Care center then hop the bus to Port Orleans, check-in and get back into the parks.

[Len90]

I tend to usually just do length of stay and we leave the car most of the time at our resort. For the money it actually works out really cheap to do the length of stay. As far as time saving, I've never waited more than 10 minutes for the car. It works out to be quicker than even taking Magical Express.

[Amy]

I drive so many miles as part of my work that I really enjoy having someone else do the driving. There have been some times where I would have liked to have had a car to zip somewhere, but most of the time I am content to let the fabulous Disney CMs navigate through the traffic!
I'm glad you mentioned about the bus being available at DTD and TTC for getting to the outlet mall Len. I might have to try that sometime...

[figmentaholic]

I drive so many miles as part of my work that I really enjoy having someone else do the driving. There have been some times where I would have liked to have had a car to zip somewhere, but most of the time I am content to let the fabulous Disney CMs navigate through the traffic!
I'm glad you mentioned about the bus being available at DTD and TTC for getting to the outlet mall Len. I might have to try that sometime...

I guess I am a bit wierd... I actually love to drive... but I hate not being the drive.. I think it is the whole lack of control that always makes me nervous.. Also that's why I dont like roller coasters hehe

[JenMuse]

I hate driving because when I'm the passenger, I can knit. Knitting whilst driving (particularly a stick shift) is not only dangerous to one's health but also to the knitting. Can't focus on the stitch pattern and traffic patterns...plus I hate washing blood out of yarn.