AAA Diamond Parking

[pinkibekki]

Has anyone else had parking issues?
We just got back from the World. We stayed off-site but had the Diamond Parking pass.
The first day at MK was a blackout day (which we knew about) so we didn't even look for the diamond parking area.
The second day we went to HS later (no blackout day) but diamond parking was "full". Actually when we drove by the row on the tram, the aisle was only half full.
The third day was EP (also a blackout day). We went later that day also but they had signs up for diamond parking so we took it. It was quite packed in that area (many rows filled) but there were still lots of spaces near the end of the rows.
The fourth day was AK (no more blackout days during our stay). We got there about 9:10am, but there were no signs for diamond parking. We had parked there before when we were down the last time so we knew where it was though. We pulled down the row the wrong way and had to turn around in the handicap section. As we were doing this, we finally see a parking attendant who stops us. We tell him we are using diamond parking. He says that he has already filled the "3 passes today" but he'll let us park since they let us over here. HUH?!? There were only about 15 cars in the 2 rows - still at least 15 more spaces. And they only let 3 passes per day park there? We never had this happen on our last trip about 3 years ago. Has anyone heard of this?
The fifth day we went back to MK and had no problem using the diamond parking there (many rows being filled).
Our last day was at HS again. We knew it was going to ba a busy day since it was the 25th Anniversary. We got there at 8:30am and they said that diamond parking was filled (once again only half of the short row was used). We parked in the last row of the "Mickey Stage" section. When we came out later they never used any other rows in that section either - only filled the last row and left the rest of that lot empty. From what I understood about last year and the Villians event they did have problems with parking. However why leave a whole section empty and not use it the rest of the day? And what is up with the Diamond parking area again only being half full but at "capacity"?
Has anyone else come across this? If they don't want to use it, then they should just discontinue it.

 

[shell676]

We also went to Animal Kingdom yesterday & arrived about 10:45am & we were told by the gentleman in the parking lot that they no longer had Diamond parking, that they got rid of it, so not sure what is happening or if he was correct.

 

[suemom2kay]

Same experience at AK. The CM told us that it was no more. He was kind of rude and said he didn't know why AAA isn't telling anyone. Um.... if Disney got rid of it Disney should be announcing it in My Disney Experience that it has been ended. I did let WDW know what I thought about this in a survey.

 

[AliceIn]

We last visited, we had to show our AAA Diamond Parking pass that had our package information printed on it. It had the dates that it was good (just the length of our stay). Perhaps only the AAA packages qualify for the parking now, and not the generic pass? The 2014 benefits package that I got from AAA still says that Diamond Parking is part of what you get when you book a package with them:

AAA Vacations® Package Benefits:

AAA Vacations® Diamond Card — Provides special savings and values throughout the Resort
AAA Diamond Parking — Preferred parking at all four Theme Parks
AAA Vacations® Luggage Tags — One per person
AAA Vacations® Hertz® Car Rental — Benefits for AAA Members

The Diamond Card was a nice benefit. We got an additional discount on items we purchased at the big Disney store at DD.