Any WDW parking tips with HA tags?

[shovan]

Does anyone have any WDW parking tips for those of us with HA tags? We are headed back in 13 days!!!

We have not driven to WDW in years. We have flown the past few years & used all WDW transportation while there. We will have our 4yo neice along this time, so driving around may work better for us. Or maybe not, what do y'all think?

So any advice for parking at the Parks in particular MK & AK. Also if anyone is familar with parking at Beach Club Villas, any info would be appreciated. Is it better to valet at the Beach Club everytime or park ourselves? We have called BC to try & find out exactly how far away the HA parking is, but can't get any answers. Their only suggestion was to valet park.

 

[Michigan]

Handicap parking at MK is far so if you don't have a wheelchair you will be better of parking in the regular lot and telling the CM you need to park next to the tram for medical reasons.

 

[mrmagicmph]

Also if anyone is familar with parking at Beach Club Villas, any info would be appreciated. Is it better to valet at the Beach Club everytime or park ourselves? We have called BC to try & find out exactly how far away the HA parking is, but can't get any answers. Their only suggestion was to valet park.

Easy suggestion on the parking at BC. Valet park it every time. With a handicap plate/hang tag, valet parking is free. You're never guaranteed that the handicap spaces will be available and they're no where near as close as the door to the BC. Also, you can call to the Valet desk a bit before you need your car and they'll have it waiting at the front door to the BC when you get there. They've also been known to be VERY helpful in loading/unloading ECV's from vehicles when needed too.

One other suggestion? MAKE the time to say hi & talk to Art, the Greeter at the BC (or as my wife & I think of him, the Grand Admiral of the Beach Club). He is one of the nicest CM's on property (& that's saying something!), he'll make your niece feel truly like a princess, & also he's really a Disney Icon, worth spending the time to get to know.

Enjoy the Magic!

 

[shovan]

Easy suggestion on the parking at BC. Valet park it every time. With a handicap plate/hang tag, valet parking is free. You're never guaranteed that the handicap spaces will be available and they're no where near as close as the door to the BC. Also, you can call to the Valet desk a bit before you need your car and they'll have it waiting at the front door to the BC when you get there. They've also been known to be VERY helpful in loading/unloading ECV's from vehicles when needed too.

One other suggestion? MAKE the time to say hi & talk to Art, the Greeter at the BC (or as my wife & I think of him, the Grand Admiral of the Beach Club). He is one of the nicest CM's on property (& that's saying something!), he'll make your niece feel truly like a princess, & also he's really a Disney Icon, worth spending the time to get to know.

Enjoy the Magic!

THANKS! That's just what we needed to know! We will definitely make the time to chat with Art! This will be our 2nd trip to BCV. Art was at the door when we were checking in, but we weren't able to really meet him. We looked for him the next couple of days but he must have had some time off. Thanks again for the parking info.!

 

[SueM in MN]

I would suggest checking out where the handicapped parking is before valet parking since you are staying at BCV instead of BC itself. When we stayed at BC, the parking area was actually closer to our villa than walking to the hotel lobby to pick up our car from the valet. Whether or not it will be for you would probably depend on where your room turns out to be relative to the exit.

I agree with Michigan for parking at MK. If you park in the handicapped parking, you will have a long walk to get to the TTC before getting a monorail to the boat.

For AK, both the bus and handicapped parking are a bit of a ways from the entrance turnstiles. It's a fairly similar distance either way, just a different direction.

 

[Twende]

We found the valet at BC very helpful. I learned to call from our room to tell them that we were headed to the parking lot and they had the car there waiting for us every time.

Just a hint for the parks. At the parks you end up following a blue line in the road that directs you to the proper parking area. Well, I am a bit color blind..... and I think it was at EPCOT I was following what I thought was the blue line and it was really a green line. Heaven knows where we were really headed but I finally U-turned and found the real blue line!

 

[SueM in MN]

We found the valet at BC very helpful. I learned to call from our room to tell them that we were headed to the parking lot and they had the car there waiting for us every time.

Just a hint for the parks. At the parks you end up following a blue line in the road that directs you to the proper parking area. Well, I am a bit color blind..... and I think it was at EPCOT I was following what I thought was the blue line and it was really a green line. Heaven knows where we were really headed but I finally U-turned and found the real blue line!

Also, rather than following the blue line, follow what the CM says.
Have your handicapped parking permit out where they can see it as you approach the CMs directing people in the parking area.

At times (especially seems to happen at Ecpot), the regular handicapped parking area (that the blue line leads to) is full or they are using an alternate area. When that happens, if you follow the blue line, you will either end up in a full lot of a dead end.

 

[Twende]

Sue I got lost in the EPCOT lot before you make the right hand turn up the middle of the two sections of the lot. We had not really encountered a CM at that point so there was no one to show the placard to.

We had been to AK right before that and knew to follow the blue line but the green line is right next to it and I guess the blue line turned off to the right and I went straight and followed the green line.

We never encountered a full lot ....thank goodness because with 2 in wheel chairs I would have been very unhappy!

 

[OneLittleSpark]

When you go to MK, you might find it easier just to use the bus, as this will drop you off at the gate, whereas if you drive, you end up at the TTT and have to use the boat / monorail to get to the gate. The buses do get crowded sometimes, especially at closing, but then so to do the boat and monorail, so it's swings and roundabouts.

 

[shovan]

Thanks guys! This is great! Who better to ask then the people who've done it all! I LOVE the Dis! Especially disABILITIES!

Sue, That's exactly what we were wondering about. The HA rooms all seem to be around room#130,230,330 etc. Do you remember what your room # was the last time you were there. We looked up BC on Google Earth. From what we can tell the HA parking area is closest to Epcot. The closest rooms are #176, 178. I think there is a bridge there to cross into the parking lot right there, but not sure. So the rooms seem to be about right in the middle of the HA parking & the Valet parking!

I think for MK we will probably use WDW buses/monorail. It seems like the best option.

For us the biggest difficulty will be room to unload. We have a side ramp van with a lift that needs about 8/10 ft to load & unload. But I also have some difficulty with back problems so we wouldn't want to add to much walking just to park. (I may bring his old scooter for me, if we can fit both in the van & the luggage!)

Twende, So I follow the BLUE line?! Right!! Believe me I can already hear the "discussions" in the car about which way to go!!!!

 

[SueM in MN]

Sorry, I can't remember what room we were in. If I recall right, there is only one elevator at BCV, so if you are not on first floor, you will have a ways to walk to get to the elevator. I DO remember that we first had to walk the opposite direction to get the elevator. Then we had to backtrack to get out of the building.

 

[shovan]

Thanks Sue! Looking at the Parkinfo2go site, they show 2 elevators. But neither are on the end near the parking lot. I guess will just try to check it out when we get there! Anyway, how bad can it be when you can have free valet parking! And if we can fit the old scooter & DH WC in the van, I'll probably be scooting too! That we'll help ward off some of my back & foot problems. I think we'll probably have a great time!

 

[clkelley]

Thanks Sue! Looking at the Parkinfo2go site, they show 2 elevators. But neither are on the end near the parking lot. I guess will just try to check it out when we get there! Anyway, how bad can it be when you can have free valet parking! And if we can fit the old scooter & DH WC in the van, I'll probably be scooting too! That we'll help ward off some of my back & foot problems. I think we'll probably have a great time!

If you both have wheels and have park hopping tickets, and are staying at Beach Club Villas, you can do the following:

Take the path to the Studios on your scooters.

Take the path to Epcot on your scooters.

To get to MK (if you don't need to be there at park opening), take the path to Epcot, roll through Epcot and take two monorails to get to MK.

Then the only buses/driving you need to worry about is Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney.