Avoiding parking fees at The Dolphin or Swan

[aklein]

Hi - we are staying at the Dolphin next month. We are annual passholders and dvc (but don't have enough points, so staying here). Anyway, we have free parking at the parks, as well as the resorts I believe. Although, i think the Dolphin/Swan are excluded. We are staying 8 nights and parking will be close to $200, we are trying to find a creative way around paying this. Does anyone have any recommendations or do you think its reasonable to try to park at Epcot/Hollywood Studios or Boardwalk, etc and just walk back to the hotel (or actually have my husband walk back . I don't think we will need our car much, and some days, not at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vicki_c]

Budget for parking out of your savings from staying at Swan/Dolphin instead of a Disney deluxe.

 

[cyb]

I don't know of any way to get around parking fees at the Swan/Dolphin, I think the parking fee is ridiculous but it's not up to me.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I dont think you can leave your car overnight at the parks?

I actually sort of thought about the same thing, at DL, where all their hotels charge for parking. I get free parking at the parks (some APs get it, and CMs), but not free parking when I stay at the Disneyland hotels. (unless I am staying on my DVC points at VGC).

 

[Kimberle]

I think the only way to avoid parking is to not bring a car. I wouldn't risk having my car towed by leaving it in a park parking lot overnight.

 

[thisismyusername]

I don't see a way around it. I suppose you could always park at DTD and hop a bus back and hope no one notices your car doesn't move.

At the resorts, as you know, you need to bypass the guard, and the only way to do that is to have a reservation on file or use your MB at the entry gate. At that point, you get a parking pass to display on your dash. I have no idea if Disney enforces the parking lots and and goes around and checks to see if there are parking passes displayed on dashboards, but, I, personally, would much rather just pay the $200 to park rather than risk a hefty towing fee and not knowing where my car was.

 

[POOHsie]

You should just think of the parking fee as part of your room cost. According to your post, parking breaks out to about $25 per nite. Still much cheaper than the 3 Disney resorts surrounding Crescent Lake. You need to accept the cost -- no practical way around it without getting your car towed.

 

[goofy4tink]

I love staying at the Dolphin.....but I refuse to stay there if I have a car with me. If I have to have a car, I stay elsewhere.
It's really not acceptable to park elsewhere to avoid parking fees at your resort. I would just figure that addtl $18 into the daily rate. That's what I do when staying there and have to pay for transportation from the airport.

 

[Sue M]

There is no way around it. You can't park overnight at another resort or leave your car at a park. Nu less you want to get towed. Maybe stay at a moderate instead? Or compare what it would cost staying at BC/YC or BWI with the AP discount. With parking and resort fee at Swan/Dolphin it may be close.

 

[DebbieB]

Don't forget to add the $23 resort fee per night.

http://swandolphin.com/offers/terms.html

 

[x5x5x5x5x5]

The parking fee (and resort fee, to some extent) is extortion but I don't think there is a way around it. I've pondered this myself on more than one occasion. It ticks me off so much that upon doing a split stay at BWV / Dolphin, I almost left the car in the BW parking lot for two nights and hoped for the best. But, in the end, I realized that it's not fair to the BW people and I didn't want to get towed. What I do now when I shop for rates at Swan / Dolphin is automatically add about fifty bucks immediately to the number I see. Stinks but that's all you can do.

 

[aklein]

Thank you all for the responses, looks like there is no reasonable way out of it. appreciate the input!