Can you still valet for free if you are eating at a resort?

[emmababy]

This will be our first trip driving and thought I read a while back that if you are staying on site, you can valet for free when eating at a resort?

 

[OKW Lover]

Only if you have the Tables In Wonderland card.

 

[catne]

you can usually do free self-parking for your meal at a resort but typically you get a 3 hour parking pass for that. The guard at the kiosk will check to see if you have a meal reservation and tell you which lot to park in. If it's an especially busy night at the resort and parking is at a premium, you may have to park a long ways away from the restaurant.

Just an FYI...they sometimes are very strict about enforcing the 3 hour limit. We have seen multiple tow-trucks working the lot at The Contemporary and the Polynesian (people sometimes park at these lots and then go to Magic Kingdom...to get out of paying for parking.) If you want to eat at a monorail resort and leave your car while going to park after your meal, I suggest you either park at the Transportation & Ticket Center and take the monorail to the resort...or you can pay $12 to valet park at the resort you're dining at (and a $2 tip when you get your car back) If you use the paid valet parking, there is no time limit on how long your car is parked there - you can leave your car there after your meal & hop the monorail to the park...unless you leave it overnight, then they'll charge you another day

 

[septbaby]

We had reservationsations at the Contemporary and paid for Valet parking in June. We were staying on site, but at CSR. We also ate at Jiko, but used self parking as it is really convenient at AKL.

 

[Tara]

Valet is also complimentary if you are dining at Victoria & Albert's. We use the TIW valet perk a lot.

Valet parking at WDW is one of the great travel bargains IME, though. For $12 per day you can park at ANY resort that offers valet and come and go as many times as you want. There are too many places where that is possible for such a low price.

 

[7165red]

We paid $12.00 VP at the GF and we had dinner reservations. Guest parking was full. It made me sick.

 

[Pumbaa_]

We paid $12.00 VP at the GF and we had dinner reservations. Guest parking was full. It made me sick.

I am sorry the fee was so upsetting. I am surprised you didn't choose to dine elsewhere

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Valet Parking is free only if you are using TiW and show your card and the receipt, or if you are dining at V&A. All other times theree is a charge for valet parking.

(This does not apply if you are using Valet Parking at the Disney Resort you are staying at; then your valet tag is valid for any other valet parking.)

 

[TDC Nala]

You don't get free valet just for eating at a resort.

 

[Tara]

We paid $12.00 VP at the GF and we had dinner reservations. Guest parking was full. It made me sick.

You could have gone to TTC and parked there then taken the monorail to GF.

 

[cjsm&d]

This will be our first trip driving and thought I read a while back that if you are staying on site, you can valet for free when eating at a resort?

No free valet, but you can park in the lot for free.

 

[dunbarfamily]

You could have gone to TTC and parked there then taken the monorail to GF.

Good point, but they probably weren't planning on parking being full and would have missed the ADR had they went back to TTC to monorail it to GF, especially after a stop at Poly.

This is good to know though, and a good reminder to allow lots and lots of extra time when getting to your ADR.

 

[TDC Nala]

GF has the worst self-parking lot on property. Yes, I think it's even worse than Boardwalk. If you're going there, try to use taxis, Disney transportation or plan to pay for the valet parking (unless you have a TIW card or are going to Victoria & Albert's, then you don't have to pay the valet fee.)

 

[wcpamotm]

We paid $12.00 VP at the GF and we had dinner reservations. Guest parking was full. It made me sick.

This happened to me on the last trip. We were meeting friends for lunch at GFC. Had to go back to the TTC parking lot.

Friend (who is a CM who used to work at GF) suggested after the fact that I should have tried the Wedding Pavillion parking, but it seemed to me from the view from the monorail passing it that it had a lot of cars parked there also.

 

[mickaholic4077]

Valet is also free if you have a handicapped placard or license plate.

 

[Tara]

GF has the worst self-parking lot on property. Yes, I think it's even worse than Boardwalk. If you're going there, try to use taxis, Disney transportation or plan to pay for the valet parking (unless you have a TIW card or are going to Victoria & Albert's, then you don't have to pay the valet fee.)

This is very interesting to me because I've stayed there a bunch of times and eaten there even more often and I've never, ever parked in self parking.

 

[snykymom]

GF has the worst self-parking lot on property. Yes, I think it's even worse than Boardwalk. If you're going there, try to use taxis, Disney transportation or plan to pay for the valet parking (unless you have a TIW card or are going to Victoria & Albert's, then you don't have to pay the valet fee.)

I have to agree. My DH hates valet parking. We drove around twice trying to find the guest self-parking even though we have the TiW! The self-parking lots we did find were for guests only - required a room key.

We finally did valet parking; we were eating at V&A, and I didn't realize that we'd get free valet there anyway!

 

[formytinkerbelle]

SOrry if this has been said, I didn't read all the posts. We just dined at V&A. They stamped our valet ticket after our meal and it was free. We still gave the guy a tip though. THe self-parking is all the way across the street at GF so I would have paid the fee even if it wasn't free.

 

[TDC Nala]

One of the biggest problems with the GF self parking lot is that at least half of it is cast parking. This cuts down on the spaces available to guests. It's sometimes a crapshoot as to whether guests staying at the resort will be able to park there, much less those who are just visiting.

 

[wcpamotm]

The self-parking lots we did find were for guests only - required a room key.

Although the self-parking lot at GF is gated, I think the security guard has a camera view of the gate, as it was remotely opened for me on my last visit. But then I'd checked in at the security hut to notify the guard of my intention to drop off DP and then go back to self-park. And in any case, I always have my resort parking permit on my dashboard.