Disneyland Parking Questions

[oumagic]

Is parking valid all day once you pay? Last year we were at GCR and walked but this trip we are staying farther away. Since you can re-enter the park with a hand stamp and your ticket, I was wondering if you can grab your car and go back to the hotel and then drive back without paying for parking again? If you have the Premier Annual Pass (includes parking) can you come and go as you please with your vehicle? I assume that they tow vehicles left overnight?

Next week is an impromptu trip for the Star Tours preview for me and my son. I did a Hotwire room and am farther away than I really want to walk. I am planning on getting 4 AP's in October and trying to decide if we should make one Premium for the parking and if it is feasible for us to stay farther away from the park to save money. If we can drive to the hotel at lunch if we want a break or pool time, that will be cool. Everyone talks about staying within walking distance and such, but if you have a car, why can't you just walk to the car and drive to the hotel?

 

[darph nader]

From what i understand,you can come and go as you please for the day you park. We always stay across the street,so parking isn't an issue for us.
Which hotel do you plan to stay at?

 

[skiingfast]

Yes with your reciept and parking stub you can go in and out of the lots. With a AP that includes parking you can do the same.

Why stay closer?
For many people it saves the $15 to park each day.

Also parking in the M&F garage takes upto about 30 minutes. Parking+walking+riding the tram, so you could waste 30 minutes every time you come and also when you go. So parking there and then going back to the car to drive away for lunch or something before returning for the evening could eat up 2 hours of your day. 2 Just for parking.

If you park in the Toy Story lot it's much quicker, but still going to eat about 10-15 minutes coming and going.

So staying at a hotel 7 minutes of walking away seems to save a little money and a lot of time.

 

[oumagic]

From what i understand,you can come and go as you please for the day you park. We always stay across the street,so parking isn't an issue for us.
Which hotel do you plan to stay at?

Next weekend we are at Hotel Menage. Our week trip in October is at HoJo. I think Menage is going to be a bit farther than we want to walk. I was just looking at the future if we get AP's and decide to try out Hotwire or Priceline and end up farther away (like I did with Hotel Menage). If for example I could get a $35 room that is 6 miles away, I wanted to know if I could drive back and forth if needed. We will probably end up getting one PAP so parking will not matter.

I was curious in this case, because we can be at the Toy Story parking lot at 3:30AM and they are handling the Star Tours preview ticketing from 4-7:30 AM. I will not be getting a PAP this trip so I was thinking that we would drive to park at 4, pay $15 and then depending on what time my Star Tours preview is, drive back to the hotel to eat and nap before park opening at 9AM. My son is 7 and he is going to be in for a LONG day and I just thought we might need to make a few trips to the room between 4 AM and park closing at 12AM.

I know that there is an ART stop, but I didn't look at the running times and think that I don't want to be on it at 3:30 AM with my son even if it was running.

 

[pixiewings71]

Once you pay for parking you can exit and enter as you want, the only thing is you must have your parking pass so make sure you don't lose it. We never take ours in with us, we always leave it in the car, that way we now we haven't misplaced it anywhere.

 

[LavenderPeach]

Just wanted to point out that you can also add parking to a DAP if you didn't want to buy the PAP. PAP gives you slightly more discounts but i recommend doing the math to see which would be the better deal for your family. Last year we estimated how much we would save with the extra discounts of a PAP and it was still cheaper for us to add parking to our DAP but it's different for everyone.

 

[skiingfast]

I was curious in this case, because we can be at the Toy Story parking lot at 3:30AM and they are handling the Star Tours preview ticketing from 4-7:30 AM. I will not be getting a PAP this trip so I was thinking that we would drive to park at 4, pay $15 and then depending on what time my Star Tours preview is, drive back to the hotel to eat and nap before park opening at 9AM. My son is 7 and he is going to be in for a LONG day and I just thought we might need to make a few trips to the room between 4 AM and park closing at 12AM.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt you will have to pay for parking for the ST preview. That would kind of be like saying you have to pay money to claim your prize.

Also it sounds like because of the hours that most of the previewers will get through and be out well before the park even opens. I doubt if you get a 4am time slot that after you will stand around for 3 or 4 hours. It's an off season day in May so the park isn't going to open until 9am.

 

[oumagic]

I don't know for sure, but I doubt you will have to pay for parking for the ST preview. That would kind of be like saying you have to pay money to claim your prize.

Also it sounds like because of the hours that most of the previewers will get through and be out well before the park even opens. I doubt if you get a 4am time slot that after you will stand around for 3 or 4 hours. It's an off season day in May so the park isn't going to open until 9am.

Unfortunately, they clearly state that we will be responsible for parking that day but they are opening the Toy Story structure at 3:30 AM for the event. They are handing out our tickets between 4 AM and 7:30 AM. You get a 1 park/1 day pass to DL for you and a guest and it says 1 preview ride for you and your guest on Star Tours. There is paperwork to turn in and they compare that to your photo id, so maybe that will take awhile. I wouldn't think it would take 3 1/2 hours to process 2400 people (1200 winners plus guest), but I guess it depends on how many people are processing (this is being handled by Disney Destinations LLC). Pure speculation, but I think that they will be handing out something like a fastpass to tell you when to come back for your preview ride between 9AM and midnight once the park opens. I guess you could be right and they are going to have us ride it between 4 and 7:30 AM?

This unique experience just brought up some questions as to whether I buy the PAP or DAP when we visit in October. I think as much as we plan on going, that at least 1 PAP will be wise for parking and food/merch. discounts but I was trying to figure out if a parking pass was good all day. Thanks for all of the input. I was booked at BWPPI but since this trip wasn't budgeted, I booked through a discount site and saved $100 by being farther away (minus $15 parking fee). Whenever possible, we would like to stay on-site or close but it may not always be in the cards like this time.

Adding $99 to the DAP doesn't sound too good to me. That is only $30 less than the PAP and I think we can make that up on meals and merchandise real quick. The PAP is mostly about the parking though and why I was asking. I was going to go with either 4 DAP's with no parking or 1 PAP and 3 DAP. Thanks all!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Unfortunately, they clearly state that we will be responsible for parking that day but they are opening the Toy Story structure at 3:30 AM for the event. They are handing out our tickets between 4 AM and 7:30 AM. You get a 1 park/1 day pass to DL for you and a guest and it says 1 preview ride for you and your guest on Star Tours. There is paperwork to turn in and they compare that to your photo id, so maybe that will take awhile. I wouldn't think it would take 3 1/2 hours to process 2400 people (1200 winners plus guest), but I guess it depends on how many people are processing (this is being handled by Disney Destinations LLC). Pure speculation, but I think that they will be handing out something like a fastpass to tell you when to come back for your preview ride between 9AM and midnight once the park opens. I guess you could be right and they are going to have us ride it between 4 and 7:30 AM?

This unique experience just brought up some questions as to whether I buy the PAP or DAP when we visit in October. I think as much as we plan on going, that at least 1 PAP will be wise for parking and food/merch. discounts but I was trying to figure out if a parking pass was good all day. Thanks for all of the input. I was booked at BWPPI but since this trip wasn't budgeted, I booked through a discount site and saved $100 by being farther away (minus $15 parking fee). Whenever possible, we would like to stay on-site or close but it may not always be in the cards like this time.

Adding $99 to the DAP doesn't sound too good to me. That is only $30 less than the PAP and I think we can make that up on meals and merchandise real quick. The PAP is mostly about the parking though and why I was asking. I was going to go with either 4 DAP's with no parking or 1 PAP and 3 DAP. Thanks all!

Just to clarify -we were there 2 weeks ago and used the Toy Story Parking. It is not a structure. It is actually quite far away from DL, it felt like anyway. The parking traffic was all sent to this lot and then we boarded Disney buses to the entrance. The "structure" we knew is gone, according to the bus driver. Here is an article that shows what is now in place:
http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2010/03/17/new-disneyland-resort-parking-lot-set-to-open/38005/
Oh, and parking was $15. I think the whole process of paying, parking, riding and being dropped off was about 30 min.

 

[oumagic]

Just to clarify -we were there 2 weeks ago and used the Toy Story Parking. It is not a structure. It is actually quite far away from DL, it felt like anyway. The parking traffic was all sent to this lot and then we boarded Disney buses to the entrance. The "structure" we knew is gone, according to the bus driver. Here is an article that shows what is now in place:
http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2010/03/17/new-disneyland-resort-parking-lot-set-to-open/38005/
Oh, and parking was $15. I think the whole process of paying, parking, riding and being dropped off was about 30 min.

Thanks for the clarification. I have never parked there but will be soon!