Have You Ever "LOst" Your Car at WDW?

[tmarquez]

We usually go over to MK for day trips and we are ALWAYS in row 12...just time sout that way...so we never even bother thinking where we parked our car. In May we went and spent a couple of nights so it messed up our "timing" but of course we just parked and didn't even bother to look where we parked...duh...I know. Didn't even think about it until we were on our way back to the parking lot. We knew what section we were in and thought we knew about where it was...well...it took 35 mintues to find it. We were not alone either. There were 3 other families all wandering the parking lot...all the dads holding the car keys up in the air pressing the alarm button hoping their cars would answer...it was sort of funny...we did the same thing.

 

[GalDisney]

<<suppose we ought to do what those smarty pants do! take picture with their digital camera of the row number and name if in a park >>
I actually have done that a few times, but I have been parking in Disneyland and now WDW parks for literally my entire life, so I pretty much know the layout. I usally just commit it to memory, but apparently that doesn't always work lol.

 

[theycallmered]

My family lost our car in the MK parking lot. Everyone had thought that we had parked in Pluto. Too bad we had actually parked in Goofy.

We were such amatuers back then.

 

[princesslibby]

After you park the first thing to do is get someone in your party to stand near the sign for your parking area and take a digital photo of the sign. If you can't find the car, scroll back to your first picture of the day and you'll see where you are parked. Got that tip from delswife.

We do this too. Not only to find the car but also to have a picture of the kids. Just in case they wander off. Makes me feel better.

You could tie something to your atenna to make it easier to find also.

 

[Spartan]

For some reason, we always have the most problem with the DTD parking lot. That one seems confusing to me. I don't know if it's the angles from the stores, or the way it curves, but we always seem to be off by a section or two, especially at night, when we go to find it.

 

[Disneyholic]

Never had a problem with MK parking lot because I am anal about writing things down (once for everyone in our party so if we get seperated when leaving we have somewhere to meet up)

But, once, my DH dropped our 14y.o. DD off at JCPenney at the Lehigh Valley Mall for her to drop something off. When she went back out she found a silver Chevy Cavalier SW with a baby car seat in it just like her brothers, but no Dad and no Brother. She figured he had come into the store looking for her so she went back in. She walked around for a while and couldn't find them so she went back out to see if they were back at the car and lo and behold there they were. She asked why they had gone into the store and they said they had been in the car the whole time waiting for her. It turns out she had gone out another door the first time and there just happened to be a car just like ours on that side of the building too. This was pre-celllphone so she couldn't even call him.

 

[disneyde]

buy a brightly colored mickey antena ball to help spotting your car

 

[Tinkim]

We haven't lost our car at WDW but we did forget where the heck we left it at the airport before leaving for WDW. Last year we had a very early flight and arrived at the airport around 4:45 a.m. We parked in the long-term parking lot and hurried to the terminal because it was freezing. A week later we had a late return flight and it was around 10 p.m. I left the kids with my friend inside the terminal while DH and I went to search for the two vehicles. We got on the shuttle and the driver asked which lot did you park in? I said the long-term lot. She says which one? I said there's more than one?! DH and I were laughing saying we could tell you where we parked at WDW in Minnie 27 or Goofy 48 but we don't know where the heck we left our car at the airport. We drove around for a while before we finally found it.

BTW while we were at WDW one of the tram operators also suggested calling yourself on your cell phone and leaving a voice message with the section where you parked in case you don't have a digital camera or don't have it out.

 

[motofox4]

Thanks to a tip I read on the boards here, we're going to be taking a picture of the sign where we parked with our camera phone so we don't "lose" the car! I've lost my car one time at the casinos in Atlantic City after leaving a bar/club (wearing hi-heels!) and when I tell you it was not fun, i mean IT WAS NOT FUN. I had to take my shoes off they were hurting SO bad and by the time we found the car an hour and 10 minutes later after walking up and down and around the parking garage, the bottoms of my feet were BLACK and disgusting!! That certainly was a lesson learned!

 

[SaratogaShan]

Did you guys ever see the Simpson's episode that parodies disney world? Now, every time we leave a theme park and go to look for our car my husband asks "Are we in the itchy or the scratchy lot?"

No seriously, we never lose our car because my husband thinks that it is his duty to be the first one in the parking lot when it opens (he still tries to convince me of this even though we now have a 4 year old and an 18 month old!)

Our first visit to the animal kingdom was the year it opened. At that time they were opening at dawn. My dear hubby in his rush to beat the "crowds" had us waiting at the closed parking booth at 4:45 am!!!! You should have seen the look on the parking attendants face when he came out to open up!

We parked in "Peacock One" that day and my husband STILL gloats about it!

 

[northie]

Not at WDW---but we lost it at the airport while we were gone to WDW! When we parked the car, those little cards by the elevator in the parking ramp that remind you where you left your car were gone, so I grabbed a napkin scrap out of my purse and scrawled the car location on it. I cleaned out my bag before heading to the parks the second day and tossed the napkin bit on the table in the room..but then I was afraid the maid would think the scrap was just a scrap and throw it away...so I put it "somewhere" for safekeeping. Never saw it again the whole trip, and when our 8 days at Disney was over, and we got back to the airport, I had no idea where the paper was or where we left the car. I knew it was in the green ramp (because we always park in the green ramp, it wasn't that I actually remembered even that much!) and so I walked the green area using the car alarm to find it.

I was soooooo tired and my feet were killing me from the trip, and I trudged around that ramp for about an hour turning on and off the car alarm before I actually found the car. This time I am writing it in the passporter.

I found it in the envelope of receipts and "deliver to the resort" green sheets, after we got home!

Sara

 

[Spartan]

Did you guys ever see the Simpson's episode that parodies disney world? Now, every time we leave a theme park and go to look for our car my husband asks "Are we in the itchy or the scratchy lot?"

No seriously, we never lose our car because my husband thinks that it is his duty to be the first one in the parking lot when it opens (he still tries to convince me of this even though we now have a 4 year old and an 18 month old!)

Our first visit to the animal kingdom was the year it opened. At that time they were opening at dawn. My dear hubby in his rush to beat the "crowds" had us waiting at the closed parking booth at 4:45 am!!!! You should have seen the look on the parking attendants face when he came out to open up!

We parked in "Peacock One" that day and my husband STILL gloats about it!

You sound like the Griswald family arriving at Wally World! The only difference is that Clark had to park out at the back of the lot so he could get out faster, even though they were the only car in the lot. Your husband doesn't insist you race once you're out of the car does he?

 

[SaratogaShan]

You sound like the Griswald family arriving at Wally World! The only difference is that Clark had to park out at the back of the lot so he could get out faster, even though they were the only car in the lot. Your husband doesn't insist you race once you're out of the car does he?

You are SO right on the money Spartan!!!! I refuse to race! My husband LOVES the vacation movies! He does indeed call Disney World "Wally world". He also threatens that if anyone has the nerve to die while on vacation, that they will be roped to the top of the car and dropped off at cousin Norm's!!!

His All Time favorite movie is Chrismas Vacation. We watch this with friends each thanksgiving and he dresses up like cousin Eddie. This year he is absolutely FORBIDDEN to dress in costume. I told him the gig was up after he came out last year in flippers and a leopard print speedo with a white underwear t-shirt tucked inside!! NEVER a dull moment at our house!

 

[maggiann]

i lose my truck every time i go to the mall, wal-mart, anywhere. this past sunday me, my daughter, and her friend went to the mall and when we came out it was raining HARD. nobody could remember where we parked so we just went for it..running around the parking lot looking for my truck, soaking wet, we never found it so we got under the awning in front of sears and i sent them in to buy a towel...by that time it had quit raining and while we were standing there drying off we saw the truck...lol

 

[Boo Boo's Mom]

Too many years ago we had a package deal that included a car. We arrived in Orlando at the airport picked up the car and drove to the Contemporary Resort and parked the rental in the lot. Spent three days roaming around the parks and then a 4 day Disney cruise. We had never driven the car since we had arrived 7 days earlier.

My boyfriend and I couldn't even remember where we had parked the car, or the color or make of the rental.

We had only used it for what? an hour at most?

Talk about feeling stupid wandering around the parking lot.

 

[PortieOwner]

Once at AK in a really bad rain storm. That was miserable.

 

[Amirah95]

Once and that was the first time we ever went as a family. Lost the car in extreme excitement. It took us a really long time to find it, but the parking attendants helped.

 

[Donald - my hero]

We still talk about this one everytime the House of the Mouse comes up. We went in 1972 (yup 2nd year it was opened) so imagine how many folks were there! Not one of us took the time to even figure out that there were different sections of the parking lot! Fast forward to the end of the day (also one of those with freaky summer storms when it POURS and nana was standing with some guys umbrella running right down her back) ... no car duh! We wandered and then the tram would pick us up again. Wandered again next tram would pick us up -- get the picture yet? Finally one of the CMs asked us if we had any small tid bit of where we parked ... uhm Nana says we parked in front of a little stream. How many of you noticed that ALL the sections have a little stream? Fast forward to over an hour when the smaller trams were empty and one took pity on us and actually drove up and down every aisle till we found it

 

[livingthedream]

On our first day We were in the right area and took, maybe, an extra five minutes. We watched everyone hit their "panic buttons" on their key fobs, we saw different things tied to antennae. My husband being the wise guy that he is said we should stick a toilet plunger on the roof of the rental van. THAT would make it stick out from all the others!

 

[I Love Pluto]

Just once - two years ago - but it was a bit in reverse. We drove to Epcot in the AM. We came back to our motel in the afternoon due to the hot July sun. We went swimming, showered, etc.
After freshening up, we drove to MGM. After Fantasmic we took the bus back to POR. But - yes, you guessed it - we had left our car at MGM.