How early can you park in the theme park parking lots?

[KCMiller]

My DH and I are heading for WDW this December. Our flight will land extremely early, and we will arrive on property around 5:30am (we're renting a car for the day, dropping it off at the Swan that evening). Of course, we won't be able to check into our hotel that early, but I am wondering how early we could potentially park in the theme park parking lot? We're headed to rope drop for Animal Kingdom, and don't see the point of parking at the hotel first, and paying for parking (we're headed out to visit friends offsite after we hit AK, and won't take the car to the hotel at all) - we're thinking of parking early and catching a few winks in the car before we head to the coffee cart and the park entrance.

Bottom line, what time do they let cars start arriving?

thanks,

KC

 

[Duck143]

I think you will be fine. I know people who show up at 5am to get in line for Rope Drop, so you should be able to get into the parking lot. You may even get to park for free if you beat the attendant at the entrance. We did that once a few years back.

 

[unbanshee]

They always leave a lane or two open throughout the night. They start staffing a couple of hours before park open so you might even be able to park for free

 

[rteetz]

There technically is no “opening time” for the parking lots so you shouldn’t have a problem.

 

[AJT607]

I agree with the previous poster. My wife and I have done the early AM rope drops at Animal Kingdom at least five times and we arrived earlier than the parking attendants two or three of those times. You should be good to arrive in the parking lot as early as you want.