Is it really worth $25 a day to park at Walt Disney World?

I saw this on another site. Thought of posting it here.

 

You mean at the parks? I stay on-site so I don't pay. I hear there's a charge for resort parking now. So be it. I'm at Disney...it is what it is!

 

If you are staying off property then your choices are limited. I'm not sure if the thread title is a valid question

 

If you're staying fairly close to the parks, it's cheaper to take a Lyft than it is to pay for parking. Since we drive down, that's probably going to be our plan from now on.

 

That's really expensive, in my opinion. Especially in a place like central Florida, where Disney boasts about owning 43 square miles (albeit mostly swamp), it's not like there's a shortage of land to pave with asphalt. So $25/day doesn't reflect Disney's cost of doing business... it's merely one of many areas they've calculated their revenue growth to come from. On a visceral level, I don't like the idea of paying this much for parking.

But is it worth it? Interesting question; it's not exactly a negotiable price if you want to come by car. The only way around it is to stay onsite (and pay overnight fees), take alternate transportation, or cheat the system by wasting valuable vacation time going to Disney Springs. So I'll bet that millions of visitors will say that it is worth it, hand over their money, and the theme park lots aren't going to go empty.

I'm with @Alesia. So if I stay nearby offsite, I would probably use Lyft and save the money. I've even stayed at a hotel with a bus stop right in front and took Orlando's $2 Lynx bus two stops to the TTC, which tells you that my priorities are spending money on better things than transportation.

The bigger question remains whether the cost of a Disney World vacation is worth it to you, when you think of this as one of many items in the total price. Everyone has their own personal tipping point. Because if they don't get you on the parking price, maybe it will be the cost of the food, or the tickets, or the hotel rate. But given how crowded the parks are, and more new attractions to open, Disney probably feels pretty confident there are lots of people who will happily pay all of that.

 

In my oppinion it is not a matter of "is it worth it?". I mean, if you want to go by car and park right on it, you need to pay it. You could take shuttles from onsite hotels or some offsite hotels. Or you can stay in property, at value resorts, and enjoy "free parking" on the parks by paying your resort's overnight fee.

If you stay in Value, you save around 12$ a day if you go to theme parks everyday, if you stay in Moderate you save 6$ a day and if you stay in Deluxe you save 1$ a day. I'm guessing this change also comes because of this, I mean, it was actually more expensive to pay for parking on Deluxe resorts than it was to park directly at the parks...

 

I have no clue what they charge, but about how much would it cost, with tip, for a round trip?

 

Yes, it is worth it.

 

Well, in June we took a Lyft from Pop to Universal for $15.

You can get an entire house off-site for less than $100 per night. That leaves a whole lot of money to take a Lyft to the parks and back every day. The only reason we ever stayed onsite was to avoid driving -- now that we have to pay for parking weather we use the car or not, it's no longer worth it for us.

 

If staying offsite, yes it's definitely worth it to have a car and be able to drive in and out when you wish and not have to worry about spotty shuttle service to and from the parks. But if staying at the resorts paying that extra resort parking fee is not worth it to me at all. And would potentially bump us to staying offsite the next time we have a trip with a car.

 

If the lots remain full, then it's worth it

If the lots are suddenly empty, then it's not worth it.

Supply and demand and all that fun stuff.

** "Worth it" is always completely subjective. There is clearly some value in parking at theme park lots. There is no way to objectify that value with a monetary figure, outside a price/ demand curve

 

I posted on another related thread that we stayed off site, paid for parking and saved almost $2000 as opposed to staying on site in a value resort.

Parking fees have really started to bother me. Especially since we go to the parks for 5 days minimum. Unlike tickets, we don't get a break on the parking fees, and I wish we would.

 

You are going to see more and more of that. Parking lots in congested urban areas have seen Lyft take a huge chunk of their business. 10 years ago valet parking was a big money maker. Not any more. Parking are increasingly going out of business and replaced by new buildings. Same thing will eventually happen at Disney.

 

Here's the thing - at a football game, where you're going to spend about 3-4 hours max at a facility...you'll probably pay 40-50 bucks to park... Disney, being an all-day affair, charging 25 bucks a whole day seems like a pretty good value.

 

Yeah well, we don't go to football games. I looked up prices in Pittsburgh and it looks like less than that to park many places. I had an AP last time I drove so this time it will be a bummer to have to pay. I did get waved through several times without them even scanning my MB so I'm kind of hoping for some breaks like that in November.

 

Worth it is a relative question. First, a $25 per day charge wouldn't make or break a trip for me. It would get budgeted into my trip plans, and something else might get cut. That said, even if I am staying off-site somewhere with free parking, I've got to get to the parks somehow. I would do the math on whether than method is more cost effective to drive and park, call an Uber, or even take a free shuttle. I would also weight that cost to factor in convenience and any additional time spend waiting or traveling.

 

No matter if you stay on Disney property or stay at an offsite hotel, there will likely be a free shuttle to the parks.

I've yet to stay at an offsite hotel that doesn't. The service can be spotty, but that can be said of Disney transportation too so.

 

Disney transportation may not be immediate, or exactly every 20 minutes, but it is regular throughout the day from before parks open until after they close. Other than the Hotel Plaza Boulevard buse, no other property offers nearly as frequent service. Generally, there are two or three scheduled buses in the morning to one park, and two or three scheduled buses back in the evening. Miss those, or want to ride at a different time? You're on your own.

 

I was going to say...it makes paying to park at the resort feel not quite so bad. It also makes buying an annual pass seem more valuable if you have included parking.

 

Meh fair enough. If going back and forth all day is your thing then it might not be the best option.

If your like us, who go to the park early and once we leave we are gone, it's perfect.

It's n option if you don't want to pay $25 a day to park.