Is parking at a WDW park per day or per visit?

[PoppyAnna]

We've never hired a car for WDW before.
Is the 9$ parking fee per day or per visit?
If we go to MK in the morning and go home for nap/swim and decide to go back for fireworks do we have to pay 9$ again?
And what if we park hop in one day? Is it best to do that on the buses?
Probably easy/obvious for all you regulars but not for us newbie's
TIA

 

[squitty]

Hi

Parking is per day.

Once you have paid your parking for the day, you can come and go as many times as you like for that day.
Park hopping we always take the car, you don't have to pay for parking at the other WDW parks again.

Forgot to say, parking is free if you stay at any WDW hotel. Also if you have a Annual Pass

 

[castanea1985]

PoppyAnna,
I know this is drifting slightly from the original thread...
How far are you away from Disney... I don't know about anyone else, but unless you're staying on site, or Lake Buena Vista area, we've never had time to go to a park in the morning, go back to the villa, and then do another park in the afternoon. When we have done it, we usually spend too long back at the villa, and only get about a couple of hours in the evening..
Think its better to try and spend full days in the parks and use the internal transportation systems.
Maybe its because we also play quite a bit of golf, when we go over, but time always seems to be precious?
Tracy

 

[xviclx]

We stay on i drive, and when we go to Disney we go to a park at opening, pay the parking fee then go back to our hotel around 2pm, have a swim, shower etc and come back at evening to go to another (sometimes same) park, dinner and then proberly off to down town disney. You only pay for parking once a day, this includes going and coming back and going to other Disney parks (Down town disney parking is free) We prefer to have a break in afternoon, saying that the youngest with us is 17 so we dont have to get kids ready etc.So if you have kids id take that into concideration.

 

[PoppyAnna]

thank you all so much for the info and advice.
our trip has been booked since July06 and we were going without a car. our party is three adults and two children (4 & 19mo). we are staying south of sea world on idrive near dolly's/premium outlets so we are very close to disney. We were going to rely on hotel shuttles and taxi's. I think having a car could make or break the holiday (it was dh that was adamant he didn't want to drive out there).
Part of the reason for this turn around is because of the girls it means we can get to parks earlier, stay for lunch then back to appt for nap/swim then back to parks for fireworks/parades and dinner. We could have done that but I think hanging around for taxi's would have wasted precious holiday time. Esp constantly folding and unfolding buggies etc.
I have a small gps reciever and tom tom on my pda,download the US maps and we should be okay. That cuts down half the stress.
I thought it would be a good idea also to leave our swim bags in the cars incase we want to break a park day with a waterpark.
Thanks again everyone!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I think given the age of the children a car is essential for you, waiting around for taxi's/buses is not ideal if you have little one's.

 

[mikki.young]

It's a very easy route from where you are staying to get into Disney property - really only need to make one turn at the bottom of International Drive and then it is straight on to Disney where the signage will lead you to each park easily. Not sure how long you are going for but if you upgraded one adults ticket to an annual pass you would get the parking free. As it has gone up (I think) to $10 a day this may be cost effective.

 

[PoppyAnna]

It's a very easy route from where you are staying to get into Disney property - really only need to make one turn at the bottom of International Drive and then it is straight on to Disney where the signage will lead you to each park easily. effective.

Thanks Mikki, that's what I had been led to believe.
Here, have a Mickey cookie with your coffee

 

[wayneg]

I have a small gps reciever and tom tom on my pda,download the US maps and we should be okay.
Thanks again everyone!

I used mine last year, been going enough times not to need it but took it to test it out before we used it in California last Oct. It was brilliant, both in Orlando and Cali. Pre load in your favourites everywhere you want to go and also your Apt. address then it is easier when you get there.
I know Orlando can be done without a car but it is so mush easier with one, I am sure you will always want a car in future, nip down to The Old Town for a walk around one evening, Fri or Sat if you like cars, Thurs if you you like bikes or have a walk around Celebration one evening lots more options with a car.
Like mikki.young said consider upgradeing a ticket to AP if you can, free parking for a year, Discounts at World of Disney and lots more places.
We have AP's for all Disney, Uni/IOA, SW/Busch they are great value for us.

 

[PoppyAnna]

Thank you wayneg, you have been a great source of info both on this thread and the other about car hire.
I need to first download the north american maps for my tom tom and then, like you suggest spend a while doing favs, appt address, supermarkets and theme parks etc. I'm hoping this will take the stress out of the driving. I was dreading 'doing' directions with two excited/tired little uns in the car!
Great to know somebody else has used tom tom successfully in Orlando.
Thanks again!
Joanne.

 

[merlin307]

It's a very easy route from where you are staying to get into Disney property - really only need to make one turn at the bottom of International Drive and then it is straight on to Disney where the signage will lead you to each park easily. Not sure how long you are going for but if you upgraded one adults ticket to an annual pass you would get the parking free. As it has gone up (I think) to $10 a day this may be cost effective.

Hi Mikki
I have never heard of this before. How easy is it to do? Is there somewhere that I can find out more information about this as this could add up to a sizeable saving as we are intending to vist more than once this year.....

 

[london75]

I have a small gps receiver and tom tom on my pda,download the US maps and we should be okay. That cuts down half the stress.

Quick bit of advice, it can take a while for your GPS to get a satellite fix after travelling so far. When the GPS "wakes up" it suddenly sees a completely different set of satellites and might wind down and think about it for a bit

This could be anywhere up to 30 minutes so make sure you are comfortable with the route to your hotel/villa up front. I rehearsed on google maps and even printed all the satellite view pages out so I knew the way.

True to form my gps wouldn't get a fix until that evening after which it was indispensable. I found leaving it out on the balcony for 30 mins seemed to do the trick.

 

[wayneg]

Quick bit of advice, it can take a while for your GPS to get a satellite fix after travelling so far. When the GPS "wakes up" it suddenly sees a completely different set of satellites and might wind down and think about it for a bit

This could be anywhere up to 30 minutes so make sure you are comfortable with the route to your hotel/villa up front. I rehearsed on google maps and even printed all the satellite view pages out so I knew the way.

True to form my gps wouldn't get a fix until that evening after which it was indispensable. I found leaving it out on the balcony for 30 mins seemed to do the trick.

You sure you dont need it repairing? LOL
I have HP IPAQ1750 with TOMTOM software and yes it does not work under the multi storey parking lot on arrival but by the time we hit the South Access road it was working, approx 3 mins from getting into open air. In Cali it was about 2 mins from switching on.

 

[london75]

It might just depend on the chip used in the GPS receiver. Mine was fine once it had got it's lock that evening but wouldn't do anything up til then. It's a sirfstar III as well for the geeks amongst us!

This time it's built into my new phone, had my favourites already saved and this one really is broken now! Off to China to repair, due to return 2 days before we go!

 

[Queenie]

Our TomTom often takes 5 minutes to get a fix in England. I can turn it off, switch it back on again 30 seconds later from exactly the same spot and it still seems to go into an "aaargh where am I?" meltdown!

 

[PoppyAnna]

Quick bit of advice, it can take a while for your GPS to get a satellite fix after travelling so far. When the GPS "wakes up" it suddenly sees a completely different set of satellites and might wind down and think about it for a bit

This could be anywhere up to 30 minutes so make sure you are comfortable with the route to your hotel/villa up front. I rehearsed on google maps and even printed all the satellite view pages out so I knew the way.

True to form my gps wouldn't get a fix until that evening after which it was indispensable. I found leaving it out on the balcony for 30 mins seemed to do the trick.

Great advice,thanks. I did guess something like this would occur. I had planned a plan B! Are you allowed to switch them on in airport buildings?

 

[Minniespal]

Our TomTom often takes 5 minutes to get a fix in England. I can turn it off, switch it back on again 30 seconds later from exactly the same spot and it still seems to go into an "aaargh where am I?" meltdown!

Thought mine was the only one that did that

 

[london75]

I don't think there are any regulations about turning them on in airports as they only transmit short range.