Off site trip

[ElleBelle88]

My brother in law's parents have recently bought a place at Champion's Gate- I immediately therefore booked a two week stay there for July/August (I'm a teacher)!

DF and I are flying out with my sister, her husband and their DD(9 months) and whilst they are staying for 10nights, we've managed to snag 14! I am so incredibly excited but also have some questions/ concerns as have mainly always stayed on site and haven't ever been with a little one before.

So... First concern is with parking. We will have two cars between us in case the two parties want/need to separate. My issue with that is that that is a lot of money for parking per day. Does anybody have any money saving tips in relation to parking please?

Thanks!

 

[tinks86]

Hi, we've always stayed offsite and like having the extra space and flexibility that you have with a villa, but yes one of the downsides that you have to factor into the price comparison with onsite is the cost of parking and unfortunately if you do need to take two cars to the parks you will have to pay parking twice. The only thing you could do is hire one bigger car you will all fit in, but guess that cost will outweigh the extra parking?

 

[scoobydooby]

No way around the parking costs. Two cars you pay twice. I would not do just a one car though. As two adults you're going to have a different timetable to parents with an infant for certain. I'm afraid you'll just have to suck it up.

 

[ElleBelle88]

Lol ok thanks. Increasingly I'm thinking there are going to be some real positives to staying off site; such as extra space as mentioned. I guess I'll just have to accept that parking costs isn't one of those positives!

Talk from the rest of the group is that we'll only do a few days at the parks... I'm seeing what I can do about that!

I think DF and I will end up doing a different park at night if we split up as a group to get our parking money's worth. I am right in thinking Disney parking is transferable-as in you could pay in the morning and then hop over to DHS, for example, and not have to hand over any more dollars?

 

[Kath2003]

Yep - once you pay to park in Disney, you're good all day.

 

[Portugal1000]

When my brother came with us year before last he was lucky and got upgraded to a 7 seater SUV so a lot of the time we took one car to the parks. Would never consider one car between us for whole holiday though. One way we have saved parking last couple of years for SeaWorld is buying the parking pass at Discovery Cove. I think it was $35 but gave unlimited parking at Sea Works, Aquatica and Busch. As we went Aquatica 5 times Seaworld twice and Busch once it did save us some money.
Parking is expensive but you soon forget about it when you come out of a baking hot park and can just get straight in your car and get back to the pool quickly!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

If you buy an annual pass for WDW you get free parking, but the cost of the AP may outweigh this benefit. I have bought an AP a couple of times, but we are normally there for 3 weeks. You also get discounts at some restaurants and shops so you would need to do your sums. The AP would only get free entry for 1 car, so you would need 2 AP for 2 cars

 

[Kath2003]

Whilst the $17 per day is tough, you'll easily save that just by eating one meal offsite each day.