I have the platinum pass so I always get free preferred parking,with that said I've ended up in the first or second spot right by the entrance or if I got there later in the day I've ended up further back close to Sea World dr,the difference is maybe 2-3 more minutes walking,not that big a deal.The parking lot is big but more wide than long and relatively simple to get to the entrance so unless you really needed to be as close as possible due to maybe someone elderly to keep the walking to as little as possible I would just park in the regular space as I don't find the difference to be that much between regular and preferred.