Parking Question - Military Family - First Trip

[MandaJo111]

Let me start by saying I have never been to Disney before so any info or tips you have would be great.

Here is the situation. We are traveling to Disney World next week. We will be staying at a condo not at one of the Disney Resorts. We are driving down so we will have our personal vehicle. We will have 4 adults and 3 children (8, 5, and 2)

What is parking like? How do you get from park to park -- Do you just drive?
I read somewhere that you can park at Shades of Green for free if you are military -- which we are -- and go to the parks from there. However I am not sure if that means you can just go to Magic Kingdom or all the parks from there. Are there shuttles or are those only for those staying at resorts.

Sorry I know it is a lot of questions, but I really don't know anything about location of the parks, transportation, etc. Any tips on anything about the trip would be helpful. Thank you in advance.

 

[Big Willie]

Welcome. I'm Retired Navy... SUBMARINE SERVICE!!!

1. Browse the stickies at the top of the Transportation Forum. They will help you out.

2. Each park has its own parking lot. The cost is $14 a day. You pay only once a day. Keep your receipt and you can go from park to park without repaying. There will be plenty here who argue driving you own vehicle is faster than relying on the Disney system and those who argue vice versa.

3. Disney Transportation is available at no cost. You do not have to stay onsite to use the bus, monorail or boat. The destinations are endless. You can go from park to park; DTD; the resorts, etc. using a variety of methods. Again the Point to Point stickie will help you.

4. Avoid parking at Shades of Green. Service has been reported as slow and spotty.

Personal Experience:
When we are staying off-site. We pick a park as our starting point for the day and we park the van there. From there, if a group decides to go to another park they use the Disney buses, etc. We have teenagers now so its common to have everyone going in different directions. We they were the ages of your children we all stayed in the one park.

"To your own heart be true" If you hate waiting for buses, finding seats together, etc. Then drive your vehicle from park to park. If you hate driving and want to leave it all to someone else then rely on the Disney System.

 

[MandaJo111]

That is quite helpful. Thank you so much.

I am pleased to know that once we get there if my Father-In-Law and Mother-In-Law want to go to another park at some point they can without feeling "stuck" where we want to go. They will have a rental vehicle but we are only taking one to the park to save on parking costs. I doubt they really will want much time away from the grandkids though as they don't get to see them very often.