Parking question

[Disneylovers]

Hi everyone! It has been awhile since I posted on here. I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post this question or not, so I'll try here first. We have unused park hopper tix that we bought for our April of '20 trip that was of course cancelled. Disney extended the expiration date to the 24th of September of this year, so we have planned a couple of weekend trips for next month to use them up(we moved to central florida this year, so we're about a 40 minute drive to the parks). This is the first time in forever that we haven't used Disney transportation to get to the parks, so I'm slightly confused. Our first day, we are going to drive over, start at Studios, then want to hop to Epcot. I can't find anywhere if we can leave our car at studios, hop over to Epcot (we figure we would use the boat transportation since the reason to go to Epcot is the Food and Wine festival) then head back to the Studios parking lot to pick up our car at the end of the day. Epcot closes an hour after Studios the night we're going, so that's part of my concern. How late does the parking lot stay open after the park closes, does anyone know? I know we wouldn't have to pay to park at Epcot, since we're paying at Studios, but then there would be the looooong walk to the back of the park, and two of us in our party have walking "issues" which I'm trying to work around. Thanks for any advise you can provide!!!

 

[FCDub]

You can do this. No problem. The parking lot doesn't really "close" – you'll be able to get your car.

 

[scrappinginontario]

You can leave it there but it may be a challenge finding transportation to take you back to DHS, especially if you stop to shop or watch the fireworks. Finding Disney transportation to take you to a park that is closed can sometimes be challenging. You may be just fine if you leave within the first hour of park closing but any later than that and you may need to find private transportation or walk.

 

[Marionnette]

Your only problem will be getting from Epcot to the HS parking lot. In general, Disney transportation runs for at least one hour after park closing. But Friendship boats that run from Epcot to the resorts may not continue to HS and the Skyliner may only take you as far as CBR, depending on when you depart Epcot.

At the very worst, it's possible to walk. An able-bodied person can walk to the HS parking lot from the IG to retrieve the car and those with mobility issues can take a Friendship boat to either BWI or YC/BC. You can drive from HS to pick them up at the resort.

 

[CarolynFH]

As others have said, getting back to the DHS lot might be the issue. The last Friendship boats usually leave DHS about one hour after DHS closes, so the last boat would leave Epcot maybe 30-45 minutes before that time. Once the DHS run shuts down, the boats will still run from Epcot to the resorts for about an hour after Epcot closes, so you could ride the Friendship boat as far as Swan/Dolphin and walk the rest of the way. Taking the Skyliner to CBR wouldn’t work if it’s not running from CBR to DHS - there’s no safe way to walk from CBR to DHS.

Edited to add, Marionette’s suggestion of one person walking to retrieve the car is a good one. If you stay to Epcot closing, you could consider having everyone ride the Friendship boat to Swan/Dolphin together (assuming you don’t stay too late in Epcot), and the able bodied person could walk to DHS while the less able bodied wait in the Swan lobby. It’s easy to drive into Swan (no guard gate) and pull up at the entrance to pick people up. Keep in mind that leaving the DHS parking lot will bring you out onto Victory Way and you’ll need to follow signage to get back to any of the Epcot resorts.

 

[ChanaC]

Jumping on this thread to ask a similar question - in this case, do you think it saves any time to use Disney transportation to get back and forth between Epcot and DHS? I'm also planning a park hopping day between the two, starting at DHS and ending the night in Epcot. We are driving and staying off-site. I've been debating getting in the car and driving to Epcot or using the Skyliner or boats to go to Epcot and back to DHS at the end of the night. In our case, we'll also want to spend most of the evening in World Showcase, but we don't have any walking issues, and we will probably hit up some of the rides in Future World. Driving between the two seems the most logical but I haven't been since the Skyliner has been added and I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something obvious.

 

[CarolynFH]

Jumping on this thread to ask a similar question - in this case, do you think it saves any time to use Disney transportation to get back and forth between Epcot and DHS? I'm also planning a park hopping day between the two, starting at DHS and ending the night in Epcot. We are driving and staying off-site. I've been debating getting in the car and driving to Epcot or using the Skyliner or boats to go to Epcot and back to DHS at the end of the night. In our case, we'll also want to spend most of the evening in World Showcase, but we don't have any walking issues, and we will probably hit up some of the rides in Future World. Driving between the two seems the most logical but I haven't been since the Skyliner has been added and I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something obvious.

If I planned to end my night staying until closing at Epcot, I’d just drive from DHS to Epcot instead of worrying about how to get back to the DHS parking lot. The only time I’d leave the car at DHS is when I was certain I’d leave Epcot well before DHS closed. Riding the Skyliner is fun, but at some point after DHS closes, the CBR-DHS Skyliner line shuts down.

 

[tobikaye]

Driving between the two seems the most logical but I haven't been since the Skyliner has been added and I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something obvious.

If you really want to leave your car at DHS and go back at the end of the night after you leave Epcot, then just plan to do the skyliner from DHS to Epcot and go back to DHS via the boats and/or walking at the end of the night. I would probably take the boat to BW if the boat will not go all the way to DHS. Then get off at BW and walk to DHS. I cannot remember the exact directions right now, but there is a cut through near the pool that is a bit shorter than going up and around the boardwalk to the path.

 

[CarolynFH]

If you really want to leave your car at DHS and go back at the end of the night after you leave Epcot, then just plan to do the skyliner from DHS to Epcot and go back to DHS via the boats and/or walking at the end of the night. I would probably take the boat to BW if the boat will not go all the way to DHS. Then get off at BW and walk to DHS. I cannot remember the exact directions right now, but there is a cut through near the pool that is a bit shorter than going up and around the boardwalk to the path.

Getting off at Swan/Dolphin would actually mean a shorter walk to DHS. It’s a quick walk from that dock over the bridge to BWV, joining the walkway near the pool. Longer boat ride (the boat goes Epcot to BW to Yacht/Beach to Swan/Dolphin), shorter walk.

 

[tobikaye]

Is it quicker than cutting through BW by the pool? I guess it just felt longer to me going via Swan/Dolphin area.

I have done the walk from the path via Swan/Dolphin and felt the cut through was shorter. I think I remember a bit more and the cut through was by Wyland Art towards the fitness center and then going to the left of the pool with the gate behind the pool.

 

[CarolynFH]

Is it quicker than cutting through BW by the pool? I guess it just felt longer to me going via Swan/Dolphin area.

I have done the walk from the path via Swan/Dolphin and felt the cut through was shorter. I think I remember a bit more and the cut through was by Wyland Art towards the fitness center and then going to the left of the pool with the gate behind the pool.

Yes, cutting through the breezeway by Wyland is shorter than walking to the far end of the BW by Atlantic Dance. I was talking about riding the boat to the Swan/Dolphin. It’s a shorter walk from the Swan/Dolphin dock, over the bridge to join the DHS walkway, and to the point where you’d come out from going through the BWV Luna Park than the walk from the BW dock, to the breezeway, through the breezeway to Luna Park, past the pool and to the walkway. As I said, it’s a shorter distance. It may take more time though when allowing for the time it takes the boat to travel from the BW dock to Y/B and then to Swan/Dolphin. It depends on whether you want to save time or your feet.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

So we did something similar.. but I parked at the ttc , took a bus to Hollywood studios from poly.
Then you can take the monorail back from epcot

 

[Sugardimples]

I would drive to Studios, have 1 person move the car to EPCOT, have the rest of the party take the boat, then the car would be at EPCOT at the end of the night. You could have the driver get the car and pick everyone up from the Beach Club or Boardwalk to minimize walking for the rest of the group.