When we stayed in August, it was $8 a day to park at the parks. I heard since then that the charge is now $9/day. If you park hop, I believe you can take your paid parking ticket to the next park and you will not be charged, but I am not 100% on that since you are staying off site.
AAA has the Diamond Pass which is an extra perk given to people who book the AAA packages. Basically it is an assigned section to AAA members. It gets you somewhat closer to the entrance of the front gates.