You were given incorrect information.
"All states have agreed to honor the handicapped parking permits from other states and honor them the same as if they were issued in that state. The technical name for this is reciprocity, and Florida has reciprocity agreements with all other states in the US."
You park in a marked handicap spot, there are no fees.
You can check the details out on the Disability forums on the Dis.
That is not quite true. They don't have to waive parking fees.
Reciprocity means that they will recognize and honor parking permits from other states to do the same things that a handicapped parking permit from that state allows.
It DOES allow you to park in the handicapped spots even though you have a parking permit from another state. They can't say only people with handicapped parking permits from Florida can park there, for example.
The ADA requires that they provide a certain number of handicapped parking spots (the number is based on the number of spots in the entire lot).
But, if they are charging other guests to park there, they can charge someone using a wheelchair also, even with a handicapped parking permit.
An example of this is the parking lots for the theme parks. If you are not a WDW resort guest, you have to pay a parking fee.
People with handicapped parking permits may park in the handicapped spots, but they don't park for free unless they are WDW resort guests, who would park free anyway.
And, an example for closer to home for me. If I take my DD to downtown Minneapolis and park in one of the parking ramps, there is a fee to park there. I would still have to pay it, even though I have a handicapped permit.
thank you. You're right, Disney does waive the valet fees at the deluxe resorts. We've never been to Universal so I wasn't sure if they would have a similar policy.
I don't know about Universal resorts, but the reason the Disney deluxe resorts waive the valet parking fee for people with handicapped parking permits has more to do with the amount of available parking and safety than it does with being nice.
Most of the WDW resorts have very impressive entrance areas with busy places for people to pull up and lots of traffic. The big impressive entrances means that much of the handicapped parking at the WDW resorts is actually on the far side of what is allowed as distance from the resort entrance door.
One way to deal with this would be to put more handicapped parking closer, but seeing a whole lot of parking spots kind of takes away from the impressive entry.
So, a common way to deal with it is to let people with handicapped parking permits use the valet parking at no charge. That also helps the resort from a safety standpoint. Because the entry area is often quite busy, with lots of cars, it can be dangerous for someone with a disability to cross. Using the valet parking avoids that problem.
I did read in one trip report that during the mid summer, the RPH was full on 2 days. They, the valet employees, did take the cars to another area and the owner was not charged for that valet parking.
The parking lot at RPH is large.
If you have the HP card or plates, use them.
Always talk to the front end manager at the hotel if you have issues over parking. Such as, no HC places available, would need free valet as someone in your group has mobility issues, etc.
I found that when I did use a rental car, the only times I left the resort parking was maybe one time during the trip.
Did a run to a local store and had a dinner out that evening.
The park is small and the hotels are on the edge of the parks.
You can walk or take the water taxi to get to the parks. You don't have to drive to the parks.
Most resorts/hotels will waive the Valet parking fee if the handicapped spots are all full. They want your business and if there are no handicapped spots, it's not fair to force you to pay for valet parking if there are spots for people without a disability, but none for you.
. I don't mind paying for them to park. It will just be easier if they can park at the hotel than having to deal with parking and then some other mode of transport!
- i like universal resorts, just never liked the fact that i had to pay for parking, guess its just me
