There are few things quite as magical as arriving at Walt Disney World: the rush of seeing the “Welcome to Walt Disney World” sign roll into view… the mounting anticipation as you approach the Magic Kingdom gate… the thrill of searching for your wallet to pay your parking fee… the exhilaration of your first line waiting for the tram, followed by another line after the tram to check your bags, followed by another line onto the monorail to whisk you dramatically to another cluster of lines at the ticket gate…
Okay, there are times when parking at Walt Disney World can really suck the morning magic out of a Disney day.
Parking at Walt Disney World can be something of a mixed bag. Having access to your vehicle can prove a huge convenience, but there are some downsides that have given parking at The Most Magical Place on Earth a foreboding reputation. Most guests aren’t exactly thrilled about long slogging walks under the Florida sun or the fob-clicking march of shame where you try to locate your silver rental Corolla amidst thousands of other silver Corollas at the end of a tired day.
Overall, Disney has done a pretty good job making parking as painless as possible for guests—you just have to know a few things before you arrive. Parking at Walt Disney World doesn’t have to be miserable if you know which snags to avoid. Here are the top tips we found to keep parking mishaps from putting a sour note on your Walt Disney World visit.
1. There are ways to park for free (but you’ll probably end up paying)
No one wants to start off their Disney day with a surprise parking fee, especially if you tend to get the nervous sweats when offered the “preferred parking” option and end up doling out $45-$50 right off the bat.
On average, most guests can expect to pay $22-$27 a day for parking at a Walt Disney World park. The good news is that if you choose to park hop, you don’t have to re-pay to move your vehicle (the parking fee covers all four parks for the day). Still, even $22 a day can sting if you’re on a budget. Is there any way to park for free?
Yes—with some catches.
First, Walt Disney World Annual Passholders do get genuine free parking at all four parks—just present your Passholder card and ID at the gate. This benefit doesn’t apply to preferred parking, but in most cases, preferred parking really isn’t necessary (more on that later). If you have a passholder in your party, have them present their ID and Passholder card to get free parking for whatever vehicle they happen to be in. This can make carpooling a very attractive option!
Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests also get “free” parking at all four parks. I put quotes around free because, technically, you’ll just be getting a slight discount. As of 2018, all of Disney’s hotels charge overnight parking fees ranging from $15 to $25 a night, so basically, you’re just paying the fee at the resort instead of at the parks. The only resort with truly free parking is Fort Wilderness, which provides each family a free parking spot.
In short, unless you’ll be bringing a passholder or resort guest with you, prepare to pay up with cash or a credit card at the gate.
2. Kooky tricks to get free parking are probably not worth it
There is a slightly convoluted way to park for free when visiting Disney parks, but it requires an abundance of extra time. Technically, you can park for free at Disney Springs or one of Disney’s water parks (when they are open), then use Disney transportation to get to the parks. Guests used to take advantage of this so much that Disney finally added a snag to reduce the behavior: they eliminated all direct bus routes between Disney Springs / the water parks to their four main parks.
There are two ways to get around this. If you’re determined enough to add what might be an extra hour onto your morning, you could go from Disney Springs to one of Disney’s resorts, then take transportation to the parks from there. Here are a few potential routes:
- Epcot – Bus to The Yacht and Beach Club or Boardwalk Inn. Epcot is walking distance from all of the Epcot resorts, but these two are closest to the International Gateway.
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Animal Kingdom Lodge will be your closest option, but the All Star Resorts are also very close to this park.
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios – There are so many options to get to this park now. From the Swan and Dolphin, you can take a just-under-a-mile walk or Friendship Boats to the DHS gate. From the Caribbean Beach Resort, you can also take the Skyliner directly there.
- Magic Kingdom – The Contemporary offers a walking path to Magic Kingdom, but you can also just take the monorail. Both The Grand Floridian and Polynesian also offer monorail access.
With all of these, you will notice a common theme—they all add a lot of extra time onto your morning just to avoid paying the parking fee.
The only option that really makes this trick workable is to use a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft to travel from Disney Springs to the parks. This method isn’t entirely free, but you’ll save a good amount of time and the price of your rideshare will almost certainly be less than parking (if the driver has a very low rating, cancel your trip, wait a little bit, then try to book again to see if a different driver pops up). This is still a convoluted way to avoid paying twenty-something dollars, and it won’t even save you a trip to the Transportation and Ticket Center at Magic Kingdom. In most cases, you will be better off just parking at the parks and enjoying your day without the extra hassle.
3. Save your money and skip preferred parking
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
Preferred parking is a “VIP” option Disney added in the last two years to give guests access to closer parking areas. While this may sound intriguing, the catch is that preferred parking comes with a $45-$50 price tag.
Most of the time, preferred parking at Disney parks just isn’t worth it. Disney’s trams run very regularly, and at both Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, parking far away is fairly rare. Preferred parking becomes slightly more attractive at Disney’s Animal Kingdom which has one of the resort’s most sprawling parking lots, but the trams are still very regular to help reduce walking time.
The one exception some guests might appreciate is preferred parking at Magic Kingdom if you will be staying for the night’s final fireworks during a busy season. While preferred parking doesn’t help you avoid the Transportation and Ticket Center, having preferred parking can make that experience go a lot smoother at the end of the night when tram lines get long in peak season. While this is an attractive option, for most guests, you will probably want to save your $50 for other parts of your trip.
4. Some parks are easier to walk to than others
Jumping off the previous point, if you’re the type of person who prefers to walk, you may wonder whether you want to bother with the trams at all. Are they really faster?
In most cases, the trams run so regularly that they will be faster than walking, even if you have to wait. However, if you’re comfortable with walking, you will almost never need to use the tram at Epcot or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Even on a busy day, the walk just isn’t that far. Even at Magic Kingdom, unless you visit on a busy day, you may not need to take the tram to reach the Transportation and Ticket Center, though you will usually run into longer walks and bigger crowds there.
The one exception is Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Unless you arrive very early in the morning, you can expect some extra walking to get from your car to the park’s front gate, especially if it is busy. The parking lot is just uniquely sprawling compared to Disney’s other parks. At this park, we usually recommend taking the tram just because the walk will be longer unless you’re in the first section of parking.
5. Use your phone to remember where you parked
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
Forgetting where you parked is one of the most common goof ups made at Walt Disney World. It happens a lot. Stand in a Disney parking lot long enough, and you’ll hear the chorus of car alarms trill away as guests flounder through row after row with key fobs in the air searching for lost vehicles.
Arriving at a Disney park is one of the most exciting parts of your day, and in the excitement, it’s easy to forget to even pay attention to where you parked. Instead of relying on memory or a quickly penned note, most smartphones offer two easy tools to help you remember your parking spot. First off, both Siri and Google Assistant can remember where you parked based on GPS location: just literally ask your digital assistant to remember where you parked. When you come back at the end of the day, ask Siri or Google where you parked, and you can navigate to that exact location.
Phone GPS systems aren’t necessarily laser accurate, so this option is best as a means to tell where in Disney’s long rows your car is located. To really expedite the process, take a picture of the row number and section you parked in when you’re first walking to the tram or walkway. This only takes like a second, and you’ll avoid a huge headache at the end of the day.
6. When possible, avoid parking at Magic Kingdom
Parking at most Disney parks is actually a pretty straightforward affair: Disney really has it down to a fine science. Unless you happen to run into long lines at the gates (which tends to only happen at Magic Kingdom or on major opening days for lands and attractions), you’ll be quickly guided through to a line of parking attendants who will speedily line cars up one after another. From there, you can either walk to the tram or to the park’s front gate.
Magic Kingdom is the exception to this rule for a very significant reason: its parking lot is more than a mile from the actual park.
We make this joke often, but the Transportation and Ticket Center might feel like the most un-magical place at the Most Magical Place on Earth (even if it is a wonder of innovation). Located near the Polynesian Resort, the TTC is the hub where Magic Kingdom parking connects to Disney’s complex monorail, ferry, and bus systems. Guests parking here can reach the Magic Kingdom via an Express Monorail, the Resort Monorail (which stops at all of the Magic Kingdom resorts), or a ferry. Because of this extra transportation hop, guests parking at the TTC should expect to add a minimum of 30 minutes onto any visit to Magic Kingdom before you even hit the front gate—more than that if things are busy.
If you’ll be staying at a Walt Disney World resort, in most cases you will want to use Disney transportation to get to Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom resort guests can take the monorail, while other resort guests can take busses directly to the park’s front gate. If you aren’t staying at a Disney resort and find yourself in the position of having to park at the TTC, there are a few tricks to reduce your wait times.
Cast members and insiders recommend that if you want to save time, don’t take the ferry— while the trip is scenic, it is inevitably the slowest route between the TTC and the parks. If you happen to hit a sweet spot where lines are minimal, the Express Monorail will get you to the park without any extra stops, making it a good option. However, if lines for the Express Monorail are long (which they often are), just take the Resort Monorail. You’ll make a few stops on the way to Magic Kingdom, but overall, the trip will be faster than waiting for multiple Express Monorails to load up.
7. Where should I park if I’m park hopping?
Park hopping can introduce some interesting math into your Disney visit if you’ll be bringing your own vehicle. Should you use your vehicle for all park hopping, or should you use Disney transportation? If you use Disney transportation, is it best to park where you’ll be starting your day or where you’ll end it at? The answer to these questions will vary depending on which parks you’re visiting, but here are a few tips.
The two easiest parks to park-hop between are Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Friendship boats, the Skyliner, and a pleasant walking path all provide options to travel without having to retrieve your car. While there will be exceptions to this rule, in our experience, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the better park to park at if you’ll be park hopping. The reason is that transportation heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studio lands you at the same place at the front gate. Even if you end your day at Epcot, the trip back usually only takes about 15-30 minutes.
However, if you parked at Epcot and happen to end your day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you’re going to be in for a long walk racing against Epcot’s closing time. The reason is that all transportation between Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood lands you at the back of Epcot via the International Gateway. That’s the opposite end of the park from the front gate which leads to the parking lot. Traveling from Epcot to DHS, especially via the Skyliner, is a pretty relaxed affair, but taking the trip the other way around can be a little more hectic if you parked out front. Overall, DHS is the better choice, and the time you will save will be comparable to if you just drove between the parks.
If you’ll be park hopping to or from Disney’s Animal Kingdom, self-driving will be your best option if you’re hopping to Epcot of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Once again, if you can avoid parking at Magic Kingdom, do so—just take the busses to and from the park.
Finally, if you’ll be park hopping to Magic Kingdom via any of the other parks, busses will almost always prove faster than the monorail since you’ll be able to avoid the TTC. If you’ll be traveling from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom, you can skip the monorail by taking a bus from the Yacht and Beach Club or Boardwalk Inn via the International Gateway.
Parking really should be the least-memorable part of a Walt Disney World vacation. By following these tips, you should be able to keep it that way. Have you experienced any crazy stories while parking at Walt Disney World?
