Parking at Disney Globe [Parks, Hotels, Tips, and Cost]

In this post, we discuss having a auto at Walt Disney Globe Resort, including parking at Disney Earth, reasons to have a car, alternatives to having a car, and how having a car tin can touch on your strategy for visiting the parks. If you're wondering whether it might make sense to have a car at your next Walt Disney World trip, read on to get an overview of all the factors you demand to consider.

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Nuts of Having a Car at Walt Disney Earth

We'll beginning with an overview of what you lot demand to plan for if you have a car at Disney Earth. If you're undecided, our next section will discuss how you might evaluate the pros and cons of having a motorcar.

Renting a Auto for Walt Disney World

The most obvious way to rent a car for Walt Disney World is to hire from an bureau at Orlando International Airport. Nosotros've never washed this (and either way we would encourage you to read more than but our review of agencies). We generally use Kayak for rentals, but nosotros've recently had good experience with car-sharing over at Turo.

Alternatively, yous might want to rent a car from an agency on Disney property. This is especially worth considering if you just want a car for a short period to go off-property. We highly recommend checking out this MouseSavers list of rental options at Walt Disney World. That listing is skilful for spots at Walt Disney Globe.

Disney Globe Gas Stations

In that location are a few gas stations at Walt Disney World, and even more than off property. Here are a few:

  • Magic Kingdom Speedway (you can get here easily when parking at Transportation and Ticket Center, or you can get in that location by going around the parking lot via World Drive to 7 Seas Drive to Floridian Style)

  • Epcot Resorts Speedway (located but off Buena Vista Drive at Epcot Resorts Blvd)

  • Disney Springs Speedway (located by Disney Springs)

The Magic Kingdom Speedway is next to Machine Care Center, an independently run auto body shop.

Disney Parking Fees (Resorts)

If you're going to have a motorcar, besides gas and rental fees you'll probably be paying for parking at Disney Earth. We'll cover Disney hotels here, guests of other hotels should check with their hotels about parking rates.

Guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel will accept to pay an overnight parking fee if they have a automobile. Prices alter every and then oft and are based on when yous fabricated your reservation, but we're just going to give the current prices (as of January 2022):

  • Value Resorts: $15/night

  • Moderate Resorts: $twenty/night

  • Deluxe Resorts: $25/night

The Campsites at Fort Wilderness Social club come with a free parking spot (guests of the Cabins have to pay for parking). DVC members do not have to pay for parking when staying at DVC properties.

Disney Parking Fees (Parks)

We discuss driving to parks and the Disney parking fees for those in much more item below, only for now we want to annotation that Disney hotel guests and most almanac passholders will not pay for parking at the parks. Other guests will have to pay at least $25 for standard parking at the parks. Notation that if you park hop, there is just one charge of $25 per day.

The parking fees for the parks (as of January 2022) are:

  • Preferred parking: car or motorcycle – $45-$50 per day (varies past season)

  • Standard parking: car or motorcycle – $25 per twenty-four hours

  • Oversized Vehicle Parking: Shuttle, Limo, Camper Trailer, RV, Bus or Tractor Trailer - $30 per solar day

Cash and credit card are accepted for payment. Those prices include taxes. And it's not a park or resort, but general parking at ESPN Wide World of Sports is costless for most events.

Tips for Navigating Disney World

Google Maps is cracking only imperfect. We recommend using Google Maps to navigate Walt Disney World, just y'all should know that because different areas are attainable to unlike groups—Cast Members, security, regular guests, etc.—you'll need to likewise keep an eye on the overhead highway signs to make sure you're going the right style.

Follow the Imperial Signs. If y'all stick to following the overhead majestic signs, yous'll never leave the Disney Globe campus. This might not ever be the fastest route to your destination, though.

You can't drive straight to Magic Kingdom. Every bit discussed more below, guests are not immune to drive straight to Magic Kingdom, even but to driblet someone off. You'll accept to utilize the Transportation and Ticket Heart.

Should I Hire A Automobile at Walt Disney World?

Now that we've covered what volition get into getting and having a auto, lets cover why you might want to take ane or what you could practise without one.

Reasons to Have a Motorcar at Walt Disney World

As well driving to theme parks—which we cover as a dissever affair below—in that location are a few reasons yous might want to have a car at Walt Disney World. Let'due south discuss some of them.

Your hotel doesn't accept (good) transportation. This is the near obvious, but if your hotel doesn't take good transportation to the parks or to the airport, you may want to get your own vehicle.

This is mostly an event for guests of non-Disney hotels, but the larger moderate resorts (Port Orleans Riverside, Caribbean area Beach, Coronado Springs) have their own transportation bug.

Relieve on ___ by going off property. From meals to trade, you can save money if y'all take the time to use your car to shop off Disney property.

Visit other theme parks (or other attractions). The virtually notable nearby theme park resort is Universal Orlando, but Busch Gardens is as well a moderate drive abroad. Central Florida has several tourist destinations you might desire to visit every bit part of your trip.

Getting between hotels. Y'all'll benefit from having a car if you have meal reservations at dissimilar hotels. While Uber/Lyft and Minnie Vans are as well practiced options, the free option of taking Disney transportation between hotels normally requires a lengthy trip with a transfer at a theme park.

If you lot don't take meal reservations, know that y'all may sometimes non be allowed to park at some other hotel you lot'd like to visit. For example, the Boardwalk expanse has many proficient bars and restaurants, but the Disney Globe parking lots at the hotels over there are often closed to non-guests considering of limited capacity.

Guests of other hotels will take to bank check with their hotels to encounter what their transportation options are. And always read hotel reviews to see what guests say about the transportation.

Additionally, if you're thinking about bringing a car, consider whether you'd be better off using Uber/Lyft or Minnie Vans for your purposes. We have a guide to using Uber at Walt Disney Globe. Nosotros're very comfortable with Uber and we don't have to await for a car with a carseat, so we're a petty biased toward that service.

Driving to Parks at Walt Disney World

1 big perk of driving to Walt Disney World is that you tin drive to and from the parks. Parking at Disney Globe parks costs $25 for standard parking and $45 or $50 for preferred parking.

A few years agone I was a real sass about charabanc transportation at Walt Disney Earth. I still think it'south far from perfect, merely at least in my experience information technology has improved significantly. That said, you'll still occasionally see horror stories (including from me) about incredibly long waits.

What'south more, transportation bug are sometimes unavoidable. If you've ever tried to accept the double-decker to a park about 45 minutes earlier open, you might notice the bus line goes from zero people to multiple busloads in merely a few minutes.

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The coach stops only conform one bus at a time. In mornings, you lot'll usually have at least one mobility scooter per bus. It winds up taking a while to load these buses and become them to the parks.

In our feel, the parking lots at the parks open at to the lowest degree 30 and often an hour before the park opens to the outset guests (due east.g. an hour before Early on Entry virtually days).

For these reasons, having a auto makes it much easier to control your arrival time for rope drop at Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. Relatedly, on well-nigh days these parks take pretty efficient operations at the stop of the twenty-four hours, and then you shouldn't accept an awful time getting out of the parking lot.

As for Magic Kingdom...

Driving to Magic Kingdom

Not all guests volition exist able to avoid driving to Magic Kingdom, merely guests of Disney hotels have the choice of taking a bus to the park, and we usually recommend they do that.

Magic Kingdom is a mixed bag when information technology comes to driving. It'southward the most popular park, which means you'll take the longest charabanc lines. This volition especially be true at the value resorts, which cater most heavily to families.

Just, as we'll hash out in more particular below (later on the park hopping discussion), parking at Magic Kingdom requires you to employ a remote lot, have a tram to Transportation and Ticket Heart, and then take a gunkhole or monorail to the park.

And of course, if you're counting on your hotel bus then you're probably going to need to be actress cautious and wake up a trivial early anyways. And then while on residuum we prefer taking the passenger vehicle to Magic Kingdom in the morning, information technology's not a slam dunk.

Midday it will make much more sense to accept the double-decker. You lot can cheque the My Disney Experience app for bus await times and just programme to grab the side by side passenger vehicle, getting dropped off correct at the front of the park.

Park Hopping With a Automobile at Disney Earth

Can y'all park at Magic Kingdom and go to Epcot? Or park at Epcot and go to Magic Kingdom? Yes. For all the combinations of parks, the answer is yes (provided that yous take park tickets that include hopping).

As we noted to a higher place, your parking fee covers all four parking lots if your park hop, so yous're free to drive from one park to another without paying another fee.

Bringing your car with you lot equally you park hop is the easiest thing to practise considering you lot don't want to reach the cease of the day, forget about your car, and get it towed. The parking lots volition close shortly after the last invitee leaves the park, and if yous're at Magic Kingdom at midnight when Hollywood Studios closes at 9PM, your machine at Hollywood Studios will be towed.

Bringing your car while park hopping is also usually going to be the fastest way to get between two parks. Just this point bears a petty more give-and-take on a park-by-park basis.

Getting To/From Magic Kingdom. As we'll hash out more next, when y'all park at Magic Kingdom yous use a lot far from the park that requires some transit to get you to the park. For this reason, it could make sense to just take a bus (or monorail, from Epcot) to Magic Kingdom. In most cases, though, Magic Kingdom is open up later than the other parks and you probably don't desire to have to go dorsum to your car early at another park.

Getting To/From Animal Kingdom. Animate being Kingdom is only connected to the other parks by jitney. With the exception of Magic Kingdom (noted in a higher place), it's always going to make sense to drive to another park instead of waiting on the bus.

Getting To/From Disney Hollywood Studios & Epcot. With Beast Kingdom and Magic Kingdom covered above, we're left with Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

Y'all can get between Epcot's World Showcase archway and Hollywood Studios in virtually 20 minutes by boat, foot, or Skyliner. Using Epcot's World Showcase archway, these methods will be faster than going to/from the parking lot at the front of the park. If you're planning to get through the front of the park, though, y'all'll exist faster served by driving.

With these two parks often having similar closing times, this is the case where it makes most sense to leave your motorcar behind when park hopping.

Parking at Disney Earth Parks

Let's start with i common question before discussing the specific parks (only one of which is any interesting).

Is preferred parking worth it at Disney Globe?

In our opinion, preferred parking is definitely not worth it at Disney World parks. Y'all're usually saving yourself around five minutes of walking with preferred parking. The $20-$25 premium is not at all worth it.

If you're a hardcore rope drop fan you might wonder if preferred parking is worth it to get you to be commencement in line, and here the answer is still no. If y'all're ane of the first cars in the lot, the time from car to queue for your outset ride has enough of opportunity for you to catch upwards to the very few guests paying for preferred parking at this hour.

Preferred parking makes the nearly sense at the elevation of the day, from almost noon to 3PM, when you'll be filling the farthest spots. Onetime subsequently 3PM (probably closer to 5PM), they'll actually start letting guests fill any bachelor spaces, which leaves little reason to pay for preferred parking.

Magic Kingdom Parking

Nosotros covered this a bit above, merely Magic Kingdom parking is the almost complex situation at the resort because the parking lots are not directly fastened to the park.

Instead, you'll park in a lot, take a tram (or walk) to Transportation and Ticket Center, so have a monorail or ferryboat to the park. This equates to roughly 30 actress minutes of transit time.

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And then if you wanted to be at Magic Kingdom at seven:30AM (for an 8AM open), yous'd probably want to get out effectually 6:45AM from almost Disney hotels if driving. The thing is, nearly days the bus won't have whatever sort of line 75 minutes earlier the park opens, so information technology's usually going to exist easier to accept the bus to Magic Kingdom.

At night, leaving Magic Kingdom is awful whether you're taking the bus or driving. Drivers have to pack into huge lines for the ferryboat or monorail, while bus riders will be left waiting in long lines for buses.

Epcot Parking

Standard Epcot parking costs $25. Preferred parking goes up to $50 on peak days.

In contrast to parking at Magic Kingdom, parking at the other three parks is quite straightforward. Almost every time we've driven to the parks, we've been close plenty to walk to the parks. If you don't desire to walk, the trams run oft and speedily equally well.

Surely on height days (Christmas, New year's day'south Eve) if yous arrive late plenty yous'll wind up with a longer trip ane way or another, but naught will always compare with the lengthy trip required on any day at Magic Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom Parking

Standard Creature Kingdom parking costs $25. Preferred parking goes up to $l on peak days.

Hollywood Studios Parking

Standard Hollywood Studios parking costs $25. Preferred parking goes up to $50 on peak days.

Parking at Disney Springs

Parking at Disney Springs is also free. There are multiple parking garages at Disney Springs. If you are visiting for something specific, you'll want to consult the map to pick your parking garage. (Valet parking is besides available for a fee.)

Practice I Need a Car at My Disney Hotel?

Hopefully the in a higher place gives you a good idea of whether you lot need a auto, only I'll give one concluding factor. Let's talk specifically near some hotels and whether yous'll want a car at them.

Port Orleans Riverside and Coronado Springs are huge and the buses have forever, simply you can park close to your room. A car is a good thought if you're staying at ane of these hotels. Former Central Westward and Saratoga Springs are similar. Caribbean Beach is likewise huge, but the Skyliner stations are pretty user-friendly for midday travel. Fort Wilderness is an entirely different beast, and in most cases you'll want a car there.

The All Star Resorts rely on bus transportation and often share buses, which tin can cause problems. Depending on your room location, you might be significantly closer to a parking space then to the bus stop. A machine can help with the problems here.

Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary, and Wilderness Gild take good transportation to Magic Kingdom merely less bang-up to the other parks. Beast Kingdom Lodge and Port Orleans French Quarter relies on omnibus transportation to all 4 parks, but it's pretty reliable. A car can assist with the difficulties from these hotels.

Popular Century and Fine art of Animation ordinarily don't share buses and have Skyliner access to ii parks. A motorcar is non needed at these hotels.

Yacht Club, Embankment Club, and Boardwalk Inn have walking/gunkhole admission to ii parks (Epcot and Hollywood Studios). Driving to Magic Kingdom isn't super helpful anyways. And then a car is only much assistance for getting to Animate being Kingdom. You don't demand a auto at these hotels.

The Bottom Line

Whether or not you have a auto at Walt Disney World is heavily circumstantial. There's actually no clear cut evaluation that will apply to all families.

Height Reasons To Have a Car at Disney World

  1. Gets yous to and from the parks easily (except Magic Kingdom)

  2. Gets you to and from other hotels (if applicable)

  3. Easy access to spots off Disney belongings

Top Reasons Not To Have A Car at Disney World

  1. Rental costs (if applicable)

  2. Hotel parking costs (if applicative)

  3. Theme park parking costs (if applicable)

Alternatives To Having A Auto at Disney World

  1. Free transportation provided by Disney and/or your hotel

  2. Uber / Lyft / Minnie Vans

Personally, we draw the line at rental car costs, and we very rarely drive to Magic Kingdom from the hotels. When we have access to a motorcar in Florida, we'll employ it for Disney World trips. We notice the hotel parking costs to be worth the convenience of getting to Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios, along with any meals at other hotels.

But if we'd take to pay for a rental automobile, we merely don't detect it to be worth it. If you use Uber/Lyft or Minnie Vans for urgent transportation and simply "seize with teeth the bullet" with free transportation otherwise, yous'll usually be able to find a sweet spot of convenience and price.

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

Don't be overwhelmed past Disney World planning! Take a 2nd to check out our almost important content and you'll not simply be an expert, but you'll save large $$$ forth the fashion.

Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney Earth planning guide! If you're still picking dates, nosotros've got everything you need to know about Disney Earth oversupply calendars. For picking your hotel, bank check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.

When it comes time to book we'll assist you find discount Disney Earth tickets. Decide whether yous demand a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!

Don't forget to master your Disney Earth Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in accelerate. Nosotros'll keep y'all out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! Nosotros've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Beast Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.

Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the h2o parks with our guide to Blizzard Embankment and our guide to Draft Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.

Finally, before you lot head out, be certain to bank check out our to-the-betoken packing listing, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if y'all're interested in saving, there's no meliorate listing than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to cease.