We love a Disney World hotel!

Grand Floridian Resort

When it comes to planning your ultimate trip to Disney World, your resort can make a huge difference! There have been lots of updates and changes like the opening of Island Tower, hotel room improvements, and new dining options. All of the changes have been great but we are still waiting for Disney Resorts to slash this one rule!

Disney Resort Hotels are some of our favorite places on Earth. It’s like a secret side to Disney World that so many people don’t know about! You can find amazing dining options, fun activities, and you might even find a firework viewing spot at some resorts. While we love them, we won’t lie to you and say they’re perfect.

Disney’s Contemporary Hotel

One of our biggest issues with Disney hotels? The parking! Parking at Disney resorts can be a wonky topic. The clear-cut rule is you can park at a Disney resort if you have a hotel reservation or a dining reservation. Without one of those two things, you aren’t able to park… technically.

The Polynesian Resort Parking Lot

There have been times when security has been kind enough to let us park at places like The Boardwalk, Coronado Springs, and even the All-Star Resorts.

Disney’s BoardWalk Inn

Parking at these resorts has been a hit or miss depending on how busy Disney World is so we don’t recommend expecting to always park where you want to and that is the rule we are ready to see go away! There are so many delicious lounges and quick services around the Disney Resorts that we want to be able to park easily at the resorts, even if we aren’t a guest there.

Steakhouse 71 Lounge

Lounges and quick services don’t require a reservation which prevents us from being able to park at the resorts but, ironically, it’s also one of our favorite things about eating at those spots. It makes it convenient, easy, and flexible with your busy vacation schedule. We love that we don’t need reservations for those spots but it still leaves us with the parking issue so we’ve been cooking up some solutions we think could work. 

Three Bridges is another favorite without reservations

Our first thought is that Disney could potentially implement a charge that is erased by a receipt from a lounge or quick service. Like a validation situation! This would ensure that Disney is only letting people park for dining and not to avoid paying those hefty theme park parking fees.

Magic Kingdom parking lot

Over at the Swan and Dolphin Resorts and the new Swan Reserve hotel, they offer parking validation. These resorts are not owned by Disney so that’s why you’ll find a few operational differences. When you’re eating at these resorts’ signature dining restaurants, they will provide validation so you don’t have to pay to park. This seems like a system Disney could also utilize in a similar way so guests can park closer to lounges and quick services.

Swan and Dolphin Hotels

A second idea we have is you could potentially show that you’ve joined a waitlist through the MyDisneyExperience app before parking. Many of the lounges and quick services are a first come, first served situation with a few exceptions. We think once you get close to parking, if you can join the walkup waitlist and park at that resort it would be a nice easy way to let guests dine without too much hassle.

Topolino’s Terrace Lounge

While both of these are just ideas we’ve been workshopping, we think there could be some real promise in them. In the past, to try and “hack” parking, people started to mobile order coffee from Contempo Cafe so they could park at the Contemporary Resort and then walk to Magic Kingdom without paying the parking fees.

Contempo Cafe

Disney cracked down on who could mobile order from certain spots and stopped allowing guests to park for mobile orders due to this abuse of the system so we might just be wishing on stars for now when it comes to parking changes. All hope isn’t lost though! If you’re really wanting to head to a lounge or quick service without worrying about the parking, you can always head over to Disney Springs and hop on a bus. 

Westside Bus Loop

Disney Springs offers free parking and from there, you can hop on a bus to any Disney resort to dine on your favorite snacks. Sure, it might take double the time to get there but it cuts the stress of being turned away in half and it’s a guaranteed way to get to the resorts each time. It’s a simple hack that we have used time and time again.

Disney Bus

For now, we’ll cross our fingers and keep hoping that Disney will take our ideas so we can get a Stack Burger from Steakhouse 71 without the parking stress. Don’t forget to keep following DisneyFoodBlog for all of your Disney food hacks and secrets.

Find Out Which 3 Disney World Hotels Cracked Down on Parking

Is this an issue you’ve run into in Disney World? Tell us in the comments!