"Free (??)" Complimentary Parking with AAA Package no longer offered?

[Lil ole moi]

Just received our Disney paperwork today (yippee!!! ) from AAA Vacations. We are staying at POP Century. With the paperwork, I noticed on the AAA Diamond Parking voucher, in bold letters it says, "This voucher is NOT VALID for complimentary parking...". I thought parking was free when you purchased a Disney package through AAA Vacations. Am I missing something? Has this recently changed?

 

[DebbieB]

Just received our Disney paperwork today (yippee!!! ) from AAA Vacations. We are staying at POP Century. With the paperwork, I noticed on the AAA Diamond Parking voucher, in bold letters it says, "This voucher is NOT VALID for complimentary parking...". I thought parking was free when you purchased a Disney package through AAA Vacations. Am I missing something? Has this recently changed?

It was never complimentary parking with the AAA pass, you just get a preferred parking spot.

However, you do get free parking by staying at a Disney Resort. But if you stay offsite, you would have to pay for parking with the AAA pass (unless you have an AP).

 

[CareHeartsDisney]

Parking is free when you're staying at a Disney Resort. Some AAA offices provide a parking pass that only includes the preferred parking area, not free parking, to people who stay offsite as long as they purchase park tickets from AAA.

 

[moopdog]

It was never complimentary parking with the AAA pass, you just get a preferred parking spot.

However, you do get free parking by staying at a Disney Resort. But if you stay offsite, you would have to pay for parking with the AAA pass (unless you have an AP).

Is it free to park at the resort or at the parks? I am staying on site, and was thinking of getting a rental car but didn't want to pay for every single park each day.

 

[Lil ole moi]

We are staying at a Disney resort (Pop Century). So does that mean we have to have our Key to the World card ready to show to the parking attendant along with the Diamond voucher in order to get free parking?

 

[CareHeartsDisney]

We rented a car last year and only to drove to Hollywood Studios. I could be mistaken but I could have sworn that we were given something showing our resort name to put on the dashboard. So it's either you show your KTTW card or have the paper from your resort on the dashboard. Parking is free at all parks when staying onsite.

 

[Lil ole moi]

Great . Thanks!

 

[DebbieB]

Is it free to park at the resort or at the parks? I am staying on site, and was thinking of getting a rental car but didn't want to pay for every single park each day.

We are staying at a Disney resort (Pop Century). So does that mean we have to have our Key to the World card ready to show to the parking attendant along with the Diamond voucher in order to get free parking?

You get free parking at the parks if you stay onsite. They will give you a parking pass to put on your dash that shows your resort and check-out date.

Resort parking is free for everyone (except Swan/Dolphin, which are not Disney owned, charges to park in their lots).

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

The purpose of a AAA Diamond pass it to get preferred parking locations at the Disney theme park parking lots.

When booking Disney vacations through AAA, Disney theme park parking is free if you're staying at Disney resort -- because parking is free for ANYONE staying at a Disney-operated Disney resort.

When booking Disney vacations with off-site lodging through AAA, the package MIGHT include Disney parking, in which case it will be highlighted as a special feature of the package. If so, there will be some sort of parking pass separate from the AAA Diamond pass.

 

[Gorechick]

Most places on property including whatever resort you are staying at will ask to see your KTTW card in addition to having your parking pass on your dash. We had to show a KTTW card everytime we came back to POR on our trip in August.
Have it handy if you are driving.

 

[CPT Tripss]

I have never had to show my room card when returning to my resort (my most recent stay was not as recent as pp's). It is needed to open the "guest liftgate" at the guard shack. I have been asked to show my DL at other resorts, but not at parks.

 

[goofy4tink]

If you are staying onsite, you don't pay for parking at any park. You just put out the parking pass you received at your resort, when checking in, on your dashboard when heading to the parks.
If you get a AAA parking pass, you will be directed to a specific area of the parking lots..usually in the same area as the handicapped parking.

If you are not a WDW resort guest, then you will pay to park at the parks. Even if you have the AAA parking pass.

When returning to your resort, if you use the room key lane, then all you do is swipe your card, the gate goes up and off you go. But, if you don't use it, and you go through the regular lane with the security person, many times you will be asked to show your ID.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I have never had to show my room card when returning to my resort (my most recent stay was not as recent as pp's). It is needed to open the "guest liftgate" at the guard shack. I have been asked to show my DL at other resorts, but not at parks.

Perhaps it depends on the resort.

The guards at the entrance to the Boardwalk parking lot want to see a parking pass on the dashboard and a KTTW card. It's the Boardwalk parking lot, not the Epcot World Showcase parking lot. If the guards didn't carefully prevent abuse, Boardwalk guests would not be able to park, especially during Food & Wine.

I've also been at a resort where the guard waved me through, just because he could see from a distance that I had some sort of parking pass on my dashboard (not even from that resort).