Hi guys, getting close to my 60 days out. If I book a restaurant in a Disney Hotel, I don't have to be a resort guest do I? Also is parking at the hotel free if parking up just for the meal?
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Dining in Disney hotels if staying off site
- Thread starter mergatroid
- Start date
Yes you just have to have a reservation. You only pay for parking if you are staying at the hotel.
Thanks, good to hear.
Thanks
Not if you're staying at the hotel and have to pay to park your car overnight while day trippers get to cruise in and out as they wish without paying a cent!
It's true -- I'm still not over Macho Grande...
danyoung56
Well-Known Member
Those wounds . . . run too deep!
buckeyegator
Well-Known Member
i think there is a 3 hour time limit you can park w/o a reservation for the resort, to avoid just getting on busses to the park and no driving there, although i could be wrong.
We have gone for breakfast at the Poly and then taken the Monorail to MK for they day rather moving our car to TTC. It has never been a problem.
buckeyegator
Well-Known Member
good to know. we have a breakfast reservation at cape may, then on to epcot. how much of a walk is it to the gateway entrance?
Maybe a half mile. You'd walk farther from your car in the Epcot lot.
They actually do not check if you have a reservation, they do not have a list of reservations. Every year for decades my family would stay off site an do a monorail crawl for one day, eating at one of the hotels, then riding the monorail an visiting each hotel. One time the guard asked me if I had a reservation a couple of years ago. I was caught off guard, I lied and said I did. He then pretended to check a list, then let us in. Sometimes if a particular hotel is full, or having a convention, they may refused you entry if you do not have a reservation, otherwise they should let you in. If one of the hotel around seven seas lagoon does refuse you entry, just try another one.
Hcalvert
Well-Known Member
They do check (at least the ones I went to within the last year), particularly at the Beach Club. After scanning a magic band, the guard told us the time of our reservation and how many was in our reservation party. Maybe the guard's tablet was offline at the time when you got in. However, the MK and EPCOT resorts are particularly vigilant to hinder people from getting "free" parking at the parks. As for a time limit, we were only given one from the Beach Club (3 hours), but who knows how they check how long you are there or if they even care.
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Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Don’t know any other way to ask this: you sure you’ll be allowed to go at this point?
Hasn’t it been…like…years?
I didn't have a magic band, the same thing happened last year when we went during covid. I went to park at the Boardwalk hotel, asked if I had a reservation, lied and got in. If you don't have a magic band they have nothing to check. 99% of the time we get in without them even asking if we have a reservation, they just ask why are you visiting? We say here to eat dinner, lunch, or breakfast, and they let us in, no problems. Only very rare occasions have they even asked if we had a reservation, although in the 80's and 90's sometimes my dad would say, here to see about a room. lol
Like I said we've been going for 40 years, I think I know what I'm talking about.)
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CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
Yeah that's terrible advice and not true at all.
Archie123
Well-Known Member
Sounds like you and dad like to lie and scam. Classy.
Wow, its not scamming, they will let you in without reservations and we've been doing it for years. So many people don't even know they can do this that you get a lot of people that sound just like this. Only a handful of times did we have trouble getting in. They want people to come and spend money, but if the park lot is full you may have trouble getting in. I suppose anytime a restaurant comps parking thats a scam?
Hcalvert
Well-Known Member
They should be checking you in by viewing your ID then and then verify your reservation that way. In the past, one was able to visit a lot of the different resorts to just walk around or "view" them, but since they reopened, they have been a lot stricter (at least in my experience). When I stayed at Poly in July 2020, they scanned my magic band and checked my husband's ID to ensure that we were supposed to be there. The same happened at AKL, the Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Wilderness Lodge, which we either stayed at or had a reservation at since July 2020.
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