Free Parking with Reservations

[MagicHappens1971]

The free parking with a resort stay, does it work as long as you have made the reservation? Because we made an spontaneous trip in between my trip tomorrow and two weeks ago, but we got free parking tapping our magicband, we are Season Passholders not AP's.

 

[stevehousse]

Don't all pass holders receive free parking? I know when u stay at a resort they give u a sheet of paper all u have to do is flash it at the guards and you are good to go.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Don't all pass holders receive free parking? I know when u stay at a resort they give u a sheet of paper all u have to do is flash it at the guards and you are good to go.

No only Annual and up. But its also linked to your magicband.

 

[Rob562]

Total speculation, but it's possible that the parking booth system isn't "smart" enough to care about specific dates of reservations. So it's possible that if the Band owner's account has *any* active reservation linked to it it'll give free access, or maybe if you're within X-number of days from the reservation you get access.

To answer without an official response from Disney would require more data points than just the one time.

-Rob

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Total speculation, but it's possible that the parking booth system isn't "smart" enough to care about specific dates of reservations. So it's possible that if the Band owner's account has *any* active reservation linked to it it'll give free access, or maybe if you're within X-number of days from the reservation you get access.

To answer without an official response from Disney would require more data points than just the one time.

-Rob

It happened twice, both while I had existing reservations, but I went late september and my reservation wasn't to late november it worked as well.

 

[Victor Kelly]

Toll booths do not scan Magic Bands. You flash the resort parking pass that they give you to go through toll booths. At the resorts they either scan your Magic Band, check a list (which isn't always right), or check your drivers license (useless as well).

So technically you can skirt the system. And I will tell you why and how, the self parking areas are for resort guests as well as day guests. When I looked, 3/4 of the cars in this lot did not display a parking pass. How or when they will crack down on this is anyone's guess.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Toll booths do not scan Magic Bands. You flash the resort parking pass that they give you to go through toll booths. At the resorts they either scan your Magic Band, check a list (which isn't always right), or check your drivers license (useless as well).

So technically you can skirt the system. And I will tell you why and how, the self parking areas are for resort guests as well as day guests. When I looked, 3/4 of the cars in this lot did not display a parking pass. How or when they will crack down on this is anyone's guess.

Toll booths do scan magicbands. At least from my experience

 

[Victor Kelly]

Toll booths do scan magicbands. At least from my experience

Nope, Guard booths at Grand Floridian and Beach club did, no other resort did. One excuse at the Poly one time was they don't use the scanner during inclement weather. Every other resort Drivers license only same as Poly.

Through the theme park toll booths we showed our parking pass issued by the resort, they waved us through.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Nope, Guard booths at Grand Floridian and Beach club did, no other resort did. One excuse at the Poly one time was they don't use the scanner during inclement weather. Every other resort Drivers license only same as Poly.

Through the theme park toll booths we showed our parking pass issued by the resort, they waved us through.

All Star's, PORS, Grand Floridian, Contemporary, ect. I promise you the(at least these) resorts scan and if you dont have your parking pass the theme park booths do as well.

 

[Victor Kelly]

You are just not getting it. I just told you what we experienced on our trip two weeks ago. What is supposed to happen and what does happen are two very different things. Especially like the night our bands did not scan at POP, and our parking pass was left in the room. Showed my license and in we went.

 

[Rob562]

You are just not getting it. I just told you what we experienced on our trip two weeks ago. What is supposed to happen and what does happen are two very different things. Especially like the night our bands did not scan at POP, and our parking pass was left in the room. Showed my license and in we went.

I think you're talking about two different things. The OP wasn't talking about getting into the hotel parking lots.

They were saying they got into the *theme park* parking lots for free using their Bands, despite only having a Seasonal Pass that does not include parking and not having a current hotel reservation (though they had one on their account for some point in the future).

When you go to get into a theme park lot, you can either a) show the printed parking pass *or* b) have them scan your Band. If you only ever showed the paper pass, that's fine. They presented their Band and were waved through. So that opens the (still unanswered) question of why they were allowed in since nothing linked to their MDE profile (pass or hotel reservation) gave them free parking *that day*.

-Rob

 

[Victor Kelly]

No problem Rob. IN short that would be an error for the toll plaza as they should not have been allowed through.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I think you're talking about two different things. The OP wasn't talking about getting into the hotel parking lots.

They were saying they got into the *theme park* parking lots for free using their Bands, despite only having a Seasonal Pass that does not include parking and not having a current hotel reservation (though they had one on their account for some point in the future).

When you go to get into a theme park lot, you can either a) show the printed parking pass *or* b) have them scan your Band. If you only ever showed the paper pass, that's fine. They presented their Band and were waved through. So that opens the (still unanswered) question of why they were allowed in since nothing linked to their MDE profile (pass or hotel reservation) gave them free parking *that day*.

-Rob

The late september trip I was referencing was a resort toll booth but it was the boardwalk and it made the same "ding" as if you were going to your resort.