Parking at the theme parks is not (and has never been) a member perk.Does WDW still offer free park parking for dvc members ?
Then the attendant either didn’t know what they were doing or assumed you were showing your AP card or room key indicating an on-site stay. Parking is an on-site perk, not a member perk. It’s also an AP perk.I am pretty sure I used my card on the past for parking.
How do they check the hotel reservations? Staying on site but planning to head right to the parks before check in the 1st day so won't have a hotel parking pass to display, but will have magic bands.
They’ll check the magic bands.
Very few hotels are giving paper parking passes anymore. And the ones that are sometimes don’t lol.
They’ll check the magic bands.
Very few hotels are giving paper parking passes anymore. And the ones that are sometimes don’t lol.
One of the big advantages to Magicbands to Disney, and one of the reasons they are giving out a relatively expensive piece of equipment, is that they can encode a lot of information that keeps mistakes from being made (as well as fraudulent activity). You can encode DVC resale or direct purchase information. You can encode your AP pass or DVC discounts. Now the system can determine if the band is entitled to the perk (and for some perks, looking at your picture ID might become part of it).
It used to be easy to park using an old hotel key card or an expired annual pass - or a DVC card. The parking attendants were really looking for you to flash a card - very few of them would look closely.
The key cards had expiration dates too and if ever used to gain any perk the CM's usually looked at the dates although for hotel guests they were using the paper passes - which of course could be reproduced as well should someone wish to.
A Magic band can also be handed to anyone.
They did, but they weren't scanned. And while we've seldom driven, when we have, no one ever looked at our cards or passes closely.
The magic band can be handed to anyone, but you are handing that person your credit card information as well. And when you scan the MB, you know that the stay is current.
Purchases require a pin though so it isn't exactly like handing over a credit card. One would also likely just be giving it to a close friend or family who was staying offsite as it would have to be during a time some of the party was onsite.
Just noting that all routes for verifying free parking will have gaps unless they get into photo's linked to your MB's or passes and verified against ID's.
Yeah, it will, but this makes it harder. No system is perfect, but if scanning a MB is required, parking attendants have less opportunity to wave people through who flash - well anything that looks like it might be an AP or a Disney room key.
(And parking lines get long, and it gets hot out there, and what does the attendant care if Disney puts $20 (or whatever exorbitant fee there is for parking now) into its pocket? They don't make enough to argue with guests. I suspect a lot of Disney's inconsistent application of policy comes down to "CMs don't get paid enough to argue with guests")
Here's the other kink though - attendants do still wave people thru. We had that done going into AK during October. Saw the band and waved us thru! There would be the chance that they would scan of course.