Park hopping and parking

[SuperJ]

We’re doing a quick 1 day park hopper day on our next visit and staying offsite so we have to drive and park. We were planning HS and then MK. HS is only open until 9 and MK is open until 11. When we hop, we were thinking of doing something like skyliner from HS to Epcot for a stop at a food and wine booth or two and then monorailing to MK. We’ve been to the parks plenty so this isn’t a “maximize rides” situation but we do want to maximize park time rather than spending a ton of time in Disney parking lots.

Our question is, if we wind up being at MK past HS’s closing at 9 (likely), could we get back to our car at HS at the end of the night? We know Disney transport to HS won’t be running anymore but if we got a Minnie Van or Uber, could they get us into the lot to get our car? Or will it be towed at a certain point - if we end up staying until 11, we probably wouldn’t be getting back to the car until midnight-ish, which is 3 hours after HS closes. Is this doable or do we need to just move the car when we hop? If we have to just drive between parks, we will probably cut out Epcot entirely.

 

[CarolynFH]

Someone who is/was a recent Transportation CM posted recently that park to park buses keep running to closed parks for exactly this reason. So you should be able to bus back to DHS from MK.

I’ll try to find that post.

 

[CarolynFH]

Found it -

I tell people every night that I work that there is no need to immediately run to the buses when leaving the parks. Buses will run until the park is empty. Only Disney Springs stops transportation at a specified time. Also the park to park buses are running until the park closes even if the other park has closed. Disney will take you to get your vehicle if you park hopped.

 

[SuperJ]

Found it -

Ah thank you! I did search before I posted and couldn’t find an answer so I appreciate it!

 

[leebee]

Similar question... If we start at Epcot and then hop via the Skyliner to HS, will we be able to take the Skyliner back to Epcot after HS closes and then walk thru Epcot to get back to our car in the Epcot parking lot?

 

[Ross Kratter]

Similar question... If we start at Epcot and then hop via the Skyliner to HS, will we be able to take the Skyliner back to Epcot after HS closes and then walk thru Epcot to get back to our car in the Epcot parking lot?

No, you will not be able to walk through the park after it has closed for the night. There should be park-to-park buses running, though.

 

[Mle8308]

And I wouldn't always count on being able to get back to another park that is closed via WDW transportation, at least not in a timely manner. Busses are going to be focused on getting guests out of the park that is closing (in this case, the MK) and back to their resorts. They are not going to have the manpower to take two people on a bus back to DHS, at least not until most of the crowds are gone. Park at the MK, take the monorail to the CR (first stop on the resort line), then bus from there over to DHS. Or take a rideshare at the end of your MK night back to DHS. You won't find a specifically marked bus at the MK for DHS, not almost 3 hours after it closes. You would have to find a transportation coordinator and hope they can eventually arrange something.

 

[Skippyboo]

Easiest thing is to just move your car to MK. If you show parking receipt from HS , then you don’t have to pay again for parking.

If you leave your car at HS, you can take bus to boardwalk and walk back to HS if no HS buses

 

[kidnurse1137]

We did something similar to this in June and found using Uber was the easiest thing to do. We stayed at Storey Lake and the Uber wasn't expensive even when rope dropping AK. We felt we would lose too much time moving the car from one park to another, especially since we had a short trip.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Depending how early we were starting, we'd probably park at MK/TTC in the morning, walk to Poly for a bus to HS, and then use your plan coming back....... Then there would be no anxiety about getting home at the end of the night!

 

[Skippyboo]

We did something similar to this in June and found using Uber was the easiest thing to do. We stayed at Storey Lake and the Uber wasn't expensive even when rope dropping AK. We felt we would lose too much time moving the car from one park to another, especially since we had a short trip.

That would be a good idea to price out- 2 Uber trips vs parking cost especially if the offsite is close to WDW

 

[SuperJ]

Easiest thing is to just move your car to MK. If you show parking receipt from HS , then you don’t have to pay again for parking.

If you leave your car at HS, you can take bus to boardwalk and walk back to HS if no HS buses

Thanks. We know we only have to pay parking once. It was really more about trying to fit in a quick F&W booth stop, and maybe a ride on test track for one of the kids who loves it, on the way to MK because going to Epcot via moving the car makes 0 sense (in addition to the added parking lot round trip time, it would mean walking from the front to the back and then back to the front again vs skyliner to IG and then walking through to the front for monorail.). We may take the suggestion to park at MK so the car is where we end and make our way to HS, and then back via Disney transport. IF we can get up early enough to build in that time in the morning.

 

[SuperJ]

That would be a good idea to price out- 2 Uber trips vs parking cost especially if the offsite is close to WDW

We did do that and Uber is likely to be more because we would need a large Uber with 2 car seats (there’s 5 of us total) and that’s hard to come by, but thank you for the suggestion. It sounds like the solution for us will either be park at HS, skip Epcot, switch by driving to MK or park at TTC in the morning, monorail to CR, CR bus to HS, skyliner/monorail back to MK via Epcot. I’m thinking we’ll end up doing the former plan, honestly. Or one of us moves the car direct to MK while the others do Epcot. I have my doubts of making it all day, and through 3 parks, with 2 kids even with our experience at Disney and lack of need to do everything but my sister isn’t there yet. It’s the older kid’s birthday treat and I think she wants to try and figure out a way to give her every ride/park my niece wants (slinky, TSM, alien saucers, MMRR, test track, multiple MK rides) because they’ve had a bit of a rough year, especially lately. I think it’s a lot especially with the hopping time limitations still in place (we may also just switch our park res to start at MK and then go to Epcot/HS after 2 since there are fewer “must dos” for those parks and then back to MK for the car since it will still be open when HS closes). We still have a couple weeks before the trip so I’m hoping the wants and expectations will change once I explain it’s likely a bad plan to leave the car at HS if that is our first stop.

 

[SuperJ]

Easiest thing is to just move your car to MK. If you show parking receipt from HS , then you don’t have to pay again for parking.

If you leave your car at HS, you can take bus to boardwalk and walk back to HS if no HS buses

This is a good suggestion about boardwalk but I sincerely doubt I would have that much extra walking in me at the end of a long 2-3 park day.

 

[CarolynFH]

park at TTC in the morning, monorail to CR, CR bus to HS,

There’s a bus from MK to DHS as well, meaning that you could park at TTC and take ferry or Express monorail to MK, then bus to DHS. Ferry or Express monorail would be faster than Resort monorail, which stops at Poly, GF, and MK before getting to CR. If you don’t want to cross the lagoon, you can walk from TTC to Poly and catch the DHS bus from Poly.

 

[Ross Kratter]

There’s a bus from MK to DHS as well, meaning that you could park at TTC and take ferry or Express monorail to MK, then bus to DHS. Ferry or Express monorail would be faster than Resort monorail, which stops at Poly, GF, and MK before getting to CR. If you don’t want to cross the lagoon, you can walk from TTC to Poly and catch the DHS bus from Poly.

Park to park buses don’t currently start until 1:30; of course, that will change when park hopping restrictions are lifted come January 9.

 

[Skippyboo]

There’s a bus from MK to DHS as well, meaning that you could park at TTC and take ferry or Express monorail to MK, then bus to DHS. Ferry or Express monorail would be faster than Resort monorail, which stops at Poly, GF, and MK before getting to CR. If you don’t want to cross the lagoon, you can walk from TTC to Poly and catch the DHS bus from Poly.

Park to park buses don’t run until 1:30 pm w 2 pm park hopping.

 

[CarolynFH]

Oops. Forgot about the 1:30 park to park transportation start. Thanks y’all for reminding me.

So, park at TTC, walk or monorail to Poly, bus to DHS should be quickest in AM.