Originally Posted By dagobert For the first days of our vacation we are going to rent a car. I don't know how it works at WDW, but at DLP you can't just drive to a hotel and park there. There are security check points and if you don't have a reservation you are not allowed to pass. How does that work at WDW? I'm asking because we want to go to the Boardwalk (not the hotel, the shopping/dining Boardwalk). Can we just drive to the Boardwalk hotel and tell the security that we want to do some shopping. Can we even use the hotel parking space? And I have another question regarding Universal. On our first day in Orlando we don't plan to go to any themeparks, just DTD, Boardwalk, Whole Foods etc. We also want to visit the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal and we also plan to buy the tickets for Universal. Since that will not take so much time, where's the best place to park without paying for the whole day? I guess if we park at Universal we have to pay for the whole day. Thanks a lot for your help!
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh If it's busy, they won't let you park at a hotel without a reservation, even if you are staying onsite. But in January, it generally isn't busy enough to for them to worry about that. If you are staying at another Disney hotel, you should be able to just flash your room key and say you want to go look around. That said, you might be better off parking at DHS and taking the boat to the Boardwalk. It's a bit of a walk from the Boardwalk hotel parking lot to the shops and restaurants. I haven't been to Universal enough to know where to park cheaply for only a few hours. Last time we were there we stayed onsite. But I would think that lots of people park in the lot and go to the movies or dinner at Citiwalk, so there ought to be short term rates.
Originally Posted By dagobert Thank you Douglas! Since parking is free for Disney hotel guests, we might indeed be better off with the DHS parking lot. And using the boat might be fun too. As for Universal, I guess we will pay the $15 USD for the garage. In 2008 there was a TGI Fridays near the main entrance to USO. Maybe we park there and walk to the City Walk.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros If you have a dining reservation at Boardwalk, they should let you in without any issues (assuming the lot isn't completely full). I'm pretty sure that's WDW's standard policy, but I'm not sure what they do if you don't have a reservation; I think they're fairly flexible though I know that the Boardwalk area hotels have notoriously small parking lots, so that might be difficult, but they should let you park there. Disney hotel guests get a parking pass for their own hotel and the parks, but I suspect that they also help when you're trying to get to the other hotels too. If you have trouble at Boardwalk, you could also try parking at the Yacht or Beach Clubs and walking around the lake. According to their website, Hard Rock offers free valet parking from 11am-2pm, Monday-Thursday, if that works with your schedule. Otherwise, I think you'll be stuck with the regular Universal parking fee (Florida residents get free self parking after 6pm for CityWalk, but that probably doesn't help you) <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.hardrock.com/cafes/orlando/directions/">http://www.hardrock.com/cafes/...ections/</a>
Originally Posted By dagobert Thank you Ferret! That would work. Purchasing the tickets and having a drink at the HRC won't take long. Doesn't Valet Parking mean that I have to hand over the car to an employee and he parks it for me?
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Usually, yes. Last June we stayed at CBR and our cousins stayed at Beach Club. Even with their parking pass we had to stop at the kiosk and until the attendant started recognizing us they had to check our cousins names on the resort guest lists every time we went to pick them up for the day. I also had to swipe my MagicBand each time I parked at our resort. Resort parking for non guests has gotten harder over the years without dining reservations, but you might have a decent shot at Boardwalk because of the shops, clubs and restaurants though.
Originally Posted By dagobert We reserved our car and got the smallest category. That's fine for three days. So everything is booked and in a month we will be there. I'm getting excited.
Originally Posted By dagobert That may be a stupid question, but does WDW still take Maestro cards? They are debit cards connected to your bank account. Back in 2008 it worked fine, but last year in Chicago we had some problems with our cards at some ATMs. They didn't accept the cards. At some banks it worked fine, but at others we couldn't get any money. I guess there are some US banks that just don't accept European Maestro Cards.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I've found conflicting information on this; I found some old-ish comments online that people were able to use Maestro cards at ATMs (with extra fees), but WDW's page about their ATMs doesn't include them in the list: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/atm/">http://disneyworld.disney.go.c...ces/atm/</a> If you want to link a card to your Magic Band/room key, I think it must have a credit card capability. In the US, many debit cards are linked by Visa so they can be used for things like this, but I'm not sure how it works for you guys. Once you have your Magic Band linked to a card, there's almost nowhere in WDW that you actually need cash (locker rentals may be the exception) With the huge number of European (especially British) guests that WDW gets, there must be some easy way to use European cards, but I'm not seeing anything at the moment
Originally Posted By dagobert Thanks for the answer. I was aksing, because I found the same information that you have provided in the link. I'm sure it will work fine, it did in 2008. Otherwise we have a Visa and a Mastercard. We could also get cash with these cards, but the fees are higher than with the Maestro.
Originally Posted By dagobert While I was writing my post, I did some research at my bank's service website and I found out, that everything will work fine. Cirrus is accepted and that's the US brand for Mastercard's Maestro. It's also listed on the WDW website. I guess the ATMs in Chicago couldn't handle Cirrus/Maestro cards.
Originally Posted By dagobert Finally our honeymoon is starting tomorrow. Although our flight to Orlando departes on Tuesday, we drive to Munich tomorrow after work and stay a night at the airport hotel, because it's snowing heavily and we don't want to miss our flight. Everything is packed and we are already very excited. Thanks everyone for helping to plan the trip.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>I guess the ATMs in Chicago couldn't handle Cirrus/Maestro cards.<< That's strange, since I think that nearly all US cards use Cirrus, so I would think that the whole network would be connected Have a good trip! I'll be in WDW Wednesday through Monday for the Marathon Weekend races, so I'll keep an eye out for you
Originally Posted By dagobert @ Ferret At which hotel are you staying? We stay at the POR. We will be at Universal Thursday and Friday.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros We're at Coronado Springs. We were hoping to do Riverside (as we've been there for the last 3 years), but it ended up being about $75/night more, since we got a discount through a travel agent for the races I think we're doing Animal Kingdom and Studios on Wednesday afternoon, Epcot on Thursday, Magic Kingdom on Friday, Epcot Saturday morning and Studios in the afternoon, Epcot Sunday afternoon, and something on Monday (probably Epcot)
Originally Posted By dagobert @ Ferret We will be at EPCOT on Sunday afternoon too. If you are interested in meeting two Austrians, we can meet for a beer or coffee or something else. We are currently at Atlanta airport. What happend to TSA? They are so nice and welcoming.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb I'll be there starting this weekend too! If you see a mom type hanging with a tall young man who looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo say hi. Although we're avoiding the marathon day traffic by going to Universal on Sunday, we have evening FP+s at EPCOT.
