We currently have a 7:55am reservation for breakfast at Ohana. What would be a reasonable time to expect to be at mk and start our touring plan? We will be staying at port orleans and plan on driving to breakfast and then monorail to park.
any advice? thanks
I don’t really know the answer to your question but just wanted to warn you. I’ve heard that you can only park at the resort for three hours with a dining reservation, any longer and you risk getting towed. I could be wrong, but it’s worth looking into.
I was under the impression if you are staying in a Disney Resort you could park at any other Disney Resort for free
It’s my understanding that as @nicolemariesmail stated, there is a time limit for the resorts. Unless you choose to pay for valet.
You can park at the theme park lots for free (I believe), but not unlimited at resorts - especially the MK resorts or the Beach Club/Yacht Club/Boardwalk area.
It would be really easy to park at ttc and just walk over to poly. Then you won’t have to worry about moving car. As someone said above, valet is also an option but of course will cost extra
We go several times a year and always park at the Contemporary when going to MK. We make an early breakfast ADR for the Wave for 1 person (which we don’t go to), and leave the car at the CR all day. Did this 3 times in October. Never any issue, they don’t tow. This rumor has been around for many years, but I have never seen a report of a towing in the 6 or so years I have been on chat/forum. You will be fine to park at the Poly and then retrieve your car after a day in the park.
Thanks for the car advice everyone. Any suggestions as to what time to start my Mk touring plan that day?
I would think 90 min for breakfast and 30 min to arrive at park and get through entrance. That should give you plenty of time and could definitely take less. When we went we were not seated right away at Ohana and then we waited for all characters to come around even though we were finished eating. So you don’t want to be rushed. You can hop on monorail but still have to go through security and the turnstiles and walk to your first attraction. Not sure about security now. They have changed how they do it since we were there. You may go thru security at the poly. Not sure
I saw 3 cars being towed from the Contemporary last Christmas! Very amusing for the large crowd of onlookers… , there wasn’t much sympathy around!
It might have been the 26th because we had a late start with Ohana breakfast. Anyway, it was 1ish and the guy in the parking lot said the cars had been parked for an early breakfast ADR at CMs, and were still there.
So it can happen, although unlikely. Personally I think it’s unfair to park at a resort you’re not staying at, it can be hard to find a space sometimes which is annoying to say the least. Either valet park or move the car afterwards. The monorail resorts plus BC tend to be the strictest for fairly obvious reasons (location and size).
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You are literally the only person I have seen say they saw towing. I don’t know how they would know who was there for breakfast versus there to go to MK? You don’t register your car when you check into your onsite resort, or need a parking pass anymore as they just scan magic band. They don’t write down your license plate number when you arrive for the ADR, so I just don’t get how they would even know?
Whether it is okay to do or not is another story, I was just reporting what we do.
Because I was curious I called Walt Disney World today and asked about transportation. If you are staying at any hotel you are allowed to park at any other hotel. There is no time limit. They of course can not say a lot would not get full.
Not saying its right or wrong. I honestly never thought about it in much detail.
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We’ve always been asked for our hire car registration details when we check in! And actually got a paper pass at BLT that visit, not at Kidani though…
Those cars could have been offsite. But the guys at the barrier were taking note of registrations. Which is how they must have known. I’ve heard of it happening at Poly too.
Probably just at really busy times. But it’s not uncommon to be turned away from a monorail resort and BC if you don’t have a reservation, seen that several times, esp BC.
Interesting. Have stayed onsite 15-20 times and never once been asked. Maybe this only happens during Christmas, we go over Easter a lot and it never happens then.
Sure, this makes sense. We always have a reservation at the Wave.
I wonder if it’s because we kind of have to check in in person? We have to collect our bands, so we always go to the front desk. So maybe they just ask because we’re there!
It just seems random to me , whether we got a parking pass or not. We technically had 4 DVC stays (BLT, Kidani, then back to BLT but for 2 lots of 3/4 nights). Why Kidani would bother I have no clue 
Know what I love? WDW consistency!! 
But my point in all this was really only to “warn” people - you just can’t tell what Disney will actually do on any given day. Don’t assume what happens one day will happen to everyone, every day.
Talk about CM inconsistency. Lol. I just called guest services and told them we were staying at AKL and had a breakfast reservation for 1900 Park Fare. I asked if we could drive and park at the GF and then take the monorail to MK, leaving our car at GF for the day. She said that they only allow parking for up to 3 hours for dining reservations. She did add that I could talk to the security in the parking lot and he may allow us to stay parked there for longer. Then she also added that it would be best to move our car to the theme park parking lot. So, who knows…you could try it, but the security guard may say no.
I think we may just park at the TTC and then go to GF from there, then from GF to MK leaving our car at the TTC. I can do that right? Would it be best to take the monorail from the TTC to the GF? Walk? Not sure how far away it is from the TTC.
So true!
Before magic bands we used to go to the desk to check in and pick up our paper parking pass, but they never asked for licence plate into. Many hotels in the US do, just never had that happen at WDW.
You could do that. It would be walkable, but a pretty long walk. I would definitely take the resort monorail. The only caveat is to try and make sure the resort monorail is actually running that morning early enough. It should be, but…
Google has it as a mile walk…
Thank you! We have breakfast reservations at 10:15 so the monorail should be running. Our plan is to have breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, do a monorail resort tour to see all the Christmas decorations, then head to MK for MVMCP.