Been thinking about trying breakfast at a resort for our next trip for the experience. Especially if Epcot is only opening at 11 or 12. That would be the day in thinking would work. How is parking, we will have a rental car? Any other extra costs with not staying on site? Looking for a not too expensive breakfast.
IIRC, if you have a dining reservation, you will be able to park at the resort hotel for free for a period of (I think?) two hours. The only additional expense at that point will be whatever parking fee you pay to park at the theme park.
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Book breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno at the Boardwalk, or Ale and Compass at the Yacht Club. Then you can park there all day. Eat breakfast and walk to the park. We have been doing this for years, usually at the Wave and then walk to MK. There will be no cost.
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I think it is three hours.
BUT depending on the time of year, you might be directed to a satellite parking lot just down the street and have to walk back to the resort. It’s also likely that particularly the Epcot area resorts WILL in fact enforce their parking limits for non-guests.
I’ve had both experiences - my sister, our friends and I had to park in a satellite lot and walk to Beaches & Cream once. And when my friend and I had breakfast ADRs at Trattoria, we were allowed to park in the lot but were directed to a particular area that appeared to be for ADRs so that it could be monitored.
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Wow, these are great choices! Both look to be about the same distance to walk to the gateway. I am surprised if I could park there all day for free.
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First week of March is the plan. Usually lower crowds. We would be fine with walking extra from the satellite lot if it’s not terrible far.
They don’t care, if you have an ADR you are welcomed into the parking lot and there has never been any mention about a time limit over the years to us, despite many people claiming this is a thing. I bet we have parked at the Contemporary, Boardwalk, or Yacht Club 30-40 times over the last 6 years and stayed parked all day long, if you have an ADR you are good.
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Thank you very much! I will be checking out the menus. I’m really looking forward to this now!
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You have gotten lucky. I’ve seen tow trucks (multiple so it wasn’t just broken down cars) in the Contemporary lot.
And every time I’ve been in a car with a friend going for dining we have explicitly been told 3 hours.
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Oh I’m not concerned. If they speak of a time limit, I’ll just mention the name @Wahoohokie 
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I literally never once have been told this, nor have any of the number of Disney friends/Liners I know that do the same and have trip after trip, year after year. But I don’t ask either, maybe others are asking if it is okay to stay all day? There is no reason to ever ask that.
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I’ve never said you haven’t been told. I just said in my experience you have been lucky.
But I can say we have never asked to park for longer - we gave our name for the ADR and were directed where to park and told 3 hours.
Interesting. We always stay onsite (and have on Magic bands that they scan), so maybe it is an issue for those who aren’t staying onsite? I may need to test this theory on a future trip, though I never stay off site so not sure that will work.
Oh, I did not know you stay onsite. Do they give a parking pass to hang on your mirror? When and why would they scan your magic band?
No parking pass anymore, they scan your band when you arrive at the gates to the resort to verify your ADR. I assume they can see if you are staying onsite. If you don’t have bands they just ask for your last name and an ID.
Well, I can always drive over to Epcot and pay. It’s not a big deal to me, but it would be neat to just walk through the properties on the way over there.
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This would make sense to me–I think you may have nailed it. If you’re staying onsite, presumably you’re already paying for parking at your resort, and parking at the theme parks is free. Since some people who aren’t staying onsite might use resort parking as a way to not pay for theme park parking (which of course isn’t free for offsite folks), I can see why it would be more strictly monitored by Disney.
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We were staying on site.
I guess we just have rotten luck. Or else we actually listen to what the guard says when they let us in.
I imagine it has a lot to do with how busy they are.
With the Contemporary, for example, the lot is primarily intended for guests. If there is no risk of running out of spots for on-site guests, they probably are less likely to enforce any kind of time-limit for day guests (ADRs, etc). If, however, they are getting full, they may warn you about the time, and if you exceed the time you are at a greater risk of being towed…they need the spaces for guests!
If you are going during a time when they aren’t filling up, it might not really matter to them, even if “technically” they can enforce a time limit if they wanted to.
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