From “Annoying, But Fine” to “THE WORST EVER”: Ranking the Parking Lots of Disney World

If you’re planning on driving to Disney World, there’s a lot you need to know about — from the cost of parking at hotels to how to drive around the resort without getting lost to how to get to and from each theme park.

Parking can be tricky at Disney World!

And when it comes to parking lots at the parks, some are better than others. So we asked our team — who drive around Disney World almost every day — to rank all the parking lots.

Here’s how we ranked each parking lot, from worst to best.

Magic Kingdom

The parking lot at Magic Kingdom isn’t really AT Magic Kingdom, and that’s why this park comes in last in our rankings. If you drive to Magic Kingdom, you have to park at the Transportation and Ticket Center and take the Monorail or Ferry Boat to the park, and that can often be a big hassle.

Ticket and Transportation Center

And the parking lot at the TTC is massive, meaning that there’s often a long walk involved to get to and from the Monorail (especially now that trams aren’t running).

It could be a long walk to the Monorail

Also, almost all the lots here look the same and it’s very easy to lose your car. (Just in case: here are some tips if you lose your car.)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

The parking lot at Animal Kingdom is just so big, meaning that it’s also an easy location to lose your vehicle, even if you do make notes and take photos of exactly where you parked (it’s happened to us a lot).

Animal Kingdom Parking

We’ve also noticed that if you arrive earlier in the day, you end up parking further away from the entrance than if you arrive later.

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EPCOT

EPCOT has another huge parking lot, and if you’re headed to World Showcase (perhaps to check out the EPCOT Festival of the Holidays), you have a long walk through the front of the park just to get to World Showcase. Part of the problem here is just how huge EPCOT itself is. We will say that this parking lot is easy to navigate, though.

EPCOT parking lot

We do have some tips — first, if you need to put some pep in your step, there’s a Joffrey’s out front of EPCOT to get your caffeine fix. But you could also park at Hollywood Studios and take the Skyliner to EPCOT because it drops you off at International Gateway near World Showcase. This could save you a lot of steps.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Our favorite parking lot is the one at Hollywood Studios. This is the parking lot where you can see the park entrance which makes it feel like there is a lot less walking involved to get from the parking lot to the park.

Hollywood Studios parking lot

Parking here is also convenient if you want to hop on the Skyliner and head on over to EPCOT or one of the Skyliner resorts. The Skyliner station is right beside the parking lot.

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So we hope we’ve given you an idea of what to expect if you plan on driving around Disney World, and we hope our tips will help you have a good experience during your next trip. Stay tuned because we’ll continue to provide you with all the best tips and tricks to make your next Disney World vacation a magical one.

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What do you think? How would you rank the parking lots at Disney World? Let us know in the comments.

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4 Replies to “From “Annoying, But Fine” to “THE WORST EVER”: Ranking the Parking Lots of Disney World”

  1. This has to do with leaving Magic Kingdom’s parking lot. With all of the construction going on when you leave it is an accident waiting to happen. The road is not very clear as to where the lanes are. I have almost been hit several times by people not paying attention and getting in my lane. Also I don’t know why they allow the last space or two to have cars parked in them in the rows. It is very dangerous to pull out into the main isle with a car going well past the 15 MPH speed limit. You can see when a car is parked there. Disney needs to do something about this dangerous situation.

  2. Didn’t we literally just rank the parking lots like 2 weeks ago? I think you guys are starting to put out so many new articles every single day that you’re quickly running out of material to write about. I remember back in the day when Allears was lucky to get out one new article a week lol. Yep, I’ve been a daily reader for a loooong time.

  3. I’m glad the Magic Kingdom parking lot is far from the park – that’s why it’s still the most magical of all Disney parks! Walt Disney was disappointed that Disneyland was surrounded by urban blight and parking lots – so the Imagineers took full advantage of the “blessing of size” at the Florida Project and kept the Magic Kingdom free from cluster and contradictions. Their forward thinking planning surpasses the “newer” parks at Walt Disney World in so many ways.

  4. Without trams ALL of the lots are an issue to older people who are not “disabled” enough to avail themselves of a pass. This means that Disney is able to wrangle at least an additional $20 for “preferred” parking, which we had to do with our 80+ year old.