Disney World Confirms Closing of Free Parking Loophole via New Bus & Boat Rules
Walt Disney World has confirmed permanent and expanded rules restricting the use of free transportation between Disney Springs and the resort hotels after a successful test earlier this spring. Here’s the start date for the new policy, full details, why this is happening, along with our potentially unpopular opinion that WDW should implement harsher rules of this nature.
As you might recall, Walt Disney World limited who could utilize the Disney Springs bus service bound for the resort hotels back during Spring Break and New Year’s. We visited Disney Springs on Easter and covered the then-temporary restriction at the time. It was lifted shortly after our reporting, exactly as expected.
Fast-forward a few months later, and Walt Disney World has confirmed with us that these rules are returning on a permanent basis and will soon be implemented. Not only that, but they’re going to be expanded beyond just the buses to also encompass the Sassagoula River Cruise.
There’s been a lot of pearl-clutching about this policy on social media, so we’d strongly encourage you to read the new rules before reacting. This includes who it impacts and doesn’t, why it exists in the first place, and what is not changing.
Again, our view of this restriction is positive. Perhaps you’ll disagree; that’s fine. But at least have an informed opinion as opposed to reflexively reacting to a headline. (Also, most questions you might have are answered below.)
Here’s what we know about the permanent Disney Springs transportation restrictions…
New WDW Transportation Rule Starts June 28th
Starting June 28, 2026, Walt Disney World will be restricting transportation from Disney Springs with an expanded guest ‘verification’ system.
With this new rule, Walt Disney World is limiting use of transportation from Disney Springs to the resort hotels to guests who have business to be there. Meaning they have an active reservation at a resort hotel of some sort–a hotel stay, Advance Dining Reservation, or some other booking.
The big difference now versus the previous test is that Walt Disney World has confirmed that it’s not just bus transportation that will have the restriction. Disney will also implement the same guest verification to board the Sassagoula River Cruise, which transport guests by boat to Old Key West, Saratoga Springs Resort, along with Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter.
During the previous test, Guest Relations Cast Members worked as gatekeepers to the bus loops, scanning MagicBands, Key to the World Cards, or reviewing My Disney Experience bookings to ensure eligibility. Guests who do not have a valid reason to use the transportation were politely informed that buses to resort hotels are currently only available for resort guests, and are turned away.
It’s worth noting that the reservation checkpoints are before the various sets of bus loops, and not at the specific stops. Once you’ve proven you’re an on-site guest or have an eligible reservation of some sort, you’re free to access whichever bus stop you’d like. In other words, any on-site Disney resort guest can go to any other on-site Disney resort.
That’s good news for impatient people like me, who would board the first bus bound for any Crescent Lake resort when staying at Yacht & Beach Club or BoardWalk, Art of Animation and Pop Century, etc. You’ll still be able to pick whichever bus you want.
Resort Hopping NOT Banned
Contrary to some click-baity headlines and social media claims, this rule does not end resort hopping for on-site Walt Disney World guests.
This means the restriction also does not prevent off-site Annual Passholders from resort hopping. We’ve heard from a lot of locals who are worried about this restriction, but you will still be able to park at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and take the Skyliner to Riviera Resort or walk to Crescent Lake, park at the TTC and take the monorail to Grand Floridian, etc.
The ban is aimed at those staying off-site who were attempting to exploit the free parking loophole. When it comes to visiting the resorts, Walt Disney World encourages off-site guests to park at the theme parks and then use the transportation network. Even off-site guests are still encouraged to resort hop–they just need to pay for parking first!
UPDATE: Additional Transportation Policies
Officially, Annual Passholders without the aforementioned reservations will not be eligible to board buses or boats at Disney Springs. Rather, they will be directed to park at one of the theme parks and resort hop from there.
As a reminder, all Walt Disney World APs (including the Pixie Dust, Pirate, Sorcerer, and Incredi-Pass tiers) include complimentary standard theme park parking. Annual Passholders are also eligible for free park to resort transportation.
Guests who are accessing resort transportation via an Advance Dining Reservation or other reservation (that’s not a hotel stay) will be able to access the buses and boats up to 2 hours in advance of their eligible reservation.
We are still waiting for official confirmation about any policy quirks as they relate to the Swan & Dolphin, Shades of Green, or the Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels. In light of the AP answer provided by WDW, our assumption is that there are no exceptions for any of these guests, either.
Aimed at Preserving Capacity for Paying Guests
Although not stated officially, Walt Disney World is implementing this crackdown to ensure that there’s ample transportation capacity available to guests who are staying at the resort hotels or guests who have a legitimate purpose for being there. The idea is reducing lines and wait times for the buses.
Awareness of this rule also helps increase parking availability at Disney Springs, which is actually the scarcer resource right now, although that’s part of the longer game. Even with multiple massive parking structures, Disney Springs can have limited spaces during peak periods.
The more immediate impact is shorter lines for the buses. During our visit on Easter, Disney Springs was an absolute madhouse, including the roads to get in and the parking structures. Meanwhile, the lines for the buses were virtually nonexistent. While I was waiting for my Pop Century-bound bus to arrive, I saw several parties turned away.
Closes Free Parking Hack
The reason this rule is being made permanent is to close a loophole. It’s another one of many restrictions aimed at preventing guests from taking advantage of free parking and free resort transportation.
Similarly, you can’t simply drive up to the Contemporary and park without any business for being there. Or, more recently, why even Caribbean Beach has become a “locked down” resort, when it was never that way pre-Skyliner.
There’s also the fact that bus service doesn’t go from Disney Springs to the theme parks. This is nothing new, and has the exact same underlying motivations. That reason, of course, is because parking is free at Disney Springs but costs $35 at the theme parks.
For the two decades that I’ve been active in the Walt Disney World fan community, it’s been a controversial hack to park at Downtown/Disney Springs in order to circumvent parking fees. I vividly recall the flame wars on the frontlines of the forums as people debated the ethics of this–it was right up there with reusing reusable mugs! (IYKYK.)
Prior to this crackdown, you could save money by parking your car at Disney Springs and taking a bus or boat to a resort that is close to the park you’re intending to visit, and then walking or taking another bus from there.
This was a well-known exploit ages ago, and I can only imagine how much worse it’s gotten in the social media era where every little guest courtesy is exploited and abused to the point that it becomes a problem for Disney.
Our Commentary
Our reaction to Walt Disney World making this a permanent restriction and verification system is largely the same as it was back when this was a test. The one thing we’d note is that, since this is a labor-intensive process (and thus costly for the company), that test clearly yielded positive results. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t be implementing it year-round.
While some fans have long considered this parking hack morally reprehensible, and others have recoiled at “defending” the multi-billion corporation for charging for parking in the first place or closing loopholes. I honestly couldn’t care less about the ethics of this. We’ve never recommended this not because it’s morally good or bad, but because it’s a colossal waste of time.
If you have the financial resources to visit Walt Disney World in the first place, your limited vacation time has enough value not to jump through pointless, time-consuming parking hoops. Just pay the $35 and be done with it. Alternatively, stay on-site at a Value Resort; the perks alone are worth it.
Nevertheless, when I’ve seen the social backlash to this rule, this tidbit about the free parking hack is omitted. Which is odd, because it’s entirely the point of banning off-site guests from Disney Springs transportation. That’s who is most impacted by this crackdown. Not on-site guests, not Annual Passholders, and not those with a legitimate purpose for being at one of the resort hotels.
There’s a lot of bluster about Walt Disney World being “cheap” by doing this, but that’s not my perspective. That sounds like people telling on themselves; why else would someone have a strong opinion on this unless they are trying to circumvent parking fees?
There’s no doubt other niche valid use cases, but they’re going to be rare and pretty much any valid purpose involves a reservation. Other than that, it seems like a large amount of the backlash is being driven by confusion, with Annual Passholders and other on-site guests erroneously assuming this ends resort hopping.
I’m very much a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” kind of person. As much as I dislike eBay pirates, my perspective has consistently been that Disney could shut that down in an instant if they so desired. Or that people could just stop buying overpriced junk at a colossal markup. The pirates are certainly bad, but they’re going to prosper until Disney acts or the market speaks.
It’s a similar story with circumventing parking fees. It’s stupid and a waste of time, but to each their own on that. At the same time, that “don’t hate the player, hate the game” mantra works in reverse. The player cannot hate the game when the game gets them, and closes a loophole that they’d exploited. And that’s what this is.
If you think $35 is an unreasonable price for parking and Disney is greedy or whatever, again, you have the option to stay on-site and get free parking. Or you can vote with your wallet and visit a different theme park. Universal charges $35 at the gate (or $32 in advance) for parking. SeaWorld charges $37.
I will present the flipside to this frustrating rule restricting access to buses and the Sassagoula River Cruise, which is that I’ve been in a long line for buses at Disney Springs. I’ve “missed” a bus to my resort because the line got cut in front of me. That happened while attempting to get back to the Contemporary at a time when most other bus stops had minimal lines.
As someone whose DVC dues were quite literally paying for that transportation, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little perturbed by the situation. Although it’s not as direct for other on-site guests, the same principle applies with parking and transportation being baked into room rates.
Based on reader comments to our post about Walt Disney World testing transportation restrictions earlier in 2026, I’m far from the only person who has had this frustrating experience. This happens at peak travel times, and disproportionately with resorts in close proximity to the parks. Guests staying at All Star Sports or Coronado Springs are largely not encountering this issue. It’s monorail loop, Crescent Lake, and Skyliner resorts.
In addition to transportation woes, we also had frustrating experiences with a lack of parking at Disney Springs when we were locals. This has only gotten worse, so I can’t fault Walt Disney World for wanting to limit parking to guests who actually plan on patronizing Disney Springs. I’d hazard a guess that the third party tenants are not upset about this rule.
The response from some fans is that Disney Springs should charge for parking like CityWalk at Universal Orlando or Downtown Disney at Disneyland. The distinction here is that Disney Springs is not within walking distance of parks (like CityWalk or DtD), and implementing parking fees (even with validation) would introduce needless friction that would discourage many locals from visiting Disney Springs. I’d hazard a guess that the third party tenants would not like that.
My potentially unpopular opinion is that Walt Disney World restricting access is a good thing that should happen more often.
Honestly, I don’t really think this is even a particularly unpopular opinion. It’s not well-received among a vocal minority of guests, but it’s probably not really on the radar of most tourists except to the extent that they encounter crowds and other friction.
The problem is that capacity is finite. This is pretty well understood when it comes to Walt Disney World as a whole, as opening the floodgates means higher attendance, and in turn, higher crowd levels. Nobody likes heavy crowds and long wait times, even if they may not appreciate the means to accomplishing lighter attendance.
An illustrative example of this is with the Island Tower at the Polynesian, which is home to terrace gardens with fantastic fireworks views. Because of these, elevator access requires a room key.
Those terrace gardens are incredibly low capacity, and if they were open to the public, people would loiter around in them, and paying guests with limited/valuable vacation time wouldn’t have a chance at using them.
Even though our stays at the Island Tower will be few and far between, I can recognize that as a practical reality, prime fireworks viewing in these spaces is a scarce resource that should be treated like it is–as an amenity for registered guests who are staying in the Island Tower. This is a recurrent problem not just in those terraces, but also at the beach of the Polynesian, and one that badly needs addressing.
Expensive hotels ration and reserve amenities for registered guests pretty much everywhere. I’m not sure why this concept is controversial among Walt Disney World fans. People paying Poly prices/points should have priority over visitors.
It’s a similar story with security being stringent and not allowing guests without stays or dining reservations to park at certain hotels. While there needs to be a better solution to this for locals wanting to spend money at the resorts (parking validation with minimum purchase), my general belief is that common areas of several Walt Disney World resorts are already overcrowded and those hotels need to be more restrictive, not less.
I’m not exactly sure how Walt Disney World resorts accomplish that from a practical perspective given how porous arrival points are, but it’s not unprecedented. Tokyo Disney Resort does exactly this with Toy Story Hotel and Fantasy Springs Hotel. Disneyland Paris does the same with Disneyland Hotel. It sort of happens at the Grand Californian, but only via the curb front walkway.
Locals and off-site guests have expressed annoyance at all of this, asserting that they do spend money at hotels, buying drinks at the bars, etc. I can appreciate this to an extent, and understand the frustration.
It’s an outgrowth of the infamous ‘unfavorable attendance mix’ comments the former CFO once made on an earnings call. No one who is already spending a lot of money wants to be told by Disney that, actually, they aren’t spending enough money to justify their presence in these pricey spaces.
At the same time, I’ve been around the block and have a lot of experience with Disney hotels; there’s a small minority of people who monopolize these spaces to the detriment of paying guests. The locals stopping in on occasion for a drink and to wander the grounds aren’t the issue. It’s a small handful of power users.
I’m not sure what the answer is to all of this, but space is scarce at some resort amenities and the paying guests should be prioritized and the atmosphere of those spaces preserved. I also know this is a distinctly Disney problem; it’s not something I’ve encountered at other high-end hotels in the real world.
I can understand why this is more controversial, and I’m certainly not suggesting that every Walt Disney World hotel should be on total lock-down to the point that you can’t set foot in the lobby without spending thousands per night. That’s too extreme.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are certain lobbies and lounges that are teetering on having a Starbucks vibe. As someone who has been a local on both coasts, my hope is that Disney finds a way to thread the needle and balance access.
The ‘vacation bubble’ of Walt Disney World is something special, and as Central Florida’s population continues to grow, this could turn into a bigger problem over time. That’s separate from the permanent rules on resort bound transportation from Disney Springs, though.
As for Walt Disney World restricting bus and boat access to guests with reservations at a resort, that is a net positive from my perspective. It’s good for on-site guests. It has minimal impact on Annual Passholders or even off-site guests with a valid purpose at a resort.
The majority of people it’s adversely impacting are those trying to exploit a free parking loophole. If you’ve read to this point in the post, hopefully the ‘why’ of this controversial change makes sense, or at least understand why this crackdown is happening.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on this Disney Springs boat and bus rule? What are your deep thoughts on Walt Disney World restricting access to the resorts, or otherwise allocating amenities to paying guests? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Many malls, shopping centers, convention centers, etc…have pay to park fees. For example, Providence Place Mall (near where I live) in Rhode Island charges for parking on a incremental scale. If I am not mistaken, the Pointe in Orlando also charges for parking on an incremental scale. If this was about parking at Disney Springs they could easily implement a pay to park plan. Do what most places do, first two hours free, after that charge by the hour. Disney could easily do this at Disney Springs and state anything after four hours
is $35 dollars. No more freeloading. Also, USO is free to park after 6 PM. Disney is not offering this.
I usually go to Disney once a year in May/June. But every once in awhile, we go twice, with the second time being in December. We stay in Orlando and don’t go into the parks. But we do spend a lot of money on at the Gran Floridian Cafe because we like their brunch and they do the monorail lope to see the Ginger Bread Houses, which usually leads to buying more merchandise. With this new rules, we would be limited to just the Grande Floridian. We also stay in the Swan and Dolphin in May/June. I guess resort hopping is out of the question too when we quasi staying on property.
This is a money grab by Disney. They want to force more people into their bubble and make them stay within their ecosystem. It’s crowd control by force. Call it what it is. If they are wanted to control parking at Disney Springs they could.
I think you could hop a bus from GF to mk or a monorail ride to mk then take a bus to whatever resort. I don’t see them checking resort stays to get on busses?
Do we know for sure if staying at The Swan and Dolphin will not allow us onto other resort buses or to resort hop?
The change is only for buses from Disney Springs. So you can still resort hop from the Grand Floridian or the Swan/Dolphin.
I’m curious what is fueling this change. I have a hard time believing so many people are spending so much time to avoid paying for parking at the parks but I guess it’s possible. Is it targeting AP park hopping? I suspect it may be most about freeing up parking to increase space for guests who spend money at Disney Springs.
I love getting a beignet, and still agree with this rule being implented. The boat lines have been very long lately!
…well that started out as a reply to someone else but somehow changed when I hit submit. Ah, well, my statement still stands! Beignets are awesome, but there are other ways for me to get them!
Unfortunately there aren’t other ways for people with gluten allergies to get them. Not anywhere else. And I think this could be implemented at busier times of the year instead of permanently. I can honestly say I do not visit at the busier weeks and I have never waited more than a few minutes for a boat. Nor have I been on a full boat. I really think it depends on the time of the year. When the parks and resorts are super full then I don’t have a problem but when they aren’t? There are a lot of people who use the buses or boats for reasons other than avoiding parking fees.
If the buses can scan MagicBands then I wish they would implement that for buses to leave the Parks and carry guests to Disney Springs. Many times we’ve wanted to go eat after a Park day, but we have to take a bus to the hotel then get on a different bus to go to Disney Springs. It shouldn’t be this hard with the technology that’s available to know if someone has a hotel reservation.
I’ve seen AP influencers online touting the use of “free” Deluxe resort amenities despite not staying at any of the DIsney resorts – s’mores, community halls, etc. I hope Disney cracks down on that soon too, as it truly is unfair for paying guests of that particular resort to be subsidizing everyone else’s free use. This seems to close down a legitimate loophole and should be a change for the better.
Passholders have already paid for Disney transportation. This new policy is insulting.
Well really it isn’t free – people go there to do things and buy things. It is just additional grab for money. It is terrible that resort and park guests have to pay for parking to begin with – especially if you stay at more than one resort- you double pay for parking the day you leave one resort and move to the next one. Parking should be incorporated into the tickets, food, hotels etc.
Parking is free at both the resorts and parks if you stay at a Disney resort….
My understanding is that on-site WDW hotel guests have parking included (I don’t say “free” because you’re definitely paying for it in the price of the room) right now, though it’s been separate in the past and then included again. It seems like you wouldn’t have to pay for parking at the resort hotel you’re staying overnight at then.
It’s only off-site guests who have to pay for parking. And you only have to pay parking once per day even if you move your car from one park to another.
I take strong exception to your use of the word legitimate. A legitimate reason for using the transportation other than to avoid parking fees. Since you are a local and can go to WDW whenever you please, you cannot then understand the “withdrawal” out of state WDW lovers feel. We have occassion to go to Florida but cannot go to the parks. So we spend a day at Disney Springs, ride the Monorail, and go to all the Monorail resorts and shop and eat. That day of “legitimate” use of Disney transport gives us our fix of Disney for a while until we can afford our next full vacation there. It’s a day of pure happiness for us. But according to you, you’re happy they are implementing this new rule so we can no longer have a day like that.
And what about last Christmas time when they put out the snowglobe pins that were only available AT the resorts? Should we have been required to pay to park at MK to use the transport to go to all the resorts to buy the pins? How is that fair? It’s not. It’s greedy.
People from out of state will sometimes drive out of their way from somewhere they happen to be in Florida (for some other reason) to get their Disney “fix” at Disney Springs, and may want to just hop on the Monorail for a quick spin, take a picture of the entrance to MK, or just walk through the lobby of Poly for its fantastic smell, to hold them over until their next WDW vacation.
To me, that is a legitimate reason.
If you can afford the trip to Florida, and if you can afford to buy exclusive pins…then yes, you should be able to afford the parking for one day. Or, if you are going to the resorts to eat? Then just make a reservation somewhere and you will have one of the reasons listed for visiting, and can move around freely once not at Disney Springs.
Pay $35 and park at a park and the TTC. $35 for a day of fun seems worth it?
So it isn’t worth $35 to you. This allows them to prioritize guests and still keep Disney Springs parking free for everyone.
I have a pixie dust pass… am I able to park on the weekends and use the transportation? For example, park at HS and take the skyliner to walk around the boardwalk? (I know I have free parking with my pass… just wondering if parking is free on the weekend even though my pass is not valid to enter the park on the weekend.
This is a good change! I do wish they would enforce the no parking at the Contemporary for non-resort guests. Many people are still abusing this by making reservation for breakfast at Chef Mickey’s and then walking over to MK for the day. We stay at the Contemporary frequently and parking can be hard to find during busy times of the year. The other thing I wish they would do is limit the bridge for fireworks to resort guests of Contemporary or current dining reservations only. When you pay to stay at a deluxe resort the you expect the amenities to be for the guests.
Kari, maybe it has changed, but whenever we have had a morning reservation for Chef Mickey, we were told we could leave our car there for the day. This was probably 10 to 12 years ago though.
We eat breakfast at Steakhouse 71 on our MK days. But we park way out by the guard shack where there is tons of space and our car is easier to get back to at the end of the day.
Cory L., it’s a problem that absolutely needed solving. Guests staying at POR or POFQ shouldn’t have to wait an hour so that non-resort guests can take a boat to get a beignet.
Started Disney World with our honeymoon in 1977. We were A. P. holders till they started charging for parking at any resort and haven’t been back.
They don’t charge for resort parking anymore.
They got rid of that. It was a dumb idea.
They don’t charge for parking at resorts… it’s free.
I am an out of state annual passholder, we have had annual passes for several years now. I can not begin to tell you the number of times we have driven our rental car to Disney springs and not even been able to get into the parking garage because it is full, and traffic around the area is a mad house. It didn’t matter what time of the day it was, garage was always full, and it was full because many park there early in the morning to avoid paying the parking fee and load up on resort busses. The amount of people in our resort busses who didn’t have resort reservations also often made buses overly crowded. We recently stayed at Contemporary and the crowd to get from Contemporary onto the bus to Disney Springs in the evenings especially was insanely long so much so we could not even get around them to get back into Contemporary to go to our room. And people just give dirty looks when you try to say excuse me and get through the mass crowd of folks exploiting the parking. I will never understand how bussing to the park that way and taking up valuable parking at Disney Springs was ever worth that mess to avoid $35 for parking. The only reason we elected to drive the rental car was because when we bused to DS we always had a long wait to get back and often times the bus was packed full of people, who didn’t even stay on site and we would have to wait for several buses to come before we could even make it on the bus because lines were so long. I say Thank you for finally making a change so resort guests can actually use the transportation we are paying for by paying the high room rates to stay on property. Even if we come during a discounted room rates stay, the rates we pay are still well above many other offsite rates so yes as a resort guest we should have access to transportation without all the long waits caused by others who choose to not pay to park. I get it paying sucks but when I go to other non Disney parks I have to pay to park or stay onsite at their hotels, Disney is no different.
I agree. It’s not fair to the paying guests for day trippers to crowd out everyone staying on-site. Besides, it could be worse…at Disneyland they charge $40 for theme park parking. Downtown Disney charges too. They have validation for a minimum purchase or table service meal, but lose that ticket, or if don’t have any validation and you stay all day, you’re looking at $66.
While most of your points are valid, as a Disney AP, it was nice to park and shop at Disney springs and then take a boat ride to Port Orleans riverside and get something to eat at the food court.
Also we like to listen to Bob do his thing playing the piano and the return on the later boats to Disney springs, not to say we couldn’t take the bus but so much a part of Disney is the ambience or vibe as people say now and that kind of lessens it for us taking a bus.
Pay $35, park at Epcot or HS and take a bus to POR. $35 is a small price to pay for what you get!
So if Im at a Springs hotel, will I no longer be able to hop on a boat to see Yeeha Bob at Port Orleans???
Actually, there wasn’t a 100% clear answer on that, or for the Swan and Dolphin hotel. I’d contact the hotel if you have a stay coming up soon. Though, I’d say that any of them that already get early entry and “free” Disney transportation probably won’t have any changes to that perk since it’s built in to the pricing.
Bus to a park and bus to Port Orleans.
Cyndie, even though Swan/Dolphin and Springs hotels get the early entry perk, they don’t get “free” Disney transportation from their resorts. All of those resorts have their own buses that go to the parks and the Swan and Dolphin have a bus that goes to Disney Springs. It’s well known that many people staying at the Swalphin walk over to the Boardwalk (or Yacht Club) and catch Disney transportation from there, especially to MK. For now you can still do this going to the parks or the Springs. But it sounds like you’re not going to be able to from the Springs back to the Disney-owned Crescent Lake resorts.
As someone who always stays on property, I am thrilled with this development.
I have a semi-valid reason for using the Disney Springs bus without a reservation. I am an annual passholder, but I arrive by Lynx city bus. I don’t have a car. For Magic Kingdom and EPCOT I arrive at TTC and use the monorail. For Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom I arrive at Disney Springs west, by Cirque du Soleil. Typically I walk to Saratoga Springs Resort and take the bus to those parks, but I could, and I have, walked to the Disney Springs bus terminal and used the busses there. The two options are about the same walking distance. For Disney there is no loss of income. For me I have few options for arriving at the theme parks without a car. This is a good option. I mean, it was a good option. And I can still ride the bus back to Disney Springs.
You could go to the TTC and take a bus to another park from any of the monorail loop hotels.
You could never take a bus from Disney Springs directly to a theme park. So walking to Sarasota Springs or Old Key West are still your options for a bus to a theme park.
This information has been very helpful. It is a little sad as an annual passholder that I wouldn’t be able to park at the Springs and go to a resort to grab quick service, for example. Some resorts will let you park for that reason if they have the capacity, but now the safest bet is going to be making a dining reservation if you are not staying there… I guess we will see how the consequences of this new procedure play out, and hopefully, if enough APs complain, they will modify these restrictions in the future?
As an AP holder park at a theme park and take a bus to any resort.
Ok, maybe I’m a bit dim, but is it true that, if you’re staying on-site, you can’t just go to another resort without a dinner reservation? We typically stay at Beach Club, but I like to go to Wilderness Lodge, walk around, shop in their gift shop, pick up a snack, etc. Same holds true with Poly. Can I no longer use Disney transportation or even drive in my own car to go over to Poly to just walk around and have a Dole Whip? We haven’t been there since 2018 (stayed at Beach Club) but even then the attendants at Poly were giving us grief about parking there (treated us like criminals instead of paying guests at a Deluxe Resort) when all we wanted was a Dole Whip and to walk around as we stayed there during honeymoon and wanted to soak in atmosphere many years later.
Absolutely a great point! I was thinking the same thing. We drive to Disney from NY . We can’t visit other resorts with our car regardless of staying on Disney property unless we have a reservation.
Partially true. You cannot *arrive* at a Disney resort *via car* (your own car, a rental car, Lyft/Uber/taxi) without having a reservation at that hotel. If you try to enter the Poly parking lot, but aren’t staying there and don’t have a dining reservation, the guard will turn you away.
However, anyone is welcome at any Disney hotel if they arrive via Disney transportation, or on foot. You could take a bus or boat or monorail to the Poly, or walk there from the TTC or the Grand Flo, and you won’t have any problems.
It’s not about treating you (or anyone) like a criminal. There are barely enough parking spaces at the Poly for the people actually staying there, much less dining visitors. There is definitely not enough space for every “paying guest at a Deluxe resort” that wants to stop by.
The policy changes discussed in this article have no impact on any of the above (except that someone who isn’t staying in a Disney hotel will no longer be permitted to board a Poly-bound bus at Disney Springs).
An onsite Disney resort guest can use any Disney transportation. That’s not in doubt.
You can go to WL, but not from Disney Springs. It’ll be a ‘you can’t get there from here ; you hafta start somewhere else’ situation. From Beach Club, you’d simply Skyliner to Hollywood Studios, and bus to WL from there. Everyone can go to any resort from any theme park. You just can’t park there, nor bus from DS.
@Cindy If you’re staying at Beach Club (as noted in the original comment here), you’d still be free to take a bus from Disney Springs to Wilderness Lodge, or the Poly, or to any other Disney hotel.
Andy mentioned that Lyft/Uber/taxis will be turned away if you don’t have a reservation of some type (ADR or hotel reservation), but I’ve taken Minnie Vans to a hotel without either of those and been let in. They probably count as WDW transportation and get an exemption. You’re obviously paying for those, and a premium at that, but if your time is valuable, it could be worth it. It could also be a lot less expensive than staying at a lot of on-site hotels. For what it’s worth, we’ve taken them for the efficiency and we’re willing to pay the premium because it felt like it kept us in the Disney Bubble. That was before we knew there was a possibility that a normal Lyft could have been turned away at the gate.
Knock on wood, but I’ve never been turned away arriving in a rideshare vehicle at a resort. And if they did, I would just have the driver go a bit down the road and let me out where I could walk through the parking lot away from the checkpoint and go the hotel anyway. We’ve actually had drivers drop us at the Contemporary side of the crosswalk over to MK with no issues as long as traffic wasn’t heavy. It’s no big deal since you have to go through security right there anyway.
He says that resort hoping for on-site guests is still allowed.
I’ve use the Disney Springs transportation after reading your recommendation on how to view the gingerbread houses. I also visit the resorts gift shops and non- reservation restaurants. Unfortunately now these visits can not happen. Sad as I enjoyed it. I don’t use the buses to prevent paying parking fees. I could park at one of the parks but the parking lots are insane. I totally understand to have this implemented during busy times but whenever I visited the bus lines were very short and the buses empty.
The Disney Springs parking garages are pretty insane.