Dining and my car ?

[bobbobroberts]

3 questions about dining, thank you in advance for all assistance :

1, How far in advance can i book priority seating in WDW restaurants ?

2, Where do i leave my car if i'm dining at a resort hotel in the early morning or evening ? In the massive theme park parks, or do the hotels have their own - expensive ?

I suspect the busses / monorail might close down before my dinner does, or that wandering round those acres of tarmac at midnight might not be fun.

I would like to dine several times at the Floridian, which looks (deceptive those maps) close to MK and is accessed by monorail i think ? So does anyone have an idea how long would it take if i parked my car at the MK carpark, and monorailed to the Floridian ?

 

[vernon]

The following link should answer your PS questions http://wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/priorityseating.htm

For car parking it depends on whether you're going into the park on that particular day as well. All the hotels have their own carparks but because of people trying to use them in order to avoid paying for parking there are a number of measures different carparks take. If you're using the Contemp, the Poly or GF then you will pay the parking fee as usual, if your only eating at a WDW hotel ( or playing golf) this will be refunded from your bill ( or round of golf) but you follow a slightly different route once you've paid and can park in the hotel's carparks. The contemp tends to be more strict at the gatehouse, because they have historically had the most abuse.
If you're visiting the parks as well, IMHO you may as well just park in the main car park. Unless the parks are closing VERY early, you are unlikely to be coming out into empty car parks. If there is going to be a long difference between the park closing and you exitting dinner you can always go fetch the car and park in the hotel carpark just before you go to eat.

From the carpark to the Floridian shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes. a little dependant on tram and train timings. You need to take the RESORT Monorail, it stops at the Contemp, MK,GF,Poly and T+T.

 

[UKDEB]

We have never had any problems with parking at any of the resorts even when we've not been dining there. Obviously there are plenty of people who do try to abuse the system and you will probably find they control things more tightly duing busier times. As long as you have genuine business, though (which includes 'having a look around'), you shouldn't have any trouble. Since September 11, you do need to show photo ID. What you shouldn't do is expect to park there all day - you'll be given a 3 hour permit.

For dining at the Grand Floridian, you could park in the theme park lots if you are doing MK or Epcot as all three are on the monorail. (For MK you park at the Transportation and Ticket Center and then take the monorail or ferry to MK. Epcot has its own parking lot).

You can walk, or catch a launch, between Epcot and the Yacht & Beach Club and the BoardWalk, and between MGM and the same two resorts. For other restaurant/park combinations, personally I would drive between them, but if you are happy to use the buses you could use the theme park parking lots in the same way.

WDW transportation generally shuts down about an hour after the parks close, so if you are going at a quieter time of year when the parks close early, you could have a problem. If you are going at a peak time, when the parks close late and the transportation probably continues for longer to cope with the increase crowds, you'll be OK.