Where to get a boat into Disney parks

[wearymum73]

I have just found out about being able to travel on boats into Disney, on our first day we need to get to the visitor information points, but not into the parks, and we are not staying at at Disney hotel.
does anyone have any advice on the best scenic route that we can use to get to the parks, and the best place to park for free?

It's for the magic kingdom only afaik.
As you get there and go past where you buy the tickets, there are signs signalling which monorail goes to which parks. There is also a sign to the boats.

It takes a while especially when busy. To get everyone on and then get across but nice.

I'm not sure what you're asking.

You want to go on a boat at Disney on your first day, but you're not going into any of the parks that day?

Which visitor information point do you need to get to, and why?

Free parking is getting harder as Disney are cracking down on parking at the hotels, and are policing it more.

There are other boat trips available, eg from the Beach/Yacht Club into Hollywood Studios, or Old Key West to Disney Springs (I think - it's been a while since I stayed st OKW), as well as the ferry into Magic Kingdom

I don't know anywhere near the Disney parks you can park for free.

You pay for the car parks which are huge. Miles long. No street parking near by. Would take ages to walk from the far end of the car park. Never mind further out

You can park at the hotels, but it is getting harder. It helps if you have a reservation, but you can say that you are wanting to eat at the food court/quick service restaurant. Technically, that is just for 3 hours, but I don't think hey check as much at the moderates or value hotels. You could then hop on Disney transport bus, but it would make for a long journey in, and if rather pay the parking fee tbh.

The hotels are being cracked down on. A friend of ours was towed last January.

You'll never park for free ill be amazed if you can! Some hotels offer bus shuttles in the area but you're time restricted on those. Disney car parks are $17 a day but you can park hop with those on the day.

There's only a boat into Magic Kingdom as someone else said, or you can monorail in. It does get busy, more so when leaving the park.

Yes, the hotels are being cracked down on. I did say it was getting harder.

We had no problem parking at the Yacht and Beach club (both of them) a few weeks ago, but we had a reservation at one, and asked to go in to eat at the other. The first time, we were only there for a few hours (we walked round into Epcot for a couple of hours after lunch), the second time we were there all day (again, walked round into Eocot) but did valet park that time (we don't park at hotels to avoid parking fees, but because we want to eat there/look around etc).

We had a harder time getting into the Floridian, even though we had a reservation for breakfast, but no trouble with the Polynesian (no ADR, but evening time), the Contemporary (had ADR, and valet parked again as out all day) or Art of Animation (evening again), so it does depend.

We need to get to a visitor centre on our first day for all the group to be photographed as a member of our party has a disability pass. (Everyone needs to be photographed in the group, and we do not want to do this on our first actual park day, as we would lose the benefit of arriving early at the park for the queues)
We were hoping to take a boat from Disney springs to a park, though everything I have found is from hotels only. We can take our time I getting there, and thought it would be a nice to travel on the boat, and we heard you can travel through some resorts (wilderness?) and see more of the Disney experience, without going to the park that day.
The hotels let you stay for 3 hours, but not sure if that would be long enough, are they really towing cars?

You might be able to get DAS passes at Disney Springs. I've never tried, we have always done them in the parks. Yes, it does take up some park time, but not as much as you gain back by having a DAS.

We got ours done on our first park day, at Epcot. The park was busy (it was a Friday, on a holiday weekend), but it took no more than 15 minutes to get done (and that was including an extra query as we needed two separate DAS passes - one for each eligible child - but for them both to cover all members of the party, which needed sorting out behind the scenes). What we gained from having the DAS, even on that first day, was far more than the 15 minutes delay we had.

We had no trouble with towing cars, but there is definitely a clamp down on parking going on.

I think the 'visitor centre' you're talking about would be Guest Relations - these are actually be in the park though. I can't see the point in going all the way to a park and then leaving - it takes longer than you think to park, get to the entrance, do bag search, go through the turnstiles etc. so I think you'd be better to do it on an actual park day if you can't do it at Disney Springs. And yes - definitely no free parking.

Re. the boat, there is no direct boat from Disney Springs to a park. Here is a page with all the boat routes:

disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/water-transportation/

You can get a boat to Epcot world showcase from the Boardwalk, we normally park there , say we're having a meal then hop on a boat to see the fireworks

You can also park at downtown Disney and get a resort bus to any of the monorail resorts to get to magic kingdom, it will take a good hour though.