Any of you recent visitors know the status of the Downtown Disney Parking area? We will be in DL at the end of the month, and we have used that lot before for parking to visit Downtown Disney and the DL hotel. I remember reading somewhere that part or all of that lot was closed for construction?

Also last I was there you could get validation for I think 3 hours of parking free. Still the case?

The Main Downtown Disney parking lot (Near the ESPN Zone, Rainforest Cafe, and the Monorail Station) is still there, and still open 24 hours a day.

The first 3 hours are almost always free, and most restaurants will offer an extra 2 hours with validation. You might find different rules on New Year's Eve and July the 4th, as Disney charges to enter the lot, and does not offer free parking, since they feel the folks parking in the lots are there to watch the fireworks and not eat/shop.

The issue currently with the secondary, or overflow lot that DtD uses when it gets busy (usually weekend nights). That is located next to the Simba lot, behind the Paradise Pier Hotel. Much of that has been taken over for use by the Grand Californian Valet Parking.

What Disney has done is cut back or doesn't use the Theme Park parking of Simba, and in most cases that is enough, sometimes they take the CM section of the lot and tell the CM's (and Downtown Disney store employees) to park elsewhere, to open spaces for DtD guests.

So no real worries, the worst case, you have to walk a bit farther from the Simba lot to DtD (no tram service is offered from that lot).

Thanks Darkbeer. We ae staying close by, but we make want to make an evening trip over to DTD the day we arrive (a nonpark day for us), and we have a little one so it may be easier to drive over walking. Thanks again.