Visiting Disneyland is always an expensive proposition. You have the cost of tickets, food, hotels and any merchandise that you want to take home. But there are other things that you don’t always account for when planning your finances for a Disney trip. The cost of parking at Disneyland is a necessary expense unless you’re staying close to the park, and there may be a newly-reported cost that EV owners could have to pay, which is going to be a bit frustrating, but also isn’t that much of a surprise.
The MouseInfo Twitter account recently reported that the EV charging stations found at Disneyland Resort parking lots may have started to charge idle fees for vehicles that remain plugged in, but have reached full battery capacity. The account itself admits to some conflicting information on this topic, so it’s not entirely clear if this has already happened, is going to happen soon or isn’t a thing, but it’s certainly something that EV owners should be aware of in case it becomes important.
Seeing idle fees at Disneyland parking isn’t necessarily that much of a shock. Many EV charging stations include idle fees, as the locations are at a premium, and if somebody is parked in one and no longer paying for charging, there is probably somebody else who would like to plug in. It’s not clear who makes the money from these fees, whether it's ChargePoint, who runs the charging network, or Disneyland Resort, but one assumes that both make money from having the charging facilities on site one way or another.
The bigger issue is that for those looking to avoid these idle fees, it’s going to be a pain. Getting from anywhere inside Disneyland or Disney California Adventure back to your car is a journey. It involves first a walk out of the park and then taking a bus or a tram to get between the resort area and the parking garage or lot. It’s going to take a significant chunk out of your afternoon, and I certainly hope you weren’t standing in the middle of a long Disneyland attraction line or just about to get one of the best Disney California Adventure rides when you got the text that your car was done.
Being able to charge while parked is one of the benefits of electric vehicles, and having special parking spaces specifically for EVs can also be quite convenient, though in most cases there are more eclectic vehicles than there are charging spaces, so you have to be pretty quick to get one of the spots.
As somebody who has driven an EV to Disneyland, but usually stays at a Disneyland hotel or at least close enough to walk to the park, unless I was in desperate need of charging my car, I would likely skip the charging stalls at a Disneyland parking lot just to avoid having to move my car later. I suppose for those who do need the juice, having to move the car later isn’t that big a deal, but I’d rather spend the time that would go into traveling back to the parking lot instead having fun inside the park.
