ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando area is home to many year-round major events as well as shopping galore, theme parks, all kinds of entertainment, festivals, parks -- you name it. But with those events and attractions can come parking challenges.
"It's hell, it's bad out there," said one driver.
Everyone has done the dreaded parking lot stalk. As it turns out, that's one of the best methods to finding parking in crowded lots instead of circling, according to Christopher Newport University associate professor of psychology Andrew Velkey.
"You're probably better off staking out a little bit of territory," Velkey said. "You usually see people parking at one end of the parking aisle or the other and just sitting and waiting for people to come out and go to their car. That's probably a more successful strategy in terms of getting a parking space, but it's going to come with a significant time cost."
There are also people who skip open parking spots in order to find spaces closer to the door. Velkey said that's just a time- and fuel-waster and has no real benefit.
"Look to the periphery, park and walk in," he said.
Why do we get so frustrated? Velkey said that despite years of parking practice, we're actually pretty bad at it.
"You'll see people that are diligently looking for that really close parking space and because they're looking to their right, they'll miss one on their left," Velkey said. "Or they'll drive around for 20 minutes looking for a space right in front of the door, and then they'll brag about how close they are, not realizing how much time they wasted."
There's also an app that just debuted for The Florida Mall, Orlando Vineland Outlets and the International Premium Outlets. A certain number of spaces are reserved, and by using the free MyPark app, you can reserve a spot for $3 for up to two hours.
When it comes to parking downtown, especially for those who don't spend much time down there and don't know where to find parking, there are a number of free apps that not only show you all the surface lots and garages but also get directions and pricing. Some also come with other features, such as letting you know when your meter is about to expire. Some of those apps include BestParking, Parker, Parkmobile and SpotHero.
If you're headed to the theme parks, there's not a lot of ways to save with free parking.
At Disney, News 6 theme park expert Ken Pilcher said one of the only ways you can avoid paying for parking at the parks is if you have a reservation at one of the resort hotels. Disney is beginning to charge for parking at the resort hotels, but, Pilcher said, that fee goes on hotel bills. So if you're local and have a dinner reservation, you won't have to pay.
"You can park at the resorts and go to the parks before or after your dinner as long as it's within a reasonable amount of time," Pilcher said. "But you can't abuse the privilege. It's not like you can park at 8 in the morning, go to Magic Kingdom all day and come back and expect your car's going to be there with no trouble."
Pilcher said you can still park for free at Disney Springs, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, but he doesn't recommend those options.
"It's very inefficient because the buses take a long time to wait, load and get to wherever they're going. You're going to probably spend an hour waiting and getting to the park that you could just be enjoying the park," said Pilcher.
What he does recommend is either parking at whatever location you expect to end up in at the end of the day, or at EPCOT because it's the central-most located park.
"When you come out of the parks, you're tired. Having your car a lot closer to where you're ending up is a lot better than having to go all the way to say, the Magic Kingdom, when you're at Animal Kingdom at the end of the night," he said.
While he doesn't recommend using Disney's preferred parking because it doesn't get you much closer for the price, he said the best parking option at Universal is their valet parking.
"It's only a few dollars more than the preferred parking and you only go to the midway part and they bring your car right to you," Pilcher said.