For any that are curious, here's the blurb about parking. I knew I wasn't crazy, that they clearly show you will pay parking so no one can arrive on site and say they weren't aware. Yeah, it's not till you pay but at least it is there.
You do have to click the blue "Learn More" to know the amount. It takes you to this page
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/parking/
Has anyone booked after 3/21 and had to pay the parking fee that did online checkin? How did they know you had a car to add to your folio?
Can't do it at check in. How would they know I'd have a car, or not?
But that is not accurate. You may be in your car or a rental. But you could be the passenger in an Uber or a friend’s car that isn’t staying. They should not be billing people solely on how they arrive, but on whether the car is actually present overnight.
When I was there last week I spoke with the Resort in depth about how they'll know to charge parking. Specifically addressing people who never go to the front desk, or only had a car part of the time and Uber.
At this time it is 100% on the shoulders of the Guards. The CM at the resort even said "if the guest really wanted to, they could pretend to be doing an Uber drop off and they would get around the parking fee" Though the CM did go on to talk about some of their techniques used to determine when a car has been in the lot for an extended period of time, and not one they have associated with a guest. (chalk marks on tires).
We even talked about their license plate system and the CM said they are not using that for anything other than determining cars parked in case of something happening, in the CM's example, like a car blowing up. They are not reading plates to tell how long a vehicle is parked.
The guard is the one that is supposed to check the car as it comes in and ask if they are dropping off, checking in, dining, etc. And go from there. That way, a guest who never goes to the front desk will have their car logged and a guest who arrives in a car via Uber won't get charged.
There is 1 thing I forget to ask and that is how they will know how many nights if the guest doesn't move the car after they arrive but they also don't keep the car the entire time. Say, you arrive in a rental and drop your family off, stay 1 night and then return car next day. This may be a case of you have to straighten it out at check out. There are bound to be exceptions here and there. We are back at the end of this month and I'll ask about this specific case then.
Right?! I mean, I already knew about the parking fee, and it still felt a little bait & switch-y. IDK how I'd feel as a returning Guest who didn't know about it.
At least they do make it easy to cancel without penalty if it is a deal breaker.