At Disneyland, parking can be pricy. You can park in the Simba Lot by Downtown Disney for $10 for the first hour, and then each additional hour is $14. That can add up quickly if you don’t get parking validation. You can get validation with a $20 purchase at a merchandise location in Downtown Disney that gives you an additional 3 hours beyond that first hour, or you can get validation at Downtown Disney table service restaurants that gives you an additional 5 hours beyond the first hour. Parking used to be free with validation for those periods of time, but Disney changed the rules so that you always have to pay for the first hour, even with validation.
But what if you want to go to Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, located at Disneyland Hotel? This extremely popular bar is highly themed, but it doesn’t offer any sort of validation for parking, either at Disneyland Resort or at Downtown Disney. Since the wait here can be at least an hour, you could pay a really high price to enjoy a Krakatoa at the bar.
However, a cast member just gave me a tip on a recent trip that lets you use the rules of validation at Downtown Disney to your advantage and get validated parking at Trader Sam’s in a roundabout way. The trick is simple: Go to any of the merchandise locations at Downtown Disney like World or Disney or Star Wars Trading Post. Purchase a $20 Disney Gift Card and have the cashier validate your parking to get an extra 3 hours for free. Then use the Disney Gift Card you just purchased at Trader Sam’s to pay for part of your bill. That way you can get parking validation for Downtown Disney without paying extra for merchandise you might not want.
