Planning on visiting the Most Magical Place on Earth soon? There are lots of things to think about including tickets, hotels, Park Pass reservations, dining reservations, and more.

But if you’re bringing an electric vehicle, you’ll have even more to think about! Where are the charging stations? Are there any charging stations at the parks? What does it cost to charge your electric car there? Well worry no longer. Today we’re breaking down some of the top things you need to know if you’ll be bringing an electric car to Disney World!

Parking Costs

The first thing you should know about bringing any car to Disney World (including an electric car) is that you’ll have to pay for parking. If you’ll be staying at a Disney World owned and operated hotel, the parking cost varies depending on what level of hotel you’ll be staying at. Cost ranges from $15 per night to $25 per night.

If you’ll be driving your car to Disney World’s parks, there may be a parking cost associated with that too. Standard theme park parking is included for those staying at Disney Resort hotels and select Annual Passholders. If you don’t fall into one of those categories, then you’ll need to pay for parking.

Parking is $25 per day for a standard car, but it can be $40-50 for preferred parking, or $30 for oversized vehicles.

If you’ll be bringing an electric car to Disney World, just keep these parking costs in mind.

Electric Vehicle Chargers

If you’re bringing your electric car, you’ll likely want or need to charge it up during your stay. There are a number of charging stations available at Disney World’s theme parks and hotels. The majority of them are available through the ChargePoint App, though there are some that are separate and not associated with that app. Let’s go through the basics here.

ChargePoint App

If you’re bringing an electric car to Disney World, the first thing you’ll want to do (well in advance of your trip) is download the ChargePoint App. This app can help you see what charging stations are available throughout Disney World (and in other areas you might want to search).

Through this app, you’ll be able to see where charging stations are placed, and even see which ones are available.

If you notice, the charging stations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom were marked in blue and noted that they were “in use.”

But the charging stations at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge noted that they were available and were colored green.

When you find a station that is available for charging, you can then use the app to see more information about its power and cost.

The app will also show you some information about the charging station (like what it is located next to), when it was last used, and more. It even has a section on the bottom where individuals can leave tips and you can then read the tips that have been left behind.

When you arrive at the station you want, look for an empty spot.

When you find an empty spot, look for the ChargePoint box nearby (if the station you’re going to is powered through ChargePoint, which most are in Disney World). We’ll go through where the charging stations can be found in a minute.

The ChargePoint stations have information about what places are available and which are in use for charging. They also have a number that you can call for help, and buttons you can press to get information about pricing and more details.

To pay for the charging, you can hold the top of your iPhone near the reader with your finger on Touch ID.

When the station beeps, you can plug your vehicle in to get charging!

You can set up payment options through the app so you can select what option to use.

And the app can provide you with notifications about when your vehicle is fully charged, if the charging gets interrupted for some reason, and more.

If a station is unavailable, you can request to get notified once it becomes available.

You can also see popular times for the station’s use and photos submitted by users of the station and more.

Be sure to download the app ahead of time and explore it so you can be familiar with all of its facets. You’ll want to set up your account, put in the information about your vehicle, set up your payment method, select your notification settings, and more all ahead of time, so that when you arrive your charging process can be simple!

Theme Parks

There are electric vehicle charging stations at all 4 of Disney World’s theme parks. Here’s a quick break-down of where you’ll find them:

• Magic Kingdom: 5 spaces—1 space at the front of the Medical Parking Lot and 4 spaces at the front of the Zurg Parking Lot
• EPCOT: 4 spaces at the front of the Journey Parking Lot

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 4 spaces in the Medical Parking Lot

• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 4 spaces at the front of the Mickey Parking Lot

We stopped by several of these spots recently to get a look at them. We’ve shared some of the photos above and below, but here are some more photos and details. Here’s a look at the EPCOT charging area.

In this area you’ll find those ChargePoint kiosks and the things you’ll need to plug in your vehicle.

Here’s another look at the Hollywood Studios charging area, again powered by ChargePoint.

We saw several cars making use of this charging area.

As you walk by, you can see the ChargePoint kiosks and the tools you’ll need to plug in your vehicle.

And here’s a look at the charging spots at Animal Kingdom, also powered through ChargePoint.

You’ll want to look for those green or orange Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Signs.

We saw multiple cars making use of these stations as well.

Be sure to ask a Cast Member for directions to the spot upon arriving. The chargers are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To use them, Disney notes that you’ll need a credit card (you’ll set up your payment method through the ChargePoint app) or a pre-ordered ChargePoint card.

The cost Disney estimates at these stations is “$0.35 per kilowatt hour, with a minimum service amount of $1.50.” We’ll go through a bit more of the cost in a minute. Note that charging will stop once your vehicle’s battery is fully charged.

Disney Springs

There are electric vehicle charging stations at Disney Springs as well. According to Disney, there are a total of 9 spaces in Disney Springs. The spots are located as follows: 3 on the 5th floor of the Orange Garage, 3 on the 5th floor of the Lime Garage and 3 spaces on the 3rd floor of the Grapefruit Garage.

Again, Disney notes the same for the usage of these spots as is noted for the theme parks. Guests can typically use a credit card (again, you can set up the payment info through the ChargePoint app) or a pre-ordered ChargePoint card, and there are certain minimum costs. Interestingly, the Disney Springs spots did not appear on the ChargePoint app map’s view.

Hotels

When it comes to the hotels, Disney World only lists 3 hotels with charging availability — Disney’s Coronado Springs, Disney’s Riviera Resort, and Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.

When looking through the ChargePoint app, however, we did find that some other spots on Disney property (though not Disney owned-and-operated hotels) also had electric vehicle chargers. Specifically, we found chargers through ChargePoint available at:

• The Walt Disney World Swan Reserve Hotel
• The Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort

There were also ChargePoint stations at several other nearby hotels.

There were also Tesla-specific chargers at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando…

…and Shades of Green.

You can even search for electric car charging through Google Maps if you’d prefer to see it that way. The key here is to look for those chargers ahead of time so you know what is available to you.

You may also find appropriate charging outlets at other locations. When we stopped by Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa they informed us that they don’t have official ChargePoint charing stations, but their guest parking lot does have some outlets that cars can plug into. These are located at the back of the self-parking lot, near security.

Guests are responsible for bringing and using their own adapters at these spots, but there are 7 spots with the outlets available.

From what we saw, the parking spots that have these outlets near them are A 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, and 27.

If you’ll be staying at a hotel and are planning to bring an electric car, call the resort ahead of time to confirm if/where any charging stations or charging outlets are.

Cost

When it comes to cost, Disney’s website notes “The cost to charge at these stations is $0.35 per kilowatt hour, with a minimum service amount of $1.50.” When we looked at the cost for the Disney’s Hollywood Studios station, for example, the estimate was $4.62 for about 2 hours.

The pricing for the location at the Swan Reserve, however, was different. This one estimated $2.98 for 2 hours. The energy fee appeared to be $0.23 per kilowatt hour and there is a parking fee associated with the spot after charging stops. Once the charging stops, the parking fee is listed as $0.10 per hour.

The charge station at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, however, is free, but is available for guests of the resort only.

If you’re going to bring your electric car to Disney World, it’s important to do a bit of research ahead of time to see if the resort you’ll be staying at has any chargers, what they cost, and what the other chargers at the parks or other nearby areas would cost. Keep in mind that the cost for these charging stations can vary over time.

Tips

Here are a few tips and things to keep in mind if you’re planning to bring an electric car to Disney World.

Charging stations around the resort are limited. Some guests might leave their cars in the charging stations all day long, even after they’ve finished charging. Be aware that this might make availability even lower, particularly at the theme parks. There can sometimes be more availability at some of the hotels, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Be sure to factor in the added cost of charging and parking your car. Remember that you can also charge your car at other nearby locations if you should so choose.

Again, remember to download the ChargePoint app if you’ll be using the stations powered by ChargePoint. You’ll want to get everything set up in this app ahead of time so your charging process can be easy.

We’ll continue to look for more Disney World information and news and share that all with you.

Click here to see why renting a car could cost MORE than tickets to Disney World!

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Have you ever taken an electric car to Disney World before? Tell us in the comments.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Bringing an Electric Car to Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.