Can anyone recommend an MCO parking lot with a charger?

[BrettS]

I’m going to be flying out for 10 days later in January to see family. The Orlando airport is about 50 miles from my house and I think I would probably be OK taking the 100 mile round trip and just parking for 10 days in the middle with my S60, but I would definitely feel more comfortable parking somewhere where I could plug in.

Is anyone aware of a good and reasonably inexpensive lot near MCO that can provide power as well?

 

[Lasttoy]

You couldn't be asking where you could leave it plugged in for 10 days?. That's not possible anywhere in the world. I seriously doubt any parking lot will let you leave next to there building for 10 days, but you should go ask. Good luck.

 

[BrettS]

You couldn't be asking where you could leave it plugged in for 10 days?. That's not possible anywhere in the world. I seriously doubt any parking lot will let you leave next to there building for 10 days, but you should go ask. Good luck.

There are definitely long term parking lots with EV chargers. Some of them let you stay plugged in the whole time and some will shuffle cars around and will plug your car in shortly before you arrive.

The ‘official’ parking garage at the airport has chargers, but it’s $17 per day to park there, so I’m hoping for a cheaper option. In my googling I found another airport long term lot called Fast Park that has chargers as well. They only want $8 per day, but I know absolutely nothing about them. Unfortunately some of the long term lots by MCO can be kind of sketchy, so I was hoping someone else had a recommendation.

I certainly wasn’t expecting to run an extension cord into their lobby.

 

[Bill33525]

How about leaving the car home and Uber it to the airport?

 

[BrettS]

How about leaving the car home and Uber it to the airport?

I considered that, but when I priced it out Uber wanted more than $75 one way for the 50 mile trip. Add tips and I’m getting close to the cost of leaving it in the airport garage at $17/day.

I’m not too worried about it, like I said, I think I will be OK without charging, so worst case I’ll park at a hotel that I’ve used before that allows long term airport parking for $6/day and hit a super charger on the way back home if I really need it.

Ideally I’ll find a decent and reasonably inexpensive lot with chargers and not have to worry about it.

 

[YellyYeti]

Here is my write-up about parking at FastPark earlier this year.

Orlando Airport (MCO) FastPark (off airport) parking/charging experience

Summary: Lot is nice and convenient, but all 8 L2 chargers were full, all 13 L1 plugs were ICE'd. I wrote an email to the manager, who responded by apologizing and stating that they would be coning off 3 of the L1 spaces at all times. I haven't been back since, but I am planning to park there on December 31st for 7 days. I will let you know what I find.

Also, sometimes when we will be gone multiple weeks, we rent a car from Avis at a hotel 2 miles from our house, and drop it off at the airport. Around $44 after taxes each way.

 

[qadaemon]

Parking garage C has 120 outlets in a few locations right by parking spots. Not sure about the others. For 10 days away I wouldn't deal with finding an L2 charger.

 

[FPLPowered]

I have been parking at Fast Park and Relax for just under three years and have not ran into the inability to charge due to ICE (although cars have parked in the spots sometimeS). Right now for the past two months, a new rear wheel drive white 75 Model S has been parking there without even opening his charge port which has been making me mad though. Only twice have I they not had chargers and that was because of me traveling for Christmas (but I drove by yesterday and saw almost all of the level 1 chargers available). I traveled 30 weeks this year and got a charge every time this year but was the first year I had to resort to level 1 chargers (which are fine since I generally travel Monday-Thursday).

You have to specifically tell the agent when you get in that you need to charge and if you have a Chargepoint card tell them you can plug yourself in. If all of the level 2 chargers are plugged in I check to see how long each of the charge sessions are, its not unusual to see 100+ hour charge sessions. If I see that I will unplug that since they are charged and after that I will unplug a Volt since they can get back. Note that the Volt car alarms go for a full minute after they unplug but they will turn off. When I get back I look for other cars that are not plugged in and will plug it into someone elses car.

 

[YellyYeti]

Just parked at FastPark for a spring break trip, most of the L2 spots were taken by various EVs, but there were at least 2 spots open. I opted to park on the side at the L1 spots (120V 20A GFCI outlets) instead. There were a few spots ICE'd, and 3 other Teslas were charging, including a Model 3! I chose the L1 partially because I wanted to leave the charge at 50% for most of the trip, then ramp up to 90% about 40 hrs before. You cannot usually do that at the L2's, as you will usually get unplugged. I think that is reasonable if it shows you are not charging. Each L1 spot has their own outlet.

The L1 outlet I was plugged in did pop the GFCI at some point, but I called the customer service number and gave them my spot number, and they hit the reset button for me. This happened last time too, while the car was not actively charging, storms maybe?

I highly recommend using these spots for longer trips, the more we use them the more awareness there will be against ICEing. There was a white Model S parked in one of the L1 spots without being plugged in when we got back, maybe they forgot their UMC.

 

[Uncle Paul]

I predict that in the future, every parking space will come with some sort of charging system. Starting off a trip with a full charge is really a great feeling.