The Parking Spot: Helping Make Spring Break Travel Smooth

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Parking Spot for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Remember when spring break meant a trip with your girlfriends to a tropical location with late nights and a bit of craziness? The last time I went on a real spring break with the girls we were seniors in college, and it was a cruise. Spring break – whooo hooo!!!! Ahhhh how times have changed. That was 10+ years, 3 weddings and six children ago (not for me, for all three of us). Good times.

Spring break 2013 may not have been the wild time it was back in the day, but it was just what mom needed — a little girl time.

Somehow both of my college roommates, both native Floridians, ended up living within 30 minutes of each other in DC/Maryland in the last year. So I decided it was time for a trip north to visit my girls and meet their babies (ages 2 months and 8 months old).

Since babies fly free, I decided to take baby girl (16 months) with me. Ohhh I was nervous about traveling with a toddler.  I needed everything to go smoothly. To keep things smooth, I carefully planned every detail including coordinating flight times around nap times.

One detail I didn’t have to think about was airport parking. We always park at the same place when we fly – always. We park at the “polka dot bus place,” better known as The Parking Spot, but affectionately named by my daughter. We have parked there so many times, it is part of flying. Not only does it have the cutest buses (a perk my daughter loves), but at Orlando International Airport it is the closest parking lot (off airport property), everything is clean and things always run smoothly. Just what I needed.

Like clockwork, baby girl and I cruised into The Parking Spot an hour and half before take off. Within 10 minutes we were parked, on a bus and headed to the airport. No circling for a parking spot or wasting valuable time waiting for a bus, The Parking Spot is run like a well-oiled machine. We were pointed directly to a parking spot, and by the time the car was parked a bus was waiting behind our car. (We actually held things up getting all of our gear going!)

TIP – Whenever parking at The Parking Spot, I always take a picture of my parking spot and card. Just in case I lose the card with my parking spot number on it in my travels — it has happened before.

Another reason to love The Parking Spot — the price. Parking at the airport in Orlando is $17 per day, at The Parking Spot open air parking is $8.95 per day or $11.95 per day for covered parking. Even better, you can almost always find coupons to save even more. I regularly see coupons for The Parking Spot in the ValPack and within in-flight magazines for 20% off or a flat $7.95 per day for open air. I always save those coupons when I see them, just in case a flight comes up.

Save even more by joining the Spot Club, The Parking Spot’s rewards program, where you can earn free parking. I love being rewarded with free parking.

As an added bonus, you can even treat your car to a little TLC while you are gone by adding a detailing package to your airport parking reservations.

Luckily for me everything went smoothly on our trip — including the flight with toddler. Of course, my spring break with the girls was fantastic. It is amazing how 10 years feels like 10 minutes when you get together with good friends. The laughter and conversation picked up like we have been living together all this time. But instead of bikinis on the beach, we were three moms holding our babies — it was perfect.

The flight home wasn’t quite as smooth, with a very tired toddler on my hands I was exhausted by the time I landed. On autopilot, I made my way to The Parking Spot bus stop to wait. I was happy to see the familiar polka dots coming around the corner moments later. We were headed home. Tired and happy.

One last perk when staying at The Parking Spot. When you leave, cashiers always present you with a cold bottle of water — just what I needed!

The Parking Spot is a national chain with 34 facilities at 22 airports. Do you have The Parking Spot at the airport you travel out of most frequently? If so, check it out next time you fly for no-hassle airport parking.

Find The Parking Spot on Facebook and on Twitter.