I asked a plaid CM this morning if parking would be validated by any of the restaurants or at WOD for buying merch. I was told that there will be no validations of any sort. My personal feeling is that charging for parking is penny wise and pound foolish on Disney's part. Yes, they'll rake in a few thousand dollars from parking but the number of guests that are dissuaded from going and spending $$ on merch and food will offset that and result in a net loss. Of course I could be wrong. I suspect that I'll go less. In that past few months I've spent close to $500 on merch... mainly for a friend, but Disney doesn't care who it's for as long as the check clears ;-).