Help!! Transportation from Sanford???

[btcrane]

I've always flown into MCO when flying to DW, this time flying Allegiant into Sanford. I just checked online with the company I was always very happy with to shuttle us from airport to hotel and back again, but I was unhappily surprised to find the company charges twice as much to go from Sanford to Disney property!!

Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to do Mears, our flight back home doesn't leave until 8:30, so we will be spending as much of the day as possible at a park. I need to prearrange transportation to optimize our time. What's the cheapest/most reliable company?

TIA!

 

[Alesia]

You may want to consider renting a car.

 

[SheenaXena21]

You may want to consider renting a car.

I would too. A taxi will cost you $120. VS renting a car one-way $60-80 (maybe even cheaper if you get a good deal). And you can drop it off at the WDW Car Care Center (Alamo). There's one at the Swan/Dolphin too. Sanford is 45 minutes away fom WDW. That's why it costs so much to get a town car.

 

[btcrane]

Really don't want to drive if I don't have to. My sense of direction is nonexistent, of course with a GPS I'd be fine I'm sure. But I want this mother/daughter trip to be completely stress-free...

I'm thinking of taking Mears from the airport to the hotel when time doesn't matter quite so much, then having Happy Limo take us back...

 

[btcrane]

Ok, call me spoiled, I don't care, but I think I'm just going with Happy Limo round trip. It will be about $90 more than I thought I would spend on ground transportation, which is a lot of dough, but I'm not dealing with the hassle of renting a car, dropping it off, then renting another one when it's time to leave. Not when I only have four whole days in Disney. I've saved so much by staying in a value and using military discount tickets, I guess I can justify the expense. The "cheap" airline tickets don't seem so cheap now, wish I'd realized the difference in price in ground transportation way back when I booked. Oh well, live and learn.

Happy Limo has been AWESOME in the past...very dependable!

 

[SB in KY]

You could rent a car for the entire trip for less than you are paying the limo service. It is an easy drive from the sanford airport to WDW if you decide it might be nice to have a car while you are there....it is pretty much a no hassle rental location...not enough traffic through there to make lines at the rental counter.

PS...regardless of how you decide to do your ground travel I would plan on getting back to the Sanford airport at least 2 hours before your flight back....we have flown Allegiant twice now and both times we spent close to a hour in line to check in (actually last time it was slightly over an hour). Seems they load and have all their flights depart in a 2 to 3 hour window and they had like 2 or 3 people doing all of the check in... it was incredibly slow!

 

[btcrane]

You could rent a car for the entire trip for less than you are paying the limo service. It is an easy drive from the sanford airport to WDW if you decide it might be nice to have a car while you are there....it is pretty much a no hassle rental location...not enough traffic through there to make lines at the rental counter.

PS...regardless of how you decide to do your ground travel I would plan on getting back to the Sanford airport at least 2 hours before your flight back....we have flown Allegiant twice now and both times we spent close to a hour in line to check in (actually last time it was slightly over an hour). Seems they load and have all their flights depart in a 2 to 3 hour window and they had like 2 or 3 people doing all of the check in... it was incredibly slow!

Thanks for the advice! So I decided not to be such a weanie and checked into renting a car, using USAA discount rates, and the cheapest rate I could find if I kept the car for the duration was the same as what I would pay Happy Limo--$200. Now that doesn't include the tip I will give (I plan on tipping 20%) but the tip is worth the "no hassle" in my opinion. They were absolutely awesome from MCO last trip. Unless someone has a cheaper rental car rate they can clue me in on...

Also, thanks for the advice about the return flight!!!

 

[goofy4tink]

Just to let you know...it does really cost almost twice as much to go from Sanford to WDW as it does from MCO to WDW. That was my experience as well. It's always a good thing to double check how you are going to get to your destination once you land. Then decide if that cost is worth the lower airfare.
Not saying this applies to you, but something others need to keep in mind.

 

[btcrane]

Just to let you know...it does really cost almost twice as much to go from Sanford to WDW as it does from MCO to WDW. That was my experience as well. It's always a good thing to double check how you are going to get to your destination once you land. Then decide if that cost is worth the lower airfare.
Not saying this applies to you, but something others need to keep in mind.

Great advice that I will keep in mind in the future. This time, it is still cheaper to fly Allegiant and pay an extra hundred bucks for ground transportation, but it may not always be the case...even considering the ME would be free, I'm still saving money. Tickets were dirt cheap. However, in the future, I'll include the convenience of flying into MCO into the decision...