Anyone hired a car for just a couple of days?

BudgieMama

DIS Veteran

Joined

Sep 15, 2013

• Feb 28, 2015

• #1

We're hoping to do a longer trip next time, and make a visit to US for a day or two, and possibly some other other Florida attractions. Car hire seems pretty pricey, and we liked using the Disney transport system and DME as it was all so stress free!

Has anyone hired a car for a day or two? Is there somewhere at WDW we can do that, or would we need to take a taxi offsite to get a car?

Any thoughts/tips/experiences would be useful to hear!

 

Kath2003

DIS Veteran

Joined

Feb 13, 2006

• Feb 28, 2015

• #2

You can hire a car from the WDW Car Care Centre. There's loads of info about it on the WDW website.

 

Elise79

DIS Veteran

Joined

Aug 17, 2006

• Feb 28, 2015

• #3

Alamo and National have depots at the Car care centre and they will pick you up free from your resort and drop you back when you return the car.

They are also at the Swan/Dolphin.

There are other car hire companies with places at some of the hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd which is easy to get too.

Personally we always have a car for length of stay as we find it a lot more convenient.

 

M

Minniesgal

DIS Veteran

Joined

Mar 29, 2013

• Feb 28, 2015

• #4

I have thought about it a few times but have always found it to be so much more expensive than hiring for longer we always go length of stay.

Next trip we have a three night cruise in the middle and it is working out cheaper to do a length of stay car and park it for the cruise duration. I thought I was mad until I spoke to a friend doing the same thing for a four night cruise for the same reason.

 

m1ckeymouse

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jul 22, 2008

• Mar 1, 2015

• #5

Hi Clare

We hired a car in 2013 for 3-4 days just to do Kennedy, the outlets and a water trip to Wal-Mart. It was great, I remember spending the morning at the studios then taking a boat to the Dolphin to collect the car, there was no sales pitch at all and (possibly due to not many people renting from there) we were upgraded at least 2 classes from an Aveo to a Chrysler 200. Collection and drop off were quick and easy.

We booked through Virgin holidays in the end (it doesn't matter if you are not booking anything else with them) as they seem to be cheaper for a few days than the Alamo/brits site. I seem to remember it was £68 in October half term

Hope that helps, love your trip reports!

Suzanne

 

Kath2003

DIS Veteran

Joined

Feb 13, 2006

• Mar 1, 2015

• #6

We are picking up a car for half our trip. It was considerably cheaper than renting for the whole duration.

 

DLPDreams

I am like a child in a sweet shop, hyper on sugar!

Joined

Jan 14, 2012

• Mar 1, 2015

• #7

We are renting for 4 days too (we are going for 3 weeks) as during our Universal stay (4 days) we don't need a car as won't be leaving the resort (and would have to pay to park it), and we will use WDW transport for the majority of our WDW stay. Like a pp, we are hiring a car to do DC, shopping malls etc and I've also tried to plan most of our resort ADRs for then too as that is when I think WDW transport becomes a pain and a bit strung out tbh!

However, there are 6 of us so we need a 7 seater which makes the price much higher. To hire for the duration was going to be really expensive and when there is an alternative and the car would sit in car parks most of the time, we couldn't see the point - not for us anyway. But for only 2, if you can get a small car, I shouldn't think it would break the bank to have it for a longer period.

I also agree with a pp - we found Virgin the cheapest (it's Alamo at the MK DCC site where we'll pick up), this was mainly because they were offering a free additional driver (which we wanted) plus a discount at the time we booked. But honestly, I have found that prices fluctuate with all hirer co's so it's a case of looking at your own needs and pricing at the time.

 

scoobydooby

DIS Veteran

Joined

Aug 4, 2007

• Mar 1, 2015

• #8

You need to check car hire prices daily and know when to jump ideally from experience. Prices fluctuate wildly and I do mean wildly. We have paid about £550 for a 7 seater SUV (not a minivan I hate those), full insurance and three free drivers for 19 days in August. Today the same car from the same dealer is a whopping £850 MORE....... Patience and research is your friend here. Now I booked this really early but have had equal luck booking really late. That's a gamble of course. I would keep checking daily for the moment if I was you.

 

bex7583

DIS Veteran

Joined

Feb 29, 2012

• Mar 2, 2015

• #9

yes the disney car center was handy we picked ours up there too and we also rented a sat nav from a ebay seller for about £21 for3 week , we told him where we wanted to go in the car and he even pre programmed it with the addresses for us

 

dixonsontour

DIS Veteran

Joined

Apr 14, 2008

• Mar 2, 2015

• #10

We hired from Disney car care centre for 2 weekends one holiday (normally have car all the time)

Alamo are onsite at Disney car care centre near MK. Try Alamo brits for rates.

They will collect you from your hotel in a shuttle bus (call 1 hour ahead) to collect the car. In reverse they will drop you off at your hotel or a park.

 

S

Sarah84

DIS Veteran

Joined

Aug 6, 2008

• Mar 3, 2015

• #11

We've done it a few times, last year for 24hours so we could drive to PC for our cruise and it cost less than £50 and picked up from Budget at a hotel about 5 minutes in a taxi from DTD, then when we returned we hired another for 2 days for about £70.
Also picked car up from Disney car centre back in 2012 which was very easy to do and will probably use them again for a day or 2 car hire this year