Best rental car in Port Canaveral? Your experience?

[flyrandy]

We are booked on a July 2015 cruise. We arrive a few days early and stay a few days after. We want to rent a car at Orlando Airport and return it in Cape Canaveral, reversing the process when we disembark.

Anyone have experience with Cape Canaveral rentals - Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, etc? I read other discussions that say some companies have long waits because they have only one or just a few shuttles, your experience???

 

[dmunsil]

They all can have issues when they're busy, and it can be smooth sailing if they're not busy. Budget and Hertz are very close to the port, Avis is just a little further down, and Alamo/National/Enterprise (they share one location) are further still. Allow extra time at peak demand periods (spring break and Christmas, mostly), and if necessary call a cab instead of using their shuttle.

Personally, I just book whichever one of the majors has the best overall price for the car I need. Very often that's Budget, but it can change.

 

[Kemette]

Does anyone know if Alamo has a shuttle to the Port? They had an amazing deal from MCO to PC so we've gone with them, but aren't sure if we need to arrange transport to PC.

 

[dmunsil]

Does anyone know if Alamo has a shuttle to the Port? They had an amazing deal from MCO to PC so we've gone with them, but aren't sure if we need to arrange transport to PC.

They do have a shuttle. Note that it's an Enterprise location. There's either no Alamo sign or a very small one, if I remember correctly.

https://www.alamo.com/en_US/car-ren...n-details/US/COIC76-cape-canaveral-alamo.html

 

[lizzyb]

We rented from Alamo from MCO to the port and it was a disaster at drop off. So disorganized and the shuttle line up was huge. We ended up just taking a cab.

 

[Zeppelin]

We rented from Alamo from MCO to the port and it was a disaster at drop off. So disorganized and the shuttle line up was huge. We ended up just taking a cab.

ditto for Budget- on three separate occasions and i'm a Budget fastbreak member for 10 years!!!

the final straw was two years ago when i was returning a car which i had pre-paid and had family members in the Budget parking lot waiting to drive us to the port rather than take the shuttle (i learned from prior experience)...Budget demanded i wait on a 40 minute line to return a car which was pre-paid and full of gas...i said "no way- i've got people outside waiting to drive us to the port"...they made all kinds of threats about how i would not be able to protest charges we may occur due to damage to the car- the car was fine...i finally handed the keys to the car to the woman outside and said "see ya!!"

car rental from MCO to the port is the cheapest but depending on the time of year (summer) and the day of your departure (weekend) it could be disastrous getting from car drop off to port..

 

[Zeppelin]

should also add the best experiences i've had was dropping the car off and taking a taxi to the port...

 

[aokeefe]

We had a great deal with Alamo too. Like other posters said, dropping off was hectic (husband dropped us off at port with luggage) and he returned car. Took awhile for him to get back- he ended up grabbing a cab. Picking the car up at disembarkation was easy though. If you allow extra time, less stress!

 

[ksh1111]

We used Hertz, it was fine. I am a Gold Member, so they email a receipt vs me needing to wait, so that may help. Disembark morning, we were on the shuttle by 730, just us and another family and on road by 8. It worked great!

 

[seacruise]

Just had a horrible experience with Alamo a couple weeks ago. Long line for the shuttle at the port (fortunately we were near the front) and an even longer line once we got to their offsite location. When I got to the counter they informed me they were out of the mini-van we reserved and that it would be an additional 45 minute wait until some got returned. Anyway, we managed to get the last small SUV on the lot and crammed everything into it. Many people were giving up and calling cabs to take them to other rental car companies.

The previous time we sailed from Port Canaveral we used Hertz and had no problem at all. Much closer to the port as well.

 

[rsjj]

I'm curious too...

 

[clten]

We typically use Budget. It was always a good experience in Port Canaveral except about 1 1/2 years ago when the port put in restrictions on the shuttles and they hadn't adjusted to it yet. There were long lines and one particular woman at Budget was very snippy with quite a number of people -- especially with those that chose to take a cab. (Don't understand why, it was their choice/mopney.) Was hesitant to do Budget again after that experience but got a good rate and decided one experience shouldn't put us off what was always been a good experience. Glad we gave it another go -- the people were friendly, the shuttle was waiting with no line, very quick process. I guess it depends on if you arrive when there are big crowds or not (so it would vary cruise by cruise) but Budget also said it's gotten a bit better with the port so things are going a bit smoother there.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

We have used Budget about 5 times now. Never a huge disaster, some positives and negatives. They never seem to have the car I reserve, but I stand firm that they upgrade me if they don't and so far I have been successful. The line at the airport is always long. When picking up at the port, we like to be in line for the shuttle by 8:00am. Usually we are around the first to be picked up, otherwise that can be a long line. The biggest positive is their price. We had rental cars for two days- before and after cruise and the total price was less than DCL transfers one way for 4 people. Lots of flexibility to visits stores and shops we like before and after the cruise. Drop off at MCO with Budget is a breeze.

 

[ajgardner]

For what it's worth...the last two times we cruised I looked at all different types of scenarios and found that it was more expensive or the same cost to rent at the airport and drop of at port and then do the reverse, then to just rent for the whole time with pick up and drop off at the airport and pay for parking at Park n Cruise. Some of the rental companies were charging $100+ fees for dropping the car off at a different location; the ones that weren't charging the fee seemed to be overall more expensive to rent from. We have had two great experiences with renting from Thrifty at the airport, using Park n Cruise and returning the car at the airport. I know it seems silly and a waste to rent a car and park it for a week, but try different scenarios to see what comes out cheaper for the time that you are cruising. Also, if you have aaa make sure you get the car rental's aaa discount, sometimes they can be really good. When we went last August we paid total of $300 for renting the car for 12 days (went to Disney before the cruise) and parking while on the cruise; in February it was about $400 to do the same, but we also upgraded to a mini-van instead of a car because we packed a little too much!
It may be worth trying to price out different companies and different scenarios just to see...