?Driving to the terminal

[SFBayDon]

Driving from WDW to the port via Budget Car Rental Office. Is it hard to find the Budget office near the ship? Also how far is it form the Budget office to the ship? I assume they have a shuttle. Let me know if you have any experience with this thanks, I am just starting to worry a little about how this will play out
Don

 

[wayneg]

We have always parked up but with increased rental costs and parking fees we are doing same as you this August.
Its really easy to find, last Easter I missed turning to the ship ended up turning round at Budget office so I know where to go in August. Try link below see if it works and shows you where the office is and where the ships are. You might have t drag the map down slightly.
And yes they run a shuttle.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...914,-80.618877&spn=0.032918,0.054932&t=h&z=14

 

[tmli]

We have done this before, it is quite simple. As you are heading down the 528 towards Port you will cross a bridge seeing the ship on your left side. From here there are signs, you want to follow the one that says A1A (it may also say Astronaut BLVD, don't remember) but in town A1A is Astronaut BLVD, the street Budget is on. Once you are in town, its a block or two on your right. There is also a RaceTrac gas station right there if you wanted to refuel. Keep your receipt just in case!

Once there you go to the counter to drop off keys, and then the shuttle is waiting. It takes you right to the terminal. After the cruise if going back to Budget the shuttle picks up at the same spot and takes you back to Budget.

 

[Capt_BJ]

directions are right

here's a tip

pull into the terminal and drop everyone and luggage off and 1 person head down the road to turn in the car and shuttle back.....less luggage hauling and shuttle hassle

 

[dizkids]

directions are right

here's a tip

pull into the terminal and drop everyone and luggage off and 1 person head down the road to turn in the car and shuttle back.....less luggage hauling and shuttle hassle

We plan on doing this too. There will be 6 of us so DH will do the drop off ; )

 

[kcashner]

The only room for "confusion" at all is the multiple names for the same street. But since there's only one street, even that is fairly easy.

 

[inkkognito]

Back when we used to rent from Budget, they didn't have their own refueling pump, and I'm guessing that's still the case. If you pick up a car there to return to Orlando, that means you have to gas it up yourself. It also means you only have to return it as full as it was when they gave it to you. Make sure they mark the correct level on your paperwork or the airport will try to make you pay the ridiculous fees to fill it. Better yet, we also used to use our digital camera to take a picture of the gauge when picking up the car. It's hard to argue with photographic proof!

 

[SFBayDon]

Thanks everyone I knew that you would help me calm down and know just how to do it. thanks DIS'ers you are great
Don

 

[kcashner]

There's a new rule with Budget--if you have a rental of less than 75 miles, there is a mandatory fill up charge but it is waived IF you can show them a gas receipt. There's a Racetrac gas station right on the same street as the Budget place in Cape Canaveral...basically next to the Budget place, by the Radisson,etc. Despite this rule on line, they were not very strict at Port Canaveral (as I said I had the receipt right here, let me get it out...she said it was fine, she didn't need to see it.) She did warn me that at the airport they would insist on seeing it.

 

[dizkids]

If i rent from Budget at MCO and leave with a full tank of gas and drive to budget at port should i just top it off at the Raceway gas before returning it? Do they charge me a full tank at MCO being its less than 75 miles?

 

[kcashner]

On the web site, it says that you will be charged $13.99 for a rental of 75 miles or less unless you present a gas receipt to prove that you filled it. I guess they were having too many people who didn't fill it but the gauge still read near full. This is as opposed to charging per gallon that they have to put in.

When I got to Cape Canaveral, they were actually charging $10.99, not $13.99. However, as I was opening my wallet to get my gas receipt, she told me not to bother--I guess the fact that I was digging for it was enough for her.

You pick up the car full; you are supposed to return it full. We stop a few blocks from the return place whenever possible (or the nearest station I'm aware of on the way to the return place.)

 

[MagicMe]

I was a little skittish about doing this but after reading this board, decided to just go ahead. Well, I picked up the car at the airport and we stayed overnight at CR (hit the MNSSHP) and left the next morning for the ship. Couldn't believe how easy it was! We all went to Budget since it was the first DCL cruise for my son and his girlfriend and I wanted to be able to see their faces when they experienced see the ship up close and going into the terminal. It was still quite easy. We dropped off the car, hopped on the shuttle and arrived at the ship (took about 15 minutes total - maybe). When they dropped us off, there were CM's right there to take our luggage and we walked directly over to the terminal and in. After we arrived back, we picked up our luggage, took it out (this is probably the only drawback as you need to walk it over to the shuttle zones) to the shuttle area, waited for the shuttle (about 5 minutes) and went back to the Budget office. It was just as easy to get back to MCO.

 

[SFBayDon]

More great inoputs fron you all.
Thanks soooo much for the help and guidance.
Don