Another Rental Car Question :)

[luxlvr]

Doing Sea and Land Trip.

Thinking of doing a day rental for MCO to PC then another day rental for PC to WDW and a third for WDW to MCO again. Saving us a TON!

My question is how are the shuttles from the rental companies to the Port and the Port back to the rental company? I'm more worried about finding the shuttle on debarkation and grabbing a car ASAP to get to WDW ASAP. Is it doable to think we could get off, grab the shuttle, get the rental car and be in WDW by 10am?

{Also not part of this board but does anyone know what rental companies are like on Disney Property and how you get to those?}

TIA!!

 

[crichardson11]

I am a rental car fan. I've had great luck with Budget. We have done it on debarkation day before and been to WDW by 10.

 

[Billinaz]

Yes, we have done it. Get off early and the Budget and Avis shuttles pick you up.

We usually get a minivan for about $100 (all taxes included) or a full size car for about $40.

Its Avis for us this year. Using the discount codes online we got a much better deal than Budget.

We are just doing it in reverse than you are. One rental from MCO to WDW. Second rental WDW-the port and a third rental from the port to MCO.

The Budget is at Doubletree and Avis is at the Hilton. I have had good luck with them picking us up at a Disney hotel (they need a day notice) or using a cab.

 

[ncurley]

Make sure to check out the price of renting and dropping off in the same location, and just paying to park at the terminal. For us this was cheaper and much more convenient for a 4 night cruise. Rental cars charge significantly more when you pick up and drop off in two different locations. Parking at Port Canaveral I think cost $75 for our 4 night cruise. Gas and tolls cost about $30 or so. If you are taking a 7 day cruise you probably won't want to pay to park at the terminal, but for a 3-4 day cruise you may be better off just picking up and dropping off at the airport. I hate waiting for shuttles and buses so even if it's a little more it's worth it to me to pay to park in the terminal for the convenience factor. You probably already know this but if you are staying at a Disney hotel the parking is free at the hotels AND the parks. That is, until they decide to take away that perk to make more $...

 

[seacruise]

We have had two very different experiences the last two times we rented a car to drive from the port back to Orlando. First time, (Hertz) it went great and we were on our way in minutes and at MK by 10:00am. Last year (Alamo), it was a long wait for the shuttle, then once we got there it took an hour or more to get our car and we didn't get to Universal until after noon. Not sure which is the norm, but we are doing the Disney transfers to our resort this time so we shall see if that is any better.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have had two very different experiences the last two times we rented a car to drive from the port back to Orlando. First time, (Hertz) it went great and we were on our way in minutes and at MK by 10:00am. Last year (Alamo), it was a long wait for the shuttle, then once we got there it took an hour or more to get our car and we didn't get to Universal until after noon. Not sure which is the norm, but we are doing the Disney transfers to our resort this time so we shall see if that is any better.

Actually, the "norm" is anywhere between your two experiences. A lot depends on whether the specific rental car company you choose has a special and if there are a lot of people taking advantage of it. Or if your company isn't as popular that particular day. It's a crap shoot.

We used Avis when we went to WDW after our cruise. As we walked up to the dock where our shuttle was going to pick us up, we saw it leaving. We were told it would be 20 minutes for the next shuttle. However, there was an Avis shuttle that was had been to a different port (different cruise line) for pick up and had no one there. So they just swung by to see if there were any pick ups at DCL. We waited about 3 minutes. We got to the rental office and there was no one checking in yet (from the first shuttle), as they were all wrangling luggage and kids, so we were first at the counter. We were at Animal Kingdom by something like 9:45 that morning.

 

[Billinaz]

Make sure to check out the price of renting and dropping off in the same location, and just paying to park at the terminal. For us this was cheaper and much more convenient for a 4 night cruise. Rental cars charge significantly more when you pick up and drop off in two different locations. Parking at Port Canaveral I think cost $75 for our 4 night cruise. Gas and tolls cost about $30 or so. If you are taking a 7 day cruise you probably won't want to pay to park at the terminal, but for a 3-4 day cruise you may be better off just picking up and dropping off at the airport. I hate waiting for shuttles and buses so even if it's a little more it's worth it to me to pay to park in the terminal for the convenience factor. You probably already know this but if you are staying at a Disney hotel the parking is free at the hotels AND the parks. That is, until they decide to take away that perk to make more $...

I have not seen any large difference using Budget and Avis. A full size car will run you about $40/day. By getting two one way rentals it comes to about $80.

If you keep it for a 3 day cruise then you are paying about $120 or $160 if you came in the day before. Then add parking fees on top of that.

If you get the car from MCO you are also paying airport fees for each day.

 

[bumbershoot]

{Also not part of this board but does anyone know what rental companies are like on Disney Property and how you get to those?}

We book with Alamo or National, and tend to use the Car Care Center if we're picking up or dropping off on WDW property. You can google "car care center wdw" and get some really relevant info on the WDW site.

We've also dropped off a National car at either the Swan or Dolphin (one takes national the other takes alamo, I think).

 

[Scillycruisers]

We have just rented from WDW Car Care Centre to
Port of Miami. It was really straight forward with Alamo - just booked on line through the Alamo website. There didn't seem to be any one way charge. Pick up was real easy, just booked the free shuttle the day before and they picked up at the resort.
In the past have used both Dollar and Budget from PC, had reasonably short waits for shuttle except for once with Budget, when it took forever, then the queue at the rental place was equally slow! That's why we moved to Dollar!

 

[TeaBee]

Doing Sea and Land Trip.

Thinking of doing a day rental for MCO to PC then another day rental for PC to WDW and a third for WDW to MCO again. Saving us a TON!

My question is how are the shuttles from the rental companies to the Port and the Port back to the rental company? I'm more worried about finding the shuttle on debarkation and grabbing a car ASAP to get to WDW ASAP. Is it doable to think we could get off, grab the shuttle, get the rental car and be in WDW by 10am?

{Also not part of this board but does anyone know what rental companies are like on Disney Property and how you get to those?}

TIA!!

The car rental shuttle lines after debarkation are very well marked and really easy to find. All of the post-cruise transportation (buses, shuttles, etc.) are in the same spot, so just follow the crowd out of the terminal. Whichever rental company you go with, it would be worthwhile to sign up for their free loyalty program ahead of time. We signed up for Avis Preferred before our trip and we were taken to a separate line from everyone else at the very small rental office. We sped through the "preferred" line and were first out the door.

 

[Bluecat74]

We have found great prices on costco travel and for a well traveled cruise port, they may be regularly offering no charge for one way