anyone have a feel for the car rental situation?

[vwlfan]

I've seen / heard some horror stories re car rentals at MCO. Prices, availability, crowds...

Has this improved at all?

 

[FCDub]

Lots of threads here in the transportation section with recent experiences. You could start by going down the list and doing some research there a while people get a chance to chime in.

 

[thewholeshabazz]

MCO is the country's busiest car rental spot. It's honestly a nightmare at times. Lines for all companies tend to be very very long. But as long as you plan ahead and book your car in advance, you shouldn't have any issues with availability. Pricing sort of is what it is. Not terrible compared to some other airports out there, because just the shear number of car rental companies drive some competition. But by no means are they cheap out of MCO.

 

[rwdavis2]

It probably won’t improve until the comapnies have more cars. Maybe the fall.

 

[gharter]

We were there in April and rented through Alamo. Super smooth and easy. At 1 pm, lots of cars available. I read a report someone posted later on the same day and Alamo had very few cars left.
Prices are way up, supply is still limited and timing seems to be everything.
Don't expect this to change for quite a while.
Car companies still can't produce the number of cars the rental companies are starting to need.

 

[EACarlson]

Car companies still can't produce the number of cars the rental companies are starting to need.

And rental fleet orders are at the back of the line. The rental companies all cancelled their orders last year, and now that manufacturers can't keep up with demand for their own dealers they aren't going to divert many of those to rental fleets.

 

[gharter]

Unfortunate, but true.
And from what I'd read, the rental companies sold off a lot of their fleet as well when everything shut down.

 

[DISNEY1975]

I reserved an SUV months ago for our trip next week. $610/week. Starting about a month ago, prices have dropped almost every day, by about $10, but some days up to $30! With one week to go, the latest price I changed it to was $358 (Hertz). Not bad considering I paid $320/wk the last time we went to Disney in 2019.

 

[DISNEY1975]

I reserved an SUV months ago for our trip next week. $610/week. Starting about a month ago, prices have dropped almost every day, by about $10, but some days up to $30! With one week to go, the latest price I changed it to was $358 (Hertz). Not bad considering I paid $320/wk the last time we went to Disney in 2019.

Just dropped again with 6 days to go! New price $313 ($45 reduced from a few day ago. $297 from when I booked around April for August) Never changed car (SUV), only modified price. Hertz.

 

[puffkin]

We had a NIGHTMARE rental experience in April. Very expensive, no cars after our late flight, had to taxi to our resort at 1am after waiting in line almost 3 hours, and rented at almost double the rate from a Disney Springs hotel the next day. Just returned from another trip last week. Prices were much better (still a little high but much closer to what we normally pay). Lines were CRAZY long at 4pm when we arrived, but I had 3 reservations and perks programs as backups and amazingly my Budget Fastbreak paperwork was in the thing at the garage and we were in our car and out of there in no time. There seemed to be plenty of cars in the garage too. So I do think things are slowly improving but it is still busy.

 

[EACarlson]

Some prices really seem to be coming down. I'm within 30 dollars of the same rental I had last year the same weekend. It started at $700 in March and now is down to just under $300.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Some prices really seem to be coming down. I'm within 30 dollars of the same rental I had last year the same weekend. It started at $700 in March and now is down to just under $300.

Me too. Just rebooked into $247 from $313 a few days ago. Started at $610 in April. Has been dropping $10 - $60 almost daily for the past month. We pick up the car in 2 days! I dont think I can get lower, but I'll keep looking!!