Car Rental Help not sure this is possible

[Nana2Callie]

Planning a driving trip - 1900 miles and will rent a car. However, we are staying on property for several days and will not be needing the car. So I'm wondering is there a way I could return the car when I arrive WDW and then pick up (better yet have delivered) a car for the return trip after our week has ended. If possible I would like to avoid the rental fee and parking fee for the time we are not using the car.

 

[sam_gordon]

Planning a driving trip - 1900 miles and will rent a car. However, we are staying on property for several days and will not be needing the car. So I'm wondering is there a way I could return the car when I arrive WDW and then pick up (better yet have delivered) a car for the return trip after our week has ended. If possible I would like to avoid the rental fee and parking fee for the time we are not using the car.

Why would that not be possible? It's basically two rentals. Now, the cost may go up because you're taking a car from one state and returning it in another, but it's doable.

 

[robinb]

Planning a driving trip - 1900 miles and will rent a car. However, we are staying on property for several days and will not be needing the car. So I'm wondering is there a way I could return the car when I arrive WDW and then pick up (better yet have delivered) a car for the return trip after our week has ended. If possible I would like to avoid the rental fee and parking fee for the time we are not using the car.

It's worth running the numbers, but I think that you'll find the cost of two one-way rentals to be more expensive than paying for parking. I'm not sure how many companies deliver to WDW, but you can easily Uber/Lyft to and from offsite rental places.

 

[FCDub]

Yes, you will need to price this out, because any other-location drop-off fee (both ways!) might be more expensive than keeping the car the entire time. In fact, it probably will be.

 

[Nana2Callie]

Good points - I didn't think about the extra fees or returning out of state.

 

[StageTek]

Planning a driving trip - 1900 miles and will rent a car. However, we are staying on property for several days and will not be needing the car. So I'm wondering is there a way I could return the car when I arrive WDW and then pick up (better yet have delivered) a car for the return trip after our week has ended. If possible I would like to avoid the rental fee and parking fee for the time we are not using the car.

Absolutely possible.

As others have mentioned, one-way rentals can be very expensive. What is "several days"? Three? Five? If you're staying more than five days the price might even out. But I suspect you won't save much.

I'd love to know the numbers when you price it out. It would help a lot of people.

 

[Nana2Callie]

7 nights - I'll come back and share what I find.

 

[spiders]

One way rentals are generally very expensive and to the point where you would actually end up spending more money. If you get a very good one way rate then that's because the area that you're going to needs cars which means you going in the opposite direction will be at a significant cost.

 

[Colo17]

One way rentals within Florida don't have drop off charges - we often do Orlando to Miami or Ft Lauderdale. But between states or countries drop off can be large. For example, driving from Seattle to Vancouver was $50 last trip but return would have been $150. So as others have suggested, price it out with any parking charges from your hotel. Do note that Disney resorts charge for parking, but then you get free parking at the theme parks. We have found that for any trip longer than 4 days it is cheaper to rent one way to and from the airport than parking our car there.

 

[Lewisc]

One way rentals within Florida don't have drop off charges - we often do Orlando to Miami or Ft Lauderdale. But between states or countries drop off can be large. For example, driving from Seattle to Vancouver was $50 last trip but return would have been $150. So as others have suggested, price it out with any parking charges from your hotel. Do note that Disney resorts charge for parking, but then you get free parking at the theme parks. We have found that for any trip longer than 4 days it is cheaper to rent one way to and from the airport than parking our car there.

In reality no longer true in FL. Discounts and coupons used in renting a car may not be applicable for a one way rental with a drop off in another FL location. Car availability may change once you request a drop off at another location

 

[KittyKitty]

There is Alamo at the Car Care Center at WDW.

https://www.alamo.com/en/car-rental-locations/us/fl/orlando-walt-disney-world-car-care-07a7.html
They picked me up at Dolphin/Swan and took me there to pick up car. Maybe they can pick you up somewhere else.

This was many years ago.

 

[Leigh L]

There is Alamo at the Car Care Center at WDW.

https://www.alamo.com/en/car-rental-locations/us/fl/orlando-walt-disney-world-car-care-07a7.html
They picked me up at Dolphin/Swan and took me there to pick up car. Maybe they can pick you up somewhere else.

This was many years ago.

Car Care Center will pick or drop you off anywhere on WDW property (not sure about offsite). Last time, the driver just asked us, "Where do you want to go?" We love the service there! They have a phone number on the Disney website where you can call and make arrangements I think it's by the day before.

That being said, when I priced out one-way rentals a while back sometime during the pandemic, it was cheaper to keep it for the full week. (We ended up flying both ways though.)

 

[JimMIA]

Be sure to check multiple companies as well. I did a one-way rental in California one time (LA to SF) and the prices ranged from $0.00 extra to $400.00 extra! It was crazy and if I hadn't price shopped I would have paid way too much.

Also, don't get cute and rent for a full week and then turn the car in early. I rented for a week in DC one time, but had to fly back to Miami for an emergency, and I got charged $195 for that one-day rental.

 

[Lewisc]

Be sure to check multiple companies as well. I did a one-way rental in California one time (LA to SF) and the prices ranged from $0.00 extra to $400.00 extra! It was crazy and if I hadn't price shopped I would have paid way too much.

Also, don't get cute and rent for a full week and then turn the car in early. I rented for a week in DC one time, but had to fly back to Miami for an emergency, and I got charged $195 for that one-day rental.

Don't look at the drop fees, look at the total rental cost. Years ago I rented with a pick up in Phoenix with a return in Las Vegas. One agency didn't have a drop fee but was offering $$$$ nondiscounted rates. Another had a cap on the number of free miles. The quote with no drop fee was the highest.
I couldn't pick my car. I was assigned a car Alamo wanted to reposition. My memory is it had Nevada plates. The first car they tried to give me reeked of cigarette odor. It took a few minutes to decide what car I would get.

 

[NotUrsula]

In normal years (which this definitely is NOT), the major car rental companies offer very low rates for one-way rentals to or from Florida at certain times of year, the goal being to relocate cars to areas with high seasonal demand. This is tied to the Snowbird market, so the offers usually are to drive cars OUT of Florida in the spring, and to drive them INTO Florida in the fall; you won't see both directions offered at the same time.

DS went to college in Florida (graduated just before the pandemic), and the first couple of years when he lived on campus and still came home for summers, I used to fly down and then pick up a one-way rental to drive the both of us back to the Midwest. (We left the majority of his stuff in a climate-controlled storage unit over the summer.) Doing that with the special rate offers normally cost us $6-10/day, with no drop-off fees. (I actually usually kept the car for 2 weeks after I got it home, so that he could use mine to run around and catch up with his friends.)

Right now the rental car market is so screwed up by the pandemic that none of the usual practices can be counted on. Take the time to read the fine print on any reservation you make.