Considering renting a car for first time

[StAugustine]

MAKE RESERVATIONS IN ADVANCE!! Sorry to yell, but if you don't you will be in line a long time. If you reserve and are carrying on your bags you can essentially walk from the plane to your car. (If you are flying JetBlue you will fly in to Terminal C. Pack a lunch because it it a long walk.)

I always use Alamo. It costs a bit more but you can complete all the paperwork online and don't have to talk to any employees until you get to the checkout booth in the garage. Show the paperwork, your license and credit card and go.

That said, if you are not going off-property, a car service or Mears will likely be cheaper.

 

[keishashadow]

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for!!

You can easily use a 3rd party to search for & monitor rental prices for drops

I only will deal with the ones where I've set up frequent renter accounts and can go directly to aisle or assigned vehicle. No in terminal counter & no fuss

You can input your corporate codes, rental agency loyalty account info, including reward info where you want the rental credited.

I use car rental savers & auto slash. You can indicate affinity discounts (AAA, Costco, etc) to see which rates produce for you

 

[eticketplease]

I use car rental savers & auto slash. You can indicate affinity discounts (AAA, Costco, etc) to see which rates produce for you

I had only heard of Auto/ is the car rental savers any good or about the same prices as Auto/ ?

 

[EACarlson]

A couple of MCO specific points that have been brought up, but to reiterate. Only rent from the 10 companies that have their rental cars on site and get the Visitor Toll Pass. I've rented all over the country and MCO is one of the better ones as long as you follow those two things.

 

[leebee]

I had only heard of Auto/ is the car rental savers any good or about the same prices as Auto/ ?

I use both autoslash and carrentalsavers. I find it varies- sometimes AS is cheaper, sometimes CRS. I've found autoslash to be pretty annoying lately, as they list all the agencies in the area; I have to weed through Fox, Green, Ace, etc to find the "real" agencies. They've also started to offer a "pay now" option, which is always cheaper but I'm not interested. CRS makes its reservations thru priceline, but you deal directly with the rental agency. You can also choose "major agencies" as a toggle when you submit your request. It weeds out all the off-site agencies. Recently, CRS has had better rates.

 

[keishashadow]

When I play around and manually input various affinity corporate codes we quality for (they do pop up on the Car rental saver website) & coupon codes; they’ve been generally better for last two years for my needs.

Auto slash will monitor whatever rate you do find and alert if there’s been a price drop they can find. Again, they haven’t been able to beat the other agency.

 

[leebee]

When I play around and manually input various affinity corporate codes we quality for (they do pop up on the Car rental saver website) & coupon codes; they’ve been generally better for last two years for my needs.

Auto slash will monitor whatever rate you do find and alert if there’s been a price drop they can find. Again, they haven’t been able to beat the other agency.

Just for completion... AutoSlash will stalk any reservation, not just one made through them.

 

[eticketplease]

When I play around and manually input various affinity corporate codes we quality for (they do pop up on the Car rental saver website) & coupon codes; they’ve been generally better for last two years for my needs.

Auto slash will monitor whatever rate you do find and alert if there’s been a price drop they can find. Again, they haven’t been able to beat the other agency.

That is good to know because it doesn't seem like anything can come close to my companies rate with Hertz. If I can add the code to CRS that will help for sure!!

 

[Bullseye]

We first started renting during Covid and found we liked the freedom to travel off-property for meals and getting snacks for the room. We continue to rent for the same reasons. It’s relatively easy to pickup and return your rental at MCO. The only thing you’ll need to deal with is how to pay tolls. You have several options. The cheapest is to use a toll transponder. There are several available including EzPass, SunPass and Uni pass. You can also get the visitor’s toll pass at the airport. The most expensive will be to use the rental company’s pass. You can also pay cash, but some toll roads are going cashless. Beyond toll arrangements, everything else is easy as long as you’re comfortable driving in a new area. I rely on Google Maps for that.

Hey thanks for the heads up. I never heard of the visitors toll pass. I'll give it a try.

 

[jimmymc]

The big chains mostly have skip the line options at MCO, which makes pickup up the car about as fast as getting a rideshare. Pickup and return is easy, and it at least gives you the option to drive to the parks during your trip.