Driving from MCO to WDW - cashless tolls?

[Barbi]

Heading down in December, not sure which resort yet. I'm renting a car at the airport, keep hearing about cashless tolls, is this something I need to worry about? Do I need a Sun Pass (or whatever it's called)? Thanks!!

 

[Capt_BJ]

you can pay cash

bring a roll of quarters and you'll be fine

 

[wilkeliza]

Heading down in December, not sure which resort yet. I'm renting a car at the airport, keep hearing about cashless tolls, is this something I need to worry about? Do I need a Sun Pass (or whatever it's called)? Thanks!!

No cashless tolls between MCO and Disney but if you plan on driving off site there can be cashless tolls. Depending on how much you are driving off property Sunpass is usually $8 more a day. I now tend to get it wven though I know Orlando and FL toll roads very well simply because I had to go through a broken toll booth once. $51.50 later thanks to fees from the rental car company and I was pretty pissed and now just do Sunpass even if I dont forsee myself needing it.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

The cashless tolls between MCO and WDW are optional. Regardless of whether you use the northern route (528 to I-4) or the southern route (417 to exit 6), there are "Change-Receipt" toll booths available. (You don't need to bring quarters; dollar bills from your wallet are fine.) This will avoid any rental car toll service charge. If your rental car company requires "opt in" or "opt out," you can safely opt out.

Just pay attention. The cash toll lanes can look somewhat like highway exits, so they're easy to overlook if you don't expect an exit for many miles.

There are no tolls along I-4, so, once you're in the tourist corridor, you can visit WDW, SeaWorld, Universal, and popular shopping destinations without tolls.

 

[Hisgirl]

We went to Orlando four times over the past 10 months and twice now we have received tickets in the mail after we came home!

We drove with eagle eyes, watching the tolls, reading the signs out loud to ensure we were making the right choice. This past trip we congratulated ourselves on doing it correctly and darned if we didn't get a ticket again!!

We're going back in 3 weeks and honestly, we're not sure what we're doing wrong but we'll be talking to the rental folks a bit more this time.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

We went to Orlando four times over the past 10 months and twice now we have received tickets in the mail after we came home!

There are two tolls in either direction, both on the northern route (528 to I-4) and the southern route (417 to exit 6).

Go through the "Change-Receipt" toll booths and ask for a receipt each time. If you don't get two receipts in each direction, it means you overlooked a toll.

Toll plazas don't look the way they did in the past -- a series of booths across the entire road. Now they look like an overhead sign above most of the road (with traffic going at freeway speed), with an exit to the right for drivers who aren't using a transponder (or a toll-by-plate service).

Keep the four receipts in your wallet for a month or so. I've never needed them, but I've been ready to prove I paid.

 

[nacho113]

Toll plazas can be a little deceiving for the uninitiated.
They are well signed as you approach, but you have to exit off the main road to go through the toll plaza and pay the toll. After paying the toll you filter back onto the highway again. They almost look like a freeway exit or rest area entrance, but you can see the toll booths alongside the main roadway.
If by chance you missed the signs/exit, you stay on the highway and pass under the Sunpass signs, at this point you generate a cashless toll for which you will be billed through your rental car company (plus the applicable admin charge).

If you find yourself on a toll road in the Orlando area, almost all have the option to pull through the toll plaza and pay the toll. There are a few of the less traveled routes that are unmanned but still have an exact change booth where you toss the correct change for the toll in the basket and when the toll registers, the light will turn green and you can proceed. (make sure you wait for the green light, jumping the gun or having a damaged or foreign coin that doesn't register will cause a toll by plate fine to be sent out. wait for the green / add more coins as required).
There is only one exit (that I know of anyway) in the Orlando area that is cashless (Sunpass only) and this is on SR528 southbound, I believe exit 255 (its well signed as Sunpass only) Exit 254, 1 mile up is a regular exit so its easy to avoid. If anyone knows of any more Sunpass only exits, feel free to add them to help other travelers.

******
Now don't get me started on the Miami area! We've been caught off guard there several times as there are lots of cashless lanes down there. Some are even unavoidable! Definitely worth purchasing a Sunpass transponder if you plan on visiting the Miami area for any length of time

 

[MillauFr]

I just got a SunPass transponder online for $4.99. Worked great. No worrying about tolls or quarters. No worrying about tolls and it provided great piece of mind.

 

[Barbi]

Thanks everyone for the great advise!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I"m currently looking for my own pictures of the toll situations, but photobucket is giving me problems right now.

In the meantime, I googled "orlando area tolls" and went to images.

I do not know how they could make it simpler. Then again, sometimes simple things make me very confused, so I know perfectly well that our brains don't always work the same way. If your brain is the opposite of mine, hopefully the preview will help.

It works best if you have a great navigator and a driver who will listen to the navigator. And in my family it works well if everyone knows Left from Right. (seriously, this is an issue with one of us!) When I'm driving without a navigator, I read signs out loud. So I would be reading that sign. "Pay toll with cash over to the right. Use the pass by going straight. I don't have a pass, so I go to the right. To the right right right. Right? Right."



If anyone is getting emailed notitfications of tickets, that's a phishing scam, FYI!

Mailed ones are likely real, BUT but but it doesn't mean that you did it. DH has gotten two toll tickets from rental car agencies that were indeed his, but has gotten another one or two that were not. He had already turned in his car and was HOME by that time. It was wrong, so he fought it.

There's one unmanned, but NOT a pass toll, that counts down the quarters but never shows it as paid. Goes straight back to the full amount owed. When we went through, we saw that and paid double this time taking pictures with each quarter thrown in. If we had gotten a ticket I would have sent those in!

One time DH ended up on a toll road without a bit of change. As he went through the unmanned (but not a Pass lane) toll area, he snagged an envelope from the place. That had the address on it. We sent a check for the amount immediately, and we never heard from the toll people or National, so they got it in time. If there are no envelopes, there are addresses on the toll road website!

 

[Barbi]

Bumbershoot - Wow!! Thank you so much for the pictorial, that's fantastic! I'll be solo with the pick up & drop off, now that I know what to look for I should be fine.