Driving to MCO by rental car, then taking ME

[jjsc]

Hi!

We are planning to fly to Miami and rent a car from there.

We will rent a car in Miami, do some sight-seeing for a few days
around Miami, and then drive to Orlando and return the rental
car there.

We plan to stay at Port Orleans for 6 days after that.

Questions:

1) Can we just return the rental car at Orlando Airport, and
then take ME to Disney after that? We don't want to keep the
rental car anymore after we reach Orlando.

2) When I made reservations online for the Magical Express,
they asked for the arriving flight info - how do I tell them
that there is no flight, and I will be driving there?

Thanks a lot!
-jjsc

 

[SurfinTX]

I'm not an expert and I hope one will post after me but is it possible you could drop the car off at one of the on-site rental companies? I don't have any specifics so add my question to anybody who does have some info.

 

[dburg30]

If you are staying at a WDW resort, all people on the reservation are allowed a DME trip from MCO and back to MCO. You just need to look on an airlines site and give them flight info that is close to the time you are expecting to be at MCO.

 

[seashoreCM]

Pick a flight, any flight, any airline, arriving at MCO at about the time you want to take DME to Disney.

You may or may not be asked to give that information.

It is best to make your DME reservation at least 2 weeks in advance although for those booking their resort with less notice, 24 hours is enough.

Ask of your rental car company if you can drop off at Disney. There is an Alamo/National station about a half mile from the Magic Kingdom parking lot concourse (TTC) along the exit road and also some companies have stations at the Swan Dolphin resorts. Generally there is no surcharge but occasionally there is.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/magicx.htm

 

[shocker]

Yep, did this successfully last June. Just give them a flight number close to the time you want to use the service (this helps them know approx. how many people to expect during certain times of day) but even flights can get delayed. Turn in rental car and walk over to the DME check-in desk with ressie info/packet in hand (you will not have used the yellow luggage tags they sent you). You can transfer on ME with (we did it with) or without luggage (if you want to stop by the hotel, check-in and settle in a bit before turning in the rental).

Have a good trip.

 

[DonnaL]

What rental car company are you using? Many of the rental companies have rental offices either onsite (Disney Car Care Center has Alamo/National) Swan and Dolphin has a rental desk (not sure which company), a few hotels on Hotel Blvd. (very near Downtown Disney) have rental desks in their lobby also. You might want to check into returning to one of these places, since then you could simply drive to your hotel, check-in, put your bags in your room and drop the car off. It eliminates the extra stop at MCO and conceivably could save you several hours time. To find out locations for your rental company, just go to their website and use Orlando as the location you're looking for......all the locations in the Orlando area should pop up.

 

[jjsc]

What rental car company are you using? Many of the rental companies have rental offices either onsite (Disney Car Care Center has Alamo/National) Swan and Dolphin has a rental desk (not sure which company), a few hotels on Hotel Blvd. (very near Downtown Disney) have rental desks in their lobby also. You might want to check into returning to one of these places, since then you could simply drive to your hotel, check-in, put your bags in your room and drop the car off. It eliminates the extra stop at MCO and conceivably could save you several hours time. To find out locations for your rental company, just go to their website and use Orlando as the location you're looking for......all the locations in the Orlando area should pop up.

Thanks for all the responses. I am renting the car from National.
I will call them and find out if I can return the car at Disney, instead of MCO.

Thanks again!
-jjsc