Dropping Rental Car off by the ship

[Innerpc]

We are renting a car and will be returning it in Cape Canaveral. Then taking a courtesy shuttle to the ship. Has anyone done this? If so, what company did you use and did it go smoothly?

Thank you!
Mandy

 

[Billinaz]

I used Budget earlier this month and did not have a problem at all. I will use them next year when I go on our next cruise.

 

[inkkognito]

We did this for the first time ever on our last cruise (Feb. 5th). We rented through Budget, as we got a great one-way deal via Priceline. I was worried about the shuttle as I am not a shuttle person at all. We generally use Happy Limo, so the only reason I did the rental was as research for my CD planner. But even being prejudiced against it, I was amazed that it went very smoothy. Budget was easy to find...on the righthand side of A1A, not far from the Radission. You pass a gas station where you can fill the car up. I dropped it off and hubby unloaded the luggage while I paid. The price was within $1 of my internet quote. The wait for the shuttle was a few minutes, as one had just come back and they were switching drivers. I don't even think it took 10 minutes before the driver was ready and we were on our way to the port. I don't know about the other companies, but I really thought Budget was pretty painless. They had also upgraded us from economy to a big ol' Ford Taurus. It had 16,000 and a shimmy at high speed, but the massive trunk and good acceleration made up for it.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

I have details about this at my web site...

www.dcltribute.com/carhire

 

[Alice Sr.]

We rented through Budget, as we got a great one-way deal via Priceline.

Barb - when you enter your bid on Priceline is there a place where you indicate one-way? I have used Priceline for cars before but it's always been for at least a week and returning to the original location. I was just wondering about this, I'm glad it came up.

Thanks,
Alice

 

[Chattyaholic]

We rented an SUV from Budget, and dropped it off at Cape Canaveral before our Wonder cruise last month. Very easy. The shuttle ride to the ship was, however, not very enjoyable because our family of four (adults) shared the ride with another family of four with two small children, and the little girl (maybe 3 or 4 years old, I'm not sure) was obviously very afraid of strangers as she did NOT want to ride with us, and she voiced her opinion, very loudly and for the entire duration of the trip, screaming and crying constantly. I was so glad to finally get away from that family when we got to the ship, and I just can't imagine them having a good cruise at all with their daughter being so afraid of strangers. Yikes!!

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

We have rented from both Avis and Budget. Both times it went very smoothly. We did drop the luggage and DS and I at the terminal while DH and other DS returned the rental car. It is much easier to take the shuttle to the ship without luggage.

 

[lsutiggeratwk]

Thanks to all for the info. I've rented from Budget for our upcoming trip and I'm happy to hear so many good things.
Takes some of the anxiety away!!

 

[lotsofboys]

We have rented cars on both cruises we've taken and I have two pieces of advice:

1) Go for price, we just returned and used Avis from MCO and used Budget at the port. If you are a Costco member use them, we got a one-way rental of a van for $59. If I'm not mistaken the cost of DCL transfers is $46 per person so for our party of 7 it would have been $322, huge savings for us.

2) Do not take the whole family and your luggage in the rental car shuttle. DH dropped all 6 of us and our luggage at the terminal and I checked everyone in including him (used his passport he kept his drivers license to get back in). He simply returned the car and took the shuttle back to port. When we returned to port Saturday, he disembarked about 20 minutes before us and went to get the car and returned to pick us and the luggage up. This last trip, it took him twice as long to get the car because so many people had their entire party and luggage trying to get on the shuttle van that basically only one party at a time could be taken to the rental car place!

Good luck!

 

[bostonlass]

I'm using Avis so I hope it goes smoothly as well. It's just me and my two daughters so I can't exactly drop them or luggage off before I drop off car. Hope all goes well!

 

[inkkognito]

I actually meant to say that I used Hotwire, although Priceline works the same way. You only bid for roundtrip rentals, but there should be a link to one-way that takes you to a page listing the companies they deal with. When you click through to the rental company site, there is a discount code already filled in. I did both Priceline and Hotwire, and I think it was the same price.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Alice Sr.]

Thanks all, that's a big help - this was an area I was unsure about.

Alice