Getting to Port

[PE_TCR]

My wife and I are going on a 7 day cruise over New Years. We are staying for a few days before and after at WDW. I have heard everyone say rent a car to get to port. I will save you a lot of money. The transfers for DCL would be $140 for the two of us. The lowest rental I could find was Avis at $82.99 each way. Am I missing something? Is it not cost-effective to rent a car for just 2 people? Shoudl I keep looking or just bok the transfers? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I have used DCL twice from POFQ. We love it. The great thing about using the DCL transfer from WDW is that they will pick your luggage up from your room and deliver it to the ship for you. You get transportation to the port where you go through security and then to check in. No need to return a rental car and drop off your luggage at the curb. Your luggage is already taken care of. Also, once you get to the port and onboard, your stateroom should be ready so you can go there directly and put your carryons away before having lunch and enjoying the ship.

For just the 2 of you, why not indulge and be taken care of.

 

[shoes99]

We are two seniors 60+, and we pay for the disney transfers to the ship from our resort. It works well for us, we especially like the luggage service. They pick up your bags from your resort room, and you don't see them until they arrive at your cabin. $35 x 2 = $70.
We cancelled our transfers to the airport for our next cruise in Sept and will rent a car from Budget. Our airline Continental changed our flight 4 times, so we are now on a 3:20PM so we will go to DTD before we take the rental car back to the airport. Our rental fee $41.50 plus gas for Budget.

 

[ontariomonkey]

I think you will struggle if you are only able to pick up a car from Disney, since I imagine you pay a premium there. To get better deals from the airport, you will have to get there from the resort which is inconvenient. We booked a one-way rental from the port to mco for $28inc tax for an economy size with budget. I check rates often and the rate has since doubled, however who knows, maybe it will go down again. I would have to save a fair bit of money to give up the convenience of the DCL transfers (and we are!). You have tons of time, I would keep looking, however you are travelling at the holidays so who knows if you should expect any deals. Anyone know if the DCL transfers ever sell out?

 

[kcashner]

Yes, picking up or dropping off the car at WDW is more expensive than at MCO....but there are a few "tricks."

Did you use discount codes when you priced your rental? These are available from rentalcodes.com and mousesavers.com. Rates vary widely and change regularly. For our May trip, I booked a van for about $95 using the best code I could find. The next day a code came out (same company) that reduced the cost to $46 total including all taxes and fees!!!!),

You're not in any hurry with a January cruise. You can add or cancel the transfers at any time. SO..I'd keep checking car rates for all the companies up till about a month before. At that point if you're not happy with the rates, book the transfers. You can do things one way--for instance, if you get a good rate from WDW to port, book one way for that but if port to WDW is expensive, you can choose transfers for that leg.

If you want the car while you're at WDW, it's much cheaper to book from MCO. If you dont' want a car at WDW, you can use Magical Express from MCO to WDW and back.

 

[SnowWhite2]

OK, Brian, you had me all excited that I found another person on our cruise until I saw it was you.

We are finding prices very high for a rental car and we assume it is because it is over the Christmas/New Year's holiday. It is costing us $106 to rent a minivan from PC on Saturday and return it to MCO on Sunday.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I think you will struggle if you are only able to pick up a car from Disney, since I imagine you pay a premium there. To get better deals from the airport, you will have to get there from the resort which is inconvenient. We booked a one-way rental from the port to mco for $28inc tax for an economy size with budget. I check rates often and the rate has since doubled, however who knows, maybe it will go down again. I would have to save a fair bit of money to give up the convenience of the DCL transfers (and we are!). You have tons of time, I would keep looking, however you are travelling at the holidays so who knows if you should expect any deals. Anyone know if the DCL transfers ever sell out?

No, DCL transfers do not sell out. They just send as many buses as they have passengers.

 

[Portcanaveler]

If you rent a car to Port Canaveral, there are six companies with drop off service in Port Canaveral Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, and Thrifty and they all have free shuttle to the port. Other transfers to port would be using a shuttle service like Cocoa Beach Shuttle which charges about $58 for 2 people from Orlando airport to Port Canaveral.

 

[lds0191]

We are renting a compact car in October 1 way from MCO to Port canaveral. Booked Budget for less that $40.00 one way. On the return from the Port to MCO it was $56.00 using Dollar. They charge a one-way fee but it has been the cheapest I have found so far. Try www.rentalcarmomma.com for discount codes.

 

[PE_TCR]

We woudsl probably be doing the DCL transfer for sure but we are stayiong at an All-Star resort. That means we have to get a cab to take us to another resort to pick up the transfer.

 

[lovesDCL]

What dates are you looking at to rent the car and what are the pickup and drop off locations? I have a corporate code that may help, but need I need to know what dates as some dates are blacked out.