Has anyone found rentals so expensive that you've decided to stay onsite instead?

[molly2004]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this. Moderators, please move if inappropriate.

I've been checking for an off-site place to stay and wondered if anyone has ultimately found it CHEAPER to stay onsite because of car rental costs. From what I've seen here, it seems that the rental prices are going way up. We're a family of 4 to 6 adults and two toddlers. Just curious if I should continue looking at off-site places only or to look onsite.

Thanks.

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I much prefer to stay onsite and let the WDW transportation system get me where I want to go. That said, on different trips I've used a town car service and rented a car to get from the airport to WDW. When I rented a car out of Sanford airport, I got the exact (reasonable) price I was quoted online, but when I tried the same company (Alamo) out of Orlando International Airport, the cost tripled! I've realized that for my family of 3-4 people, it's actually cheaper to rent a car from Sanford or take a town car from MCO. Given the ridiculous amount I paid at Alamo last time, staying onsite would definitely be worth it!

 

[puffkin]

Don't forget to factor in $9 a day for parking if you rent a car and stay off site.

Depending on your situation, it may be better to stay onsite and let Disney drive you around. Not to mention you can use ME for free from the airport to the Disney resorts.

I swore I would never use a car, but we just returned and had a rental because we did some off site things. Honestly, I did enjoy the flexibility of the car eventhough we used Disney transportation most of the time. I would get the car again, but only if I could get a good price. If not, Disney transportation has always worked fine for us.

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

After 3 stays on-site at the Grand Floridian, Old Key West, the Beach Club; waiting for the WDW busses for 10-15 minutes back and forth, struggling with my daughters carriage on the busses, NO HOPPING FROM PARK TO PARK on the WDW busses; and renting a car anyway to go to other places; we decided to try off-site this year. We booked a 2 bedroom at the Sheraton Vistana, car rental, parking at the parks for a week and AIRFARE for less than the cost of a Disney Studio for the week.

I won't know till April if it was worth the extra effort to keep checking the different web sites to find the deals; but right now we're doing our Double Digit Dance.

 

[WillCAD]

Mostly I rent Economy or Compact class cars because they are cheapest. Once in a while I get a coupon for a free upgrade, so a couple of times I have had Mid-size cars for the price of an Economy. Because of this, I have never paid more than about $160 for a week to 9 days, and I almost always save more than the cost of my rental car when I stay off-site.

I shop around quite a bit when I'm renting. I change my ressies 3 or 4 times after booking, as cheaper rates become available. I can almost always whittle the cost down to a managable rate by keeping my eyes open and checking rates from several of the cheapest rental companies on a regular basis. I go to Alamo and Thrifty first, using codes from MouseSavers, then on to National and Dollar.

As to the car cost being the deciding factor, for me that's not really applicable, because I rent a car even when I'm on-site. I hate the Disney busses (though I love the monorails and boats), and I always go off-site for shopping, dining, and a trip to Universal, so I rent a car for the duration of my trip.