how do I get rental car while at POR?

[2minny]

We will be at POR from Thursday-Friday (8 days), we don't need a rental car until Tuesday for my husband to get to a convention. Can I rent a car while at POR? Do I reserve while there or beforehand? Is it easy?

 

[jctwizzer]

The Alamo/National car rental facility over by the Magic Kingdom should be able to handle that. They will pick you up, and drop you off, at the resort where you're staying. You can probably arrange it thru their website, or through Disney. Should be a piece of cake

 

[leebee]

sorry, double post! see below

 

[leebee]

I don't think you can rent from POR. However, you can rent a car from a couple of WDW locations. Go to Alamo's website and search for locations in Orlando. You should come up with a list that includes the Dolphin (or maybe Swan?) and the WDW Car Care Center. Enter the location code in the "pick up" location on Alamo's ressie site. You could take a bus from POR to Epcot (or BS or YC/BC, or maybe direct to Dolphin?) and walk over to the Dolphin to pick up the car, then drive back to POR for the luggage, or take luggage with you if it's not a real hike! While I know you can make the ressie, I have no idea if it's a real hassle to rent/pick up AT the Dolphin, however!

 

[mommic32]

Hello..
I think I can be of some help. We just got back from POR on the 22nd and did rent a car from National. What we had to do was, take the bus to MOnorail and then the monorail to Ticket and Transportation center and it is in the building where the dog kennels are and they will call National and have someone come and pick you up to take you to National and we got out car there, it took a total of 10 min to get the car and leave. BUt we returned the car to Orlando airport so I dont knwo how the return would be,,, If next time we needed a car I would stay at my resort and see if you can call National and have them pick you up at your resort or even take a cab there directly since the hardest part is getting to the renal center... When we were there we had to wait 45 min at Ticket and transportation center for National to pick us up, so I asked about a cab and they directed us accross a parking lot where there were 20 some cabs were waiting and we took the cab,,, it did cost us $6.00 but so worth the it since we did not wait for a 45 min pick up! Any questions just ask me...

 

[2minny]

thanks everyone for your help! mommic it sounds like the cab is a great idea, we will probably take our rental back to the airport too. I will call alamo or national later today and either take a cab or see if they can pick him up at POR. Sounds easy enough, I just don't want to take too much of our "fun" time renting a car

 

[agnes!]

I think other posters have already mentioned the alternative of getting the Alamo/National shuttle to the MK Car Care Center. It is *free* from any WDW resort. A couple of things...
*Arrange the rental reservation ahead of time & watch those rates like a hawk! They do fluctuate quite a bit. Go to MouseSavers.Com's Rental Cars page - there will be lots of hints/tips/codes to help you pay less for your rental(yay!)
*You need to arrange for shuttle pick-up the day before your rental starts. Just talk to your resort's front desk, they should be able to help arrange this.


Taxis are fine, there are usually several waiting at a resort's check-in area, but that is some $ that could go for Mickey Bars... . We've had car rentals that started during our WDW vacations after we came in from the airport, a couple of times & had no problems. Shuttle pick-up was quick & on-time, renting from the MK Car Care Center was fairly painless.
Something to be aware of...sometimes it is cheaper to rent for a longer period of time than you think you might need. For instance a "week"(5 days or longer) rental can actually be less than a three-day rental...odd, but true. This happened to us one year. A 9-day rental was far cheaper than a 7 day! Play around with any codes that you might be eligible for, change the rental duration...you might be surprised. Something else - if you rent from the MKCC, you won't be paying that nasty 'Airport Concession Recovery Fee'.

Have fun - you'll be at DisneyWooooooooooooorld ,
agnes!