Keep rental car for entire trip?

[lvdis]

Here's my situation: We are flying into Lakeland and will be renting a car from Hertz. Driving to Universal resort for 2 days and then on to a 6 night stay at Disney's AKV-Kidani. I'm trying to decide whether to keep the rental car the whole time or if I should turn it in at Disney and then rent again on our departure day to get us back to the airport. We've never had a car at Disney before since we usually fly into MCO in Orlando and take Disney's Magical Express, then use the buses to get everywhere.

I talked to the people at Hertz and they have a location at Disney and will shuttle you to the hotel when you turn it in and arrange to pick you up at the resort when you need to rent on departure day. They are only a few miles away. If you have to drop it off when they are closed, they have a drop box for the keys and you have to call a taxi (which would be our case). I just can't decide if we will need the car while at Disney and how much more it's worth to keep it.

Please help me decide! Thanks for your help!

 

[ccudmore]

In my opinion you should keep it for the entire time. Since you're staying at AKL you're a good ways from all of the parks (except AK of course) and you'll probably appreciate the convenience of having the car. We usually just take Disney transportation every where but on our last trip we rented a car for the entire week and really enjoyed the convenience of just heading out wherever we wanted whenever we wanted. It was well worth the extra expense.

The only thing I'd do differently is take the bus to MK as the wait for the ferry at the TTC was really long. I would have prefered to just jump on a resort bus at the end of the night.

I'm sure you have better things to do with your time than to shuttle back and forth to the car rental place a couple times. Spend the extra time at the pool or shopping. One less thing to worry about.

 

[lvdis]

Thanks for your reply! I do like the idea of just keeping it. Decisions, decisions...

 

[supernova]

AKL, while nice to visit, is a pain in the butt to travel to and from. So keeping the car is always a good idea. There was one night while staying at Saratoga Springs that the bus didn't seem to be running too regularly, and we had tickets to the Christmas party. We were standing for quite a while, and slowly the line kept growing. We got fed up, jumped in the car, and just drove over. Plus, we always wind up needing SOMETHING extra from Walmart, or just feel the need to leave WDW property and go for dinner. Sometimes I might turn it in on the final night and use ME to get back to the airport. But most times, I keep the car for the duration, especially since I've found that weekly rates are cheaper in the end than just four or five days.

 

[figment_jii]

Another vote for keep the car the whole time...my family used to rely entirely on the Disney transportation system, but found it much easier to have a car. We don't have to worry about standing on the bus anymore! The only place where we still take the bus/monorail is to the MK because of the TTC. Other than that, it's much easier to drive (especially to DTD).

 

[francie57]

We do the same thing as you, start at Universal and then go to Disney. We stay at the BWVs or the BCVs and we always keep the car. We basically take it out for one day to drive to AK. Since AKL is farther out I would think you would use the car on several days to to go to other parks. From there I would only use the bus to get to MK since the bus drops you much closer than TTC. I would even use it to get to AK.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I would keep the car. Case in point. This past May we had a car so we decided to experiment. When we left Epcot my husband took the car and went back to SSR while I took the bus. My husband noted what time he arrived at the room. Then he noted the time I arrived and it took me 40 minutes to arrive after he had gotten there.

Disney transportation is nice in the fact that you don't have to drive but it takes longer to get from point to point.

 

[joncorr3]

Keep the car!
We we rented a car for the first time this week and we absolutely loved it. I only used the buses once, going to MK early and didn't really need to. A car is the way to go. No waiting on a bus, no "Bus Jumping" to get to a resort for dinner.

 

[bumbershoot]

Keep it.

But before making your final decision, price it out. Fully. While I have gotten a nice deal on a one way rental, I don't think that's the norm (and my experience was not in Florida). You might find that the one way rental charges will make it obvious that keeping the car is better.

We take the buses every so often, but we definitely like having a car better.