Rent car in FL to drive home from Disney?

[MamaDork]

The airfare is so high for our Nov trip, I'm thinking of convincing my husband to flying down to FL and renting a car to drive back home to NJ. Has anyone done something similar and what is the best way to get a car rental while at a Disney resort?

 

[EACarlson]

The airfare is so high for our Nov trip, I'm thinking of convincing my husband to flying down to FL and renting a car to drive back home to NJ. Has anyone done something similar and what is the best way to get a car rental while at a Disney resort?

The Disney Car Care Center. It offers Enterprise Holdings vehicles, will pick you up anywhere on property to bring you to the CCC. Downside is that I would expect a hefty one way charge out of there.

 

[Lewisc]

Price it. One way rental with A NE drop off, in November is going to be $$$.

My guess, pick up at MCO will be the best rate. Renting the car when you arrive might not be that much more expensive then Renting for just a few days.

Edited to add you need to price the bottom line price. Some prices might have a large one way drop charge. Some may limit your free miles. Some may just charge more. Paying for excess miles might be the cheapest.

Agencies used to offer great One way rates driving TO FL in the fall and driving TO THE NE in the spring.

 

[migirl]

I did this last summer. Got the rental car from the airport and used it while at Disney and drove it 18 hours to go home. Flying wasn’t a great option to go home because the purpose of the trip was to bring my daughter home from the her dcp and she had so acquired much stuff in 8 months.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

If you’re willing to do it, I expect renting a car from home and driving it round trip would be cheaper.
Personally, for long drives I prefer to rent vs during my own car.
YMMV

 

[Anthony1971]

Also try drop off at Newark Airport if possible? The one way rate will usually be lower or nonexistent. There are multiple agencies check them all. Some are located at the DS partner hotels. Mouse savers use to have a list of all agencies.
You can try corporate discounts if you have any as in many cases the one way fee is waived but make sure to bring the corporate id as it is usually checked.

 

[mitsukoshi samurai]

autotrain/amtrak?

 

[NotUrsula]

Before the pandemic it was common for the major rental companies to offer FL drive-in and FL drive-out deals, which were meant to re-position cars in locations where there would be increased demand based on season. I haven't seen a really good in/out FL deal since, but they are only good for driving *into* FL in early November, and *out* of FL from late April until perhaps early June, because those are the times when the snowbirds mostly migrate to and from Florida; demand for rental cars in Florida is highest in cold weather. Normal one-way drop off fees when these deals are not workable are typically at least $250, and $600 isn't unusual. I paid $200 extra last fall in the Los Angeles area, for the privilege of picking up a car in Burbank on Friday morning and returning it to Orange County/SNA late on Monday. (Long story why, but we needed to be on the North side of LA on Friday morning and on the South side of the city on Monday until late afternoon, and the latest flight back home left at 5:30 pm.) It used to be that the rental fleets would waive drop-off fees between several different Florida airports, but that practice apparently also may have fallen victim to the pandemic.

There are a few FL drive-out deals available right now, such as this one from Avis starting at $21/day. It's only available for vehicles picked up in Florida sometime between April 21st and May 31st, and the drop-off locations are limited to a specific list. (I've done it where I drove all the way home, dropped off my family, and then doubled-back to the nearest qualifying airport alone, flying home from there on points the same day, but that was in the good old days when the typical cost of the car was less than $10/day during these deals.)
https://www.avis.com/en/offers/us-offers/northeast-southeast-one-way