Rental car advice - WDW-Cruise-Hilton Head

[peacefrogdog]

Doing a 4-night Dream cruise in March. We are flying into Orlando for a couple of nights, then doing the cruise, then planning to drive to Hilton head and spend 4-5 nights there. We are a family of 5, so will need a SUV, minivan or (if squeezing in) a full-size.

We'd like to have a rental car for both pre- and post-cruise. My original plan was:

Rent car from MCO pickup, then drop off at Port Canaveral the day of the cruise departure.
At the end of the cruise, pickup the car from one of the Port Canaveral agencies, then drive to Hilton Head. We will likely be flying from Savannah or Jacksonville to come back home, so then planning to drop the car off at whatever airport we fly from.

I haven't tried pricing using all possible discount codes, but in general to do two one-way rentals (MCO-Port Can, Port Can-SAV or JAX) it looks like the total will be ~ $170 for the first leg, and ~ $400 for the second leg = $550-600 total. I realize that dropping off at different locations adds up, but I don't see any other way around it.

Anyone have suggestions on potentially cheaper options? For example, is the extra fees for dropping off at a different location based on the # of days, or is it a set added fee? If based on # of days, perhaps I could do a same-day PortCan-SAV rental (and get dinged for the extra fee for that one day), and then get a separate rental for SAV-SAV (and thus save on the extra fees for the 5 days). Using Kayak to estimate costs it looks to be roughly the same for the type of car I need, but perhaps there are other suggestions?

 

[owtrbnks]

Well, I usually use Hertz and have never paid a "drop off" fee for a 1 way rental. Have rented from MCO or the Kissimmee (they'll pick you up at WDW resorts) location and dropped at Port Canaveral for $60-75 for a 1 day rental. Also try Avis at the DTD location to Port Canaveral (bus to DTD, walk up HPB to Avis at the Hilton, get car, return to WDW resort to retrieve luggage and family).
As for the Port canaveral to HH rental, you might be on the right track to rent PC-JAX or PC-SAV and then JAX-JAX or SAV-SAV although the time spent switching may not be worth the extra cost. I spend hours trying different combinations to get the best price. You'd be surprised what a little checking and (perhaps walking) will do. often a 1 day rental, stop for groceries, check in, return car and then a separate 1 or 2 day rental to go back to the airport saves a few bucks.
Good luck!
oh yeah - it's usually MUCH cheaper to rent a full size car than a minivan. Waaaaay cheaper!