rental car and DME?

[abminer]

Is it possible to do both (or even worth it)?

We are flying from Boston to MCO and need to rent a car because we will be going to a pal's wedding on our first night (we plan to check into Pop first and spend time at DTD before the evening wedding in downtown Orlando). On our third day we'll be meeting the bride and groom at US/IOA so we plan to keep our rental for that too. But, then we've got two more days at WDW. Should we try and dump the rental at the WDW car rental place and take DME back to MCO to leave? It would save a bit of $, but is it worth it? Has anyone done this?

 

[seashoreCM]

Be sure to price out the rental car for the scenario where you dump it off at Disney early. Also book it for whichever scenario you paln to use.

If you book the car for the entire vacation and dump it off early, depending on how long you had it and what rate category (weekly, etc.) you booked, the rate may be refigured to the category that your rental would really have fit into.

 

[cjnix29]

We do this every time we go. We always take DME to the hotel, and while I am checking, DH gets the shuttle to the rental car place. Then we return the car before we leave, and take DME back to the airport. Honestly, there is always talk that it is more expensive to rent at the car care center, but I haven't found much of a difference. Plus, we use less gas and don't have the tolls. What really works for us is that we can rent a smaller car because we never have to worry whether or not our luggage will fit! It works out great.

 

[gigi1313]

check out carrentalsavers.com for deals as well as looking at coupons and discount codes... we found a great rate for our jan trip (had similar issues, needed it for a few days of a longer vacay) and discovered it was cheaper (significantly) to keep it for the entire vacation than to turn it in halfway thru on wdw property... the kids/i and our luggage took DME and dh picked up the car and met us at the resort (he got there first, just sayin')... although we did not "need" the car while on wdw property, it came in handy one evening when we were late leaving our resort to get to chef mickey's for dinner!

 

[rob4059]

We've done both. You need to separate though. I pick up the car and meet wife and son at the hotel. They take DME so that the luggage gets taken care of.

DME won't take luggage unless someone travels with it. DME gives you two tags per person. we just put my son's second tag on my bag.

I've also rented from car care center. They have a shuttle but you need to make a reservation a day in advance.

We prefer renting from the airport though because we like to drive back to the airport ourselves. The 3 hour check in time for DME return trip is too much for my stomach to bear.

 

[goofy4tink]

We've done both. You need to separate though. I pick up the car and meet wife and son at the hotel. They take DME so that the luggage gets taken care of.

DME won't take luggage unless someone travels with it. DME gives you two tags per person. we just put my son's second tag on my bag.

I've also rented from car care center. They have a shuttle but you need to make a reservation a day in advance.

We prefer renting from the airport though because we like to drive back to the airport ourselves. The 3 hour check in time for DME return trip is too much for my stomach to bear.

A few corrections. DME will take your tagged bags even if you don't ride the bus. That's not how the system was designed but you can do it. Many do. The issue is if a bag goes missing...DME has no way to know that they should have been looking for 4 bags, not 3. When you ride the bus, you are asked how many tagged checked bags you have, so if one isn't there, they can start looking for it.
Also...DME sends out only one tag per person now. This has been the case for several years now. If a guest does need more than that one tag, they can call DME and get addtl tags sent out.

As for the 3 hr return time....even if you have a rental car, you should be heading out to the airport about 2.5 hrs before flight times. Many have run into issues with returning their cars, which made them later than they expected.

 

[abminer]

A few corrections. DME will take your tagged bags even if you don't ride the bus. That's not how the system was designed but you can do it. Many do. The issue is if a bag goes missing...DME has no way to know that they should have been looking for 4 bags, not 3. When you ride the bus, you are asked how many tagged checked bags you have, so if one isn't there, they can start looking for it.
Also...DME sends out only one tag per person now. This has been the case for several years now. If a guest does need more than that one tag, they can call DME and get addtl tags sent out.

As for the 3 hr return time....even if you have a rental car, you should be heading out to the airport about 2.5 hrs before flight times. Many have run into issues with returning their cars, which made them later than they expected.

I'm hoping we can get a good deal on an airport rental and just keep it for the whole time, we're only there 5 days so that would be easiest.

How does it work if we use DME for bags only? We'd only have one big suitcase...