Rental Car for beach day

[happymom2one]

Hello!! We are going to Disneyworld in the middle of November. We are wanting our last day to be a beach day. My question is where is the best place to rent from? I know that there is two rental car places on property. My worry is that we will not be back early. I think I read that you have to return by 6pm? Convenience wise I would love it close. We are staying on Property at Pop Century if that matters.

Also, when do you typically reserve? Do you reserve early and then hope for a discount?

 

[MKwatercraftPilot]

A number of car rental companies have locations at the non-Disney resorts on Hotel Plaza Boulevard, right by Disney Springs. These locations may not be 24 hours but check their sites, they may be open later than 6pm.

When you book on the rental company's own site, or on Hotwire/RentalCars.com/etc, just enter "Lake Buena Vista" as the city for where you want to pick up and drop off your car. You should see these locations come up.

A one-day rental lasts for 24 hours, so after you determine what time you think would be appropriate for the return, I would suggest picking up the car the evening before by taking the bus from Pop Century to Disney Springs, then walking over to the hotel on Hotel Plaza Boulevard (where the rental car company is located). There's a pedestrian overpass to cross the busy street and though it may be a bit of a hike, it's certainly doable. That way you'll have the car at your resort in the morning and can just hop in to drive to the beach. When you're done with the beach, return the car to the same location, then walk back to Disney Springs to hop a bus back to Pop Century.

Personally, I find the cheapest time to reserve a car is about 3-4 days before you need it, especially if you're not looking for a specific class of car. You might end up with a subcompact or with a minivan, but I've had luck using that timing to get rentals for $20-$30 for a day. This is a bit of a risky practice though, because if it's a busy day for rentals and car supply is getting low, prices could go sky high. Usually I book through Costco early, they allow you to cancel and re-book your reservation as many times as you want to, so you can re-book every time the price drops. If you don't have a Costco membership, see if the site you're booking through allows free cancellations or a "best price match" guarantee.

Just out of curiosity I checked the Costco Travel site for reservations for this Friday into Saturday and it was $36 for an intermediate car (and three other smaller cars).
A reservation for Friday into Saturday 3 weeks from now was $53 for an intermediate car.
And a reservation for Friday into Saturday in Mid-November was $35 for an intermediate car. So all over the place.

Just one additional tip: Depending on what beach you're heading to, you may be taking a toll road (Cocoa Beach is the closest, but the way there definitely has tolls). Many toll roads are doing away with cash lanes, so pay close attention to the Rental Car Company's toll policy and do some research to see what works best for you.

Alternatively, if every location around Disney closes early, and since it's your last day, the airport locations are (mostly) 24 hours. Pick up your rental at one of the Hotel Plaza Boulevard locations and return to the airport when you head to your flight?

 

[kaytieeldr]

A number of car rental companies have locations at the non-Disney resorts on Hotel Plaza Boulevard, right by Disney Springs. These locations may not be 24 hours but check their sites, they may be open later than 6pm.

That's all great, clear advice - but even easier and more convenient might be to rent from Alamlpo/National onsite. Vehicles rented from the Dolphin counter can be returned to Dolphin Valet 24/7.

Getting there and back is easy via Skyliner (to DHS, then walk or boat to the hotel).

 

[MKwatercraftPilot]

Vehicles rented from the Dolphin counter can be returned to Dolphin Valet 24/7.

I had no idea that you could return them 24 hours. That definitely changes my thoughts on the matter.

 

[NotUrsula]

OP, be aware that the day of the week will affect the price. It will cost MUCH less to rent between Thursday-Sunday than it will to rent on a weekday; you may actually find that it is cheaper to reserve for multiple weekend days than one weekday. There is normally not a penalty for returning a car early, EXCEPT if the fine print of a discount rate requires that you keep it over a Saturday night. Pay attention to the fine print. Unlike the previous poster, I generally find that the best rental rates in resort destinations turn up about 6 weeks before the travel date, though it does pay to keep checking in case it goes lower. Most of the rental agencies do not charge a dropoff fee between locations within central Florida, so it shouldn't cost more to just take the car straight to the airport to return it.

If your plan is to go to one of the Pinellas County beaches on the Gulf Coast, the parking lots in Pinellas now use the ParkMobile app to collect payments. You can use a credit card at a pay station and put the receipt in your window, but it is easier to set up the app on your phone ahead of time, and just pay it that way, which lets you adjust the end time on the rental without walking back to the parking lot to extend payment. (If you go to Pinellas, be careful with your return time if you are catching a night flight; check Waze periodically to make sure that no major traffic jams are developing on I-4 between Tampa and Orlando. Traffic gets backed up at rush hour between those 2 cities nearly every day, and if there is a wreck on that highway, traffic can sometimes back up for hours.)

To be honest, we find that saving the beach day for the last day isn't the best choice when flying; not only do you run the risk of traffic delay coming back to Orlando, but you don't get that chance to go back to your hotel and clean up properly in your room before your flight (though we have sometimes solved that issue by packing shower items in a daypack and showering at the WDW resort pool before heading to the airport; you do have access to all of the public areas of the resort for the rest of your check-out day.)

 

[happymom2one]

OP, be aware that the day of the week will affect the price. It will cost MUCH less to rent between Thursday-Sunday than it will to rent on a weekday; you may actually find that it is cheaper to reserve for multiple weekend days than one weekday. There is normally not a penalty for returning a car early, EXCEPT if the fine print of a discount rate requires that you keep it over a Saturday night. Pay attention to the fine print. Unlike the previous poster, I generally find that the best rental rates in resort destinations turn up about 6 weeks before the travel date, though it does pay to keep checking in case it goes lower. Most of the rental agencies do not charge a dropoff fee between locations within central Florida, so it shouldn't cost more to just take the car straight to the airport to return it.

If your plan is to go to one of the Pinellas County beaches on the Gulf Coast, the parking lots in Pinellas now use the ParkMobile app to collect payments. You can use a credit card at a pay station and put the receipt in your window, but it is easier to set up the app on your phone ahead of time, and just pay it that way, which lets you adjust the end time on the rental without walking back to the parking lot to extend payment. (If you go to Pinellas, be careful with your return time if you are catching a night flight; check Waze periodically to make sure that no major traffic jams are developing on I-4 between Tampa and Orlando. Traffic gets backed up at rush hour between those 2 cities nearly every day, and if there is a wreck on that highway, traffic can sometimes back up for hours.)

To be honest, we find that saving the beach day for the last day isn't the best choice when flying; not only do you run the risk of traffic delay coming back to Orlando, but you don't get that chance to go back to your hotel and clean up properly in your room before your flight (though we have sometimes solved that issue by packing shower items in a daypack and showering at the WDW resort pool before heading to the airport; you do have access to all of the public areas of the resort for the rest of your check-out day.)

Thanks for the great information. I guess I should have stated our last day before we go home. So we plan to do the beach on Saturday and leave on Sunday. I will have to download the app because you make a lot of sense.

thanks again for the information!