Rental car or ME?

[Cyndo723]

We are going to WDW Sept. 15-18 on a very quick weekend trip. We arrive at MCO around 10pm on Thursday and fly out at 8pm on Sunday. I really want to maximize our time at the parks and am trying to decide if we should use ME or rent a car. What would you do? I'm wondering how long it will take to get to Pop from MCO at that time of night, and also how early we would have to leave the parks on Sunday in order to catch the bus back to the airport. I can rent a car for the weekend for around $60 or rent one way from the Dolphin to the airport for $29. Is ME mainly a way to save money, or is it also more convenient?

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

Well,your Thursday night arrival is irrelevant because the parks will be closed by the time you get there!

For your return trip if you were using ME you'd probably have to be ready to be picked up at around 5:00.

If you had your own car you could decide what time to leave. It depends how much time you like to leave yourself when going to an airport. If it were me I'd probably be on the road with the rental car between 5 and 5:30. So basically it would be a half hour difference at worst.

Of course, if you are one of those people who doesn't mind getting to the gate as the airplane door is closing, you could spend more time at WDW if you had a car.

Bob

 

[Suzanne74]

honestly, for that short of a trip, I would probably rent a car. Not just because of waiting for ME but I usually prefer to drive to all the other parks except MK - it is usually quicker then the buses. You can come and go as you please, go to other resorts and maximize your time. Just get a compact since you won't have much luggage.

We are going for 10 days in Oct which is why I will be using ME. For a short trip in Dec, we are renting a car.

 

[Cyndo723]

I was thinking that ME might get to Pop quicker on Thursday,(waiting to rent car, finding car, travel to Pop) but we would have to leave the park earlier on Sunday to catch ME back to the airport. If I drive to MGM, which is where we plan to end our trip, we can leave directly from there and drive to the airport. The other option is to use ME coming in, then rent at the Dolphin(next to MGM) for the ride to the airport. I'll probably just rent for the entire weekend. It's much less complicated.

 

[Suzanne74]

I initially thought that too for you - take ME on the way there and taxi or something on way back but then where would you store your luggage the last day?