Rental Car Return at MCO

L500768

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
42
Be prepared with almost no signage on where to return your iairport rental car once you've entered the MCO grounds. There are signs for offsite rental but I don't recall seeing one for the rental onsite that made sense. Therefore, we missed it and ended up leaving the airport since there are no Return to Airport turnarounds. You must first go into the terminal that your flight is departing from and then you'll see plenty of signage on where to return your car. BTW the signs are very small compare to almost all other US airports. Also, once you drop off your car there are no signs to tell you which direction to go to the terminal (unless it was very small like the other signs). We had to continually ask people where to go. The elevator also wasn't clear and was labeled with "R" for levels instead of the typical "L" I wasn't sure what the R stood for and waited for someone who could explain it to me. The entire return process was frustrating. Give yourself plenty of time.
 
The onsite rental return lane is on the far left, right after the garage entrance, before the road splits out for arrivals and departures. It is easy to miss.

To get to the terminal after dropping off the car, I usually go down to level 1 of the garage (you may already be on level 1 depending on the car rental co), cross the street, then take the escalator up to the check-in area on level 3. It's more confusing to take the elevator to the level below level 1 and walk the tunnel under the road and back up into the terminal.
 
I'm surprised you had this problem. We've gone in and out of this airport many times and there are definitely signs well in advance telling you what lane to get in for rental car return. Perhaps you were distracted at the time?
 
I'm surprised you had this problem. We've gone in and out of this airport many times and there are definitely signs well in advance telling you what lane to get in for rental car return. Perhaps you were distracted at the time?


I'm surprised as well.
 

You stay in the arrival flights lane, and even the road is maked on the ground car rental return. It is easy to miss, but if you have your navigator looking for the markings on the road as you look for the arrival flights lane you will be ok.
 
The signs are clear, but the problem is that the tiny little single lane Rental Car Return lane comes very quickly near the short-term parking entrance, and it is super-easy to look at that ramp and figure that can't possibly be where you are supposed to go, or to miss the ramp entirely even though you saw the sign. We are always on tenterhooks making sure that we don't miss the actual ramp.
 
what I do is when I pick up my rental at ALAMO,AVIS etc.. I ask them which lane to return the car A or B.. they only have two lanes... and before I leave the lot write it down on my pink slip.. either A or B so when I drive back.. If I forget that one letter there it is on my pink slip... :thumbsup2
 
Another here who has never had a problem with car rental returns at MCO. Just gotta pay attention to the signs.
 
I was returning our Budget car this past January and missed the return lane the first time thru. No problem, just continued thru the terminal area, there was a lane that took you to the other side of the terminal, took that and got in the rental car return lane the 2nd time thru. And this was my first time using a rental car in Orlando. There was no need to leave the terminal area. Hope this helps.
 














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