Rental car to drive down

[Lexx1214]

Has anyone looked into renting a car to drive down to WDW? Any difficulties? Pros/cons?

DH and I are thinking about this option as he’s not too keen to put the mileage on our vehicle, plus we have a truck and gas costs are going to be high.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

I think the two things (at least) that you would have to look into are unlimited mileage and, assuming you are renting in Canada, the allowance to take the car over the border.

 

[KCMA]

We are doing this in September of this year..it will be our first time driving to WDW after two trips there flying.. we both have mid size SUV/cross overs and decided to rent a Caravan for extra space and save the mileage on our personal vehicles.

We are paying just over $900 for 14 days through Discount Rental Cars that includes a work discount

We like the freedom of being able to pack different then having to meet airline requirements and stopping at a grocery store before we check in to stock up on food/snack items for the room

 

[Lexx1214]

We are doing this in September of this year..it will be our first time driving to WDW after two trips there flying.. we both have mid size SUV/cross overs and decided to rent a Caravan for extra space and save the mileage on our personal vehicles.

We are paying just over $900 for 14 days through Discount Rental Cars that includes a work discount

We like the freedom of being able to pack different then having to meet airline requirements and stopping at a grocery store before we check in to stock up on food/snack items for the room

Does your $900 include gas or is that just the rental cost?

 

[KCMA]

Does your $900 include gas or is that just the rental cost?

That is just rental cost

 

[KCMA]

We intend on driving straight through and only stopping for gas and bathroom breaks.. will pack as much food/snacks as we can.. so based on that its about 1800km one way (we are just east of Toronto) so 4 ish gas fill ups will be about $250 /$500 for the round trip .. $900 rental , keep in mind these are very rough estimations

 

[Lexx1214]

250-500 even as a rough estimate is still a lot better than the 800 we are looking at. But we have a 2004 F150 Lariat. It’s in great shape (with no payments) but it’s terrible on gas

 

[isabellea]

Mtl-WDW with our 2011 Honda CR-V AWD is 250-300$usd in gas total.

 

[iluveeyore]

Always look at car rental company websites (hertz, alamo, etc.) as they usually have good deals directly offered, plus if you have CAA they have good discounts. Also always check and make sure you can cross the border with the rental, a quick call or email to the rental company will verify. I have always booked a rental and then watched the rates up until the week before I leave, as last minute deals are usually great, and you can change them without issues if you haven't prepaid. $200 per week for an SUV is the most I've paid in the last year with hertz - budget is good as well or Avis. Shop around - I sometimes felt it was a full-time job hunting for the best deal, but it was worth it.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Has anyone looked into renting a car to drive down to WDW? Any difficulties? Pros/cons?

DH and I are thinking about this option as he’s not too keen to put the mileage on our vehicle, plus we have a truck and gas costs are going to be high.

We've done it several times and we just got back. We wouldn't do it any other way. We had our van break down one time (luckily) just outside of a dealership in Fl and that was a waste of a day to get it fixed, as well as the cost in USD! After that, we've always rented. I figure the cost of the rental is about or even less than the cost of the upkeep on our vehicle. Besides that, we get a new GC van to drive and don't have to worry about space or breakdowns. Even if we do have a problem, we call the rental company instead of a towing company.

Now, I use Costco travel to book my rentals because I get the free extra driver and the 2% cashback for being an executive member. In my case, while it would be closer to rent from a local location, we booked our rental out of YYZ, which is a half hour drive away for us. The savings were well worth it. Also, I found my best price for my rental somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks before our trip. Enterprise gave us a brand new van. When he heard we were taking it into the US, he made sure it had low mileage, so we wouldn't have any problems. It was unlimited mileage (not all agents offer that, you have to look around) and it was roughly $27/day over March break. I was told I got a lucky deal, but even if I'd paid double that, it would have been better than racking up miles on my van.

 

[Sue M]

$900 seems really high. I usually have 10 day rentals, standard or full size car renting in Ft Lauderdale while we’re there for $200 or under. Then we drive up to WDW and return car there to Alamo.
I always rent on the Costco site. Car rental prices go up and down like a yo-yo. I usually end up canceling and rebooking as prices fall.
Whoever you decide to book with keep checking price.

 

[fitmom3]

The one year we flew Direct Air out of Niagara Falls NY. They ended up going bankrupt and we had no way home (Canadian March Break) We ended up booking a vehicle from Orlando Airport and had to drop off at Buffalo Airport. We paid just under $300. I used a code found on this site and saved us a pile of $.

 

[Sue M]

We've done it several times and we just got back. We wouldn't do it any other way. We had our van break down one time (luckily) just outside of a dealership in Fl and that was a waste of a day to get it fixed, as well as the cost in USD! After that, we've always rented. I figure the cost of the rental is about or even less than the cost of the upkeep on our vehicle. Besides that, we get a new GC van to drive and don't have to worry about space or breakdowns. Even if we do have a problem, we call the rental company instead of a towing company.

Now, I use Costco travel to book my rentals because I get the free extra driver and the 2% cashback for being an executive member. In my case, while it would be closer to rent from a local location, we booked our rental out of YYZ, which is a half hour drive away for us. The savings were well worth it. Also, I found my best price for my rental somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks before our trip. Enterprise gave us a brand new van. When he heard we were taking it into the US, he made sure it had low mileage, so we wouldn't have any problems. It was unlimited mileage (not all agents offer that, you have to look around) and it was roughly $27/day over March break. I was told I got a lucky deal, but even if I'd paid double that, it would have been better than racking up miles on my van.

You found it cheaper renting out of airport? I’m surprised because I always heard it’s more expensive because of all the extra airport fees they have being in airport.

 

[FigmentSpark]

You found it cheaper renting out of airport? I’m surprised because I always heard it’s more expensive because of all the extra airport fees they have being in airport.

I had heard that, too, but they just have that much more throughput and probably more vehicles. When we went up to the Enterprise counter they said, "please say you're renting a van. We have so many vans." Conversely, our local Enterprise has trouble getting vans, even when one has been booked. So yes, the taxes/fees were more, but the weekly price was much lower.

 

[starvenger]

I was actually just looking at minivans/vans to rent for my road trip in August. It was $1400 for 10 days.

So I think I'll wait a little and see if anything drops. I've no issue with driving my minivan down, but if I can get a rental for cheap, why not do it?

 

[bankr63]

I was actually just looking at minivans/vans to rent for my road trip in August. It was $1400 for 10 days.

So I think I'll wait a little and see if anything drops. I've no issue with driving my minivan down, but if I can get a rental for cheap, why not do it?

That's probably about a wash for me.

$1400 plus gas and taxes over 4000km is about $0.50/km in operating costs. I've tracked my full operating costs for my SUV over 6 years and it runs about $0.51/km (payments+maintenance+fuel/overall km). So really only $20 difference for me. I'm very comfortable in my own vehicle, so would probably stick with it, but if I had any question about reliability of my own vehicle (mileage is getting up there), then that rental would look like a really good option. Thing for me is I recently had a nicely appointed Grand Caravan rental for a work trip Ottawa to Toronto and hated it. It was so much noisier than my Traverse, drove me batty after 4 hours on the road. I'd hate that for 22 hours on the road.