rental car

[lsh]

Good afternoon,
We are heading to Disney in April and will need to rent a car for the first few days of our trip. We will be visiting relatives approximately 45 minutes from Orlando prior to our Disney reservations. We will need the car for 3 days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). We will be flying into MCO and we would like to drop off our car on Disney property after check-in. Which companies have a drop off point at Disney? Could anyone recommend a rental car agency? Also, could you make some recommendations on timing i.e. if we arrive at the airport at 12:00 PM, what time should we reserve a car for? The same goes for returning the car. We are shooting for an early check-in at 1:00. When should we plan to return the car (when do you get charged for another day or does this vary by company?). As you can see, I've not had to deal with car rentals so this is all new territory for me. One more question, if you already carry full coverage on your personal auto policy, do you need additional insurance through the rental company? Thank you so much for your help.
LSH

 

[JC Butterfly]

1) If you are due to arrive at 12:00 p.m. I would personally recommend reserving the car at 12:00 p.m. or 12:30 at the latest. Delegate one person to wait for the luggage while another person waits in line at the rental agency. Gets things done more efficiently. I believe that regardless of what time you actually reserve for, they note the time you rent it. For example if you reserve it at noon but your flight is delayed and you don't pick it up until 1:30, they will use 1:30 as your pick-up time. By you reserving it at noon they know they are to have one in their inventory ready for you at that point (someone will have to correct me if I misunderstand the policy)

2) I know that National and Alamo have a drop off point at the Car Care Center near the Magic Kingdom. there is also a drop off point at the Dolphin but I can't recall what company that is.

3) There are lots of posts on this board about the pros and cons of each rental company. I would suggest browsing through them for varied opionions. Some like National because they can use Emerald Aisle and pay for an intermediate but sometimes be allowed to take a premium car for the same price. Some like Thrifty and Payless because their rates are a little cheaper but they are not located in the airport proper and their seems to be a number of people who have had problems with them too.

I personally checked discounts and coupons for my upcoming trip. It pays to check weekly or so as there seems to be great fluctuation of rates. Keep watching this board and people will post their rates and coupons they used for you to get a good deal.

4) The grace period of return time varies by company. I assume that you mean you want an early check-in time of 1:00 p.m.? If that's true and you actually rent your car at say 12:15 and return the car by 1:00 exactly you will fall within most rental companies grace period (you would have to check to be sure but it averages about a 59 minute period). If you were late returning it, you would be charged an hourly rate for the first 2-3 hours and then for another full day beyond that (on average).

Hope this helps,
Brenda