Rental Cars - NY to FL

[dclwdwlover]

Anyone know of any good deals / convenient transfer companies that we could use for our upcoming trip? We will be driving from NY to Port Canaveral but only staying there overnight & then need the car to go to KSC, Universal & WDW & then back to the port for a 4 day cruise. (Total of 8 1/2 days before getting on the ship - leave Sat. & board the ship the following Sunday) I guess we could give up the car during the cruise, but we won't be bringing everything on board, so we would need somewhere to store our stuff. Any ideas?
Would holding onto the car (probably van) for the cruise time be monetarily foolish - or a must since we will have things we're not bringing on the ship?
We don't really want to do the shuttle to the port because then we are tied into the transfer schedule & we like to do a bunch of stuff the last day before getting on the ship. You end up wasting a lot of waiting around & picking up time we found doing the shuttle. We liked it very much, but the last time we had our car & were able to do AK for several hours before going to the port.
I read here on the boards that the Radisson has a rental co. @ their hotel and we ARE going to try to stay there the first night, but we're leaving after that to do the rest of the stuff & then driving back to the port to get onto the ship. We don't want to do KSC after the ship because we're always exhausted & know when the time comes the kids won't want to walk around there. Last trip our 15yo slept from the time he got into the car until we hit home.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Most of the rental car companies will allow you to do a one-way rental between two offices within Florida without charging a drop-off fee or inflating the rate to compensate for the convenience. There are not too many companies, however, that will let you do it between two points that are so far apart. They really don't want to encourage anyone to put thousands of miles on their cars since they lose money if there's lots of wear and tear. So you'll probably be better off renting a car in NY and paying by the week... even though you'll be paying for the time that the car sits in the parking lot at the port. Compare rates with the majors, but also look at some of the neighborhood agencies such as Enterprise and the agencies that specialize in low-priced rentals when your car's been in an accident. Check the small print on their rates, though. They might limit you to "x" number of miles per day, or they may not allow you to take the car out of the tri-state area.

 

[markey]

I went to Florida last month, actually at this time we were in a motel in South Carolina. We did not cruise, just visited WDW for the week. We drove from Pa. and did not want to put the mileage on our car. I checked all the rental agencies and not one would allow me to drop off the car and pick up again at the end of the week without a drop off fee, as much as $200. So it was cheaper to rent the car for the 10 day period. I rented from Alamo who was the cheapest. They did not ask if I was taking the car out of state and had unlimited mileage, total price for the 10 days was $250 with taxes. It was a brand new car with only 15 miles on it. I returned it with 2200 miles and they never blinked an eye.

 

[TCROMW1013]

Could someone tell me what rental company is at the Raddison?
And has anyone had experiences of picking up at the Airport and returning at the Raddison, then later picking up at Raddison and returning to Airport? Thanks.

 

[leslieh]

We did this two cruises ago. Worked out fine, did a one day rental from MCO to Radison (cant remember their code) and got the same car on the return trip back to the airport. It was under 40.00 each way, this was for a family of four.

 

[leslieh]

I did this all on line, with any discount code I could get my hands on. Worked out fine, just printed out all confirmations and took with me. Let them know at the Raddison you will also be renting taking a car back when you return. Our friends didnt check and when they went back they had no car reserved for them, but found them one quickly.

 

[TCROMW1013]

Thanks - I was hoping that this could be done so we dont have to pay for the car while we are on ship. I will give them a try.