Renting a car after cruise...returning at mco same day

[lisamarie12]

My rental company had the sun pass so sail through and no need to slow down and no need for quarters we used dollar and Alamo.

Good to know. We are using Alamo on the way to Cocoa beach and Dollar from the port to airport. We are doing one day rentals only.

 

[elphie101]

We did this after our cruise - because we got a ride to the port by family pre-cruise we saved money overall by renting a car to get us back to the airport after for our 4:00pm flight. Since we have WDW APs, we decided to go back to MK for the half day(in hindsight, picking any park BUT MK would have been smarter, thanks to the boat/monorail eating up so much time).

We did the express walk off to make full use of our time, and I highly recommend it for this scenario. We had our last breakfast at Cabanas and faced no line in the atrium walking off the ship. Based on my photo timestamps, we left the atrium around 7:20am and were waiting for our rental car shuttle at 7:30am. We went with Budget because of a great coupon code we found, and even with other families on the shuttle with us we were still in our rental car by 8:00am and parked our car promptly at the TTC by 9:00am. We headed out of the park around 12:45pm to ensure we'd have enough time to take the monorail back to the car and take the car back to the airport in order to wait in line at security (again, we probably could have squeezed another half hour/hour of park time total had we not gone to MK - but sentimentality wins out!)

To us, this was the absolute perfect way to end the trip, and while I wouldn't recommend it if you don't have APs, I loved it!

 

[rsjj]

Thank you everyone for all your input! For those who rented from Costco..there are 2 locations for both Avis and budget in cape canaveral. Both have the same address...one states port can acetal shuttle for cruise ship, and the other, just plain cape canaveral. I'm assuming I'd pick shuttle/cruise...but there's a price difference..anyone have any thoughts on this? Are there 2 separate lines for the various types of customers?

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Thank you everyone for all your input! For those who rented from Costco..there are 2 locations for both Avis and budget in cape canaveral. Both have the same address...one states port can acetal shuttle for cruise ship, and the other, just plain cape canaveral. I'm assuming I'd pick shuttle/cruise...but there's a price difference..anyone have any thoughts on this? Are there 2 separate lines for the various types of customers?

I saw that too and was wondering which one to choose!

 

[orion2185]

Don't forget that "THE DIS" has a group code for Hertz
http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-transportation.htm

The Dis group code saved us allot of money


we used Hertz for multiple day rental this past Jan and the rental had the plat pass system for SUN PASS tolls
we opted out and paid cash there were a number of tolls from MCO to WDW, WDW to Port etc (want to say around 4 or more)

here is the excerpt from Hertz about the PLATEPASS:

"if platepass is used, Platepass LLC will charge you a service fee of $4.95 for each day of your rental including prior or subsequent days on which the platpass service is not used (capped at $24.75 per rental) plus incurred tolls at the Toll Authority's cash toll rate or highest undiscounted toll rate. Platepass LLC will separately charge your credit card or debit card the applicable charges after the close of your rental. Charges typically take 1-3 weeks after the rental closes to appear on your statement, but a longer delay may occur. Cash customers will be invoiced."

 

[DizneyNutz]

Thank you. I will have $1s, but I wanted to know whether I should bring some change too.

They often have several lanes open for exact change only (no attendees working these) you pull up and toss in the correct number of quarters and proceed when given the green light. These will not accept paper money. They may have one or two lanes with attendees working for those paying with paper money and often slower to use these. If not using any type of pre-paid system (Sunpass or Platepass) then the exact change method will often be your quicker choice not dollar bills.

 

[jiminy14]

We just did this on our cruise in April. Rented from Budget both ways. It was $66 from MCO to PC and $63 from PC to MCO for a mid-size SUV. There were four adults so we saved about $150 over Disney transfers. There are four tolls each way. Three cost $1.00 and one costs $1.25. There are attendant manned lanes at each toll plaza as well as one exact change lane.
My DH drops us off at the terminal, returns the car, and meets us later. It takes about 30-45 minutes. When we leave, we all hop in a cab (about $15) to the Budget office. It takes less time than the shuttle and we usually get there before the lines get long. There is a limited supply of cars so sometimes people end up waiting for cars to be dropped off. By renting a car (the SUV) that is not a popular choice , we have not had any problems with our car not being available.

 

[Crush518]

Well we were going to do the Kennedy Space Center but Disney does not offer this....With not all the logistics figured out we just stayed in the airport all day....This was tough with a 3 and 5 year old, I wish Disney would let you book earlier flights but ours was not till 640...So we were at the airport from 9 to 610, haha....We made it, but it was not easy! Next time I will figure out a different plan if our return flight is that late again...

 

[DizneyNutz]

Well we were going to do the Kennedy Space Center but Disney does not offer this....With not all the logistics figured out we just stayed in the airport all day....This was tough with a 3 and 5 year old, I wish Disney would let you book earlier flights but ours was not till 640...So we were at the airport from 9 to 610, haha....We made it, but it was not easy! Next time I will figure out a different plan if our return flight is that late again...

Downtown Disney would have been a great option for you. You could have eaten lunch at EoS and had World of Disney and Lego shops to entertain the children. only about one hour each way from airport and free entry.

 

[gigi1313]

They often have several lanes open for exact change only (no attendees working these) you pull up and toss in the correct number of quarters and proceed when given the green light. These will not accept paper money. They may have one or two lanes with attendees working for those paying with paper money and often slower to use these. If not using any type of pre-paid system (Sunpass or Platepass) then the exact change method will often be your quicker choice not dollar bills.

Our experience both August '14 and April '15 differs... there were multiple tolls that did not offer manned lanes at all! We traveled mid-morning the first time and mid-afternoon/early evening the second. If we did not have exact change, we would have had to drive through without paying. Please, have coins!!