Renting a car at TPA for a DCL cruise, then going to WDW?

[Fall1]

Would love some feedback on rental cars. We are going on a 4 night on the Dream in April and will need a car from TPA to the port then from the port to WDW after the cruise.

Will my best choice be to rent 1 car for the entire time or do you think I should rent in TPA, return at the port and then rent at the port again and return at MCO after WDW?
We definitely want a car for WDW, not transfers.

If you think we should return/rent from the port, which is the easiest company to do so from?
Thanks!!!

 

[Shelebeen]

We have done the fly into TPA before and driven to WDW.. its an easy drive. I would personally rent from whomever is cheapest and drop it off in Canaveral before your cruise and then do a second booking post cruise. All the companies have shuttles and are fairly close.

I think we have used budget, avis and this trip we are renting from National at FLL, driving to WDW, then getting private car to the port and renting from National to head to Vero beach and then back to FLL.

 

[dcassetta]

All of the major car rental companies are available at Tampa international, so I would go with the one that's cheapest. You might want to price it both ways, keeping the car for the entire time, or making two separate reservations. Remember that if you keep the car the entire time, you will need to pay for parking while on the cruise, so that should be factored into the rental price. Barring any Major traffic issues, the drive from Tampa international to Disney World is about an hour, and then another hour or so out to the port.

 

[bumbershoot]

Will my best choice be to rent 1 car for the entire time or do you think I should rent in TPA, return at the port and then rent at the port again and return at MCO after WDW?

The ONLY way to know is for you to price YOUR trip. There is no generalized "what's cheaper" when it comes to rental cars. At any point a company might really need a car out of Tampa and into the port or MCO. Or maybe they are full up and will price it higher. You never know in general.

 

[TheCapellsMom]

Just a piece of advice: every time we look into renting a car from the airport to the cruise terminal, we find that the fee to drop off and pick up in different locations makes it rather pricey. For just a little bit more, we usually reserve a limo from the airport to the port. That way, you get door to door service- no searching for the rental desk, piling everyone and their luggage into a shuttle to the rental location, and then doing it all over at the other end. When we fly into Orlando, we always use Happy Limo and have been very pleased with them. Not sure if they also service TPA but it's worth your at least looking into it.

 

[KingRichard]

Budget doesn't charge a one way fee and we find is usually the cheapest, but you must price them out and find those discount codes online and SAVE!

 

[Shelebeen]

From what I could tell, none of the major rental agencies charge a one way drop fee in FL.

 

[SleepyDeb]

We did this with Hertz. I noticed that the other agencies had lines out the door and with Hertz we just walked up. It was just a few dollars more (< $10 more) with discount codes.

 

[britfish]

We priced it out and even with paying to park at the port it was cheaper to keep the rental car the whole time.

 

[aidtrismommy]

We rented from MCO and had it for less than 24hours as it was dropped off around 0930 in Port Canaveral. We then picked up a new rental for our four days at WDW after our cruise. We priced it out and it was cheapest this way as we needed a car for our first night (we flew in a day early and stayed in Orlando). It was not cost effective for us any other way. I realize you are using a different airport. But crunch some numbers with all of your options and decide what is most cost effective for your family and needs.