Renting a Car at WDW?

[lovesLilo]

Hi - We're debating on whether or not to rent a car for our 10 night stay at Pop in early December 2012. We were originally planning on just using Disney's bus system but after looking at some of the restaurants at the various resorts, we're wondering if it might be worth the money to get a rental car as there are no buses that go directly from resort to resort. We're for sure planning on breakfast at Ohana but may do a couple other TS meals at resorts if we either find that it's not too difficult to navigate the bus system or we rent a car. Not sure if this will make a difference but the trip will only be DFi and I, and I use a manual wheelchair.
Also, I read in a guidebook that you can rent a car @ WDW hotels. Is this true?

 

[disneymarie]

I rented at Enterprise years ago. They picked me up, and dropped off. There are other Disney rental areas and companies.
Seems a lot less cost to rent from the airport as I am pricing for rental in June. '
On site areas are double the cost so far.

We rented in the past MCO, dh and ds picked up our rental, we rode the ME and all met up soon after.

The trips to dinner in October were doable for us, some were at the parks, and one at Poly for the luau. For that we left the park and rode the Monorail over.

 

[figment_jii]

Alamo and National have a rental desk at the Swan. There is also the Car Care Center (near MK), which has rental car venues. Several of the DTD hotels also have rental car counters, but I don't think there are any at the other Disney-owned hotels with rental counters.

I rent a car (from Alamo/National at the Swan) because it's much easier to get to resort dining reservations. As you said, there are no resort-to-resort buses, so you either have to get to a park (as a transfer point) or take a taxi. If you take the bus, it might be up to 1.5 hours to get to another resort. For a taxi, it's usually between $15 to $20 plus tip, so it mounts up pretty fast.

Also, you'll be there in December and if you have a car, it's easy to tour the resorts to see the Holiday decorations! My family did that and it was a lot of fun. You can see most of the Deluxe resorts fairly easily, but the moderates and values are harder without a car.

 

[Mousemom234]

December, yes. The parks close earlier, and you don't want to be transferring in and out of Downtown to get to resort dinners.

Rental in the World is also usually much cheaper than if you pick up at the airport. The last few times we've rented from the car care center, and returned to the airport. You can call them, and they'll send a free shutttle to pick you up at your resort - it takes a while, so call in advance, and set a time for pickup.

This trip (mid August), we're planning to spend the morning of day 1 in AK, have breakfunch and then bus over to the Swolphin to pick up the car there. It was nearly $200 less than airport pickup.