Renting an RV/Camper to take to Wilderness Lodge

[Amirah95]

Anybody ever rent a camper/RV/Winnabego in FL to take to Wilderness Lodge. I was thinking that in the future instead of renting one where I live to drive down (we always drive) and rent one in Florida to take the Wilderness Lodge. I need a little advice.

 

[tim5055]

OK, I'm slightly confused. Do you want to go to Wilderness Lodge (a Disney Deluxe resort hotel) or do you want Fort Wilderness (campground and cabins)?

I will assume that you are looking for Fort Wilderness, so I'll work with that.

Cruise America is the largest RV rental company. They have a location in the Orlando area:

Cruise America
2915 N. Orange Blossom Tr.
Kissimmee, FL 34744
(407) 931-1409

Now, I admit I have never rented one, but from what I have been told the largest cost is in the per mile fee. As I understand it you pay a per day fee which includes a set number of miles (i.e. 250). Anything over that you pay extra for.

Renting in the Orlando area would save you the mileage fees, but then you have to pay airfare, pick it up, return it and so on. Additionally, you have gas for your car and/or airfare.

Renting in NJ you now have mileage fees and gas for the RV.

A third option is the cabins at Fort Wilderness. They allow you to stay at the Fort but don't need an RV.

I would price it all theree ways and see which works out best.

Just for the heck of it I used their quick quote function for a week and this is what I got:

Pick Up Location Kissimmee, FL
Drop Off Location Kissimmee, FL
Pick Up Date Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Drop Off Date Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Number of Nights 7
Compact RV $882
Standard RV $882
Intermediate RV $980
Large RV $1,036
Miles Included 700
(Unused miles are refunded at the rate of 29¢ per mile. Excess miles are 29¢ per mile. )

You can probably figure you will take about $150 (500 miles X $0.29) off their prices as picking up in the Orlando area you probably won't drive more than a couple hundered mles. It's nice they refund unused miles.


Good luck.

 

[Amirah95]

We were thinking about doing this in 2006. We drive our SUV down to Florida every year. I was thinking that we can still drive, pick up the RV in Orlando (now that I know there is a RV rental place there) and take that over to Fort Wilderness (sorry I wasn't clear, I get confused with both Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge). We want to experience the outdoors in Disney rather than a campsite here in NJ (no Disney theme parks there). That's not bad for an RV and I checked the prices for the hookups to the RV at Fort Wilderness and they don't seem too bad.

I imagine I'll need a CDL to drive one of the larger RVs. I don't know. We are deciding where to stay for our first time in Disney. DH and DD want to do Fort Wilderness, but I'm the official decision maker here.

Thank you for your time and the information. Hey, what are the amenities/activities over at Fort Wilderness that we could do if we didn't want to do any theme parks? Is there a food court over there?

 

[Disney Campers]

RV's are for personal use and therefore you do not need a Commercial Drivers license, you might also want to check out El Monte, I see their units in Fort Widlerness all the time.

www.elmonte.com