Renting car at WDW & returning at MCO

[kermit116]

We're considering renting a car halfway through our weeklong trip to WDW. I'd like to just rent a car on property from the Care Care Center or the rental location at S&D, and then keep it until we leave and return it at MCO.

Does anyone have experience with this? Is it generally more expensive to return the car to MCO if you rent from a location on Disney property?

Trying to figure out if it would be cheaper to return the car to MCO or to return the car at the same location on property where we rent, and then take a cab to to the airport.

We'll be taking ME when we arrive to get from the airport to the resort, but due to an issue with our family's reservation we probably won't be able to take ME back from the resort to MCO. We really only want to rent a car for about 3 days of our trip, so we don't want to rent at MCO and have the car the entire week unless it would cost the same as renting for just a few days & returning it to MCO.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

As luck would have it there is not a surcharge for picking up at one location and dropping off at a different location.!!

I do find that I have gotten a better rate by renting from Dollar which is located across the street from DTD in the Regal Sun hotel. Use the code "Kisse" which is a code available to the public and score an added savings.

I just priced a car at the CCC and dropping it off at MCO and the cost was $150 more for a 5 day rental. Compare to renting a car at MCO and return to MCO for the whole length of my trip which is 8 days!

What 3 days will you need a car for (dates please) ? And what day will you arrive and depart MCO. I will see that your price difference is. What size car would you like?

 

[GrnMtnMan]

Does anyone have experience with this? Is it generally more expensive to return the car to MCO if you rent from a location on Disney property?

While this answer is akin to the question "who is buried in Grant's Tomb".....the answer is it depends on prices.

My last few trips, we considered picking up a car at a nearby rental location (so we could use DME and have the bags delivered to the room), and made several reservations in the months before my trip. Most of the time when I went to price this out, picking up locally near/at WDW and returning to MCO was a bit more expensive than just renting from the airport. There were brief occasions when this wasn't true, and I changed my reservations when I saw the opportunity.

But 3 or so weeks out, prices at MCO plummeted, and we ended up just picking up the car at the airport, keeping it for the week. Doing this was almost half of what it would have cost to pickup on-site, have the car fewer days, and return it to MCO.

In all of me subsequent trips, this plummet 3 weeks before the trip has been the pattern....to the point that its been cheaper to pick-up and drop-off at MCO, and have the car sit unused in the parking lot for several days, than to pick up and return local for a smaller number of days.

 

[kda]

The only way to know is to price it out and keep checking. I've looked many times, and it's almost always been more expensive to rent at WDW (no matter if the car were returned at WDW or MCO). However, a couple of years ago the rate for 9 days from MCO was running close to $400. I could save almost $150 by using ME and picking up a car at the Car Care Center on the 2nd day ...... we returned at the airport.

We would do this again, if the price were less, but it sure took a LOT longer to get the car. It made us appreciate the Emerald Aisle even more.

Since you don't want the car for the entire week, this could work well for you. There wasn't any difference in price to return at the airport. Dropping off in a different site seems to be more common in Florida.

 

[LisaTC]

I priced it both ways through National with a discount code and found the price identical. I like you am considering ME on arrival and car return to MCO. Just keep checking. Also, mousesavers.com has great codes the closer you get to your trip, check often. I know National will let you piggy back codes, ie., coupon and contract ID, I do believe.

 

[Crittermom]

Just curious, why would you want to use ME to the resort?

 

[LisaTC]

I don't know if this was in relation to my post or not, but one reason I was thinking about taking ME to resort to rent the car at WDW was the Airport Taxes, etc added on about $69. Some don't want to rent a car at all at WDW and take buses the whole time, including ME.

We've flown into Tampa and out of Orlando and had no problem with that and it didn't add to the cost. This last time we opted to fly into and out of TPA because we saved so much even with renting a car.

Does that answer your question??