Renting Car from Disney to Universal

[peekkaboo]

Hello! I am a newbie. We are planning our first family trip to WDW and Universal in November. We plan on surprising our boys

We plan on staying on site at Disney and then going to Universal for the reminder of our vacarion and staying on site at Universal, too. I understand we will have to arrange for transportation. I am thinking, we check out of our Disney hotel that morning, and would have to wait until 4pm to check in at Universal, so maybe we should rent a car and drive around for a day and do some shopping, touring, etc. My question now would be, do I rent a car at Disney? But will I be able to drop off the car at Universal at the end of the day? If so, where would we drop it off?

If it helps, we plan on staying at AoA at Disney and Cabana Bay at Universal.

 

[Pattil1960]

We left our luggage at the hotel and went to the park. We arrived about noon.

 

[Lynne G]

I can't remember the hotels, but both Alamo and National have drop off at hotels near Universal. The walks from those hotels are about 15 to 25 minutes to the park.

Like any hotel, check in is usually later in the day, to let the cleaning staff clean and make sure those leaving did check out earlier in the day, as usually required. You can check in anytime of day, we've checked in around 7:30am. If you room is not ready, which it may not be if you check in before 4pm, just leave your bags with bell services. That should not be a problem. I like to go the parks or at least CityWalk or the pool when I arrive at the Universal resort, even when my room is not ready. I take what I need, give the rest to bell services and leave.

Have a great vacation!

 

[peekkaboo]

I can't remember the hotels, but both Alamo and National have drop off at hotels near Universal. The walks from those hotels are about 15 to 25 minutes to the park.

Like any hotel, check in is usually later in the day, to let the cleaning staff clean and make sure those leaving did check out earlier in the day, as usually required. You can check in anytime of day, we've checked in around 7:30am. If you room is not ready, which it may not be if you check in before 4pm, just leave your bags with bell services. That should not be a problem. I like to go the parks or at least CityWalk or the pool when I arrive at the Universal resort, even when my room is not ready. I take what I need, give the rest to bell services and leave.

Have a great vacation!

Good to know they have drop off for some car rental companies.

Something about the whole leaving my luggage with hotel, makes me wonder about it, because my brother went to Mexico last year, and did just that, his flight wasn't until later, so him and his friends wanted to tour around so they left all their luggages with bell service, and well... my brother and his friends LOST everything! They claim they "lost" all their luggages. I know this isn't Mexico, but it can happen anywhere as I'm sure. I don't travel much. LOL. last time and only time I travel was when we went to Vegas for our honeymoon. LOL

My oldest told me today he wants to go to Legoland some day (my kids don't know we are secretly planning a Disney trip for them this year ), so we might rent a car and drive to Legoland for the day, but I checked and Legoland admissions are SOOOO expensive! WOW!

 

[Lynne G]

Peek, that's so sad what your brother had done to him in Mexico.

I guess I am lucky, I've never lost stuff, but I never leave anything of value in the bags I check with bell services. Most of the time I find them convenient and well mannered. I've even had them store stuff in their refrigerator when I needed to keep some food we had cool.

For rentals, check from MCO or where you are flying into, and do different rental choices. Check the rate for your whole trip (as Disney has no fee parking) and Cabana Bay has $10 or so parking per night. (So you'd only pay for parking the last day if you stayed past midnight.) versus using ME to WDW and a shorter rental to Universal and pay Cabana Bay parking, and return rental to airport when you leave, versus, ME to WDW, one way taxi or rental to Universal, and one way taxi/limo/rental to airport. Discount rental codes are on this board, and mousesavers.com has currrent rental codes on her site too.

For Legoland, check Lego packages, sometimes there's a coupon for a free kid ticket. Check the board for Lego info, sometimes people post a deal for the Florida Legoland. Know that Legoland is about 40 minutes down the highway from WDW and a little further from Universal. A car is the best way to get there. Sadly, my kids have outgrown that park, so I can't give you any other info.

I hope that helps in your planning.

 

[bumbershoot]

ETA: since you're staying at Cabana Bay, which I didn't see when I read your OP, forget what I said about Express Passes!

I am thinking, we check out of our Disney hotel that morning, and would have to wait until 4pm to check in at Universal, so maybe we should rent a car and drive around for a day and do some shopping, touring, etc.

Do what you want to do, but there is NO reason to wait until 4 to head over to Universal. They are exactly like WDW in that you can check in as early as their computers switch over to the next hotel day, which is at about 6 or 7 in the morning. They might have your room ready or they might not. But you can go there, do the checkin process, get your Express Passes (ETA: when staying at one of the the 3 Deluxe resorts), stash your bags with Luggage Services (a secure, enclosed location), and go do whatever you want.

If you're early enough for Early Entrance to Wizarding World (you still get this at Cabana Bay), go do that! You get the Express Pass (for the 3 deluxe resort)from the moment you check in to park closing time the day you check out, so you will definitely miss out on park time if you don't check in until 4!


They have Hertz cars onsite at Universal. There's an Alamo/National location a 20 minute walk away at the Four Points Sheraton; though the 4points also tends to keep a towncar there that charges the same as a taxi, so you can drop the car and then taxi back for around 10/15 bucks if you don't want to walk. We dropped our car and walked to Citywalk then entered the parks.

At WDW there's an Alamo/National at Car Care Center, there's a National at the Swan or Dolphin (can't remember which). There are others at various points near/around WDW.

 

[Redarrow5150]

Check with Unlimited Dreams about getting picked up at your resort. They also have early entrance (not with FL) to the parks one hour so that may be option instead of a rental car. Don't know the cost of what a rental car might be for that time frame or season of the year but it's worth exploring.

 

[bumbershoot]

Check with Unlimited Dreams about getting picked up at your resort. They also have early entrance (not with FL) to the parks one hour so that may be option instead of a rental car. Don't know the cost of what a rental car might be for that time frame or season of the year but it's worth exploring.

The problem with the pickup is that I don't think they allow luggage.

 

[thisismyusername]

It's probably cheaper to taxi or do a car service to Universal than to rent a car if you just need a ride from your Disney resort to your Universal resort. I just wanted to make you aware that there are other options out there other than renting a car.