Should I rent a Car????

[cgbsilver@hotmail.co]

We are going to be in Disneyland June 28th until July 6th, and plan to stay at the Disneyland hotel. However we want to do a tour of LA and go to Universal, plus transportation for 5 from and two LAX.

It looks to me like renting a car is the least expensive thing to do, but since I dont know anything about Disneyland was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

Let me know

Christian

 

[bclydia]

I would get a car. With the cost of Super shuttle at $30 round trip to LAX and the other things you want to do, rent a car. Check out mousesavers.com for codes on rentals and you should be able to get a decent rate.
Have fun!

 

[stampinshauna]

You could always rent from one of the companies that have locations within a mile or two from Disneyland. We rented at LAX from Hertz and then returned it the next day to their location on Katella (they dropped my husband back at the hotel). We then rented the day before we left and they picked us up and we returned at the airport. That way we didn't have to pay for the days we weren't going anywhere besides the parks, but did have it when we needed it. For 3 of us it was cheaper than paying for a shuttle, and we had the car when we wanted to go other places. It would definately save you $ since there are 5.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Definitely get a car, it'll save you money in the long run. You're paying for parking whether you have a car or not at the disneyland hotel so you might as well have one. We have young kids (4 and 7), who in the past have gotten sick in the middle of our trips. So having a car allowed us to get the necessary medicine from the store and other stuff. We don't travel without a rental car now. Definitely look at mousesavers.com for rental disocunt codes. We've gotten some great rates booking through the costco website as well as uing eth entertainment book coupons. Our last trip was 12 days with a full size car for $245 total with taxes. Book as early as possible for the best deal though.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Ok this is weird and annoying. In very early January, I reserved a car to be rented from Hertz for August. A two day rental that we'll pick up at LAX and drop off at the Anaheim Mariott. When I made the reservation, I got a rate of $50.76 for an intermediate care which was fantastic.

I just went onto the Hertz site to check the reservation and the reservation is now saying the rate is $118.37!!!! What gives?????

I usually rent from National so this is the first time I've gone with Hertz.
National has never changed my rate once I've made the reservation. How can Hertz do this?

I gotta find another rental now cause that's just too high...and of course, the other rates I found in January are now higher as well so I lost any advantage of booking early.

 

[msteddom]

You should get a car.


Melissa

 

[victorandbellasmom]

That's horrible. I don't suppose you have a printout of your reservation with the quoted price. Hertz should honor it if you've got a hard copy. Did they send you an email confirming yoru reservation in your email, that sould also work. I always make sure to printout any and all booking (hotel,plane, car, tickets) we make online and bring them with us on in case there are any disputes. We've never rented through Hertz. We've used Budget, Alamo,and Enterprise and had good experiences. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[pxlbarrel]

That's horrible. I don't suppose you have a printout of your reservation with the quoted price. Hertz should honor it if you've got a hard copy. Did they send you an email confirming yoru reservation in your email, that sould also work. I always make sure to printout any and all booking (hotel,plane, car, tickets) we make online and bring them with us on in case there are any disputes. We've never rented through Hertz. We've used Budget, Alamo,and Enterprise and had good experiences. Hope it all works out for you.

I've got the email and a hard copy of the ressie. I was supposed to be able to bypass the counter though through their express program...so if I have to fight it out with them, it means not being able to do that now. argh. I have emailed them to find out what is going on. This just isn't right.

edited 1 hour after I wrote the above:
-------------------------------------
I just got a rate that is about $1 cheaper than what Hertz promised me in January from National ($49.77) but I had to use the AMEX discount code that's mentioned in Mousesavers. I'm much happier now to be renting from National once again (and EA woohoo!). I'm going to wait to see what Hertz says about the rate change before I cancel because I want to know what their justification is.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Hertz finally got back to me.

They said that when I made the reservation, the CAA/AAA discount was available for one way rentals (ie, picking it up at LAX and dropping it off in Anaheim). Since then, the discount became invalid for those type of rentals. She assured me that my original reservation at $50 was the price I'd pay despite what is written in the reservation now...as long as I didn't change anything.

Ugh...well, I dunno...if it says $118 on the online reservation, I bet I'll be in for a war in Los Angeles when I pick up the car or worse, I'll just drop the keys off at the Mariott (afterhours dropoff) and come home and find a $118 invoice from Hertz.

No thanks, I'm going to cancel Hertz and go to National as I posted above. I can usually make changes on the National reservation (pickup time for example) and still retain my good rate.

Wow...I think Hertz should rethink their online reservation system.

 

[babiesX2]

We always rent a car. My DH is the most frugal person I know, so if it is an expense that he is willing to shell out for then it is definitely worth it.

 

[hlbtimes2]

I would rent a car. We usually dont, but we did on our last trip and really enjoyed having it. We rented from Alamo. We had not complaints. If you are a costco member you can go to Costco.com, and search for car rentals and link to the rental site from there. It will get you a discount. You can also use coupon code: D60C for $10 off a weekend rental at Alamo. ( you can use the costco price and discount together).

 

[pxlbarrel]

I would rent a car. We usually dont, but we did on our last trip and really enjoyed having it. We rented from Alamo. We had not complaints. If you are a costco member you can go to Costco.com, and search for car rentals and link to the rental site from there. It will get you a discount. You can also use coupon code: D60C for $10 off a weekend rental at Alamo. ( you can use the costco price and discount together).

I really recommend going to mousesavers.com and trying all of their coupon codes if you qualify. I found a good deal for renting a car in Vegas using a Continental Airlines coupon code (I belong to their points program). And of course, I used the AMEX coupon code for Anaheim. I tried them all.