So Confused as to what to rent when?

[KRFillion]

Any suggestions for me on the best car rental strategy for this April 2020 vacation:

1. Arrive in FLL on Friday, April 10th. Spend 3 nights in FLL - would like a mini van to explore Miami, FLL area. There are 7 of us for this part of the trip. Our family of 4 and another family of 3.
2. Leave Port Everglades for a 5 day cruise. I like the idea of keeping the rental and paying for parking as we are on a 17 night trip and require different clothing for each part so we could leave some things in the van while on the cruise.
3. Our family of 4 will then drive to Orlando on April 18. We will spend 4 nights at a house near WDW where we would need the van to get to and from the parks.
4. We are then transferring to Universal onsite hotel where we don't need the van at all and would rather not have to avoid nightly parking.
5. We are flying home out of MCO

Would you rent a car for the full trip April 10-26? Would you rent one for just the FLL piece, return it before the cruise and rent it again for the WDW piece and return it before Universal? Is there a place I can return it at Universal - not loyal to any rental agency. Looking to book through Costco or Priceline. So many moving pieces to this trip, I just don't know what to do.

I priced out Costco for the full 2 weeks and it is $1,838 - $800 more to return it at MCO vs. FLL.

Thanks again, this is the last piece of the puzzle to figure out until I book my FP's.

 

[bumbershoot]

This is going to be an ever-changing part of it. IMO you’ll need to stay flexible with this because the options and prices will change over time.

Look at renting the whole time. Though o don’t know about leaving personal items in a paeked minivan. Maybe in a car with a trunk, but minivans and suvs don’t tend to have privacy for stuff left inside. Anyway, price that plus the parking. Price out returning and re-renting. Etc.

Don’t forget to price out how to get to MCO at the end of the trip.

Looks like (from googling) Avis is the rental car agency at hard rock hotel.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Try seeing what the price is to directly renting from the rental company Sometimes the Costco price is higher. Plus remember looking this far out will result in a high price. Look at some of the other rental car threads and you will see they were start many months before a trip and people were quoting high prices but when the trip got closer the price went down

 

[KRFillion]

Thank you. Yes I am aware of the price going down. We rent cars all the time for vacations. I will continue to look and get the lower pricing. I was just wondering if someone had a magical solution to our many legs of the vacation that would save us some money. I have all the options priced out including using UBER for alot of it. I will keep monitoring it as we have a long time to go!

 

[JimMIA]

With your complicated vacation, there are a whole host of questions to consider.

The first question I would ask is whether your hotel in FLL offers an airport shuttle. If so, a minivan would be fine for sightseeing in the FLL/Miami area -- but I seriously doubt if it would carry 7 people plus cruise luggage.

The second thing to check is whether your hotel offers a cruise shuttle. If so, you have the option of turning the minivan in and taking the shuttle. You could also Uber/Lyft from your hotel to the cruise port -- although I can tell you that Uber/Lyft driver HATE Port Everglades rides, and you might have some difficulty getting a ride. You'll get a ride eventually, but you might have to kiss a couple of frogs first.

I would also check for non-hotel cruise shuttles. I know there are a bunch of them, but I can't give a recommendation. Turning the minivan in and not paying for 5-6 days of parking and car rental will probably pay for a cruise shuttle.

Next, I would encourage you to check some travel websites like Expedia, etc to compare rental car prices. I am currently driving a Costco rental that I got at a great price, but Shelly is right above -- they are not always the cheapest. So price shop.

Also price shop the dropoff surcharge because those vary widely. On one of my CA trips, I wanted to rent at LAX and return at SFO. I got surcharge prices ranging from $600 to $0. So don't just consider the raw rental price -- factor in the surcharge, if any, to determine which is better.

And finally, if you use the minivan for part of the trip and turn it in, the surcharge for something other than a minivan may be much different. So check that option as well.

You're going to have to do a LOT of research on this question!

Good luck and have a great trip! If I can help you with any Miami area suggestions, feel free to PM me.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I think the only company that charges a drop off fee in Flordia is Dollar.

 

[KRFillion]

What I've come up with is the following:
Rent a mini van from FLL for April 10-22. I am aware that all 7 of us won't be able to fit in the mini van with our luggage. The other family will uber to the airbnb we rented (so no shuttle to the port for the cruise). We will use the van while we explore FLL and MIA. We will park the van at the park and go - actually quite inexpensive. After the cruise we will drive the mini van to Orlando to use for our WDW portion of the trip. We will drop off at the car rental agency close to Universal when we change hotels. My husband will drop us and the bags off at the hotel and he will go return the car and Uber back to the resort. All of us will then UBER from Universal to MCO when we leave. From what I calculated, based on today's pricing, this saves us a ton of money and we don't have to pay for parking at Universal.

Hopefully this plan will work out.

 

[JimMIA]

What I've come up with is the following:
Rent a mini van from FLL for April 10-22. I am aware that all 7 of us won't be able to fit in the mini van with our luggage. The other family will uber to the airbnb we rented (so no shuttle to the port for the cruise). We will use the van while we explore FLL and MIA. We will park the van at the park and go - actually quite inexpensive. After the cruise we will drive the mini van to Orlando to use for our WDW portion of the trip. We will drop off at the car rental agency close to Universal when we change hotels. My husband will drop us and the bags off at the hotel and he will go return the car and Uber back to the resort. All of us will then UBER from Universal to MCO when we leave. From what I calculated, based on today's pricing, this saves us a ton of money and we don't have to pay for parking at Universal.

Hopefully this plan will work out.

Sounds good! Just be sure to price check, price check, price check! And don't commit to anything until shortly before your vacation. You have a year, and prices will come down on a lot of things.

Two things I would suggest in FLL:

• The beach. Ft. Lauderdale Beach is typical of East Coast beaches -- very nice! In addition, it is pretty easy to access and less crowded than some of the Miami beaches.
• The Water Taxi -- this is a get-off, get-on boat that takes you all around the waterways of Ft. Lauderdale. An easy way to see the city in a half-day. https://watertaxi.com/
• Other than those two things, there's not a whole lot to see in Ft. Lauderdale unless you want to go to the Hard Rock Casino.

In addition to Ft. Lauderdale, there are a ton of things to see and do in South Florida.

In addition to Miami itself, there are the Everglades (and by that I mean the REAL Everglades -- Everglades National Park), and the Florida Keys. THE place you want to go in the Everglades is Shark Valley, with an airboat ride on the way out or the way back. www.nps.gov/EVER
https://www.sharkvalleytramtours.com/
http://www.evergladessafaripark.com/

Staying in Ft. Lauderdale, the Keys are a bit of a reach, but the REAL Everglades are doable.

 

[KRFillion]

n addition to Miami itself, there are the Everglades (and by that I mean the REAL Everglades -- Everglades National Park), and the Florida Keys. THE place you want to go in the Everglades is Shark Valley, with an airboat ride on the way out or the way back. www.nps.gov/EVER
https://www.sharkvalleytramtours.com/

Thank you for this Jim. One of our to do's is the airboat in the everglades and there is so many to chose from. I was thinking of doing an everglades tour combined with a city bus tour that would tell us more about the city. That way we can get an idea of what areas we want to go back to an look around for a few more hours. Do you have one your would recommend?

As for FLL - our plan is to chill on the beach and relax at our airbnb. The kids are afraid of swimming in the ocean in Florida due to sharks. The water taxi sounds perfect for exploring.

 

[JimMIA]

Thank you for this Jim. One of our to do's is the airboat in the everglades and there is so many to chose from. I was thinking of doing an everglades tour combined with a city bus tour that would tell us more about the city. That way we can get an idea of what areas we want to go back to an look around for a few more hours. Do you have one your would recommend?

I worked as a seasonal ranger/EMT at Everglades NP for a number of years, and I was also an airboat operator and instructor. The whole idea of "Everglades" is so misused that I tend to be pretty hard-core on the issue. Heck, some of the airboat rides east of Orlando claim to be "Everglades!"

To me, the only legitimate Everglades is that land within the boundaries of Everglades National Park. The other areas that call themselves "Everglades" are in the area of the historical Everglades, but they are now Water Conservation Areas managed by the South Florida Water Management District. ALL of the areas west of Ft. Lauderdale are WCA's. In fact, everything north of US 41 is WCA.

What's the difference? Two big differences:

• Water depth. In the REAL Everglades, the water level ranges from dry land to about knee deep in 90% of the territory. In the very deepest parts, it might get to 3 feet deep. The WCA's are 3-8 feet deep in most places. So what? That means you won't see many alligators, and you won't see any of the wading birds (egrets, herons, wood storks, etc) that the real Everglades are famous for. Alligators are there, but because of the water levels, they are widely dispersed.
• Natural water flow. In the WCAs, not one drop of water moves naturally. Everything is moved by canals, gates, and huge pumping stations -- and it has been for decades. That means that the landscape is not the typical sawgrass marsh and tree islands that you would expect in the "River of Grass." People will tell you it's the same, and you won't know the difference, but it is not the same at all.

My standard suggestion for visiting the Everglades is to go to the Shark Valley entrance of Everglades National Park. That's located 25 miles west of the Florida Turnpike on US 41. Take the two-hour, 15-mile, naturalist-guided tram tour there (link above) and you will learn more about the real Everglades than you think possible. And you'll see lots of critters. The kids can also earn their Junior Ranger badges there.

After visiting Shark Valley, the Miccosukee Restaurant just outside the park has pretty good comfort food. Next door to Shark Valley is the Miccosukee Indian Village, which the kids may find very interesting (gator wrestling and real Indians).

Between the Turnpike and Shark Valley, you will pass a number of airboat rides. Most are on the north side of US 41, and they tour WCA 3A and 3B -- NOT the Everglades. The first three airboat rides coming from the turnpike are on the south side of US 41, and they all tour inside Everglades National Park. They are concessioners regulated by the National Park Service. They are, in order going from East to West, Coopertown, Gator Park, and Everglades Safari Park. I know all of them well, and I recommend Everglades Safari Park (I gave you a link above) -- both for their safety record, and the quality of their rides. That's where we take all VIP's visiting ENP, and it's a good operation. The section of ENP that they tour is also a little more pristine than the area used by Coopertown and Gator Park.

As for FLL - our plan is to chill on the beach and relax at our airbnb. The kids are afraid of swimming in the ocean in Florida due to sharks. The water taxi sounds perfect for exploring.

Sharks are not a problem, but if the kids are afraid, they're afraid. No sense in pressuring them to do something they're not comfortable doing.

What's more of a problem in the Spring is rip-tides. If the wind is blowing hard straight in from the East, you can get a lot of undertow -- and that is legitimately dangerous.