Tell me about your experience using National rental car from Cocoa Beach

[FredS]

We will be going to WDW after the cruise, staying in Epcot area, and thought renting from National (since there is a return desk at the Dolphin) might be convenient, at least from that end.

I have a few questions. I understand from Dave's extremely helpful site that National does not have a complimentary shuttle, but will reimburse you $11 toward cab fare. Did anyone have any problems with that? Did that pay for all or most of the actual fare? Any problems getting a cab at the port (I can't remember seeing them at a particular place, but I am sure that they are there!)

What about actually getting the car at National? Prompt service, clean car? Any problems with turning car in at WDW (Dolphin or CCC) Any words of warning?

Thanks so much. I have ironed out most of the details of our May cruise, but this one is still in the planning stages.

 

[lampy]

We are planning the same thing, well, actually dropping off at MCO the next day in March. I would be curious too of someone's experience doing this.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Actually, I should update my site. I have gotten a first-hand report from somebody who's used them. They will reimburse the taxi fare in one direction but not the other. I forget which direction they will do that for.

As for the availability of taxis... they're not all <b><i>that</i></b> plentiful in the Space Coast area, but National has a negotiated rate with a specific cab company. If you call them, I'm sure they can give you the details of how long it takes and how much time to allow for the taxi to arrive.

 

[FredS]

We were stranded after our cruise in October, which was one of the more frustrating experiences, since we had paid for three "legs" (from MCO to WDW back to MCO) already and were stuck waiting for an hour for the towncar to finally get to us.

We figured it would be nice to pay half the price and hopefully have some control over getting to WDW instead of sitting in a parking lot, but we didn't want to take on a whole new set of hassles in renting a car!

 

[sara]

Hi!

We rented from National after our cruise. From what I can remember...we didn't have any trouble getting a cab at the port. I believe the fare was $14 and we were reimbursed $11. No big deal to us. National was a small rental place, not a whole lot of cars in the lot. No lines. Quick service. Clean car. We returned it to the airport without problems. Being excited to get to Disney World, we left the ship as soon as we could!


Have fun!

Sara

 

[Diz Kid]

we used National last year after our cruise. Had no problem. Taxi driver shut the meter off when it reached $11. Paid the driver, with tip. National took the $11 off our bill. My only suggestion is to be sure you request the company that National uses when you get to the shuttle area. I would think the castmember working there would know it, but specifically ask just in case.

 

[mmouse37]

My friend called me from the ship yesterday (she boarded the Magic and we disembarked yesterday) and told me National was terrible with the shuttle to the ship. The location was very far away and shuttle service very slow.

When we disembarked yesterday we had reserved with Budget. We knew that Budget sometimes has very slow shuttle service and there happened to be a cab sitting by the big tent in the parking lot. We asked how much for 4 of us to the budget location and he said 8 bucks. We gladly paid and when we got to budget there was absolutely no line. We did disembark at 9:00 and were one of the last to leave the ship so that may be why budgt was so empty.

We had also checked our bags at the Delta counter at the port even though we did not have DCL transfers or air, and we had a 8:05 pm flight. Had no problems and our luggage was waiting for us at the airport when we landed.

MJ