thinking of flying into tampa to save $ on air ...

[krmlaw]

anyone do this?

never flew into tampa. is it easy to get to car rental there? is it a "hard" drive to disney?

 

[Kae]

anyone do this?

never flew into tampa. is it easy to get to car rental there? is it a "hard" drive to disney?

I think it is an easy drive we have flown into Clearwater & drove over. Not quite an hour & a half. We reented a car from Tampa when we cruised they had a very nice rental car area-we went to the port & back not the the airport area but very easy to do.
Kae

 

[scottmel]

We are doing the same thing this summer. I have free tix on SW but getting into MCO at a decent time was impossible. Tampa was easy. DH estimated it to be around 35 minutes longer than getting from orlando to disneyworld. We are arriving on the weekend though and departing on weekend and I have heard Tampa traffic at rushhour in the work week is tough but weekends or off hours seem to be fine! I also booked an 8 day rental car at a great price in August - few dollars less than my original MCO rate

 

[Brian Noble]

Done it once or twice. The rental car location is not walking distance, but requires a shuttle. The drive is a little bit of a hassle. I would need to be saving a non-trivial amount of money to do it again.

DH estimated it to be around 35 minutes longer than getting from orlando to disneyworld.

I think this is probably too optimistic, by almost half. It will be around 1.5 hours without traffic (and there may well be traffic on 4). MCO's drive is about 30-35 mins, with no traffic if you take the southern toll route.

 

[encinc]

Done it once or twice. The rental car location is not walking distance, but requires a shuttle. The drive is a little bit of a hassle. I would need to be saving a non-trivial amount of money to do it again.

Most (if not all) rental locations at Tampa are right on site (I believe that National and Alamo are still a shuttle ride away). If traveling with a family, it's not hard at all to save a nontrivial amount of money by changing airports. Even if it's only $50 a ticket, that quickly becomes $200 for a family of 4. One thing in to look into though, is the cost of car rentals at Tampa versus MCO. I know rentals tend to be cheaper at MCO than at Fort Myers. If the cost of the rental is more, then the savings on airfare might be negated. Hard to know...

 

[srberubenh]

Most (if not all) rental locations at Tampa are right on site (I believe that National and Alamo are still a shuttle ride away). If traveling with a family, it's not hard at all to save a nontrivial amount of money by changing airports. Even if it's only $50 a ticket, that quickly becomes $200 for a family of 4. One thing in to look into though, is the cost of car rentals at Tampa versus MCO. I know rentals tend to be cheaper at MCO than at Fort Myers. If the cost of the rental is more, then the savings on airfare might be negated. Hard to know...

We fly into TPA all the time to go to Disney. We love it! I think the airport is must less hectic especially when leaving. Also, Alamo and National are now in the terminal so it is a piece of cake! Most of the time we find the rental cars as cheap or cheaper at TPA.

 

[Disneyhappy]

I fly in/out of TPA several times a year for business, family and of course WDW. Great airport. It takes us 35-45 minutes longer to get to WDW from TPA than MCO. Rental cars are NOW in the airport and shuttles are not required. Rental cars are easy and there is no extra charge for picking up at TPA/MCO and dropping off at the different FL airport. Traffic can be bad depending on whether you will be traveling on I-4 at rush hour.

 

[JennSaint]

Like other have said it's a fairly easy 1 hr 15min ride. We've done it a few times if the price is alot lower than MCO.
We actually flew into Daytona and out of Tampa this past February even though we were staying in the WDW area. Alamo didn't charge us a ridiculous return fee either.

 

[mhf]

We are flying into Tampa shortly. The car rental was over $200 cheaper (9 days) there vs MCO. And the times were better for SW flights going down and cheaper fares going home. I find Tampa airport much easier to navigate and their security seems better organized.

 

[kksmom92]

We were looking into flying into Tampa as price wise it was about the same to fly into Tampa, but the car rental was a lot cheaper than MCO.

I then checked and found the best deal for us was actually to fly into MCO and leave from TPA. The one way rental with Alamo was cheaper than had we of returned it to MCO.. go figure.

 

[a1tinkfans]

weve done this once, it was to actually be in that area before our trip to disney.
It'd have to be a pretty big savings for us to do it again. The Xtra money for a rental, pick up of car, drop off of car, over an hour drive (more like 1 1/2 with traffic) and loss of ME ride (I actually unwind/enjoy the ride) are the draw backs for me.
Yes, it can be done but the "savings" would have to be pretty significant........

 

[Elmo007]

Tampa is a nice Airport. It has Airsides, so the secuirty is spread out over multiple locations as opposed to centralized as in MCO. Also if you are picking someone up, the cell lot is great.

Car rentals are right on property and a short walk. I usually go and do the paperwork while everyone else gets the luggage. Its a short walk and helps beat the line a bit.

I liek to add a day to my trip and start at Busch Gradens and the go up to Disney.

Finally, at rush hour the traffic near the airport can be brutal. I4 is hit or miss but not bad. Its an easy drive and you can usally skirt some of I4 by entering WDW from the South