town car or rental car??

[jacksonsmom]

Last time we were at WDW we had a town car pick us up at the airport & we only rented a car for 3 days while we did things off of Disney. Everything worked out great.

This time I thought we would just take a town car again & since we are not doing anything off of Disney, not rent a car.

WELL...we will only be in WDW for 4 days this December. After thinking about it I thought maybe we should get a rental car. Reason being is that we do want to check out some of the resorts Holiday decorations & we are already on a semi-tight schedule. I am thinking if we have to rely on Disney transportation it will eat up a lot of our time since their is no direct buses to each resort (btw--we are staying at the Poly)

Now, we are thinking of renting a car for the entire stay. Question is...how it the rental places at MCO? We are coming in on a Thursday in the afternoon, are they going to be busy? How does the rental places work, meaning do they have to shuttle you to the rental place? (we had to do that at LAX airport).

I have been looking at rental car prices, the cheapest I found for my dates (12/12-12/14 a weekend) was $108.00 (includes taxes & such. That is through National...is that a good price (that is with a coupon too)? We don't rent cars much so I am pretty clueless! Btw--that is for a full size car.

Our town car would have cost about $100 plus tip so the prices are fairly the same.

It is so nice just having someone drive to WDW but I just wonder if it would be more benefitful for us to rent a car this time around.

Also how hard is it to get out of MCO? Are the signs well marked?
Don't want to get lost in Orlando!

 

[ncbyrne]

There's no need to take a shuttle to pick up a rental car at MCO. These are the national chain rental car companies on property at the airport: Alamo (the "official" car of WDW), Aivs, Budet, Dollar and National.
http://www.mousesavers.com/groundtrans.html
Mousesavers.com has lots of helpful information about getting the best price on anything relating to a WDW trip, including rental cars! I never like having to completely rely on WDW transportation, especially when getting from resort to resort, so we always rent a car. It is VERY easy to get to WDW from MCO. It's the number one vacation destination in the world and they have made it very tourist friendly. The car rental agencies at MCO are also the busiest in the world. There are road signs everywhere, and everything is well marked, you won't get lost.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

If you are only planning to resort hop for 1 day I would seriously consider renting a car right at wdw. National can be called from the Poly front desk. They will have a courtesy van pick you up and take you to the MK car care center. They will also drop you back. I think its before 7 p.m. though and pick up no earlier than 7:30 a.m. I think you might need to call ahead to arrange. DH has done this before. They even take discount codes here. Dh named a few professional organizations he has etc. and took the lowest rate. Its less of a hassle. It would probably not be cost effective if you wanted the car all the time you are there plus taking a limo/towncar to the poly.

 

[DisneyConvert]

We are headed for the Poly too (in 2 days!) and are going to try to go "car-less" ourselves.

This will be a first, because together with my wonderful wife (the lady who "converted" me) I've been to WDW 4 times and she's been 8~10 times before that . . . ALWAYS with a car for the reasons that we all know about -- namely, time is scarce and car rentals in Florida are relatively cheap.

Well, with all the taxes and fees that have been added on during the last 5 years, car rentals aren't as cheap as they used to be. We also have the 1st day at Disney down to a routine and the stop that the town cars offer at Publix takes care of a lot of misc. needs. I will admit that since we're doing the "Concierge" thing this time (a 1st for us!), we hope we'll have less need for off-site errands.

As we know, the Poly is about as centrally located in "the World" as one can get. We will be a very short walk to the TTC which gets one anywhere almost as efficiently as getting the car, loading the car, driving the car, parking the car, walking from the car . . .

Finally, we are also planning and budgeting at least a few taxi rides (Early Entry at Animal Kingdom, or getting back from MGM during the middle of the day, etc.). With the money we're saving on the car rental, it's a very affordable luxury.

I'll admit that we're not sure how well it's going to work out. Still, this is part of the fun.

For what it's worth, our son is a hefty 25-month old and we are ok putting him in a regular seat belt for short trips.

 

[mad4themouse]

Given that your costs are almost equal, I think that the rental car will suit you the best this time around. Just remember to fill the gas tank before you return it. They'll soak you on the cost of filling it for you!

National is located right in the airport. You will not need to take a shuttle. If you're an Emerald Aisle member, you do not even have to stop at the counter...just go to the parking lot and pick out your car. You complete your paperwork at the exit gate.

Reserve the car and keep checking back for better rates (although I think that your rate isn't too bad). There are no penalties for cancelling your ressie and rebooking. And you'll protect yourself from any increase in price that could occur.

 

[DisneyConvert]

First time without a rental car and it worked out better than expected.

1) Price savings are considerable, especially for a 7 day trip (Week + 1 extra day/8 hours, in rental car speak). We thought we'd use taxi's a little but didn't even once.

2) Stayed at Poly which is about as centrally located as one can get. Concierge rooms were literally 7 minutes from TTC Monorail and 5 minutes from TTC Ferry.

3) Had very good luck with "Your Ride" and the particular driver Tom sent. This isn't a commercial, but we were very pleased with their delivery of services as promised.