Travel experts.....

[mickeyluv]

Good morning everyone! We are cruising w/DCL but would like to go down a day before our cruise therefore we are thinking of renting a car from the airport and driving it to Cape Canaveral. Which airport would you fly into?? Also, I've heard that Budget is a good car rental company. How would we go about dropping the car off? We cruise on 11/25 so we would pick up the car on the 24th at whichever airport we fly into and drop the car off on the 25th but we never cruised before and I'm not sure how we would get to the Disney Cruise terminal to board for our cruise. Can someone who may have done this before give me some insite?!?

If it weren't for this board I don't know what I'd do!! I get so much help and information from you guys!!

 

[erikthewise]

Good morning everyone! We are cruising w/DCL but would like to go down a day before our cruise therefore we are thinking of renting a car from the airport and driving it to Cape Canaveral. Which airport would you fly into?? Also, I've heard that Budget is a good car rental company. How would we go about dropping the car off? We cruise on 11/25 so we would pick up the car on the 24th at whichever airport we fly into and drop the car off on the 25th but we never cruised before and I'm not sure how we would get to the Disney Cruise terminal to board for our cruise. Can someone who may have done this before give me some insite?!?

If it weren't for this board I don't know what I'd do!! I get so much help and information from you guys!!

Please consider also posting on the Disney Cruise Line Forum where people are much more knowledgeable about these issues.

In the meanwhile, I don't have details for you but most of the major rental companies have offices in Cocoa Beach and many of them provide shuttle service to the port. If yours does not, I suppose you can take a cab.

Is your cruise 7 days?

 

[mickeyluv]

Thanks! I'll post over there. Our cruise is for 4 nights.

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

We did this last year. We flew into MCO, picked up a car at Budget, went to WDW for the day, spent the night at a hotel and then drove to the port. DH dropped me and DS off with all the luggage and drove the rental car back to Budget. They have shuttles to the port that leave every few minutes. Or, you could drop the car off together and then take the shuttle (with your luggage) to the port. We had WAY TOO MANY suitcases and it was easier to drop the luggage off first instead of shuttling it around.

 

[mickeyluv]

Being that this is our first cruise we would like to stay together if possible. Is it possible to drop off our luggage at the port terminal, take the car to the Budget office, and then all three of us go on the Budget shuttle back to the port to check in for our cruise? We're just a little nervous about splitting up!

 

[erikthewise]

mickeyluv,

Since your cruise is only 4 days, you might want to consider just a single rental and park it at the Port. If you investigate you may find that it doesn't cost much more to do that than two separate rentals. The parking fee itself is $12/day. We have done that on each of our cruises, which were combined with a WDW stay. But it might work for you too. I think it's worth a little extra to not have to deal with dropoffs and shuttles both before and after.

 

[mickeyluv]

We're staying at the Radisson the night before our cruise and I think they have the cruise parking deal!?!

What if something happens to the rental car (whereever it's parked at) while we're on the cruise? Are we responsible for that? We've only rented a car once while on vacation so we're new to car rentals!

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

Being that this is our first cruise we would like to stay together if possible. Is it possible to drop off our luggage at the port terminal, take the car to the Budget office, and then all three of us go on the Budget shuttle back to the port to check in for our cruise? We're just a little nervous about splitting up!

Yes, that is possible. But I would make sure you get to the port at about 10:00 so you miss the crowds and are able to get back with plenty of time.

 

[mickeyluv]

Yes, that is possible. But I would make sure you get to the port at about 10:00 so you miss the crowds and are able to get back with plenty of time.

Okay, thanks for the tip!

 

[goofy4tink]

We're doing our very first cruise in August and we're renting from Budget. We are staying at WDW for a week before our cruise. I priced out various options for renting a car. Finally decided to take DME back to MCO, and rent a car from Budget there. Then, we drive to Port for a few days, my dh will drop dd and I off, with luggage at the terminal, and he will return the car to Budget office and get a ride back to the ship. We will then reverse it all when we get off the ship, and then drive to Tampa for a few days.