What would you do?

[casper_jj11]

Also posted on Transportation forum:

We are flying into Tampa and renting a standard SUV to get to WDW. It's going to cost us approximately $90 each way for the rental. We get in late on Aug 19th and would have to drop it off at 6am the next morning at the CCC. We would then pick up a vehicle again at 8am on Aug 26th and leave right away for the airport. I'm considering renting the SUV for the full time we're there instead. It would cost an extra $120 or so. Our itinerary so far is:

day 1 AK (no breaks), dinner Boma
day 2 ADR Chef Mickey - Epcot FW - mid day break-dinner Coral Reef-WS- Illuminations
day 3 MK - mid day break- dinner Crystal Palace - Wishes
day 4 MK - mid day break - possibly Wishes
day 5 MGM (no breaks), leave around 6:30 after adr
day 6 MK possibly 8am-10am, break, ADR O'hana, MK for Wishes

We were planning to take a cab on day 1 from Boma to resort, day 2 resort to CM & Epcot to resort before break from IG & Epcot to resort after Illuminations (through IG), and day 6 from resort to O'hana.

Would it be worth it to rent for the full time?
Is it still advisable to take a cab to any of the locations we earlier planned?
If we take the car to the Poly on day6, can we leave it there and take the boat or monorail to MK for fireworks and then take monorail back for car?
If we take the car to CM on day 2, how hard will it be to find a place to park if we're a little late getting to the park (ADR is at 7:50am). How hard will it be to make it back to the parking lot after Illuminations? Can we park outside IG somewhere and just walk there?

Oh, we're also traveling with ds3(almost 4) and dd(7mo). We'll be renting a stroller for ds but because she's so small, we're bringing dd's stroller with us.

Any opinions on which would be better would be great.
Joanne

 

[TinkerbellMama]

Also posted on Transportation forum:

We are flying into Tampa and renting a standard SUV to get to WDW. It's going to cost us approximately $90 each way for the rental. We get in late on Aug 19th and would have to drop it off at 6am the next morning at the CCC. We would then pick up a vehicle again at 8am on Aug 26th and leave right away for the airport. I'm considering renting the SUV for the full time we're there instead. It would cost an extra $120 or so. Our itinerary so far is:

day 1 AK (no breaks), dinner Boma
day 2 ADR Chef Mickey - Epcot FW - mid day break-dinner Coral Reef-WS- Illuminations
day 3 MK - mid day break- dinner Crystal Palace - Wishes
day 4 MK - mid day break - possibly Wishes
day 5 MGM (no breaks), leave around 6:30 after adr
day 6 MK possibly 8am-10am, break, ADR O'hana, MK for Wishes

We were planning to take a cab on day 1 from Boma to resort, day 2 resort to CM & Epcot to resort before break from IG & Epcot to resort after Illuminations (through IG), and day 6 from resort to O'hana.

Would it be worth it to rent for the full time?
Is it still advisable to take a cab to any of the locations we earlier planned?
If we take the car to the Poly on day6, can we leave it there and take the boat or monorail to MK for fireworks and then take monorail back for car?
If we take the car to CM on day 2, how hard will it be to find a place to park if we're a little late getting to the park (ADR is at 7:50am). How hard will it be to make it back to the parking lot after Illuminations? Can we park outside IG somewhere and just walk there?

Oh, we're also traveling with ds3(almost 4) and dd(7mo). We'll be renting a stroller for ds but because she's so small, we're bringing dd's stroller with us.

Any opinions on which would be better would be great.
Joanne

Based on that scenario, I say rent the SUV for the entire time and save yourself a boatload of headaches. If you're willing to shell out $90 each way for the airport run, then you might as well go all in and make your life easier. Personally, I wouldn't rent one at all. There are more economical ways to do it...but that is just my preference and opinion. Good luck with your decision.

 

[casper_jj11]

What other options are there other than renting from Tampa? I called limo services and taxi services and they're asking almost $200 one way for the trip. The bus would be way too much of a hassle since there's no bus leaving Tampa for Orlando after 7pm (when our flight gets in) and none leaving Orlando before 8am (we have a noon flight out of Tampa) so that would cut our trip really short. I'm open to any options that would save us the rental fees all together. I just thought I had exhausted them all.

Joanne

 

[Dizneydaz]

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Would it be worth it to rent for the full time?
Is it still advisable to take a cab to any of the locations we earlier planned?
If we take the car to the Poly on day6, can we leave it there and take the boat or monorail to MK for fireworks and then take monorail back for car?
If we take the car to CM on day 2, how hard will it be to find a place to park if we're a little late getting to the park (ADR is at 7:50am). How hard will it be to make it back to the parking lot after Illuminations? Can we park outside IG somewhere and just walk there?

Oh, we're also traveling with ds3(almost 4) and dd(7mo). We'll be renting a stroller for ds but because she's so small, we're bringing dd's stroller with us.

Any opinions on which would be better would be great.
Joanne

I would rent for the whole time. We have always rented a van and we come into Orlando. We like the freedom our own vehicle gives us.

As to your questions:
Yes you can leave your car at Poly (since you are eating there) or you can park at TTC and take a short walk to Poly.
Again, you can park at Contemporary if you are eating there and then monorail to MK and also to Epcot (from TTC). You can also park at TTC and monorail to CM.

As far as saving money, it looks like a rental will run you about $300 for 6 days. We are spending less than that for 10 days from Orlando. Keep checking rental rates, last year (Sept.) the rates kept dropping until the day before we left. I ended up with a great rate from Alamo. It even dropped within four hours of my rebooking it.

Do you have the Entertainment book-they have good discounts.

 

[casper_jj11]

thanks! I think we've decide to keep the rental. Part of the cost was renting the car seats but i talked dh into bringing the kiddos seats so that should save us about $100. The best rate I've found so far is Alamo at $230 everything in. I'm going to keep trying to see if something else comes up though.

Joanne