When Should I Rent Car?

[mickeyluv]

We are going on our first cruise in November...Disney Wonder!! We are very excited to say the least!! I have a couple of questions about renting a car.

1. Is it too early to make a reservation for a rental car? We have only rented a car once before and that was only for a couple of days while at WDW.

2. What is the cancellation policy normally for rental cars?

3. There are quite a few listed for the airport in Sanford which is where we'll be flying into. Avis, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, and Thrifty. I checked Thrifty and we can get a mid size for the entire week for about $180.00. Does anyone have any experience using Thrifty or any of the other companies listed?

Thanks so much!!!

 

[mickeyluv]

bump

 

[plutospup]

First of all...do you need a rental car for the entire week, or just for transportation from the airport to the port?

No, it isn't too early to make a reservation. You can check the rates online, and cancel at any time. Keep checking the rates. Sometimes they do go lower. If that happens, cancel your original reservation, and make a new one with the lower rate. Check www.mousesavers.com for rental car discount codes.

Parking at the port I believe is $12/day.

We've used Avis many times in the Orlando area. Easy checkin (Preferred Service), easy dropoff, clean cars, and overall good experiences. I am sure others have equally good things to say about other rental companies.

 

[mickeyluv]

Thanks plutospup for your reply. We are flying into Sanford on Allegiant Air and coming in on Friday afternoon before our cruise on Sunday. We get back to the Port on Thursday morning from our cruise and are going to WDW for MVMCP Thursday night and then driving back to Sanford on Friday morning for our flight home. Thinking of our options, I was thinking that the getting a rental car for the week would be more convenient. We are staying at Country Inn and Suites and were planning on DH taking us to the port and me and DD staying and getting the luggage checked in and us checked in and DH would take the car back to the CI&S and park it there for free and use the shuttle back to the port. My sister was telling me that costwise it might be cheaper to rent the car for the whole week and then we wouldn't have to rent, turn-in,and then rent again. That's my story. What do you think?

 

[plutospup]

Sounds good, especially since you can leave your car at CI&S, and not have to pay $12/day for parking. Upon your arrival at CI&S, but sure to tell them only your husband will need the van to go to the port. I believe there is a per person charge for this shuttle. CI&S doesn't have their own shuttle service, but contracts out for it. You shouldn't have a problem.

Have a great vacation!

 

[DebbieB]

One advantage with rental cars is there is no penalty to cancel. So you can make a reservation and if the rate goes down, make another reservation and cancel the original. For my trip in April, I probably redid my reservation with National at least 5 times as the price went down.