Which car rental is most convienient at MCO

[all5ofus]

We usually use a car service to get from MCO to WDW, but will be renting a car this time. Since we will be travelling with three young kids and enough stuff for a small army I am more concerned with convenience than price. (within reason)

Which car rental company has the most convenient setup at MCO?

Are there any you do not have to take a shuttle bus to the parking lots?

Who has express pickup options to skip the counters?

Is the return process efficient or do you have to allow a lot of extra time?

Thanks in advance. Any opinions are appreciated.

 

[DebbieB]

I've always used National and they are very convenient. No shuttle, you just cross the street to the garage. If you use Emerald Club or Quick Rent, you do not need to go to the counter, you checkout on the way out. Using codes and coupons, I've found their prices to be good.

 

[arizonacolbys]

I'll be curious to hear other's answers, too!

We used to use the towncar service, but actually used National on our trip a couple of weeks ago. We found it to be cheaper to rent a car on our arrival & departure days than the towncar service & it was very convenient.

We used the Quickrent thru National. We walked into the parking garage across from the baggage p/u, got in a car & drove to the booth at the exit. They verified my paperwork & sent us on our way. No counters or lines to wait in (this was great!) We checked into our resort & returned the car to the drop-off location at the Dolphin & went on to the MK.

On departure day, we spent the morning at MK & then p/u'd our car at Dolphin & p/u'd our luggage from the POP. We drove to the airport & followed the signs for rental car return. We drove into the garage, parked & along came a man with a scanner. He scanned the VIN(or something ) & printed us a receipt saying we were all set.

It was a pretty easy transaction all the way around & doing this saved us about $45 from the towncar services. We just booked National again for our trip in Jan. I'd also love to hear if someone has a better recommendation on rental companies -

 

[vasoccermom]

I've been tracking rental car rates for the past 3 weeks or so and we're holding really inexpensive ressies on a compact car through Alamo, Budget and Dollar...every time I check National (which everyone on this site seems to rave about) , their rates seem substantially higher.

We just enrolled in Fasbreak through Budget and I'm contemplating enrolling in Fastlane through Dollar. However I'm told that as a first time "member" I cannot bypass any of the counters since they need to verify ID. I'm assuming at most counters, there might be a second line for these members so maybe that will keep things speedy but it's all still a big black hole to me



Karen

 

[travelbug]

I've also rented from Budget and Avis, and have found both to be conveniently located in MCO. Usually Avis seems to be higher priced than many other companies, but last Easter I got an outstanding Avis rate so I went with them.

I've been tracking car rental rates for my Feb. vacation, and plugging in whatever codes and coupons I can get my hands on. So far, my best rate by far has been with Budget. So I booked with them, but will continue looking in case something lower comes along. National rates have not been great for my dates so far, but that could change too.

Good luck!

 

[Tink03477]

I've booked National on my last 2 trips and the rates were fantastic! This time I have to go with Dollar as the rate is much lower. For some reason National is double the price, no matter what code combo I use. I signed up for all of the clubs last year. Dollar is in the MCO garage as well and will be as convenient as National. I hope.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

I booked with Dollar for this trip. Just got my FastLane card and a free upgrade coupon. Not sure if I want to use it since it is just me and DW and our carry on luggage.

With FastLane, you have a special line, show your id and credit card, sign the agreement "and you're on your way!" i set up my FastLane to decline all the coverages and the gas pre-pay, so I hope they don't push the stuff. (But just in case, I copied my insurance policy and I booked it on my Disney Visa. The Platinum Visa has rental car coverage and if you go to the Visa.com site, they actually suggest you decline the CDW that the rental company offers.)

 

[inkkognito]

We use Priceline, which almost always gives us an onsite company (except Hertz, which we get once in awhile). Our favorite onsite is Avis, which tends to have shorter lines and nicer cars. Budget's line is usually not too bad either, and we once got a great upgrade with them (from economy to SUV!). Alamo is okay, but they can be pushy with the insurance and their line tends to be long (although not always). We got National once...they have the same cars as Alamo but the line was much shorter and they were not at all pushy about the insurance.
Even though Hertz is offsite, the bus is always right there and it's painless!
Barb