Rental car question.

[marquaveous]

I will be traveling from the Atlanta area to the Port of Miami and was wondering if anyone had any experience renting a car for the drive down, turning the car in the morning of the cruise and then picking up a car(same one preferably) and driving back? I've got a looonnnggg time to get my ducks in a row, but I'm an OCD head case about little details like this.

[Hstergo]

Is there any reason you want to drive down? If not it may be cheaper to fly and not drive a total of 1,400 miles because if you turn in the car during your cruise you will be charge for 2 one way rentals which is quite expensive.

 

If you still want to do that I would suggest renting the car for a round trip and and staying at one of the hotels that offer free parking while you go on your cruise.

[JohninDC]

Logic tells you that paying for a rental car and parking while you cruise makes no sense :confused: - but travel pricing often makes no sense, so I would price it out both ways. ;) National, Alamo and Thrifty offer free shuttles to POM from their MIA airport location.

 

Unless there are 3-4 in the car my guess is that it would be cheaper to fly down; if you fly down the day before your cruise you open up lots of airport options (MIA, FLL, MCO, TPA, and Sanford) that may make things a bit cheaper for you -- there's usually no one-way drop charge for car rentals within FLA.

 

Good luck! :)

[marquaveous]

I've got a year to figure it out, so hoping airfares aren't much more than now that may be the better option with only 2 in my party. Then I presume we'd take a cab or shuttle to a hotel then shuttle to port on cruise day. Thanks for the feedback!

[erby2283]

If you do rent a car and have a warehouse membership, like costco/sam's/BJ's, check their rates! A one-way search on Budget form MCO to TPA was $140 but when I booked through my warehouse, it was $75!