Rental Car Shuttles at Port of Miami

[Karen@Steve]

DH and I want to pick a rental car after disembarking the Reflection. Do any of the rental car agencies have shuttles to pick you up and take you to the rental agency? I've tried calling a few of the rental agencies and haven't had any luck explaining what I want as there seems be a communications gap.:confused:

 

Anyone know or should I just plan on taking a taxi to the rental agency? The later seems counter productive in some way.

[alliebrandy]

DH and I want to pick a rental car after disembarking the Reflection. Do any of the rental car agencies have shuttles to pick you up and take you to the rental agency? I've tried calling a few of the rental agencies and haven't had any luck explaining what I want as there seems be a communications gap.:confused:

 

Anyone know or should I just plan on taking a taxi to the rental agency? The later seems counter productive in some way.

 

 

Did you try calling Enterprise? They advertise pick up and drop off anywhere. But if I may ask, how are you returning home? If flying back from MIA then I would suggest taking a cab and have them take you to any one of the car rental agencies at the airport. It would be far easier for drop off at time of departure. My other suggestion would be to take a cab to one of the hotels near the port and see if you can rent a car from there. A number of hotels have small rental offices on the premise or close by.

[Karen@Steve]

We're flying in and out of Ft Lauderdale. After we pick up a car in Miami we're visiting family north of Ft Lauderdale, staying overnight in Ft Lauderdale and then flying out the next morning. It will be easiest to pick up a car directly from the port and return the car in FLL.

[ghstudio]

Many of the car rental companies run a free shuttle from the pier to their airport location...you just have to call and ask them. Hertz ruins a shuttle to their downtown location. You don't need to take a taxi anywhere.

[RAYSWIN]

I used Thrifty Car Rental last month. They have a free shuttle that will pick you up at Port of Miami and take you to Miami International Airport where you will pick up your rental. You can return it to Ft Lauderdale Airport as there is no drop off charge in Florida. They were excellent as we picked up our rental in Sarasota and dropped it off at Miami International Airport. Then took their free shuttle to board Reflection for transatlantic crossing. You should be able to make your reservation online at the Thrifty website. I highly recommend Thrifty Car Rental and The Celebrity Reflection!

[Turtles06]

If you haven't done so already, you should ask this question on the Ports of Call/Florida board, but first use the search engine to do some research there. (This thread may well get moved there, since it's not a Celebrity specific thread.)

 

Hertz has a downtown location close to the pier, with a shuttle. We did the reverse last year, dropped a car off there and were shuttled over to our ship. It was the worst-run car rental location I've ever experienced in my life. Perhaps it has improved since then.

[ghstudio]

no, unfortunately, it hasn't changed. It is just a terribly run location.

[smtcan]

If you haven't done so already, you should ask this question on the Ports of Call/Florida board, but first use the search engine to do some research there. (This thread may well get moved there, since it's not a Celebrity specific thread.)

 

Hertz has a downtown location close to the pier, with a shuttle. We did the reverse last year, dropped a car off there and were shuttled over to our ship. It was the worst-run car rental location I've ever experienced in my life. Perhaps it has improved since then.

 

We dropped a car off at Hertz last year. The location was very disorganized and we had to wait ages for the shuttle. We usually book cars several times a year with Hertz in Europe and US, but would never use that location again, in spite of the good price.

[JohninDC]

National, Alamo, and Thrifty offer a free shuttle to their MIA airport location; Hertz offers free shuttles to their downtown location, which as mentioned above, can get swamped by cruisers. Avis is also in downtown Miami but no free shuttle (a cab from POM would be about $10-12 to Avis).

 

Good luck! :)

[Xfer2]

We rented from Alamo at Miami airport last month and took their free shuttle from POM to the airport. Alamo shares the shuttle service with another rental agency (can't remember which one) and it was a mad house with all these people trying to get on the shuttle. The shuttle came fairly frequent but we had a large party so we waited 3-4 shuttles before they could accommodate all of us. Once at the airport, there was a LOOOOONG time at the counter. We didn't know this before, but apparently if you reserved the car through Costco, you get priority check-in so we bypassed all these people!

 

We also did the pick-up at MIA, drop-off at FLL route. At least with Alamo, you pick your own car (any car within the category) and there's no one to check/mark the car for any existing damage before you leave the rental agency. When we returned the car a day later at FLL, we're told that there was a scratch on the back bumper that we were responsible for! We argued that there was no one at MIA to mark the car or log it, but since it's a one-way rental, they had no record of anything. The case went into claim investigation for a month and they eventually dropped the claim. But still, it was a month of headache dealing with them. Just beware.

[mikehn]

National, Alamo, and Thrifty. In order to board the shuttle, the driver will ask to see your reservation, so make sure to print it out and have it ready. Port of Miami is a zoo on debarkation day and it is definitely a madhouse. To tell you the honest truth, spend a few dollars and take a cab to the closest car rental of your choice.

[Karen@Steve]

National, Alamo, and Thrifty. In order to board the shuttle, the driver will ask to see your reservation, so make sure to print it out and have it ready. Port of Miami is a zoo on debarkation day and it is definitely a madhouse. To tell you the honest truth, spend a few dollars and take a cab to the closest car rental of your choice.

 

Thanks, I think I've decided to keep my Avis rental which was the cheapest of all the quotes by $20 at this point and just take a taxi. Cramped shuttle buses are not my idea of fun especially after a great relaxing cruise.

[p18750]

Avis has a special location for Port of Miami for Cruise ships. If you book this location there will be shuttle to take you to the cruise port. Here is the text from the avis site:

*GENERAL DIRECTIONS*

 

•The Avis shuttle will meet passengers at the pier. If not, call the location for pick-up service. The Avis office is located in downtown Miami, vehicles will need to be returned to (M6I) the downtown office. The Avis shuttle will take passengers back to the pier

 

http://www.avis.com/car-rental/location/details.ac?LOCATIONCODE=Q8M

[Langley Cruisers]

This original thread is over a year old and has been bumped. Having said that, I would always check directly with the agency; things can change in a year, locations open and close, policies change. Just a heads up. :)