Rental car drop off at Port Canaveral

[xyankee]

Going to Orlando 2 days prior to our cruise on the Disney Dream in October. I'm planning on renting a car at Orlando Airport and dropping it off at Port Canaveral the morning of the cruise. What car rental companies are closest to the port and do you recommand any car rental companies?

[Kamloops50]

Going to Orlando 2 days prior to our cruise on the Disney Dream in October. I'm planning on renting a car at Orlando Airport and dropping it off at Port Canaveral the morning of the cruise. What car rental companies are closest to the port and do you recommand any car rental companies?

 

Most of the major ones are close to the port . What to check is whether they have shuttles to the port. We have used Budget most of the time.

[moki'smommy]

There are lot of long threads on this.

 

To start with, you cannot drop off a car at PORT Canaveral. I do realize that I'm being picky, but if you do a search for rental locations, you'll be told that there aren't any if you check PORT Canaveral. The car rental places are located in CAPE Canaveral and Cocoa Beach.

 

Hertz is the closest, Budget is about 2 blocks farther away. (about a mile from the port). The other major companies (Thrifty, Avis, Enterprise) are about 3-4 miles down the road. As far as I know, all run complimentary shuttles back to the cruise terminal.

 

I typically choose based on price. While Budget is usually best, I've had Thrifty come out on top a few times. The advantage of Budget is that it is closer to the cruise terminal and provided all employees report to work, they operate 2 shuttles on cruise days. That means less waiting. Be sure to get a discount code (rentalcodes.com, travel magazines, etc. will have them) as a code can take as much as 50% off your cost. And I don't care HOW they determine the price, I care about what the total cost will be. They can call things any "fee" they want as long as their total is lowest! Also, Budget will let you store a car seat at their location (you bag it, tag it, and it is waiting when you return) provided you are renting from them both ways.

 

We have had good service from both Budget and Thrifty.

 

A couple hints. On cruise morning, drop the family and the luggage at the terminal, and have the driver with no luggage return the car. That way, the family gets in line to check in. While there may not be room on the shuttle for a family with luggage, there is almost always a seat for a solo person with no suitcase...thus, you don't have to wait for another shuttle. On the way home, get in line for the shuttle, but again, if there is only room for one more, have the driver hop on and get the car. Then communicate with the family via cell phone as to whether they should take the next shuttle to the car place (if you are standing in line) or you will pick them up at the port (if you have the car already).

[moki'smommy]

Budget pick up code is MCO and drop of code is CC5.

 

Joing FastBreak or the loyalty program for whichever company you choose. It won't do anything at Canaveral, but will save tons of time at MCO. And save your gas receipt. They verify it if you drop off at MCO--no receipt= automatic $13.99 charge.

[dexddd]

We've used Budget the last 4 or 5 times but the last time both ways was a real disaster. Way too many people renting with not enough staff, not enough parking spots, not enough buses. On the way to the ship the line was from the Budget front door and backed up all the way around the building.

 

A bus would arrive and some people would cut as they walked out of the rental office. There was a guy with his wife and two smaller children right in front of us who was going crazy (partially understandable). When the third bus arrived we were getting on and his party and ours were getting the last few seats or so we thought since some people were taking up two. People finally left enough room but he got off the bus and we kept telling him there was room. He was yelling at his wife the whole time while we were outside and when he huffed off the bus - I thought he was going to lose it.

 

I felt really bad for her and as we were driving to the port talked to her to try to get her to feel a little better. It was their second cruise.

 

On the way back there was an older mother and her daughter who were working the parking lot and checking you in when you arrived. Total disorganization - people would park where they could since not enough parking spot and the ladies would run around at whoever yelled or swore at them the loudest which they would swear back and then skip over that person.

 

OK - so other than the bad experience we had at Budget and won't be using them in December, if you are going as a family, have one of the people in your party drop everyone else off at the ship and let them deal with the car rental place. You can have the other family members take all the luggage so you don't have to hike it on the rental bus and you won't have to worry about getting more than one of you on the bus and you won't have to wait out in the hot sun if there is a long line.

[isles1]

Used Alamo from MCO to Cape Canaveral, and National from Cape Canaveral to MCO. Both are run out of the same location in Cape Canaveral and is the furthest from the port of all rental companies. I selected agencies based upon price. It appeared at least two shuttles were running on our travel days, but the wait going from the port (around 10am) was far longer than the wait going to the port (around 11am).

 

It gets very busy at the Cape Canaveral location, so make sure you put your name on the shuttle list when you arrive. Seems like they try to organize shuttle by cruise line if it is very busy. The Cape Canaveral location is very small, so you may need to wait if your car is in the overflow lot. The staff was very friendly, efficient and helpful.

[perditax]

Is there any reason not to just call a taxi or uber from the rental office and skip the shuttle insanity?

[moki'smommy]

Is there any reason not to just call a taxi or uber from the rental office and skip the shuttle insanity?

 

The "insanity" is not usually on the way TO the terminal for embarkation. We've had at least 3 experiences where by the time I was finished checking in the car, my passengers already had our luggage on the shuttle and ready to go! The insanity is on the way from the terminal to the car pick up place. There is no reason that you can't call a taxi from just outside the terminal (actually, there is a line of cabs, you don't need to call one.) But you may still have to wait in a line to get your car. As noted, the offices are small, typically with 2 people behind the counter. And all it takes is one idiot without a reservation to tie up one of them forever!

[perditax]

The "insanity" is not usually on the way TO the terminal for embarkation. We've had at least 3 experiences where by the time I was finished checking in the car' date=' my passengers already had our luggage on the shuttle and ready to go! The insanity is on the way from the terminal to the car pick up place. There is no reason that you can't call a taxi from just outside the terminal (actually, there is a line of cabs, you don't need to call one.) But you may still have to wait in a line to get your car. As noted, the offices are small, typically with 2 people behind the counter. And all it takes is one idiot without a reservation to tie up one of them forever![/quote']

 

Thanks for the further clarification, as always!

[moki'smommy]

What has worked for us.....

 

On the way TO the port, assuming we came in the night before, we drive to the terminal or car return place. Since I normally travel with one person who now needs a wheelchair, I leave it up to her as to whether she wants to be dropped at the terminal or stay with me as it is an effort for her either way. I return the car and shuttle back to the terminal. There is generally no delay at the car return place--sometimes a 5 minute wait for the shuttle, other times the shuttle is sitting there waiting for passengers.

 

On the way back to the airport, assuming a participating airline and a reasonable flight departure time, it is worth the extra money to take the DCL transportation. That way, we don't have to deal with luggage till we get to our home airport. On the other hand, if we have a late flight, we will often choose to get a car so that we have some flexibility in how we spend our day. MCO does have free internet and a lot of eating places, but you can't check in luggage till 4 hours before your flight. There is no point in sitting there at 10 waiting to be able to check the luggage! Would rather have it tossed in a trunk an go wherever suits the gang.

 

In all fairness though, our travel has changed with the wheelchair situation--we now go for physical ease, even if that means a little more expense. It is just one of those "has to be this way" issues.

Edited June 4, 2015 by moki'smommy

[Hidden Minnie]

We have used Hertz several times and have always had good experiences. Their pick up/ drop off location is in the parking lot between the Country Inn and Suites and the Residence Inn in Port Canaveral - almost as close as you can get to the port. We've never had a problem. we get off the ship early and all hop on the first shuttle to the rental location - a couple of times we've been the only people on the shuttle.

[moki'smommy]

We have used Hertz several times and have always had good experiences. Their pick up/ drop off location is in the parking lot between the Country Inn and Suites and the Residence Inn in Port Canaveral - almost as close as you can get to the port. We've never had a problem. we get off the ship early and all hop on the first shuttle to the rental location - a couple of times we've been the only people on the shuttle.

 

Just be sure to check what time the rental location opens. MOST open at 7:30 or 8:00 on cruise days, and generally the shuttle won't start till the place opens, but you don't want to arrive at 8 for an office that won't open till 9. Most airports are 24/7, but smaller locations are not.

 

Hertz is the closest to the cruise terminal, but often one of the most expensive.

[Tigger05]

If you're a member of CostCo, please check their travel sections for some great rates on rental cars. We just saved $100 on a 5 day rental in Texas in September...over AARP!!

[mividajp]

We cruised to Hawaii several years ago. At the time my husbands company used Hertz and he had a bunch of points by the time we went on our cruise. Lucky for us we just rented a car from Hertz at every port using points. If we had to pay for the rental we probably would have gone with Budget or Thrifty.

 

At every port we walked off the ship right on to the Hertz shuttle with only a few other people on the shuttle with us. Less than 30min from the time we stepped off the ship we had our car and were on our way.

 

The Budget and Thrifty lines always had at least 80-100 people in line waiting to get on a shuttle. Some of our table mates had rented through Budget and they said it was a nightmare trying to get their car. It took over an hour from the time they walked off the ship until they were in their car. There were also some instances of people yelling at each other because somebody was taking too long or trying to cut.

 

When my aunt and uncle were going to do a Hawaiian cruise I told them to think about what was more important. Spending the least amount of money for a car rental or paying twice as much for the car rental but spending a lot less time in lines and less frustration.

 

The higher the price of the car rental, the less people are going to rent from them. Depending on your budget, sometimes it's better to spend more and have a more pleasant experience.