Car Rental Drop Off Port Canaveral

[Jim The Lizard]

We are arriving in Orlando two days early for our March Prima cruise.  Thinking about saving cost of Uber and any other transportation and just renting a vehicle at Orlando airport and then dropping it off at the cruise terminal day of cruise.  Any experiences here with this?  Cost is not the issue, convenience and flexibility are our priority here.   

[johnrich]

A couple years ago we rented a car from Budget at MCO when we flew in the day before our cruise then drove to Port Canaveral the next morning. We just dropped it off at the Budget on Astronaut Blvd and they drove us to the ship. After the cruise they picked us up and drove us back to their lot where we picked up another car and took it back to MCO. It was much cheaper doing 2 one day rentals than dealing with paying for parking for the whole week. The shuttle picks up for Avis, Budget and Enterprise even though they are on different lots. It was very convenient, economical and very close to the port. 

[lgrover]

Thinking of doing same thing. Also info  on Pt. Canaveral to Orlando on return with late flight!

 

[fredflint]

Well if convenience is more important than cost do an Uber.   We did a car  rental once and it was fine but a lot of people do the same thing so the lot was overwhelmed and we had 15-20 minute wait times to drop off the car and then get our luggage on the shuttle.  But if you need a car to drive around during your 2 days just plan on having lines on the drop off.   

[neurosurg]

If you do a car rental, just be sure to either return it first thing on the day of embarkation, or return it the day before.

 

The small rental offices in Port Canaveral are overwhelmed with people as soon as they start returning from the ship, and there was more than a hour wait of 100+ people waiting to get shuttles back to the port as I was standing in line to pick up a car after disembarkation.  MCO rentals have never been a problem.

 

So summary,  avoid the lines if you return before 9am or after 1pm.  Otherwise I would just take Uber for convenience and huge time savings.

[RocketMan275]

When we dropped our car at Enterprise, there was a line to get cars and they asked continuously for those dropping cars to come to the front of the line since they were short cars to rent.

[dexddd]

We have done that numerous times but the agencies became overwhelmed by the amount of people.

 

We did do it once after restart in September of 2021 because we drove from Miami.  The agencies were just reopening, well not all, Hertz was down for count and maybe one other.

[dexddd]

Also, check how many ships in Port.

[Seas2mountains]

We have done this with National for drop off and pick up at this port for two different cruises. We arrived between 9am-10am and still had a line but it wasn’t too bad.  

[GTO-Girl]

To save some time drop off everyone else and all your luggage at the terminal and then return the car.  
 

Only one person and no luggage makes it a lot easier….😁😁

[Ashland]

We've found the best rental rates booking with Costco. We used Budget for our Port Canaveral itinerary this past April.