Port of Miami Car Rental?

[APagano]

Looking for suggestions. Here's my situation: Debarking from Majesty on Monday 9/20. Flight leaving FLL 6:45pm. I figure that even If we are the last people off the ship we will still have a few hours to visit my relatives in the Fort Lauderdale area before taking off. Will need a rental car for this purpose.

 

I have read on Cruise Critic that Avis has a location at the Port of Miami, but I could not find a record of that on Avis' website. Is there a rental car counter there?

 

I see that most of the car rental companies have locations in South Beach. Will it be easy for us to catch a cab from the port to the SoBe rental places or should I catch one of the shuttles to the airport and rent there? Not sure which would be more time-consuming.

 

Ideally we would like to get a rental car close to the port and zip up to Tamarac for a visit with my relatives, then drop off the car at FLL before our return flight.

 

Any ideas/suggestions or experiences you can share would be greatly appreciated. thanks!!

 

Alex

[spray67]

we are doing the same thing on 9-19, the best thing i could find was to rent a car from budget. Most rental companies will have pickup at the port but they take you to the airport to pickup car. Budget has a downtown location at the Sheraton brickel hotel which is only about 2 miles away from the port. I am going to get a cab from the port and have car waiting to save time and the long lines at the port trying to catch a shuttle to the airport and then wait in line for a rental.

[lizardhowson]

There are no car rental agencies at the POM.

 

I was told the airport agencies are closer than the Miami Beach locations. Having returned a car to a Miami Beach agency in the past, this could be true.

 

Some companies will send a shuttle to the port to pick you up, but I have read it is a long wait.

 

I have read some companies will deduct cab fare from your rental.

 

There are several other threads about this, all this has been covered over and over.

 

We are coming in on the Majesty (Sept 27th) and getting a cab to the airport for our car rental. I don't want to waste several hours to save a few bucks. We are flying out of FLL also.

[APagano]

There are no car rental agencies at the POM.

Hertz's website is showing a Port Location (maybe they took over the where Avis was?), but it is twice the rate of all the other agencies. I guess you pay for the convenience.

 

I was told the airport agencies are closer than the Miami Beach locations.

Upon second inspection of the maps, I think you're right. While Miami Beach is phisically closer, there's no direct route. You have to go back to the mainland, drive north, then over another causeway to the beach. That makes the airport a quicker drive.

 

I had put in a reservation with Dollar at their Eden Roc Resort location in Miami Beach. Part of me wants to change to an airport reservation, but on the other hand it gives me a chance to take my GF sightseeing on South Beach.

 

Thanks for the help. You've given me something to think about.

[aunteemom]

Are you renting at car at Miami airport to FLL airport because it is less costly than taking a limo or towncar to FLL from port?

[CoBob]

We are sailing out of Miami but flying into FLL. We are renting a car from Thrifty in FLL one way and will drop it off at the Miami airport in the morning. There are NO car rental agency counters at the POM!!! Avis or Hertz does have one at the Sheraton but you can't drop off a one way rental there. You can however pick one up there and drop it off in FLL. But for me it was way cheaper to get Thrifty and catch the shuttle to Miami to pick up the car on the way back as well as dropping off the car in Miami and catching their free shuttle to POM on the way in. I think the Sheraton situation was about $60 more so it wasn't worth it.

Good Luck

[lizardhowson]

Hertz's website is showing a Port Location (maybe they took over the where Avis was?), but it is twice the rate of all the other agencies. I guess you pay for the convenience.

 

I called the Port of Miami directly, as well as Hertz and Avis. All 3 said there is no longer a rental agency at the POM.

[APagano]

Are you renting at car at Miami airport to FLL airport because it is less costly than taking a limo or towncar to FLL from port?

Actually I'm renting because I have several hours of down time between the cruise and my flight home and I want to stop and visit some family in the Fort Lauderdale area before my flight from FLL.

 

Thanks to all for your help. The POM would seem like an obvious place for car rental counters, but apparently they were unsuccessful.

 

At this point the two options I'm considering are:

 

1) Cab or Shuttle to MIA and renting a car there.

 

2) Cab to Miami Beach, rent there and do some sightseeing before heading up to Fort Lauderdale.

 

Right now I'm leaning towards the second option because I think it will save me some time to go right to the beach from the port as opposed to going to the airport first, then driving to South Beach to sightsee (if there's time after waiting in line at the airport counter).