San Diego downtown car rental early morning - Avoiding overnight parking fees?

[mikeerdas]

I need to rent a car out of downtown San Diego early on a Sunday (~5am) till late that same day (~10pm). Heading for Disneyland and want to arrive by 7:30am before the gates open.

 

Was hoping to avoid having to pay extortionate overnight parking rates at downtown hotels, since I only need the car for one day.

 

What are my options? Must I take the bus to the airport from downtown (I'll already be in SD downtown when I need the car), rent a car there, then pay overnight parking somewhere? I'm thinking few car rental places are open at 5am either downtown or even at the San Diego airport.

 

If I'll have to pay for overnight parking, what's something affordable near the Gaslamp district? I splurged and am staying at the Hard Rock Hotel.

 

Finally, is renting a car my best bet for getting from San Diego downtown to Disneyland? Or is there an Amtrak/bus option worth looking into?

 

Thanks.

[Splinter]

You could rent a car the night before and stay at a different hotel (such as Mission Valley) where you can get free parking (and a cheaper hotel room). The drive to Orange County on a Sunday AM should be about 1.5 hours. You may not find a rental car agency open that early on a Sunday morning except at the airport. I checked and the downtown Avis location is not open until 8AM but the airport location indicates you could get a car at 5AM, and this is probably also true for the other "majors". You can take a cab or shuttle from your hotel to the airport for $10-15 (or the hotel may shuttle you).

 

Alternatively, you could take Amtrak to Orange County and then take a bus or cab to Disneyland. It is 2.5 miles from the Anaheim station. The first train leaves San Diego at 6:10AM and arrives in Anaheim (if you are lucky) at about 8:05AM. Here is a link to the bus schedule from the train station to Disneyland: http://rideart.org/amtrak/AMTRAK_schedule_WntrSprg_08.pdf

[mikeerdas]

Learned most of the rental places "at the airport" open around 4:30am to 5am. Ended-up taking Bus 992 ($2.25 per person) from downtown (Broadway St) to the airport--first bus of the day leaves ~5am. Then taking the Dollar/Thrifty shuttle. Turns out, the Dollar/Thrifty lot (same company...) is somewhere in or near Little Italy.

 

When I returned the car, I actually decided to walk back to downtown than bother with the shuttle and Bus 992. It's a bit of a walk--took maybe 20-30 mins to get back to the San Diego Convention Center area / Gaslamp District.

 

Disneyland was great--yep, about a 1.5 hr drive each way, and no traffic to speak of early Sunday morning. Took a detour to Coronado Island on our way back. Parked for free and walked around the beach at the Hotel Del Coronado.

 

The Dollar/Thrifty people seemed a little surprised to see someone show up around 5:30am to pick up a rental. But they were open so they got me my car. I got to Disneyland in time to be there when the gates opened. As always, at any Disney theme park, it pays to arrive early. Went on every ride I wanted to go on (except for Nemo) twice before 1pm. Later, I was told the park was, or was expected to be, at full capacity.