Tips for Renting Cars for Walt Disney World
One of the big dilemmas facing many people is if they should rent a car at Walt Disney World, and if so, how to save money when renting a car at Orlando International Airport. This post covers the pros and cons of renting a car for a Walt Disney World vacation, as well as how to go about saving the most money on rental cars, and other rental car hacks, pitfalls, and other random rambling.
As a threshold matter, you have to determine whether you need to rent a car at Walt Disney World in the first place. Unlike many other vacation destinations, a rental car at Walt Disney World is not a strict necessity, so don’t assume that a booking a rental car is an inherent step in your trip planning.
In the first section of this post, we’ll explore the benefits and drawbacks of renting a car. If you already have determined that a rental car is right for your family, you can skip ahead to the second half of the article, which covers tips and tricks for saving money on rental cars at Walt Disney World (and beyond).
We have a lot of ground to cover in this post, so let’s start by taking a look at whether you should rent a car at Walt Disney World or roll the dice and rely on Disney’s “lovely” “free” transportation system…
To Rent or Not To Rent?
That is the question. One that has perplexed many a traveler since the dawn of a new Disney era in Florida back in 1971. I’d normally cut to the chase here (well, after rambling for a few sentences) and dig into the pros and cons, but I think it’s better to start with my personal experience here.
For a number of years, I was against renting a car at Walt Disney World because I liked the idea of kicking back and not stressing about driving myself through the labyrinth of roads that criss-cross Walt Disney World. Of course, in the era of Google Maps on the iPhone, this really is not at all a challenging task, but the underlying point was that I drove plenty at home, and didn’t want to deal with it on vacation. Even at the “cost” of relying on inefficient Disney buses, I still liked not having to bother with driving.
This wasn’t simply a matter of not wanting to drive, it was also the corresponding feeling of escaping the real world and being in the “Disney bubble” that came along with this. If you’re unfamiliar with the Disney bubble, it’s somewhat akin to the giant dome that covered the city in the television masterpiece, Under the Dome. Except not at all. It’s the sense of an all-encompassing Walt Disney World vacation devoid of real world intrusions to the greatest extent possible. Point blank, this is something you either get or don’t get, appreciate or don’t appreciate. For those who don’t care or understand the Disney bubble, the idea of not wanting to engage in basic real world tasks like navigating roadways and finding a parking spot might seem lazy or, worse yet, crazy. To each his or her own.
I’m a big fan and advocate of the bubble. For me, it was another element of this bubble that (for a while) extended as far as not watching or reading the news and not checking email while on vacation at Walt Disney World. Bit by bit, these elements of the bubble eroded for me. My employer expected me to handle matters regardless of vacation. Social media invaded life (and with it came bits of the real world). However, one thing that stood for a long time was the “no cars” rule.
That rule finally fell by the wayside, too, as trips to Universal Orlando Resort and staying off-site simply made renting a car the practical thing to do. I’ve since come to appreciate the utility and convenience a rental car can offer on a Walt Disney World vacation, but I am far from a rental car “convert.” In fact, when the circumstances dictate, I still skip the rental car, and I honestly long for the days when a Walt Disney World trip meant disconnecting from the real world. I don’t think there’s any going back to that, but a total escapist trip every once in a while sure would be nice. (Since writing this post, I’ve realized the perfect balance for me is using Uber in conjunction with Disney transportation. You can read about that in my Uber v. Rental Cars at Walt Disney World post.)
As far as my actual experiences of driving a rental car has gone, it has been a mixed bag. In terms of getting from the airport to your hotel, I’d hazard a guess that I have saved–on average–about 10 minutes per trip, but I’ve also had issues with rental car agencies (see below) and have rented from off-site agencies. I think it’s fair to say that you typically will save a little time over using Disney’s Magical Express, but the exact amount varies on the rental agency you use, whether they are in-terminal or off-site, and the efficiency of Disney’s Magical Express. I think about the maximum amount of time you could save is 45 minutes if the rental car process goes off without a hitch, and you’d otherwise be the last stop on the Disney’s Magical Express loop.
Once you get to Walt Disney World, you can save a lot of time with a rental car, but the exact amount depends largely on where you’re staying and the parks you will visit most frequently.
If you’re staying at a hotel that is not near any theme parks, but has a shared bus route, your time-savings can be huge. Disney bus transportation is woefully inefficient, and it’s not at all uncommon to see 3 buses for one park pass you at the bus stop while you wait for a bus to another park. If you’re staying at an All-Star Resort and are heading to Epcot or Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you might save as much as an hour per day in transportation time. That’s a best case scenario with the car and worst case scenario with Disney buses, but it is conceivable. Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “I’ve never had a problem with Disney transportation,” then I hope you find the nearest piece of wood and aggressively start knocking on it. If you don’t have a Walt Disney World transportation horror story yet, just give it time.
On the flip side to that, if you’re staying at a resort adjacent to one of the theme parks, you won’t save any time with a rental car. This is the case if you’re at a Magic Kingdom Area Resort heading to the Magic Kingdom by boat or monorail, and also for the Epcot Area Resorts heading to Epcot or Disney’s Hollywood Studios on foot or by boat.
For example, a guest staying at the Contemporary is going to come out incredibly far ahead by walking to the Magic Kingdom (or taking the monorail) than driving to the Ticket & Transportation Center (Magic Kingdom parking) and then taking the monorail or bus. In fact, I’d argue that bus transportation from any on-site resort has the potential of being faster than driving to the Magic Kingdom, since the buses drop off directly at the park whereas the parking lot requires using a tram, then riding the monorail or boat over to the park.
This is one of the big reasons why I think renting a car has been a mixed bag for me. As a frequent visitor to the Magic Kingdom, I find driving to and parking at the Ticket & Transportation Center to be a huge hassle, and I think it almost never saves me any time. If it does, that savings is de minimis, and I’d much rather have the convenience of not having to drive myself, and instead being dropped off right at the front of the park. I’m not suggesting Walt Disney World bus transportation is efficient–it’s not, it’s an absolute mess–but those guests emphasizing the Magic Kingdom on their vacations might find bus transportation, warts and all, preferable to driving to the TTC.
For the other 3 parks, where parking lots are located adjacent to the park, there is definitely a time-savings in driving. If you’re doing one park per day and not staying at an Epcot Area Resorts, you will save time by driving to the parks over using the bus 95 times out of 100. (Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while…or 5 times out of 100, as the case may be.)
I almost always find myself park hopping to the Magic Kingdom at the end of the night since it’s open latest, and it’s way easier (and more fun) to take a monorail from the front of Epcot to the Magic Kingdom than it is to head out to the parking lot, and then drive over to the TTC and deal with all of that nonsense described above. Likewise, if I want to go from Disney’s Hollywood Studios to Epcot for a late night stroll around World Showcase, the vibe aboard the Friendship Boats that operate between the parks is literally one-million five-hundred thousand times better than the vibe in a rental car.
Another thing, and this almost doesn’t even bear mentioning since it likely won’t be helpful to the vast majority of you (but it at least informs a little about my preferences) is that I typically stay in the park until after they’ve closed (remember, park stores are open up until an hour after closing) and by the time I exit the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, or whatever park, there usually is a fleet of empty buses waiting for me to offer “private” service back to wherever I’m staying. It’s like Uber, but with a Walt Disney World bus! Contrast this with trudging myself across a vacant parking lot at 1 am and then tiredly driving to the hotel, and it’s easy to see why I like the buses.
Saying “your mileage may vary” on this last point is a colossal understatement, because your experience is more likely to be this: leaving the theme park after the fireworks or right as the park closes, and being faced with huge lines at the bus stops, waiting 45 minutes or more to finally board a bus to your hotel, standing elbow-to-armhole 😉 with 50 other sweaty tourists as the pungent aroma of body odor lingers in the air. This experience is about as strong of an endorsement for getting a rental car as there might be…although it could just as easily be an endorsement for lingering behind in the theme park a bit and waiting for the rush to die down. After all, wouldn’t you rather wait on a park bench gazing at Cinderella Castle than under the orange glow of sodium-vapor lamps at a dingy bus stop?
The general takeaway here based both on my anecdotal experience and the practical realities of driving versus using Disney transportation is that rental cars most definitely can save you time, but they also can cost time, and more importantly, can be a hassle. We have a whole host of Walt Disney World Transportation Tips that consist of various hacks and other strategies to save time, and I’m pretty well convinced that you can save nearly as much time and have a better overall experience in terms of hotel to park and park to park transit with a rental car as without one if you act in a strategic manner. I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, and certainly will not be the case for everyone, but you can make it work–if you want to make it work. If you’re concerned about the cost of a rental car or worried that it will make for less of an immersive experience, I’d recommend at least giving it a shot.
With that said, there are certain incontestable advantages of having a rental car at Walt Disney World. The biggest of these is freedom. While some Disney-fans with rose-colored glasses think Walt Disney World offers “free” transportation because it’s this kind-hearted, benevolent corporation (“benevolent corporation” is pretty much an oxymoron), the reality is that transportation is offered to discourage rental car use and trap people on property, which means eating at Disney restaurants, shopping at Disney stores, and perhaps most importantly, not visiting non-Disney theme parks. Walt Disney World offers transportation out of its own self-interest, and nothing more.
Having a rental car allows you to go to the grocery store at your leisure, venture to considerably less-expensive off-site restaurants, and also easily visit local off-site attractions that don’t have titles starting with “Disney’s…” If your vacation is truly a “Central Florida” vacation and not a “Walt Disney World vacation,” this benefit of having a rental car is a huge one.
In fairness, there are workarounds for all of the above: grocery delivery services, the Lynx public transit system, and the Mears Shuttle, Uber, or Lyft to get between Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort. Each of these ‘alternatives’ is preferable to having a rental car.
There is an in-between option besides renting a car for the duration of your trip and relying on these alternatives for your off-site adventures, and that’s renting a car for a day or two at the National desk at the Swan & Dolphin or the Walt Disney World Car Care Center. I view this as a pragmatic compromise, but if you have had enough negative experiences with Walt Disney World transportation or know you want the freedom of driving yourself every day of your trip, you should move on to the next section that covers saving money on rental cars at Walt Disney World.
Saving Money on Rental Cars
For the most part, this section will apply equally to Walt Disney World and almost any other travel destination in the United States. While we’ve only had a rental car for 4 trips to Walt Disney World, we rent cars a lot (68 days in 2014).
Recently, our friend Mark Willard turned us onto the site autoslash.com. The premise of AutoSlash is that they monitor your rental car reservation for price drops, and rebook you at a lower rate, if available. You can make a rental car reservation with AutoSlash or track existing rental car reservations made with major car rental companies, and they monitor the reservation automatically.
In theory, this is a really awesome site. I love automated travel resources like this that scrape sites and track prices, as they essentially outsource the work I’d otherwise be doing to ensure I’m paying the lowest price. My limited experience with AutoSlash thus far has been hit or miss. First, I’ve had issues with it searching all possible agencies and finding the actual low price the first go-round. Second, I’ve found that about 8 times out of 10, Hotwire’s (non-refundable) Hot Rate beats AutoSlash on the first search…so if that’s a good enough rate, I just book via Hotwire. Now, this isn’t an inherent problem with AutoSlash (it speaks more to my lack of patience than anything), but if the Hot Rate is a rock-bottom price like $11.95/day, I figure there’s no point to messing with AutoSlash, so I’m not really giving it a chance.
With that said, on the couple of occasions when I’ve given AutoSlash a chance to work its magic, it has worked like magic. Like a resolute husky chasing a floating frisbee through a thick blanket of snow, AutoSlash has tracked down and returned lower prices to me, often with a few days of booking (I know you all read this site for my “excellent” groan-inducing, overwrought metaphors). When I have used it, AutoSlash has a pretty solid track record–solid enough that I consider the dual strategies of checking Hotwire and AutoSlash to be sufficient for me when it comes to getting deals on rental cars.
As mentioned above, on the initial search, there’s a chance that Hotwire’s Hot Rate will be better than whatever AutoSlash finds. My rule is that if Hotwire’s rate for an economy car is <$15/day before taxes, I just book that and wash my hands of worrying about a rental car. If it’s above $15/day, I go with AutoSlash because my bet is that it can find something lower if given time. Your mileage may vary on this, and these certainly aren’t hard and fast rules–just ideas to consider.
There are myriad other ways to save money on renting a car, but unless you are an aggressive bargain hunter with a surplus of time, I think checking other options is unnecessary. The combo of AutoSlash and Hotwire is going to get you the best price available to the general public 98% of the time. Religiously checking other resources will largely be a waste of time. However, if you have nothing better to do, here’s a great 12-part series that delves into other alternatives for saving money on rental cars. Although I don’t agree with everything in that series, if you find yourself renting a car frequently, it’s a good read that will make you a savvier car renter.
One tip you’ll glean from the article include the value in joining (free) loyalty programs for the major rental car agencies–this can be a nice timesaver and a way to receive complimentary upgrades, so I’d definitely echo this advice. I would additionally recommend tinkering with your pickup and drop-off times (especially if it means saving an extra day on your rental car charge by keeping the pick-up and drop-off times in a days plus <24 hour window).
I also always skip the additional insurance offered since my auto policy covers me (as do my Visa cards). I always pass on any upgrades (besides complimentary ones in terms of vehicle class) as they are pointless and unnecessary. Likewise, I never do the prepaid gas option because it’s a racket. Don’t get suckered into this one–most of the time you’d have to return the car with less than half a gallon of gas in order to save money with this option.
As for rental agencies, I’ve only had experience with 3 agencies in Orlando: Firefly (once), Payless (twice), and Hertz (once). Again, limited sample size, but I thought it might be worth mentioning my experiences–just don’t give my anecdotes too much weight. Normally, Hertz is my go-to rental car agency, and I think their customer service is excellent and vehicle fleet nice.
However, one of my worst-ever rental car experiences have been with Hertz at the Orlando International Airport. To make a long story short, for whatever reason Hertz has (had?) kiosks that customers can use to pick-up their rental car; at these kiosks, you interact with a real person, located off-site (in Omaha, I think). Well, this takes way longer than dealing with a real person at the counter, yet for some reason, the Hertz reps in Orlando will direct you to the kiosks even when there is no line for the counter. After completing the process at the kiosk, I proceeded to the parking lot to learn that my rental car was…on the other side of the airport. Hertz has a presence on both the A & B side of MCO, and the person on the other end of the kiosk didn’t account for my actual location. After many other reps at Hertz passing the buck in dealing with me, I finally spoke with a manager who admitted there had been “tons of errors and complaints” with the kiosks. Perhaps they aren’t in use anymore, but suffice to say, this was one of my worst-ever rental car experiences. This was early last year, so I wonder if these kiosks are even still in use.
By contrast, my experiences with both Firefly and Payless were flawless. Both have some mixed reviews online, but I found the service to be excellent and efficient. Again, these are only a couple experiences and they could be outliers, but I figured it would be worth mentioning in case you’re on the fence about either.
In general, outside of the Orlando International Airport, my experiences with National, Alamo, and Hertz have all been exceptional. My experiences with Dollar and Thrifty have been less stellar. In fact, my experiences with Thrifty have been so atrocious that I would never use them again nor would I recommend anyone else use them. Other agencies not mentioned above have either been hit or miss or are small, independent locations that don’t warrant mentioning in the context of a post about Walt Disney World rental cars.
This is a lot of information to digest about renting a car for Walt Disney World, and although there are some other tips and hacks I might recommend–and I’m sure these still leaves rental car newbies with some questions–I don’t want the info here to get bogged down in an article that’s ridiculously long (even by my standards). Hopefully this has helped you determine if a rental car at Walt Disney World is for you, and if so, how to save money on one. If you have any unanswered questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments and I will be more than happy to assist!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For overviews of all of these topics and so much more, the best place to start is our comprehensive Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide to make the most of your experience!
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Your Thoughts…
Do you rent a car at Walt Disney World, or prefer to rely on Disney transportation? Do you rental car veterans have any input or tips to add? If you’re a rental car newbie or planning a first visit to Walt Disney World, do you have any questions after reading this? We love to hear from readers, so if you have any thoughts or questions, post them in the comments!
I am all about the Disney bubble. I don’t think about the outside world while I’m there. I don’t check emails, I don’t make phone calls except to occasionally check in with my mom and cat sitter, and I don’t do anything on the internet or social media unless it is directly related to our trip (mostly just posting pictures on Instagram). We also don’t engage in many real world tasks, which includes driving. We have always relied on Disney transportation and have never had any issues. It’s part of the Disney experience for us. However, if we ever decide to venture off from Disney property to see Universal, we will probably end up renting a car. So I appreciate the helpful information.
I thought I’d update this blog (I commented above…) with my ‘Uber’ experiences from my visit over the last 4 days.
I had a bit of a rude surprise when it appeared that Uber was not allowed to collect from the airport. The trick was to put the ‘pin’ a little distance away from the airport itself, and then text message the driver to say I was really at the airport. The driver said this was a well known scheme. He drove me to Universal for very little.
I stayed at a hotel near to Universal (but not quite walking distance, especially in the heat), and took Ubers between there and Universal. This cost an unbelievably cheap $4-a-go (it was in fact below their $4 Min. Fare). Once you deduct the $1 Safe Ride Fee, Uber’s commission on the remaining $3, the opportunity cost of the driver’s time, the cost of gas/wear, and the cost of getting from my point of origin and getting away from my point of destination, well… it made me feel morally pretty reprehensible. The service, on the other hand, was faultless (it was a great experience and the drivers didn’t complain – it just didn’t sit well with me). I think I would do it again, but bring a few bucks as an additional tip.
The ride from Universal to WDW was very smooth. I got dropped off at the Swan, which worked out great. I could have been dropped off directly at a park, but I needed a room key for EMH.
I didn’t take an Uber directly from a park… on my last day I used Disney Transportation to go from Animal Kingdom to AKL and have lunch at Sanaa (where I ate enough bread with 9 dips to feed three people, not to mention the entire contents of the Savannah outside). I got my Uber to the airport from there, and I am not sure drivers are that used to picking up from that particular resort (it’s very much off the beaten track). That said, after a quick clarifying phone call, he had arrived within 13 mins… and of course I had that great view and the fabulous lobby to entertain me!
Overall, I think packing as light as you are able (so you are not tied into making your checked-in hotel your first and last stop) and using storage lockers + Uber is a very real and effective strategy at Orlando. Of course, this only worked for me because 90% of the time, I was walking to the parks or using Disney buses and transportation. I do NOT think it is a viable strategy if you are staying offsite… the savings of staying offsite are wiped out by the cost of at least two ubers daily; Uber only breaks even with a rental car if you are using it as your airport run and a secondary means of transport only.
We’ve rented a car our last 2 WDW trips and will do so for future trips. I have mobility issues and renting made it so much easier to come and go when we were ready rather than waiting in line for a bus and possibly having to stand on the bus.
I have found that Budget is a nice option at MCO. I can book my car online and go straight to the garage to get my car. Both mine and my husband’s family live in south Florida, so we often split our Disney vacations with visiting them at the beach. 🙂 Almost always, I can find a good promo code with a little google searching to make my rental cheap while earning rewards. (every 2 multiple day rentals, they send me a $25 coupon) But like you, we prefer to stay in our Disney bubble as much as we can!
I also have questions about Lyft service to Disney Hotels (particularly BLT). I hope you will be able to do more research on it. I’ve googled both Uber & Lyft in Orlando, and have only found articles from a few years ago where MCO banned Uber pickups. I haven’t heard if Lyft was included in that as well. My plan was to use Disney Transportation for most of my trip but Lyft for a Universal visit & possibly an outlet mall shopping day. We’re planning to USPS ahead most of our non-perishables in lieu of grocery shopping.
I really wish you write a book with your awesome photos. You site so much useful info. There are sooooo many guides and books about Disney. Make a ‘coffee table’ type book with all this info. Would be awesome. And about this story. My family and I went to Disney once not renting a car. Last time I ever did!!! For the expense that is usually less than $200 for the week it is one of the BEST things you can do. We do stay on Disney property. The first thing we do when landing even before hitting Disney is going to Whole Foods to ‘stock up’ for the week. And if we need something we leave the world and get it. But more importantly is the nightmare ‘free transportation’. I wouldn’t wish Disney bus transport on my enemies. THE WORST!
One important time saving aspect of the Magical Express that we really appreciate is the lack of wait for baggage. Our Disney trips include a grandparent who has mobility issues and two young children who have a hard time waiting for anything. Not having to stand/wait around for our luggage is a huge plus for us. Instead, we can leave the plane and immediately head over to our first taste of Disney on the Express!
There’s an Avis desk at the Hilton at Downtown Disney. We rented a car there for a day to go over to Universal.
I’ve rented a car for my last 4 WDW trips, but this time I’m trying Disney Transportation and Uber (or Taxis if Uber doesn’t work out – I’m a little dubious about how easy it is to get picked up at the parks). Rental cars seem good value, but then you have taxes, insurance, gas and parking (at hotels and Universal) to add on and our rapidly become more economical to take taxis. I think there’s no question that the ERA is the best place to stay on site.
I plan to take 3 taxis – MCO to Universal, Universal to Disney, and Disney to MCO. The total cost here can’t be more than $200. The alternatives would have been doing transfer rentals between MCO and the Swan/Dolphin, or doing a return rental from MCO and keeping the car for the duration.
It’s worth mentioning that one disadvantage of not renting, as I’m discovering, is how to maximise park time at the start and end when you have luggage. I think lockers are my friend there (I travel with one regular size backpack for trips under 5 days)… But it really make you appreciate the convenience of a car as basically a huge private luggage storage facility. It may be that Magical Express helps there, but that really seems more geared to checked luggage, and also it seems to me to be a time sponge at the points of your trip where time is most valuable.
Thanks for the shout-out Tom, and glad you’ve found AutoSlash pretty useful… The rule of thumb with AutoSlash is never judge its usefulness/value by the first results it returns – the first set of results are always awful. Just book it and see what it’s able to dig up for you in a week or two. (I will also often at the time of my initial AutoSlash search make another reservation with Alamo/Thrifty/Dollar – whichever of those three is cheapest – as a backup because, just like AutoSlash, those reservations can be canceled at any time. If AutoSlash fails on me, at least I’ll have that.)
Another key to AutoSlash is learning how to use it in conjunction with rental car loyalty programs… This is possible but requires replying to your reservation email with the appropriate loyalty membership number. It’s absolutely worthwhile to do this as it allows you to skip the oftentimes obscene lines at the rental car counter as well as sometimes get perks and freebies.
Finally, you touched on rental car insurance through your credit card which is a great tip. It’s important to understand though the distinction between primary and secondary coverage… Secondary coverage, which is what most cards offer, will cover any damage that your primary insurance company won’t but still requires you to file a claim with your primary insurance company which may be less than ideal. Primary coverage offers immediate, direct full coverage by your credit card company without having to involve your primary insurance company at all and is offered by a select few cards. AmEx cards offer this but at a fee – by signing up for primary rental car coverage you will automatically be charged $24.95 per rental every time you rent a car with AmEx. There are two travel cards I’m aware of off the top of my head – that are otherwise pretty decent cards – that offer primary coverage for free on all car rentals – the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and the United Mileage Plus Explorer Card. If you have either of those cards they’re definitely worth using for all your rentals, and if you’re someone who will be renting cars frequently, they may be worth looking into to see if they’re a good fit for your needs anyway (particularly the Chase Sapphire Preferred which gets double points on all travel and dining expenses – including car rentals).
Yeah, if you read the comment from Jonathan above, he explains the “why” behind this. Interesting stuff. I’ll have to try out the quote feature to see how that works.
As for the insurance, excellent points. I probably should have spent a little more time on that section of the post, but it was already getting long. The Chase Ink cards also offer primary coverage (that’s actually what we use–don’t know why I put AmEx). There are a bunch of other cards, too, but I think they are mostly Citi and Discover. I think you’ve hit the main Chase/Visa ones.
To anyone reading this, I’d highly recommend the Sapphire Preferred card, and would also recommend the United Explorer card for those who regularly fly (United is my preferred domestic carrier, although I’ve shifted a lot of my traveling to Delta due to better routes for my current needs).
Glad AutoSlash was able to save you some money. Here’s a little trick for the site:
Because of the deeply discounted rates we offer in many cases, your initial search may return limited or no results for some locations because of our supplier agreements. Basically the major companies don’t like us showing discounted rates up-front and undercutting their own site (and others they work with).
You can however get a quote via email that includes discounted rates for all companies. This also lets us do some deeper analysis on your rental to ensure that we really are getting you the best possible rate. Here’s the link to our quote page:
http://www.autoslash.com/quote
Hope this helps you and your readers!
Thanks for dropping in and offering this explanation. That makes perfect sense, and explains why the first go-round doesn’t typically produce the best results.
Kudos on the great service you offer!
One thing that is unique to orlando is the extreme prevalence of cheap rental car deals. On our honeymoon we rented mustang convertible. That was a lot of fun. Since then I’ve rented from many agencies and have had great experiences with all of them. However I find it a bad idea to rent from any company that isn’t located “on airport” as the shuttles take forever, the lines are stupid long, and the cars are not very nice. We finally did a full “disney bubble” vacation at the polynesian and we wished we still would have rented a car. We waited quite a while for our magical express bus to get to the Poly. Then the buses to Hollywood studios and Animal Kingdom both occurred at times our 1 year old wanted to cry and try to suck on the handrails (great teethers apparently). If a rental car cost $120 for the week and our trip was $2,000 for hotel, $550 for tickets, $500 for food- a $120 rental car would have offered some nic flexibility. I hate being outside the disney bubble but paying for grocery delivery and being stuck on he bus is no fun and certainly not relaxing. While I appreciate some aspects of free disney transportin I doubt we will try it again. Our ride back to MCO was by a disgruntled driver who told incredibly awkward stories and jokes and made everyone on thre bus question his sobriety and sanity. That was the nail in the coffin for us!
Interesting you didn’t mention Priceline as we have scored some great deals there by bidding. Got a midsize car for $8 a day once from hertz.
I’ve had nothing but headaches with Priceline as of late. Perhaps I’m too ‘aggressive’ with my bids, but I’m over them for a while. I guess they are worth mentioning, though.
Maybe it’s something with Disney and Hertz… my worst rental car experience ever was with Hertz in LA when we visited Disneyland. (But many other experiences through work ahve been just fine.)
Thanks for the tip on autoslash.com – I’d never heard of the site. 90% of my leisure trip rentals have been through hotwire and the rest through priceline.
I second AutoSlash! Haven’t used for it a Disney trip (we stay in the bubble so far) but had success with other trips and recommended it to friends. Great concept, and we got an excellent deal when we used them.
My wife and I are going for a 15 day stay on site after Thanksgiving 2016. We will be driving. My wife has never been, and I haven’t been since 1981… We were planning to use Disney transportation to and from the parks, but I was wondering if it might be easier to drive from resort to resort for dinner and such. Any experiences/comments?
John:
I have been to Disney a number of times and since you will be driving, I recommend driving from resort to resort. They will stop you at a guard gate at the resort you are driving to and ask to see your driver’s license and you tell them you have lunch/dinner plans and they let you proceed. I like the freedom of having driving and coming and going when I want.
I generally rent from Dollar as they always seem to be the cheapest. The service is ok, nothing special, and don’t expect to get a new car. Everyone car I’ve rented from them has been in service for a while with a lot of mileage, but they’re cheap and got the job done. Also, check the price just before your trip. It always seems to be cheaper in the days/hours before the regal starts.
We used the hybrid approach last fall for a 9 day trip. Arriving at the airport with a 2 year old and a 6 year old and not having to deal with luggage or the line for car rentals was very very welcome. We were at a MK resort, went to Epcot the next morning and then while the baby napped one member of our party got the car at the car care center. We did the reverse on the way back. It saved a few days of car rental and not dealing with luggage and small kids was lovely.
Costco is a great option for rental cars. I’ve found it to be roughly equivalent to the third party players but allows you to cancel at any time. Also can use your loyalty programs.
My sister did nearly the exactly the same thing on their last trip. Magical Express to the Contemporary, next day rented a car at the car care center, returned the car 2 days before they left, then ME back to the airport. I’m sure the price is highly variable based on inventory and time of year, but it was significantly cheaper to do that than rent at the airport.
Yeah, that was the part I forgot to add. Not only did it shave days off the rate, it was significantly cheaper to rent through the car care center than at the airport. I’m thinking it saved us close to 80 bucks, or something very significant like that.
I have to say I had an excellent experience using Uber during my trip last November. There never seemed to be a driver too far off and the rates were very cheap. We ended up splitting our trip about 2/3rd Disney transportation and 1/3rd Uber. Uber allowed us to make some reservations outside the park we were staying and gave us the confidence we’d make it there in time.
In addition, we took Uber to get to Universal on two days of our trip. All four drivers were great and the price wasn’t bad. Overall we did the math and it was definitely cheaper than if we had rented our own car and allowed us to stay inside that vacation bubble a little bit.
Only thing I would warn people is that you’ll end up with the same TCC issues as you would a rental car as that’s where Uber will pick for Magic Kingdom. It might be easier to go to a nearby hotel rather than hassle getting down to the TCC. Otherwise, all our hotel pickups and those from AK / HS / Downtown Disney were without a hitch. I didn’t use it for Epcot, but imagine Beach Club would be your best bet.
Tom, give it a shot next time you’re there. As ride sharing services become more popular, I bet a full post about the experiences would be appreciated by many curious about those things. Cheers!
You’ve really piqued my curiosity with this comment. I use Lyft and Uber on a semi-regular basis, but I hadn’t given though to the idea of using them exclusively for my next trip in lieu of a rental car. I’ll be staying off-site at two Downtown Disney hotels for part of the trip and am heading to Universal for a day or two, too.
Right now, my rental car cost is $160 for the duration of the trip. I’m betting I could rely on Uber and Lyft, plus Disney transit, for about the same amount of money.
I’ll crunch the numbers when I have more time tonight to see. If it’s close, I’ll probably go the Uber/Lyft route, as I think that would make for an interesting blog post, and I’m sure it’s something that would be of interest to readers.
Thanks for the idea! 🙂
Using Uber or Lyft at WDW has a high probability of helping out a kid on the College Program. My daughter is a CP and the number of Uber drivers at CP housing is crazy!
I always rent, and it seems I always end up renting from Thrifty in Orlando. They always have the best price among the places I’m willing to rent. That said, here are a couple tips to keep your relationship with Thrifty in line.
– They treat their loyalty program (Blue Chip) members better than their walk-ins. One of their staff told me this outright, and I’ve observed it on my own. If you’re going with Thrifty, get on Blue Chip. It’s free to sign up. Otherwise, you’re going to get the hard up-sell every time, and you’re going to get the inferior cars if you don’t take it.
– True for any car, but Thrifty in particular: inspect the car for damage and document anything you find before you leave the garage. They only tried to catch me once. Little ding in the back bumper, and I took photos of it. Brought the car back in and the agent magically bee-lined for the bumper, told me I had to sign a report on it. I wrote across it “Pre-existing damage, I have photos” and never heard another thing about it.
– Watch their prices like a hawk. Friday afternoons seem to be when they drop their quotes. I end up re-booking a trip 2-3 times to get the best rate. Perhaps autoslash would help with that. (Thanks for that tip!)
Perhaps it’s not worth that hassle for the price, but my usual favorite (National) never comes close to the price in Orlando. Everywhere else they’re competitive, and a much better experience.
Another tip: the pre-paid toll options are a rip off, especially if you are staying on/near site. I take the toll roads from the airport to Disney and back again, and never touch them any other days on my trip. $7/day x a week trip versus $1-3 once each way. Also, take the north exit (528) from the airport and drop down I-4. Tolls are cheaper. My drive home day plan: take I-4 up to 528. pay one toll going across. exit on tradeport/conway just before the 2nd toll and airport exit. buy gas at the 7-11 on tradeport, then drive the service road back to the airport avoiding the second toll.
Agree about the pre-paid tolls being a rip-off. Thanks for the tip on minimizing the amounts paid!
There’s no reason to prepay for tolls from a rental agency, as you can stop at any gas station or Publix grocery story and pay 5.00 – 25.00 (or really any amount) for a SunPass. The amount you pay goes directly toward a discounted toll, and you can start using it immediately. If you end up using a lot of tolls, you can log into the SunPass website and recharge it.
Source: I live in Celebration but work up by UCF, so I drive 417 every day.
I do whatever I can to avoid the counter. Alamo has an online car check in option (although I don’t know if it works for Hotwire or Priceline reservations) so you just take your print out from home, pick a car and show your license and credit card at the booth as you drive out. Another of the Orlando rental companies (can’t recall which) had a similar process of skipping the counter but still had to stop at a booth in the parking ramp, slightly longer process and more variable time depending if there’s a line. Still, much better than the counter. The rental car counters always seem to take a minimum of 30 minutes in Orlando. I’ve also found more and more that the prices direct from the rental car companies drop quite a bit as our trip dates have gotten closer (we always travel at low crowd times) and end up competitive with the 3rd party sites without the prepay no cancelation policy.
“we always travel at low crowd times” <- I think this is key. If you travel during low seasons, Orlando has a surplus of rental cars and prices drop inside of 2 weeks before your trip. In this case, the strategy of using AutoSlash is great, as it scours those 1st party sites and continuously rebooks. If you travel during high or peak seasons, the price is much more likely to rise as things get closer, in which case Hotwire or another "blind" prepay site is advantageous, as is booking well in advance of your trip. I should probably add this to the main text of the article, but for this reason, it's important to know how busy of a travel season it is when you're traveling, as that impacts how rates might fluctuate as your dates draw nearer. Thanks for the tips! 🙂