Tips for Renting Cars for Walt Disney World
Wondering whether you should rent a car at Walt Disney World or rely on free transportation? This guide is for you! It covers pros & cons of renting a car for your WDW vacation, saving the most money on rental cars, 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. Don’t assume that a booking a rental car is an inherent step in your trip planning. As we cover in Walt Disney World is America’s Best City, there are excellent free transportation options throughout Walt Disney World.
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 rely on the 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’ll 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. I 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 the sense of an all-encompassing Walt Disney World vacation devoid of real world intrusions to the greatest extent possible.
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. However, it has been “punctured” over time for us. Part of that is taking more trips off-site to Universal Orlando Resort. Those visits 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.” It’s purely circumstantial for me.
I still skip the rental car most of the time, and long for the days when a Walt Disney World trip meant completely disconnecting from the real world. There’s no going back to that, but a total escapist trip every once in a while sure would be nice.
The reason I’m now able to skip renting a car most of the time is rideshare. We’ve discovered that the perfect balance is using Uber or Lyft in conjunction with Disney transportation. Rideshare is convenient, inexpensive, and on-demand. It eliminates the need to drive, park, and can be used sparingly. It’s truly the best of both worlds, at least, for us. As with so many things, your mileage may vary. (You can read about that in my Uber vs. 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.
When renting a car at Orlando International Airport, you will typically save a little time over using Mears Connect for getting to your Walt Disney World resort. But the exact amount varies on the rental agency you use, whether they are in-terminal or off-site, and the efficiency of both the airport shuttle and the rental car desk.
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 Mears Connect loop. Conversely, if you win the Mears Connect lotto and get dispatched ASAP and are the first stop, you could come out ahead of the rental car. The biggest upside the rental car offers is the freedom to go directly to one of the parks and hit the ground running, especially if you arrive early, before traditional check-in time.
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 can be 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.
With that said, we do think that Walt Disney World bus service has generally improved in the last decade. It’s now much better as of 2025 than when we originally published this post. (To that point, we’ve dialed down a lot of the language about the inefficiency of bus transportation. It still can be bad, but it’s more often okay or even good.)
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 renting a car has been a mixed bag. As a frequent visitor to the Magic Kingdom, driving to and parking at the Ticket & Transportation Center is a huge hassle, and 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, 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.
It’s also worth mentioning that we typically stay in the parks until after they’ve closed as opposed. By the time we exit the parks, there’s usually a fleet of idling empty buses waiting that offer “private” service back to our hotel. It’s like Uber, but with a Walt Disney World bus! Contrast this with trudging across a vacant parking lot at 1 am and then tiredly driving to the hotel, and it’s easy to see why we prefer not having to drive and park.
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? (Remember: Main Street is open an hour after park closing–it’s the perfect time to shop!)
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. 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.
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, the reality is that transportation is offered to discourage rental car use and create a captive audience, 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,” there’s a benefit in having a rental car.
However, we’d argue that this does not mean you need a rental car for the entirety of your vacation. Renting a car upon arrival at MCO and returning it at the end of your trip works, sure. But it’s not necessary and is a bit antiquated. There are so many transportation options now, and again, in the era of on-demand rides via Uber or Lyft, not to mention the Lynx public transit system or traditional taxis, it’s easier and cheaper than ever 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. The year that this post was originally published, we rented cars for 68 (!!!) days. Mostly for “real world” trips as opposed to Walt Disney World, but that’s still a lot of days.
One of the ways we save money on rental cars is via 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.
Another great and simple resource is Hotwire’s (non-refundable) Hot Rate. In general, we’ve found AutoSlash more useful for travel to non-Disney destinations. Orlando seems to have a lot of rental car inventory, so unless we’re traveling during peak season, it just isn’t necessary to aggressively ‘hack’ the car rental process.
On the 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. 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.
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.
Beyond those sites, there’s tremendous 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 recommend doing this. 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 travel credit cards). I always pass on any upgrades (besides free ones in terms of vehicle class) as they are pointless and unnecessary. Likewise, 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.
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!
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!
As an accountant, I try to account for all the costs involved. I agree with your savings on the prepaid gas, insurance options. One of the costs not found yet that maybe you can offer your insights are overnight parking at the hotel. We’ll be staying at the Dolphin. Thanks for all the great links and advice.
I enjoyed reading your blog and I enjoyed it You have given excellent information. You’ve shared Ideas and Tips on saving money on the rental car. Good enough. Thanks for sharing the great information. Good Luck!
We had a similar incident through Enterprise out of orlando Inter.
This was a super helpful post. We are new to your blog and newsletter, but they are very much helping us plan our first (and very ambitious) trip to Disney. Just wanted to let you know that autoslash.com will become a mainstay in our travel planning. It was super easy to use and saved us a lot of money and time. Thanks for the tip!
We have taken 3 Disney vacations with our boys, and tried money saving methods (flying into Sanford the first time, and renting a car and staying off-site last year), which always seem to backfire. My advice is to just book everything through Disney, stay on site, take the Disney shuttle from the Orlando airport, enjoy the Disney transportation, and relax! You’re going to spend money no matter what, so enjoy your vacation and don’t add unnecessary stress.
If you must rent a car, do NOT rent from Sixt Rent a Car. We rented a van for a family Disney vacation and returned it undamaged on 6-24-16. Upon return, a Sixt employee inspected the vehicle thoroughly, and said, in effect, that the car was OK, and we were good to go. There are four adult witnesses in our party who will attest to that. In addition, Sixt emailed us a return receipt on 6-26-16, with no mention of any damage.
18 days after the return on 7-12-16, we recieved an email from Sixt accusing us of damaging the vehicle. I refuted their claim, and asked for photos. They sent blurry photos taken in the dark, of which the date taken properties had been removed from the photo files.
157 days after the return on 11-29-16, we received an email from Alternative Claims Management asking for $1680.99 for damages. I again refuted their claim that any damage to the vehicle occurred while it was in our care. I received another email on 3-15-17 asking for $1207.68. It included some new photos taken in the daylight, which looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to the vehicle. It was obvious damage to the hood, which would have immediately been noticed upon the vehicle’s return.
Renting from Sixt was the worst travel decision we’ve ever made. If you’re renting in Orlando, choose a major company who is set up at the airport, and avoid waiting around for a shuttle to hell.
We are going for a week in June. We would like to take our kids to the beach for a day, so we need a car for that, but otherwise won’t need one. Would you recommend just renting for a day or for the whole vacation? Is it easy to rent a car on property?
If you want to just rent for a day it is pretty easy, we have done it before and planning to do it again in September. If you’re staying in the Crescent Lake area you can easily walk to the Dolphin and collect a pre-booked car there or you can arrange for the free shuttle to the Disney Car Care Center. Both options are Alamo and National. The latest you can return the car (according to the website) is 1900 and that’s to the DCCC not the Dolphin (this is not what I remember from our experience with the Dolphin but possibly it has changed). See both the car rental sites and this Disney page for more info https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/car-care-center/
These tips are really helpful, well my kids were asking for visiting Disney world and I was finding the best transport to hire, I appreciate you for sharing 🙂
Thanks for sharing such a nice information.
I am beginning to plan a trip for 2018. It would be a honeymoon and we are planning on buying DVC points at Animal Kingdom before the trip. We want to stay for two weeks with one week being at animal kingdom and one week being at the Poly or BLT. If we are staying that long and are planning to do two days at universal and another day trip to the beach, what would you recommend for a rental car?
I have a question and enjoy your posts so figured you might have insight into this. This is my families first time going to Disney and doing the “Disney Bubble” week long trip. I am driving to Disney so I will already have my car with me, no need for a rental. We will be staying at the Fort Wilderness Campsite and traveling to all the different parks each day. I understand there is a Ferry from the campsite to MK and will plan to do that (for the reasons you have explained about the parking and monorail) but with the other parks, do you think it is better to drive and pay to park or take Uber. We have a 2 year old so the idea of having to worry about him waiting for PT sounds horrible. Especially at the end of the night when he already turns from Gizmo to Spike in 3 seconds flat. I prefer to drive everywhere I go but do not want to waste time and money. Then again the sanity of my family and the poor innocents around us who would have to deal with our potentially unhappy 2 year old is equally important. Thank you!
We always rent a car as off site hotels are generally cheaper than Disney and better standard than the budget Disneys. So we grit our teeth and head for the transportation centre.
Is it my imagination or is Disney playing games. Several times recently we have arrived at the transportation centre around 9 or 9.30am and found the monorails roped off due to “technical problems”. Then no choice but to queue for the ferry, infuriating ! I don’t believe a word! I think it’s a busy tine and they are just controlling access to MK
We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside for 2 nights and then heading to Port Canerval. We are thinking of renting a car to get to the Port. There are 5 of us plus luggage so I am not sure Uber would work for us. Do you know where the closest rental car company is to that hotel? There are so many options when I research the area, it’s confusing. Thanks
would you recommend renting a car directly at the airport (Orlando airport) upon arrival or booking and paying in advanced?
I had a bad experience through Orbitz last year, I booked a rental car in Portugal (which is a different country so I probably would have better luck in the states) I just reserved the car, didn’t pay for it, but did buy $70 in insurance. When I got there they didn’t have my reservation and had no information about the insurance I already paid for. This was through Dollar rental. So I lost $70 and ended up renting from another rental company.
thoughts?
We always rent in advance, but usually with options that don’t require pre-paying. That way, you lock-in the best prices and generally avoid the issue you mention.
great blog, thank you for sharing
Does anybody have experience with dropping off a car on WDW property mid-trip?
Some of my party is thinking about going to Miami for a few days and renting a care, then driving up to Orlando to meet us where we’re staying at the Pop Century. We’d like to keep the car for a few days to do some off property things, but save money by changing it for Disney transportation early. Is this easy? Does Disney have transportation from their rental car places to the hotels?
This is an awesome blog and loved reading it….
Hi there, we are so excited to be going to disneyworld for the first time, the moment hit when the flight was booked yesterday! However, now comes the real planning, seems like transportation can be huge headache. We have a few questions for all you disneyworld experts. First off is the transport from airport to our hotel. We are considering Uber for this instance cuz taxi seems to double the amount that Uber would cost. But, after doing some research, it looks like there is a ban of Uber from the aiport, and to go around the ban, one would have to set the pin to a nearby hotel and contact the driver that we are at the airport. Can anyone confirm this? And another issue is that our flight arrives in Orlando close to midnight. Anyone knows if there are still Uber drivers this late at night?
To save money on transport cost during the 5 days we will be at disneyworld and avoid the costly hotels inside disneyworld, we have opted to stay at the holidays Inn southwest for their free shuttle service. Has anyone used these hotel shuttles before and had any issues with them? Or can anyone forseen any problems with this strategy? Thanks for the help I advance! We are hoping to work out any hiccups to make it a magical but cost effective trip!
Having only used Disney transportation before, on this last trip I was with extended family and we rented a car from the Car Care Center for 3 (mixed) days at Universal in the middle of the trip. I can’t speak to the price… I’m sure there were better deals to be had but with 6 of us we were a little more limited.
We arranged a pick up time from our resort to actually get the car but I haven’t seen it mentioned yet that they let you return the car to the Dolphin. We left Universal mid-day, swung in our hotel to drop off the wands (of course) and then left the car w the Dolphin valet. We hopped the boat to Epcot and were back in the “bubble.” 🙂
All this info is great, Tom. I’m really looking forward to exploring these options on my next WDW trip.
AutoSlash is nothing short of amazing. It’s actually worked too good that sometimes it scares me whether the rate is for real. We’re going in August for 9 days and used the quote page to book a full size car through Dollar for $365 back in April. Since then, we’ve been getting 2-3 emails per week that they have found a lower rate and automatically rebooked. Now 2 months later – still 2 months away – the rate has already dropped to $228. How do they make money offering a service as great as this? I would think it can’t be subsidized by the car rental companies and other than the initial site visit, I haven’t been back to the site since. Thanks for the tip Tom!