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Happy Limo is Unreliable for Port Transfers


MikeInThornhill
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Hi Everyone –

I just wanted to share an experience for anyone researching private transfers from Orlando Airport (MCO) to Port Canaveral.

I was travelling last week with my wife and two small kids (9 months, and 3.5 years). We flew into MCO on Friday and stayed at Hampton Inn & Suites at Gateway Village before our Saturday cruise. I wanted transfers from the Hotel to the Port, and back from the Port to the Airport. I wanted private transfers so I could be on my own schedule, and rent car seats for my kids. I did my homework, and chose Happy Limo because of some posts on TA, and their mousesavers.com endorsement (they have been pretty spot-on in my experience, and they had a discount code.) I booked via phone – no problems.

The transfer from the hotel to the port was fine. The driver showed up 15 mins early, had a clean van with the car seats we ordered and got us to the port well ahead of schedule with the included stop for groceries at a Publix close to the port. The charge for the transfer+carseats was $138 (billed two weeks in advance to my CC) and a $20 tip.

The following Saturday, Happy Limo knew we were scheduled for late breakfast (8am) and suggested a 9:30am pickup for our return transfer. Fine. We ate breakfast as scheduled and got in line to get off the ship just before 9am and were met by a huge backlog line up to get off the ship. This being our first cruise, we didn’t think this was unusual, and expected to be through the line quickly, given the suggestion from Happy Limo. We reached the luggage/customs area around 9:25 and didn’t get cleared to leave until just after 10am. We went to our appointed meeting place and I called Happy Limo to pick us up.

The dispatcher who answered the phone was not very friendly. When he retrieved our reservation he asked me if I “realise I had a 9:30am pick up time.” I told him yes, but we had been delayed in customs. He then put me on hold for what seemed like a long time. When he came back he told me that the car had left and that another one could pick us up in 45 mins. I politely told him that didn’t work for me, and that I needed to get to the airport asap for our 1pm flight. Again, I was put on hold for a while and was then told that I had the option to take a refund rather than wait the 45 mins. I asked him to process the refund, and he said he couldn’t until Monday because the guy who does that doesn’t work weekends!?! I bet the guy who processes payments does…

Anyway – In the end it wasn’t a big deal – we caught a cab right away that had us to the airport on time (for $110 + tip), but I was uncomfortable the whole ride because the kids didn’t have carseats. I was just floored by how unreliable Happy Limo was, and how inflexible/unhelpful they were in our situation. If you are looking for a reliable Port Transfer company, I would look elsewhere.

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So sorry to hear of your bad experience. When you are dealing with customs they know you could be held up. We used Sunshine Limo for both to Port and return to MCO. Our experience with them and their driver Solo was wonderful, except I gave them my home number if they need to reach me. Lucky for me they only tried to reach for me to let me know they were at the hotel and then again at the port. (my fault). I will use them again without a doubt.

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I'm sorry that you had a nerve wracking experience. We have a stretch limo booked with them for transfers next month. The paperwork they emailed me states their policies if you are late. I think they went beyond by refunding your money.

I know it was stressful, but you are now a veteran and will know better next time. :)

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A phone call to the limo company while you were stuck at customs would have alleviated all of your problems. Th driver probably waited and figured you were a no show since he didn't hear from you so he left.

Edited by Talex831
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A phone call to the limo company while you were stuck at customs would have alleviated all of your problems. Th driver probably waited and figured you were a no show since he didn't hear from you so he left.

 

Not defending the OPs stance, but you can't use phones while in the customs area.

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Obviously this is not Happy Limo's first rodeo. They know that people don't have total control over when they get off the ship; they also know that cell phones aren't always allowed (e.g. customs).

 

All of this, plus the fact that the OP had pre-paid makes it all a little sketchy. I don't think 30 minutes late when dealing with debarkation day is an unreasonable delay. It's not like the OP got off at noon and wondered why his/her ride was gone.

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Thanks for posting your account. It's sounds odd that they would take off like that. They know cruises and the sequence of events and they should expect various delays.

On the other hand, I've used Happy Limo about a half-dozen times and I've never had a problem.

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We just got back from Wonder's cruise out of Miami. As we had experienced Shuttles before we're not wishing to do so this trip. We used a Limo service, not knowing how this would work guessing Pick-up times from Airport or Port?

 

When we asked how we could guess arrival time?

We were told For Airport Pick-up to go to Limo service area after our luggage had been retrieved we did so, and in Less then an hr arrived at the port.

 

Our driver told us he would be at the port around 9 am to pick us up on return. I'd read about Mike from Thornhill's experience and had given the Limo service a call for a later pick-up. Explaining this to the driver, he said to call him when we got outside the terminal.

 

Customs was so fast we were outside around 8 a.m

 

Of course with all the excitement we had not gotten the driver's cell number. Kept trying the Limo service number, no answer. This is difficult outside the terminal with all the noise and activity.

 

The driver showed up as promised 9 a.m. He had tried calling us on our cell

around you guessed it 8 a.m. To pick up if we were out earlier; We did not hear the phone ring. But, had we checked our messages from time to time, we would not have spent an hr standing in the heat, with a 6 yr old.

 

 

Lesson learned.

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We just got back from Wonder's cruise out of Miami. As we had experienced Shuttles before we're not wishing to do so this trip. We used a Limo service, not knowing how this would work guessing Pick-up times from Airport or Port?

 

When we asked how we could guess arrival time?

We were told For Airport Pick-up to go to Limo service area after our luggage had been retrieved we did so, and in Less then an hr arrived at the port.

 

Our driver told us he would be at the port around 9 am to pick us up on return. I'd read about Mike from Thornhill's experience and had given the Limo service a call for a later pick-up. Explaining this to the driver, he said to call him when we got outside the terminal.

 

Customs was so fast we were outside around 8 a.m

 

Of course with all the excitement we had not gotten the driver's cell number. Kept trying the Limo service number, no answer. This is difficult outside the terminal with all the noise and activity.

 

The driver showed up as promised 9 a.m. He had tried calling us on our cell

around you guessed it 8 a.m. To pick up if we were out earlier; We did not hear the phone ring. But, had we checked our messages from time to time, we would not have spent an hr standing in the heat, with a 6 yr old.

 

 

Lesson learned.

 

Looks like a good company. Who was it?

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this is why i decided not to use a limo service and instead kept the rental car (we'd had at WDW) and parked it at the port.

I figured getting to the port with a limo service would be a breeze, but the return sounded much more difficult - and with my mom and sister both somewhat mobility challenged i figured i'd rather pay a bit more and be sure that my transportation was waiting for us the moment we got off the ship.

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We used Happy Limo (a stretch limo) for our Xmas Fantasy cruise. We had zero issues and were picked up on time and delivered to the port early enough that we snagged boarding #3 tickets. Awesome.

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  • 4 years later...

I have used Happy limo in our previous 3 disney cruises. The first time, the experience was fantastic.

 

However, the 2nd time around, the line was too long at the customs. The limo driver threatened to leave us if we cannot make it on time; thankfully, we made it.

 

The third time, the situation flipped and the limo driver was 30 minutes late. The customer service were unfriendly, and refused to give us a discount or a refund so we can find another transport. I pointed out to them how unfair the situation was; if we are not on time, they leave us but if they were late, we have to wait

 

They are not flexible with time. The time for customs/immigration to clear the passengers is out of our control.

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Be aware that the original post is from 2013--4 years ago. It does distress me to see a complaint post that is current as this company does have a good reputation. But there are many shuttle companies in Orlando. If "Happy Limo" is providing unhappy experiences, it will quickly be out on the various boards and some of their business will be heading elsewhere! i can name 3 other good companies, and in the last 2 days have read glowing reports of 2 others that I have no personal experience with....

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I've used them over 20 (yes 20) times for various business runs vacations over the last 9 years. I'm not claiming they are perfect, but generally everything has been pretty good.

 

What I have found is that if you get a newer driver, the dropoff between the experienced drivers and new ones has gotten much greater recently. Any issues I have had, even minor have been with drivers there <1 year. They just don't seem to really understand the job. It's luck of the draw to some extent. I've worked for a limo company in the past as a driver, one thing that is very important is to give feedback if warranted because obviously management has no real idea of what happens in the cars unless they check video.

 

My guess is that the explosion of Uber type services has greatly impacted their labor pool meaning they can't be as selective as they might like.

 

The net is that there are many decent options in Orlando, but also lets not condemn Happy Limo on 1 3 year old and 1 recent post either.

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Loon, I agree with you in part. One bad report does not mean the company is bad. On the other hand, I want my vacation to be smooth and uneventful during the transportation phase. As some have noted, this is NOT a new company and they have experience with late flights, Customs delays, and the like. They should know that guests aren't permitted to use cell phones in Customs areas.

 

I DO check reviews for hotels and other services, but I'm also wise enough to check the number of reviews. One or two bad reviews or ratings out of hundreds is relatively meaningless. But there is a difference between a 2* and a 4* rating on a site that features hundreds of reviews for a given company.

 

I'm not willing to make excuses for a company due to employees who have been with them less than a year or a smaller labor pool. These drivers are well rewarded for their time when one considers the expected tip income in addition to their salary (I have NO idea what their salary is, but a tip of $20 or more is expected on a trip from MCO to PC!) If a given company is unable to keep good, reliable, customer service oriented employees, there are others who manage this...and those companies will see their ratings remain high and reviews without complaints.

 

I experienced an issue recently with Budget car rentals. Their computer system was malfunctioning and they were unable to process my "pay it now" payment which was $50 lower than any other available rate. I called 7 times and brought up the issue when I picked up the car. OK, I needed the car, so I took it at the lowest rate I could get at that time and continued to pursue the matter when I arrived home. Because Budget refuses to make it right, I will not rent with them again and I will give them a bad review whenever asked.

 

This is NO different than a customer who received what they consider to be poor service from a limo company reporting it here. In each case, ONE review does not make a "bad" company. But it does give users something to consider. I don't know why a 2013 thread was revived...but again, this is not one bad review in 2013 and one in 2017. It is two bad reviews on this thread only--users should seek a site with a few hundred reviews and consider the overall rating of various companies.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I used happy limo several years back and had some issues as well and some positives as well. My mother in law had set stuff with a TA so we didn't make any arrangements and were not privy to the details. We were told that a limo would pick us up at MCO. We were the first group in and arrived at 1am. Managed to find the driver and he proceeded to load us into a full sized van (not a new one either..old and rusty). My wife and I kind of exchanged looks and I said "no limo tonight?. ". The driver responded that no it would probably get us in the morning. Off we went to the hotel in cape Canaveral where we were to spend the next two nights. The ride was uneventful but I was surprised at how easy the trips was(we had never been on this route before)

 

We arrived at the hotel and the driver handed me an invoice to sign (not pay, just sign). I looked at the total and it was over $700. I was surprised but again I didn't make arrangements so I didn't make a scene. I asked "is this just for this trip or all the trips?" The driver responded that he didn't know and he couldn't call to clarify since it was so late the billing office was closed(3am ish). So I tipped him $140 and didn't think anything further. Fast forward to

The next day and my MIL and SIL's family arrive. That evening my wife asked my MIL and she said no that invoice was the whole

Package(one way transfers, and the hotel rooms). not just our trip. (The bill didn't indicate this). So I felt like the driver deceived me. My MIL also confirmed that she was under the impression that a limo was supposed to pick us up at MCO (their group came in a town car, not a van) so she called the TA and the TA called the company.

The company responded by apologizing and upgrading the limo for the port transfers(so when Given the chance they tried to correct things-the good part).

 

We didn't ride with happy limo going back because I talked my MiL into cancelling the return and I rented a van in the cape and did a one way rental to MCO which was super easy and cheap.

 

 

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