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Car Rental Shuttle Tampa


liv4dalord
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Yes - the Avis and nearby Hertz offer shuttle/drop-off service. Enterprise is also not too far from the port and offers shuttles. If you get a great deal on a car rental at the TPA airport a taxi will run about $27 or Uber should be just under $20.

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  • 1 month later...

Anyone know if Enterprise at the Tampa Airport has a shuttle to the port? A few years ago, I rented a car from the Miami airport - upon returning it, I was able to take a shuttle to the Miami cruise terminal. Wondering if there's anything similar at Tampa.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Yup - I think the closest Enterprise to the port is in Ybor City.

 

What car rental agencies at TPA offered shuttles to the port? :confused:

 

I didn't confirm. But, on one of the TPA interactive touch screens, under transportation, there was an option for cruise port shuttle. When you picked that, it listed several rental car companies (Enterprise was not one of them). I remember seeing Avis but didn't pay much further attention when I didn't see Enterprise on there, and the Enterprise rep suggested trying to work something out with the local site. Rather than do that, we just grabbed an Uber for $20 and called it a day.

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If anyone has any way to fill out the answer this question, it would be very helpful to know which car rental companies at the airport offer a free shuttle to the port after you return your car.

 

I think it's pretty common to fly in the day before, rent a car at the airport for the one night, (after all, you always have to hit Walmart for that one thing you forgot to pack!), then return the car to the airport in the morning, and hopefully, hop the free shuttle to the port.

 

 

Theron

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If anyone has any way to fill out the answer this question, it would be very helpful to know which car rental companies at the airport offer a free shuttle to the port after you return your car.

 

I think it's pretty common to fly in the day before, rent a car at the airport for the one night, (after all, you always have to hit Walmart for that one thing you forgot to pack!), then return the car to the airport in the morning, and hopefully, hop the free shuttle to the port.

 

 

Theron

The shuttle might be a joint effort among several rental companies, as opposed to each individual company having its own shuttle (this is just my observation though). The airport touch screen map had an option for Port Shuttle under Ground Transportation. Once you clicked that, several rental car company names appeared. I didn't try to click any further because my company's name (Enterprise) didn't appear (as I expected it not to) and I was hoping this Port Shuttle was some other option we could try. I recall the first company name being Avis but not much more than that. You may need to check each company's website info for that location and/or call them.

 

 

I used a similar shuttle from the Miami airport, and you had to show your receipt from a participating company. It was a full-size bus (which is what leads me to believe it was a joint effort).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bringing this back to the top. I've been calling the major brand rental companies at Tampa Airport, and I have not yet found ANY of them that offer a shuttle to the cruise terminal. The ones I have spoken with have also explicitly told me that none of the car rental companies at the airport offer such a shuttle.

 

Is this a new development? Can anyone there on the ground confirm any rental company that offers a shuttle to the cruise terminal? This would be for the morning of the cruise - return car, then ride shuttle to the cruise terminal.

 

Theron

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You may want to look at a one way rental. Picking up at airport and dropping off at one of the downtown area locations. We are renting from Enterprise at the airport and dropping it off at the West Kennedy location. They said that they could shuttle me to the cruise terminal from that location. I'll find out if this is correct info next week when I try it:D:D.

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You may want to look at a one way rental. Picking up at airport and dropping off at one of the downtown area locations. We are renting from Enterprise at the airport and dropping it off at the West Kennedy location. They said that they could shuttle me to the cruise terminal from that location. I'll find out if this is correct info next week when I try it:D:D.

Thanks! I'll look forward to your report! That may be a viable option. Right now I am leaning toward arranging one of the shared shuttle services for both ends of the cruise (hotel to cruise terminal and then cruise terminal to airport). I've used that kind of service before and it's not the most convenient option, but it has worked fine, and is cheaper than a taxi or even Uber or Lyft. If I can drop the rental off nearby and then use their shuttle, I'd only have to do the shared shuttle for the end.

 

Theron

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Howdy neighbor! :) 10+ years ago when we made our first cruise out of Tampa National had a shuttle from TPA. 2 years later when we dropped off the car they did not. :( I have seen no recent reports on this board of any car rental company offering port shuttles from their TPA airport location, only Avis, Hertz and Enterprise locations close to the port seem to offer shuttles. The good news is that an Uber or Lyft from TPA to the port is only about $20 or less - taxi will be about $27+tip.

 

Either drop the car off close to the port or skip two DODs and use an Uber to get from TPA to the port. Your call! ;)

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Howdy neighbor! :) 10+ years ago when we made our first cruise out of Tampa National had a shuttle from TPA. 2 years later when we dropped off the car they did not. :( I have seen no recent reports on this board of any car rental company offering port shuttles from their TPA airport location, only Avis, Hertz and Enterprise locations close to the port seem to offer shuttles. The good news is that an Uber or Lyft from TPA to the port is only about $20 or less - taxi will be about $27+tip.

 

Either drop the car off close to the port or skip two DODs and use an Uber to get from TPA to the port. Your call! ;)

Howdy back! And yes, I think there is a conspiracy here. I called a number of car rental agencies last week and read a number of reviews and reports. The consensus seemed to be that the local government has surrendered the transportation business from the airport to the cruise terminal to the taxi and shuttle industry.

 

I did find a car rental agency that allows you to drop off at a hotel close to the cruise terminal, and they will shuttle you over. Fortunately one-way rentals in Florida are usually no more expensive, so it's just as convenient as returning back to the airport.

 

Theron

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for anything that turned out to be misinformation. I was just commenting on what I saw on the TPA touchscreen map. Didn't investigate any further since at that point it didn't impact me but thought I'd share so someone else might be able to investigate further. Kinda weird that there is an option in the touchscreen menu but it doesn't exist.

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My plan with Hertz went fine as well. Picked up at TPA, dropped off the next morning at the Marriott Waterside (700 South Florida Ave). One interesting note, they didn't actually have a shuttle on-site, they used the car I had just returned to run me over to the port. To return at this particular hotel, you just pull up to the Valet Parking in front of the hotel and tell them you are dropping off a Hertz rental. They held the car right there while I went in and took care of the paperwork.

 

An observation: The hotel staff told me that it was likely they would use the car to shuttle me, so it is apparently not uncommon. So if you have multiple people in your party (I sailed alone, so I did not) it may be a good idea to just leave the luggage in the car (while your party keeps an eye on it) while one person goes upstairs to turn in the paperwork. If they're going to use the same car, no sense in unloading all the luggage just to have to load it all back in the car again!

 

Also, apparently the hotel moves the Hertz desk around from time to time.

 

Theron

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am doing 2  Budget one way rentals, both for a day.  One day pre cruise and one day post cruise.

 

I am flying in and out of St. Pete and rented from there to the location in the Embassy Suites hotel (513 S Florida St) pre cruise. 

And from the Embassy to St Pete, post cruise.  

 

We did this a couple years ago at the Embassy location.  Just dont remember which car rental.  As someone stated above, they just used our rental car and took us over to the port.  

 

Just curious if anyone has walked from Embassy to the port??  We will probably be there early in the morning and only have one suitcase, so it seems like an easy morning walk (just .7 mile)  Just curious if there are sidewalks the whole way and if its a decent walk.  I know we can uber, but for that short of distance, I would rather just get my walk in.  

 

I will try to come back here and update on Budget

 

PS.  I got great deals for one way, one day rentals.  $43 pre cruise, $37 post cruise (with all taxes)

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3 hours ago, waterbugohio said:

Just curious if anyone has walked from Embassy to the port??  We will probably be there early in the morning and only have one suitcase, so it seems like an easy morning walk (just .7 mile)  Just curious if there are sidewalks the whole way and if its a decent walk.  I know we can uber, but for that short of distance, I would rather just get my walk in.  

 

From my recollection of the ride over, I believe there are sidewalks.  To be sure you could use Google Maps Street View and "walk it" yourself ahead of time!  🙂

 

Theron

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/7/2018 at 4:25 AM, TPKeller said:

My plan with Hertz went fine as well. Picked up at TPA, dropped off the next morning at the Marriott Waterside (700 South Florida Ave). One interesting note, they didn't actually have a shuttle on-site, they used the car I had just returned to run me over to the port. To return at this particular hotel, you just pull up to the Valet Parking in front of the hotel and tell them you are dropping off a Hertz rental. They held the car right there while I went in and took care of the paperwork.

 

An observation: The hotel staff told me that it was likely they would use the car to shuttle me, so it is apparently not uncommon. So if you have multiple people in your party (I sailed alone, so I did not) it may be a good idea to just leave the luggage in the car (while your party keeps an eye on it) while one person goes upstairs to turn in the paperwork. If they're going to use the same car, no sense in unloading all the luggage just to have to load it all back in the car again!

 

Also, apparently the hotel moves the Hertz desk around from time to time.

 

Theron

 

Thank you for the detailed report! Just the info I was looking for.

 

For us, my husband is the one who rents and drives the car, but needs me as a translator when returning the paperwork, so we may still need to unload the car, unless the valet people already know about the shuttle situation at the time of our drop of. 

Did you happen to pick a car up after your cruise as well?  Apparently it will be driven to the port for us to pick it up. At least our rental information states that the starting point of our rental is cruise port and not Marriot. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/15/2019 at 8:17 AM, Miryam1234 said:

 

Thank you for the detailed report! Just the info I was looking for.

 

For us, my husband is the one who rents and drives the car, but needs me as a translator when returning the paperwork, so we may still need to unload the car, unless the valet people already know about the shuttle situation at the time of our drop of. 

Did you happen to pick a car up after your cruise as well?  Apparently it will be driven to the port for us to pick it up. At least our rental information states that the starting point of our rental is cruise port and not Marriot. 

 

I did not, I booked one of the many shuttles to the airport for the morning return.

 

Theron

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