Car Rental In Ft. Lauderdale for the day?

[Linda2433]

Anyone know where I can rent a SUV and or Van for the day in Ft. Lauderdale. SHould I do it ahead of time? This is for Sat. the day we get off the ship. Flight home not until 4:30, do not want to spend the day at the airport. Are their places right at the Pier to rent from, would it be advisable to do it in advance and if so where do i call or a web site. Thanks

[iancal]

There is a Budget location in the Quay Shopping Centre, right beside the Ren. Hotel. It is very near the pier and they will pick you up at the dock after you have cleared customs/luggage. You can return the car to the airport. Try the Budget web site. As I recall, Avis used to have a dockside rental depot but I did not notice it when we were there. I also notice that Budget's web rates really vary so once you have a confirmed reservation, check the website again to determine if the price has been reduced.

[arlenemilt]

There are no longer any car rentals available at the pier and yes, book

in advance. All the biggies will pick you up. You can also check autorent.com; they may be cheaper than the others.

 

Arlene

[marvholly]

You really do not have all that much time. You will be lucky to be off the ship by 10 am. Get to the car rental, do all the paper work is another hour, now 11 am. You will need to be at the airport at 2:30 for a 4:30 flight. therefore, you will need to drop the car by 2 pm. That is only 3 hours.

[Linda2433]

Three hours I do not wish to just sit in the airport. I thought if we rented a car we could at least go someplace do something. I would prefer to just get on a plane and go home but the airlines don't seem to feel that way. Booked a flight last May was suppose to leave at 11 AM. United cancelled the flight. Now we don't leave until 4:30. Personally next time I will fly out of Boston or NY and get a direct flight. So still looking to rent a van or SUV

[sunluva7]

I did the same thing you are. We are flying out at 7:30 at night and will be renting an SUV from Budget for the day, and they do pick up at the airport.

[marvholly]

Sorry. I was just suggesting it might not be worthwhile to rent a car for 3 hours. I do understand your thinking. DD and I flew out of FLL 3/04 after about a 3 hour wait w/ a 3 hour layover for our connection in Houston. We were in airports/traveling from about 11:00 am to 9:30 pm and that did NOT include the trip between ORD and home.

[Linda2433]

we have return transfer from the ship back to the airport. Should we just take the transfer and rent a car at the airport. Will rent in advance. Has anybody rented from Budget on line or did you just call to rent at the airport? Please let me know. Thanks. Also if we take the return transfer are we going to be last cause our return flight is later than others. If so around how late will we get off the ship and get the the airport if anyone knows.

[clandt]

If you already have the transfer -- sure take it... BUT all the rent a car places require you to take a bus to get to them.

 

We just did this yesterday -- we rented from Golden Coast (reconmended by Amerisuites) total was 39 dollars for a Nissan Sentra. There were awesome about quick pick up -- we saw Hertz folks that had been waiting for 30 minutes before we got there and were still there when our van came -- 10 minutes after we called. Paperwork was quick and we were on our way down the A1A by 10:30am. Our flight left at 5:15 -- Since it was Spring Break it took a little longer then we thought to get back to the car place. We got there around 3:45 and were at the airport by 4pm -- did curbside check in and were at the gate by about 4:15. I would rent a car again in a heart beat!!! I don't want to waste anymore time at the airport then I have to. We had a great day and even spent time on the beach!

[Linda2433]

What do you mean all the car rental places make you take a bus to get to them.

Do you just call the car rental place from the airport? Airport checkin, you didn't have to be at the airport 2 hours ahead of time? Your flight was 5:15 and you didn't get their until 4/4:15 and that was ok?

 

Do the car rental places pick you up at the airport and take you to their rental place ? Do you drop the car off their and they take you back to the airport?

[clandt]

At the Fort Lauderdale Airport the Hertz etc are not like what we have used at other airports across the country. They have a bus system instead of the indivdual car rental vans. The one we used was off airport grounds so their van took us to the bus pick up -- no big deal.

 

Fort Lauderdale airport is rather small compared to DIA where we fly out of. If we didn't do curb side the two hour rule may have applied. We had intended to be there two hours before -- but like I said the Spring Break traffic on the A-1A prevented that. There was NO LINE for the x-ray, I am sure most of the cruise ship passengers pass through before noon and it eases up after that.

 

I forgot to mention we were picked up at the pier and not the airport.

 

Christy

[llund]

Our plane did not leave until 4:30 too. We reserved a van through Trifty car rental. Once we got our luggage after disembarking, we called Thrifty. They picked us up at the cruise dock within 5 minutes! We were driven to their lot and our car was ready for us. We were in our car by 10 A.M and drove to the everglades where we did an airboat trip. We had time afterward to go to Los Ollas Blvd. where we had lunch. Got the car back by 2:30 and Thrifty drove us to the airport and we were at the airport 10 mainutes later. We never felt rushed and really enjoyed the day.

[Linda2433]

Wow Thrifty sounds good to me. I may just scratch the return transfer we have to the ship from Princess and go with Thrifty, as long as they take us back to the airport and pick us up at the pier. It's going to be a long crazy day no matter what so may as well see some of Ft. Lauderdale before heading home.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[llund]

Linda....Thrifty was located about 2 minutes away from the airport. However, when we were there, they were building a location at the airport for all the rental cars. I don't know if that is done. Once we got our luggage, we called Thrifty. There were 4 of us so we needed a van. I thought I had kept the information with the cost, but I can't seem to locate it now. When you call them, let them know that you want to be picked up at the dock and brought back to the airport after dropping off the car. I also did not want to spend 3 hours at the airport. We drove to Everglades Holiday Park, which was about a 1/2 hour drive. We enjoyed our everglades tour. Or...you can go downtown and take the water taxi. Los Olas is fun to window shop and have lunch. A lot will depend on when you disembark. We were nto rushed at all.

[Linda2433]

Booked a Mini Van thru Thrifty the other day. I think like $45.00 for the day. Have to call when we get off the ship and they will pick us up. Also said we could drop the car off at the airport. Hopefully it will work out. Both things you mentioned sound good. Will have to look into it more. My transfer from the ship to the airport I am just going to scratch or the travel agent said to check when i get on board and see if they will credit someting instead. Either that or I will hold onto it just in case. There are four of us also so we needed a minivan with all the luggage. My husband myself and daught. and her friend. Thanks for the help.

[llund]

We cancelled our transfer with Princess. Hope it all works out for you. When are you going?

[peppermintpatti]

I have rented from Alamo several times in Ft. Lauderdale. They have a free shuttle that will pick you up at the pier and take you to the airport to get your car. If the shuttle is not there when you depart the ship just call them. Alamo doesn't require a credit card to make a reservation. I have received better rates by using the sites below to book.

 

http://www.rentalcars.com/

http://www.autorentalguide.com/index.shtml

[Linda2433]

llund

 

How did you cancel you transfer with Princess? We already have the ticket booklet to board and our transfer coupon is in their. We are going 4/16 to 4/23 aboard the Caribbean Princess.

 

Called Alamo and and a few others and the cheapest rate was with Thrifty. They pick you up for free at the pier also and drop you off at the airport later.

[llund]

Linda,

My TA did it for us, but it was done before tickets were issued. You may want to call your TA or princess directly.