Port Canaveral Rental Car Return

[2paradise]

Hi

 

We are going on the Sunshine in the Fall. Has anyone done a one way car rental and returned the rental car to the agency the morning of the cruise?

Just wondering how this will work. I have read that it is easier to drop the family off at the port with the luggage, return the rental car, and then have the driver hop on a shuttle to the port.

 

Anyone have any tips?

 

Thanks!!!

[Djford75]

We used a one way rental from Budget, was great. Close to most of the hotels by cocoa beach.

Take the car to the port the night before and grab dinner right on the water and watch the cruise ships leave. Its a lot of fun.

Then take the family to the port in the morning, drop the luggage and then take car back.

Only issue we had was they will not take you to the port before like 11 i think...they use the shuttle to bring people to the office that are getting off the ship. If you want to get there ASAP, just arrange a cab ahead of time.

[uncleg]

We did it with Budget, it was easy peasy. Got car at airport, drove to hotel in Coco beach, next morning went Budget office dropped off car and were shuttled to port. They shuttled us back when we returned got another car, spent the night and back to Budget office at air port.

[2paradise]

Great! That is the plan! Good to know not to get there too early. Anyone have experience with Enterprise?

 

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[Titan_Cruiser]

We have done this multiple times with Avis and Dollar. We dropped off bags about 9:30,then dropped of the car and rode the rental car shuttle back to port by 10am. They are bringing passengers off the ship to the rental car pickup but the shuttle has to go both ways. You can ride it at any time.

[welldone60]

We have used Budget several times. Always worked great. We have always dropped the car off around 9-9:30 and get on the shuttle when it brings a load from the port. Never more then a 15-20 min wait.

[setsail1975]

Yes! We went to Disney a few days before our cruise. We had enterprise pick us up at Port Orleans and we drove ourselves to the Enterprise in Port Canaveral the morning of the cruise and they shuttled us to the port. On the return the shuttle picked us up at the port and drove us to pick up another car . We then drove that to Orlando's airport.. It was so smooth and easy to do.. Be prepared for lots of tolls on your way back to the airport. The nice thing is they do not charge drop off fees to return to different drop offs.

Edited July 23, 2015 by setsail1975

[jacksmycat]

This port is so easy to use a rental car. We used Budget, but I think most of them work the same way. My husband and I dropped off the luggage with the porter and then dropped off the rental car. There were people on the shuttle with their luggage, but I was glad we dropped ours off first. The rental buildings are very close to the port. It was so convenient.

[splash_in_the_water]

back in may we rented a car from budget there on Cocoa beach. We had a one way before and after. Getting the car from olrando airport went well, and we were even ok'd to not fill it up since we got it with just a 1/2 tank. cool. Dropoff went well mostly, except there were a lot of people in line, like 15 maybe, right out to the door basically. After my wife waited for 10 or 15 minutes maybe she had me check with an employee (there were 4 there- 2 at the counter and one lady outside trying her best to organize groups for shuttles and another out in the lot getting peoples cars, etc..

 

So it turned out she didn't have to wait in line. We had never rented before that, so we weren't 100% aware of how the entire process goes. It would have been nice if they had some signs or something for drop-offs , etc instead of just standing around.

 

so the next part of that was waiting for the shuttle. That sort of sucked. It was probably about 80 or so, at 11 I think so it was pretty warm, especially for us just having been done with winter- not used to the heat yet. There were a lot of people standing around, luggage piled up here and there...we were often asked "is this the shuttle to RCL, or Carnival, etc..? This made me think they ought to have some sings by the loading area stating something like "shuttle to carnival ______ship's name____" so people know what's going on. I mean, there's only , what, 3 ships in port at any given time anyway. Not that they'd have to do these things, but it would really help for people just standing around wondering what's what.

 

Coming back from the cruise, we got off pretty early , got to the rental place pretty early , and that process went pretty well, so that was good. Got a car, the next day dropping it back off at orlando airport went well. Just follow the signs and arrows and it's pretty easy to find .

[Darkingnj]

We used Dollar. Picked up car from airport day before cruise, drove to hotel in Cocoa Beach. The next morning we dropped the car at the local Dollar and rode their shuttle to the port. When we returned from the cruise we called Dollar and they pick us up from the port and took us to the office to pick up another vehicle which we drove to Orlando airport that day. Very convenient.

[Davey Wavey]

We have used Dollar, Enterprise and Avis at this port. They were all the same. I would suggest that you ASK an employee where the shuttle to the port is. Every time there were lots of people waiting around. Once we thought there were like 30 people waiting for shuttle to the ship, but there were just 2 people. Most of the people were just off the ship and waiting for cars to be returned. Of all our cruises, I have seen no advantage to dropping people and/or luggage off at the port first. Even with our group of 5 we didn't have to wait for another shuttle, and luggage space was separate from passenger space and there was always plenty of storage. Also, I haven't seen or heard of them refusing to take people to the port before a certain time unless the ship was delayed. When the ships start unloading the shuttles start running.

[2paradise]

Thank you for all of the information and suggestions! Sounds like it will work out just fine to use the rental car to get to the port.

[Huskies4]

Great information. Thanks! We are sailing on the FOS from Port Canaveral next Sunday. Never sailed from this port before. We are picking up a car from Avis at the airport and driving to the port. I think we might try to drop the luggage at the port first, then return the car.