Experience or input on preferred car rental to return in Port Everglades?

[ashmac8]

I currently have 3 reservations on cars for pick up at Orlando Airport and return in Port Everglades and need to cancel two of them.   We are spending 5 nights in Disney prior to our trip and then making the drive to Port Everglades for a cruise on the Carnival Magic this August.

 

The prices are close so I am hoping you can give me insight on which location is the closest, easiest access, best shuttle service etc. 

 

I have a car booked with Alamo (returning to 1700 Eller Dr); Enterprise (returning to Fort Lauderdale Hilton Marina); and Avis (returning to 

Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina,F8D  2301 Southeast 17th Street Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 US).

 

My first choice would be for my husband to drop my son and I off with the luggage, return the car and walk back but this doesn't seem likely due to distance/size of the terminal.

 

A shuttle or cab would work.  Mostly, I am looking to have this occur as conveniently as possible.

 

Thanks In Advance,

Ashley

 

[CruiserBruce]

There are many threads on car rental operations at Ft Lauderdale here. Some reading would be beneficial. For example, walking in the Port is typically NOT recommended, unless the target is Terminal 2/4. The distances can be great, it will be hot, and the Port is not walker friendly.

 

A little Google map reading would reveal The Pier 66 location is physically the furthest, and probably the Alamo location is the closest, although an unusual Pier assignment (to Terminal 2/4) might bend that towards the Hilton.

 

I believe all the near port car rental operations have shuttles, so a taxi would not likely to be needed.

 

[ashmac8]

12 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

There are many threads on car rental operations at Ft Lauderdale here. Some reading would be beneficial. For example, walking in the Port is typically NOT recommended, unless the target is Terminal 2/4. The distances can be great, it will be hot, and the Port is not walker friendly.

 

A little Google map reading would reveal The Pier 66 location is physically the furthest, and probably the Alamo location is the closest, although an unusual Pier assignment (to Terminal 2/4) might bend that towards the Hilton.

 

I believe all the near port car rental operations have shuttles, so a taxi would not likely to be needed.

 

 

thanks for the reply.  been google mapping and reading this thread for quite a while.  That's how I ended up with the 3 reservations I have.  At this point I was just hoping for any 1st hand experience folks might have with terminal assignments for Carnival and actual shuttle experience for these rental companies. 

 

Glad to hear they all have shuttles as I wasnt sure a taxi would want to take such a short assignment. 

[bilyclub]

I know for sure that Alamo has a  free PE shuttle from Eller Dr.  I doubt if Avis has one from Pier 66 because they have a PE location that their shuttle is based at. 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2019 by bilyclub
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[Turtles06]

OP: I think you may be overthinking this.   Just pick one of the companies that has a rental car location near PE and a shuttle to the port.   Alamo is one such; we rented a car from them a few months ago (at the Eller Drive location), and they have shuttles to and from the port.   It's not very far (for the shuttle), but not something you can walk back to the port from.

 

One thing they were advising people at Alamo who were returning cars that day and heading to the port was to do so no later than the early afternoon, when it would become a zoo.  

 

  

 

 

[Clarea]

As far as I know, the Avis port shuttle location is now at 2520 Miami Rd, code QF1.

[ashmac8]

Thanks so much guys. I updated my Avis to the appropriate port Everglades location. I will likely go with either them or Alamo. 

 

I am likely overthinking this so thanks for keeping me straight. 

 

We do plan to arrive early as we are anxious to relax on the ship and have booked carnivals faster to the fun. 

[MKellyUtah]

I recently did a one-day rental from Thrifty at the FLL airport, and they let me return it the next day to a Thrifty drop-off location just outside the entrance to the port.  From there, Thrifty shuttled us to the port (at no extra charge.)  It was pretty slick.  Might be an option of Thrifty is an option for you.

[Ashland]

Thrifty/Dollar is a good option (just outside the Port Everglades gate)...also Budget (on 17th Street location). If you're a member of Costco, we've gotten our best rates booking with them. All of these have a free shuttle into the port and to your ship.

[xcourtx]

On 1/23/2019 at 12:43 PM, Turtles06 said:

 

 

One thing they were advising people at Alamo who were returning cars that day and heading to the port was to do so no later than the early afternoon, when it would become a zoo.  

 

  

 

 

Hello!!  I'm looking into booking a van from Alamo (through Costco) in November, picking it up at FLL and returning the next morning to the Eller Dr location.  Not sure if your rental was pre or post cruise but I've been wondering how crazy it is for dropping off the morning your cruise?  We have Carnival's Faster to the Fun so we'd like to get to port around 10...  any idea how long of a process drop off and grabbing their shuttle to port is?  Trying to decide if a rental is worth it for the day or just more craziness to deal with.  Thank you so much!

[Turtles06]

22 minutes ago, xcourtx said:

Hello!!  I'm looking into booking a van from Alamo (through Costco) in November, picking it up at FLL and returning the next morning to the Eller Dr location.  Not sure if your rental was pre or post cruise but I've been wondering how crazy it is for dropping off the morning your cruise?  We have Carnival's Faster to the Fun so we'd like to get to port around 10...  any idea how long of a process drop off and grabbing their shuttle to port is?  Trying to decide if a rental is worth it for the day or just more craziness to deal with.  Thank you so much!

 

We were picking up our car post-cruise.  The craziness was from so many others doing the same, and not enough staff to process them.  I have no idea what the drop-off was like at that time, but if it was like drop offs elsewhere, it's hard to imagine it would have been too crazy early in the day, as you aren't filling out paperwork, etc.   And as I stated, they were cautioning people who *were* going to be dropping off cars that day to do so by early afternoon.  So I would think an early drop off would be okay, but that's just my guess, we did not return our car there.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!