Car Rental to/from Port Canaveral?

[kabux]

Seems all the car rental places in/around port canaveral are currently closed, I assume due to lack of cruisers.  I'm looking at January cruise and was hoping to reserve a car for each way but bookings aren't available as they are closed - what are others doing in this case?  Can you reserve a car to the Hertz in Cocoa, FL for example then change the drop off location once it opens? And what about pick up on way home? Thanks!

[JasperCruiser]

I’ve noticed that the Hertz location in front of the Residence Inn isn’t showing on their website any longer. I hope they are able to open back up as cruising restarts. Walking across the parking lot to return my rental was super easy and I’ll miss it if it’s gone for good.

[kabux]

That's exactly what I was thinking, and hoping to get a minivan reserved before they run out!

 

[BoozinCroozin]

The price of rentals have skyrocketed and inventory is short as well. My neighbor's son does car rentals for Enterprise out of Fort Meyers. They can't check-in vehicles as fast as they are going out. MCO surely will be different, but inventory is expected to be low and demand high. Just don't be surprised if you have a vehicle reserved and when you get there it is not available. I am not saying it won't but he has to do it many times a day every day right now.

[Noxequifans]

I believe major car rental companies sold off a good part of their inventory when Covid struck ….. and car rentals nosedived. It will take some time for them to rebuild their inventory. … due to chip shortages impacting car manufacturers. 

[BoozinCroozin]

What I was hinting at is that you may reserve a rental car but when you get there, cars may not be available. Not that it will happen, but it may happen. You will need to have a quick backup plan ready. 

[silverp1]

Also curious about this. The Hertz location was listed as "Permanently Closed" on Google maps. The Enterprise/National location seems to be closed from now until eternity.

 

I figured I'd just do transfers through RCCL but the phone rep claims I can only do that if I fly in / out on the start / end dates specifically which seems wrong.

 

Any thoughts on other worthwhile ways to get from MCO to Port Canaveral - or info if these rental locations will reopen? 

[JohninDC]

6 hours ago, silverp1 said:

Also curious about this. The Hertz location was listed as "Permanently Closed" on Google maps. The Enterprise/National location seems to be closed from now until eternity.

 

I figured I'd just do transfers through RCCL but the phone rep claims I can only do that if I fly in / out on the start / end dates specifically which seems wrong.

 

Any thoughts on other worthwhile ways to get from MCO to Port Canaveral - or info if these rental locations will reopen? 

Pre-virus Cocoa Beach Shuttle and Cortrans were the most often suggested shared shuttle options.  You can also do UberX for about $65+ each way.

[bhanback]

I just booked a rental car, at BWI in Maryland.. we are leaving our car at the airport and driving down to Port Canaveral. We will turn the car in on Friday, cab it to hotel, then shuttle over in the morning for Mardi Gras. The only company who would do this was Avis on Atlantic Ave in cocoa beach. I tried Enterprise, but they wanted over 600 bucks for a two day rental! The only other one remotely close for turn in was Alamo at the airport in Melbourne. I paid in advance to gaurantee availability the day of….

booked the Carnival transfer to MCO for the flight home… 

 

 

 

 

 

[kabux]

I'm hoping now that cruises will start opening, the rental cars in port canaveral/cocoa beach will also reopen....  Mardi Gras in January, so I have a bit of wiggle room to wait and see!! Appreciate all the replies!!

[spotdog32]

Booked a 1 way from MCO to the Port for January 2021 with Enterprise a little pricey but we are booked and ready 

[katiel53]

We have stayed in Orlando and had Cortrans take us to the port on the day we sailed.  We stayed at Embassy Suites, Orlando airport.   We could have had the shuttle pick us up at the hotel, but we wanted to leave earlier than their pickup time.

 

We took the free shuttle from the hotel to the airport, then got the Cortrans shuttle at the airport.  It was easy and the service from Cortrans was excellent.  We also used them for the return to the airport when the cruise was over.

 

The driver was waiting and the shuttle filled up quickly and we were on our way.  We plan to use them again when we go on Harmony in Jan.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 6/8/2021 at 11:31 PM, silverp1 said:

Any thoughts on other worthwhile ways to get from MCO to Port Canaveral - or info if these rental locations will reopen? 

uber or lyft.

That's what we are planning to use, but there is going to be 5 of us with 3 suitcases.

 

We've done Uber from FLL to POM, and it can't be really different from a trip from MCO to Port Canaveral.

Edited June 21, 2021 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

This will be our first cruise from Port Canaveral. I am hoping to either fly to MCO and then uber/lyft to the port, or rent a minivan here in Atlanta and drop it off closer to port.

 

I hoped to drop off closer to the port, but it doesn't look like any rental places are open close to the port. Our cruise is in November, so there is time for them to reopen, but I want to book the rental now just in case to lock in a reasonable price. If they don't reopen, then we'll have to drop off the rental car at MCO and then uber/lyft to the port.

 

I have Spirit vouchers from the flights they cancelled due to Covid, but they are only enough for one way, especially, since Spirit neither reimbursed us $100 for the luggage fees paid in advance, nor added them to the vouchers.

[Ashland]

On 6/21/2021 at 7:04 AM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

uber or lyft.

That's what we are planning to use, but there is going to be 5 of us with 3 suitcases.

 

We've done Uber from FLL to POM, and it can't be really different from a trip from MCO to Port Canaveral.

We're going to use Cruise Control to get the 6 of us from MCO to a Port Canaveral hotel then from the port back to MCO for our flight home.

 

Now if I can just decide on a PC hotel for 2 nights without a car......things just seem so spread out there and not much in walking distance from the hotels I'm looking at.

[luckyfincruiser]

For august cruise we are going to use Uber. Even with surge pricing it will be cheaper than a rental.  And will use cortrans for trip back to mco

Edited June 26, 2021 by luckyfincruiser