Rental car in Miami - car dropoff at the port?

[Leejnd4]

Hi,

 

We’re sailing out of the Port of Miami in August, and spending one night pre-cruise at the Sheraton Bal Harbour in Miami Beach. We’re planning on renting a car for the one day. I’ve been trying to figure out if we can drop off our rental car at the port, but I can’t seem to find a specific answer to this question. Are there any rental companies that have car drop-off there? Or do we have to take the car back to the airport and take a shuttle – and if so, are the shuttles free?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Valentine's Mom]

There are several rental companies there. Hertz, avis that I know of and I am sure there are more that I can't think of.

[Leejnd4]

There are several rental companies there. Hertz' date=' avis that I know of and I am sure there are more that I can't think of.[/quote']When you say "there", do you mean with an office at the port, or just "there in Miami?" I'm hoping to be able to drop the car off at the port, rather than going back to the airport. But I can't find the Miami port listed as a drop off location on any of the websites -- they all seem to say that you have to drop the car back at the airport.

 

Thanks for helping!

 

Editing to add...I guess I should explain that I'm trying to figure out if I can use Priceline to get a lower rate on the car. So I need to know if ALL the major rental companies have drop-off at the port, or if there are only some. If not all of them have it, then I need to find which ones do and get the car through them direct.

[RSS from SF]

I’ve been trying to figure out if we can drop off our rental car at the port, but I can’t seem to find a specific answer to this question. Are there any rental companies that have car drop-off there? Or do we have to take the car back to the airport and take a shuttle – and if so, are the shuttles free?

No rental companies have a car drop-off at the Port of Miami. The closest drop-off I know with free shuttle to the Port of Miami is the Enterprise office at the Hyatt Regency. This is what we did last year; I highly recommend them.

 

I'm not current on the rental companies that might have shuttles from MIA to the Port.

 

However, I know that Enterprise at MIA (as of last year) cheerfully directed cruisers to the Hyatt Regency when you're dropping off to get to the Port (so that you can take the free shuttle from the Hyatt to the Port). The MIA office had a stack of photocopies of instructions/map to the Hyatt office at the ready for this purpose. Other Greater Miami Enterprise locations might do the same -- as well as no extra charge for dropping off at the Hyatt Regency.

[Leejnd4]

Thanks! I guess I should forgoe Priceline and just go with Enterprise direct. I'll check into that.

[Kevbear]

We had our car from Orlando to Miami with Hertz last fall. Dropped off the car at Hertz and caught their free shuttle to the ship, ride took around 10 minutes.

Kevin

[masonpips]

I am also intersted in this and checked at Alamo and saw they did show a port location but when you click on the map it's the airport location

 

We come in late on Friday (8:30 or so) so I'm contemplating taking a taxi to a hotel near the port and then another taxi over the next morning.

 

On our return however, we are not flying home until Sunday so I think we'l lhave dh leave the ship on Saturday morning first, go get a car and call me on my cell when he's back so we can meet him (we're in a GS so I think we can leave when we want to?). We'll still have to go through customs but that beats all of us going to get the car I think.

 

I'm not sure how he's getting to the airport to pick up the car tho. If there are car shuttles, he'll hop on that one - still searching this out as well.

[Leejnd4]

Okay, I think I have the definitive answer on this dilemma. Not being familiar with Miami, I didn't realize that the airport is so close to the port! It's only about 8 miles, and according to mapquest, the trip takes only 13 minutes. And the major car rental companies all have free shuttles to the port from the airport. So basically you can rent from any car rental company and just drop it back off at the airport in the morning, and take their shuttle to the ship.

 

This means I should be able to use Priceline without fear, which should save me a few bucks! :)

[JudyOh]

My daughter just rented a car from Alamo last week at the "pier location", they took them by shuttle to the rental place which was not at the airport, she's not real sure where it was. All the rental companies have free shuttles to and from the pier.