Budget Rental to Port Canaveral

[bushmaster]

We are planning to use Budget from MCO to Port Canaveral and back for a 7 day cruise Jan 27, what have been the recent experiences using Budget? We will turn the car in at the port and then rent at the port for return to MCO.

 

[EACarlson]

We are planning to use Budget from MCO to Port Canaveral and back for a 7 day cruise Jan 27, what have been the recent experiences using Budget? We will turn the car in at the port and then rent at the port for return to MCO.

It seems like Budget backtracked on their plans from earlier in 2023 and returned FastBreak service. As long as you're eligible for that you should be fine. If not, their counters were consistently the most backed up of any I saw in multiple airports between May and October of 2023. Pack your patience, at least at MCO. No idea how their operations at PC are.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We last used Budget for similar cruise-related rentals last January. I more frequently use Alamo, but when I rent from Budget, I use Fastbreak. MCO pickup was fine, since that was still operational at MCO in January. The MCO drop off for the second rental was also okay, although a little slower than with Alamo, since I wait at the car until the agent has checked the car in. No Fastbreak service at PC. The drop off of the first rental car before the cruise and the pick up after the cruise at the Budget Port Canaveral location were not so good. A very long line to drop off the car followed by another long line for the shuttle to the port. Fortunately, we had dropped our luggage at the port before dropping off the car, so we had only a rollerboard and backpack as carry ons for the shuttle ride to the port. Picking up the car after the cruise was a PITA. The counter agent first tried to increase the cost by more than $200 for the week-long rental by entering it as a new booking, even though I handed her printed paperwork with the documentation of the reservation, rate, etc. She tried to claim that they didn’t have a car to match our booking, even though they had plenty of full size sedans in the parking lot. I think she was hoping to upsell me to a more expensive rental at the walk up rate. In practice, she had to have one of the just-returned cars checked out that it had been refueled and was clean, since it had just been dropped off by someone leaving on a cruise. In the end, the rate got fixed and we got the vehicle class I had booked.

We had the same shuttle driver both ways. He was excellent. The counter agent could take customer service lessons from him.

We will be picking up a rental at Budget/PC on January 27th at the end of a seven-night cruise, dropping it off at MCO on February 3rd after a WDW stay. Despite the experience last year, I couldn’t justify paying twice as much for an Alamo rental for that week. We do have an Alamo booking pre-cruise.

 

[Carlnne]

After many years of renting through MCO Budget and dropping off at the port I am switching to Enterprise this time. Budget lines at the port are horrible (one long long line for pick up and drop off). I agree with previous poster- shuttle drivers are super nice but clerks are unfriendly and shady. I have been scammed twice- once charged for gas despite taking pictures of full tank, providing receipt, and having a no marked on contract. Ive never had trouble at MCO but the port location is terrible.

 

[elvispursley]

did Budget to drop off/pick-up at the port. NEVER.AGAIN! The lines to get on the shuttle were probably 200 people deep. It took forever to get a shuttle (luckily we had arrived early and were towards the front of the line). But when we returned to pick-up our car, it was absolute chaos! No organized queue with people milling around the parking lot with tons of luggage everywhere. We never could find the queue we were supposed to be in. When we finally got to an agent, they said they didn't have the car type we booked (mini-van). They wanted to put us in a smaller car. We ended up in a huge Econo-line van that could seat 12 and all we needed was something that could seat six. It was such a stressful experience that we said we'll just do a town car service from now on. If we need a rental car after a cruise, we''ll get a car service to take us to MCO and go from there.

 

[msjprincess]

We usually use Avis when dropping at the port. For our last cruise we decided to use Budget because it was cheaper. Never again. We waited over an hour for the shuttle after dropping the car. We should have just given up and taken an Uber. It was so disorganized.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Games here too, thank goodness we took photos of the entire car plus the dash to show gas was filled when we dropped it off. Starting to think these places train their staff to cheat

 

[Ralph&Pam]

This is a follow-up to my earlier post in this thread (#4 above). We cruised again at the end of January, picking up a Budget full size rental on January 27th after the cruise. I noted that we again booked Budget because the rate for a week-long rental was about half that with Alamo (my preferred agency). Once again, we had a less than stellar experience with the Budget rental. The wait for the shuttle at the port was more than 45 minutes. That got us into the queue at the Budget terminal for another 60 minute wait. Once we were at the counter, the agent again tried to upsell us to an SUV rather than the requested sedan. We chose to wait for a sedan, since cars were being dropped off as folks arrived to head to the port for their departing cruises. Another 30 minutes wait, and the car that was claimed to have half a tank of gas was actually below one quarter. I heard the person who dropped it off claim that the gas level was at the half tank level, and obviously no one bothered to check. I noticed it when I stopped to fill the tank at the nearby gas station, since I wanted to start our week with a full tank. I was asked to return the car with at least a half tank of fuel, so I ended up only adding a couple of gallons at the end of our trip prior to dropping off the rental at the airport. As busy as it was for pick up, I decided it wasn’t worth returning to the rental counter to complain or ask for an adjustment to my paperwork. The car itself was very nice, a Nissan Altima with less than 2,000 miles on it.

With this experience, I’m off Budget if it involves the Port Canaveral location. We’ll be cruising from there again next January, and I’ll either book with Alamo or take Disney transportation to our resort. We can always pick up a car at the Car Care Center if we want to have a rental for part of our post-cruise resort stay.

 

[keishashadow]

The land work at PC car rental counter desks. They could teach MCO terminal sharpies a tactic or two. SMH

I’m immune to it, however, appears most aren’t, as lines are interminal there during the rush

we have had vehicles from both Alamo and Avis that were iffy. One, we discovered tires were nearly bald after reaching wdw. Who thinks to ck the tire tread on a rental?

Another, engine light on. Actually, went back in that time and they insisted it was fine, a light bulb. Nope, started to ride rough halfway back to WDW

Did turn them both back into car care location at WDW. Received new, upgraded vehicles, their apologies and nice credit on bill (without asking)

these days, if short 3 or 4 day out of PC, we park rental in the port garage

It’s not that much more than returning car to MCO and using Uber or shuttle back to airport.

YMMV only way I’d consider dealing with PC rental again is if I couldn’t find a reasonably priced alternative

 

[Carlnne]

Returned from a cruise a few weeks ago and used Enterprise instead of Budget this time (due to past issues and current price). Not only was pickup at the airport flawless but drop off at the port was incredible. Super organized! Before I could tell the agent I filled the gas tank he told me that he knew I filled it based on satellite data. I was amazed! We went into the building (which is close to the Royal Caribbean terminal) and waited in the lounge for a few minutes for the shuttle. Much different than sitting or standing outside in a parking lot like Budget. I will never go back to Budget- wont even price check.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Returned from a cruise a few weeks ago and used Enterprise instead of Budget this time (due to past issues and current price). Not only was pickup at the airport flawless but drop off at the port was incredible. Super organized! Before I could tell the agent I filled the gas tank he told me that he knew I filled it based on satellite data. I was amazed! We went into the building (which is close to the Royal Caribbean terminal) and waited in the lounge for a few minutes for the shuttle. Much different than sitting or standing outside in a parking lot like Budget. I will never go back to Budget- wont even price check.

Good to know. And Enterprise can be booked via Costco. I also won’t use Budget for any rental involving Port Canaveral (and likely not MCO either).