purplejam
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2009
Hi
I will be travelling to Florida in August from England and this trip there is only going to be me and dd(14).
Sadly DH can’t come due to work commitments and I have mixed feelings about the trip as it will be the first time we have travelled so far and for so long without him but when I found some extremely cheap flights - it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, but as the trip gets nearer I am getting more anxious than normal about the planning and know that I’m probably over thinking and wondering if I’d of being better with a less adventurous trip to Spain lol!
Anyway, we will be flying into Miami and are staying the first night at the airport. I’m picking a rental car up the next morning and driving to Cocoa Beach for a week. After that we are driving to WDW and staying at Saratoga Springs for a week.
My original plan was to drive down to Fort Lauderdale for the last 4 nights to break up the journey back to Miami Airport but I’ve changed them because of trying to get the maximum value I can out of my park tickets. Disney are very clever at marketing to brits and sell us a 14 day ticket for the price of 7 days (including park hopper and memory maker and water parks and other bits and pieces) for approximately $470 and as I’m getting extra days for free (I only wanted a 7 day ticket) I’ve decided to use some of them! So we are now staying the last 4 nights offside in the Disney Springs area.
This means that I will have to drive back to Miami Airport on the day we fly home. Our flight leaves at about 5pm so will need to be at the airport at about 1:30 to 2pm.
I’m guessing that the quickest way will be to travel on the toll roads and I have no problem paying the toll fees but I’m concerned about identifying and avoiding the cashless tolls.
As I will be renting a car for 19 days I dont want to pay to rent a transponder from the rental company as I’m only planning to go on toll roads for one day (possibly 2 if go on them on the drive to Cocoa but happy to take our time and avoid them on that day). I’m renting from dollar (cheap rental cost but high cost for add ons!) I think it will be nearly $150 to rent a transponder from dollar which seems a bit steep!
I have driven round Miami / Airport area before and know that it can be hard to avoid the tolls and am trying to work out the best way to avoid them.
I’ve seen people say to buy a Sunpass from Publix but I’m really unsure how this will work if the rental car already has a transponder fitted to it ?? How does the toll know which transponder to read - or am I being a bit thick lol!
I’m guessing that I can just pay cash tolls as I go and that will have no impact on whether I rent a transponder from dollar ?
Sorry for the ramble - just looking for advise on my quickest / easiest route and how to ensure I don’t incur a lot of extra cost / penalty charges !
Thanks in advance
I will be travelling to Florida in August from England and this trip there is only going to be me and dd(14).
Sadly DH can’t come due to work commitments and I have mixed feelings about the trip as it will be the first time we have travelled so far and for so long without him but when I found some extremely cheap flights - it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, but as the trip gets nearer I am getting more anxious than normal about the planning and know that I’m probably over thinking and wondering if I’d of being better with a less adventurous trip to Spain lol!
Anyway, we will be flying into Miami and are staying the first night at the airport. I’m picking a rental car up the next morning and driving to Cocoa Beach for a week. After that we are driving to WDW and staying at Saratoga Springs for a week.
My original plan was to drive down to Fort Lauderdale for the last 4 nights to break up the journey back to Miami Airport but I’ve changed them because of trying to get the maximum value I can out of my park tickets. Disney are very clever at marketing to brits and sell us a 14 day ticket for the price of 7 days (including park hopper and memory maker and water parks and other bits and pieces) for approximately $470 and as I’m getting extra days for free (I only wanted a 7 day ticket) I’ve decided to use some of them! So we are now staying the last 4 nights offside in the Disney Springs area.
This means that I will have to drive back to Miami Airport on the day we fly home. Our flight leaves at about 5pm so will need to be at the airport at about 1:30 to 2pm.
I’m guessing that the quickest way will be to travel on the toll roads and I have no problem paying the toll fees but I’m concerned about identifying and avoiding the cashless tolls.
As I will be renting a car for 19 days I dont want to pay to rent a transponder from the rental company as I’m only planning to go on toll roads for one day (possibly 2 if go on them on the drive to Cocoa but happy to take our time and avoid them on that day). I’m renting from dollar (cheap rental cost but high cost for add ons!) I think it will be nearly $150 to rent a transponder from dollar which seems a bit steep!
I have driven round Miami / Airport area before and know that it can be hard to avoid the tolls and am trying to work out the best way to avoid them.
I’ve seen people say to buy a Sunpass from Publix but I’m really unsure how this will work if the rental car already has a transponder fitted to it ?? How does the toll know which transponder to read - or am I being a bit thick lol!
I’m guessing that I can just pay cash tolls as I go and that will have no impact on whether I rent a transponder from dollar ?
Sorry for the ramble - just looking for advise on my quickest / easiest route and how to ensure I don’t incur a lot of extra cost / penalty charges !
Thanks in advance