Renting car to drive to Disney?

[monica9]

we are a family of 4 (me, dh, dd9 dd2)
We live in Connecticut so 20 hours to Orlando.
We want to save money but not shorten our trip too much.
Anyone ever rent a car to drive to Disney and drop it off there and then fly home?
Anyone know the cost of this or if it’s eveb possible?
I don’t mind cutting our trip short by 1 1/2 days to get there but not another 1 1/2 to get home too

 

[Anchored]

This is a bad idea for a couple of reasons
Mostly, driving a rental car from one state and dropping it off in another usually carries a hefty fee
Factor in the cost of the car, the gas, the hotel, and five+ meals on the road and you are probably close to breaking even on a flight

 

[Anchored]

I just priced a one way car from Enterprise from Groton, CT to Lake Buena Vista and the one way drop fee is $470.15

 

[sueb711]

The AutoTrain might also be a possibility. That way you would have your own car with you.

 

[ilikecarrentals]

It can be extremely cost effective if you do it at the right time of year and from the right locations. In the Spring rental agencies want cars out of Florida and in the Fall they want them back. Checking carrentalsavers you can rent a full size car for around $100 for a week including taxes and fees picking up at MCO and returning at BDL right now. Looks like it is good through the end of June.

Try MCO to Groton CT rather than the other way around. $194 for a week including taxes and fees right now.

You can also do the same thing in reverse between mid September and mid December. It doesn't look like those rates are available yet but the rental agencies do it every year.

 

[SteveH]

If you are a Costco member check their pricing. But be sure you get it from Airport to Airport, that is usually the cheapest option, but you can price out if you dropped it of at the Car Care Center or Dolphin too.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

For the several hundreds of dollars you will spend in a drop off fee you might as well fly down. Saves you from having to spend 20 hrs on the road not to mention you will need to pay for a hotel if you drive so you are well over $500 in fee's plus a hotel night plus gas cost. And that does not factor in the daily rental rate and fee's for the car. And you have a 2yr so that kid usually flies for free. Frontier has an offer that kids fly for free till they are 15 yrs old you just have to a fee to do join the program. Not sure if they are still offering it. A few people I work with have done this and are saving a lot.

 

[Darcy03231]

In order to "save" money you'd have to do a roundtrip rental. While not WDW went rented a van to go to the outer banks from NH one year. We incorporated the drive as part of the trip and made stops to see stuff on both the way down and the way back.

Roundtrip airfare for 4 from CT should run you $1000 - $1200, providing you're not traveling on a school vacation or holiday week.

Roundtrip car rental should run around $200-$300, inexpensive hotel for the night around $100, meals/snacks around $150-$200 and gas $250-$300. Total comes to $700 - $900.

Personally, unless you really need a car while you're there, I would fly.

 

[lookame]

So idk about renting and driving from conn to Florida, but in Jan our flight home had a warning and said we could rebook. This gave me huge anxiety so I had my husband look up how much it’d be to keep our rental van for an extra day and we’d drop it off in Ohio (this was Alamo). The cost to keep an extra day and drop off would have been an additional $160. So not crazy and it is doable if you do it right. Our strategy would have been to drive straight through and take half hr breaks along the way. It is exhausting though

 

[babesboo99]

We are from Albany, NY and always rent a car to drive down and drive back. We sometimes drive straight through with no problems at all. The fees are great just have to know when and where to look. We never get the insurnce because our own car insurance covers rentals so i would look into that you can save money there.

 

[Day-Day]

As some others have posted, there is a good chance for a decent price on a one-way rental depending on the direction and time. I just looked at a 3-day rental from Orlando Airport to Groton, CT with Budget for June 9 and the price is $75 total for a full-size car.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Can your 2 year old even spend 20 hours in the car? My kiddo started crying profusely after anything longer than 6 hours (with stops) when she was around that age. I'd look into flying to avoid 2 kids crammed in a car, excited to get to a vacation for that long of a period of time.

 

[jec6613]

As some others have posted, there is a good chance for a decent price on a one-way rental depending on the direction and time. I just looked at a 3-day rental from Orlando Airport to Groton, CT with budget for June 9 and the price is $75 total for a full-size car.

That's not including fuel and if you need to stay overnight though. At 1200 miles, the fuel cost alone is $160-ish at 30 MPG, and goes up depending on how fuel inefficient your vehicle is, and figure another $60 for an overnight stay in a Motel 6, plus you have tolls (about $40 between NY and NJ) and you're getting close to $300, and that's for a super cheap rental and doesn't include the food costs of spending another day away from home, which isn't insubstantial either.

As a fellow CTer, if you're really looking to save money, check into Amtrak. Not just the Auto Train, but they also offer service from New Haven or any number of other CT stops to Orlando with a train change either in NYC Penn Station (NYP) or DC's Union Station (WAS). Depending on the time of year, you can get a family of 4 in a sleeper compartment for $400, and that includes meals. Since it travels overnight, you don't lose the same amount of time that you would driving, and you arrive far more rested.

Alternatively, you can hit dozens of area airports easily from CT. BDL, HPN, LGA, JFK, BOS, PVD, EWR, and HVN all offer direct or two segment (only one layover) flights going down. CT is unique in having access to so darn many big airports without adding much drive time. Doing an open jaw itinerary (departing from and returning to different airports) can frequently save a considerable amount of money. You do have the issue of getting to and from the airports, but cashing in a favor from a friend, or taking rail+bus or rail+taxi is a bit time consuming but cheap and always an option.

 

[monica9]

In order to "save" money you'd have to do a roundtrip rental. While not WDW went rented a van to go to the outer banks from NH one year. We incorporated the drive as part of the trip and made stops to see stuff on both the way down and the way back.

Roundtrip airfare for 4 from CT should run you $1000 - $1200, providing you're not traveling on a school vacation or holiday week.

Roundtrip car rental should run around $200-$300, inexpensive hotel for the night around $100, meals/snacks around $150-$200 and gas $250-$300. Total comes to $700 - $900.

Personally, unless you really need a car while you're there, I would fly.

Flying end of September right now is 1600 unless I do really early AM flight which we won’t be able to do. Coming home though is cheap while flying there is super expensive so we might be able to save by just renting a car and dropping it off at the airport then doing magical express if we can abd fly home

 

[Darcy03231]

Flying end of September right now is 1600 unless I do really early AM flight which we won’t be able to do. Coming home though is cheap while flying there is super expensive so we might be able to save by just renting a car and dropping it off at the airport then doing magical express if we can abd fly home

Have you tried using separate carriers as one way fares rather than a round trip with one carrier? A couple of times we've taken Delta or JetBlue one way, then the other on the way back to get less expensive airfare. You could try it using other carriers too. We don't tend to fly Southwest anymore, but you could try them for one way and another carrier for the other.

 

[jec6613]

Flying end of September right now is 1600 unless I do really early AM flight which we won’t be able to do. Coming home though is cheap while flying there is super expensive so we might be able to save by just renting a car and dropping it off at the airport then doing magical express if we can abd fly home

AFAIK, you can't use DME unless you've flown in. So you'd have to drop everybody off at the resort, then have someone drive to the airport to drop it off, then take Taxi/Uber/Lyft back.

Also, that $1600 doesn't add up. I just checked one way tickets to MCO and the highest price I found on AA for the last 2 weeks of September was $200 per person for an economy fare, so $800 for your family. What airport and airline were you looking at that was giving you $400pp? Because that's bordering on highway robbery.

 

[bumbershoot]

AFAIK, you can't use DME unless you've flown in.

You absolutely can use DME, no matter how you got to the airport.

 

[bumbershoot]

The only absolute with car rentals is that there are no absolutes.

You might find a car rental that’s sky high with drop off fees.

You might find a rental that’s an amazing value.

You might tweak times or locations and find a massive difference.

I once got a rental from Phoenix to Anaheim (sky harbor to John Wayne airports) where it was so low they practically paid me lol. And then my son got norovirus and our plans changed (not getting on a plane with a puking kid) and they extended the amazing rental rate until I could return it.


Check all options. Often.

 

[jec6613]

You absolutely can use DME, no matter how you got to the airport.

Good to know, at one point I know that wasn't the case, but I haven't had a need to leave MCO to WDW unless I flew in.

 

[tinkerjo]

We did a car rental once for 2 weeks from Ohio to California and back. With our AAA discount we were upgraded to a larger vehicle and spent $250 for the rental. You really just have to check around. Not all companies are the same and even the same company different locations will quote you differently. We prefer to drive everywhere we go. You miss a lot of educational opportunities if you fly. We enjoy tasting local fare and family time /conversation. My DS20 says the drive is the best part of the trip!!!!