Car Rental

After much thought, I think we are going to rent a car for our trip 11-14 through 11-21. Two questions: 1. Is it easier to rent at the airport or at the Car Care Center on Disney property? We really want the car for going to the parks each day, so we can use Magical Express to and from the airport if the Car Care Center is a better choice. 2. What is a reasonable price to except for just an inexpensive economy car?

You will get the best deals if you rent from an airport location. Check out http://carrentalsavers.com for good deals. Book the best one that you find, and keep checking back regularly - if you see a better deal, book it and cancel the other one.

Thanks @brklinck. Is it correct that if we don’t actually ride the Magical Express, we can still tag our luggage for Disney to transport to the hotel? I hate to rent a large vehicle just to accommodate our luggage if it can still go with Disney.

Although there are rumors that you may be able to have your bags go without going on DME, officially no- and they scan your bands so if that does trigger them getting your bags then it could be a problem.

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Also, did you see this info? Car Rental Advice from JackOfAll

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The very first question I ever asked on lines forum was if one could send one’s luggage on DME, and rent a car. :wink:

The answer from every source, official and unofficial, has been an unequivocal No. One must ride the DME bus.

Having said that, an unofficial workaround would be to have one or more adults in the party (and also the kids) ride the bus, while one adult rents the economy car at the airport.

I haven’t tried it. Always have done either-or. I wouldn’t try it without checking with Disney first, though I can’t imagine why there would be a problem.

Having said that, I know it’s not a problem at all if you take your own bags to the bus, rather than having Disney deliver them from the airport to the room.

Hope this helps. Go well.

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Also, on the way home, regardless of whether you use DME at all, if your airline participates in the resort airline check in, you can check your bags at the hotel and get your boarding pass, and the bags arrive at your destination airport, just as if you’d used curbside or regular checkin at the airport.

You still need to keep your carry-ons, but that should mitigate any space issues with an economy car rental.

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Thanks, I had missed this link!

Although I have not personally done this, I have read trip reports where it was successfully done. All you need is at least one member of the party to ride DME and all the luggage is transported.

We found the best deal with Firefly at the airport, it was about $100 cheaper than all the other companies for an economy car. Most people go with Hertz or Alamo, those lines at the airport were 40-50 people long, and no one was in the Firefly line :slight_smile: