Hire car vs Uber

I drive Uber myself as a supplementary income (not at WDW). I shake my head when I see how much people pay and how long they wait to pay it anytime my city has a major event where thousands of customers depart simultaneously. I would never utilize Uber as a customer at the close of a Disney night. If I were coming or going at non-peak, maybe

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Yeah, we did that once and that was it. I’m not an Uber person back in AUS so it was only my second experience. Didn’t quite understand it with the ‘busy period tax’ but certainly do now.

Capitalism at its finest. When there’s a finite number of cars and thousands of customers, demand trounces supply and Uber can do whatever it wants. The same logic that allows Disney to go into gouge mode during the busiest times a year or charge $10 for a crappy poncho to take advantage of the unprepared when a storm hits

I never get Uber from a park. From EP/HS I uber from one of the boardwalk resorts, form MK I would take my preferred escape route- boat to WL :grinning:. I have never gone from AK.

What is this uber premium time thing and how do I found out what times and how much it costs? Don’t see anything on the website to include in calcluations :frowning:

You’ve found the right guy! I’ve driven for nearly three years and know the system well.

Premium pricing is never scheduled in advance. It’s essentially a supply and demand mathematical algorithm. Once requests for rides outpace the number of drivers on the road in a specific area, the price ticks up and is listed in terms of multipliers of standard fare. For example, a small surge will show you paying 1.5x the normal rate. The highest I’ve personally witnessed is 8, and I’ve heard legend of 15.

So take Magic Kingdom for example. During the middle of the day, less comings and goings means enough drivers, and you’re not likely to see surge. After fireworks, when 20,000 people are flooding the TTC, the balance shifts to more passengers than available cars.

Knowing Uber as I do, I would expect it to be painful on the budget if you leave a park at closing time, particularly on the heavier crowd days. I always tell my customers up here that they should consider going to a bar, spending the extra money on a drink or two, and waiting out the surge. But that’s not possible at the TTC or traveling with kids. For my.own trip, I will use the busses and not bother with Uber

I LOVE Uber and have used it a lot. Like anything it has its place and then there are times that it really isn’t the best solution. On vacation - I really like to have as few “wildcards” as possible. There seems to be a “I don’t want to drive while in WDW” mentality. Driving in Orlando area is just like any other. I guess as I live in a metro area on the east coast - traffic and the sort doesn’t really mess me up. The last time we were there it was much cheaper to hire a driver car on specific instances and just do without a car the balance of the time. However if I needed to have “my own” transportation on a day to day basis - renting a car is the only way to go. Even if it costs $20 a day to park - it is just the price of doing business and then I have the freedom I need / want.

I agree. I don’t want to come across like I’m disparaging Uber. It’s perfect for those times you either don’t want to deal with parking or want to be able to drink without worrying about getting home. It’s just that for mega crowded events, it’s best to go eyes wide open that peak usage of the system also means peak fares

Will you have small children with you, that require a special child car seat? If so, consider that in your decision. You have to pay extra for an uber to have one (or more) seats. Or you have to lug your own around. If you rent, you can just leave the seat(s) in the car.

Thanks @js. I’m just curious how the “estimated cost” will be different from the actual/surge cost for Uber from HRH to AK for RD (I don’t actually expect you to know that). I hope that this isn’t a surge time since most peoplel (except savvy liners!) will not to be up that early. BUT, there are a lot more people RD right now at AK than before Pandora. I can see closing time as a big issue if you chose Uber for all your tranportation. Would really affect your uber vs rental calculations if you plan to travel at surge times.

Agree. You have the right idea. Morning incoming traffic is less likely to surge because guests are coming from many disparate locales. The problems happen when everyone wants to get picked up from the same spot.

As far as estimates, Uber will warn you of surge pricing in effect before you request the ride, and the cost estimates will be based on that surge.

You didn’t you were very factual and helpful!

You may find this thread helpful too:

I think I’m pretty much sold on keeping the hire car, though we are planning on using Uber for a couple of specific trips where it will make our lives easier, e.g. arrival day when we want to get into MK quickly, so will Uber to Contemporary.

As for the price of the hire car – I have fiddled about with options and looked at other providers but at this point, there’s not a huge saving to be made and the package we have – though expensive – feels like a good one, so I’m keeping it.

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Good for you!! So I am sure that people will dispute this all sorts of ways - however - I HIGHLY suggest that you GET the insurance that the company offers. YES it is expensive - but if something happens - you have NO liability at all. From your other posts I gather that you will be visiting the US from overseas - you may be default HAVE to get the insurance as your home insurance would probably not cover any US based incidents

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the hotels rule is 3 hour max for non guests.

Have you tried Auto-Europe for the car? They allow you to modify or cancel for up to 48hours before and if the price drops you just tell them to recalculate it and they send you a refund for the difference. You can choose alamo with them and use the usual trick to still go strait to the lot and get your car.

I have a link which will discount the rate but I doubt it will let me post it in here?

http://lyrismail.globalmediaserver.com/t/2642895/39916912/684031/20/

I always prefer a hire car, we have a 3yr old boy and a 6month old baby who we will be going with in Nov though so much more practical, I also have a SUV booked with Alamo and only recently realised we are there for Thanksgiving and Black Friday :scream:

Andy

Well, you’ve just saved me nearly £200 :slight_smile:

I looked at Auto-Europe and they had a much better price for the economy car, which is what I really wanted, but which was even more than an SUV a month ago when I booked.

I then went via Alamo direct (as I wanted to be sure I’d qualify for skip-the-counter) and the rate was similar. So I cancelled my expensive SUV and satnav, and switched to the economy car.

Kerching!

(And thank you!)

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Good to hear, and so you know you can still use Skip the Lines you just have to change the URL it passes you to, I did that in March when I was last in Orlando and I will be doing the same when I am over in November :wink:

Have a great time mate

Andy

I agree - I think you can forgo a lot of the ad ons. I do however stick my by suggestion for getting (or ensuring that your CC covers) Liability / PD / Comprehensive.
I was actually just in an accident - and although I was covered and the guy that hit me (at fault) was covered - because the other guy didn’t do what he was supposed to do - I was almost out $1000 for my deductible.

I HATE paying for things that I don’t need (or get suckered into it) but I do think this is worth it.

I don’t know how it works for healthcare coming to the US - but I always get healthcare coverage when going abroad - for a family of 4 it is usually $50 - 75 for a week or two depending where you are going. With all the craziness that has been happening lately - it is one less thing I worry about.