April 19-24, split stay - arrive 7:15 pm, first night Pop (going to MK for the evening), then back to MK for 8 am BOG next morning, then changing to BC for the next 4 nights. Plan a mix of parks, a waterpark, but to stay inside the bubble. Outbound flight is 9:30 am. Dad has bad knees and heart so no long walks. Concerned about awful buses at BC (which we experienced last visit).
Options are:
Rent a car at MCO (best I can find on site is Alamo, comes to $230 or so)
Pay out of pocket freely for cabs/Uber including from airport for convenience without the hassle of a car.
DME to/from hotel but take cabs/Uber around much of the rest of the time.
Help me, hive mind. Trying to figure out if cabs will cost about as much as a rental car, once gas/insurance/hidden fees added in. Priority is convenience but I don’t want to throw away money, either.
We stayed at BC in January. The buses were sub par relative to other resorts. We waited a solid 40 minutes for a bus to downtown in the early evening.
I would use DME, as long as Dad can do the steps onto the bus. Uber to BC from the Contemporary was about $9. So, maybe you can use that as an average to figure out how many rides you’d need per day. That would be about 25 rides versus the $230 for the car.
From BC, would your dad be able to walk to Epcot and boat to HS?
Very helpful! He’d have a hard time walking from contemporary to MK, so we’ll probably rely on buses for MK. The main time I want to get somewhere fast are our first evening when we land at 7:15 pm and I want to get in some quality time at MK before it closes at midnight. If we rented a car I’d just drive straight to TTC, but without the rental we have to go to the hotel to drop our luggage first.
The other time I want good transportation is the day we leave… with a 9:30 international flight, I’m not super keen for a 5:30 DME pickup. But that may be a good day for Uber.
Found @JackOfAll’s post now that I am on my PC instead of my iPhone: Car Rental Advice from JackOfAll - follow his method and you can save a lot of money on car rentals.
Awesome, thanks!
ALthogh I’m following all of his advice… to be fair, the rate is actually $137, but once you add all the fees and taxes, it still comes up to almost $200. When he talks about $45 for a week… do you think that really includes taxes and fees (since, for example, there’s a state-wide $2/day charge)?
My DH insists on renting a car each trip. I admit that it has spoiled me too. It is great to be able to come and go as we please, especially if we want to park hop or check out resorts etc. For our April trip, I couldn’t find any reasonable rates at first, then I booked with Alamo using codes I found on the Disboards. Then last week, I just happened to search for Dollar and got a city special for $113 total for 8 days (compact or larger–they pick). Now the rates are back up. Just keep checking. Book something you can live with, then change it if you find a better deal.
