Cruising and Car Hire ... help!

[FloRidaLvr]

We have a week in Naples before going over to Miami to get on our cruise ship. We intend to stay in Miami the night before so what is the best way to deal with the hire car ?
I had thought we could drop the car at MIA then get a shuttle to a nearby hotel which also might have a shuttle to Port of Miami ? I have found a few hotels which have both shuttles but wondering what other folks do. We also have to pick up another hire car after the cruise as we are intending going down the Keys for 4 days before flying home , so would we get a shuttle back to MIA Car Mover to pick up another car ?

Thanks , Carol

[FloRidaLvr]

Anyone got thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

[Cloverlady]

Hi
We had a similar decision to make for our upcoming trip in March.
We are having 2 nights in Miami area before our week long cruise from Miami, in these 2 days (we need a car to go to the Everglades and Marco Island for the day )
Then after our cruise we need a car for our week up in Orlando.

We looked at the costs of hiring 2 separate hire cars, one before and one after but all the hassle of dropping the car off getting shuttles ot taxi down to cruise terminal, and then hassle getting back to hire the second car

In the end we have decided to hire 1 car for the whole period. We have booked to park it at the cruise terminal while we are at sea.
Saves lots of hassle and the time involved messing about with 2 different hires, plus we can leave non valuables not required for our week at sea in the car to save lugging them all about on and off ship. We can just drive to the ship and drive away after the cruise

I don't think it worked out any more expensive really, even taking into account the car parking.

Very much worth it to us not to have the hassle trailing about/ taxi cost or hanging about for shuttles/ loss of valuable holiday time

Maybe price that up?

[FloRidaLvr]

Thanks very much Cloverlady, it all makes a lot of sense especially being able to leave nonessentials in the car. Will price it up both ways to see which suits the best.
Did you have to pre book the cruise terminal parking?

You must be counting down the days, happy sailing! 😀

[FloRidaLvr]

Done a price comparison and to have one car for the whole trip would be £148 extra plus the cost of parking the car whilst on the cruise
That is thru the BA site coupled with an hotel in the Keys which means I can just pay a deposit ... will try a few other sites .

[Pootle]

We hired a car at MCO yesterday from Alamo for 8 days and we'll be staying the night at Port St Lucie on Friday (cheapish hotel but 120 miles and 2 hours from Miami). We will set off early on Saturday for Miami airport where we expect to drop the car off by 10-11 am then get the Alamo shuttle to the cruise port. At the end of the cruise, we expect to again be using the Alamo shuttle to the airport to pick up new vehicle.

We did this last January when we took a cruise from Fort Lauderdale in the middle of our holiday. Only difference was we stayed in Fort Lauderdale for the night, but that was when we decided that we wouldn't do that again. Well, not for a cruise that started at the weekend at any rate. We know how bad the traffic can be!

If you would like to ask me anything specific, I'll do my best to answer once we have actually done it . Also, I'll post if the shuttle experience turns out to be a nightmare, although it was fine last year so here's hoping!

[welshwiz]

We normally cruise from Miami in the summer when car hire is expensive so two separate rentals works out a lot cheaper for us with no car parking fees to take into account too.

Alamo is our rental company of choice and they offer a shuttle to/from the airport/port. With Alamo we make sure we do skip the counter so there's no delays getting our new car.

Also for the longer journeys we have sometimes booked just a one day rental from MIA to Disney's Car Care Center and some agents only add on £5/£6 for the upgrade to premium (free tank of gas) and we use that on the long drive. Also separate rentals through Virgin means two lots of bonus 1000 miles per booking.

[Cloverlady]

Originally Posted by FloRidaLvr

Done a price comparison and to have one car for the whole trip would be £148 extra plus the cost of parking the car whilst on the cruise
That is thru the BA site coupled with an hotel in the Keys which means I can just pay a deposit ... will try a few other sites .

See more...

Oh I'm sorry to hear that
We must have got lucky, we go in March if that might make a difference. I think the difference for us was minimal.

I hope you get something sorted - you've still got plenty of time.

and yes we are indeed counting down the days to our cruise! We're looking forward to it all, doing Eastern Caribbean!

We've never been on a cruise before!

[FloRidaLvr]

Originally Posted by Pootle

We hired a car at MCO yesterday from Alamo for 8 days and we'll be staying the night at Port St Lucie on Friday (cheapish hotel but 120 miles and 2 hours from Miami). We will set off early on Saturday for Miami airport where we expect to drop the car off by 10-11 am then get the Alamo shuttle to the cruise port. At the end of the cruise, we expect to again be using the Alamo shuttle to the airport to pick up new vehicle.

We did this last January when we took a cruise from Fort Lauderdale in the middle of our holiday. Only difference was we stayed in Fort Lauderdale for the night, but that was when we decided that we wouldn't do that again. Well, not for a cruise that started at the weekend at any rate. We know how bad the traffic can be!

If you would like to ask me anything specific, I'll do my best to answer once we have actually done it . Also, I'll post if the shuttle experience turns out to be a nightmare, although it was fine last year so here's hoping!

See more...

Thanks Pootle that's all very interesting and something I think we might end up doing as DH isn't too keen on parking the car for 7 days ... it's all about how the numbers stack up really .
Looking forward to hear how you get on ... enjoy your cruise !

[FloRidaLvr]

Originally Posted by welshwiz

We normally cruise from Miami in the summer when car hire is expensive so two separate rentals works out a lot cheaper for us with no car parking fees to take into account too.

Alamo is our rental company of choice and they offer a shuttle to/from the airport/port. With Alamo we make sure we do skip the counter so there's no delays getting our new car.

Also for the longer journeys we have sometimes booked just a one day rental from MIA to Disney's Car Care Center and some agents only add on £5/£6 for the upgrade to premium (free tank of gas) and we use that on the long drive. Also separate rentals through Virgin means two lots of bonus 1000 miles per booking.

See more...

Another vote for Alamo thanks Welshwiz , haven't done a quote with them as yet ... also good to get plenty of bonus points too !