Parking during cruise.

[wayne77]

Hello,
Any recommendations for parking a hire car while we are on a cruise?
We are doing a 3 day cruise from Port Canaveral, so is it fine to park at the terminal,does insurance etc cover this?
Or would it be better to return the car and book another for after the cruise?

Thanks.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Interesting. I am mulling my options for May 19 as we are doing a 7 night cruise out of PC.
I did a dummy booking for May 18 and have already decided I will be doing a split rental as its by far the cheapest option.

[tinkerella123]

This will be our 10th cruise and have always parked at the terminal, there are cheaper ones a bit further out where they will transfer you, but for us the convenience is there, straight out of the car and into the terminal, parking further out saves about $56.00 if on a 7day cruise, considering how much the cruise cost I think it’s worth the extra to park at the terminal, but if it did work out considerably cheaper for us to return the car then I would look into that option, as op only going for 3 days I would just park at the terminal, you then have the option to leave anything in the car that you didn’t want to take on the cruise. Onsite terminal charges are $17. If anyone was going on a 7 day cruise then it’s definitely worth looking to see how much you can save by returning the car.

[duchy]

I couldn't see any benefit in parking rather than returning but I wouldn't leave anything that mattered in an overnight car park here either. As it turns out we won't have to decide as we now have a ride from Canaveral onto Vero but I'd not have wanted to pay for parking without good reason (like an overall cheaper price).

[Cloverlady]

Earlier this year we did a split holiday - stayed 2 nights on arrival in Fort Lauderdale, then a 1 week on a cruise , then a week up in Orlando.

We were undecided what to do, hire a car for 3 days then hire another after the cruise, or hire for the full stay.

In the end we hired for the full stay and parked at Miami official cruise terminal.
It was sooooo much easier than dropping the car and faffing about spending time and money relying on other transport to get us to and from the car hire spot.
It was also handy for leaving one of our cases in the boot (no valuables of course, just clothing for the 2nd week in Orlando) meaning we didn't have to lug too much luggage on and off the ship and kept storage space in the cabin minimised.

It was also cheaper/broke even to hire for the full period instead of 2 hires when factoring in the car parking costs. And it was such a breeze just stepping across the road literally and getting on the ship.

[DonnaD]

When we did a week cruise we did a split car hire. Dh and I dropped the luggage and the kids and my mom at the terminal, returned the car and took the shuttle from Hertz back to the port. Then the reverse at the end. We also only had the stuff we needed for the cruise as everything else was at the villa.

It worked well but there is no way I would do it for a three day cruise especially if we had lots of luggage.

[chrisnasah]

i am doing a 5 day cruise from Miami (Easter) and done a split booking through Virgin as it worked out cheaper plus there is free shuttle to and from Airport.

[tspill]

I would be splitting the car hire. Not sure I would want to -
1. Pay for a car I am not using
2. Pay more in parking for a car I am not using.

[wayne77]

Thanks all for your advice.
We p,an to have one continuous car hire, as we think this is more convenient, we can use car to store luggage not needed on cruise and also saves any hassle using shuttle etc.

[thedriver]

last time I kept the car - as it was only a 5 day cruise and parking was $15 per day at Tampa cruise terminal.

The saving was only about $30 when factored doing two car rental agreements.

This Easter I am doing a 7 day cruise and a 4 day cruise - so defo splitting

7 day cruise is at tampa - so I have a 2 day hire from Miami to Tampa where the car is being returned and then at the end of 1st cruise I have a 1 day hire back to Miami to then get another cruise the following day.

All good fun