Rental car for 4 days or Mears

[Crow]

arriving Sunday 3-2 and using ME to get to POR. the last night stay is at the Dolphin though so cant use ME back to airport. and going to Universal for one day. opinions on if you think its better to just use Mears to Universal(which I have done once before) and then Mears back to airport or rent a car from the Car care center and drop it back at the airport.
I know the advantage is that I wont have to wait as long and can leave later for airport but debating the cost

[faline]

You'll probably want to do a price comparison to see what the differences are. Rental car prices fluctuate quite a bit and also depends on what type of vehicle you want/need. Plus, you may want to check rental rates over time to see if any deals crop up.

[Crow]

renting a car at the aiport for the whole trip is about the same or a little lower than just a few days it seems

[Dream'nDisney]

We are actually renting a car on the first leg of our trip. We are staying at Universal for two nights, then WDW for the rest of our trip. I compared all the prices, and for us, renting the car made sense because we wanted to do a little shopping and also buy groceries for our stay at WDW. We are staying at YC, which is right next door to Dolphin. Since one of the rental car companies at Dolphin is Alamo, we decided to use them. We are renting a full-sized car at the airport (MCO) for two days at $45/day, returning it at Dolphin. (We also joined the Alamo Insiders Club for free to get I believe a 10% discount). Right now, Alamo is offering a free upgrade on certain types of cars (full size not being one of them, but we need the luggage room). Good luck.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Last time we went down, end of 2012 I found it cheaper to rent from Alamo at the WDW car care center then renting the same exact vehicle from Alamo at the airport.

I would look at ME as you said to POR, then schedule and early pick up from Alamo at the resort to get your car the next day (saving one day rental) then figure out the extra cost of dropping off at a different location. Depending on what time you arrive Sunday, you may not need the car that day, which was our case. Granted we stayed at POR our entire stay so was able to save 2 days of rental, one on each end, and take ME both ways.

I would think though that all things considered, get your rental car on property early on Monday and return at aiport would be most cost efficient option and offer you the most flexibility during your stay.

Good luck.