Anyone Ever Done This?

[Celakip]

We are considering driving to Florida in a one-way rental vehicle, then flying back home. The thought is we would drop the rental off at the Orlando airport, then catch the Magical Express bus to our resort and back to the airport at the end of the trip. Is this even possible?:mickey:

[Strmchsr]

I'm pretty sure that's possible if you're staying at a Disney resort, but it wouldn't hurt to contact DME or WDW Reservations just to verify.

[ILoveLegos]

Let me preference my reply by saying that I've never driven out of state one-way in a rental car. But I have driven rental cars one way within Florida and it may not be as economical as you might think.

Since I have a home in Florida, on a rare occasion I have rented a car to drive one-way from Orlando International about 70 miles to my home. I rented a shiny red new PT Cruiser, cute little number for one day and paid $500 out of pocket! Why? The recovery fee for driving a rental car one way is very high.

For that amount of money I could have made two round trips flights between NJ & FL plus had limousine service on both ends to shuttle me to my homes! I only did this once in an extreme emergency. I now just take a limo to/from Orlando it's much cheaper!

The way around this fee is this: sometimes car companies will give you a price break if you "recover" (or return-drive one of their cars back to them from another agency [Avis-to-Avis, National-to-National], etc.). What I found out was that despite the fact that the car rental company has the same "name umbrella" they are independantly owned and operated. So in my case, driving a car from a National Car rental in Orlando to one in Sebring required two drivers after me to go to Sebring to retreive the car from Sebring and return it to Orlando after I rented it. The unexpected fees I incured covered the both my use, fuel, etc. and but also their driver's use, fuel, etc. of the return trip.

To make a deal, however, you would have to make these arrangements well in advance and of course there has to be a car in your area that needs to be returned to Orlando. I'd suggest that it is indeed worth a try looking to see if you can "cut such a deal". But just be wary I had my $59 day rental coupon in hand and ended up paying them $500 after all the recovery fees! Ugh!

Please do your homework first, doing a one way car rental/flight home trip may actually turn out more expensive than your round trip flight would have cost.

Hope this helps!

[CleveRocks]

I'm pretty sure that's possible if you're staying at a Disney resort, but it wouldn't hurt to contact DME or WDW Reservations just to verify.

Just as far as the Disney stuff goes, there's no need to call to ask. There has never been a requirement that someone FLY into Orlando Int'l Airport in order to use DME.

Everyone named on a Disney resort reservation is entitled to use DME ... entitled to a ride from MCO to the guest's resort on or after check-in day, and entitled to a ride from the guests resort to MCO on or before check-out day.

In the OP's case, the OP will have to take luggage himself/herself to the DME counter and then to the bus, but other than that he/she can use DME just like anyone else, regardless of the fact that he/she drove to the airport rather than flew to the airport.