Road Trip to Disney Suggestions?

[frumpster]

While still on the ride back from Disney we started thinking about a possible trip back to Disney next year.

Looking for some suggestions as to a rental vehicle for the ride. We are considering traveling with another couple, so we would need something roomy for four adults with room for luggage. An SUV or a van?

Also if you have any tips on what to look for when renting a vehicle for a trip like this: Long Island to Disney and back from anywhere from 10 days to 2 weeks. Have only rented a vehicle once in all my years of driving, so any tips appreciated.

[ryobi88]

i always rent a mini van every summer for my trip to Hilton head s.c. from southern new jersey,for the last 13 years i have always gotten a great price from priceline.com using nearby Philadelphia airport as my pick up/drop off location.although this year for whatever reason it was real expensive we name our price on priceline and we were still begin declined at 65 dollars a day.So i went directly to Avis website picked a location closer to my home and got a terrific price of 779.00 for our 13 day journey .The mini van will be more then big enough for your needs

[bossmann]

hi, i have never rented a mini-van or suv type of vehicle, but i use avis all the time, and use whatever discounts/coupons are the best. if i can suggest that since you are thinking so far in advance of your next trip to toss in a reservation now (they dont require any credit card or anything to reserve). every year i go to s. florida for thanksgiving and i usually got hit for over $500 bucks for an intermediate size car, well last year when i was booking an april trip, i also threw in the november one and reserved a price of just over $300 (for 2 weeks), perhaps since it was so far in advance i am not sure, but heck its worth a shot to save big. naturally you'd have to adjust for a mini-van/suv but proportionally you might save the same. you can always cancel the reservation, and re-up an new one if you caught a better quote. good luck

[frumpster]

Thanks for the great tips!! I will definitely look into this. Splitting the cost with another couple will make this more feasible.

Do the rental agencies charge for mileage or just the amount of time you have the vehicle?

[ryobi88]

my mini van rentals come with unlimited mileage but check that before you rent it to be sure

[frumpster]

Thanks! I've been checking the various rental companies and so far Avis seems to have the best pricing. I've also noticed the pricing to be different depending on the pick up location with airport locations being more expensive. I'm plugging in Costco and BJ's discounts and the savings are pretty good.


Now to further complicate things..... we're also looking into the auto train! Perhaps another thread for that, but any advice welcome...

[njnorsky]

I've never done it, but the Auto-Train doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. You'd need to drive from LI to DC to get to the train, get the car loaded, get on-board, make the trip (17 + hours, DC to Orlando), get off the train, wait for you car then drive to Disney. To me that's a lot of wasted time.

You're getting a rental so there's no benefit in saving the "wear and tear" on the vehicle that you might be concerned about if it was your own car.

I'm in northern NJ, a couple of miles north of the GWB. We've done several trips to Hilton Head Island SC and this past New Year's Eve we drove to Disney. On the way down (departed 3 AM) we (me, the wife, 12yr old, & 8yr old) stopped in Brunswick GA (arrived around 8 PM, hit alot of traffic in SC and GA). From there, after a good nights sleep, we had about 3 hrs left to get to Orlando. We left Brunswick at around 7 AM and by 1 PM we had checked in (we got lucky our room was available) and we were walking up Main Street at Magic Kingdom. The trip home, we left the Saturday after New Year's at 6 AM and were pulling into our driveway the same day at 11:45 PM, approx 18hrs driving straight thru. My wife and I split the driving and I admit we were very fortunate that the weather was fine and no major traffic delays. We had planned on stopping but the closer we got to home we figured to just keep going.

I would think with 4 adults you could easily split up the driving. Just be sure your rental agreement allows additional drivers.

[frumpster]

Thanks NJ!
Not sure what the game plan is yet but all the advice is appreciated.

When we drive down, we usually take 3 days and not more than 6 hours per day of driving, so that would probably be the only incentive to take the auto train.(plus saving on the hotels)

Luckily there's plenty of time to plan.

[bossmann]

As far as I know, all the major rental companies have unlimited miles now, granted I only rent for a minimum of a week at a time, so maybe if you were doing shorter trips they might calculate a mileage fee.