Orlando & Florida - Questions & Answers (Part 1) *CLOSED*

Col_in_LB

billie19 wrote:

Are you sure you want a resort hotel ?
A villa, you can put tinies to bed and sit by pool etc...

Here here!!!

Murphy_The_Cat

Chaufeurse1956 wrote:

I travel to SW Fla at least three times a year and constantly scroll around the net for the best prices for hire car. I have just recently used https://www.travelsupermarket.com who list the cheapest car hire companies around at the moment. Example: I had a full size motor for three weeks (11 Jun to 2 July 06), fully inclusive of all insurances, for £356 with a free upgrade to a premium vehicle. I thought that was excellent until I arrived and was upgraded again to a 'ding-a-ling' of a luxury Caddy! If you go for the excellent deals thro Budget in Sanford at the moment make a note that you can 'fast track' thro the Avis desk and pick your car up on the airport site - you do not have to get the transport into the Budget office in Sanford unless you wish to. I had fast tracked but their bloke was sick and I had to be bussed a few mile to Sanford - that is how I ended up with the Caddy because the fast track option was messed up due to the desk being unmanned and I had a whinge - a great result as far as I was concerned especially as I would have had to drive past Budget heading to SW Florida. Also, Budget are doing a free additional driver so my advice is NEVER take the Platinum option if you only need one other driver in the vehicle as you will pay less for the petrol/gas when you take the vehicle from the hire company. If you need more than one additional driver then the platinum option is definitely the way to go. I would also advise booking fully inclusive car hire and never go directly thro the big names as you can always find it much cheaper by surfing around.

If I can be of any further help please let me know.

Have a great holiday.

Chris

a quick word of warning about using https://www.travelsupermarket.com for your car hire.

The way that thye advertise their prices can be very deceptive
Here is a good example. Put in your dates and destination for where you want to go and then input your car class. I always select LUXURY (because I'm worth it) and hit enter. https://www.travelsupermarket.com will come up with some very, very keen prices - sadly they are not for the class of car that you asked for. Typically, when you link through to their choices you will have been priced up for a "full size" car, to get a quote for a luxury car you need to upgrade and surprise, surprise all of a sudden it's a lot dearer.

If you know your car brands its really obvious that a Pontiac Bonneville is a Premium car not a Luxury car, or that a Buick Lucerne is a full size car or Premium at best.

tread very carefully when using Travelsupermarket, because it's really disappointing thinking that you've hired a top of the range Luxury car, when in fact you've hired a bog standard saloon (sedan) car.

The picture speaks a 1000 words. Even though the car pictured is desribed as a luxury car, when you followm the link, the car is either a fullsize or a premium car, NOT a luxury car.



MTC

Chaufeurse1956

In reply to Murphy the cat, I can only speak as I find, and surfing around usually finds the best deals on most travel requirements. I used https://www.travelsupermarket.com, as that weed's out the cheapest fully inclusive car rental companies, and found a great deal on a full size (via US Rent A Car) with a free upgrade to a premium Buick Lucern and was very pleased with a further free upgrade to a luxury car in the form of a beautiful big Caddy - and all for the price of £356 for three weeks with an additional driver thrown in too. Obviously that was before the summer season begins and without doubt the prices will rise along with everything else related to travel to Florida.

I am lucky in that I get to travel to Florida a few times a year and have been able to find excellent car rates everytime.

Get surfing!

Chris

Murphy_The_Cat

Chaufeurse1956 wrote:

In reply to Murphy the cat, I can only speak as I find, and surfing around usually finds the best deals on most travel requirements. I used https://www.travelsupermarket.com, as that weed's out the cheapest fully inclusive car rental companies, and found a great deal on a full size (via US Rent A Car) with a free upgrade to a premium Buick Lucern and was very pleased with a further free upgrade to a luxury car in the form of a beautiful big Caddy - and all for the price of £356 for three weeks with an additional driver thrown in too. Obviously that was before the summer season begins and without doubt the prices will rise along with everything else related to travel to Florida.

I am lucky in that I get to travel to Florida a few times a year and have been able to find excellent car rates everytime.

Get surfing!

Chris

Hi Chris

I wasn't knocking the good deal that you get - I was drawing peoples attention to the dishonest way that https://www.travelsupermarket.com advertises its prices. From the screenshot that I showed you above, I would expect to get a luxury car from Auto Eurtope for £152.19 as searched out for me by travelsupermarket (thats not an unreasonable expectation), but when you follow the links from travelsupermarket you find that they have actually priced you up for an inferior product. A bit like finding Glenfiddich for sale at £15 and then when you get to the shelf its actually Bells.

BTW, I love the "get surfing" bit at the bottom.

MTC

p.s. never rely on the good nature of the car hire place to give you an upgrade. If you hire & pay for a bog standard fullsize car, don't be surprised & upset that that is what you get !

Chaufeurse1956

No problem Murph - I know you were not knocking the deal I got. Travelsupermarket are not actually advertising their own car hire company tho - they just try to save people finger skin (and earn some commission) by searching the cheapie sites all in one go. All the cars that they advertise come from the individual car companies like US Rent A Car or YesCarHire etc. I agree that some bump up the price once you get to those sites but so far I have been lucky. US Rent always seem to be quite consistent with their low prices, coupled with Budget trying to get a bigger bite in the Sanford market, and therefore beat the opposition by a big amount. I was not keen on the idea of being bused down to Sanford so went for the 'fast track' option via Avis - luckily it worked to my advantage that the Avis rep had thrown a sickie that day and we had to get the transport! It's a great advantage that Budget really are just about 3 mile down the road from Sanford airport (journey time was about 5 mins) and their pick up minibus doesn't sit and wait until they fill up the seats, their cars are in excellent condition too - still smarting about trying to flog my 1600 Renault Megane back up the A1 yesterday after three weeks in a 5 litre Caddy that went like 'you know what' off a stick!! Having said that I would still have been pleased with a full size as I find the US cars very accommodating. We have a long drive down to Cape Coral in SW Fla and don't like to go smaller than the 4 door full size. Yeah, ok, who said size doesn't matter??

Now, I know you read my remarks but wonder if the chap who was asking for recommendations on good car hire sites, who they were originally intended for, actually saw them? Ha!

Cheerio Murph!!

Chris

lightning15uk

hi can only speak from personal experience i went to florida 6 years ago with my son end of september for a week yes i know a week isnt long in florida but wait i went to travel agents going places on the monday and asked for a week somewhere cheap and hot and that was the cheapest place £99 per person couldnt believe it that was including car hire but i dont drive so had to add coach transfers on as well and then insurance (if i had been more experienced first holiday abroad i wouldnt have had there insurance total cost £338 ) couldnt get a caravan here for that price. we the flew on the friday it was ace a week is exhausting but i would reccomend going to the welcome meetings we got great discounts on a night out all inclusive we had spent about $27 and another couple had paid over $70 so def worth it plus it was at universal studios so that was our first port of call the hotel was on international drive it was then called mic lakefront right next to wet and wild it was great getting the buses it really added to the holiday hope this has been useful enjoy!

heatherw_01

Would I be mad to go to Orlando in July? I know it is hot, but are there frequent storms and it is really busy?

waster_2

Recently returned from Orlando having flown into Sanford. Booked through Yes Car Hire.com. I trawled the internet and they were the cheapest at that time. They use Alamo and the dpot is on the airport a minute walk from the arrivals hall, so no shuttle bus. Note sure if they all do it now but Alamo have this time and on previous visit to Denver where you go through the “check in” process in the office and then wander out in to the lot and pick your own car from the category you have rented. Usually a few different models to chose from.

I paid for the platinum option which was £12 and included the extra driver and tank of fuel. Fuel (gas is now on average $2.80 per US gallon in Florida - about £1.55 per US gallon or £1.94 per UK gallon). So £12 would only buy you approx 8 US gallons or 6 UK gallons at the pumps. As most cars hold over 10 gallons £12 would not even buy you the tank of fuel. Of course the trick then is to take the car back as near to empty as you can. There are plenty of gas stations so for your last couple of days only fill sparingly and often.

Good hunting.

MINMOUSE

Re visiting in July. We have just returned today from Orlando - staying at the Country Inn LBV which I would recommend. The parks were really busy in particular Magic Kingdom up until and inc 4 July but calmed right down after. We had heavy rain all but 4 days but usually it would clear up in a few hours and most people just popped on a ponjo and carried on as usual. We usually go in October when the weather is nicer and parks less busy but had a great time

Edinburghlass_2

Glad you enjoyed the Country Inn and Suites, I meant to ask you to pass on my best wishes to Virgil