Avoiding long car rental queues at Orlando

Avoiding long car rental queues at Orlando

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cashmax

Original Poster:

1,099 posts

239 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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Flying to Orlando on 24th May, so about 3 weeks. Desperately want to avoid queuing for hours for a rental car. Any advice that might speed this process up. Not a member of any loyalty programmes, so not sure if it's too late to join? I do have a Sixt express card, but its not clear if this will be of use at MCO??

bakerstreet

4,755 posts

164 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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Maybe use one of the smaller local companies. IME people usually spend ages arguing at the counter because they have been offered a totally different car to what they ordered or being messed with insurance they may or may not need.

Obviously with bigger companies, this can mean big cues. We used fox rental car on our last visit and we only waited 15 minutes.

Flight times also pay part in large ques. If you are landing at an obscure time, then queues will be less smile

I also think its all tactical. Many people will have been up for hours and if anything like me, quite short tempered and will sign up to anything just to get our of the place asap! biggrin

illmonkey

18,112 posts

197 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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With things like this, we tend to get 1 person to bolt for it and get there ASAP, before the rest of the people wait for their luggege etc, the other can then take their time, step back from the stampede too.

Sheepshanks

32,531 posts

118 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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Used Hertz in Orlando and I'm a Gold member, so straight to garage. But after the 3rd year on the run of having problems with them I switched to Alamo last year, and got the best rate booking through Virgin Holidays (if you use the link from Virgin Airways to Virgin Holiday you get Virgin miles for the booking).

Then used Alamo's online check-in and went straight to the garage where you choose your own car from those in the group you booked. They check your licence etc as you leave the garage.

Sixt is off-site from MCO so you have to get a shuttle bus there. I can't recall seeing any comments about wait times but generally places like that are less busy but if they're short staffed and a couple of awkward customers turn up you could still get a long wait.

Rutter

2,070 posts

205 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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I booked our last car using https://www.alamo.co.uk/brits then did the "save time" a few weeks before i went, this gives you a print out of your paper work to take with you so you go straight to the car park and pick a car from the row of cars in your specified class, drive it to the gate where they check your paperwork and licence then you are on your way. very simple and easy.

mike80

2,248 posts

215 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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When I went to LA last year I was worried about the same thing. We booked with Alamo and waited a few minutes for the bus to the car rental place. It was empty when it turned up... then it went to all of the other terminals so it was rammed by the time we got to the rental place.

Anyway, resigned to a wait when we got there, however there was a self check in thing which took a few minutes, and then straight into the parking area to chose a car. It was scanned on the way out and off we went.

Maybe there is something similar at Orlando?

grumpyscot

1,277 posts

191 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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Rutter said:
I booked our last car using https://www.alamo.co.uk/brits then did the "save time" a few weeks before i went, this gives you a print out of your paper work to take with you so you go straight to the car park and pick a car from the row of cars in your specified class, drive it to the gate where they check your paperwork and licence then you are on your way. very simple and easy.
Exactly what we did. No delay at all.

Couldn't say the same about Immigration though. We only waited 40 minutes. Some waited over 3.5 HOURS.

Orlando Immigration must be the worst in the US. It's as if they don't really want you to visit their country. I only hope UK Immigration give Americans an equally long wait.

And if you fly Virgin, ignore the "Check in opens 3 hours before flight". It doesn't. It's 2 hours, as witnessed by 200 irate passengers and Virgin staff who couldn't care less.

AndyD360

1,380 posts

179 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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Rutter said:
I booked our last car using https://www.alamo.co.uk/brits then did the "save time" a few weeks before i went, this gives you a print out of your paper work to take with you so you go straight to the car park and pick a car from the row of cars in your specified class, drive it to the gate where they check your paperwork and licence then you are on your way. very simple and easy.
100% this. Just back from Orlando - used the electronic terminal by the Alamo desk (took 10 mins), walked out to the car park, chose our car and away...

Booked an SUV (RAV4 / Chevy Captiva) but there was a Grand Cherokee in the same row so jumped in that instead - loaded with every toy imaginable.

timberman

1,280 posts

214 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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AndyD360 said:
Rutter said:
I booked our last car using https://www.alamo.co.uk/brits then did the "save time" a few weeks before i went, this gives you a print out of your paper work to take with you so you go straight to the car park and pick a car from the row of cars in your specified class, drive it to the gate where they check your paperwork and licence then you are on your way. very simple and easy.
100% this. Just back from Orlando - used the electronic terminal by the Alamo desk (took 10 mins), walked out to the car park, chose our car and away...

Booked an SUV (RAV4 / Chevy Captiva) but there was a Grand Cherokee in the same row so jumped in that instead - loaded with every toy imaginable.
Ditto

When we went we booked with Virgin

Got thru customs (which took an age), then decent walk to collect hire car

Showed paperwork to chap in office
Was pointed in direction of a row of cars and told to pick one, (keys in cars)
On our way in under 10 mins

Sheepshanks

32,531 posts

118 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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There's some merging of procedures above - with Alamo you've got to EITHER do online check-in in advance OR use the kiosks near the rental desk (if you don't want to queue at the counter). You don't need to do both.

If you done one of the above you just go the garage and get in a car. The gate guard will look at your licences and take a swipe of your credit card.

Tomo1971

1,127 posts

156 months

Saturday 9th May 2015
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Another Alamo online check in user here.

Lots of threads on thedibb forum about them (the dibb is an Orlanda based forum, lots of good info there).

Family of seven arrived at MCO, I used Alamo the FIL used Dollar.

We had our nice new 2015 Dodge Tahoe within 5 minutes of been at the car rental stands, luggage packed and car re-locked. Walked back into the car rental desks and waited about 60 minutes for FIL to get to front of Dollar queue and then another 20 minutes of hard sell to upgrade.

When he finally got out and was given a 'choice' of any car from his selection "standard SUV' he had a choice of one 12 month old Mazda 5 that was dirty.




anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 9th May 2015
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Orlando MCO is usually much worse than SFB for car rental.

uuf361

3,154 posts

221 months

Saturday 9th May 2015
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Sixt aren't in the terminal (I only know this as I dropped off a car a couple of months ago having picked up in Miami)....

So, it's a shuttle to their place and u guess as they're relatively new entrants to the U.S. market they will be less popular so it might not be as horrific as the normal queues.

Interested to hear how you get on as renting from them at MCO at the end of June.

Matt Harper

6,613 posts

200 months

Sunday 10th May 2015
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grumpyscot said:
Couldn't say the same about Immigration though. We only waited 40 minutes. Some waited over 3.5 HOURS.

Orlando Immigration must be the worst in the US. It's as if they don't really want you to visit their country. I only hope UK Immigration give Americans an equally long wait.

And if you fly Virgin, ignore the "Check in opens 3 hours before flight". It doesn't. It's 2 hours, as witnessed by 200 irate passengers and Virgin staff who couldn't care less.
Perhaps no consolation, but Orlando is most definitely not the worst entry point into the US. Sometimes things just line-up badly - 2 Virgin (Gatwick and Manchester), a BA flight from Gatwick, a Lufthansa from Frankfurt and a TAM from Sao Paulo frequently all arrive within 30 mins of each other. That means approx 2000 people to process more or less simultaneously. That's what causes the issue.

It does cut both ways. I'm a UK citizen, but my daughter is a USC. We had to travel back to UK last summer when my Mum died. I got through UK Customs and Immigration at Heathrow in 15 minutes. She was in line for more than 3 hours.

I think it's strange that just because you had an unpleasant experience, you would wish the same on others though. Why's that then?

Viper

10,005 posts

272 months

Sunday 10th May 2015
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been twice to orlando in the last couple of years, not sure if there's more than one rental area was told by a friend who has a holiday villa, get on the little electric train that takes you to the other terminal and collect a car from there, has worked both times with little queuing involved

Sheepshanks

32,531 posts

118 months

Sunday 10th May 2015
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Viper said:
been twice to orlando in the last couple of years, not sure if there's more than one rental area was told by a friend who has a holiday villa, get on the little electric train that takes you to the other terminal and collect a car from there, has worked both times with little queuing involved
That can work - when you had to queue at the counter we used to make a point of going to the "wrong" side. Now with advance check-in, Hertz Gold etc, available it shouldn't make any difference.

Your directions are a bit off though - you have to get the train from airside to landside anyway and then you just walk one way for terminal A or the other way for B. Only do this if you're carrying your bags - if you've handed them back for delivery to baggage reclaim then they'll go to your airline's designated terminal.

yellowbentines

5,296 posts

206 months

Monday 11th May 2015
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Matt Harper said:
Sometimes things just line-up badly - 2 Virgin (Gatwick and Manchester), a BA flight from Gatwick, a Lufthansa from Frankfurt and a TAM from Sao Paulo frequently all arrive within 30 mins of each other. That means approx 2000 people to process more or less simultaneously. That's what causes the issue.
I've been visiting Orlando for the past 15 years and at both MCO and SFB (SFB is worse) the queues have always been horrendous at customs. They know in advance that the flights are coming in so it's shouldn't be a surprise to them, in any other business you organise your staff around busier periods. I have to say that I've also always found them slow and on the whole pretty unfriendly - it's always the most horrible part of the holiday when you're tired and you have to stand in a huge line then get treated like a criminal!

Back on topic to save waiting in more queues I now book car hire through one of the UK agencies like usrentacar or uscarhire then preregister before I travel for the Dollar Express or Alamo Save Time and they'll add the details to your booking for you, then simply go over to the kiosk in the parking garage when you arrive to save waiting in line whilst the desk clerks try to sell every tired and weary tourist 43 different kinds of insurance!

Sheepshanks

32,531 posts

118 months

Monday 11th May 2015
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yellowbentines said:
I've been visiting Orlando for the past 15 years and at both MCO and SFB (SFB is worse) the queues have always been horrendous at customs. They know in advance that the flights are coming in so it's shouldn't be a surprise to them, in any other business you organise your staff around busier periods. I have to say that I've also always found them slow and on the whole pretty unfriendly - it's always the most horrible part of the holiday when you're tired and you have to stand in a huge line then get treated like a criminal!
We're not going this year for the first time in many, many years and while Immigration isn't the sole reason, it's certainly a factor.

Bearing in mind how much money the average family on a Disney holiday is going to spend in Orlando someone really needs to sort those guys out.

staceyb

7,107 posts

223 months

Monday 11th May 2015
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Fly into Sanford instead smile

Sheepshanks

32,531 posts

118 months

Monday 11th May 2015
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staceyb said:
Fly into Sanford instead smile
It used to be pretty bad there as they do the same thing and arrange for all international flights to arrive at around the same time.

However I think the UK charter flights have switched to MCO now anyway?