Offsite Condo Stay -- one person's experience Uber vs. Rental Car price comparison

kathy884

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 26, 2009
Hi,
I have seen lots of people ask before on costs of uber vs. getting a rental car for an offsite stay. Thought I would weigh in on our recent trip Dec. 21 - 25 (staying at the lovely Cypress Pointe condos, not that far from Disney Springs). My uber costs for this stay were higher than I expected, around $300 for all our trips and tips. Something I really didn't take into account was premium pricing for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. On Christmas too, we did two premium trips to the airport -- wanted to get there earlier for my dad who needed wheelchair assistance to the gate and DH and DS took a slightly later uber by about 45 minutes. Also Christmas morning, I had to wait about 17 minutes for an uber vs. more like three to five minutes for other trips, and thinking about that, that actually makes a lot of sense (not as many drivers are going to want to work on Christmas mornings). I went for convenience and doing what I wanted on this trip, taking an uber whenever I wanted to go somewhere, etc. In comparison renting a car for the same period of time from a reputable rental car agency (Alamo was the lowest price - I don't do the off brand rental car places that have a lot of customer service horror stories) would have run me around $160 for the same period of time, plus gas plus parking fees (we did one Disney Park during this period of time), figure maybe $200 for my stay.

All in all, I would have saved about $100 for my five days to do the car rental vs. ubers. The bus wasn't a consideration as for the short trip I really wanted convenience -- quick pickup right when and where I wanted.

Still despite the higher cost, I would advise that unless you are really tight budget wise and trying to keep costs with convenience as low as possible to go with the option you prefer (on this trip we decided we didn't want to mess with the driving in Orlando). We also got a great deal on our lovely condo, more than making up for transportation costs.

Another comment too. I think if I had had a rental car that I would have done a trip even on this short stay to a regular supermarket for some snacks, drinks. Knowing the costs of doing an uber over and back, I just used the higher priced little convenience store right at the condos where we were for the few snacks we wanted. There are options like grocery delivery and you can certainly do an uber grocery store trip if you have things in mind and are planning some meals in. In our case, though, it wasn't a case of careful planning with most meals out, etc. but I would have done one grocery run with a car that I skipped with just having the uber option and nearby higher priced convenience store. We also, FYI, had relatives with cars staying 10 full days vs. three full days like we were who made breakfast for us every day, etc.

Anyway, just wanted to share one person's experiences with uber (convenient, but costs certainly can add up). And don't forget about possible premium pricing.
 
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Thank you for taking the time to share your experience! Very interesting to see how it all came out for you in the end. If it were not for your second trip to the airport and the premium pricing you ran into for the holidays it looks like it would have been pretty close in price to having a rental car, so it all boils down to the convenience of not having to do any of the driving it sounds like mostly.

We have always had either our personal car or a rental car while we are there, but our trips are usually for 10-14 days so I don't think using ride share would ever work for us. We have however stopped renting cars for our Vegas trips and rely solely on ride share. So nice to not have to worry about driving and parking!!
 
We found it was still cheaper taking uber/lyft than the car... the first time we had a car, had a great rate at $27 day for a mini van. Came out to be around 300 with taxes and insurance. then we used about a tank of gas or $60. Worth we had so many tolls that we lost count on and parking fees at the resort. But i guess thats what it cost for freedom.
 
Another comment too. I think if I had had a rental car that I would have done a trip even on this short stay to a regular supermarket for some snacks, drinks.
I would emphasize this part. We don't just go back and forth from condo to park. We go to the supermarket. We go out to eat. We go to offsite stores and attractions.

Unless you are positive you will be happy spending 100% of your time either in your condo or in the park, rent a car. Personally, I'd feel like a caged animal if I was stuck at the condo all the time or had to pay for an Uber every time I wanted to go anywhere.
 


thanks for this breakdown! We will be renting a car for a larger family group trip and I think I have decided to only rent one car, but do Uber for those days we chose to split up and travel to the parks at different times and such. This, I feel, will work better and be cheaper than renting 2 cars for the whole trip.
 

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