Last year when I was planning my cruise on the Carnival Triumph, I was planning to drive down to Miami and park my car in the parking garage there on Dodge Island (Port of Miami). However I found out that they raised the parking rate from $12 per night to $20 PER NIGHT! . That was totally unacceptable.

Then one of my supervisors at my job suggested that I do a one-way car rental twice. I would rent a car one way from Orlando to Miami. When I dropped the car off in Miami, they provided courtesy bus transportation to the Port of Miami. Then after my cruise, I would look for the rent-a-car courtesy bus and get on it. Then I would rent a car in Miami and return to Orlando.

I did this and it worked out great and I saved allot of money over parking it for a week at the Port of Miami.

Considering the rules of this website, I am not sure if I am allowed to mention the name of the car rental company I did this with. I will give you a clue... the name of the company is something that Texans remember; especially something that Texans living in San Antonio remember.

If I cruise again, it will most likely be on Princess cruise lines departing from Ft. Lauderdale. I hope that this car rental company also provides courtesy bus transportation from their facility in Ft. Lauderdale to Port Everglades.

Sonny V:

I like your emoticon at the bottom of your reply to this post.

Are you sure that is not an emoticon of a petroleum industry executive???

froute:

I am sorry I didn't first see your reply before I wrote mine.

$30 per day at Port of Miami !!!!!

I guess criminals who rob someone don't all use guns.

$30 a day is unreal- especially Miami. I can envision NYC to outdo them shortly.

I know, I'd like that $ 30 a day to cover my purchases of adult beverages on the cruise. What am I saying? I mean for the first couple hours of every dy on the cruise.

We met a couple on the Holiday that had rented a car, to drive from Alanta to Mobile. They said that the rental agency had a place in Mobile. They dropped thier car off there while they were on the cruise. An employee from the agency brought them to the port and will pick them up for no extra charge. This saved them the parking fee.
We never rent a car, but I thought this info might save someone a few dollars.
Emily