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Tips and Tricks for Car Rental, GPS, and Tolls
We rented from Budget and there are a few tricks.
- Car Rental - When you arrive, split up. One group heads to baggage claim and the driver should head straight to car rentals. This means you are likely to avoid the long lines of folks wanting to get a car. I ended up being first in line.
- Car Rental - Return - When you come back to return the car, you need to go the return at the correct terminal. We were at Terminal B - so needed to first follow the signs to terminal B and then the car rental returns. For Budget, it was not obvious as when we went into the garage, there was a huge automated gate blocking a small entrance (we were not sure that was the entrance and had to double back). You need to drive up to the gate and it will open to allow you in.
- GPS - Most cars now require a phone for GPS. That means that you will require a data plan in order to use Waze, etc. If you have a GPS you should consider bringing it pre-loaded with the addresses that you need to get out of the airport (i.e. your hotel), You can also add the Disney parks, etc. This way you can avoid a roaming package on your phone. We tried this and we were fine without a phone (relying only on WiFi).
- Tolls - IMPORTANT - Make sure that the EZPASS is closed in your rental car - ours was left open and when we went to pay at the first toll booth the operator said that we had already registered. We asked her to reverse the charge and closed the EZPASS (we will see if they charge us!!). You can use the Toll highways as long as you go to the Cash lanes (usually to the right). Of course - make sure that you bring cash.
- Tolls - IMPORTANT - When returning to the airport - you will need to gas up so you will likely exit at the last exit (Exit 8 - Jetport drive). However, to return to the highway and go the last couple miles to the airport the entry back to the highway is exact change only!! Meaning that you will need the exact amount of change to get back on the highway ($1.50). Make sure that you have this available!! We got caught and ended up backing up thru traffic to go get the change required!! (But that is a whole other story!).
- Parking - if you choose to park your car at Pearson. Book your parking ahead of time to save some money and print out a hard copy of your barcode to gain access to the parking lot. Leave the barcode in the car as you will need to exit when you return. Also, remember to take a picture on your phone of where you parked you car so that you car easily find it upon your return.