You *can* get car rental drop off/pickup at Jacksonville Cruise Port!!!

Although not necessarily well advertised, you *can* get car rental drop off/pickup at port of Jacksonville, it just takes a little bit of planning.

I was so impressed, I wanted to pass on this info to others.

We are just back(yesterday) from a B2B on 10/14/2014 - 10/24/2014 on Fascination out of Jacksonville (B2B 5-day cruises).

We rented a car from Avis at JAX (airport location) for our 1 night pre-cruise stay on 10/13, and dropped off at J3X (10536 Atlantic Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32246 - which is about 7 miles south of Heckscher on 295) in Jacksonville the next morning.

When dropping off the car at J3X, I asked about a shuttle "drop off" at the port and was told they stopped doing that a few years ago because it wasn't used very often.

However (and here's the good part!), the guy at the counter, Ray, said "We will drop folks off at the cruise port *IF* they call ahead and let us know what they need. We'll make sure a person is available to do a drop off, and if they let us know when they are coming back, we'll come get them, too."

He got on the phone and called someone and in about 10 minutes we were on the way to the cruise port, where we were dropped off, no charge. (I tipped the driver though...well worth it!)

When we got back to the port on 10/24, I called the J3X location and they said they would have someone come get us. About 20-30 minutes later, we got a phone call saying "I'm here" from the AVIS guy and directed him where to pick us up, right outside the terminal. (Be sure and give them your cell phone number to make meeting up easier).

He took us back to the AVIS J3X location, and Bryant was there (with a Budget car rental logo on his shirt) to check us in. (Turns out Bryant is the Budget manager, and was filling in for the AVIS manager that day)

I asked what was up with that, him being in the AVIS store with a "Budget" logo'd shirt. He said they were both owned by the same family, so one should book whichever rate was cheapest, and that either place would do the cruiseport dropoff/pickup *if* they knew ahead of time what someone was planning.

We just got lucky on our first day that there was a extra person available at AVIS to drop us off to start the cruise. However, since they knew when we were coming back after the cruise, they arranged to have someone available to come get us. He said that the cruise ships didn't really like for car rental agencies to advertise at the port (didn't give a reason, but I'm guessing this is to allow the ship to sell more of their own transfers to the airport). Not being able to advertise at the port killed the car rental business for people wanting dropped off/picked up at the port, enough so that AVIS stopped running the shuttle a few years ago.

At any rate, my experience with AVIS is how customer service is supposed to work. Kudo's to AVIS on this trip.

Just wanted to pass this info along, in hopes that it might help someone else, and to give good review of AVIS based on the great customer service we received while in JAX.

I did a bit of research on "Shuttle drop off at the Jacksonville cruise port" and couldn't find much recent info on the subject.

GP

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Keith

I am assisting some friends that I booked on the Fascination on 7/19. Their first cruise! I am a Carnival Platinum but have never sailed from JAX so I'm a little lost with trying to grt them from the airport to the ship to their rental car. I will call your references and see what I can arrange! Thanks for the heads up!

Just an update. Called budget after booking a car and they said NO, THEY DO NOT PICKUP AT CRUISE TERMINAL. bummer!!

Just an update. Called budget after booking a car and they said NO, THEY DO NOT PICKUP AT CRUISE TERMINAL. bummer!!

Did you call the local Budget office(where you'll pick up the car), or the main (booking) number?

When I talked to Avis on the main number, they, too, told me they don't do dropoff's/pickup's, but the did when I got to the local office.

Try calling the local Budget office (south of the port, across the river) and ask for Bryant (if he's still around) or Ray at the Avis location (supposed to be the same family that owns both, at least, it was in Oct, 2013).

Interested to hear how it works out.

GP