Here again, the Dibb forums were an amazing resource and a big help to me. I read several threads covering handling driving in the US and these went a long way towards making me feel less worried about the driving.
For anyone driving in the US for the first time, i would recommend this thread in particular.
Some essential advice included in there.
We'd managed to borrow a sat nav with US maps loaded from a friend as I had done some research prior to travel and found out it would have cost me £50 in total to get my own sat nav upgraded. This seemed like a lot of money for a two week trip. That said, the sat nav was very useful and removed the need to follow maps and so on which might have made life a bit more difficult.
When we were speaking with the Dollar rep, I was prepared for the selling of extras having read the Dibb thread beforehand. He was very polite about it and our hire agreement already provided us with full insurance cover. He did push the toll sunpass, which would have cost around $35 dollars for unlimited toll use. We resisted, and as it turned out spent a grand total of $3.50 on tolls, incurred on the way to and from the airport. Obviously, if you're trip is going to involve more driving, this might make more sense but for us it was a non-starter. The one thing I did purchase as an extra was a tank of fuel so we just had to return the car empty. This was $61 which would be charged when the car was returned.
So we had our paperwork, and were directed across to the multi-storey parking lot to collect our vehicle. Things got a bit weird here. We took our bags and headed for the indicated Dollar booth, presented our paperwork and were directed to a row of vehicles. It must have been the long day and the travelling but at this point we were all a bit tetchy and didn't quite understand what was going on. When i've collected hire cars before, i've been given keys to a specific vehicle. Here, we were directed to a row of compacts and essentially were free to pick any car in the row.
This was a bit much for me to take in at this point and I wandered up and down for a minute or two, not quite sure what to do. We settled on one car first but then moved to another after noting several scratches on the back bumper. Finally settling on a white saloon, I asked one of the Dollar staff where the keys were. he patiently pointed out that the keys were sitting on the dash. I managed to get the boot open and we put our bags in (big boot). We all took a minute to destress a bit while I figured out the controls. Tempers were fraying at this point but finally we were ready to move off. I managed to get the car in reverse and backed out of the space and headed for the exit. Big tip here. It really helps if you just put your left foot out of the way. At first, I kept trying to brake with my left foot and this just resulted in me bunny hopping a couple of times. We managed to get to the exit barrier and waited for the attendant to check my id before leaving. Had to scrabble to find my passport, which wasn't helping the stress level but managed to get out of the car park.
We'd put the sat nav on but also had some excellent directions found from a link on these forums which included step by step photos. Carly had these in hand as I tentatively guided the car onto the open road. Once we were actually moving, I relaxed a bit. The roads are noticeably wider almost immediately and there was much less traffic than is usual at an airport in my experience. We followed the directions and were soon approaching the first toll. I managed to remember to keep right for the manned toll booth and even managed to a) not crash into the barrier and b) be pleasant to the booth attendant. Second toll booth was easier to cope with and we had soon joined the I4 heading west. I'd settled into the driving a bit by now, although Carly pointed out I was tending to drift to the right in my lane a bit. I'm sure this is common
.We reached French Quarter without incident although I won't pretend I wasn't relieved to finally pull into a parking space and switch the engine off. Obviously, the stress of this experience was heightened by the long day and long flight, and the newness of things. We probably made the experience of picking up a car more stressful than it needed to be but withou first hand experience to draw on, we managed pretty well and got to where we needed to go.
Once we reached the French Quarter check in, we all relaxed noticeably. The receptionist was so welcoming it was hard not to feel the first twinge of Disney magic creeping in. We got our keys and paperwork, and made our way to building 7 in the complex. Once in our room, we were greeted by the obligatory towels as mouse ears.
Carly stayed in the room to unpack a bit. I took Maddie down to the pool and we had a dip to wake us up a bit. We then met up with Carly and bought our essential refillable mugs from the restaurant, and then we used the first of our dining plan meals, buying a large pepperoni pizza which tasted really good after a long day. While eating, carly and I remembered that we'd had the same meal on our arrival in Florida in 1989. Strange how history repeats itself. Anyway, we were all in bed by 915pm Florida time, which was 215am UK time. Needless to say, sleep came easily that night.
