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Hi all,

Not the most exciting piece of car rental news but Florida Southwest International Airport’s car rental centre is getting a make over.

At present it look’s like SchenkelShultz will be given the job of resdesigning the out of date centre including redoing the adjacent vehicle spaces, and car-cleaning and fueling facilities, a final decision will be made of September 12th.

The cost of the redesign will be solely paid by the car rental companies and construction work is most likely to begin by May 2013, with completion by November of that year.

regards,

James

Hi all,

As we reported on our facebook page yesterday www.facebook.com/usrentacar.co.uk Universal have released information regarding some new features they will be adding to Universal Islands of Adventure.

Despicable Me

The new Despicable Me ride, which will replace the Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast attraction, is due to officially open in 2012 and will use latest state of the art 3D technology.

Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative, said

“Gru, the world’s most wonderful supervillain, and his three adorable daughters are coming to Universal Orlando, and Gru has a new invention and needs some help getting it deployed, so he’s going to transform the whole audience into minions.”

The ride will transport guests in an eight-passenger vehicle through Gru’s home, laboratory and “an entire training process to become minions,” Woodbury said. That theming will extend to riders’ 3-D glasses.

“As a minion, you’re going to have to have minion goggles, the minions will follow folks after the ride at an “interactive dance party”

Spider-Man

One of the more popular rides at Islands of Adventure will get the full HD treatment.

“The characters will be so amazing in details. You’ll be able to see the details in the flames of Hobgoblin’s pumpkins; you’ll be able to see electricity arcing through Electro’s body, Spider-Man’s glove when he’s pointing at us; you’ll be able to see the stitching in his glove — down to that detail.”

The ride also will receive new 3-D “Spider-Vision” glasses with lenses made of dichroic filters to improve the attraction’s color and clarity, Universal said.

regards,

James

Hi all,

We get a lot of queries from customers asking if it is better to upgrade their USA Car Hire before they depart or to do it locally upon arrival.

Upgrading your car rental means to pay additional money to move to a larger or more specialist vehicle. Below I will highlight some of the points to look out for when making your decision.

Upgrading before you go

One of the major advantages of upgrading your vehicle before you go is knowing exactly what you have spent, budgeting your USA holiday at these times can be very important.

The other main factor is that on average it is cheaper to upgrade in the UK before you go than upgrade locally. The reason for this is simple, for example when you purchase your florida car hire from usrentacar.co.uk you are buying everything as part of a package, all your insurances (CDW, SLI, UMP) are all bundled together and most importantly, you’ve prepaid the tax associated with the rental.

When you upgrade locally you are not buying as part of a package and you have not prepaid your tax, so on top of any per day amount you will have to take in to consideration airport tax and state tax plus any concession fee’s.

Also remember the guys and girls on the counter work on commission so it’s in their best interest to charge you the most they can for any upgrade.

Upgrading when you get there

The best times to try an upgrade locally, are off season. You will not get a good deal on an upgrade in peak times, May, June, October and November probably hold your best chance of getting a bargain.

The reason being, it makes no sense for a supplier to have vehicles doing nothing on their forecourts, so making a little bit of cash on top is obviously better than none at all.

There is one trick that apparently works, usrentacar.co.uk does not endorse this or state that it works however…

$20 Dollar Tip Trick

Is it urban myth or does this really work?

The idea is to not offer the $20 bill directly to the counter agent but just flash it to them. If they do provide an upgrade you can than hand them the $20 bill. This ensures that you will only have to pay $20 if you get an upgraded car.

Now there are many reports on many websites that this works, but again if it doesn’t you could end up having to pay an amount that could be up to 50% more than if you’d upgrade in the UK.

Remember if you upgrade locally your contract is with supplier and not usrentacar, we cannot obtain refunds for customers if they have signed locally agreeing to the local terms. Please read everything carefully before signing.

Over to you guys

What are your experiences of upgrading locally?

Tell us about your bargains?

Tell us about your mistakes?

regards,

James

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Hi all,

We have a great limited time only special offer. For bookings made by 20th of September for collection in Florida between the 13/09/10 – 14/12/10, 01/01/11 – 14/12/11 and amazingly 01/01/12 until the 31/03/12 we can offer you this free upgrade.*

Book any Intermediate car (2 or 4 door) with Dollar Rent A Car in Florida and get a free upgrade to the Intermediate Sports Utility vehicle !

The vehicle will still have our high level of insurance and customer can still secure the rental by leaving a £50.00 deposit.

The vehicles are still subject to availability as per our terms and conditions and only applies to new bookings, so don’t delay take advantage of this year’s hottest upgrade deal.

Kind regards,

James