15 passenger van? anyone have experience renting one?

disneyholic family · Jul 17, 2016

i've been checking the car hire rates.
since there are 8 of us this time around, we'll need at least an eight passenger minivan...

but the eight person minivan is much more expensive than the 15 passenger van...
a really significant difference..

but such a big van seems like it would be difficult to drive...

anyone driven one of these monsters? any advice to share?

NatalieMT · Jul 18, 2016

Yes - in 2013 we went on a sports trip, so it was a group of 15 and therefore we couldn't get away with anything smaller, I think we booked the van through Virgin but don't remember the exact cost. The person who planned to drive the vehicle, in the end couldn't because she found it so difficult (despite thinking she'd be absolutely fine beforehand!). Luckily we had someone else with us who took over as they were more used to driving larger vehicles, but it didn't go down so well as they had assumed before the trip they wouldn't have to do any of the driving.

No one even wanted to drive the thing back to the drop off point, so in the end we had to call them out for a pick up! Was all a bit of a nightmare! Not sure this is the kind of story you were wanting but I wouldn't consider hiring something so big again. Last August we went as a group of 7 and just booked Mears transport for any big trips we wanted to do. More expensive but didn't have any hassle.

disneyholic family · Jul 18, 2016

NatalieMT said:
Yes - in 2013 we went on a sports trip, so it was a group of 15 and therefore we couldn't get away with anything smaller, I think we booked the van through Virgin but don't remember the exact cost. The person who planned to drive the vehicle, in the end couldn't because she found it so difficult (despite thinking she'd be absolutely fine beforehand!). Luckily we had someone else with us who took over as they were more used to driving larger vehicles, but it didn't go down so well as they had assumed before the trip they wouldn't have to do any of the driving.

No one even wanted to drive the thing back to the drop off point, so in the end we had to call them out for a pick up! Was all a bit of a nightmare! Not sure this is the kind of story you were wanting but I wouldn't consider hiring something so big again. Last August we went as a group of 7 and just booked Mears transport for any big trips we wanted to do. More expensive but didn't have any hassle.

it confirms what i've read in my research - lots of similar stories...
i'm sure i'll have just as much trouble driving it, if not more..
i'll just have to pay more and get the sienna (the 8 passenger minivan)..

the only problem with the sienna will be not enough room for luggage on arrival..but that can be solved with ME...
from the airport some of us will ride in the rental and some on ME with some of the luggage...
going back home, we'll probably leave on different days so luggage wont be an issue..

thanks for your response!!!!

Wakey · Jul 18, 2016

Hire one every year for 6 of us. We have 6 cases so gives us plenty of room. Warning with 15 seats in the luggage space is small.
Neither me nor my father in law have ever had any problems driving it whatsoever. It isn't as long as you think, and parking etc never a problem. I drive a Mercedes CLS at home which is a big car but not massive.

disneyholic family · Jul 18, 2016

that gigantic 15 seat monster that alamo rents???

Wakey · Jul 18, 2016

disneyholic family said:
that gigantic 15 seat monster that alamo rents???

Yes it's not that big. We get the 12 seater or 15 depending on which is cheaper, not much difference in size. Honestly dead easy to drive. Never a problem. We use spare seating area for cases. An 8 seater would never get 6 of us and all our cases and bags in. I also drive down to Naples in it every year.

Wakey · Jul 18, 2016

Driving a Focus around the tiny backstreets in Majorca with no room to squeeze through is infinitely more difficult and stressful than driving one of these around USA. Depends if you are a confident driver though. Just ignore the size and go- parking spaces and roads are easily wide enough to cope. Driving it over here would be more difficult but it's a different ball game over there.

disneyholic family · Jul 18, 2016

that's surprising...there will be 8 of us....6 adults and two toddlers - meaning two child safety seats which take up a lot of room...
hmmm....i wish i had one of those things around here, so i could take it for a test run..

Wakey · Jul 18, 2016

disneyholic family said:
that's surprising...there will be 8 of us....6 adults and two toddlers - meaning two child safety seats which take up a lot of room...
hmmm....i wish i had one of those things around here, so i could take it for a test run..

Will be perfect for you. An 8 seater too small. Having said that if you don't need to take all the luggage it would do, but a tight fit. You could try the slightly smaller 12 seater but not much difference. With one of these big vans (they are really vans not busses) you'd have loads of room and much more comfortable journeys. For me it would be a no brainer but I have no problems driving one.

star72232 · Jul 25, 2016

The 8th seat in a Sienna is tiny. My 11 year old (5'1", 90lb) could possible sit in it, but not anyone bigger. I'm not sure if a car seat for a child would be able to fit there either.

disneyholic family · Jul 26, 2016

star72232 said:
The 8th seat in a Sienna is tiny. My 11 year old (5'1", 90lb) could possible sit in it, but not anyone bigger. I'm not sure if a car seat for a child would be able to fit there either.

is it one of those fold up seats? if so, then a child seat can't go there...
two seats is a problem in any car since they're so wide they encroach on the other seats...
hmmmmmm

disneyholic family · Jul 26, 2016

i looked up sienna reviews of how it deals with car seats....not bad....i think we can put one in the second row and one in the third row, allowing people to get in and out on one side of the car (since where the child seat is, makes access to the third row quite difficult)..
DD and DDIL probably can manage to fit into that 2nd row middle seat....
it won't be comfortable, but good enough to get us to the parks and back...maybe even to universal the one day we'll be going there..

this is of the 2015

this is of the 2014 - without the change to the third row made in 2015

star72232 · Jul 26, 2016

disneyholic family said:
is it one of those fold up seats? if so, then a child seat can't go there...
two seats is a problem in any car since they're so wide they encroach on the other seats...
hmmmmmm

It isn't a folding seat, just really small.

I had a 2007 Sienna. The 3rd seat in the 2nd row in that version was pretty much full sized. I was able to get 3 car seats across in that row (all 5 point harness, no boosters). I looked at the new Sienna this year and was very disappointed. It's really only meant for occasional use now. Might still work for your situation through.

disneyholic family · Jul 26, 2016

star72232 said:
It isn't a folding seat, just really small.

I had a 2007 Sienna. The 3rd seat in the 2nd row in that version was pretty much full sized. I was able to get 3 car seats across in that row (all 5 point harness, no boosters). I looked at the new Sienna this year and was very disappointed. It's really only meant for occasional use now. Might still work for your situation through.

yes, i saw it in the video...pretty small and uncomfortable looking....but just for 3 weeks..
and the sienna looks a whole lot easier to drive!!
and there does seem to be room in the back for two strollers

15 passenger van? anyone have experience renting one?

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