Figuring out car seats / car rental

[turrethouse]

I've got everything planned out fairly well for out Sept 19th trip, with exception of the car rental.

From my understanding, there is a rental at car care at Disney and that might be the easiest for us to rent from there (we are staying at WL). We only need the car for a weekend when we visit ocean/seaworld. I also understand mousesavers.com might give me some deals on rate. ?

Can someone advise me on car seat issue? Is it spendy to rent car seats? I can't decide if it's worth it to haul TWO car seats for our kids or not. Granted, I think the plane ride might be easier in the car seats, but we can get by without. But then if we have to spend big bucks to rent them for the car rental.....

All I can think about is I don't know HOW we'll lug two car seats and possibly a stroller, unless we leave the luggage at home!

Any advise or insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Perditamarie]

Well, hope this is helpful... here are some ideas:

* to get through airport w/pile of stuff: curbside check-in!!! Check luggage and then put car seats in stroller, balanced very carefully, while tots walk holding your hand. You will be able gate check the stroller and then can install the seats. If you are using the seats on the plane, make sure they are labelled for use in an airplane. Also, I don't believe you will be able to sit together w/2 carseats in a row.

* if you choose to bring the seats, but not use on the plane, you can check them w/your luggage. Stores sell car seat covers to protect them if they are checked luggage or gate checked.

* if your kids are big enough to use boosters, bring those instead (they may fit in luggage, but watch the weight of the bag if you pack them) or ship ahead to your resort.

* I think it can get pricey to rent carseats, especially times 2. If that is the case, just bring 1 from home and reserve 1 at the car rental place. The only thing is, I'm not sure I would trust them to actually have one when I got there -- they may have a limited supply and all that about being first come/first served (Recall the Seinfeld episode where Jerry reserved a car and they didn't have any! Just about everything in life can be referred back to a Seinfeld episode!). Being Florida is such a family destination, that could be a foundless worry.

* Definately check out Mousesavers...hopefully someone will come along w/great info about that!

* If all this is giving you a headache, see if your resort can recommend a cab company that will provide transport to/from w/carseats.

Have a great trip....in the end, I am sure Sea World will be worth it!!

 

[turrethouse]

Thank you, That was most helpful. First off, I didn't even think about not being able to sit with two car seats in one row, which would throw us off completely for our assigned seats. My 6 yo dd can use a booster, so maybe that is the route to go and bring the other seat along.

I thank you for your help!

 

[tanyaandallie]

Take your own seats. Rental seats are just not trustworthy. You do not know the history of the seats nor are you familiar with the install of the seats.

 

[shmedly123]

If you have AAA you can get 1 free car seat rental (normally $50) using hertz. We are in the same predicament (two dd's 3yo and 16mo) as you at the time of our trip sep 22-29 and we have already made plans to rent the one freebie from them. This way all we need to do is pack the booster for the 3yo with us and we will save $100 between the two. I have rented car seats in the past and have never had a problem with quality, supply or use of the seats. Almost all new cars that are rented have anchors to snap baby seats into so even if you are unfamiliar with their seat it only takes a minute to figure out. just my opinion though. As far as booster seats go most don't anchor at all anyway.

As far as being able to sit with both in a car seat on the plane I know Southwest or Delta will not let you. As a matter of fact Delta doesn't allow boosters at all so it is possible that your airline wouldn't let the 6yo in a booster either.

Even if you are too concerned about the trustworthiness of rental companies I wouldn't pay the $50 to rent a seat. You can always go to walmart once you get down there and buy one for $40 (sometimes cheaper) and not have to worry about lugging them around

 

[all4fun]

Right, regular boosters that don't have an internal 5pt harness are not allowed on airplanes. You could certainly check her booster though and use your younger dc car seat on board the plane. Then you shouldn't have any issues with your seating assignments unless of course you're in a row that just doesn't allow car seats (check w/your specific airline about that).

hth

 

[ljcrochet]

Last october we rented from the car care center in Disney and they had a whole stack of brand new car seats. We did have to install them ourselves. I want to say it was $9 a day per seat (we had 2 seats).
This trip we are going to bring the car seats with us so the girls can sit in them on the plane.

 

[LadyShea]

Some friends of mine just flew in to Pensacola, rented a minivan and 3 car seats from Dollar. The car seats are 9.00 a day. Expensive for a whole trip, not too bad for just a few days though.

 

[tanyaandallie]

Just wanted to add, in May I flew with kids and both of their carseats. I was able to install both of their seats in the same row with no problems at all. A huge Britax marathon and a Cosco Scenera.