Car Rental Advice Needed, please

[Gabby&Liv's Mommy]

I need some advice from all of you car rental experts out there. While we generally make the trek to the World 3 – 5 times per year, we always take advantage of ME and have never rented a car. Our upcoming December trip will be our first car rental experience. The group traveling will be my parents and my DH and 2 DDs, 3 & 5.

I have a few questions I am hoping someone can assist with.

1)Should we rent the car at the airport or pick it up on-site? We are staying at SSR.

1a) If we pick up at the airport, I don’t think that we can fit all of us, our luggage, & the guys golf clubs in one vehicle. My mom, the kids and I could take ME and the guys could pick up the rental at the airport. Is this too much hassle? Should we just take ME and pick the car up onsite?

2)My DDs are 3 & 5 and therefore, still need car/booster seats. I briefly checked prices and renting car seats seems very expensive. We don’t have carriers/covers for the car and booster seats. Do we check them or take them on the plane? If so, is that just too much hassle? Should we just pay the money and rent them?



Your advice is much appreciated. Thank you in advance!!!

 

[Tumblwd501]

1) I usually find cheaper rates when renting from on-site or from the hotels located near DTD. In fact, we usually rent from Dollar at the Grosvenor Resort, which is located across the street from the DTD bus stop and is less then a five minute walk. In addition to the Car Care Center on-site and the National counter at the Dolphin, there's also an Avis and a Budget at the hotels near DTD. If you didn't want to walk, each of these places do advertise a shuttle that you can arrange.

1a) If you do decide to rent at the airport, splitting up your party to take advantage of the DME taking your luggage is an excellent plan. Just remember that you won't see your checked luggage until a few hours after you have checked-in.

2) We've always gate-checked our car seat and boosters, but only because I'm a worry-wart and I don't want to even think about the airlines losing the car seat or booster. The down side to gate-checking is that you have to lug the darn things through the airport and through security. If you do check the car seat and booster as luggage, some airlines will will place them in a clear plastic bag for you. Although, we don't have any covers or bags, and we've never had a problem with gate-checking.

 

[PlutosFriend]

I was thinking that if you rent a mini van, you could stuff everything in. At least you will only be crowded temporarily til you get to unload at the resort. We did the same set up once, when my kids were small. My dh and I, Gma, Gpa, two kids 1 & 3. My husband was even on crutches at the time, and we managed to fit everything in. We have always checked our car seats/booster seats and never had a problem