Car seats and Airport Transportation

[MichaelH]

I have a question about the transportation from the airport. We decided to fly down for our trip in September and I am wondering about car seats. We have used mears in the past, but were wondering about tiffany and some of the others. Do they have car seats for infants or do you have to provide your own? I am sure this has been asked before, so sorry if this is a repeat.

 

[anditoo72]

IMHO- I would never use a car seat from a rental place, first of all they charge you much more than if you went out and bought one. For that price, I would rather buy and new one and not have to think about what kinds of baby bodily fluids are on the rental. I was wondering what is the age of the child, this would make a difference. If the child is 3 or under you can bring your own on the plane and just transfer it to the car (check with your airline, it may have just been the one we were flying) this is what we did for our 3 month old and 2 1/2 year old. If the child is over three then I would just put him/ her on the seat and b-line to the nearest Walmart and get one of your own. Another option is to pack a booster (no back) in your checked luggage. We packed one for our four year old and when we rented the car we were all set with all three seats.

 

[DisFam95]

We brought ours for the plane and had FL Tours for transport. We had listed children but did not request a seat since we had ours but there were 2 in the van (no extra charge was added). We just threw ours in w/ the luggage since theirs were in already but they looked ancient and flimsy and very dingy and were not that snug. I specified no seats for the return so we used ours.

 

[swilphil]

Originally posted by MichaelH
I have a question about the transportation from the airport. We decided to fly down for our trip in September and I am wondering about car seats. We have used mears in the past, but were wondering about tiffany and some of the others. Do they have car seats for infants or do you have to provide your own? I am sure this has been asked before, so sorry if this is a repeat.

We used Tiffany last year, and they had a car seat and a booster in the van. I'm sure they did have some germs on them, but I doubt my kids were exposed to any more germs from that than the rest of WDW. There is no cost for the car seats, but it's a good idea to mention what you will need when you make your reservation.

I find that different car seats need to be installed a little differently. I would rather have the Tiffany drivers install their own car seats because they will be more familiar with those brands. (We have our seats installed at the police dept. at home.) Plus who wants to lug around 2 car seats along with the double stroller, diaper bags, luggage, not to mention the kids themselves.

I also liked the fact that the car service driver met us at the baggage claim and helped us with our luggage. Plus we made a grocery stop, which was also free.

 

[MichaelH]

Thanks for the replys! Our DS is 3 and or DD will be 11 months when we go. I am glad to know that they have seats. I do not really want to lug ours down there if I don't have to.

Anyway if you have experiences with this, good or bad, I would like to hear them.

 

[anditoo72]

Sorry, I thought you were talking about rental car places. I have never used an Airport service so I wasn't even thinking that way.

 

[Timster]

This will be our first trip w/o the car seat, but we always brought our own. Much safer to have the little one in his/her own seat on the plane.
I just tightend up the rear tether and slung it over my shoulder through the airport. I would then board ahead of my wife and have the seat ready for the nugget.
Another tip is to try and fly around sleep time, and direct if possible.

 

[MichaelH]

Thanks for the input everyone. We are going to try and fly around naptime for the little one and use the car seats provided by the shuttle service.

We really don't want to lug the car seat down with us. We will have enough stuff as it is.

 

[safetymom]

I used to instruct people on how to correctly install car seats in all sorts of vehicles.

Don't assume because the driver puts the car seat in his vehicle that he knows how to do it correctly. 90% of all users install and use the seat incorrectly.

 

[Tigge50447]

I know this has been mentioned but I want to ask again because I forgot.

" Boosters " are not allowed on airplanes but the 5 point harness car seats are? My son is 33 pounds and is in a 5 point harness carseat. It's a convertible one where you can take the harness out and use a seatbelt but in december he will still be using the harness therefore it's still considered a car seat and not a booster. correct?

we plan on taking our carseat on our trip. I'm not looking forward to carting it around the airports since we have a layover each way down. Then again we get to board 1st since we have kids so that is nice. And it's 4 adults and 1 child so I figured we'll manage.

Not sure how we are getting the stroller down there, maybe we can check it in.


Thanks for the info.

 

[safetymom]

You can gate check the stroller. When you get to the gate talk with an agent and they will give you a tag to put on the stroller. Then just leave it at the airplane door and board the plane. When you get off the plane you may have to wait a minute or two but they will bring the stroller to you at the plane door.