Challenging Transportation Questions

[funintwos]

We are going to WDW as a large family group. We have two families of mom/dad/kids (4 kids in each family). Plus, grandma/pa, and one uses a motorized scooter for mobility. That makes 16 of us total. We'll be staying at a resort just under 5 miles from WDW. Virtually all of our time will be spent at our resort or WDW. We are wondering what types of transportation will work for us. We need to consider both airport to resort, and resort to WDW. Could we get by on a 15 passenger van (is there such a thing?!) Or, are there some types of shuttle services in Orlando where we could arrange pick-ups each day? Would public transportation work? To rent a car, we would need three cars. Since we're just going such short distances, we thought there might be a better way than renting 3 vehicles for a week, and paying the parking fees. Any advice?

 

[funintwos]

Sorry...I typo'd...Our group size is 14 (not 16)!

 

[SillyOleBear]

Hi funintwos - my family has a Grand Gathering planned for this December and we're running into the same challenges you have - how to transport 14 of us to/from the airport and to/from Universal Studios.

Based upon my research, renting a car for the trip wasn't financially worth it. Instead, we're narrowing down a towncar service for the transportation. I have a poll running in the Transportation boards that you may want to check-out the results to - I asked members to rate the transport companies based on price and reliability.

So far, what we've found out is that for the airport transportation, we'll need two vehicles to accommodate all our luggage and the 14 people. Some companies have said we can use one luxury van and one towncar whereas others have said we need two luxury vans. For Universal Studios transportation, a handful of places offer a 14 passenger van. So far, the estimated total for round trip airport transportation and round trip Universal Studios transportation for two days is running between $430-600.

The companies we've been looking into are:

Tiffany Towncar
Mears Transportation
FL Tours
Interplex Transportation
Happy Limo
Quicksilver

My group is staying at a WDW hotel so we'll be using the free transportation to the various parks. I'm not sure what options are available to you for that - does your hotel offer some sort of free shuttle service?

Good luck with your decision. Let me know if you come across any new information that might be useful for my large party!

 

[marie]

Does the hotel offer shuttle service from the hotel to the parks?

 

[SB in KY]

With a group of 14 I would be really tempted to rent 2 mini vans (especially since all 14 of you will probably not want to be doing the same thing at the same time for the entire trip)

With discounts you can often rent them for $199/week base (closer to $250 with taxes and fees) and 15 passenger vans are usually mega expensive. Sounds like you would be looking at that much for airport transportation alone almost.

If you were staying on site it would be fine to use hotel transportation to the parks, but off site transportation to the parks is usually way less than desirable. 2 mini vans would run about #35 per person for the week which isn't too bad really and the convienence would be worth it.

 

[anabelle]

What are your dates and do you have to carry the scooter?

 

[BrerMama]

I would seriously think about 2 vehicles. Keep in mind that "5 miles from WDW" is misleading. The WDW resort is HUGE and it takes 10-20 minutes to get to some of the parks from an on-property hotel. It may be 5 miles from the property line, but once you hit that line, you may have another 10-20 minutes worth of driving ahead. So I'd go for 2 vehicles so you can be comfortable.