Child Car Seat

[Alba01577]

We are taking our 18month old daughter to Florida this Christmas. Can anyone advise on what to do regarding a child seat?
1 Do we rent one if so how much are they or
2. Do we buy one over in Florida or
3. take one with us?
email - ianrose@onetel.net.uk
Thanks for your help

 

[BevS97]

Any of the above would work, but I like to take my own.

option 1- to rent one costs more than buying a new one - last time I checked it was £7 a day * 14 nights = too much for a car seat of dubious quality.

option 2 is fine, you can probably get a carseat quite reasonably, but what will you use between the airport and the store? Personally, I would be too stressed = also will you want to go directly to a store to find one when you are tired and really want to be finding your hotel and going to sleep.

option 3 - no hassle, just check the car seat and collect it with your suitcases, you know exactly what you are getting and your baby will be familiar with it. Also, you know exactly how to fit it, which is a big safety consideration. Also, if you pay for a seat on the aircraft (usually once baby is 2), then you can sometimes use the carseat on board the aircraft - we had mixed results with this, Airtours wouldn't let us on the flight out, but encouraged us to use it on the flight back. To be honest, my dd was a bit older (3) and she objected to being in the car seat when she knew she hadn't had to use it on the way out. It ended up being a bit of a hassle as there was nowhere to put it, so now we just check the car seat.

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

We usually take our own - all airlines we have used have all taken them with the checked luggage with no problems.

We rented one last year while in California for a wedding - we were only there for 4 days - but I didn't feel it gave DS enough support or security - another thing was the car hire company - Dollar - insisted we fitted the car seats ourselves, which we weren't sure about. I suppose they didn't want anyone suing them in case there was an accident and the child got hurt!!!

 

[SimonY]

We took 2 - a car seat for our 22 months and a booster seat for our (just) 5 year old. Checked them in on the plane with Virgin with no problem at all. They gave us a plastic bag/tape to put them in. We decided to take our own after reading here that the ones from hire companies tend to be dirty and obviously therefore with possible safety issues.

Having said all that we had a 7 seater people carrier as a hire car that had built in child seats (you folded down the seat backs) that had never been used. How you could ensure that you had one of these before leaving UK I don't know.

 

[Scotfan]

We hired one the 1st time and never again. It was vinyl and ripped, it got so hot when we were in the parks we ended up taking a towel for DS to sit on!
Since then we have taken our own, we just put it in a blach bin bag to keep it clean, this year we wont need one for the 1st time as DS2 is a very large almost 6, and we're getting a 7 seater which should have boosters anyway.

 

[Daftman]

We have just returned and we also took our own,however,we hired the car through alamo and a friend of ours hired a seat from them,in all honesty it was an excellent car seat and a Britax at that, very sturdy and equally as good as the one we took but I can not speak for other hire companies.

Regards

Sean.

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

We bought a new one,as the one we have now is a leather one,and would of ripped etc, so i decided to buy a cheap/but safe version i got one for 20pound,bearing in mind dd was 2 and half when we went.

It converts into a booster seat too,it doesnt have the safety features the leather one has this one we got just has the seat belt going over the child,and slides into slots on the seat it was safe, and it was safety checked etc...
It was from mothercare,Ive used it quite alot here too,and i leave it in m-i-l's car for when dd goes with them on outings,i'll be taking it next year as well.

With a car seat it goes by itself into a plastic bag,taped up etc..so theres no hassle,and at least you know where and how safe it is.

beth x

 

[IAN5150]

My 2 dds wre 1 and 3 instead of hiring babyseats we upgraded to a people mover which had 2 built in baby seats,much better if you were buying go to florida mall further down Sandlake road and one adult stays with baby at airport a bit of hassle but youll save money also the day you come home sell it at a secondhand store!!