Help me decide on DD's airport transpo.

[hercamore]

DD and GF arrving at MCO 5 p.m. ish Sat Jan 8. Two 21 yo's budget trip, staying at POP. Mom (me) paying for transpo.

Not renting car.
Taxi too expensive and questionable safety/drivers
Mears cheapest, but going to be very busy, long drive to Pop on sat of Marathon weekend.
Town car rental, maybe, but so many good and bad reports, and plane may be late coming in from winter MN weathher. Grocery stop nice to save a few bucks on chips, water. Want a professional driver, not flirty one.

What would you do as a parent?

herc.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

Mears will give you flexibility as far as pick up time. (The only thing I hate is thatthey want to pick you up about 3 hours prior to your flight. That's why we now rent.) I think a Mears R/T to PoP is around $30 each, plus tip.

A towncar will give you a grocery stop, but more $, of course.

I guess it comes down to how much are they going to eat in the room? They could always pack a box of breakfast bars.

IMHO, I would give them enough to take a Mears, about $70 total. If they want to upgrade, make them use their own $.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

My 22 y.o. DD and friend went in November, and I paid for her to take Tiffany Towncar. I requested a grocery stop when I made the reservation. They saved $$ by purchasing bottled water and snacks, and I felt comfortable that they would arrive safe and sound.
My 18 y.o. DD and friends went last summer and also used Tiffany.

 

[hercamore]

Disneyhumbug,

Do you pay in advance for this service then with cc?

Did your dd's take Tiffany to Universal or somewhere else offsite?

herc.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Mears is certainly a cost efficient alternative for you. Plus since she's going to POP, there probably won't be very many other stops.

Notably, it's not all that much more for a towncar with two people. We've had good luck with Happy Limo - we were able to pre-pay on our credit card for a retarded aunt of mine and her healthcare worker; we simply gave auntie's assistant some cash to tip the driver.

Here's another thought: how about you give her enough money for a towncar, and your DD can decide for herself whether they want to do Mears or a towncar. Then she gets to make the tradeoff between convenience and budget - and gets to pocket the difference if she should choose the cheaper alternative. That way, if Mears should turn out to be inconvenient or if she has less spending money, at least it was her choice to make.

Also, I have a few spare Mears discount coupons if you'd like. PM me your snail mail address and I'll pop a couple in the mail to you (I have almost a dozen, so plenty to go around).

 

[aubriee]

I'm going to WDW Jan 9th-Jan 15th and am using Prestige Towncars. They're only $80.00 round trip. I hadn't heard that much about them so posted on several sites asking about them. Every single report I got back was positive. Most people were really impressed with a driver named Raphael or another one named Ray, so I requested Raphael. We'll see, but if a private towncar (with a free 30 minute grocery stop) is only $10.00 higher than Mears why not use them.? By the way, while I was researching the only two towncar companies that got only good reports back were Prestige and QuickSilver. I went with Prestige because they were $20.00 cheaper (to go to a MK resort).

 

[DisneyHumbug]

I gave my DD cash for the driver. She took care of the tip, and tipped each driver separately. I called from home the night before they were leaving WDW to re-confirm. They did not go to Universal, so I don't have an answer for you on that.

 

[TyKat]

Hello All,
This may not be the right spot to post this, but as it goes with the conversation I thought I would ask.

I am going to Disney for my Honeymoon in February. My Fiancé booked everything through a travel agent at CAA here in Toronto. We were asked when booking our resort if we wanted transportation from the airport. We said yes of course and picked the town car option. However we have no idea which town car company disney uses. And were we will have to go in the airport to find them. We have only been to disney once before and we took the Mears Bus that time.

Thanks for any info

 

[senecabeach]

I would look into Disney's NEW "Magic Express" !!

Its free transportation, by Mears, when staying @ a Disney Resort...without lugging your luggage.

Your luggage arrives @ your hotel...seperately !!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Magic Express doesn't start until May, so that won't be an option.

We are arriving on Jan. 12 and I have booked a town car from Murray Hill. So far all of my correspondence with them has been great. If you go to their website www.transportation2disney.com and scroll ALL the way down there is a link for a "$5 off a round trip" coupon. That makes it $80 to go to Pop. For our family that is only $1 more than we would have paid for Mears! (2 adults, 1 child)

They track your flight and if it is delayed they still guarantee to be there. They offer a grocery stop, too. We thought this was the best way to go. They will pick us up at baggage claim, and they will have a sign with our name. So much easier (I hope!) then dealing with a shuttle.

I do need to give them a call tomorrow and ask how they handle credit card payments - I think someone said they do it over the phone so you don't have to worry with doing it online. DH is insisting we pay with a credit card in case they don't show up so we can have some recourse. I don't anticipate any trouble, but better safe than sorry!

 

[TyKat]

Well I spoke to my Travel Agent yesterday. Our transportation is being booked directly with Disney. We had to confirm flight times with them strictly for this pick-up and drop off. I do know that we are getting a town car, not a limo. (We had to make that very clear as they tried to book us a limo figuring that is what we wanted for our honeymoon)