How much can we cram into a minivan?

[preb]

We leave next Saturday and have a Dodge Caravan or similar reserved with Dollar. We are traveling from the airport - Port Canaveral - BCV - airport.

Onboard will be 4 adults, one teenager, a 5 year old, six large suitcases, one small suitcase and six carryons.

Any ideas if we'll fit?

 

[2princesses1pea]

Let's see we moved from Oklahoma to S.C. this summer and then to Florida and we had 2 adults, 2 children (one in carseat), 2 dogs (1 husky and 1 jack russell), 2 cats in carriers and a whole bunch of luggage,...so I think you'll fit LOL

 

[VickiVM]

There's no doubt all of the people will fit, but six large suitcases may be another story especially if it's a short wheel base minivan. You may want to take a soft-sided luggage carrier that can strap on to the top - they're canvas and fold up pretty small. they strap on to the luggage rack. We drove 2 years to WDW with 3 small children and 3 adults. We put duffel bags and soft sided luggage, pillows, etc in the canvas carrier and the heavier more weightier items in the back of the van. We picked ours up at an auto parts store, but I'm sure you can find them at WalMart.

 

[maciec]

We just rented a grand caravan and had 2 adults and 1 in a booster and 1 in a car seat. As far as luggage, we had 1 large, 1 medium, 1 large duffle, 1 small roll on, and 2 light weight strollers. If you want everything out of the passenger compartment all of your luggage will not fit. We ended up putting one of the smaller suitcases in the front under the babys feet and the smaller of the 2 strollers. Compared to my Sienna the Grand Caravan doesn't have much room in the back. There is no well and you only have until the top of the 3rd row for safety's sake to store any luggage. It was nice for hauling people (my parents rode with us everywhere when we got to Florida), but for storage space I was disappointed. If you don't mind having suitcases under your feet or sitting next to you on the seat you will be fine. DH is a police officer on the accident reconstruction team so he is pretty fanatical about having things floating around in the luggage compartment.

Maybe I am just spoiled though because I have a Toyota Sienna minivan.

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by VickiVM
There's no doubt all of the people will fit, but six large suitcases may be another story especially if it's a short wheel base minivan. You may want to take a soft-sided luggage carrier that can strap on to the top - they're canvas and fold up pretty small. they strap on to the luggage rack. We drove 2 years to WDW with 3 small children and 3 adults. We put duffel bags and soft sided luggage, pillows, etc in the canvas carrier and the heavier more weightier items in the back of the van. We picked ours up at an auto parts store, but I'm sure you can find them at WalMart.

In my experience, the minivans that you rent from the major agencies do not have luggage racks on top of the vehicle.

Best wishes -

 

[preb]

Uh-Oh.

My DH's brilliant plan was to bring bungee cords and strap down our luggage on the rooftop.

Guess the bad news is that plan won't work, but the good news is that we won't have to drive around Disney looking like the Beverly Hillbillies!

I guess we'll just cram it all in with stuff on our laps.

Thanks for all of your input!

 

[Becky2005]

I agree with the others if it's not a GRAND caravan and just the regular short one, the luggage might be an issue!!

We have a short one (and we aren't going until July with driving and trying to figure out how I'm going to cram everything in there since we need our stroller and that literally takes up the entire "trunk" area and it's not even a huge stroller! It's one of those a bit more than an umbrella one but not much!).

We are a family of 6 with 3 of the kids in carseats, so people aren't a problem....you can probably slide the suitcases under the seats though and as long as no one cares if you have stuff on the passenger side sliding door area (i.e. the 2 passenger seat).

I'm thinking probably could get 4 large suitcases under the seats and probably the 2 other ones in the trunk area...now for the carry-ons - can everyone hold theirs? LOL!!! You have the area between the driver & passenger and maybe the small suitcase under the 5 year old's feet.