Is Mears the only shuttle service?

[ErinInCT]

My sister is coming to help us out on our trip & her flights back & forth are not even close to the times of our flights so she will have to travel seperately. We are going to do a town car for our family of 4 & I figured Mears is the cheapest way to shuttle my sis. However, I do not want her to get stuck taking forever to get to WDW & then not knowing how early to leave to get back to the airport for a 10:30am flight. Are there other shuttles that are quicker & ONLY go to WDW?
Realistically, if she takes Mears, what are we talking here for the amount of time it would take to get to VWL at the end of Sept?
How early should she plan to leave to make her 10:30am flight back?
We are already putting her up in our 2 bed/2bath room, paying all her meals & her park passes so I am trying to save money on something!!!!!

 

[dzneelvr]

Get on the airport's website and link to ground transportation to see if there are other shuttle possibilities. Your september dates should mean that MEARS is not quite as full as during peak seasons, but they will still wait until they get a somewhat full vehicle before taking off for WDW.
As far as a 10:30am flight, it will take over an hour to get to the airport with all the potential stops MEARS may make.....then you'd want at least 60 minutes prior to boarding....I'm thinking 8am to be safe. You could call MEARS the night before and see how many reservations they have but you wouldn't have time to do much but breakfast at the resort anyway.
Shuttles are a crap shoot as far as time. You have to overestimate.

Since you are picking up all the other expenses, couldn't she spring for the towncar at least TO the resort? If not, have her give you a cell phone call when she arrives, that way you aren't wasting precious time waiting for her.

 

[cboudre1]

Mears will ask you the time of your flight. We were told to be at the HRH lobby 2 hours prior to our flight. Mears sent a taxi to pick the 2 of us up. There was no one else in it with us. We waited around 45 minutes to get on a shuttle to go to the All Star. The van had 2 stops, we were first. All together it took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the hotel and 30 to get back to the airport.

 

[Tinkerbell04]

Last summer my mother and I took my dd for a short princess trip. We used Mears on a Monday afternoon and had to wait about 15 minutes before boarding and there was one stop ahead of us before arriving at OKW. From the time we got our luggage to the time we check in was 1 hour. I purchased the tickets online and they assigned us a pick-up time according to our flight time. They sent a taxi for us as well. We were the only ones in there. I agree with the above post, this is a crap shoot where timing is everything and unpredicable. But, since you are paying for everything, it is the most economical option. Good luck!

 

[bytheblood]

I like Murray Hills Transportation. They are less than Mears, too. For the 5 of us (4 adults and 1 child) we are spending $90, where Mears was about $140. This does not include gratuities.

http://transportation2disney.com/


Marie is great. Also, they will stop at the Disney World entrance and take a photo of you of your family....no charge. I personally think that is pretty cool. That picture will be the start of my scrapbooks for our trip.

They will also give you a free 30-minute stop by a grocery store. Other transportation companies do that as well.

Best of luck with your ground transportation.