Renting a carseat with rental car

[justhat]

Has anyone rented a carseat for a toddler with their rental car before? We've always brought our carseat with us for our daughter, but on our next WDW trip she'll be almost 3 and so we're thinking about leaving it home since we're taking ME to/from WDW. We'll be renting a car though to drive to Vero Beach for 2 days in the middle of our WDW trip so we'll definitely need a carseat then. We were planning to take hers with us like we usually do, but now that we'll have a 3 month old and his carseat with us we started thinking about just renting one for her. We did it with a towncar once and were satisfied but I would think they take better care of their stuff than the rental cars so that's why I'm skeptical. Any advice from people who have rented would be appreciated!

Oh, and I know she'd be better off in the carseat on the plane since she's under 40 lbs., so that's why we were planning to take it, but it is also a risk we're willing to take if the rental carseat would be fine.

 

[all4fun]

Congrats on the new little one!!

Everything I have read on this board and others is that it's a toss up how good the seat will be. There was a thread on this very subject from a day or two ago. I found it on the 2nd page. Here's a link

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1200105

We're taking DME on our next two trips and will also be renting a car at some point during both of our stays. I still feel much more secure with ds in a car seat on the plane anyway (He's 3 & only 31lbs) so I don't mind lugging his car seat along. I can see how renting might be an attractive option to consider when you have two to think about...

 

[KelleyGirl]

I agree. I think its a toss up. We did rent once, and got a very nice seat. The last time we went, we did not rent one, but were standing next to the pile of them at the rental desk at National. The carseats we saw were just average/less than average as far as cleanliness/appearance. I'll be trying my best to bring mine from home whenever we need one. We have the carseat bags and check them with the other checked luggage.

 

[3mickeys&me]

I've rented a car with car seats and booster seats and have never had a problem. They were always fine and clean.

 

[justhat]

All4fun, thanks for the link to the other thread. That's exactly what I'm afraid of-that the seats may have been in an accident and I won't know it. Ugh, I guess we'll just bring our own. Not that it's the end of the world, but with another seat to carry it just doesn't sound like fun. Our daughter is 28 lbs. which is the main reason we usually bring it, but I have to admit that the 2 times we flew with her just in a seat it was kinda easier in that she couldn't kick the seat in front of her, which she can in her carseat. Maybe we'll invest in that other carseat you mentioned cause it will be much lighter (I'm assuming) than carrying the Britax seats around.

 

[all4fun]

I think you're talking about the Cosco Scenera 5-pt? Yes, that seat is quite a bit lighter than Britax seats. I'd still be using it for travel if ds hadn't outgrown it by height several months ago (he's both tall and long torso'd). The top slots are only about 15". If you're looking for a travel seat and are concerned the Scenera would be outgrown height-wise soon, you might consider getting a combo seat instead. The Evenflo Chase would be a good one for traveling. The down side is it's not highly rated as a booster seat but the harness slots are almost 2" higher than the Scenera's... Just something to consider. Btw, if the Scenera will work for you, it's on sale right now at Walmart for $40.

ETA: Fwiw, we actually have an Evenflo Bolero combo seat and because it's a booster seat it sits lower. When we flew with last time ds could use the airplane tray table whereas when he's in a convertible he would sit up too high to use it. Just thought I'd add that! I'd actually recommend the Generations/Bolero as a better combo seat overall than the Chase but I thought the Bolero was more of a pain to travel with because it's rather wide and the adjsutable headrest made it a little bit harder to carry through the airport. I bought it because the top slots are a bit higher and it's reviewed that it works really well in bpb mode. Not all 3-in-1 and 2-in-1 seats are all they're cracked up to be. Got burned on that once already with our Cosco A/O, lol.


hth!

 

[justhat]

Okay, I realize that you don't work for Cosco, but.... My daughter right now is just about 36 inches at 2.5yo. She's got pretty long legs so I guess average torso. I say this cause she was the same height as my son when they were born, but his onesies are much snugger than they were on my daughter so I know her torso must have been shorter. So do you think that the Scenera would be a waste of money and I should just go with something like the Chase? Her head right now is at the top of her Roundabout (which is what we usually travel with cause it's smaller than the Marathon).

 

[all4fun]

Yeah, it sounds like the Scenera might be outgrown soon. What you could do is sit her back against the wall and mark on the wall where the top of her shoulders are and then measure from floor to mark to see what her torso length is. I would bet she's close to 14 or 15" though just by the way you say she fits in the RA. If that's the case then definitely go with the combo seat instead. She'll get a lot more use out of it.

 

[tjmw2727]

We rented a carseat for my oldest and used it just long enough to get to wallmart to purchase another - yeck. It was old dirty and we had a hard time getting it tight in the car. We went to wallmart and got a nice, smaller size seat with a 5pt harness that ended up being our travel and nana/gramma carseat.

Well we apparently didn't learn our lesson because ff a couple years and we decided to give it a try again. We figured we had #1 gold (it was hertz) and now that the carseat option was on the website and they had an entire page dedicated to the types an sizes of carseats they had available we would have better luck. Suffice to say we didn't.

Its a total pain to carry the stuff for two kids never mind hauling carseats but once you do it and get it down to a science (after reading your posts I know you will) its not so bad. My sil just got a carseat bag that is a backpack type or a rolling bag and fits her two kids seats and "misc stuff".

If your dd is a seat kicker (one of mine was) try putting one adult in your party in front of her and taking off her shoes. If that dosen't work so well on the outbound then try it sans the seat on the homebound trip and check the seat (I prefer the gate check).

Have a great trip and congrats on your son!

TJ

 

[loveswdw]

We rented from Avis in June and rented a car seat too. We too have a HUGE Britax Wizard car seat which we have lugged through the airport before. Just didn't feel like doing it again. So we took a chance and decided if the seat wasn't up to our liking that we just go buy a cheap one.

We got the seat. It was just fine. Wrapped in plastic, looked BRAND NEW. I saw the little room the gentleman got the seat from--all their seats that I saw looked like the one we got. It was a basic toddler car seat. Nothing fancy but worked fine for us. It was even a name brand--I don't remember now but it wasn't anything too cheap (Graco maybe?). We did have to install it ourselves, Avis didn't install it. But the seat was the basic seatbelt through the back kind with the metal hook thingy that secures the seatbelt tightly.

Next time we rent a car we plan to rent the car seat again too. For us it was worth the extra $9/day not to have to fool with the Britax.

 

[justhat]

Well we haven't taken our WDW trip yet but I just got back from a trip to Phoenix, where I flew alone with both kids. I ended up buying the Cosco Gotham, which is a 5 point harness carseat that converts to a booster, because you were right All4fun and she was pretty much too tall for some of the cheap/lightweight carseats. It is super light, installs pretty easily (I had trouble tightening the top teather, but got it "tight enough" imo), and is a good size that she'll be able to use it for awhile (she's still in the bottom harness slot). I ended up gate checking it (yes, after carrying it all that way) just cause I had way too much to carry by myself and didn't think I could install the seat while watching my 2yo and the baby. If I hadn't brought the laptop along I would have been okay with the carseat cause it was actually lighter than the laptop backpack, but with a 4+ hour flight it was a necessity. Plus the gate agent wasn't sure I could install it in the aisle seat or not and then I thought if I did install it there it might make it hard to get in and out of the row with the baby. But it is FAA approved so when we fly to WDW next month and I'll have my husband with me we will be taking it on board. She did sit in the regular seat just fine, but wasn't too comfortable sleeping so I think she'd prefer the carseat. And she really liked the seat too so I guess it's fairly comfortable.

Anyway, thanks so much for the help, I thought you'd all like to know how it turned out. And just in case others are thinking about it, yes, you can travel alone with 2 kids 2.5yo and under, 2 carseats, a stroller, diaper bag (though I admit mine is very small), laptop backpack, and a backpack for the 2.5yo. Fun? No, but definitely doable!