Should we rent 2 cars or a minivan?

[ski_mom]

We have the following situation:

My family (DH, DD7, DD6, DS23 mo, and me) and my parents are flying into MCO on Thurs 6/3/04. We are staying through Sat 6/12/04. My sister and BIL are flying in on Sun 6/6 and also leaving on Sat 6/12.

The way I see it, we have 2 options:

1) When we get there on Thursday, rent 2 full sized cars and then have someone pick my sister and BIL up from the airport on Sunday OR

2) Rent a minivan when we get there and when my sister and BIL get there, they get their own car.

My questions are: is it difficult to pick people up at MCO? Also, do the rental companies allow you to put the portable carriers on top of the minivans? I'm afraid we might have a problem getting all of our luggage into the van once we got there if we went with that option.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Becky

 

[NotUrsula]

Presuming your parents still drive, and your sister & BIL are over 25, I think your best bet is actually 3 vehicles. If all your kids are in carseats, you'll need a minivan just for your immed. family, unless you would let one of the kids ride with the g'parents. (Having a kid ride w/ the g'parents means you can both get smaller cars.) Then the other couple can get their own car, as small as they like. It's going to be hard to get 7 people into a minivan if you have 3 carseats.

Three vehicles gives everyone more flexibility, and if you can cut the car size down to intermediate or compact, possibly save money, too. (You don't really need much horsepower in Orlando, it's dead flat.) You'll also have 3 trunks for luggage. I personally would not risk trying to put a portable luggage carrier on top of a rental van; if it slips and you scratch it, you will pay BIG TIME for the damages.

 

[Poorman]

Need some more info. Do you need the car for the week? If you intend on going places together , even the mini won't work.
Do you just need the car for transportation to and from the airport? If you are staying on property, how about a having someone like Fl tours pick you up in a 15 passenger van, and have them pick up sis & BIL in a town car. We have 6 people ,4 adults and 2 children, and a mini won't work with all the luggage and strollers ,etc. We are doing the van and then renting a mini for a couple of days to get groceries and do some off site stuff for a couple of days. It really depends on what your plans are for the week. We even toyed with the idea of letting one of the parents take Mears with the luggage while we rented a mini and met them at the resort. The young one would be free so Mears would be about $28.00 rt , and with out all the luggage the mini would work for the rest of the week. We just didn't want to split up the group on the way back to the airport. Give some more info and I'm sure someone will come up with a plan.

 

[ski_mom]

Hi,
Thanks for the ideas! Some answers to questions brought up: yes, my parents do still drive and all adults are over 25. As far as the car seats go, I wasn't planning on having DD7 use one as she is very tall for her age and I read somewhere on here that laws in FL didn't require 7 year olds to use one. For DD6 and DS we have bought the portable car seats that I read about on here. Here is a link in case anyone else is interested:

http://www.growinglifestyle.com/article/s0/a289432.html

Therefore, they should take up much more room than a regular passenger would.

I honestly hadn't thought about the 3 car option, but we probably need to check into that also. My biggest concern about that is that we would have to pay 3 parking fees everywhere - which in the whole scheme of things isn't that big of a deal I suppose.

Also, I really do think we need a vehicle for the entire trip. We are staying off site in a 3BR at Cypress Pointe Grand Villas so will pretty much have to drive everywhere we go.

So many things to consider! Thanks again for your suggestions and ideas!

Becky