shuttle question

[gonitts]

This is my first post. We are a family of four. Me, my wife and two sons ages 9 and not quite 2 when we travel. We are planning on doing Disney the week after thanksgiving this year. First we are flying the day after thanksgiving (Friday) to visit relatives in Jacksonville and renting a car. Monday morning we plan on driving to Orlando early and visit Sea World on Monday afternoon and will get a hotel near Sea World for Monday night. Tuesday morning we plan on dropping the car off at the airport(Orlando) I assume and then getting the Disney shuttle to our hotel, which we have not decided on yet. First question is does all this make sense to you Disney veterans and secondly will we have to haul our bags? Or should we just take our bags to the hotel of our choice and then drop the rental car off and then take the shuttle back to the hotel. We are staying until Sunday of that following weekend. Just wanted to see what you all thought. Thanks.

 

[goofy4tink]

Welcome to the DIS boards!!!
If it were me, I would drop everyone off at the WDW resort after checking out of the SeaWorld area. That way, you won't have to deal with lugging all that luggage with you. Then, just one of you has to go back to MCO and return the car, and then take DME back to the resort.
But...have you considered dropping the car off at another spot? Alamo/National have counters at the Dolphin over by Epcot. They are also located at the Car Care Center by the entrance to MK. At that location, they will shuttle you to your resort or a park if you want. But, that does have to be prearranged.
If you are using a different rental car company, a lot of them have locations in the DTD aea. For instance, Budget is located at the Doubletree. And many there will shuttle you back to your resort as well.

But, if you got the best price returing the car to MCO, then I would stick with that one. Drive the family and bags to the WDW resort, drop them off and let them get settled. Then, you head back to MCO, drop off the car and head to the DME checkin area. But be sure you make your arrangements with DME before getting there. You must have an existing reservation with them.