Travel Questions

[MamaBelle4]

Flying is out. My husband just will not. Nor will my mother in law.

There are 9 of us going. 3 kids, 1 baby and 5 adults. We are staying onsite. We were planning on renting a large van to drive down, but apparently there was a recall on the Ford transit seat belts so enterprise has grounded their fleets.

I've looked into greyhound and amtrak. We were all going to ride together to split up driving for the 15 hour drive.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Who else may rent vehicles? I can't find any car dealerships. I know they used to.

 

[ngm]

Depends on where you are, but try carrentals.com, or kayak or expedia. they should be able to give you all the car rental options in your area.

 

[mm1971]

Flying is out. My husband just will not. Nor will my mother in law.

There are 9 of us going. 3 kids, 1 baby and 5 adults. We are staying onsite. We were planning on renting a large van to drive down, but apparently there was a recall on the Ford transit seat belts so enterprise has grounded their fleets.

I've looked into greyhound and amtrak. We were all going to ride together to split up driving for the 15 hour drive.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Who else may rent vehicles? I can't find any car dealerships. I know they used to.

Where are you driving from? We have friends that drive to VA and take the Auto train from there. It allows everyone the opportunity to rest and get some down time before the craziness begins.

As far as rentals, I would guess they would have the vehicles serviced and available pretty quickly. Have you looked for alternate rental companies in your area. How about renting 2 cars, not sure how many adults are going to drive, but you could still split up the driving.

 

[loves to dive]

Alamo, Hertz, Budge. You can also go through Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity for rental cars. I wouldn't take greyhound, it is just about more tiring than driving for me. Amtrak might be fun but I've found it more expensive than flying (which I understand is not an option) and can take longer than driving. Look in the auto train as previous poster suggested but you are still going to have the van issue. How about taking two cars? 5 adults sounds like two cars could still swap out drivers.

 

[Minnesota!]

I would do 2 vehicles even if the large van was available. Lots more availability to split up, etc. 9 people with 1 vehicle sounds like hell, honestly (we have done it, twice, and I will NEVER do it again. No.fricking.way).

Either rent two SUV's or the like, everyone drive their own vehicles down, or see about a Megabus or the Auto train..).

What if everyone flies except husband and mother in law? They can drive down together, the rest of you can fly. Staying onsite = no need for a vehicle when there)

 

[scrapquitler]

I'd definitely go with two vehicles. Even if you have a large van, with 9 people, you'll have a lot of luggage (and baby gear, too), which might not fit easily into the van.

 

[mco65]

you should rent an RV.. stay at the Campground...

 

[kwdw]

One van - 9 folks? 15 hours? With all those stops for that many different people? You'll never get there. Sounds like a 20 hour horrible drive to me. At 15 hours - it's almost always cheaper to fly. Amtrak is expensive and Greyhound is horrible. Tell the hubby and MIL to drive down together and the rest of you fly.

That - or split the group up into family units and go from there - you all meet at Disney.

I travel with "two" family subunits sometimes - and we can't manage to coordinate the same transportation without killing each other. We get along fine in multiple bedroom sleeping quarters - sharing kitchen/living area - but the transportation - nightmare!

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

you should rent an RV.. stay at the Campground...

We drive our motor home down frequently -- even when not staying at Fort Wilderness. 5 plane tickets is twice the cost of driving from NJ (including gas and tolls). However, our RV is really big and I don't feel comfortable driving it, so H has to drive the whole way -- about 17 hours door-to-door. The RV is great because there's no need to stop for bathroom or food, we have a generator that runs the fridge. We have a TV w/DVD player and the kids play on their tablets (plenty of outlets to keep them charged). They can also sit at the dinette and play games or color. There's plenty of room for everyone to stretch out. We've made the drive with 5 ppl + a dog, 6 ppl and 9 ppl (4A, 5C). We never felt on top of each other, and the kids loved being in the RV.

However, I have no idea how expensive an RV is to rent. It might be cheaper to rent 2 mini vans.

 

[happymommy]

Why not fly and let those who refuse to fly do the driving?