Car rentals and car seats when staying at resort

[janine]

We are staying on the resort but considering a car rental as we may want to park hop (for dinners too) so maybe worth it as there are some priced very well and also helps us to/from airport. I had heard the Shuttle to airport and buses to parks can really suck up time.

My question is, if we do this what is the best way to deal with car seats? They offer rentals but almost as much as the car - maybe we can bring some portable ones? Our kids are 3 and 6.

[123LuckyMom]

We love using the Disney transport service and not needing to use a car, so we never use a rental car at Disney. You won't want to use a car to park hop. It's much more time efficient to use Disney transportation. It's true that there can be waits to check in and take the bus from the airport, but it will certainly take you much longer to get to the car rental garage, get your rental, and drive to your hotel than it will to get on the Disney bus. Unless you are planning to leave DW and go elsewhere, like Universal, I would not rent a car if you are staying at a Disney resort (though I've only stayed at Deluxe resorts and don't know about the speed of transportation at the moderates or values).

If you do rent, you could use Ride Safer vests.

[MSWR0319]

We are renting a car, as we go to the grocery store when we get there to get food for the week. DS has food allergies, so it's just easier for us to cook most of our meals and just eat a few special ones in the park. DS1 will be 6 and I think I'm just going to take a cheap backless booster or a bubble bum. DS2 will be almost 3 and we are taking the Maestro so he can sit in it on the airplane. No way am I letting him roam the airplane ;) I need him contained, so it works for us not just in the car but also on the place.

[egoldber]

Renting a car is very easy in Orlando. Most of the rental companies are directly on site at the airport. You just cross the street from luggage pick up and it's right there. So it's not like a lot of airports where you have to take a shuttle. I would just take 2 boosters. Although Orlando is the only airport where I feel very secure renting a booster. They always have STACKS and STACKS of boosters. The last few we have gotten were brand new in the package.

It's very fast to rent a car and get to your hotel, much faster than the WDW transport IMO. We like to have a rental while we're there. We have done without now and then, but I always miss it.

[candaceb]

I can't handle the buses so we always rent a car. I would take a Maestro for the 3 year old and a booster for the 6 year old.

[keh602]

We love love love not having to rent a car when we go to WDW. We love that we check our luggage at our home airport and don't see it again till we get to the resort. We've never experienced any real problems relying on Disney transportation (even when we stayed at AKL twice and relied solely on buses). We always park hop, and we've never had any issues getting from one park to another, either. The airport shuttle picks us up about 3 hours before our flight home, so that's easy enough to plan around. We order groceries from gardengrocer.com ahead of time and pick up anything else we need at the resort gift shop, so we've never felt a need to venture off property.

I will say that if you do decide to rent a car, I would not rent car seats. We have not had luck doing that. We have a BubbleBum that we travel with, and I'm intrigued by the RideSafer Vest, because I hate lugging around car seats on top of the luggage and stroller.

[Hemlock]

We love using the Magical Express to/from the airport. It's super convenient and you don't even need to get your luggage off the carousel at the airport! We also love using the Disney transportation to/from the resorts and parks (buses, monorail, boats).

On our last trip, we rented a car for a few days because we were going to Legoland and Universal. I bought an inexpensive car seat (Cosco Scenera) from Walmart.com and had it delivered to our hotel. It was waiting at the resort when we arrived. We took the Magical Express from the airport (no car seat required). I left the car seat behind (with all the tags/instructions) with a note asking saying "free car seat" when we left. I could have taken it with us on the plane, but I'm Canadian and I couldn't use the seat once I got home. Anyway, it was $29 which was way cheaper than renting and I was more comfortable having a new seat for my son

[janine]

We love using the Magical Express to/from the airport. It's super convenient and you don't even need to get your luggage off the carousel at the airport! We also love using the Disney transportation to/from the resorts and parks (buses, monorail, boats).

On our last trip, we rented a car for a few days because we were going to Legoland and Universal. I bought an inexpensive car seat (Cosco Scenera) from Walmart.com and had it delivered to our hotel. It was waiting at the resort when we arrived. We took the Magical Express from the airport (no car seat required). I left the car seat behind (with all the tags/instructions) with a note asking saying "free car seat" when we left. I could have taken it with us on the plane, but I'm Canadian and I couldn't use the seat once I got home. Anyway, it was $29 which was way cheaper than renting and I was more comfortable having a new seat for my son

Thanks! How do you deliver items to your resort? I asked customer service and they said it was not possible. Thanks for the feedback!

[Hemlock]

Thanks! How do you deliver items to your resort? I asked customer service and they said it was not possible. Thanks for the feedback!


Do you mean Walmart customer service? If yes, I just changed my address to the Disney resort address (first name, last name c/o Disney resort name). I had several packages delivered to my Disney resort (Walmart, Amazon, Garden Grocer...)without a problem. Everything was waiting for me in my room when we arrived

[egoldber]

With a rental car we can be from the airport to the resort in 45 minutes. Magical Express can be very fast. It has also taken 2 hours to get from the airport to our resort. If you want to park hop, car is generally faster. If you get lucky and a park to park bus arrives right as you walk up, it's fast. But I have waited 45 minutes for a park to park bus.

[Pinky]

We used the Ride Safer Travel Vest on a recent trip with our 4.5yo and loved it. It's so easy to use and from my research it appears to be as safe or safer than a 5pt harness carseat due to them sitting lower in the car.

[erosenst]

Just in the FWIW category....we didn't rent a car the first time we went. Used Magical Express from airport with little wait problems...but waiting for busses the whole trip was not our idea of a good time. At the time, DD was young enough to still need a nap AND an early bedtime, and missing either was a recipe for disaster. That meant adding 'bus wait time' to 'bus transport time' and just didn't work well for our family.

Since then we've always rented a car - and been very glad that we have for various reasons.

[gatorsmom]

We just came back from Orlando and we rented a minivan while we were there. We stayed off site and also visited Universal (for Harry Potter) and LEGOLAND for our little obsessed Lego fan. :) I love the bubble bums for traveling in warm climates. I also like the Ride Safer vests but they can be uncomfortable in the heat.