Tips on transportation with little ones?

#1

Our next family trip to WDW will be our first time flying with kiddos! We usually drive and love the convenience of having a car at the parks, but we decided to splurge next year since we missed our 2020 trip and we have leftover Southwest credit thanks to Covid 19!

In your experiences, what is the best way to get around with 3 adults and 3 kids (1 carseat, 1 booster)? Specifically looking from MCO to Shades of Green and possibly even Shades of Green to the WDW parks. Shades is not eligible for DME unfortunately. I’m planning on checking in a carseat and booster seat with the airline. I’m super ignorant when it comes to Uber/Lyft but it’s looking like Mears might be the only option?

#2

How about renting a car? It’s our preferred method especially if you need carseats. The kids can fly in the car seats or they can be checked for free.

#3

Absolutely agree about renting if it’s a possibility for you.

For a few times we travelled with our own seats with two kids, but to be honest I found it extremely annoying. Fixing them to different cars constantly, dragging them around airports and hotels etc was beyond a hassle and I would never do it again. Plus, I don’t think it’s actually recommended to check in seats as it can damage them.

So whenever possible, I would rent a car with seats. It wasn’t always trouble free either as sometimes we’d get wrong sizes seats or wouldn’t have them at all, but eventually always got them at major locations. At Sixt we’ve always gotten new or almost new seats too.

#4

I have actually always preferred my kids to be in car seats on the plane. They are more comfortable in them and if you are (very) lucky they can sleep in them. While I admit they aren’t fun to drag around the airport, if you are renting a car at the airport then you do the install once for the entire trip. And if they are your own seats, you are much more familiar with the install. We actually have a 2nd set of seats that we use for flying because they are lighter and easy enough to install.

#5

We initially were going to rent but the expenses are going to be too much between the rental itself, parking costs at the resort, and parking costs at the parks.

#6

I agree that renting is the best approach, budget aside, if you have more than one child. We have brought our own seats and rented seats. On a couple of occasions the rental car company didn’t have seats and we have had to buy seats at Wal-Mart on arrival day (which is actually cheaper than renting them! :astonished:) I will probably never bring my own seats again - too much hassle.

However, given your budgeting constraints it sounds like you will need to go with Disney transport. Take an Uber or Lyft from MCO, or reserve a spot on a shuttle (of which there are many options). If this is your plan, you shouldn’t need to bring your car seats (which will be super annoying!) unless you really need them on the plane. Car seats are unnecessary on a shuttle. You can order a Lyft with one car seat (but not two, to my knowledge). You could order two Lyfts if you’re really worried about that, or just bring one car seat to supplement.

#7

My kids hated their seats when they were little so we only made the mistake of trying this once :sweat_smile:

But its a good idea if they enjoy them though!

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#8

Whoops, posted in wrong thread. I’m that tired.

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