Vacation, carseats, and airplane, oh my!

[thepeach80]

So, we're going back to WDW, and taking a cruise, next May and we're already planning. I don't have a vacation planned this year so I have to do something. The kids will be 15 mos, 3.5, 5.5, and a few wks from 7.

We're NOT renting a car in Orlando and just using Disney transportation so that's o.k. Anyone know what kind of transportation Carnival offers from the airport? I e-mailed them today to see. I thinking we'd do Avenue for Liv, CARES for Ilana, maybe one for Evan, and nothing for AJ on the plane assuming they provide a tour bus and not like a van. I'm assuming it's a tour bus though w/ the volume of people that are going to be flying in specifically for this cruise, it holds like 2000+ people. What do I take if I'm wrong?

Would you do a CARES for Evan? He'll be 5.5yo and probably only 35# or so. Ilana will be 3.5yo and 30# or so I bet.

What's a nice, small stroller I can buy to take? Preferralby one that reclines and has a sunshade w/ a basket, but folds up small.

 

[kathysr98]

I can't speak to the carseat situtation on the plane/bus as we haven't had to deal with that yet. I can recommend Maclaren strollers for that question. My Techno XT folds compactly, has a bottom basket, nice shade, and reclines to about 5-10deg from flat. You can get them used on ebay for a reasonable price most of the time. You might even consider one of their doubles for your two youngest.

 

[kathysr98]

Sorry - I just remembered, we used a private company for the airport transfer from our Carnival cruise in Orlando 2 years ago. That company used the short buses. I don't remember seeing any Carnival buses or vans, but if they don't give you the answer your looking for, maybe use a different company for the transfer.

 

[Minniemouse]

Well, FL has a VERY low age limit for seats according to their law (3+under in a car seat and 3 to 4 or 5 in anything ...seat or seat belt) so be prepared for Carnival not to consider this an issue for your older kids.

I'm not sure what their standard vehicle is, we went on a few cruises w/ Carnival when dd was younger, but didn't need their airport transfers.

I can tell you that we stored our car seat for dd in the bottom of the closet fairly easily once on the ship. I have also heard that they will store it for you w/ any empty suitcases...but we didn't see a need to do so.

Good Luck!

 

[thepeach80]

Thanks about the stroller, I'll have to look into those. I need a small stroller anyways, not now but when Olivia gets a little bigger so I'm not stuck w/ my monster strollers all the time.

Yeah, I knew the carseat laws suck. IIRC 4yo can use a seatbelt and 5yo are free to do as they wish. Don't my kids wish! AJ is legal to use just a seatbelt here now and that's so weird to me.

We did WDW in 07, but we went to my parents house after that trip and we can't this time, they moved to TX, so we're having to do things differently this time plus we've added the cruise. I think we're planning on utilizing some of the rental places more this time in FL and maybe even have groceries delivered, lol.

 

[Northriver]

I think the CARES has a 40" height max, it isn't very well publicized, but I'm pretty sure if you read the manual that is what it says. My dd was 40" at age 3.5, so I'm wondering if your kids will be over 40" by your trip.

For a towncar service in Orlando, I've used Sunray Transportation. They have car seats and booster but I've never used them, always brought my own. They are expensive to the port, but I trust them and their driving.

There are dozens of town car services, I'd start calling around about prices and see if anyone has carseats available.

Mears transportation is the big transportation company, with normal buses, small buses, vans and maybe even limos. I think they run Magical Express for Disney. I have no idea how they assign vehicles.

 

[thepeach80]

Thanks. Ilana won't be 40" I bet, she's 35.5" now and Evan should be 40" by then, he's 39" now. I have short kids for the most part, lol. Evan is happy b/c he should be able to go on the big rides this year at WDW! While not ideal, we could do a booster for Evan if he needed a seat there for some reason, AJ is fine in a booster. Thanks for the info on the transport, like I said this is all new to us this time!