Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Flip

Original poster

$10 a day to hire car seat!!!

25 replies

Hulababy · 09/06/2004 21:06

That is the most recent price we have just been given for hiring a car seat for DD (2yo) when we go to Florida in August. When my dad first booked the holiday he was told it would be about $4 and that we would be able to bok it in advance - can no longer do this either! Although we were told that they never run out.

Holiday company just said well people sometimes take their own seats nowadays. Really? Our car seat is very very heavy and cost us over £150 - I am not risking luggage handlers with my car seat; one drop and it is deemed useless!

Just ranting as seems darn expensive - coing to cost us $140 for the seat for the holiday!!!

OP posts:

Original poster

Hulababy · 09/06/2004 21:07

Besides the car seat would really eat into our luggage allowance too which I am not prepared to do.

OP posts:

katzguk · 09/06/2004 21:09

could you buy one when you get there? many airports have malls

Mo2 · 09/06/2004 21:18

Could you buy a cheap one to take with you. At 22 months we bought a £20 one from INdex/Argos which was mostly polystyrene (i.e. light) and have made it our 'travel' one ever since!

twiglett · 09/06/2004 21:19

message withdrawn

katzguk · 09/06/2004 21:20

you'll have paid for a seat for her on the plane wont you? can you not use the seat in the plane? just wondering

Original poster

Hulababy · 09/06/2004 21:21

Katzguk/Twigleet - doing some more research into that possibility, but need to know how far our villa is from airport car rntal place first. Don't want to have to waste a day doing this.

Mo2 - did it eat into your luggage allowance much? And do you put it int he hold or take it on the plane with you? And if int he hold, how do you pack it?

OP posts:

Original poster

Hulababy · 09/06/2004 21:39

So far I have determined that we are flying into Sanford airport. And we are staying at a place called Windor Palms Resort.

Now need to see how far they are from each other and if there are any malls - or somwhere like Walmart (adviced about there already) near by.

OP posts:

Original poster

Hulababy · 09/06/2004 21:39

Windsor Palms even.

OP posts:

Mo2 · 09/06/2004 21:50

Hulababy - it really was VERY light, so hardly ate into allowance at all. It was a type that separated into two pieces (to become just a booster later) so we 'folded it' and put it in a big waterproof poly bag, all marked up with our name/flight etc.
it went in the 'special luggage' section - along with things like golf clubs/ puchchairs etc.

It was something like this

Original poster

Hulababy · 09/06/2004 21:54

Cheers Mo2 - I will have a look properly in town at these on Friday. Dh is not keen on the idea of taking a seat with us but if I can reassure him how light it'd be he may be okay about it.

OP posts:

Mo2 · 09/06/2004 22:00

H - extra thought - the one we found had an 'extra' little buckle thing that the seat belt went through over the shoulder to stop it from rubbing the neck of a smaller child (cos obviously there is quite a broad age range for this seat.
Didn't have any particular problems with it, although it doesn't give as much support as our Britax rennaissance (sounds like your £150 one!!)
and if they fall asleep then their head doesn't have the 'wings'....

It may be worth contacting your airline too - sometimes they allow infant seats as 'extra' to your allowance. Will your DD have her own seat? If so - don't forget that she will have her own 20kg allowance!

sammac · 09/06/2004 22:03

Hula, we're in the same situation, but my cousin has managed to borrow one for us. Did a quick search for you trying to find babiesrus and came up with this Gives an idea of prices.

lydialemon · 09/06/2004 22:08

We sneak extra things onto our allowance by using a pushchair bag from mothercare. When we give it up at the gate we shove all sorts of extra things in with the pushchair and it doesn't count!

Azure · 09/06/2004 22:12

We went to the States in April and took our car seat with us. I don't know who you're flying with, but with BA the limit is based on 2 bags/items per person rather than weight, which we found enough for a suitcase each, carseat and pushchair (DS had his own seat, hence allowance). To be honest, it was little hassle. We simply wrapped it up in a bin liner, put a label on it, and it went in the hold. The other end we picked up the hire car and put it in. It wasn't damaged at all - if it had been, my view was that getting a replacement was cheaper than hiring anyway.

Janh · 09/06/2004 22:27

Or this one , hula.

Mum2ela just had a thread about car seats - here - she is going to take one of these to Cyprus and her DD is younger than yours. They are very light and will hardly affect your baggage weight.

$10 a day is taking the piss really!

SofiaAmes · 09/06/2004 23:28

I have found that travelling WITH a car seat can actually be great. Just about all the airlines (including the budget ones) don't count a car seat (or buggies) towards your luggage allowance. The American airlines (and BA) encourage you to carry your car seat on board and put your child in it. (In fact some of them even give you a discount on internal flights if you travel with a car seat for your 2 year old). There are decided advantages to this. It means that your child is in something that they can't unbuckle. I've also found that when my ds is seated in his car seat in the plane he is less likely to wiggle and try to run around the plane...somehow psycologically he thinks he's in a car where he knows he's not allowed to get up.
The other alternative is to buy a car seat when you get to the usa. They are way cheaper there. I've bought all of ours there. We have the Cosco Alpha Omega which is good from newborn to 80 lbs. It goes forward and backwards and pieces come off as the child gets older and it eventually becomes a booster seat.
Or finally, you could look into a rental car not through the holiday co. (if you are allowed to do this)...it will probably be cheaper and the car seat rental should be more like $45 for the whole 2 weeks.

Original poster

Hulababy · 10/06/2004 09:07

Cheers all! Just scanned this now but will have a look properly later.

DD does have her own seat and lugagge allowance.

Do these cheaper seats still offer enough protection in an accident? It's unlikely Dd will sleep much in it but obviously the main concern ns safety. We use a Isofix seat here so are used to the highest level of safety possible with a car seat!

Car hire is part of the deal we got originally and the actual car hire itself is a good value? Now we know why!!!

I will speak to my dad this tomorrow - he has done all the booking - and see of he can call the flight company about how we take a car seat - hand luggage or hold, and if in luggage allowance.

Still got more reseach to do I guess!

OP posts:

florenceuk · 10/06/2004 09:57

When we hired a car in Washington (from Avis), the car seat we got was actually one of those ones which use the existing car seat belt as the belt. IMO this was completely unsuitable for our 2yr old DS - he could easily undo the buckle and/or pull on the belt to escape. We spent a lot of time stopping the car and yelling at DS everytime he wriggled out. It was only for a day, so we didn't bother to change it. But I would be very very suspicious now of US car hire places who claim to have child seats!

LIZS · 10/06/2004 11:28

Does sound pricey too - even in UK we only paid a £5 for 5 days last time. Is the insurance expensive too by any chance ?

If you take your own with you you may be able to let dd sit in it in the airline but some carriers are really difficult over the width of it and the safety standards (although the latter should be fine with the one you have). Also I think it might have to be securable with just a lap belt, which from another thread don't think yours is, but, having said that, we have used a Rock a Tot inflight with a belt extension. Have friends who fly transatlantic at least once a year and they tend to recommend using a car seat for toddlers if poss, if only because they are used to sitting in it and hopefully sleeping.

Hope you manage to sort it out.

gloworm · 10/06/2004 11:40

i haven't had time to read whole thread so sorry if repeating!
we went to florida last year and car seat was too expensive to hire (and have heard many horror stories about the quality of the seats on offer by car hire!)
we took our own seat...a britax freeway, so not exactly light weight, we had no problems with luggage allowance even though we brought lots of stuff while we were out there! i know there are loads of people who are fine with the light car seats but i would not feel they would be as good as stronger one in the event of an accident.

The seat was put in "fragile" container and arrived safe without so much as a scratch.

if you decide to get one out there, you will be able to get a really good quality one for about half price you would pay in UK , may be useful to have as a spare when you get home?

can you phone/email the hotel and see if there as mall close to it?

Soapbox · 10/06/2004 11:53

Hula

If you are intending to do any amount of serious shopping while over there (we certainly did since the designer outlet malls in orlando were fantastic) then you will be going with much less luggage than you are coming back with.

We took a light cheap car seat with us and then ditched it at the other end so it didn't eat into our return luggage allowance. However there were loads of parents who had much more luggage than us and who still got their car seats on with no problems!

toddlerbob · 15/06/2004 20:55

A cheap seat you know is brand new and never been in an accident is going to give you more peace of mind than a rented one. Airlines do cut some slack about baggage allowance for things like pushchairs and carseats, and if they get funny you can always just abandon it at the airport on the way back. We have a travel seat which lives in my husbands car, goes on taxi rides and in airplane holds. I think it cost my parents about 35 pounds from Macro. Whilst it isn't as comfy as his nice one, I'm sure it's just as safe - it's met the same safety standards after all.

Original poster

Hulababy · 15/06/2004 21:15

Spoke to my dad to get more info about holiday. We arrive in Florida at 2:30 their time so we have plenty of time to hire the seat for one day, drive to nearest Toy R Us or Walmart, buy one for less than half of rental cost, and take rental one back. Even if I end up just leaving this one behind, it is better than paying out so much for a potentially dodgy rental one.

OP posts:

stringbean · 15/06/2004 21:31

I've scanned this thread quickly, and second SofiaAmes' suggestion, that you take the carseat into the cabin for your child to sit in. We did this when we went skiing this year, following hte suggestion of a friend who took her child to Canada this way last year. We flew on BA, which stipulated that the carseat had to be forward facing and have a five-point harness. Ds was quite happy in it, as it was familiar; he had to sit next to a window, as the carseat presents a hazard to people climbing over it in even of an emergency, so had a great view on take-off and landing. Check with the airline if they'll allow you to do this.

Original poster

Hulababy · 15/06/2004 21:32

Our own car seat, or PILs, isn't suitable to take as neither fit with jus a lap belt If I am going to have to buy a new one just for the trip, may as well wait until I get over to Florida as so much cheaper for same seats than here.

OP posts:

Flip