12 / 15 seaters (Alamo)

[gpullan]

Hi all,

Any experiences with the above?

Which make did you get?
How comfy?
How easy to park/drive?
How well equipped?

Usual enquiries. 9 of us travelling plus luggage and pushchairs.

Thanks in advance as always. [msnsmile2]

[SEEMS]

Just returned from our two week trip, there were 9 of us.

We had a Chevrolet Express. Driver and front seats are like captins chairs very comfortable with a good driving position.
The remaining seats are in 3 banks of 3 plus a 4 seat bench row at the rear. lots of leg room.

It was remarkable easy to drive the paking spaces are very big and we had no trouble parking. A couple of time I had to have someone see me back into spaces were there was another car there.

Very well equipped, the sat-nav was a call in system, you had a dial button on the dash. This called a number you told them where you wanted to go and they sent directions to the radio. I did not use thes feature as you could use it to call the emergency services as well, and the instruction book was huge. Air con could be controlled in th erear as well.

The only problem was there were no electric door mirrors, but onece set up it was fine.

There is no boot space so all luggage had to go on the seats, had a bit of trouble going back tt the airport, as had extra suitcases to carry all the shopping

Hired it from Alamo only had 37 miles on the clock as well.

[gpullan]

Hi Sue,

Thanks very much for the information, sounds as if it is going to be better than i thought.

Would be interested to see any pics you have?

Does the back seat not fold so you can pile up the luggage on the spare back row?

Did they have a lot of 15 seaters to choose from at the Alamo depot?

Thanks again.

p.s...Glad you got away in the end at Christmas.

[shakinsteve]

Hi Garry

We visited in June 2010 and had a 15 seater booked for 11 people (5 adults and 6 kids)
I called Alamo before arriving and expressed a wish for the back seat row to be taken out so luggage could be stacked in the back. when we arrived we found that this had not been done on the grounds of H&S.
The Alamo rep advised us to try and get all the cases in but this was a NO GO situation. After a few minutes of chatting with the rep he offered us 2 x 8 seaters for the same prices. All the problems were resolved.
FYI - The back seat doesn't fold down, it's a 3 seater bench.
When we arrived in June they only had 2 available.

[gpullan]

Hi,

Thanks for that. Can the cases not be slid in through the side doors then put onto and around the back seat that isn't being used??

We don't want 2 cars as we will always be together so both beach days and all parks will mean 2 cars, more fuel and double price of parking.

[Andrena]

Hope you all agree on where you want to go each day. I can't imagine the whole group of us driving around all the time together. We often have the whole family, but would go nuts if we all had to stay together. Often we like to stick around the house and may just decide to go out for a short time - if everyone else was away in the van we would be stuck. We like to have at least one other vehicle available. But each to his own, just know it would not suit our family.

Andrena

[gpullan]

Hi Andrena,

Yes we do, not only because i am the only driver but because we are 9 people including 5 kids. The adults are myself, wife, mum and sister.

With there only being 4 adults, 1 of whom does not drive then that leaves me, my wife and my mum who could drive.

3rd time in 3 years and it's worked perfectly for us so far. Yes there are occasions that most people will stay at the villa whilst me and my wife have been to Walmart or out for a meal one night but certainly not worth getting a 2nd car for.

[ukman]

Gary I can say the 15 seater is easy to drive, being that we only had it for a few days. We had arrived very late after a long delay and they had no 7 seaters and all they had that would fit my family was the 15 seater. I manage to pile quiet a bit on the back seat and between seats, you only going from airport to villa, so im sure comfort won't be much of an issue. It was a great drive but wife wanted a smaller one, hence I took it back to get what we initially rented.

[gpullan]

That's great, good comments from all regarding the 15 seaters.

I/we feel more comfortable about this years choice (although it's a forced one with there being more than 8 of us).

[Spuddybaby]

Garry,
I had a 12/15 seater Ford E350 for 3 weeks last November.
Until that point i had never driven an automatic and the biggest car i had ever driven was my wifes freelander 2.

If i am honest i was a bit apprehensive about it, even though i consider myself to be an excellent driver (not sure how that sounds!) and when i first got into it i didnt know how i was gonig to get it out of the car park!
But i did and i took it nice and easy when leaving the airport and after about 15 minutes of the drive to Disney, i felt 100% comfortable in the car, and felt like i could drive it anywhere.
This made me relaxed and from then on, i was driving it with as much ease as my car at home.

The size of these cars is daunting, but in the end i absolutely loved it!