Minivans and car seat placement

We're getting our first minivan, a 2014 Honda Odyssey. We have a Britax Marathon, which I plan to keep RFing for another year, and a Britax Frontier. I'm trying to figure out the best placement for them in the car. This is my first minivan so I apologize if these are silly questions.

If we want to access the third row, do we install the car seats behind the driver's and passenger's seats and then take out the center seat in the second row? Is that a difficult way for adults to get to the third row? I didn't think it would be possible to bend and slide either of the seats that have car seats in them.

Also, does it really matter which side we place each car seat? We've put DS1 behind the driver's seat and DS2 behind the passenger's seat in other cars.

Re: Minivans and car seat placement

I have a 2010
I can take my middle seat out and move the 2 captains chairs together to create a "walkway"
I would put the rf near the door and the frontier in the middle assuming the rearfacing child is the harder kid to put in the car seat.
I'm no expert though

Minivans and car seat placement

I know many moms who load up there RF older children through the hatch back, so that may be an option for you as well

Re: Minivans and car seat placement

Thanks! My RFing DS can definitely be difficult to put in, especially after picking him up from daycare. He wants to be out and about.

I didn't even realize I could put the 2 larger seats together.

Re: Minivans and car seat placement

I have a 2008 and when we had 2 kids we put the oldest in the frontier on the driver side and the younger in the marathon on the passenger side. We took out the middle to access the 3rd row. With 3 we keep the middle out and moved the frontier to the 3rd row, moved the marathon to the driver side second row and the infant B-safe to the passenger side second row.