travelling with an infant

[macca77]

Hi everyone we are planning on getting married in orlando next year and are thinking of going for a planning session this year late oct. Our daughter will be 1 year old, has anyone had experience with taking a child on this long of a flight before at this age? and how troublesome is it pls? Leaving her at home with grandparents is out of the question as we cant leave her, we just couldnt.
Thanks for helping.

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Hi - we went when DD was 14 months. We took plenty of bits to do & although we were on the go a lot more it wasn't that bad. She did fall asleep for a while so that was good:thumbsup2

We took our own pushchair, so that made the airport time easier. At check-in Virgib said we could have a skycot too, so we had the added bonus of that!

[macca77]

Thanks for that mrs doubtfire hope you and your family are well, really enjoyed the cruise we shared on my gfriends bday. We are undecided on late oct or middle of june when she will be 9 months just not sure if thats to early for her travelling.

[KayleeUK]

We took DS when he was 11 months old. We did make sure he had his own seat for the flight so he wasn't being passed between us both on a long flight. We flew with Virgin and got what is called an 'Infant Care Chair' to put in his seat.

You can sort of see it in this picture

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/KayleeRobbins/JosephVirginChair.jpg

He coped very well with the flight, Slept through take off, was good in his seat, took some toys etc to occupy him. He was very good on the flight home too, slept most of the time.

I am sure that flight was a lot easier than this years one is going to be DS will be 2 years 10 months LOL!

[Zeebs]

We travelled to New Zealand (4 x 12hour flights there and back) when Cullen was 10 months old. He was crawling and crusing at the time. I was breastfeeding him so when we got on board I fed him he went to sleep, plane was delayed he woke up just in time for takeoff, (typical) we had toys and snacks to keep him entertained and had requested a skycot. He did sleep in this but not lots. The big advantage of the skycot seats however were that there is enough room for them to stand up in front of your legs which was good. We also let him crawl around the plane just walking behind him. This may annoy some people but it was either this or let him scream the place down we saw it as a lesser of two evils. He was very well behaved however. Try and get a flight that is around bedtime and allow a lot of crawling/walking around the airport to tire them out. I think the fear of upsetting other people is the major stress of taking a small child but I usually find that the children are better travellers over long distances than the adults. We will be going to Orlando in Oct, Cullen will be 2.5 and Seth 10 months so we will see how we go. Always a glutton for punishment we are planning another trip home to NZ in 2009 they kids will be 3 and 15 months so they will be pretty well travelled kids. Let me know if you have any specific questions happy to help.

Kirsten

[macca77]

Thanks for the replys so far. After Talking it through with my girlfriend i think we are going to go in june now, When summer will be 8 months going into 9 when we are there.
Another question i have is how did your children cope with the time diffrence and their sleeping patterns was it easy for them to get into a new routine or hard work.

Thanks again.

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Lovely to see you on the boards - didn't connect when I replied. We looked for your trip report - did you ever do it?

We didn't have any problems with the time difference - on a night we would get DD ready for bed & put her in an all in one (it was December) & then go out for tea or to DTD.

I must say we really enjoyed the cruise - would love to do another.

Hope you have a lovely wedding - where are you getting married? We are back to WDW this Xmas:santa:

[macca77]

Hi yeah we did a trip report, last year around january time.
We are getting married in the wedding pavillion hopefully april 2009.
Cant wait and great to have a beautifull daughter to share disney world with us nowadays.

[buzz182]

Hi,

We took our DS on his first trip to Orlando when he was 13 months old in Nov 06. This was also his first flight so we didn't know how he would be. We flew with Virgin and DS also had an Infant Care Chair like Kaylee's DS had. He was fine on the flight, slept, played with various toys and we would take it in turns to walk him around the cabin, so he could stretch his legs. The flight home was a different matter though as DH and DS caught Gastroenteritus a couple of days before we came home and as you can imagine it was horrible! We were told by the doctor on the day of the flight DS was too ill to fly for 48 hours! So on the flight home he was sobbing when he wasn't asleep but did manage to sleep for most of the way home and the journey home from the airport! That night though he was at the hospital but that's another story! Now Nov 07 was different again, DS basically watched the movies, listened to music, played with toys, did colouring, had a couple of hours sleep on way out and slept quite a bit on way back! This trip was, well, amazing as he was a year older and he knew all the characters and would run up to them all and kiss them after he had his photo taken, even Goofy walked away with him at Camp Mickey Minnie at AK, and left the queue of kids standing there while they todded off together for a little walk! Priceless!:love: :cloud9: :love:

With regards to DS's routine it took him a good week or so to properly get back to normal, but it wasn't hard or anything to cope. It takes me a good few days to get my body clock back on track anyway.

My advice would be is to take a few different toys, nothing too big, to put in your DD's hand luggage and get a new one out every hour or so, so she has something different to play with, take some snacks, couple of little books etc.

Let your DD set the pace and take time to have little breaks here and there. Also all the Disney parks all have Baby Care centres which have changing rooms, nursing rooms, kitchen with sink, cooker and microwave and a little TV room. These are great:thumbsup2 They all have someone on hand to assist you if you need anything as they sell baby items nappies, wipes, food etc. Seaworld also has a baby centre which is also very good.

Last but not least ENJOY! If you need anything else, just fire away.

Karina

We've got it all again 13 weeks today! Yippee :woohoo: so his third trip and he'll be exactly 2 years 6 months. He knows where he is going as he says "Mummy, Mickey's castle soon".

[macca77]

ok all that sounds good thanks everyone for their help. We have decided to go in june. We speak to a wedding coordinator this week so cant wait now. Nearly married so excited.

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Just wanted to say Hello,and How exciting getting married out there :goodvibes