Traveling to Aulani with 6 year old

[reins317]

Hi.

I will be flying to Aulani in June with my family. I have two teenagers and a 6 year old daughter. My question is: How do I keep her occupied on the plane? We are flying United and 50% of their planes do not have Wifi. We will not know until 48 hours before if our plane is equipped with Wifi. I would like to plan as if we will not have internet. Should I bring a portable DVD player with movies? Do most long flights have an entertainment package you can buy that you can watch movies? Again, we will not know what is available on the plane until 48 hours before. We have several iPads, so we could load movies onto them. I want to be as prepared as possible. Any suggestions???

Thanks in advance!
Christal

 

[SevenWonkas]

iPad iPad iPad. And/or portable DVD player. We just arrived in Hawaii yesterday with our 3 year old. The iPad is a lifesaver with all the apps and movies. Even with wifi, idk if it's strong enough to stream movies though.

Stickers, coloring, pipe cleaners (to make creations), books are some other ideas.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Why do you need wifi to keep a 6 year old entertained on a plane?

Why not visit UA's website to see what entertainment options will be available on your flight? Never depend on the plane's systems anyway; bring your own. Your iPad is your best bet for videos; don't forget headphones.

 

[cedricandsophie]

In aulani now. Came on United a week ago. Our plane no longer had any inflight entertainment including music or listening to pilot. And no headphones. It's all based on wifi. All united planes except for Internstional are going this way. You have to buy wifi which is 14 or 15 I think And it may cover more than one device. But the wifi didn't work. The whole flight. Very annoying. My daughter has a portable dvd which is great or download movies into an iPad. I just would not count on wifi to work A friend was on a United flight a couple weeks ago and it didn't work either. And remember to bring headphones.

 

[tjmw2727]

Whenever we fly I plan for no entertainment and bring what I think we will need, then if there is an option its a bonus. For a 6yo some puzzle books, a paperback, stickers or color forms, music, tv shows and movies on a ipod or iphone. If you do have an ipad download everything in advance so you don't have to find wifi and I also recommend a portable charger! Make sure if your going the movie/tv route that she has headphones she is comfortable wearing and understands if she wants sound that she needs to wear them.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

In aulani now. Came on United a week ago. Our plane no longer had any inflight entertainment including music or listening to pilot. And no headphones. It's all based on wifi. All united planes except for Internstional are going this way. You have to buy wifi which is 14 or 15 I think And it may cover more than one device. But the wifi didn't work. The whole flight. Very annoying. My daughter has a portable dvd which is great or download movies into an iPad. I just would not count on wifi to work A friend was on a United flight a couple weeks ago and it didn't work either. And remember to bring headphones.

You should always bring your own headphones.

It's not true that you have to pay for wifi on UA to stream their entertainment. I've used it with my iPad; it worked well:

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...ertainment/personal-device-entertainment.aspx

It's also not true all UA planes are going to have streaming entertainment only. Many of them have seat back entertainment systems (economy) and individual entertainment systems (business and first). It just depends on the aircraft.

 

[SevenWonkas]

Portable chargers are definitely a must. Our seats were supposed to have USB ports, but they didn't work. We burned through the battery on our iPad like crazy because our son used it the entire time during our first flight (4-5 hours). It was less than 50%. The entertainment system in the seat didn't have a whole lot for a kid. We made him watch Big Hero 6 while we used our portable charger to get the iPad back up to 75% or so, which did last the rest of the second flight.

 

[reins317]

Thanks so much for all your replies. Is there a brand/type of charger anyone could recommend? Our flight from DC to Honolulu will be 10+ hours.

Thanks!
Christal

 

[alaska8]

Don't forget headphones

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Here's a chart indicating power availability on United aircraft:

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/connectivity/default.aspx

I have only seen USB charging ports on UA in Global First on an international flight.

Many portable chargers are fine. A handy place to compare them is on Amazon. I have used a Jackery brand, RavPower and a Cheero Power Plus.