Aussie Disneyland Planners come on in and lets plan together :)

[ColB]

On the topic of plane flights, I wonder what brilliant plans people have come up with to deal with the jet lag of little ones.

It's the first time I'll be taking our five year old to a time zone that is almost the exact opposite of home.

I was thinking of adjusting his sleep pattern to match that of our destination, but that means waking him up at 2 and 3 am a couple of nights before the holiday.

Is this a wise decision, I just don't want him to sleep for his entire Disney holiday

Please share your advice and tips.

 

[gogo65]

On the topic of plane flights, I wonder what brilliant plans people have come up with to deal with the jet lag of little ones.

It's the first time I'll be taking our five year old to a time zone that is almost the exact opposite of home.

I was thinking of adjusting his sleep pattern to match that of our destination, but that means waking him up at 2 and 3 am a couple of nights before the holiday.

Is this a wise decision, I just don't want him to sleep for his entire Disney holiday

Please share your advice and tips.

Peadiatric nurse here.

Its called phenergen

 

[keptwoman]

I can't tell you if our plan will actually WORK but we are planning to start to go to bed and get up earlier for the week or two before we leave and then sleep on the flights to NY time as much as possible. Then we arrive just in time to go to bed and I hope we are thoroughly tired. We are going to NY first and the time difference is even worse. At USD210 a night for a hostel!! we can't afford to loose time in NY to jetlag so I hope it works.

 

[gogo65]

Seriously ColB

We travelled with our kids to the US when they were 5 and 7.
We found the jet lag no problem.
The kids should sleep pretty well on the plane.
They will wake you up about 2 hours before landing, by the time you get through customs and get to the hotel and check in, quick look around the hotel, something to eat and before you know it 8 hours has passed.
Time for a bit of a snooze (we went to have a snooze at 5pm the day we arrived planned to go to DL that night-but instead we all slept right through to the next day) then they will be ready to go.

Don't go changing their sleeping habits before you go, just let their bodies adjust naturally.
Kids adjust remarkably well, as for the adults there is always a scotch or 2 to send you to lullaby land

 

[gogo65]

One more thing ColB,
Jetlag is not much of a problem going to the US, the main problem with jetlag is coming home, make sure you have a few days before you go back to work etc

 

[ColB]

I'm not worried about me, at my height and flying economy, I am guaranteed a sleepless flight, making me drop on arrival until the next morning. I just don't want a lively five year old jumping on Dad all night thinking it's lunchtime.

 

[gogo65]

I'm not worried about me, at my height and flying economy, I am guaranteed a sleepless flight, making me drop on arrival until the next morning. I just don't want a lively five year old jumping on Dad all night thinking it's lunchtime.

Well better he jumping on dad than on mum
Sorry ColB us mummy's have to stick together.

The main reason daddy's come on holidays is so that the kids can annoy daddy instead of mummy.

 

[ColB]

Funny, that's what she said......

 

[marvel]

We have found that the kids didn't have any probs with Jetlag on any trip, they recover much faster than adults, in my experience, and we travelled from Mel, to SF and connected straight on to NY. A long long trip and arrived in NY at Midnight, not probs with jet lag.

 

[platypus67]

ColB with regard to jet lag in children, I never had a problem with our daughter and we have made the trip regularly since she was two. The first trip the doctor suggested phenergen. I was hesitant to use this as he also told me it could have the opposite affect in some children. Glad I didn't as a mum travelling alone sat nearby and she used it. Kid bounced off the walls the whole flight. Children don't seem to suffer the way we do. For the first 4 or 5 trips to the US my dd slept from take off to touch down. She would be full of energy when we got to the hotel, but this passed quickly and she usually had a nap, then we would have a walk around, some early dinner and then call it a day. She usually slept through the night and was good after that. Now that she is 13, she is like us. Tired when we get there and wakes up at the oddest hours.

 

[BecBennett]

For those heading over soon - Is anyone concerned about swine flu?? I'm not concerned as such, but I'd like to know what everyone else's thoughts are on it, and if you happen to know more about it then I do, please share!


BTW - I still use phenergan as an adult to help me adjust to the times. Half a sleeping tablet has knocked me out for 24 hours before, so 25mg of phenergan is just right to put me to sleep for a flight, or a night.

 

[keptwoman]

LOL I must admit my plan of trying to adjust our sleeping times slowly is at least as much about me adjusting as it is the children. I don't want to have jetlag in New York!!

I've used Phenergan once before when we were coming back from Fiji on an overnight flight and DD was bouncing off the walls and not showing signs of sleep. I'd also heard it can have the opposite effect so I gave her a half dose. It worked like magic. She was standing up watching the movie when I gave it to her and within 5 mins she was asleep. I'd definitely use it again given the need!

 

[marvel]

With the swine flu, I am pretty sure someone on the aussie thread was going to Mexico this year?? I would be concerned if I was traveling there, already students in NZ that just came back from Mexico have been diagnosed with it. Sounds like it is going to spread pretty quick.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Ms. Shutter girl it was roughtly $500 including a 20% tip. May be different now. Jump on their website and check them out. www.TonyTheLimoKing.com.

I'm so excited 19 days to go woo hoo!!!!!

Thanks so much Lovintheland. I'm off to check it out now.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Ms Shuttergirl - I've been thinking about your photography - there was a thread a while back on taking photography gear into DL, and that included not allowing any "professional gear." I think that was defined as lenses over a certain length or it was removable lenses. I'll search and see what I can find. I didn't pay that much attention to it as DH had already decided not to take his kit with him.

ETA... Found them, looks like they have eased up on it since we were there in October.

A post today... http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2159068&highlight=camera+lens

And a bit older http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2034514&highlight=camera+lens

Kylie you are a champion. It never occurred to me there may be a problem taking my camera and lens in. Have read both of those threads now, I think I should be right. Not planning on taking anything too big in, couldn't be bothered lugging something like that around. It will be bad enough with smaller lens, hehe. Thanks so much.

 

[Czardas]

Hi guys, just thought I'd pass this on. We have a friend who is very high up in the medical field and is a Epidemioligist (studies diseases) he is currently in Geneva at the World Health orginisation probably for a conference. He emailed my husband this morning and warned us not to travel to US or Mexico, he didn't have a clue that we were going to both.
So my hubbie emails back saying we are going in September and what his advice would be. Here's his response;

can't say how the world will look in Sept. I can say there are a number of very experienced flu-watchers who are very worried this week. The 1918 pandemic was also swine flu and that infected 20% and killed around 2.5% of the world's population at the time. So far the severe cases have all been in Mexico, which has us a bit puzzled. This week will reveal if we need to move to small private islands somewhere. The 1918 pandemic started in March, then went quiet until August, before spreading globally, so it could be many months before we can say it's over. Personally, I might go to Mexico as a public health worker, but I wouldn't be holidaying there any time soon.

If this guy wasn't so high up with world disease, he is Australia's top guy in this field, I wouldn't think too much about it but now I don't know what to do about our Mexico & US trip.

 

[BecBennett]

Well I didn't want to hear that... But we wont be cancelling or post poning our trip. I'll just make sure our travel insurance is good, and DF and I have already discussed that if either of us get sick while over there - and I'm not talking swine flu, I'm talking any sort of sniffle or cough, we'll probably hang around with his family longer so we don't get thrown into quaranteen.

 

[Flea]

Does travel insurance cover you for things that there is already threats of??

Or do they only not cover once a travel advisory is out?

 

[BecBennett]

That would depend on your policy

 

[marvel]

that was my question as well flea, i am pretty sure that if the Australian government posts a travel warning for a country then you are not covered for that area, but that being said if I were travelling soon I would definetly check the fine print of the insurance.

Thanks for the info Czardas. I am hoping that medically we have advanced to stage where 2% of the population isn't wiped out by a flu! All deaths are very sad, but at least there hasn't been any outside of the initial outbreak area.