Gatwick Twilight check in or Manchester V room

[maznorm]

So, we are planning our trip in February 2014. We are Florida regulars but have had to make a lot of changes to our usual way of doing things. We have 2 children (ages 7 & 6 at time of travel). DD is autistic and can't handle busy airports and the like, although she is usually fine with the parks. We will also have a 3-4 month old.

Would we better to do the Gatwick twilight check in or fly from Manchester and book the v room? We want to spend as little time as possible in the main airport to avoid distressing DD prior to the flight. How long before the flight do you need to be at the airport if you do twilight check in? Would it be worth doing twilight check in and V room?

Lots more questions to ask but thought I'd start with this one.

 

[MrRomance]

As a parent of an ASD child, I would definitely recommend the twilight check in option as it has worked really well for us.

We go to Gatwick the night before and arrange Meet & Greet Parking. Drop the car with them, do twilight check in and walk down to the hotel. This gives our daughter a chance to walk around the airport a little when it is quiet so it is a little more familiar. We take her to the security and explain what will happen in the morning, then head to the hotel where we talk her through the next day.

In the morning, the luggage is gone you don't have to rush around and you can literally walk in, go through the security and directly to your gate. Takes about 40 minutes usually. It prevents you having to deal with crowds and starts the day off calmly.

I would also suggest that you contact Special Assistance. They were really helpful with our daughter, seating her in the front row of the cabin so she didn't have to deal with all the people on the plane. We fly Premium Economy so we can board early and we're in a smaller cabin which really helps, but if you can't do that, then contacting special assistance can help you secure seats that will work for your daughter.

 

[maznorm]

Thanks for the great advice. I was thinking that twilight check in would, like you said, familiarise her with the airport. We flew to Europe with Thomson and had seats at the front. Special assistance had been inform so that was probably why. It definitely helped her although take off was difficult for her. She has better language understanding now so I might be able to explain it to her a little or show her pictures. Thank you again for the advice. Any more you can share would be greatly appreciated, particularly with regards to ASD children. She has been before but it has been difficult and any advice is helpful.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

You can only use the V Room if you have booked with Virgin Holidays!
We used it last year and were very impressed, its spacious, they have great food and drink selections,stuff to keep the children occupied and it never gets crowded,and you will get a call when the gate opens

 

[marcgiu]

My DS is 5 and has ASD - We found the twighlight check in great. We only live 40mins from Gatwick so driving down there the night before really helps avoid crowds.

 

[MrRomance]

Thanks for the great advice. I was thinking that twilight check in would, like you said, familiarise her with the airport. We flew to Europe with Thomson and had seats at the front. Special assistance had been inform so that was probably why. It definitely helped her although take off was difficult for her. She has better language understanding now so I might be able to explain it to her a little or show her pictures. Thank you again for the advice. Any more you can share would be greatly appreciated, particularly with regards to ASD children. She has been before but it has been difficult and any advice is helpful.

Generally, we just try to prepare our daughter ahead of time as much as we can. We went in Feb last year and it was a good quiet time to go (baring the President's Day weekend chaos!).

My top tips would be make use of You Tube! Our daughter has flown a lot and we've got the flight side of things down to a fine art now, but we tend to watch you tube videos with her of the rides, the parades, the park walkthroughs etc. Then we talk to her about it all and let her decide what she thinks will be good to do and what might be a little worrying etc. It helps her to understand what to expect and also let her feel that she has some control over things. If something worries her, we talk about it and talk about what is worrying and worst case scenario we agree that we won't do it.

Each child with ASD is very different but the one thing they all share is the need to systemize and make sense of things. For our daughter, we try to understand the way she is thinking or systemizing and find a way to reduce her anxiety. She does really well and last time we were there in August last year, she really had a good grasp of things and was keen to do almost everything.

Another good tip is to do some sort of activity with park maps. You can print them off from the website and play games with them. Our daughter even writes a diary of things she wants to do and things she is worried about. No one knows your child like you do and if you're armed with the information of things she is uncomfortable or stressed about, you can usually find fun ways to keep anxiety down.

Most importantly, don't worry!

 

[maznorm]

Thanks for such great advice.

She has flown numerous times before. She seems to have real issues with take off. Landing however, doesn't phase her one bit!!

She's only 5 d although her language has improved a lot since last time, she still doesn't understand a lot.

YouTube is a great idea though. I will give it a try. She loves youtube.

 

[MrRomance]

Thanks for such great advice.

She has flown numerous times before. She seems to have real issues with take off. Landing however, doesn't phase her one bit!!

She's only 5 d although her language has improved a lot since last time, she still doesn't understand a lot.

YouTube is a great idea though. I will give it a try. She loves youtube.

Your DD is younger than ours, but we find that the videos hold her attention better. There are tons of them on there, the walkthrough ones are really good because it walks them right through the park. When our daughter was little we did a craft activity with her with the maps. We'd get a big piece of card and have her cut out all the things she wanted to see and do and stick them on the card with glitter and all that stuff. Then we'd keep talking about the things she'd picked out and watched videos about it so the names and places stuck in her mind. It's amazing how much they retain even when they're really young and then they associate those things with excitement not anxiety. Best wishes to you.

 

[Shazzie B]

Some fantastic advise already; but similar to advise from PP above, does your DD use a 'planner' at school to help her make sense of what will happen next during the day/establish a routine, if so she could use a modified version for your holiday too, I'm sure it will help.

Is it the noise of take-off that bothers her - or the 'angle' if you know what I mean - as you've said with improved language skills she'll be able to let you know so you know how to reassure her - I empathise with her I hate take-offs too - more comfortable with landings

I'm sure you'll have a great holiday

 

[cmbpanda]

My DS has aspergers and he and I have just persuaded DH to let us book an airport hotel the night before even though we only live 40 min drive from the airport. It works much better for us. There isn't so much rushing about and we get more sleep. My DS will worry that the cab isn't going to turn up in the morning or that there will be major traffic jams etc, so it just gives us more flexibility. We also love twilight check in. I am just trying to find out if the BA flight from Gatwick will let us check bags the night before.