How do you get the balloons home?

[BellsFam]

If you are flying and you buy one of those HUGE balloons how do you get them home? Do you deflate before hand or carry them?

I know this is dumb but it's going to come up because DD LOVES balloons!!!

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Deflate it before you pass thru security. You will notice some security stations have a ballon collection. We gave ours away to a security guy on our last trip.

 

[juliebug1997]

I love balloons too and I usually find a small child to give it to when we are checking out.

 

[minnie mum]

Op, I hope you meant that you are driving, not flying. You weren't thinking they would allow an inflated Mickey balloon in the aircraft, did you?

 

[luvmy2babies]

I never thought of buying one when we flew. I always tell my daughter. "No because it won't deflate before we have to leave." I couldn't believe it when I saw one of the Anna and Elsa balloons float into our plane today. They put it in the overheard bin.

I'm not saying it is allowed or anything. I'm just saying someone did bring one on the plane we flew home on today.

 

[lmbcdb]

We always play "balloon fairy" - DD6 knows when we buy it that we will be giving it away on our last day. She loves picking out another child to give it to. We always ask the parents first, though.

 

[kastoney]

We have a tradition of buying a ballon on the first day and then on the last day releasing to back to the magic kingdom so other kids can enjoy it. It was born out of necessity knowing we couldn't take a balloon home, but has become a cute tradition that my daughter cherishes.

 

[CalSea12]

I would think you could deflate the balloon, then fold it up and put it in your luggage. Then when you get home you could pin it up on your kiddos wall.

 

[Bluegrrl]

My brother also plays "balloon fairy" - when he and his wife took their goddaughter down to disney last year, they gave away their balloons to other kids. (asking parental permission, of course).

Whatever you decide to do with your balloon, please dispose of it responsibly. Don't release it into the air or anything because that balloon might get caught in some animal's mouth, choke an animal and/or just become trash. Deflate it and bring it home as a memento or put it into a garbage.

 

[Mom2OakandEm]

We too have played "Balloon Fairy", on our last day my girls get to pick the child they would like to share their balloon with. The smile my kiddos get is as sweet as the one they return. They love "sharing the magic" as they too have had other guest share the magic with them. One day on the bus my oldest daughter had quite a lengthy talk with a lady about pins as we were about to get off the bus the lady handed her one of her pins. My daughter was over the moon.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Op, I hope you meant that you are driving, not flying. You weren't thinking they would allow an inflated Mickey balloon in the aircraft, did you?

Southwest actually did allow DD's mickey balloon on the plane. Now, before I say more, we honestly just hadn't thought about it before we got there. If we had, we would have given it away in the park or deflated it. No one said anything as we went through security either, or again we would have done something with it then.

We didn't really think about it til we were boarding and were like, crap, what do we do with it now?

anyway...SW did let us board with it. No one, passenger or SW employee, actually said anything about it to us. We had bought DD her own seat so she could rear face on the plane (she was 15 months old and still under height and under 20 lbs at the time, so not allowed to FF). We ended up putting the balloon in the space under her car seat, where people's feet usually go when you're sitting FF. The car seat kept it in place, and I guess it had deflated enough that the pressure change didn't effect it. DH and I were the other 2 people in the row with her, so it wasn't affecting anyone else.

To be clear - I'm not suggesting this as something that should be intentionally tried...as I said, had we stopped and thought about it, we would have done it differently, it just didn't cross our mind til we were on the plane. We've never gotten those balloons before, so we didn't think about it. It worked out, but I definitely wouldn't make a habit of it.

 

[BellsFam]

Op, I hope you meant that you are driving, not flying. You weren't thinking they would allow an inflated Mickey balloon in the aircraft, did you?

Nope sorry we are flying...and others have brought them on the plane with us...so I didn't know if there was some special "Mickey" allowance on the airplane

We're opt to bring it home,(over balloon-fairying it) and pin it to the wall, etc., but if deflating it didn't "have" to happen, I didn't realize that bringing it onboard would be a problem, because others have, and DD is a kid that would say "if that kid didn't have to deflate why did I?... but I'd rather deflate before we head to the airport than have security tell me otherwise!

 

[mom2rtk]

I love balloons too and I usually find a small child to give it to when we are checking out.

This is what we do. Honestly, it's the best part of the entire Mickey balloon experience.

 

[Happyjen27]

We deflated it with a straw, put it in luggage. Brought it home and had it inflated at the party store, but the Helium they use in Disney must be of a higher purity, because even fully inflated the balloon did not fly as high as it did in Disney. We had the Tinkerbell Nylar balloon with the light inside, and I think the light apparatus was too heavy for the cut rate Helium used at the party store.

 

[nene0182]

On our way home in NOV, we flew SW and they let someone on the plane with an inflated balloon. Shortly after take off, it popped and startled everyone

 

[Wendybird55]

I would buy the balloon on first day of trip so your child can enjoy it the entire trip. And then at the end deflate it and bring it home as momento.

If you're careful in how you deflate it, you may be able to re-inflate it when you get home. But I think most children realize that balloons can't last forever.

But I do agree with PP as to not just release it into the air as it can do harm to wildlife.

 

[GillianP1301]

We deflate them and pack them and then re-inflate them when we get home and they kick around until they are shrivelled up and then they finally, mercifully, find the garbage can.

 

[TJA]

The one time we bought them, we deflated them before flying home. However, when we got on our plane, we were shocked to see families with balloons fully inflated! We saw 2 families put them in the carry-on stowing section (on top of luggage) and we saw another family put it under the seat in front of them and tie it so it didn't get away. I'm not sure what the actual rule is -- must be they are allowed on planes(?).....

 

[Dan Murphy]

We have passed them on to other kids when leaving. They enjoy them.

 

[Iowajes]

We have a tradition of buying a ballon on the first day and then on the last day releasing to back to the magic kingdom so other kids can enjoy it.

What do you meant by releasing? Please tell me you aren't letting it float away? That's so bad for the wildlife...

Rather, play balloon fairy and hand it off to another kid, or tie it to a park bench (where I'm sure a CM will end up disposing of it- but maybe it will make someone smile first.)

Hopefully letting it go isn't what you meant by releasing. (Florida actually has a law against that.)