Long and Tedious Tale of Unexpected Grandparenthood

[Bella29]

I would add the baby to your reservation for now but honestly it doesn't sound like she is going to suddenly become responsible enough to deal with all the details that are her responsibility - not the least of which includes getting the baby a passport and getting mentally ill baby daddy out of her life to protect the child. She should be the one worrying about a packnplay and a diaper genie, not you. She should be plenty capable of traveling with a baby (I've done it), not asking her daddy to fly back and forth and cough up $3k for the pleasure. Might be time for some (within reason) tough love here!

ETA, forgive me if I am being overly blunt here, I don't know your dsd at all and perhaps I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions! Best of luck with your new grandbaby and your family vacation.

 

[Meghatron]

The nursery staff and facilities are top notch. Both my kids have been in them and DS will be going back in again in January.

As for diapers, we spent two weeks in a room with a diaper genie holding the dirty diapers and never had a stink problem. I'm not sure how often our host emptied it but his standard timing was quite sufficient.

The baby's PnP does take up floor space, but we just have the host remove the little table. At 5m the baby will still be needing 2-3 naps a day, so taking it up and down will be annoying; I'd make the room to leave it up. Alternately, on such a short cruise, she could use her nursery hours for naptime as they have cribs. We chose dinner and shows for our last cruise but that's because one of us was always ready for a nap at the same time as DS, LOL!

DCL with a baby is SO MUCH easier than the parks with a baby. Don't turn it into only a WDW trip.

Sent from my Tricorder using DISBoards

 

[michellekcm]

(4) It is much cheaper to rent 2 standards than 1 minivan. If you *have* to have a minivan, check on the travel boards for that Travelocity minivan code that's floating around. 5 month olds will need a carrier, so she might look into either renting from the agency or just getting one checked through (it's free to check).

(5) Ask your SD to call her airline and request a bulkhead seat NOT BY A BATHROOM (the light & door slamming noise wakes up the babies) so that she can request a baby cot for the flight over. There are usually only a few seats which are at the bulkhead, but not near the bathroom. On British Airways there's usually only 7 seats that fit this description so she needs to find this seat early.

UK car seats probably won't fit in US cars - each country has different standards. I know Australian car seats don't fit in either, and having hired cars and car seats in both countries, I recall them being different. So don't bring a car seat from the UK, just hire one with the car (about $12 a day, give or take).

Yep - book the bassinet on the plane and baby will probably sleep half the flight. From experience with Qantas, they reserve bassinets for babies under 6 months first, and won't let you book the bassinet for an older child until a few weeks before the flight. So when booking her flight she should request that. Since the baby will be 5 months she should get one, but once they're booked out they're booked out.

She should be able to gate check her stroller, and will be given priority boarding, so the flight should be do-able by herself.

 

[michellekcm]

(4) It is much cheaper to rent 2 standards than 1 minivan. If you *have* to have a minivan, check on the travel boards for that Travelocity minivan code that's floating around. 5 month olds will need a carrier, so she might look into either renting from the agency or just getting one checked through (it's free to check).

(5) Ask your SD to call her airline and request a bulkhead seat NOT BY A BATHROOM (the light & door slamming noise wakes up the babies) so that she can request a baby cot for the flight over. There are usually only a few seats which are at the bulkhead, but not near the bathroom. On British Airways there's usually only 7 seats that fit this description so she needs to find this seat early.

UK car seats probably won't fit in US cars - each country has different standards. I know Australian car seats don't fit in either, and having hired cars and car seats in both countries, I recall them being different. So don't bring a car seat from the UK, just hire one with the car (about $12 a day, give or take).

Yep - book the bassinet on the plane and baby will probably sleep half the flight. From experience with Qantas, they reserve bassinets for babies under 6 months first, and won't let you book the bassinet for an older child until a few weeks before the flight. So when booking her flight she should request that. Since the baby will be 5 months she should get one, but once they're booked out they're booked out.

She should be able to gate check her stroller, and will be given priority boarding, so the flight should be do-able by herself.

 

[lbgraves]

.... I also think it's asking way too much for you to fly her father out as an escort. Um, why doesn't he pay for himself? Or she can pay for her own escort? I don't understand why that burden is on you. Again, I think you are really nice for including your DSD, but that is a request that is really presumptuous. OMG, I could never ask my parents for something like that!....

I think that the DSD's father is the OP's husband? Maybe I misunderstood. That would involve him booking two RT flights to escort her there and back. I agree that it is unnecessary.

 

[cypressmom]

UK car seats probably won't fit in US cars - each country has different standards. I know Australian car seats don't fit in either, and having hired cars and car seats in both countries, I recall them being different. So don't bring a car seat from the UK, just hire one with the car (about $12 a day, give or take).

Yep - book the bassinet on the plane and baby will probably sleep half the flight. From experience with Qantas, they reserve bassinets for babies under 6 months first, and won't let you book the bassinet for an older child until a few weeks before the flight. So when booking her flight she should request that. Since the baby will be 5 months she should get one, but once they're booked out they're booked out.

She should be able to gate check her stroller, and will be given priority boarding, so the flight should be do-able by herself.

It would be cheaper to buy an inexpensive convertible car seat. The Cosco Scenera is $39 and will rear-face until 35 lbs and then forward-face to 40 lbs. I would keep it in the original box to check it and then it will be available when you meet up with your SD. You can fly it back home with you and you will have a seat for their next visit.

 

[rowlands57]

As other folks have said the nursery is great and for a baby that small only short stays are advisable. It surely will be a difference from your original plans, but it should still be great as long as everyone adapts to the new circumstances. Have a great trip and congratulations.

 

[skylynx]

Gosh, thanks so much for all the great advice. I am going to look into getting three staterooms even though that is going to crank up the cost quite a bit again. We were able to get the 10% rebook on board discount for the two staterooms, so the third room will have to be at the going rack rate. Will look in to it, though. That way, if something happens that prevents DSD from traveling from the UK, we just cancel her cabin.

Yes, it's my husband who is being asked by his daughter to fly over to the UK and escort her both ways. And I have to laugh along with one other poster who questioned how useful her own husband would be as a new granddad in a similar situation. I love my DH to death, but I doubt he'd have a clue what to do with the baby other than to hold her while his daughter uses the loo!

My DD21 is a college student and DS18 is in high school, so there's no expectation they would foot their own bill for this trip. DSD works but could not afford a Disney Cruise or a trip to the US on her own, so we wanted to treat the whole family to this vacation. We hadn't budgeted for the extra expense of the baby, but will wrangle through that issue best we can.

I am encouraged by the availability of a diaper genie, and we'll just go ahead and get a US car seat and bring it along so there's no safety issues with the UK one fitting US cars. Thanks, also, for the good advice about requesting a baby bassinet on the plane, and the necessity to put the baby's passport application in motion as soon as she's born. Don't know yet how the baby's father is going to play into this or if he'll give any type of resistance over the baby leaving the country. Wonder if insurance covers THAT! There are so many more pieces to this troubled story I won't attempt to go into here.

It's disturbing how much I've forgotten about what a five month old baby is like, but I do recall from traveling with my own two kids on planes that it was way easier before they got to the climb-around-the-seats stage!

As far as the Small World child care goes, I think the only time we'd attempt to use it would be so we could do the one Palo dinner. I'm sure by the time this trip rolls around, my stepdaughter will need no additional reminders of how many things she is no longer going to be able to do because she's now a parent. If the timing works out, we'd certainly like her to be able to participate in the Palo meal.

I appreciate all your compassion and great suggestions.