Never traveled with a 2 year old

[Ava's Mommy]

We will be flying to wdw this october. What type of seat should i get my daughter for the flight. I got really good airfair,so she does have a seat. I just don't know what type of extra protection she will need while flying.

 

[Yensid_MD]

We always have brought the regular car seat right from the car.

Good Luck!

 

[Ava's Mommy]

I don't want to take her big one....

 

[antree]

My son was 2 when he first flew and he just sat in the seat and he was fine, my niece is 1 yrs old and sat in the seat fine. If you bring a carseat it was be approved, so double check.

 

[brandylouwho]

First time we flew with DD she had just turned 2. We took a sit n stroll (car seat, becomes a stroller). It was nice to not have a car seat & a stroller to lug around, but DH got stuck with the job of folding up the wheels and carrying it onto the plane (with sleeping child IN it), he didn't appreciate that. And the thing was like $220. He doesn't want to use it when we go to Disney this summer, so I may just sell it. I liked it because we went to Jamaica and I felt much better with her being in a car seat on our crazy taxi rides.

This time we are going without a car seat. I just hope she stays seated, the car seat with the shoulder straps really keeps her from wiggling out...a plain old lap belt can't do that.

Our daughter did fine on the "big" plane, only one truly bad moment, when we had to turn off Finding Nemo (we took a portable dvd player) in order to land...she cried for the 20 minutes or so it took us to finally land. (In constrast, she screamed her head off on the little Cessna flight from MoBay to Negril).

Take plenty of snacks and a few things to keep your child busy (a magna doodle, a portable dvd player, a color book, even stickers (to stick on seats and pull off and stick on again) entertain kids for a long time.

 

[o2bacelt]

We always bring our car seat with us, it gives our daughter a familiar place to sit and I feel better with her in it, we also rent a car at the other end so it's worth it for us to bring the seat with us so we don't have to rent one. Just remember the seat has to be FAA approved.

We brought our VideoNow Jr. with us on the plane, some snacks, books and coloring stuff. We only have a slightly less than two hour flight so it wasn't so bad.

I will say we did upgrade to business class on our way home and it was worth every penny.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[all4fun]

I don't want to take her big one....

The FAA recommends children under 40lbs use a car seat on the plane.

What kind of seat do you currently use?

If it's a Britax you could buy a Gogo Kidz Kart

If it's another type of seat you can get it through the airport using a Wheelie car seat bag or Traveling Toddler or Pac Back.

I have also just bungied the car seat back to back with our stroller which worked great. You can also buy a $15 set of luggage wheels to make a "gogo kiz kart" type of set up for the car seat.

If you just want a lighter seat, tell me your dd's weight and height and I can make some suggestions (I've researched this fairly extensively for my ds if you can't already tell!)

hth!

Cheryl
ds-4/03

 

[imp&pixie]

When we travelled with DS when he was younger we always took his regular car seat with us for the plane - that way we had it for the cars that we were in at our destination (always visiting family). This trip we are not bringing a car seat for DD because we plan on only using Disney transportation and they don't allow carseats on their busses. I don't want the hassle of bringing the heavy car seat if we will only use it in the plane. It is not required by law that children have to sit in a car seat in the plane and since your child is 2 and able to sit unassisted I think it is fine not to have a car seat in the plane. If you are renting a car on the other end then bring the seat because you will need it for the car and the child is certainly more secure and comfortable on the plane in their familiar seat.

 

[DADof2Princesses40]

From the posts so far, its 50/50 as to use or not use a car seat.
I think you need to use the extra factors to decide...
1. renting a car? (as someone has already said)
2. already bogged down with too many other things.
3. how figity is your child (mine won't sit still for 10 seconds )
They'll probably want out half the time.
And I'm sure there are others.

We have flown about 5 times with our 2 kids (each 2 at one time or another), and we never used car seats except the one time we were renting a car, and needed it.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[o2bacelt]

Cheryl, thanks for the link to the GoGo Kids, we've got a marathon and that certainly beats trying to wear the thing as a back pack through the airport! We're going to have to invest in one of those.

 

[stacylm]

We traveled to Disney in 2004 when DD was 2 1/2. We used her big car seat for the flight down. The flight attendent told us before take off the flight would be turbulant. So, we thought great thing we brought her car seat for safety. Well about an hour into our 2 hour trip she threw up. Down in the car seat. And OMG trying to clean her up and the seat was almost more than I could take . DH and I felt so bad on the bus to the hotel . We made the whole thing reek. Our first hour or two at the hotel was scrubbing down the seat to get the smell out. We checked the seat in on the way home. And had DD sit on a trash bag and towel on the way home. She did great not being in the car seat. And it was great not having to lug another thing with us. We are going April 2007 with DD5 and DD2 and the car seats will be staying in the car

 

[cruiserkaren]

You're definitely going to get both sides on this. We took it when she flew at 13 months and it was a rough trip. She wanted out and it is a Britax so it's huge. Trying to manuever around that thing in an airline seat was awful. So when we flew again just shy of her 2nd bday we opted not to take it. We were going to be using WDW transportation and not have a car. She sat in the seat. She had a bit of room to move around and could lay over on me.

I made sure to have a Pooh backpack filled with goodies and things she enjoys. Oh and suckers.....you can never have too many suckers!

Best of luck deciding and have a great trip.