Florida - flight with a toddler?

frasersmum123

I am thinking of taking the children to Florida in August 2010, My children will be 9, 3 and 20 months.

Its the two younger children im worried about entertaining. We would be flying with Virgin, so there is some inflight entertainment, but still! DD would need to sit on the lap of me or my husband.

Has anyone else braved such a trip? How did it turn out, and are there any secrets?

Many Thanks in advance

Incapuppy

Some useful info here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=378059&highlight=flying+with+a+toddler

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=417540&highlight=flying+with+a+toddler

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=377095&highlight=flying+with+a+toddler

Pooky23

I've never flown that far with children quite so young, but plenty have. We took ours (then aged 8 and 6) in April. The in-flight entertainment is good but can be prone to breaking down so don't rely on that soley. Take sticker books, travel games, colouring books, their favourite toy or comforter, healthy snacks & drinks. For your eldest, a nintendo or psp. Book the a row in the central part of the cabin. You'll then get a row of 4 together. Also order child meals as they will provide a meal with kiddie favourites (not guaranteed - we didn't get the ones we ordered). Virgin provide a kid backpack but there isn't much in it. Above all, be prepared to be entertaining your kids and not being able to relax!!

sturll

I have and here is what we did.

Your flight will likely be mid morning. Say 10 am. The night previous keep your youngest up as late as you possibly can. Then wake them as early as possible in the morning and keep them awake.

Make sure you are the last on the plane. When you get on the flight ask the stewardess for some hot water as soon as you board saying that you want to give your child a hot drink. Give him/her hot blackcurrent (dilute with the water) wrap the blanket round your child and sit back and relax whilst hopefully they fall asleep for at least a good few hours.

When they wake you'll no doubt be just touching NE Canada then put a kids film on and smile

sturll

Just to add, maybe you could try getting the child a medicine that causes sleepiness such as many of the cough syrups on the market. Or even Calpol.

I know people may not agree with essentially inducing your child into sleep, but would they rather have the child sat screaming or restless for 9 hours.

cazziebo

I have done transatlantic with my two from when they were 3 and 8 months. Never been a problem. I would take some cheap toys in a bag and only take out one every hour - so things like sticker books, finger puppets, dressing dolls. They particularly liked that game in a travel version where you have a board of faces and you have to describe the face - is it called Guess who? ?Don't know why, but the little one thought it was very funny to watch me and her sister play it. Together with the inflight stuff and the diversions of what's going on it should be fine.

My younger one was a HUGE baby so before she had a seat we would put the middle arm rest up and she could sit between us (single parent so just the three of us)

I wouldn't worry about the flight so much as worry about going in August :eek: It will be terribly hot with very long queues. I've been in April/May and it was very hot then. Was there on New Year's day one time and it was 80 degrees...

urbancookie1

sturll wrote: »

Just to add, maybe you could try getting the child a medicine that causes sleepiness such as many of the cough syrups on the market. Or even Calpol.

I could really do with something like calpol to send me off to sleep on a long haul flight, any ideas

sturll

urbancookie1 wrote: »

sturll wrote: »

Just to add, maybe you could try getting the child a medicine that causes sleepiness such as many of the cough syrups on the market. Or even Calpol.

I could really do with something like calpol to send me off to sleep on a long haul flight, any ideas

Night nurse - Knocks me out every time. (or go see the doc for some temazepam etc)

Or my friends daughter, she would bore an insomniac to sleep.

lynn44

My son now aged 5 has done florida several times now, And you will be so surprised how good they are on the flight... He slept for 6 hours nearly everytime.. he loves reading the safety card ..... its always the first thing he grabs once seated .....We also take colouring pens,cards, and ear phones he loves the fact he can choose his own channel

balancesummer

We have been on long flight journeys many times since my little boy was a baby and,you will have to take some of their favoiute toys yourself , dont expect that from the flight, you can hire car seats in florida if you hire a car there and a gps is very handy,( i found the car seat are quite dirty) and if you stay there 2 weeks maybe the hire cost of the car seat could buy you a new one and keep it with you,so is the GPS) spare clothes with you in case,and Calpol ect,

rrobbo

We flew to San Francisco from Belfast with a connection in Heathrow last October with an 11 month old. We were lucky in that we booked on-line with United and were able to select seats at the time. We had the bulk-head seats and that made the world of difference as our guy hates sitting down for too long. We're off again next week and did the same thing with booking the bulk-heads. I appreciate that not everyone has the option to do this but it's great if you can. We still decided to go with him on our lap rather than pay for a seat as he's still under two. We had the option to pay for a seat but it was an extra £400 and when we did a previous flight with him in a car seat he wasn't happy and it was harder to comfort him.

For us it works best to take the option to get on the plane first. It gives you chance to make sure that you've got everything close at hand and our guy enjoyed watching everyone getting on the plane. Having a small changing bag that would sit in the seat back with nappy, wipes and cream is usual, as are a couple of bags to keep the inevitable mess under control. Don't forget to dispose of any fruit that you carry for the kids - we had a sniffer dog find a banana that the baby still had in his bag!!

I've heard that Phenergan is a good sedative for older toddlers and is available without prescription but I can't vouch for it myself. From personal experience I'd say that if you're using powdered milk then take enough with you for the journey. Even in big cities we found that it was expensive and sometimes tricky to get hold of what you're used to. We also tended to pack the case with enough nappies for the trip - as you use them you create space for what you buy out there and you're never caught short.