flying with toddler for first time

mum_of_one!

Morning all!!!
Firstly, thank you! what a great thread, I've found some really useful tips on here!

My situation is a little different & I'm not looking forward to the journey!

I'm taking my little one to the nice side of Ibiza in 3 weeks (it's just the 2 of us travelling).
She'l be 3 years old by then.....problem is she has Cerebral Palsy so is not sitting, standing, walking etc. To be fair to her, she is a good little girl, but like most 'toddlers' she does have her moments!!
By law she has to have her own seat. I'm sure with some pillows wedged either side of her she'll be fine!!

I'm just after some more of your wisdom really!!
I've noted comments about:
No sweets before flying!
Portable DVD player!
Crayons etc

Any other suggestions will be very gratefully received!

Thanks in advance guys!! You're all great!!

Michelden_2

Thanks everyone who replied to all these postings. Two of my children and their partners are travelling to Spain with three littlies between them, 4 years, 16 mths and 4 mths. They need as much advice as possible. I'm no help as I didn't go abroad with them until they were teenagers. I'd also like to thank Easyjet for not charging for travel cots and buggies, it is already quite expensive as it is, although I do wonder how long it will be before there is a charge!


:T :T :T

MarkyMarkD

No airline charges for buggies AFAIK, but travel cots is a good bonus. Does anyone know of other airlines allowing travel cots to go for free?

flutterbybutterfly

Wow - this thread is a godsend! We're going to Florida in a few months with a 2yr old, 11yr old and my parents-in-law (who have never flown before!) so I am anticipating a rather stressful flight!

I haven't flown abroad since having my toddler so this is his first flight (he is v. v. v. excited) and it is nearly 10 years since I have flown wih a toddler as my older son is nearly 12. I have forgotten what happenswith buggies etc... Do they take your buggy at check-in or as you board the plane? We are flying with Virgin so I am guessing we won't have to pay any extra to take the buggy.

Has anyone heardy of their Infant-care seats and do they know what they are. I read on their website mention of them being available to under 36 month olds but don't know what they are!

I should ring Virgin I know, but have had some very strange and unhelpful conversations with their call centre so far so would like to avoid if possible!!!

Heva2015

You can have your buggy checked at the gate with virgin.

samcantcope

We have a portable dvd player, I only though you could play it in the car, what a great idea.

libbydoll

I found re-usable stickers a great game for on the plane...you know the kind that stick to glass and peel off again. Stick your wee one in at the window and let them have fun sticking and peeling..
My one year old chucked up all over the (empty) seat next to us, and they had to completley remove the seat down to the metal, which was actually quite interesting to see! Her sisters who were three and four thought it was really funny..but the smell...and we were only half and hour in the air!! But it was worth it. We first took our girls abroad when the oldest was two, wee sister one and I was five months pregnant with number three. Fab holiday, we didn't want to come home.

tenuissent

I have just flown to Germany and back (Air Berlin) with my daughter, and although her two babies were peaceful and sleepy (3 months and 22 months) we had some very stressful times.

At Stansted and Paderborn we were able to wheel the double buggy up to the plane then carry the babies on board; but on arrival both airports absolutely refused to return the buggy to us so that we could take the babies from the plane to passport control and luggage collection. This was all right at Paderborn, a small airport where we did not have to carry them far, but impossible at Stansted, where we knew that on arrival we would not only have to carry them a long way, but also take the shuttle train.

Returning to Stansted, we told the crew that we could not leave the plane until we had a buggy to carry the babies in - eventually they managed to get the buggy to us, if only to get us off the plane - but they had broken the buggy, which had a wheel hanging off it from a snapped axle.

Then we found that only a few yards into the building, we were faced by a steep, narrow, long escalator down to passport control. We didn't feel physically able to carry two heavy babies, hand luggage and a broken double buggy down it (there was no upward escalator, so we could not do this in relays). There were two lifts, but they were locked.

There was a help point (help point 11, if anyone knows it) so we phoned for assistance.

We phoned 6 times, and each time were assured that someone was on the way with a card to unlock the lift. We waited for almost one and a half hours for this assistance. All this time we were in a narrow, hot corridor down which large groups of passengers regularly marched; daughter breast fed the baby and had a drink for the toddler and some books, but there were no drinks available for us and we dared not use the lavatories in case the assistant arrived and we missed him.

Has anyone else travelled via Stansted and had a better experience? Has anyone else found it impossible to have their buggy unpacked and brought to them so that they could leave the plane and wheel their child/children through all the formalities? My daughter often travels with her husband and the babies and has never had this problem before.

There was a comic incident boarding at Stansted when we had to climb a steep flight of steps into the aircraft. My daughter asked the nearest person to hold her baby while she folded the buggy (I was already carrying the sleeping 22 month boy and all the hand luggage) and he backed away in horror, raising his hands in the air and absolutely refusing to have anything to do with us.

The stewardesses at the top of the steps shook their heads when we appealed to them for help. You can't really put a 3 month baby down on the tarmac while you struggle with a double buggy.