travelling with an almost 2 year old

[blabbert]

Hi
I have taken my son to Florida when he was 20 months. Booked with BA and got the bulkhead seats but he was way too big for the bassinet thing but the extra bit of leg room was helpful.
We had no problems at all. He didn't sleep much (but he didn't anyway) we had stuff to keep him entertained from home along with lots of snacks. Can never have too many snacks. We didn't walk him down plane much either for fear of him annoying everyone else. Overall it was fine in fact the worst bit of the journey was clearing immigration as massive queue. Go before and enjoy the fact they are slightly more content to go in buggy when tired so allowing everyone else to go on rides and don't forget to make use of the parent swop options. I loved our visit when he was little as he loved meeting all the characters and giving them cuddles.

[jemima2]

Originally Posted by Potterfan5686

thanks guys, we wont be doing Disney probably but if we do it will only be a day at AK.
i would also ike to hear how you get on with travelling etc.. I'm a sucker for travel sickness but hoping having a little en with me to keep my mind busy will help also.
food and snacks should keep him occupied for a while as he is a big foodie like his mum and dad, he loves to wtch cartoons already so hoping that will help a little too.

a lot of hopes and wishes going on here. good luck everyone

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Hi i get travel sick aswell 😐 i take stugeron and give my older boy it also. Mints help a lot and keeping us all cool. I am worried re having the wee one though as i find if i sit still it helps! No chance of that tho 😀

[jemima2]

Originally Posted by Milpston

We've gone for two pairs at the back too and are mainly planning on buffets and family style dining. Can you do a trip report please so I can get tips

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Ha ...we have a couple of actual table service meals planned for us all not sure how they gonna go tho! We love raglan road and also homecomin ...😐 play it by ear !

[Potterfan5686]

Originally Posted by jemima2

Hi i get travel sick aswell 😐 i take stugeron and give my older boy it also. Mints help a lot and keeping us all cool. I am worried re having the wee one though as i find if i sit still it helps! No chance of that tho 😀

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me too, i started to take Dramamine they really help but do make me incredibly sleepy. i usually sit still and silent with air con blasting my face. hoping that this is a case of mind over matter, actually preying rather than hoping lol

[RickT]

Went 2014 .. Daughter was 23 months old. Flying with Thomson on the dreamliner.

As been from yorkshire didn't pay for a seat.

It was horrific outbound.

Daughter was good as gold for a 2 year old, but due to the lack of space and not been able to keep her still for 9 hours... it wad hard to even have drink.. Eat our meal.. Kicking off as other parents allowed their kids to walk freely about.. It was a stressful experiance.

Fortunately there were a lot of other kids on the flight making a racket so that helped..

Daughter had loads, coloring, toys, etc.. Just not intrested in playing that day !

Return flight.. She slept the full way..

My advice .. None.. Its your call...

[Tco200]

Originally Posted by RickT

Went 2014 .. Daughter was 23 months old. Flying with Thomson on the dreamliner.

As been from yorkshire didn't pay for a seat.

It was horrific outbound.

Daughter was good as gold for a 2 year old, but due to the lack of space and not been able to keep her still for 9 hours... it wad hard to even have drink.. Eat our meal.. Kicking off as other parents allowed their kids to walk freely about.. It was a stressful experiance.

Fortunately there were a lot of other kids on the flight making a racket so that helped..

Daughter had loads, coloring, toys, etc.. Just not intrested in playing that day !

Return flight.. She slept the full way..

My advice .. None.. Its your call...

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Sounds like our experience, I had initially booked bubble seats but moved them as I thought it may be noisier downstairs so less disruption caused by our noisy little one!

[piglet100]

Good to see so many traveling with little ones. We are due to go when DS will be 21 mths (I keep counting my months wrong on each thread!) Anyway, just under 2.

For various reasons we haven't booked flights yet. I enquired about adding them with Disney but they said to get him a seat we'd have to upgrade him to a child for dining, tickets, etc which would be £££.

Still undecided about whether to pay for a seat (DH preference) or just cope with him climbing on us!

[Potterfan5686]

i wont be booking him a seat after reading these comments its just not worth the money. i don't eat on flights or drink anything other than water so that wouldn't be a problem for me as like i said previously I'm very sick on flights.

hope you all have a fab holiday

[adambaz]

We've just got back from a 14 night holiday @ WDW, travelling with our 7 year old son (was 7 the day we flew), 5 year old son (was 5 three weeks before we flew), and 23 and three quarter month old daughter (she's 2 this weekend), so feel we're in a pretty good position to give our view.

We didn't buy an extra seat on the plane for our daughter, but we did originally request a skycot. As it transpired, she was too big for it (72cm height limit), but we were seated in one of the bulkhead seats for both outbound and return (Row 30D,E,F,G) for no additional cost.
Seating plan here to see where we were.

Outbound (11:20am flight), she was fine, had a wonder around the plane with her a few times, an amazon fire loaded with 8 hours of Peppa Pig helped too - though note that unless you have powered or noise cancelling headphones, the volume can be drowned out by the engine noise.

On the return flight (8:20pm), she fell asleep during take off, and didn't wake up until we got off - It would have been nice to have been able to put her onto a seat asleep, but in reality, she wouldn't have been able to properly lay out, so would have been more comfortable sleeping on my wife's lap anyway.

Meal wise, you can request a childs meal for your 23 month old on Virgin with no additional cost, and you'll still get a meal too - just go on their Chat, or give them a call to do this.

They will bring the main meal for both of you without asking, but when they bring the 2nd meal of the flight, afternoon tea/breakfast (depending on when your flight is), ensure you make them aware that you booked a meal, as they won't give you one by default unless specifically booked.

Time wise, all the kids adjusted *pretty* well to the time difference, waking up at 2:30am the first morning, 4am the 2nd morning, and 6am the 3rd morning, before reverting to their normal 6:30>7am wake up time for the rest of the trip.

We took a buggy free of charge on the plane, which we could keep right up to the gate, before it was loaded into the hold.

Disney don't class under 3's as eating guests in the Table Service restaurants, so as we were on the Disney Dining Plan (we were in Animal Kingdom Lodge, so 1xQS, 1xTS, 2xSnack per day), we made full use of the fact that QS are not predetermined as Adult/Child like the Table Service credits are, so we often bought 4 adults meals for lunch, and shared them between 2 adults, 3 kids.

We used our Table Service credits on an evening, we found that there was enough food to share around, and our daughter was offered any drink the boys could have (apple juice etc etc), and we were never charged extra for it. At Buffet meals, she was able to have whatever she wanted, again with no charge.

We did have some fun going through customs with SMA 1-3 formula (you have to declare dairy products when going through passport control/customs), so had to wait around for a while until they decided to let us through with it, but they collected our luggage from the carousel, and brought it over to the customs desk for it to be re-xray'd, so that was a bonus I suppose.

Temp was 85-86 every day we were there, and the kids were fine, just kept them suncream'd up, and hydrated.

Use the rider switch service - it worked really well for us, as I would ride with the boys, get a rider switch fastpass, then the boys could ride again with my wife (the rider switch tickets are valid for up to 3 people), so the boys got to have twice the fun. The tickets are usually valid for a couple of weeks too, so you can save them for another day if you don't want to ride the same one straight away (though the tickets Flight of Passage and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train expired the same day they were issued).

The boys have a FitBit style trackers, and they clocked up over 330,000 steps each over the holiday, so be prepared for plenty of miles!

Give me a shout if you have any specific quesitons.

[Eccle]

We are here now, my youngest turned 2 today, so was just under when we flew out 10 days ago. I also have a 6 and 9 year old. We flew with BA, he has an infant ticket so didn't cost much (I think about £85), he will have a seat on the return journey because of now being 2, on the outbound we were allocated bulkhead seats, although the stewardesses said he was too big for the toddler seat. Our whole group got free seat booking.

I was expecting him to be terrible on the flight, he is lively and determined! But although hard work it was ok, much better than flying with my middle son at 18 months. It helped we were travelling with friends so he went to them for short periods.

Over here I have found him easier than he is at home. He loves Mickey Mouse so is very excited every time he sees anything with Mickey on!