Traveling with a 3yr old

[ailie]

Looking for tips traveling with a 3 year old 🤦🏼.

We are flying direct with Virgin in Sept, and staying off site so we will be hiring a car.

Which brings us on to car seats... should we rent one or take one with us?

Does anyone know if I would be able to carry this on with us as well as her buggy?

We plan on doing Disney but are considering MNSSHP as well.
Has anyone done MNSSHP recently is it worth it?

All tips welcome 😍

Thanks

[Shooby doo]

I'd crunch the numbers, certainly seen car sets on the baggage carousel, I probably wouldn't hire from the car company though but it's been so long for us I'm not sure if they have gotten more competitive since the arrival of more competition.
MNSSHP- worth entirely up to you, for those that don't have Disney passes then I'd say Yes but you are looking at approx £100/person, do I think that it is worth it? Probably No but it is a good night-when it's not too busy! There are different degrees of busy but I can say it's not fun on a sell out night. I would also ask myself if a 3y/o will last the full night? You see a lot of "younger" families leaving after the first parade & whilst I do see why & still don't "understand" why you would pay that much for half a party IYKWIM. We will be there again this year but mainly because it's our last night & traditionally we stay in MK to the dying death & this is the only way to do that.
SD

[Guest]

Originally Posted by ailie

Looking for tips traveling with a 3 year old 🤦🏼.

We are flying direct with Virgin in Sept, and staying off site so we will be hiring a car.

Which brings us on to car seats... should we rent one or take one with us?

Does anyone know if I would be able to carry this on with us as well as her buggy?

We plan on doing Disney but are considering MNSSHP as well.
Has anyone done MNSSHP recently is it worth it?

All tips welcome 😍

Thanks

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If you are renting a car you'll need a car seat. I'd never use a car rental company car seat you have no idea what horrors have happened to it in the past.

So I would take my own. You will need to check that your seat conforms to Florida standards though or you are in a world of pain if you get into an accident and the police look at it

(CAR SEATS SOLD IN THE UK/EU ARE NOT ALWAYS LEGAL IN THE USA and vice versa)

You should be able to take a car seat on as hold luggage and for most young kids airlines won't charge for this

[Bolto6]

We went in 2018 with our then 3 year old, albeit flying with TC, we took our own car seat and buggy, just got a couple of cheapish bags off of Amazon to put them in for the flight. Once checked in you have to take them over to oversized baggage (or we did in Manchester,) and then straight through security. You can check the buggy at the gate, but we didn’t bother, our DD had her Trunki and she was happy sitting on that. It was useful at Immigration as you don’t get them back until baggage claim anyway.

[kiwiinabd]

We have always taken car seats with us.

Our car seats were certified for use on the aircraft so for a few years we actually used them on the aircraft ! After that we purchased special bags that could hold them and they went in the hold and were not part of our luggage allowance.

We preferred doing it this way as we knew the car seat and also it was familiar to our kids !

[Toryn]

Following this with interest as I have twin baby grandchildren who we would like to take to Florida .We've been many times and our children were 5 and 6 when they first went .But the twins will be around 3 to 4 when we hope to take them .The car seats are not something we’ve thought of

[Rozie]

We have decided to take our own this year as the car hire wanted $16 dollars a day. Picked up a verified one to use in the states for £32 from Halfords. At least we know this one is new and hasn’t been involved in any accidents etc.

[Eccle]

We have always taken our own car seats too as at least then we know how to fit it and know the history. We bought car seat bags and they go in the hold luggage.

I considered MNSSHP last year when my youngest was 3, we didn’t do it in the end and I think that was the right decision, he did get very tired on the trip and it was difficult enough getting to some of the evening shows, he wouldn’t have lasted late enough to be worth it

[nothingless]

We went with our 2.5 year old last year, and will be going again with our now-3-year-old in 2 weeks!

We don't bring our own car seat - it's very heavy, we have no bag or cover for it, and I don't want to risk it getting damaged by the luggage handlers as it was expensive. We always rent a car seat with the car, did that last year too. We had no problems with it, the seat was clean and absolutely fine!

We are renting a stroller this year as well - same issue as the car seat. It's heavy, we have no proper travel bag for it, and I hated lugging it around the airports last year. Especially now that we are not flying direct this year and need to collect all our luggage in Newark before checking in for Orlando! Our daughter's just as happy sitting on daddy's shoulders or walking, and it means we can rent a light-weight stroller in Florida, making it tons easier on the busses and transportation too.

I've done MNSSHP when it was just me and my husband, and loved it - but I don't think I'd pay to take my 3-year-old to it. She is usually out cold by 8PM, I feel the whole night may be a bit of a waste for her until she's able to stay up later. Plus, we always buy 14 or 21 day tickets, so you're really paying loads extra just for an evening when you already have day passes! If you don't have Disney tickets, then I might consider it, and would show up at the parks at 4PM on the dot, making sure my toddler has had a long nap in the afternoon. But overall, I'd wait till she's a bit older.

Other tips - make a mental note of where the playgrounds are in the parks! In MK, there's a small playground near Splash Mountain, towards the exit, a big one in the Dumbo queue, and the Casey Junior Splash Pad. In Epcot there's one out the back of of the old location for Mousegear, towards Test Track, as well as one in the exit for Mission Space (indoor, so perfect if it starts raining). In Animal Kingdom, there's a big one in Dino Land called the Bone Yard. These were all perfect for us to let her blow off some steam and run around when she got tired of queueing for things or a bit overwhelmed with all the sights and sounds around her.

[Snoobs]

Virgin allow you to put a car seat in the hold as an addition to other baggage and it's free, make sure you package it well so it doesn't get knocked around in the hold. Check your car seat to make sure it meets American safety criteria, it should as European safety regs are harsher than us but you need to check the sticker.
I wouldn't hire from the car seat company's as they usually quite old and you have no idea if they've been in knocks. Also my 2, nearly 3 year old is still rear facing and the car seat company's don't offer extended rear facing seats to rent.

Hope this helps