If you follow my blog, then you know that 3 months ago, we took the leap and traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast with our then 22month old to visit family and spend a few days at DisneyLand. You may also know that I am a member of many mom groups on Facebook. I see people ask all the time about different travel items holding the promise of being “life saving” while traveling with a baby or toddler. I tried a lot of them and I want to share my experience with you.
- Car Seat Luggage Strap- hard pass. While I do think having the car seat on the plane was definitely a plus and would do that again, the luggage strap was an unnecessary frustration. Splurge and get the car seat dolly. I have seen several recommend the Britax Car Seat Travel Cart and it looks like it would have saved a lot of aggravation. The strap was a pain to attach and having to attach/re-attached getting out of the car, going through security, getting on the plane, changing planes, it was just too much. I longlingly glanced at a mother with the cart and wished we had spent the additional $70 to save the frustration. Bonus, once you get where you are going, whether traveling by rental car, relatives vehicle or an Uber, you have your car seat and your child is safe.
- Definitely organize all of your important documents in 1 place. Whether it is a plastic envelope from Office Depot or fancy travel wallet, having everything in one place (plane tickets, ID, birth certificate- never checked fyi, Disney tickets, hotel reservation confirmation, rental car confirmation, etc) in one place was a blessing. At any moment in time if one of us needed to focus on our son, the other could easily step in.
- Take your stroller. Disneyland is beautifully walkable. All of the hotels are walking distance and there is one security checkpoint prior to both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park. You can rent a stroller once there if you prefer OR I discovered there are several companies that will rent all of your baby needs and drop off at the airport or hotel of your choice. We chose to buy one of the gate check bags and check our stroller at the ticket desk to our destination. It did not get damaged (but be aware that could happen). I have a City MiniGT and my child hates strollers, so having his own was awesome. And at Disney, they constantly reorganize the strollers, so you must be able to recognize yours. I purchased customized luggage tags from Shutterfly that had our pictures and names with cell phone numbers attached to all of our belongings.
- Sleeping arrangements. We purchased this super awesome bag that fit all of our child’s sleeping essentials. It was an Eddie Bauer XL rolling duffel bag. It fit our pack n play, folding pack n play travel mattress, mattress cover and sheet, toddler pillow, sleep sack, pajamas, diaper booster pads, white noise machine and our SlumberPod. We chose to invest in these items rather than renting a crib from one of those travel companies. I LOVE my SlumberPod and would do that again in a heartbeat. It allows you to be “seperate,” while in the same room. If we were staying in one location for our trip, I might have decided to just get a pack n play from the hotel or renting a crib. Honestly, I don’t know that it would have made a difference, my son ended up sleeping in the bed with us a good portion of the trip and we didn’t get much sleep. It doesn’t matter. Memories can be made no matter how tired you are.
- SlumberPod. This has been an amazing investment. We use it everywhere we go with our son and cannot wait to use it with baby2. The only thing I wish I’d done differently was discover it when my son was younger so he could get used to the total blackout it provides.
- Toys/snacks for the plane. Take things that can easily be done sitting and that your child hasn’t seen before. I bought so much random stuff and a Trunki to put it in. We had sticker books, interactive books, and all of his favorite nighttime books. Unique snacks were a lifesaver. Honestly, I don’t even know that it is worth bringing anything from home- my child refused to eat most of that. He wanted the airport snacks and we picked up things as we went. We discovered he loved Starburst on the flight home and it was a lifesaver. The car seat allowed us to restrain him until he slept on both the way there and the way home. My child fights sleep like it might kill him to miss a moment of the action. Having the car seat was a must. We also had his favorite blanket.
- Trunki. This is a child’s rolling travel bag that can be ridden on. Honestly, it was a pain to use as it didn’t fit nicely anywhere and was hard to get things in and out of on the plane. My son did not ride on it, so it didn’t even provide a diversion while we were changing flights. This was a disappointment, but our son does like it.
- Consider the time change. We were lucky enough to travel during the middle of the day so that we did not interfere too much with bed time, etc. But we did not get our son to bed until 7pm the first night (10pm our time and 2 hours past his regular bedtime). He was overtired for a significant portion of the trip and just didn’t sleep well. It is what it is. You can’t control your childs’ sleep. He slept amazing when we got home and we all recovered.
- Pick your hotel wisely and plan for “rest days.” The biggest mistake we saw people with toddlers make was trying to squeeze too much in in one day. I wish we had been at our hotel for 10 days and done 5 days at Disney. As you quickly realize, Disney tickets get exponentially cheaper as you add days. The hotels often have things like waterparks. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Anaheim which did have a waterpark and it was awesome. Our first day at Disney was also the day after we arrived in Anaheim and it was our worst day. We took a rest day to spend at the hotel waterpark with family before our last day and those were the very best days. We were stress free, better napped/rested and could relax and enjoy more.
- Tips to Disney. I’ll spare you what we did, because we probably didn’t do as good as we could have and there are lots of blogs on this. My only advice is get there when they open and if you can do “magic mornings,” make the most of those. They get pretty busy around lunch time and we would leave and take long midday breaks. We went the week school started in Anaheim and it was really slow, so consider those schedules in planning when you want to go. Don’t set expectations too high. You won’t get to see the whole park, even by day 3. Think positively- there will be more to discover on your next trip!
- Take extra days off of work. We traveled from friday-friday. My son’s school didn’t start back until the following wednesday. I could have worked monday and tuesday, but decided to recover and spend those days with him. They were a couple of the best days of our lives. Well worth the recovery. We all know the struggle to save PTO as working moms. But it exists so that we can enjoy our lives. We work to live not the other way around. I am in a perpetual state of negative PTO. If it comes down to it, I can always take leave without pay, but I cannot go back and create memories with my toddler. The days are long but the weeks, months and years are so painfully short. ENJOY TODAY. Tomorrow is not a guarantee and we do not know what it holds. Kiss your baby, kiss your husband and make the time to make memories.
- But baby won’t remember the trip! This is what the haters will say. Of course not. I never in a million years thought our trip to Disney was for our son. It was for me. I wanted those memories. I wanted to see my childs’ face light up when he was young enough to share his joy with me. I LIVED through my childs’ eyes those days. But it did benefit him too. It improved our family bond. My child has become more “awake” and “aware” and confident in himself. Even his teacher commented how different he was after that trip. He takes more risks, he leaves the teacher’s side to adventure on his own. That trip is part of who he is now. Our house is covered in Mickey and Minnie and we all love it.
MumGene 