Ok. I did it I booked the flights to England. 7.5 hours plus in a plane. We are flyng Delta through NY JFK. Any great tips? The websites around talk about more preschool/pre-K activities.
My new mantra: We will never see these people again!!!!!!!!
Good luck! Just kidding. My advice is somewhat limited. We took our oldest son when he was 2 from STL to Raleigh, NC. We had a layover in Atlanta, so it was a long day, but nothing like what you're about to do. Obviously, a portable DVD player is in order, plenty of snacks, picture book, coloring books. I haven't traveled in a while and I know it's hard to take much stuff on-board these days, so one idea might be to make a DVD with family pictures instead of a picture book. Due to limited space, anything you can put on CD/DVD (games, books, pictures, etc) is the way to go. As you said, you'll never see these people again. You're just trying to survive the trip. Hopefully, they'll sleep part of the trip as well.
I've never flown with a child but I would try to arrange it so they are tired when take off is supposed to happen. They shouldn't be too cranky in the airport because of all of the newness of everything. I find the sounds of the airplane very soothing ....though I don't sleep. I would think a child would find those sounds soothing too and might sleep the entire way.
I would talk to the pediatrician about (along with vaccines for traveling) giving the kids something to make them drowsy. Desparate times call for desparate measures!
Never complain about any of the entire trip....not the packing, not the rushing to the airport, not the cost of anything............Talk about how exciting everything is going to be. Let them each pack a small backpack for their things. Small snacks, crayons, coloring books, toys that have plenty of light up stuff but very limited sound (cover the sound area with layers and layers of scotch tape)
Never talk about any part of the trip being scary or the loud sounds......If you can visit someplace near the airport so they can see the airplanes (there USED to be, might still be a small airport museum or flight museum that could be fun so they can see the planes up close) Just talk about how they will have a fun seat and they will get to see the houses and clouds below if they look out the window and they will get to go really fast (push them in a shopping cart kinda fast.....and talk about how it's so fast and so fun...just like an airplane)
Call the airline directly and the airport directly to see if they offer anything (advice at the very least) for children to make them feel more comfortable.
Good Luck!!!
A bad day at the beach, is better than a good day at work.
A bad day at the beach, is better than a good day at work.
