Hyatt Archives - Page 2 of 3

Sep 17 2015

Portland the Third: Travel with Four

As I mentioned in my parking post (thanks for all the feedback calling me crazy after I said so myself, btw!), we were back in Portland, Maine, our favorite local vacation spot, to test out traveling with four. Things were definitely different with a 2.5 year and 2.5 month old, but the trip went well and we’re ready for more. Here are some things I observed about traveling with four.

Packing

All credit goes to my wife for this one. I’m just recently back at work so I literally gave her a pile of my clothes and she did everything else. With two kids, it’s double the diapers (potty training only half complete), wipes, eating stuff, clothes, baby carrier – all the stuff adds up.

Jess, being a miracle worker, ended up getting all of our stuff into two carry on size suitcases (one is like European carry on sized). All of our clothes fit in one, all the child related accessories fit in another. It helps a ton that we don’t really need to bring toys for M – she loves playing with all the junk in hotels (read: ice bucket) so we banked on that and were rewarded.

Including the backpack that was on my back when I took this, this is everything we brought to Portland

On top of the two suitcases, we brought my backpack, Jess’ purse, a plastic bag with our boppy in it, and a diaper bag. Plus two strollers (really need to invest in some sort of sit and stand situation). So, technically, we could have gotten onto an airplane without checking any bags. Hey, you can still kinda travel light with two kids under three!

Getting Around

I know I got a lot of flak for not valeting the car, but I ended up only having to move my car once (for the record, even though it worked out very well doesn’t mean I think I made the right decision, but what’s done is done). The reason for this was because two strollers makes a twenty minute walk a much more cumbersome undertaking than it used to be, especially when you factor in stopping to deal with a fussing infant or stopping because a ridiculous toddler insists on pushing her little brother’s stroller.

So we ended up driving to a lot of the things we had walked to in the past, so I was glad to have my car readily accessible. And even though we were there on the weekend I had no trouble finding parking whenever we got back downtown. The hidden cost of having two strollers is it makes everything feel more cramped when you get inside, nobody has any free hands, etc. – so it was often just easier to drive. It might be easier with a sit and stand but like I said that’s next on the research list.

Eating

I’ll have a more comprehensive look at our various eating and sightseeing activities later, but eating went pretty smoothly. We skipped Fore Street just because I didn’t want to queue and I didn’t have reservations, but we did make it to Eventide Oyster Co. with both kids. Google has a neat popular times graph that we used to determine when we went (330 PM on Friday), although the graph isn’t quantitative and it’s mostly common sense. Still, a nice feature.

Eventide was so empty it would have been fine although my parents met us there (they decided to come to Portland but stay elsewhere) so that further alleviated any pressure we were feeling. The stroller space situation did come into play though.

Having a 2.5 year old and a 2.5 month old in the same restaurant isn’t too bad – one parent eats and feeds M and then we switch. If M gets antsy whoever’s not eating goes for a walk in the end.

Getting to eat oysters was a real victory and made our vacation a success within the first hour

Once again, free hotel breakfast came in very handy. Although we hit our usual Portland breakfast haunts, it was great knowing we could get M food as soon as she was up to avoid hangry-ness. Jess says that might be the number one feature we look for in hotels going forward and I am inclined to lean that way as well.

Sleeping

We stayed once again at the Hyatt Place Old Port. Even though we didn’t get upgraded to a suite this time, the room was plenty big. At night we each slept with a kid in separate beds (rotating as necessary for feedings); we requested a pack and play but didn’t end up using it at night.

M did, however, insist on napping in the pack and play for some reason. I thought it was weird but she went to sleep and we got a good photo op so everybody won. Once again we avoided the tiny pool, but other than that the hotel and staff was awesome. I was at first hesitant to drop the 24K Ultimate Rewards needed for two nights but ultimately decided to just bite the bullet – what am I saving them for, really?

Final Thoughts

Overall, having a second kid on vacation didn’t create as many logistical problems as I had feared. I think when H becomes a toddler things might change, but for now (and for our upcoming trip to Disney in January), I think we’ll be okay. We’ll see what things are like when the kid starts walking though! More on how awesome Portland is (again) in a later post!

Jan 26 2015

Home for the Holidays: Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui Regency Suite Review

Like in Taiwan, I booked a cash and points room at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui and confirmed a suite upgrade using my Diamond suite upgrades. As a Category 4 hotel, this cost 7500 points and $100 per night. Here are my impressions of the hotel.

Lobby and Surrounding Area

The Hyatt Regency TST is very well located in the same building as the K11 mall (where we went to eat a few times.) As Trevor noted in his review, it’s a little weird that you need to take two elevators up to your room but you kind of get used to it. In general the hotel is very centrally located – it’s close to a lot of public transportation options including the MTR and Star Ferry.

The decor wasn’t as impressive as the Grand Hyatt Taipei, but the staff and service was just as attentive. Everyone was always extremely helpful, though it was a little weird that they had staff posted at like every corner of the hotel (I think it’s to prevent the public from trying to access the rooms).

Regency Suite

The Regency suite was definitely smaller than our suite in Taipei. It still was pretty big, with a large bathroom, a decent view, and a nice living room. One weird thing about the room was that it was oval in shape (Hong Kong architecture I guess). I’m honestly not sure if that made the room feel bigger or smaller.

It did give us the chance to run around in circles looking for M. I had some nitpicks with the room – the light switches weren’t intuitive (or intuitively placed), the closet was far away from the bed so slightly inconvenient – little things like that.

It's always nice to have a couch in a separate room — It’s always nice to have a couch in a separate room – especially with a sleeping baby

Still, considering the fact that I am currently sitting in a room in Hong Kong that is less than half the size of the Regency suite, I can’t really complain. The fridge had enough space for M’s milk and we had plenty of space to spread out. All in all I was happy with the room.

The hallway in the suite was a good staging area/stroller storage

Regency Club and Amenities

The club offered a modest breakfast and some snacks and drinks during happy hour. They always had a selection of hot food that you could ask the waiter to bring you, though during happy hour this was usually just something small.

It was nice to have breakfast, and like any of my stays with lounge access, I was always up there getting my caffeine fix after long days.

The hotel has a great amenity: the Handyphone. It’s a smartphone that you can use for the duration of your stay. Although I have international data through T-mobile, it was nice to have a phone that was on a better service carrier. You can log in with all your personal google information and the phone wipes when you are done (you can wipe it yourself too).

Getting a free smartphone loaner is a great amenity

Final Thoughts

I was definitely spoiled by the Grand Hyatt Taipei – although the Hyatt Regency TST was nice I wasn’t especially blown away. The location and smartphone are great and the staff is top notch, other than that the hotel didn’t really stand out to me. Still, I’m not gonna look a suite upgrade gift horse in the mouth – we had a very comfortable and relaxing stay and I was glad we booked it. There are a ton of hotel options in Hong Kong though so it’s definitely worth it to look around.

Cereal at breakfast is never a bad thing

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

United Domestic First and LAX Star Alliance Lounge

EVA Royal Laurel Class Review

Using Public Transportation in Taiwan with a Toddler

Visiting the Taipei Zoo

Eating in Taipei

Grand Hyatt Taipei King Suite Review

A Tough Flight with a Toddler

Public Transportation in Hong Kong with a Toddler

Typical Hong Kong Tourist Activities

Hong Kong Disneyland with a Toddler

Finding Peace and Quiet in Hong Kong

Eating in Hong Kong

Jan 15 2015

Home for the Holidays: A Tough Flight with a Toddler

There are some nice touches in TPE airport

Never take a 23 month year old as a lap infant. That’s what we learned on our flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, quite possibly the worst flight we’ve ever taken with M! In the light of day, it wasn’t that bad but at the time it was a lot of stress.

First, a note. I’ve read on many baby-oriented travel websites some version of the argument: “You should always book your child a seat it’s safer etc. etc. etc.” Now I definitely agree that it is safer and it is always better to have an extra seat for your child.

On the other hand, I am cheap, and I have a lot of…um…frugal friends who never bought a seat for their child until they had to, and all of them said it was fine. So I decided to take it on a case by case basis. I really only ever considered buying M her own seat on economy flights, I figured there was enough room in the longroom premium cabins we fly in (and those flights indeed worked out). I’m not the only one who struggles with shelling out the dough for a lap infant.

It can get pretty tight with a toddler on your lap

Our Previous Decisions about Taking a Lap Infant

Here are the economy flights I had to decide for M in her 2 years as an eligible lap infant.

Roundtrip flight to Washington, D.C., 3 months old: This was an easy decision, all she wanted to do was burrow into us all the time so I saw no need to buy her a seat – this flight was no problem whatsoever.

A lap infant at 3 months is much easier than 23 months, in my opinion!

Roundtrip flight to Charlotte, NC, 9 months old: Again, this decision was fairly easy. She still wasn’t mobile, still wanted to sleep all the time, and was still easily satisfied when drinking milk. Not buying her a seat was an easy decision and again it worked out fine.

Roundtrip flight to Charlotte, NC, 15 months old: Still had no problem taking her on our laps at this age. She actually took her first steps on this trip, but before then she hadn’t walked and was okay hanging out on our laps for hours at a time. She also was still a big fan of milk, so I made the decision to take her as a lap infant. This flight was a little rougher than her previous flights, though still manageable.

Oneway flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, 23 months old: I actually changed the flights I had booked while we were still in Taipei. At this point I had seen how curious and excited M had been on our flights to Taiwan, so I knew what I was in for. I was deciding between spending 4500 Avios (technically 4050) and keeping her on our lap – I chose the latter. MISTAKE. And the subject of the rest of this post.

Oneway flight from Chicago O’Hare to Boston, 23 months old: I bought her a seat since I figured we’d be tired from a long flight from Hong Kong, we’d need the space, and there was zero probability there’d be empty seats on the plane on the Saturday after New Year’s. Good choice.

A Few Quick Thoughts on Taipei Taoyuan Airport

We ended up using the Grand Hyatt transfer to get to the airport. We couldn’t get any relatives to drive us so we couldn’t use our rented car seat and I wasn’t comfortable taking a 45 minute drive on the highway without one. Though it cost twice as much as a taxi (2400 NT or $80), using the transfer service was the safest and most efficient way to get to the airport. The hotel took care of getting a car seat (it was a nice and comfortable one too, Cosco) and the car even had complimentary Wi-Fi.

When we got to TPE, it dawned on me that it is a really nice airport. I mean, the duty free store has a restaurant and a computer with free internet. Lovely. Beyond that, it’s well designed and very aesthetically pleasing. And I didn’t even get to visit the Hello Kitty check in section!

Go to the right for family security (no queue!)

But what really impressed me about the airport was its family friendliness. There is a separate line for families that was completely empty which really made security a lot less stressful. The airport also didn’t feel overcrowded and was very stroller accessible.

Most importantly, they had these super sweet recliners at the gate!

From check in to boarding, I just found TPE to be a very well run airport. Maybe we got lucky, but that was my experience!

Starting the Flight Off Right

So I’ve noticed something ever since we started taking M traveling with us. Even though we are always among the first to board, it feels like time flies before we start pushing back. To be honest, for awhile I thought it was because we were in premium cabins – drinking champagne, playing with in flight entertainment, and testing seat recline controls takes a lot of time!

But I’ve come to realize that it now seems like such a short time from boarding to pushback because we are parents. You have to settle all your bags. You have to pull out all your toys. You have to get all your books ready. You have to disinfect the chair if you are feeling clean. Make a diaper change if you need to. All this while trying to keep a toddler from getting their head bashed in by a roller suitcase lumbering down the aisle.

Things deteriorated pretty quickly on the plane... — Things deteriorated pretty quickly on the plane…

Well, for some reason, on this flight we were even slower getting settled than usual. I was still fumbling in the overhead bin when a nice flight attendant kindly asked me to fasten my seatbelt. I sat down and did so, but M was getting fussy.

“Where are her toys?”

“Oh, they’re in the diaper bag.”

I got up and went back to the overhead bin, and my search started getting more and more frantic as I realized the diaper bag wasn’t there. As my panic was reaching its peak, the flight attendant asked me again, this time more firmly, to take my seat. I took my seat, sweaty and stressed, thinking, “we’re not even pushing back yet!”

Except we were! Honestly I was floored the time had flown by so quickly. I had actually been standing while the plane had started its pushback. Parenthood, I tell you, is like a time machine – you arrive in the future way sooner than expected.

Stickers only go so far (these are awesome though you can restick them multiple times!)

Well, at this point I was in full blown panic, M was on the border of a major meltdown (she hates the lap infant belt), and Jess was like, “You left it in the terminal!? You lost it!??!”

Anyway…a terrible start to the flight. Let’s just say that I ended up finding the diaper bag (I had put it into another overhead bin) – I just didn’t find it until AFTER they had called back to TPE to ask them to look for it. As terms of embarrassment goes, this wasn’t as bad as running across the tarmac, but it was pretty close.

A Crazy Lap Toddler

In my defense, when we booked the flight it wasn’t even 2/3 full. And the flight was on an A340 so there are over 250 economy seats! There were also 8 seats available on miles so I figured the flight was empty. I also had this brilliant idea about seat selection. I picked two seats across the aisle from one another. The seat in the middle section had an empty seat next to it but the two other seats full – I figured nobody would pick that middle seat unless they had to. Which they did, because the plane ended up being full! BACKFIRE.

I chose the circled seats but it didn’t work out as I had hoped

We decided to stay in our seats across the aisle so she could walk back and forth. That ended up being okay, because when M was squirming only one of us would have to deal with her at a time. It honestly was very tough to entertain her – we used stickers, her headphones, books, everything we could think of, but she was just super bored. And it was only a two hour flight!

We did get served a meal which helped to break up the flight. I was pretty impressed, it was just a rice box but a) it was pretty tasty and b) they managed to service the entire flight in such a short period of time. Cathay is a great airline with great service no matter what class you’re flying in.

This lunch was a nice surprise on our flight

Overall, I think the stress of “losing” the diaper bag was the worst aspect of the flight, but I still would probably never take a child over the age of 20 months as a lap child again, at least during peak travel season. The worst part is the fact that the kid is just too big, no matter how hard she tried and we tried it was impossible for M not to kick the person in front of her. I felt so bad and so embarrassed and so stupid for not buying that extra seat. But alas, what was done was done.

But this flight overall just felt like we were counting down the minutes until we landed. No inflight entertainment (okay I snuck in one episode of Silicon Valley) and no rest whatsoever. Thank goodness for the duty free magazine – M kept wanting to search it for Hello Kitty products!

Final Thoughts

If you fly enough with your kids, you’re going to end up having a rough flight. This one wasn’t even that bad, but definitely the worst we’ve ever taken with M. I should never have cheaped out and skipped out on a seat for her – she’s just too big to sit in our laps in economy. Lesson learned!

Once again, toddler headphones saved the day. But she's way too big for our laps in coach! — Once again, toddler headphones saved the day. But she’s way too big for our laps in coach!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

United Domestic First and LAX Star Alliance Lounge

EVA Royal Laurel Class Review

Using Public Transportation in Taiwan with a Toddler

Visiting the Taipei Zoo

Eating in Taipei

Grand Hyatt Taipei King Suite Review

A Tough Flight with a Toddler

Public Transportation in Hong Kong with a Toddler

Typical Hong Kong Tourist Activities

Hong Kong Disneyland with a Toddler

Jan 12 2015

Home for the Holidays: Grand Hyatt Taipei King Suite Review

We spent our five nights in Taipei at the Grand Hyatt Taipei which is conveniently located outside of Taipei 101. I used a Diamond suite upgrade to confirm into a King Suite that I had booked with cash and points (6000 points + $75 USD), which was great for us as a family. Not only did we get more space but it gave us club access. Overall we had an amazing stay at the Grand Hyatt Taipei (which has just completed renovations and has moved up one category, 3 => 4, in 2015).

King Suite Review

We got to the hotel after midnight so check-in was a breeze. The king suite is probably the second nicest room we stayed in this year after the overwater villa in Bora Bora.

The best part of this suite for us as a family was all the space. As soon as we got into the room M immediately started running around, exploring, playing – a process that wouldn’t stop until the day we checked out.

At that point we were all pretty wired (it was lunchtime back home) so we ordered some room service as we were waiting for our bags to be delivered.

We ordered the shrimp and wonton noodle soup. It was delicious and a perfect late night snack after over 24 hours of travel.

This was quite good - we actually ordered it twice during our stay — This was quite good – we actually ordered it twice during our stay

Overall we were very happy with the room, we were able to put M to bed but still hang out in the living room which really beats hiding in the dark or in the bathroom after 8 PM (which we’ve had to do elsewhere). I think our room is one of the newly renovated ones – they’ve done a great job!

Kid-friendliness of the hotel

It bears noting that I thought the Grand Hyatt did a great job preparing the room for our toddler. The crib was a little bit more advanced than a pack and play (but maybe older?)

The little pillow was super cute and M got yet another stuffed animal

The bathroom was also stocked with kid-friendly toiletries: body wash, shampoo, and body lotion. The latter especially came in handy.

It kind of backfired for a little while when M started insisting we only used the “bear” lotion, but eventually she got over it.

The minibar had enough space for us to keep milk for M, we never needed to buy milk because we just filled her thermos at breakfast every morning. Another nice touch was our welcome fruit was refilled every day – extra snacks.

Our welcome fruit was faithfully replenished

Breakfast and Eating Options in the Hotel

I already went over room service, which was fairly priced (for room service).

The first few days we were there the executive club was still under renovation so we were offered the option to take breakfast in the restaurant. This was a great option.

There were four stations like this at breakfast

The restaurant breakfast was a veritable smorgasbord. Chinese breakfast, western breakfast, pastries, croissants, cereals, tons of fruit – there was a ton of food. There was honey ham sliced fresh off of a ham, wonton noodles made to order, and pancakes/waffles made to order.

The food was so good it actually made me think about paying for hotel breakfast next time I stay there (though I probably won’t it’s > $30USD).

The last two days we took breakfast in the club lounge which wasn’t too shabby. There was still hot food, cereal, and a noodle making station. Obviously it wasn’t as great as the restaurant but it’s a great Diamond/club level benefit.

Still a few hot food options at the club lounge

Club Lounge and Overall Feel of the Hotel

If I have one complaint about the club lounge it’s that it was super crowded during breakfast and cocktail hour. I’m talking people needed to wait for a seat crowded. So they should either limit access more or expand their lounge. To be fair, it could have been because of the renovation although it looks finished.

What doesn’t help things is the narrow-ness of the lounge. It doesn’t feel big because it’s essentially one long hallway. Still, there are partitions everywhere which creates the feel of semi-private rooms.

The lounge is broken up into seven or eight sections like this

This worked out well for us at breakfast and other times because M wouldn’t bother others, but it still feels like there’s not enough space.

There is a decent view from the lounge of Taipei 101.

In terms of overall atmosphere, I thought the hotel was great. Despite the construction there was a real festive feel to the holidays, starting with the huge Christmas tree and down to little details like a temporary holiday shop they set up.

They even had an octet from the Taipei Symphony come to play some music on Christmas day.

The hotel staff was wonderful and everyone was super helpful and friendly. Despite the over-crowdedness at the club lounge, it never felt understaffed and the entire hotel followed suit. Someone even remembered it was my birthday (read: looked it up).

The picture doesn't accurately convey how large the cake is, definitely more than a single serving — The picture doesn’t accurately convey how large the cake is, definitely more than a single serving

Final Thoughts

All in all, we had a great experience at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. It’s centrally located, the staff is wonderful, and the king suite is great. I peeked into the other rooms, they’re not massive but they’re not Europe-sized either. All in all a great place to stay in Taipei, and at Category 4 it’s still a great deal in my opinion!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

United Domestic First and LAX Star Alliance Lounge

EVA Royal Laurel Class Review

Using Public Transportation in Taiwan with a Toddler

Visiting the Taipei Zoo

Eating in Taipei

Grand Hyatt Taipei King Suite Review

A Tough Flight with a Toddler

Public Transportation in Hong Kong with a Toddler

Typical Hong Kong Tourist Activities

Hong Kong Disneyland with a Toddler

Dec 26 2014

Home for the Holidays: 26 Hours to Taiwan with a Toddler Part 2 – EVA Royal Laurel Class Review

Saw this plane on the way to the gate. Wanted to switch flights so badly!

Here is Part 2 of our epic 26+ hours of travel to Taipei. You can find Part 1 here.

EVA Air Royal Laurel Class to Taipei

As I mentioned in the introduction, EVA straight up trolled us by throwing Hello Kitty in our faces as soon as we got onboard. Like, ha ha, Hello Kitty could be all up on this plane but she’s not so you just gotta watch her on TV!

I think EVA Air Royal Laurel might be the best longhaul business class product I’ve experienced. Everyone raves about the Rimowa amenity kits, which are nice, but I’m all about the pajamas. They are quite soft and comfortable and I got a size too small so they are very form fitting and flattering. They gave me two pairs, one for M, but they don’t fit her so more for me. Picture omitted due to over form fittingness :).

Unfortunately did not get a lot of pictures of the seat due to a crazy child (pictured here)

The service on the flight was excellent. The flight attendants were super accommodating, there seemed to be an army of them, and they were very attentive/helpful. Obviously it helped that the cabin was only 60% full but I think they were working their tails off regardless. The seat was also great, everything “made sense”, from the seat controls, to the storage comforts, and to the bed itself, which was very comfortable.

They had no problem accommodating our request to eat separately – M and I ate first (with Jess assisting the former) and Jess ate second. I would swing by the galley whenever I needed something but they seemed to always know what I wanted before I even asked. Cold milk? Check. More champagne? Check. Instant noodles? CHECK.

Instant noodles. Turnip cake not pictured.

There were also some peculiar things that piqued my interest. Like someone was hanging out in the galley wearing pajamas. Was she a flight attendant who had something spilled on her? Flight attendant just a passenger on the flight? Random buddy? OK, I guess that was the only thing that was curious to me. But I will never solve this mystery!

The champagne was excellent (Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame 2004)

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the food in Royal Laurel Class (well, complaints is too strong a word but lack of enthusiasm). I didn’t really have any issues with it. Though I’d have loved to drink some Dom, the Veuve was a worthy alternative. The food was simple but I thought it was tasty and it definitely was satisfying.

The duck breast appetizer was my favorite part of the meal

The midnight snack was great and they had seaweed flavored potato chips. Honestly my only complaint was that I could have used some chocolate sauce with the ice cream. Oh, and Jess would like to add that that milk tea was good and the porridge for breakfast was great. I slept through breakfast.

Everyone who has read my reports before know in-flight entertainment is big for me, but unfortunately I barely got to watch anything on the personal screens (more on that later). I did watch a HK Cinema rom-com which had a terrible ending. One of those, “that’s it?” kind of endings. I mean my goal was to brush up on my Cantonese, so I guess I accomplished that a little bit. “分手100次” is the title if anyone’s interested. But maybe just skip it…

EVA Royal Laurel Class Toddler-centric Review

Obviously I would have been a lot more comfortable and relaxed if I didn’t have a toddler climbing over me the entire flight. But EVA’s Royal Laurel Class helped make what would have been an unbearable flight into a decent one for M. I mean, she had a great time, so I guess I really mean for us.

We ordered M a children’s meal (which covered both dinner and breakfast). Both were way too much food for a toddler (maybe too much for any pre-adolescent), but it was good to have that alternative. Can’t really go wrong with spaghetti though it was a little too salty. Jess said breakfast was eggs with mashed potatoes WHAT? Wish I had been awake for that.

Semi-eaten children's meal, forgot to take picture before. — Semi-eaten children’s meal, forgot to take picture before.

We survived the flight by taking turns. I ate dinner first while Jess fed M the children’s meal, then I took over and put M to bed while Jess ate. Putting her to bed was a bit of a mess. I had been letting her sleep on top of my chest more (for naps and stuff) in anticipation of this very flight, so I started things off by rocking her to sleep and lying down with her asleep on top of me.

At this point I thought I was golden – she could sleep, I could sleep, everybody happy. Alas, the best laid plans…about fifteen minutes later she woke up and basically kicked me out of the bed (which was really comfortable btw! Forgot to mention that before). I sat on the side of the seat with my legs half hanging out in the aisle for a little while.

I then realized that I could kind of sit at the head of the bed since she’s so short. It wasn’t great but at least it was a semi-natural position to sleep in. So I just sat there as she rested and watched The Fellowship of the Ring on my tablet (thanks Google Play for the free movie!). At some point, I even managed to fall asleep resting my head on my knees.

After some unspecified amount of time (lost track of time really quickly on that flight), I tried to readjust my position – this led to the inevitable toddler wake up screaming while still sleeping situation. Yikes. I think we managed to keep this under five minutes although who knows it could have been eighteen hours like in Contact.

At this point, Jess took her and calmed her down and put her back down on her seat. I took this time to finish aforementioned terrible ending HK rom-com, after which Jess and I switched spots so she could get some sleep. I managed to get a seatbelt on M so at that point I started rotating back and forth between sitting next to her and sitting in one of the empty seats in the cabin. I managed to finish Gravity on my tablet (Google Play free again), but started getting pretty tired.

The difference between a lie-flat bed and laying a toddler down in coach is you still have somewhere to sit, sorta

M eventually woke up with about 3 hours to go in the flight (which ended up being almost 4 due to a landing delay). At this point I finally got to use the lie-flat bed for real and I had two very nice hours of sleep. This sleep was punctuated with faint recollections of a toddler peering over the center console wearing headphones and singing, though I can’t be too sure of that.

Anyway, I was on M duty the last hour of the flight and at that point I was so tired that I finally caved. M isn’t allowed to watch any TV at home besides football (both American and World versions), but I just gave up on life and flipped on one of the fifty Hello Kitty movies they had on IFE.

Of course these videos were in Japanese with Chinese subtitles so I didn’t bother giving M the headphones, instead I read the subtitles as fast as I could and just made up a story on the fly. I do now know that Hello Kitty does not like eating vegetables, if only I could figure out how her parents magically convinced her to start eating them!

Hello Kitty, the best distraction of all

Oh, and as I had mentioned in the introduction, EVA also provides diapers on request. The medium diapers we asked for were size 4 Huggies (5 diapers). The diapers kind of backfired a little because Mickey Mouse was on them and even though she has never heard of him M is now constantly asking for “little mouse” diapers. Luckily she is not above falling for the old bait and switch!

"Little mouse" diapers — “Little mouse” diapers

Taiwan Immigration and a Jet-lagged Toddler at the Grand Hyatt Taipei

A few final notes because I feel they fit better here than elsewhere in the trip report. We had to wait 15-20 minutes or so for our gate checked stroller – life of a parent. That obviously negates the benefit of getting off the plane first. M did get a chance to run around though.

What negated the negation was the fact that Taipei Taoyuan has a priority line for seniors and people traveling with children! So when we got to immigration we only had to wait for one other group before we went through.

Another nice thing about Taipei Taoyuan is at baggage claim there is a guy stacking bags on the conveyor belt for easier access. Sometimes it really is the little things that makes the travel experience pleasant.

After a generous relative drove us the hour to the Grand Hyatt Taipei (M conked out), we checked in. The first thing M saw when we walked in was the gigantic Christmas tree: “Waooooow!” Check-in was quick and painless at 1230 AM.

We then entered our suite which is one of the nicer rooms I’ve ever stayed in. I’ll have a full review on the Grand Hyatt Taipei later, but what’s relevant here is that M was running around exploring the room like a crazy person and we were all hungry.

So how better to end a long day (and change!) of travel than to order some Wonton noodle soup from room service? It did not disappoint.

Final Thoughts

Our journey to Taiwan ended up being the marathon I was expecting. Thank goodness we were flying in business class: real props go to those who survive with lap toddlers in coach. We’re all still recovering even three days later, but glad to be here. EVA and Grand Hyatt Taipei are da bomb!