infant travel Archives - Page 7 of 11

Jul 15 2015

Daring to Disney: Making Disney Dining Reservations

Until FT4RL2, I didn’t even realize that making reservations at Disney World was a thing people did (thanks to Leslie from Trips with Tykes for giving me one more thing to obsess about!). So I’ve been anxiously awaiting the 180 day mark to make dining reservations. In preparation I enjoyed reading my favorite food blogger’s Disney series, though in the end I had to make decisions based on a party with a 6 month old and a 3 year old (and two grandparents!).

I started this series as a first time Disney planner – this is the first time I’m going as an adult in charge of the itinerary. I learned a few things along the way to making dining reservations (I started out doing things the hard way), so this post is about how I went about making Disney dining reservations and some ideas I have to streamline the process for beginners.

Deciding where to eat

I’ve honestly forgotten all of the links that I’ve read to figure out where to eat. I started just by googling “Disney dining toddler” and went from there. I basically just wanted to get a feel for what was out there and which restaurants are the toughest to make reservations at.

What I ended up doing was just deciding what types of meals I was looking for and choosing places to eat based on that. I considered putting it out to Twitter but decided against it – when I get inundated with stuff on my timeline I have trouble processing it. Instead, feel free to inundate me in the comments with recommendations!

So these were my priorities – a character meal (or two), something fun at Epcot, a date meal for my wife and myself, and other than that overall fun experiences for M. I figure H, the six month old, isn’t going to care.

Looks pretty nice! (Matt Stroshane, photographer | wdwnews.com)

I ultimately decided on Chef Mickey’s for the character meal – I’m sure there are less crowded meals but I think the combo of a monorail ride plus meeting characters is going to be big for the toddler. Also, Jess and I are slightly concerned that she might be scared by them (she loved Hello Kitty at LAX but was younger then). What I did was book Chef Mickey’s for lunch on our first day and then I also reserved a breakfast at Chef Mickey’s towards the end of our trip. That way, if she keeps bugging us about seeing characters we can go back. Right now she only really knows who the mice are, so it’s not like I have to take her to see princesses or any other random characters – so I decided tried and true is the way to go. Apparently Chef Mickey’s features the Fab Five – Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy.

For a fun meal at Epcot, I booked a lunch for us at the Biergarten in the Germany pavilion at Epcot. This was mostly for nostalgia reasons, a throwback to our time in Germany this time last year. The Biergarten features a live music show which I figure M will be into and it should be loud enough to be suitable for H. It was a toss up between this and Via Napoli – I ultimately decided that the Biergarten will be a more fun experience overall for everyone. I ended up making a dinner restaurant at Via Napoli for another time just in case.

For the date meal, I went with Le Cellier in Epcot – a steakhouse featured in the Canada pavilion of all places. I really went for this just because everyone seemed to say it was really difficult to get reservations at. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a challenge. I booked a 7 PM dinner for us in the hopes that we can step out at 9 PM to see the Illuminations show. I figure you can’t really screw up a steak, right? I also thought that out of all the fine dining experiences available, avoiding a tasting menu could save a lot of time. Finally, this is a good way for me to spend more time at Epcot nerding out.

I booked a couple of other random reservations – T-REX and Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe for a couple of dinners and Be Our Guest for lunch. Out of those three, I’m only really wed to eating lunch at Be Our Guest – I think M will really enjoy eating in a castle (and I know Jess will enjoy the Beauty and the Beast atmosphere). Overall I’m just trying to eat at Disney branded places that will blow M’s mind.

Balancing dining reservations with an overall itinerary

If you’re thinking “Man, he seems to have made a lot of dining reservations”, you’re right. The issue is, 180 days out, I still don’t have a clear picture of what parks we are going to be in on what days. You can’t double book reservations, so what I tried to do was spread out reservations to give us maximum flexibility when I finally drill down what parks we’ll visit on what days. So for example I have two reservations at the Biergarten for two separate days. You have to cancel before 24 hours in order to avoid a $10 charge per person.

There was one decision I made before making dining reservations. I had to decide whether to book restaurants at parks on Extra Magic Hour days or not. The benefit of Extra Magic Hours is obviously the time in the parks for people staying at Disney Resorts only, the drawback is in general those days tend to be more crowded overall (or so I’ve read). Ultimately, I decided to avoid Extra Magic Hour days. My reasoning is, with two kids under the age of three it’s going to be tough to get to the early morning hour, and with bedtimes at 8 PM (which we’d push for like fireworks maybe one night), it’s pretty much pointless for us to stay in the parks until 10 PM.

Chef Mickey’s looks like an awesome place to meet characters and grab a meal (Matt Stroshane, photographer | wdwnews.com)

I am still deciding, however, about whether to get park hoppers on our tickets. We don’t really need it by any means, I’m likely seriously overestimating M’s stamina, but spread out over a six day ticket it’s only $10/day. Would it be worth $40 (4 adult tickets) for Jess and I to go to Le Cellier on a day we’re not at Epcot? Or to sneak into the Magic Kingdom just for the fireworks at 8 PM? Something I’m still deciding and the subject of another post one day.

I also didn’t make any reservations for Hollywood Studios – I’m starting to lean towards not going at all. The kids are just too young at this point (though that’s another argument for park hopper – I could just run over there and ride the Tower of Terror, the only ride at that park I remember from my childhood, haha).

Why I shouldn’t have made reservations online and just called

OK, so I’m kind of stupid. For a few nights, I was logging in at midnight every night to make dining reservations. This is a great time for me to mention that Disney’s website sucks, at least for me. I get all these timeout issues and half the time I tried to make reservations I’d get this error:

I’d have to keep refreshing and trying again until available times showed up. I also am stupid in the sense that I really, really hate talking to human beings. This is kind of unfair to the “magical” Disney staff since every time I’ve called they’ve been amazing, but I really didn’t want to call and make reservations.

So, 180 days before the first night we are going to be at Disney, I logged in and made a reservation. The next night, I logged in and made reservations for the next day of our trip. I did this for four days straight, but I noticed that some restaurants were already booked or only had weird times (like 1:20 PM at the Biergarten).

Pros like Dia and Haley already know what I did wrong. If you have a reservation at a Disney property, you can make dining reservations for your entire trip starting 180 days from your first night. Woops! Now, I’ve since realized that when logged in, you can see this online:

It's possible to make reservations more than 180 days in advance as long as you are 180 days from your first night in a Disney property — It’s possible to make reservations more than 180 days in advance as long as you are 180 days from your first night in a Disney property

I took this screenshot on July 14th, so technically I should have only been able to book up until 1/10. Now the kicker is, I always thought I was logged in, but my session just kept timing out and the Disney website doesn’t prompt you to log back in.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and just do what I did when I figured this out. Bite the bullet and call in. A friendly representative helped me book four dining reservations in about ten minutes for the entire back end of my trip. As long as you know what restaurants you are looking for and what times, this is a much more streamlined process.

Final Thoughts

I think I’ve probably overbought into the hype of Disney dining. I’m likely going to cancel some reservations before we get there, but it was an informative experience to book dining to say the least. I think this is really helping me to frame our trip – I’m starting to drill down on which parks I want us to visit on which days. Just don’t do what I did and book day by day – call in and do it all at once!

Other Posts in this Series

Flights, Hotel, and Car

Making Disney Dining Reservations

Saving Money on Disney Tickets

Using Touring Plans (the non-touring plan parts)

Optimizing a visit using Touring Plans’ touring plans

Saving money by staying off site

When a Disney annual pass makes sense

Touring Epcot attractions with a toddler

Touring Animal Kingdom with a toddler

One perfect day at the Magic Kingdom

Dining Reviews

Tips for parents of toddlers and infants

Things I wished I knew before I went to Disney

Jul 13 2015

Baggage Charges for Infants and Toddlers – A Guide

Earlier today while Matt was gearing up for a trip with his family he wrote the following tweet:

Have to start researching bag charges to Mexico with a lap infant… No status and some cards- any other posts to look at first?
— Saverocity (@Saverocity) July 12, 2015

Nobody seemed to reply to him (or I don’t know how to use my Twitter properly, which is probable) and he got my curious, so I decided to look up baggage fees for infants and children.

When we were only dealing with one infant we managed to still travel light – two roller carry ons plus caddy/carseat combination were enough. It was a bit cumbersome at the airport but doable.

When our infant became a toddler, we ended up getting a car seat bag – in all our travels we were able to check the car seat bag for free (and stuff it with diapers and other stuff). At that point we still could have gotten away with two carry on rollers (plus gate checked stroller), though we never had to pay bag fees for one reason or another so we started checking bags.

Either way, I was curious whether checking car seats for free is a standard thing for all US based airlines or whether we had just gotten lucky. I decided to write it in the form of a guide of baggage charges for infants and toddlers – what can you expect to pay/not pay for when flying US based airlines with children and infants. And remember you can use a car seat bag like the one we bought as a de facto checked bag for a couple items in addition to the car seat itself. Feel free to let me know if you’ve experienced otherwise in the comments!

This stupid car seat bag is ugly and bulky but can be very useful

Alaska Airlines

Infant policy here, carry on policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Diaper bags DO count against the regular carry on allowance. So if you are bringing a lap infant that’s one less carry on for yourself. A FAA approved car seat/infant restraint seat can be brought on for free if your child is going to occupy it on the plane. Strollers can be carried on subject to space availability (space guaranteed only with purchase of a ticket for an infant.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked without charge when traveling with a child/infant. All other standard fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Allegiant Air

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Each fare paying passenger may travel with a diaper bag at no charge. Diaper bag does not count against carry on allowance

Checked Baggage – There is no charge for checking or gate checking both a car seat and a stroller for children and infants

Car Seats and Strollers – See checked baggage policy above.

American Airlines

Not the greatest website. Information on children and infants here, general baggage allowance info here. Also notable that they group children and pets together…okay then.

Carry on Baggage – You are allowed to bring an umbrella stroller, approved safety seat, and diaper bag on in addition to the regular carry on allowance. My guess is in practice they’ll make you gate check some of that stuff (I’ve never successfully gotten a stroller into an AA cabin).

Checked Baggage – It doesn’t look like you get anything above the standard adult allowance which means it technically costs money to check baggage in for your infant or child (unless traveling internationally on flights that allow free checked bags for adults). However since you’re allowed to bring a car seat on as carry on, my guess is they’ll let you check that at the counter as well.

Car Seats and Strollers – See carry on policy above.

Delta Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – It’s unclear whether a lap child gets a carry on baggage allowance, but I think so, since the website says “In addition to the one bag carry-on allowance, you may bring a booster seat, other infant seat or bassinet onto the plane as an additional free item (subject to carry-on size restrictions).” This has been my experience in practice as well. I read this as lap infants get one bag to carry on, ticketed children get the regular allowance adults get of course.

Checked Baggage – For unticketed infants, none. For ticketed international lap children 1 checked bag up to 20 lbs with a maximum outside dimension of 45 inches, for all other ticketed children the standard adult baggage allowance applies.

Car Seats and Strollers – You can check both a car seat and a stroller for free anywhere between curbside and the gate. They are not counted against the standard baggage allowance.

Frontier Airlines

Another airline that groups family and pets! Policy here. Baggage policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A diaper bag can be brought on board for free.

Checked Baggage – No charge for checked strollers or car seats.

Car Seats and Strollers – Stroller must be gate checked.

Hawaiian Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – If a seat is not purchased, no carry on or checked baggage allowances apply (read: the diaper bag will cost you a bag, theoretically). However you may bring a child restraint seat on board if there is an empty seat available for the infant AND the car seat bears the following two required labels:

This restraint system conforms to all applicable federal motor vehicle safety conditions.
This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft. (in red lettering) (NOTE: Labels that indicate U.S. or Foreign Government approval or show the seat was manufactured under the standards of the United Nations are also valid.)

If there is no space available you can gate check the car seat.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked free of charge (including at the gate).

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Jetblue Airlines

Policies here.

Carry on Baggage – Infant car seats are considered a special item – each customer can carry one on board the aircraft. Each infant is allowed a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Lap infants receive no checked baggage allowance. For ticketed infants/children, standard allowances and fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – Car seats and strollers can be checked free of charge at the gate or at the counter.

Southwest Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A child restraint device for a ticked child is not considered against your allowance. No mention of a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Child restraint device and stroller can be checked for free in addition to regular free baggage allowance (two bags per ticketed customer). I assume that means paid tickets.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

United Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – In addition to the regular carry on allowance, you may bring on a diaper bag and government-approved car seat

Checked Baggage – “The standard checked baggage allowance applies to children with purchased tickets, including infants traveling internationally on 10 percent of an adult fare.” The takeaway here is if you pay for an adult checked bag, you pay for a kids’ checked bag on United.

Car Seats and Strollers – United accepts one stroller and one car seat free of charge for each child. In my experience we’ve been able to check these anywhere from the curb to the gate.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is, if you have to pay for a checked bag for an adult you probably have to pay it for you infant/toddler/child/adolescent. If you feel you need a little bit of extra space, I think the car seat bag is the way to go. Also, it’s not mentioned in any of the policies explicitly, but you never need to worry about gate checking a caddy/car seat combination. Hopefully this list helps you as you plan for your travel with your young ones!

The caddy and car seat is the way to go for infants in my opinion

Aug 11 2014

Amenity Kit Repurposing for Parents

Lufthansa's current first class amenity kit bag can double as a tablet holder — Lufthansa’s current first class amenity kit bag can double as a tablet holder

Here’s something pretty clever my wife came up with that I’m sure others have thought of. Yesterday, we somehow left the house and drove half an hour before we realized we had completely forgotten our diaper bag. Oops. Luckily we were with friends who lent us some diapers, but that’s a situation we didn’t want to be caught in again.

The stuff inside doesn't really matter too much — The stuff inside doesn’t really matter too much

We decided to leave “emergency” diaper bags in our cars – but the question was what to put them in? Well, our recent trip to Europe has left us with four amenity kits and four sets of pajamas, each with bags. If you travel international business class a lot, these amenity kits start piling up. I’d turn them away but I find I always need one thing on them (usually that I forgot). Like this time, I forgot my toothbrush so the amenity kit came in handy.

Why not make the amenity kit useful? Diapers and wipes go in... — Why not make the amenity kit useful? Diapers and wipes go in…

Anyway, I guess even Lufthansa has figured out that these amenity kits can be wasteful. They told us our kit could double as a tablet case, which is true. More importantly, there was a smaller bag inside that is perfectly sized to be an emergency diaper bag. So we took one of the amenity kits, the bag that held Jess’ pajamas and the bag that held mine, and made three emergency diaper bags! One for each of our cars and a spare, two diapers and some wipes in each.

Pretty simple, but this is the most use we’ve gotten out of an amenity kit for a long time. Between this and letting Little M play with them (she likes to take everything out and put it back in), amenity kits are definitely on the upswing in this household!

Anyone else have alternate uses for amenity kits?

Jul 05 2014

How Being Parents Changed the Way We Travel

In the Season 6 finale of How I Met Your Mother (riiiiight around the time the show started dropping off in quality), there is a running gag where Marshall thinks, incorrectly, that he will soon succumb to food poisoning and lose his lunch. The clock ticks down until it hits all naughts, but miraculously he doesn’t get sick. Right now, a few days before our upcoming trip to Germany, I feel like Marshall – Baby M came down with something yesterday and I feel like it’s only a matter of time – I will be getting sick, it’s only a matter of when. Here’s hoping it’s the day AFTER we get to Germany (because I doubt I can cycle through fast enough before).

Marshall beat the clock...but will I? — Marshall beat the clock…but will I?

Anyway, my paranoia about getting sick has had me reflecting on the ways becoming parents have changed the way we travel. It’s changed in the obvious ways – we pack differently, think about our destinations “kid-friendliness” more, and we spend more time in each city instead of running from place to place. But to me, that’s not the biggest thing that’s changed for us since having M.

Mount Fuji Japan Station 9 — This was the culmination of a heck of a lot of planning

What’s different now is our planning process. Or, to put it bluntly, our lack of planning process. We aren’t huge planners in general, but pre-parenthood, I’d always have the particulars of an itinerary locked down. I know that’s not for everyone, but that’s what we used to do. An example – in summer of 2010 Jess and I hiked Mount Fuji with a friend. It was a bit of an endeavor because we landed in Tokyo from Taipei and went straight up the mountain, quite literally. Two months before we even left the States, I started absorbing everything I could about the trip to Fuji – which train to take to which subway line to which bus station to which bus to which town to which bus to which shop to buy what supplies to take which trek up in what timeframe. By the time we got on the plane in Taipei for Tokyo, I knew the plan by heart – I had even looked up screenshots online of the bus and train stations to know what things looked like. This is the way I used to plan vacations.

Rick Steve's Germany 2014 — Rick – it’s not you it’s me.

Now? We barely have time to figure out where we are staying. I struggle using Tripit to keep track. For next week’s trip, all I’ve locked in are our transatlantic flights, hotels, and car rental. But I know next to nothing about each of the towns. Let me list for you what I know about where we are going:

– Garmisch-Pantenkirchen is supposed to be very picturesque and I think we can take a cable car up into the mountains

– Salzburg is a city where I can buy chocolate with Mozart’s face on it and do Sound of Music tours (coincidentally, the reason we are going to Salzburg)

– Berchtesgaden is where Hitler killed himself or something? Band of Brothers? Also, lots more picturesque scenery

– Vienna…sells sausages? I don’t even know. I think there is a park somewhere. More Mozart? Hot weather? Wow…definitely need to do more research on this one

– Munich…beer? I know I can buy a BMW there but I think that might eliminate some of my travel savings

Mozart chocolate Salzburg — This is a thing?

Writing that out, I kind of wish I was joking but really that is almost fully the extent of my knowledge heading into this trip. Why? Parenthood.

It’s not like we haven’t taken all of the guidebooks out from the libraries like we did in the past – we’ve had the guidebooks for months. I just don’t have any time to read them and neither does Jess (in fact since we had M she’s outsourced a lot of the decision making to me which is nice in that we don’t need to debate anything but also stressful because I don’t like the full responsibility!). We try to alleviate this issue by spending more time at our destinations. The idea is that it gives us more time to get a feel for a location and we can kind of explore it at our own pace. In the past, when we had say, two days in Paris, we needed a plan to maximize our time. Nowadays, if we get to see one “sight” per day, it’s basically a win.

Delta Business Elite — Transatlantic with a six month old was no problem…eighteen months? We’re about to find out.

I haven’t been traveling this way long enough to really consider which way I like more, though I know plenty of people without kids travel with even less plans that this. It’s just new to me. It’s kind of cool in the sense that you get to explore new locations on your own terms; at the same time, I feel like I might “miss out” on more of the local flavor if I’m stuck with only guidebooks that I read an hour before I land (instead of using the goldmine of the internet in conjunction with the books).

So, life is different with a kid, what else is new? I’m just happy we get the chance to take M to experience different cultures for a fraction of the price we’d be willing to pay (and in greater comfort). Just like I enjoy traveling because it changes my perspective on things, I know that the changes to the way we travel now that we have M will open my eyes up as well. And that’s pretty cool. I’m sure she will hate traveling by the time she is eight just like she will hate playing the piano once I start forcing her to do it, but hopefully by the time she’s eighteen she’ll appreciate it! I’d better start loading up some posts for when I’m gone though so I can hit the (guide)books…

Mar 05 2014

Babyless in Bora Bora – Preparing to Travel Without the Baby

It was tough to believe we were looking at this while Baby M and her grandparents were shoveling snow

Jess and I spent one week in Bora Bora celebrating our 5 year anniversary. It was an amazing trip – and we got to really relax because Baby M stayed at home with her grandparents. Still, I’d argue it was more stressful preparing to travel without her than with her. For any parents considering traveling without their infant, I thought I’d put together some of the things we did to prepare Baby M, her guardians, and ourselves before we left. Hopefully it’s helpful to some of you out there!

[Read more…]

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