Trip Reports Archives - Page 11 of 27

Feb 24 2015

3 Days in New Orleans: Kid Friendly Activities

Chilling on the Riverwalk before hitting the sights

One thing we have learned about traveling with a toddler, especially on this trip, is that it’s best just to plan everything for her. Sure, we were interested in going to the Zoo, Aquarium, and Insectarium/Butterfly Garden in New Orleans, but we definitely wouldn’t have gone to all three if we were traveling alone. We enjoyed all four sights we got to see in the city – I’d recommend them for adults but there are a lot of other things to do if you’re not traveling with kids (like go out past 7 PM!).

Bourbon Street

Just a short note on this: we decided not to go. We had heard reports it was too touristy (which from what I remember is true), it’s not like we were going to stop in at any bars and listen to music, and I didn’t feel like seeing any “interesting” sights. Maybe when M is older.

Audubon Aquarium

We gave M a choice on the first day – penguins or butterflies. She opted for penguins so we went to the aquarium first. As aquariums go, it was pretty nice, though I always find aquarium trips seem to run short most of the time. We bought the “Audubon Experience” pass (aquarium, insectarium, and zoo) for $41.95 each as adults and $29.95 for the 2+ year old.

There were a lot of cool fish to look at but we spent thirty minutes standing outside the penguins. We got there ten minutes before feeding time (10:30 AM) and stayed through all of it. I only managed to convince M to leave by telling her we were going to feed some birds.

For some reason, the aquarium has a parakeet feeding area. You can buy small feed sticks for $1.50 each – I bought two. Jess was freaked out by all the birds it was hilarious. They are a bit creepy, they land on your arms and your clothes (and purses and supposedly long hair too). I had a good time feeding the birds, watching the delight on M’s face, and the look of pure terror on Jess’.

The claws were kinda skeevy if I'm being honest — The claws were kinda skeevy if I’m being honest

Other than that, the aquarium was pretty standard – a rainforest area, a bunch of cool fish, electric eels, etc. I’d say the New England Aquarium here in Boston is a little more impressive but the Audubon Aquarium is worth a visit if you really like fish.

M spent almost as much time here as she did with the penguins

Steamboat Natchez

Jess and I really wanted to listen to some music while we were in New Orleans, but like I said, we didn’t really want to go to a bar and we weren’t going to be able to go out late at night. The Steamboat Natchez, a touristy steam boat that takes a two hour tour around the Mississipi, ended up being the best we could do.

Let me repeat up front that the Steamboat Natchez is super touristy. They take every opportunity to remind you about the existence of the gift shop, the bar, etc. It cost us $29 each to ride (M was free) – you can also pay extra for a lunch buffet. The dining room kind of smelled funny though.

Checking out the menu - that we didn't really order from — Checking out the menu – that we didn’t really order from

After a short narrated tour of the river, there was a small jazz band that started playing. We managed to get a table right in front and had a great time listening to the music. Not sure what happened to their bassist (I saw the upright bass case even) – even without it they sounded great.

The boat itself is beautiful and a lot of fun to walk around. They make a point to remind you that this is the only legitimate steam powered boat in New Orleans – I don’t think they needed to do that to make me appreciate the boat. You can even go down to the engine room.

The only steam propelled boat on the Mississippi!

Drinks are overpriced but not too bad, the food looks like whatever, but it was nice to get out on the river and listen to music. It’s a touristy attraction, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Audubon Insectarium and Butterfly Garden

The most unique attraction we saw was the Audubon Insectarium and Butterfly Garden. It’s a small museum but they pack a lot in there.

To be honest, I found quite a bit of it to be gross. I mean it’s all bugs and creepy crawlies. The museum is well set up – there is plenty of room in the aisles and even though there was a school group there we never felt overcrowded.

Food made out of bugs...gross — Food made out of bugs…gross

Basically, you’re looking at bugs, bugs, and more bugs. They even have a “bug buffet” where they prepare bugs for you to try and eat for free (it’s behind the regular café). Jess and M partook in some bug…foods or whatever. I was kind of trying to avoid paying attention because it was gross. Jess said they tasted pretty good though (apparently eating bugs would solve a lot of the environmental burdens of food production).

The butterfly garden is small but very pretty. Aside from the butterflies, there are some beautiful flowers, a koi pond, and even some turtles. It’s also super warm in there, though humid. M wasn’t into the butterflies as much as I thought she’d be – we spent a lot of time looking at the turtles instead, haha.

Charles St. Streetcar

After the insectarium we took the Charles St. Streetcar towards the zoo. It’s faster to take the 11 bus (and less walking) but we wanted to ride the streetcar at least once. It was pretty crowded but we managed to find a seat.

The streetcar is a tourist attraction in and of itself

Amusingly enough, after letting us and a few others on, our driver said to the huge group waiting to get on, “You know what? Do me a favor – grab the next one.” <door slams> In his defense, the next streetcar was literally right behind him, but I still found it kind of hilarious. Hopefully those on the street weren’t too upset.

The streetcar is a fun ride – it’s neat to see the different neighborhoods. Eventually we got off and took a short walk to eat before finally making it to the zoo.

Audubon Zoo

The zoo is probably the most standard of the attractions we went to, but it’s located much further out from the main city. It’s definitely not as nice as the Taipei Zoo (it was also under construction which didn’t help). Still, there are a lot of great animals to see and there are also extras you can pay for (like a carousel and a dinosaur zone) if you’re tired of looking at animals.

We didn’t get into the zoo until 2:30 – it closes at 4:00 (an hour earlier than the other two Audubon attractions) so bear that in mind. With our short timeframe we ended up rushing. We hit all of M’s favorites – giraffes, zebras, birds. I had to take her back to the aviary to look at some ducks she had found nestled by the exit.

M's second best friend — M’s second best friend

All in all, a good time – nothing spectacular but nothing disappointing either.

Final Thoughts

Doing all three Audubon attractions in two days was a bit of a rush – if you have more time though the Audubon experience ticket isn’t a bad deal. I probably wouldn’t go to all three without a kid though, just get sick of animals at some point. If you are only going to one we found some coupons online so it’s worth looking up. With the aquarium and zoo you pretty much are going to get what you expect. The insectarium isn’t for everyone, but it was definitely the most unique and thus the most memorable to me. Finally, the Steamboat Natchez is good for some old fashioned tourism – and good music to boot.

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction and Outbound

Kid Friendly Activities

3 Days of Eating

Feb 19 2015

3 Days in New Orleans: Introduction and Outbound

Disclosure: I have credit card links in this post for your reference. None of them are mine, none pay me a commission, and there are likely better offers out there. Do your research!

So despite some dodgy weather, we made it to New Orleans! This was as spur of the moment as we get and a very toddler-centric trip so I thought it worth documenting. It also happens to be our first domestic vacation with M that required a flight. And I didn’t have to see snow for a few days. Winning all around.

Planning: The Flights and the Hotel

Booking a last minute flight can have its advantages. Despite (or perhaps because of) booking this flight two days before President’s Day (and, as I would later find out, three days before Mardi Gras), I managed to find three domestic first class seats at sAAver level for 50,000 AA miles each RT. These flights were all on US metal, which would lead to some problems down the road.

We had to pay $75 each for a close in ticketing charge – luckily I hadn’t bought my gift certificates to trigger my AMEX Platinum airline reimbursement credit yet. So I have already had $200 of the $225 in close in ticketing fees refunded. Yay.

For the hotel, I’d been looking for a good way to use our two free nights from our IHG Rewards Club credit cards. We used these two nights at the Intercontinental New Orleans – which was retailing fore $383/night. Not bad for keeping a $49/year annual fee card.

We booked a third night at the same hotel with 50,000 IHG points I had lying around from a cancellation on our Germany trip this past summer. No taxes and fees on top of the redemptions so I’m extremely happy with our hotel accommodations. I also just noticed that the IHG Rewards Club card is one of those Chase cards where you can get the bonus again after 24 months…hmmmmmmm.

Dealing with Delays

I was pretty stressed out about our flights since a storm was rolling in to both Boston and DCA (our connecting city) when we were scheduled to travel. The weather in Boston turned out to be no big deal for once – we took off on time and arrived in DCA on time.

Unfortunately, once we got to DCA we were hit with a two hour delay on our connecting flight – it took two hours for them to de-ice the inbound in Detroit. Wow. It did lead to a semi-amusing exchange at the gate that I witnessed.

After the Detroit flight landed, one of the pilots was talking semi-heatedly with the gate agent. He was like, “We just need 10 minutes!”. Apparently they were doing our flight to New Orleans as well. The pilot walked off huffing and puffing (I had missed the beginning of the exchange). The gate agent turned to his buddy and said, “See, that’s why he ain’t never gonna be mainline.” SICK BURN. Moving on…

Toddlers are Tougher than Infants

Although M was fairly well behaved on both flights, toddlers are definitely a lot tougher than infants. Infants are great – they just sleep, and eat, and sleep, and eat.

Even when a toddler is well behaved, a flight can be pretty tiring

M wanted to climb everywhere as usual and rip up every piece of paper in sight. We also had to find her food at DCA (overpriced!) and thanks to the delay she was overtired when we got onto our flight to New Orleans.

She fussed a bit before finally falling asleep on top of Jess – who was then incapacitated for two hours on the flight due to a sleeping toddler. Anyway, this trip definitely justified my decision to pay a little bit extra for a direct flight to CLT for FT4RL2. And we haven’t even taken off for the home leg yet.

Arriving in New Orleans on Mardi Gras

We had the unique experience of landing in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday. There were a few memorable situations we encountered while trying to get to the hotel.

First, as we exited the airport, we followed signs to “Taxis and Transportation Center.” Except, I didn’t see any taxis. We ended up in the transportation center which was just an empty parking lot.

So we backtracked, at which point I saw a taxi just kind of idling. I flagged him down and was like “Yo – Intercontinental.” He mumbled something about the police which I didn’t quite catch.

This travel bag is as bulky as it is ugly.

At this point I started unpacking our stupid car seat which we brought for the trip to and from the airport (I’m so torn as to whether we actually should have brought it or not). I’ve got this half installed in the car when this cop comes up and is all, “HEY! WHY ARE YOU PICKING THESE GUYS UP?”

At this point, it registers with me that the taxi driver had said something about cops when he stopped. Apparently he was picking us up illegally, which was a point I didn’t grasp until he was getting into it with the policeman. Umm………so should I take my car seat out now?

I’m like, “OK, sorry officer, but where can we get a taxi?” At which point the officer points me to the taxi stand that is like 50 feet away that I had somehow missed up until this point. Embarrassment city. Anyway the cop shooed the taxi driver away although we saw him cruising for fares from our legit cab five minutes later. Tsk tsk. Anyway, if you’re going to New Orleans and don’t see the taxi stand at first – don’t be like me – look harder.

The Intercontinental had given me special Mardi Gras driving directions which our cabbie ignored. He then proceeded to stop two blocks away from our hotel and point us in the direction that we should walk. Normally, I’d have been totally fine with this, except for the freaking car seat we were dragging in a giant duffel bag. UGH! To his credit, he was super nice about it and didn’t leave until he was absolutely sure I knew where I was going.

The fences were still there the day after - the day before this had been staffed by security — The fences were still there the day after – the day before this had been staffed by security

We made our way towards the parade route – unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) the parades were all over. We had to pass through a bunch of gates to get to the front door of the Intercontinental – they had staff posted at each gate to let us through.

At some point I stepped into a gigantic brown puddle thanks to being off balance due to a giant duffel bag containing a car seat. I was told that said brown puddle was hot chocolate. Wow. I really hope that was the truth.

Final Thoughts

It was an eventful trip, but we made it safe and sound (and mostly happy) to New Orleans. I’m kind of sad we missed the parades – but at the same time I’m not sure we would have made it to the hotel if they were still going on. I guess we could have froggered across? We’ll never know…

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction and Outbound

Kid Friendly Activities

3 Days of Eating

Feb 05 2015

Remember to Check Award Space Regularly: Slightly Discounted Business Class on Asiana A380

Halfway around the world for 70,000 miles in business class (gcmap.com)

Update: Since I wrote this last night, United has actually made their “non-advertised” sale official. See details here (book by 2/28!)

When friends ask me about awards they want to book – the resourceful ones often want to learn how to fish. One thing I always tell them is: keep checking for award space – you never know what you might find. Recently, two separate pieces of information surfaced in the blogosphere that I didn’t even think to connect in my head (though I’m sure many did). But everything clicked when my buddy Dan messaged me today: “Hey I can fly from JFK to Seoul on an A380 for 70,000 miles in business?”

Why, yes, Dan, you can right now! When I first saw that Asiana would be starting a new A380 flight from JFK to Seoul on One Mile at a Time, I didn’t really think too much of it, mainly because I don’t have the Star Alliance balances to book such a flight.

But then when Dan said he saw business class space for 70,000 miles I remembered that I had read somewhere that United was doing another unadvertised award sale. I’m not trying to plagiarize or anything (don’t want to incur PFDigest’s wrath!), but I really do not remember where I saw that.

For the unfamiliar, after United’s devaluation, partner premium cabin awards have become much more costly than awards on United metal. For example, business class to North Asia on United metal costs 70,000 each way, while business class on partners costs 80,000.

The recently devalued United award chart - more expensive partner premium cabins — The recently devalued United award chart – more expensive partner premium cabins

So the business class seats on the Asiana A380 should cost 80,000 miles each way. But for some reason, United has been having these random “sales” where they price partner awards at the same cost of United metal awards – currently it seems like that’s happening for both Asia and Europe. So right now this award is pricing at 70,000 miles each way.

Current pricing - 10,000 miles cheaper than usual in business — Current pricing – 10,000 miles cheaper than usual in business

That’s pretty good news, because in today’s prices that’s a fair (though not cheap) price to Asia in business class.

The even better news is that right now Asiana has released a ton of award space. Here is my July and August search for 4 seats:

Notice that space basically becomes wide open after the A380 starts operating every day in mid-July.

Here is my September and October search for EIGHT seats:

So the bottom line is, there is a ton of award space – even enough to get a family of four to Asia in business class if you have the miles. You get to fly a new plane, on a new route, for a temporarily reduced price!

In terms of the product, it’s a lie flat business class seat – very “Smartium”.

Business "Smartium" class — Business “Smartium” class

Final Thoughts

If you know when and where you want to travel and you don’t see award space at first, try, try again. You’ll never know what you might find – in this case a new route plus an unannounced award “sale” led to a pretty good deal. I’m not sure how long this “sale” will go for, United had one before, it ended (Asia was pricing at 80K when I went last minute two weeks ago), and now it’s on again – but if you know you need to go somewhere, book while it’s hot!

Jan 29 2015

Home for the Holidays: Conclusion and Cathay Pacific Pajamas Giveaway

A quick shower at the Admiral's club before our flight — A quick shower at the Admiral’s club before our flight

We had a great trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong with our toddler M in tow. Things weren’t always smooth, but we learned a lot and were glad to give her the chance to meet family. Jess refused to let us add too much to our airline pajamas and amenity kit collection so I have some stuff to give away at the end of this post – but first, a few paragraphs on our last flight.

M’s First Mile Earning Flight

The only reason why this flight was notable in any way shape or form was that it was the first flight where M ever earned any miles! An exciting day for any father, haha. We spent about an hour in the Admirals Club in ORD (which sadly I am saying bye to in the next week unless I get an amazing retention offer).

Jetlag hit M pretty hard after being overstimulated on our long haul flight. So by the time we were about to board she was in this state:

So despite buying M her own seat, she ended up in Jess’ arms on takeoff. On our way up she was pretty fussy – her and another child were running in stereo. A well meaning gentleman sitting next to us suggested we give her candy. I politely declined – rule of thumb, not only on planes – don’t give parents any advice. Even parents who seem super horrible. I would call the cops before I gave parents advice. There is no way you can possibly know the situation they are in, like this guy couldn’t have known M had just come off a 14 hour flight from Hong Kong and wasn’t allowed to eat candy. I wasn’t offended, but I also ignored him.

After five minutes that felt like an hour, M calmed down and fell asleep. In the end, she spent about five minutes of the two hour flight in the seat that I had spent good money on! But it was good to have it, the flight was full and it would have been way more stressful dealing with her in her jet lagged state if we didn’t have our own row – as we had already learned.

And they're spent... — And they’re spent…

For those curious about jet lag on the return, we ended up all getting the flu within a couple days so…who knows. Since none of us went to work school, it’s tough to gauge how quickly got over it, but by the time the flu was over (5 days after our return), we were fine.

Some Final Thoughts on our Trip

Despite it being tough at times, I was really glad we went back. Aside from the mile nerds stuff (flying EVA J and Cathay F for the first time and getting more pajamas), which was great, like I’ve said in previous posts, I really enjoyed taking M back to see relatives. It also reminded me of the fondness I retain for Hong Kong and flashed me back to times of yore. Ultimately, traveling with a toddler can be tough, and like my Uncle said – “she’ll remember nothing” – but we’ll remember, and we’ll get to tell her about it, and who knows, maybe in her subconscious she has retained some part of our trip. Here is the full list of posts in case you missed any:

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

Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui Regency Suite Review

Cathay Pacific First Class with a Toddler

Home for the Holidays Giveaway: Cathay First pajamas, EVA Air Rimowa amenity kit, and Cathay First amenity kit

So I’ll keep this simple. I have three things to give away, which will all go to different people. There are two ways to enter – via comments or via Twitter – everyone can enter both ways so everybody can have a maximum of two entries. The contest will end Monday, February 2nd, at 9:00 PM.

Here is what I’m giving away. First, I’m giving away a pair of unopened Cathay First pajamas, including the slippers – large. I broke the seal on the bag just to look at the color, other than that I haven’t even taken them out. Here’s what mine look like (the ones I’m giving away are more gray-brown).

Cathay Pacific First Class with a toddler — I’m sure you’ll wear these better than me

In terms of sizing, I got medium, at 5’6 155ish they fit fine, but I could probably fit in a large as well (which is the size I’m giving away). Here’s the bag, I have no way to prove the pajamas inside are untouched but take my word for it!

You not only get pajamas, you get this free bag!

I also have EVA’s Rimowa amenity kit and Cathay’s first class amenity kit with Aesop products (male) to give away. Those are both sealed.

What's inside? Only one way to find out! — What’s inside? Only one way to find out!

Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to what’s inside these things and I didn’t open them, but it’s going to be some kind of lotion, toothpaste, toothbrush, eyeshades, other random goodies. You could always re-purpose them. Anyway, I would totally keep them if my wife would let me. And if nobody wants them I’ll keep them.

How to win these amazing products

There will be two ways to enter, you can enter both ways (so two entries total per person), no cheating! The contest will end Monday, February 2nd, at 9:00 PM.

Entry Type 1: Comments

Simple. Just leave a comment on this post and be nice. Make sure you include your e-mail address when you comment so I can contact you.

Entry Type 2: Twitter

1) Follow me on Twitter @asthejoeflies

2) Copy, paste, and tweet the following: Hoping to win some Cathay Pacific pajamas from @asthejoeflies! #CXPJgiveaway

3) You can’t unfollow me until the contest ends. OR EVER. Just kidding… You may or may not have to endure a plethora of irate Superbowl related tweets…depending on whether I have thrown myself out the window or not. (Signed, a miserable and depressed Jets fan/Patriots hater).

That’s it! I will draw three winners at random and will ask each winner in succession what prize they want. Good luck!

Note: Am I trying to get more Twitter followers? You bet. However, you can also bet that if I don’t give these things away my wife is going to make me throw them out – and then nobody wins.

Jan 27 2015

Home for the Holidays: Cathay Pacific First Class with a Toddler

I was excited about our entire trip back to Asia – but I was most excited about flying Cathay Pacific first class. I managed to snag two seats using British Airways Avios due to some persistence and obsessiveness. We were booked on CX 806 from Hong Kong to Chicago O’Hare, a 14 hour flight. So how’d it go with a two year old in tow?

In-town Check in and Security

The Airport Express is possibly my favorite method of getting to the airport that I’ve ever used. We didn’t want to risk the free shuttle being a mess again so we took a short taxi ride from the Hyatt Regency to Kowloon Station.

The signage is super clear in Kowloon Station

At Kowloon Station we used the in-town check in services. Having in-town check in is something unique to Hong Kong that is incredibly useful. Basically, all of the airlines have check in desks set up and the lines generally feel shorter than at the airport.

Not too much in the way of lines in town

You use your Octopus card or Airport Express ticket to get into the turnstiles and then check in as if you were checking in at the airport. As long as you’re checking in 90 minutes before departure time you can check your bags all the way through to your destination. That was super useful for us with M in tow to not have to drag our bags one extra leg to the airport.

There are also luggage carts everywhere - very convenient — There are also luggage carts everywhere – very convenient

Oddly enough, you then leave the check in area and go to the trains where you have to tap your ticket again. Not sure why that’s the case, but it’s a pretty simple procedure. After that, it’s a short train ride to the airport (24 minutes from Central, a little shorter from Kowloon). Exit left for Terminal 1 or right for Terminal 2.

Security at Hong Kong was a breeze, there’s a family line, but really all of the lines are very efficient and move quickly. It’s basically the opposite of what security feels like in…other countries.

Cathay Pacific The Wing Lounge

After going through security, we hung a left and where at Cathay Pacific’s first class lounge, The Wing, after a two minute walk. The lounge is beautiful – it has a nice open feel one level above the gates and a great view of a bunch of the gates.

View from the....well, you get it — View from the….well, you get it

We settled onto one of the couches – M immediately started climbing over everything while Jess and I took turns exploring the food and drink options. Jess grabbed her customary chocolate croissant while I had a glass of the Veuve Clicquot Rose (they also have the standard champagne as well).

Veuve Cliquot sparkling Rose - excellent — Veuve Clicquot sparkling Rose – excellent

Unfortunately, we got to the airport a little late so we didn’t get to enjoy the lounge as much as we had hoped. There is a restaurant, showers, and cabanas (which are like private rooms with a shower). There’s also a champagne bar although you can just get champagne at the regular bar.

In retrospect, we should have gotten a cabana. Truth be told, I didn’t even get to grab a shot of them on this trip – but they are perfect for families with small children. There is plenty of stuff for a toddler to climb or mess with, a shower, a bathtub, and a daybed for resting.

Having our own private cabana with a daybed might have been nice but we didn't have time — Having our own private cabana with a daybed might have been nice but we didn’t have time

I was also disappointed because I didn’t find the restaurant until ten minutes before we had to leave to board. The lounge isn’t very big but for some reason I had trouble finding where things were – I think it’s because of the dark/sleek design or maybe it’s just because I was making sure M didn’t climb on the furniture too much.

The restaurant is to the left of the bar

Anyway, I checked out the menu and the attendant asked if I’d be coming in. I told her that, unfortunately, I had to leave to board soon. She smiled and replied, kindly, “ “ – next time. I don’t know, what she said really got to me – with M turning two it personally just felt to me like I wouldn’t be back anytime soon – or maybe ever. And with that, we heard the boarding announcement and were off.

Cathay First Class Seat Selection and Boarding

We boarded at gate 4, which is right outside the lounge. We went out of the lounge the way we came but realized later that we could have exited through the business class lounge and been right at our gate.

Boarding was smooth, though when we got on the plane I realized I had made a mistake with seat selection. One Mile at a Time has a good primer on CX F seat selection that I wish he had released, oh, a month ago.

Anyway there are six seats in first class – 1A and 2A are on the left side with their own aisle – it would have been ideal to have been in these two seats with M since no one else would be using the aisle. Instead we were in 1A and 1D, which meant we were separated by a partition – no backup.

Barring grabbing 1A and 2A, it would have been better to have 1D and 1K so we could have been across the aisle from each other. Oh well, live and learn. It ended up working out okay in the sense that when one of us was taking care of M the other was completely undisturbed, though I was nervous about us not being able to support one another.

After we boarded we were given our amenity kits and pajamas. I grabbed a glass of champagne but passed on the amuse bouche we just had too much going on. I’m not too into amenity kits – too much toothpaste in our household these days – but the pajamas on Cathay are perhaps my favorite airline pajamas yet. They are soft, comfortable, and most importantly for the plane – don’t get static-y.

Cathay requires lap infants to wear one of those extension belts whenever the seatbelt sign is turned on. M really hated that so it often resulted in some loud protests whenever she had to put it on, including on takeoff.

Taking Meals with the Toddler

After take off our meal service began. As is our custom, we split time with M and ate separately, this time Jess got to eat first. Now I know a lot of people say first class with a toddler or lap infant is a waste, and I totally get that. But the flip side of that is in first class you can really have things the way you want them. The attendants are always super helpful and trying to meet your needs as best they can; with a little one in tow they seem to be even more accommodating.

So while Jess was eating her caviar, I decided to order something off of the snack menu for M – the Japanese braised pork ramen. I found the food off the snack menu worked much better for M, obviously first class fare can be a bit too fancy for toddlers.

We had a great time eating together – it’s tough to explain just how huge the seat is. I actually laid it out as a bed so we could spread out and instead of using the expansive tray table we just used the very large side table. We managed to minimize the number of noodles that hit the seat to two – a real coup!

Eventually it was my turn to eat. I’d definitely say the highlight of the meal was the caviar – you can never really go wrong with that. Although the seared tuna in the salad was very good, I don’t really enjoy eating large pieces of non-chopped lettuce so I let most of it go to waste.

I ordered the Wok-fried Maine lobster as my main – that was excellent. The only trouble with that is I couldn’t really figure out how to eat it without making a mess – luckily M was with Jess.

Jess and I split the apple crumble after M was a sleep

I finished with some cheese (tallegio and manchego I think) and the apple crumble. The cheese was excellent and the crumble was good even though I’m not a huge fan of dessert. We waited until M was asleep to eat dessert. The great thing about first class is the ability to get what you want when you want it and not on a set schedule.

I ordered noodles again twice throughout the flight. Once after M woke up and once for myself. Besides the ramen, there is also a noodle soup with fish balls – this was also pretty great. Unfortunately, I slept through breakfast service but Jess said the congee was excellent. No pictures, unfortunately.

One more thing of note – you can be served an afternoon tea set on request (you can have any snack at any time just hit the call button). We had only about an hour when M slept on her own – so we decided to take tea together. It’s easy to eat with a companion – the ottoman even comes with a seatbelt for turbulence. The afternoon tea was a nice spread and we enjoyed a little bit of peace and quiet together. Jess has reminded me that my lack of sleep has caused me to mix up this flight with our flight home from Lyon. Oops! So I can’t speak to the quality of CX’s afternoon tea – but it does exist!

Finding Ways to Rest with the Toddler

I’d venture to say that aside from the Lufthansa 747 with a seat and bed, the Cathay Pacific first class seat is the most conducive premium cabin seat for a lap child. Like I said, the seat is huge. There is a nice little section to the right of the main seat where a toddler can sit comfortably.

If you lay the bed out, there is a ton of space – all three of us could sit on the bed with room to spare. The chair is comfortable both in the lounging and sleeping position – though when sleeping there is a little bit of a bump that was always sticking into my back a little bit.

The flight attendants will of course make your bed for you

Getting M to sleep was pretty tough. She was super into everything on the plane – light switches, seat controls, duty free magazine (searching for Hello Kitty). Compounding her overstimulation was the fact that every time we managed to get her to sleep, we’d hit a spot of turbulence.

Whenever her seatbelt went on she’d wake up get pretty mad (or not wake up and still be pretty mad). Unfortunately, there was a ton of turbulence on the flight – maybe 1/3 to ½ the flight. Maybe things would have been more comfortable otherwise.

Still, it was great to have the first class seat for M to sleep in. Both Jess and I spent some time sleeping with her in the bed and neither of us felt too overcrowded.

In case you require further proof... — In case you require further proof…

The entertainment system is also well set up to use when you’re in the bed. You don’t need to sleep at an angle to see the screen clearly which happens sometime on other products. I managed to watch a movie and a few TV shows on the flight, which of course you know I love.

As I mentioned, I got to sleep the late shift so I missed breakfast. Before we knew it, we were descending into Chicago.

Final Thoughts

This flight was definitely tough at times – the turbulence made it tougher on everyone. But the cabin crew and service was great and did their best to make everything easier for us. The seat was super comfortable and spacious enough for us to sleep with M. I definitely think this is one of the top first class products in the world (in my limited experience). At 67.5K AA miles, it’s definitely one of the best options out there right now. Cathay releases quite a bit of space close in, so if you’re flexible – go for it!