Can anyone help with travel? 9 month old twins and a 4yo

We are taking a family vacation to Florida next month. I know that I want to plan well but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I can't decide what to bring and what to buy there, and what to do without. we are going for 9 days, and renting a condo and mini van.

Here are my questions, in no specific order, since my brain is fried from having 2 8 month old teething, non-sleeping babies.

1. The car seat situation: We did not buy the babies seats. we have both infant bucket seats and convertible car seats. I was thinking we leave the bucket seats in the car and check the convertible seats. My son who is 4 has a sunshine radian, I was thinking of getting a cheap booster for the trip so we arent checking 3 huge seats. Is this a good idea? or skip the booster? bring the bucket seats instead?

2. it was suggested to us to wear the babies in the airport and check the stroller. I was thinking of using the stroller and gate checking it, but i dont know how hard it is to get through security with a double stroller. thoughts?

3. high chairs: we have the healthy care boosters and also the chicco clip on high chairs. The clip on seats fold pretty flat, but we run the risk of not being able to use them on the dinning room table that is available. that being said, the HCB are too big to put in a suitcase. (we will eat all of our meals at the condo, my son has too many food allergies to eat at a restaurant.)

4. beds: There are no cribs available. Should we bring 2 pack n plays? I saw the joovy "room2" that's supposed to be big enough for twins. Does anyone have a review of this?



Mostly, I'm looking for any tips you've picked up traveling with "twinfants."

 

We havent air traveled with the twins yet. But here what I would do. bring only car seats. You can rent double stroller and pack n plays or cribs, high chairs in florida. You also can rent carseats as well. I know my friends rented everything for their twins. Its not that expensive. Traveling with the twins and a 4 yrs old is tough. Dont bring the entire house lol. Just make it easy for you and enjoy the trip. GL and have fun!!!

 

We just got back from a trip with 5 kids (8, 4, 2 and 9 1/2 month twins) and we flew --- it was crazy. I packed as light as I could. We had 3 suitcases, 2 strollers, 4 carseats (2 radians and 2 infants). We rented a suburban - the minivan was too small for us - per my husband. We were lucking that were we were staying (my sis in law) had borrowed 2 pack n plays and we just did without highchairs and just fed them on the ground.

We curbsided checked the luggage and carseats. Then my husband went and parked the van - so we had to have the strollers handy to keep the babies in while I waited for him.

When we got to our destination my in laws where there to help, but on the way back they weren't so we rented one of those carts by baggage claim - it was cheap $3.00 for a cart and I was able to pack all the luggage on it - a bit tall, but people moved out of my way, lol!

I would gate check the stroller - it is pretty hectic through security, but you will be going thru the family line. Be sure to know where your liquids are b/c they will test them and they will just put the stroller through machine or they will wand it.

You may not be able to sit next to your husband - check the policy with airlines - Southwest will not allow 2 babies in a the same row.

Try to bring food that is easy to get out and not hard to mix - ours love the Gerber puffs and we also bought this product called PLUM (i think) its basically pureed fruit/veggie mix in a squezzable tube with a reusable cap - you squeeze and they just suck it out - These were great for something different.

I would hate for you to bring your pack n plays -but putting babies are the floor to sleep is a pain and mine were crawling so that wouldn't work. This would work especially if you curbside check in your luggage - you will just have to be careful that you will be able to fit that along with your luggage.

You can do it !!

 

I haven't flown with the babies yet, but we're planning a trip out west to visit family soon so I'm thinking about the same stuff. Have you seen this website for rental equipment?

http://www.baby-equipment-rental.com/

Have you checked with your hotel about cribs- many have them available if you ask. I wouldn't bother with the booster seats- if anything stop at Target and get the one they have there for like $12 and just leave it or donate it before you go home.

 

At 9 months old, I'd gate check the double stroller, but also 'wear' the babies. We used the Bjorns to fly with our girls a couple of times the first year, and used the stroller to put all our carry on cr@p. Getting through security won't be an issue. They might try to make you collapse the stroller to see if it'll fit through the scanner. If it doesn't fit, they'll just wand it.

As for what to bring with you, can you ship some stuff ahead of time? I used to order diapers, wipes, etc from diapers.com and have it shipped to our destination. As for pnps and car seats, I'd bring the bucket seats if they can be secured in the car without a base (I rememember our graco's could). You could gate check those too if you bring a double stroller that you can lock them into (or you can bungee them to the stroller). Can you rent pnp and high chairs once you get there? http://www.babysaway.com/ is another rental place.

Good luck! We traveled with our girls a lot and now at 4 they are great at going with the flow and enjoying going on trips!

 

Thanks for the tips everyone! I did some googling and found a place to rent the pnps from, so that's good.


I'm still tryn to figure out what would be best for the car seats. Guess using the infant seats in the dsng would be easiest, I'd have to rent a stroller if I went with that option.


I really appreciate everyones help, I'll be sure to report back with any learning experiences.

 

Lol yeah you must report back. We will flight from ohio to la this July. So we will need advices as well. Gl and have fun. Dot worry too much. Things will work their ways out. Florida! How excited!

 

I traveled to Orlando with my 4 year old and my then 5 mo. old twins last month and I was honestly shocked by how easy it was.... however, I did do a TON of planning beforehand. We had free flights to use so I did have seats on the plane for everybody, which I swear saved us when my DD1 decided to visit the potty on the plan 4 times on the way home! I'll try to be as brief as possible....

I agree with PP, ship diapers, wipes, whatever you can think of, ahead of time to your destination. I stayed with my parents so I lucked out on that deal, and mine weren't on solids yet which made that easier. There are also companies down there that will deliver stuff to you. You can find those companies on www.travelswithbaby.com.

Packing: For the suitcases, I bought those travel bags at target where you can squish the air out of them to pack a bunch more. They were awesome for us! DH carried a big backpack, I had my enormous purse. I used gallon size ziploc bags for everything that we carried on and made 2 sets of each, one set for DH and one for me. I also bought a big pinic tablecloth (the vinyl kind with the felt back) and cut it in half, one for DH to use as a changing pad and one for me. This was the single best idea I found online and helped us so much during the trip wherever we went. The ziploc bags were packed according to what made sense to me, like diapers/wipes/changing pad in one bag, bottles/formula/burp cloths another, change of clothes another bag, travel-size liquids another bag, etc. Since the ziplocs are clear it makes things super easy to find when you're in a rush too. We ended up only bringing two rolling garmet bags for DH and I and two mid-size suitcases for the kids. The garment backs clipped on to the suitcases with travel straps so DH could carry everything (HA! ) and I could just handle my purse and the kids.

Airport: Used the double snap-n-go all the way to the gate, gate checked it and carried the Britax carriers on. We had that in our carryon luggage and it made things so much easier. Made sure we were all dressed in easy stuff so we didn't look like a bunch of crazy people at security, even though we still kind of did the first time through.

Plane: We flew Southwest and they would not allow me to have both infants next to me. So, DH and DD2 were in the row ahead of DD1, DS and me. This is where the two sets of ziplocs came into play, since DH had to put his backpack in the overhead bin and couldn't get to it easily during the flight. I could just hand DH whatever he needed from my purse, which made things lots easier on him- God love him! We brought along an iPad and some headphones for DD1 which was awesome. We downloaded a bunch of inexpensive apps so she could watch cartoons and color. It really saved us with her and didn't take up much space. Something else to think about, coming from somebody who again had to take my oldest to the potty 4 times on the plane, those bathrooms are ridiculously small. If my husband had to take one of our kids in by himself he would never have been able to get the door shut!

Minivan in Orlando: We bought a RideSafer child vest for DD1. You can find them online for about $100. I don't know how much traveling you do, but it worked great for us. It packs small and works really well. Orlando has lots and lots of toll roads. Our minivan had an electronic pass installed in it that allowed us to bypass the actual toll booths and pay the tolls when we returned the car. Also, and another reason we were happy to have the iPad again, we installed a navigation app for about $10 which helped us tremendously since we don't know Orlando all that well.

Sleeping arrangements: We purchased two Peapod Plus' and carried them in our luggage. Again, these are great if you travel or camp a bit as they are a little bit pricey. The babies slept so well in these on our trip and we've used them several times since.

I hope at least some of this will be helpful to you. Our trip was fantastic and our kids did very well, even exceeding my expectations. I hope yours will be the same!

 

Thank you so much! You were definitely a big help!!!

Thank you so much! You were definitely a big help!!!

 

My kids have travelled so much from early on! Personally I would bring a stroller and use it at the airport. I used a Maclaren double for that. My oldest walked. I rented beds if necessary but have brought the Fisher Pruce booster seats many times. They easily check in a bag. I bring most other stuff, use lots of different plastic bags to separate everything, always took enough clean diapers, clean clothes and a DVD player for the oldest, on long flights only (for us that's 8-9 hours +). In terms of car seats, I checked 2 for the twins and also used a SafeRider vest for my oldest, very easy, especially if you need to fit 3 across. I think most rental car seats suck and end up being half of a new good seat if you go a week or longer. I did bring a carrier for one twin if necessary but I sm not a major fan.

HTH.

 

We wore our girls and gate checked our stroller when we flew to AZ a few months ago.

They made us take the babies off and put the Ergo's through the machines at both PDX and PHX! That made it a lot harder to get through security.

Any chance of changing your condo to a hotel? (are you doing Disney?) We are staying at Bonnet Creek in September. They have cribs and high chairs available.

Not sure about the carseats. I'm trying to figure out how to travel with ours too.

Have fun, and let us know how it goes!

 

Hi again! We leave next week, and I'm having a mini freak out moment about flying with 3 small kids. anties:

Here is what has been decided/ taken care of already:


We rented two cribs and a double stroller.


We are going to gate check the infant seats and the double snap and go incase there are extra seats

The one thing I'm on the fence about is the rider safe vest for my oldest DS, who is 4.5. We have him in a radian xtl, and that thing is heavy. I can get the bag that makes it a backpack, but we were going to use back packs as our carry ons.

 

You'll do fine, just allow yourselves enough time so you don't stress about it. We curb checked in our 2 radians b/c they were heavy. I thought about just boarding with them b/c they do fit in the seats & I think my kids would have slept better in the plane had we put them in their radians (the airplane belts just made my kids antsy & they couldn't sleep very comfortable w/o falling into the seat next to them). If you do bring them on the plane you'll have to find something to wheel them up to the gate b/c they are heavy. Do you have a cheap booster you can bring instead of the radian?

 

Here are my suggestions:

Call the hotel. They have pack and plays that they can set up in ur room and many hotels are very accommodating. No need to carry the pack and play yourself!

I used the TwinTrexx twin baby carrier twice at the airport and it was just a lot easier to travel with. I check in the stroller. When I became tired the carrier split into two separate ones. I had a 5 year old too and ir was just easier.

The highchairs you can also get at the restaurants, Just but a lot of those sanitizing wipes.

I hope this helps!!!

 

we recently flew from mi to sc with 8 month old twins and a 3.5 yr old. check the buckets, that way if they is damage you dont have to worry about it as much. we decided stroller free was teh way to be for us. we were there for about 7 or 8 days. if you honestly end up needing it, find an umbroller or 2 while you are down there, but being without the stroller will make your life so much easier!! I would also say you can live for 9 days without highchairs. you will probably be eating out most of the time and can use the restaurants highchairs or even the hotels. Not sure who you are flying with but checking bags isnt cheap anymore, so the cheaper you can go the better.

 

Only a few things to add to the great advice you've already gotten. Bring your stroller in the airport - it's a lifesaver. Super easy to get through security and it will free your hands up. Remember to pack for each twin separately for the plane - they can't sit in the same row as lap children, so one will need to sit with you in one row and the other with your DH in a second row. I'd also advice skipping the highchairs. For nine days you can feed babies on your laps - just scale back a bit on the solids and feed more milk/formula. (they'll get better nutrition anyways while you do this)