Has anyone used a travel tray table for the car?

Has anyone used any of those tray tables that your kids can use in their car seats? We're going on a 9 hour (each way) car trip at the end of the month, and I'm trying to decide if they would be worthwhile to get. Are they wonderful and allow your kids to be entertained in ways they couldn't otherwise be, or are they just extra junk filling up your car and a waste of money?

Here are a couple that I've seen online:
The Snack & Play Travel Tray: http://www.travelingwithkids.com/proddetail.php?prod=588
The Fisher-Price Travel Tray: http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?pr.../TRUSCA/2567270

 

We have the Fisher-Price ones. We find that they are helpful on long car rides. We've used them mainly as a hard surface for coloring books. They are also nice for eating in the car since there is a big surface area.They don't take up a lot of room so I would recommend them. Good luck!

 

I don't have one, but we recently took a little trip and spent hours & hours in the car and I would have killed for one of those!! It was last minute, so I didn't have time to plan ahead, but I would have gotten the top one with the side pockets, or something that has a place for the sippy cups. The kids were constantly asking for drinks & then dropping them.

 

We have the first one (Snack and Play) and I love it for long trips. We used it on a 14 hour trip to Wisconsin and it was a life saver. Because it has the ledge, they were able to use crayons or play with cars and they didn't roll off. It was so worth it! They also fold up pretty nicely, so they don't take up too much room.

 

I had a hard plastic tray (with side buckets) one when I was a kid and just saw some the other day, but for the life of me, can't remember where. The ones you posted look a lot better though for storage. I used them for a really long time when I was a kid. We were always driving somewhere.

 

Thanks for the responses. I think I'm going to try the Snack and Play. Anything that might make our upcoming car trip more enjoyable seems worth a shot!

 

Let us know how it goes when you get back!! Looks like a GREAT idea!

 

We used the Taby trays and they were wonderful. We used ours for many car trips for years. Just make sure whatever type of tray you buy actually is large enough to hold a coloring book. Some of those newer travel trays are quite small.