I’m a Girl Scout at heart and plan ahead for a lot of things, which included making an airplane checklist for our first Disney vacation a few years ago.  We had never flown with our three children before and at the time they were 6, 5, and 3.  Needless to say, I was terrified they were going to be absolute nightmares on the plane.  In general they are good kids, but I thought their ears were going to hurt from the pressure, they wouldn’t want to stay in their seats, etc.

You name it, I was worried about it.  This was all in addition to my fear of flying, which is a whole other ball of wax.

In my planning frenzy I decided to have them each pack their own backpacks, that way they had control over their stuff and everyone would be happy.  The list for each child’s backpack was as follows:

Headphones

Sweatshirt

Little pillow

Blanket

Two lollipops

Toy or stuffed animal

One or two books

Coloring book

Crayons

We prepped them the best we could, held our breath, got on the plane and……. it was the smoothest flight I’ve ever had.  My fears were completely unfounded.  How could this be?  Were these my children?  I thought to myself, “Oh this cannot be right, the ride home will be a nightmare.” No, the ride home was just as smooth.

So I have to give them credit, my kids are good flyers (on a 2.5 hour flight, lol).  The headphones were the best money I’ve ever spent (Sony headphones from Walmart, approx $12).  They plug in for the entire trip and barely ask us for anything besides a few snacks here and there.

The individual backpacks were kind of a bust; my husband wound up carrying them all or we put them on the stroller, which was annoying because along with keeping track of everything else we had to worry about 3 extra bags.

For this past trip I consolidated – forget the toys and crayons – we went headphones and blankets only and everyone was happy.  I packed all of their stuff in one carry on and the baby’s stuff in another.  I also packed one to go overhead that holds the things we would need upon arriving to Disney since we had an early flight and were going right to the park then pool.

The necessities for the carry on bag were as follows:

Bathing suits

Sunscreen (3oz for air travel)

Ponchos

Medications

Extra formula and baby food

I also think it’s important to have a baby checklist because leaving home with a baby is as complicated as launching a space shuttle.  Here’s what I brought for the baby:

Bottles/Formula/Food/Snacks

Diapers/Wipes/Diaper rash cream

Extra set of clothes

Toys/Books

Blanket

Changing table pad

Extra pacifiers – but more importantly, a pacifier clip so every time she spit the paci out I wasn’t crawling on the floor of the plane looking for it.

She even benefitted from the headphones with the TV’s on JetBlue.

We are heading to Disney for a quick three-nighter in the next few months and the baby is now mobile and doesn’t like to sit for long periods of time.  I’m hoping the headphones, toys and snacks I bring can help her keep it together for the short flight.  She might not even be the biggest problem, my now 4 year old asks “Are we there yet?” before we leave the runway.

In the end you can prepare all you want, but when traveling with young children a little luck on your side never hurts!

by Ellen Volpe – Co-Owner of ET Family Travel