Traveling with a baby is a different experience than any traveling we had done before. Some would say more difficult, but that is an oversimplification. A baby in arms really has its pro's and con's.
Pro's:
- More luggage! Baby gets his own checked luggage (our one year old checked a surfboard on this trip!). You can also carry on just about as much as you can balance on a stroller.
- Special treatment. We travel with Nexus passes (known traveler cards for Canada and the United States) which expedites security in the two countries. In Canada we were rushed through an even shorter line because of the baby!
- Better help: one giggle from the little one and everyone is smiling 🙂
Con's
- More luggage. There is an amazing amount of extra luggage for a baby, especially when the clothes are so small! Plus, it really does require a fair amount of extra carry on because of diaper and food needs.
- Sleep schedules: Our little one is good with a sleep schedule and regular naps. Going through airports, airplanes, and timezones can (did) wreck havoc on the ability to sleep at the correct time. More on that here.
- Crying on the plane. You may be THAT family keeping half of the plane awake on an overnight flight. See our tips here.
Taking a baby along is actually very rewarding. The humanity within people is expressed quickly and easily making even challenging experiences pleasant.
On this trip our challenges came in the form of missed connections, an extra day, and re-routing involving extra flights. Then to top it all off, our checked luggage did not follow us. Here is the story:
Our flight plan was Vancouver to Toronto (~4 hours), a 2.5 hour layover, and Toronto to Lisbon (~7 hours) overnight. Our expectation was for Theo to sleep ~2 hours (typical nap) on the first flight and then through the majority of the overnight flight. And arrive in Lisbon at 11:00am ready for a drive. It was a great plan;)
What happened: Heavy snow in Vancouver delayed our flight about 2 hours. Then as we were landing there was an issue with air traffic control and we had to pull up and fly around the circuit again. When we did finally make it to the gate, we had to wait on the plane for a gate crew to show up. In the end we had 9 minutes before our next flight took off. We ran. Literally. Across the Toronto airport. We made it in 9 minutes, but the doors had already closed.
It turns out that was the last flight of the day and the last direct flight for two days. The airline customer service was great (baby!). Customers around us were getting lots of responses like “standard policy” and “you can bring it up with management… no they are not here now”. We had smiles and responses like “I’ll get this organized, don’t worry” and “I will save an entire row for you”.
A night in the hotel. Some hotel and airport food. A flight to Frankfurt. More airport food. A celebrity encounter. Final flight to Lisbon. And no checked luggage. Unfortunately we checked the car seat so we had to add a car seat to our rental. Being a long rental (5+ weeks) it was a fair amount to add.
The real challenge with our little one is that he always takes a couple days to get used to a new room before he sleeps at night. We had a hotel stay prior to Vancouver, a hotel stay in Toronto, and then a new place in Portugal. He did not sleep well, therefore we did not sleep well.
By the time we arrived we were bleary eyed and punchy. But we made it. And made a friend along the way! The airlines found our luggage and delivered it to our door two days later. On the fifth night Theo slept through the night again! Sorry neighbors for the first 4 nights;). More discussion on our experience with baby travel and sleep here.