Holiday all booked

[Urchin]

Well finally all the flights are sorted for our trip to see OHs family in South Africa. The main flights have been booked for ages but we booked the internal flights last night.
I'm not looking forward to it, we will be travelling for over 24 hours, look:

1st Jan 09, Birmingham to Dubai, stop for 4 hours in Dubai, then Dubai to Johannesburg, 3 hours in J'burg, then J'burg to George, where MIL and FIL have a beach house.

We leave Birmingham at 1pm and arrive in George at 3pm the next day!

Luckily we are there for 3 weeks till we make the return journey.
I'm dreading Riley on the plane we are flying Emirates and I have heard they are great with kids but we have to ask for a bassinet thing on check-in, I'm worried we won't get one and he'll be on our laps the whole way
Anyone else have any tips on flying with lots of kids? I've done it before with Mason and Brody when Brody was 1 and it was OK, they just watched TV, played the games and slept. Brody is now a right fidget and I dunno if he'll sit still.
The flights are overnight, but the 4 hour stop in Dubai is midnight till 4am!! Nightmare!

 

[Sarah&Braydon]

oh gosh i can see why you are worried i was worried enough wen we had a 2 hour flight to spain
least at the other side u can hand children to family and sleep lol

 

[rach]

awww hun yay for being all booked but i dont envy you that awful long journey good luck xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[SarahH]

Hey hun,

When I booked my flights to Houston with BA months in advance I could prebook the bulk head seats so I would defo get the basenette thingy - I'm sure Emirates would do they same as as you said they have an excellent reputation as a 'family' airline.
If I were you, once on the plane, I would ask for both the basenette AND the chair as Arianna hated the basenette and would not stay in it when she was awake. So I would have her in the chair playing and then take her out get her ready for sleep and then put the basenette up so once she was asleep I put her in it.

Have a fab holiday

 

[Snuggle]

Ooh I dont envy you being on that long flight but sure it will be worth it for a fab time away

 

[beanie]

eek I had a 23 hour flight from melbourne and that was hard going,and thsat was before children. I found the aquadraw things amazing for Seren when we went to Bulgaria, it kept her occupied for 3 1/2 hours. we also had pencils and colouring books which she used a lot.

I took my sling on the plane with me. We didn't have a bassinet, but the sling was amazing as when Cally fell asleep in it I also had a sleep and I knew she wouldn't fall out anywhere. Plus as she is used to being in a sling it helped her fall asleep as it was familiar (it was also a godsend in the airport as we could just book in the buggy and know we were ok, we saw a few families who had crying toddlers and babies and no pushchair when we arrived as we had to wait for them to comeout with the rest of the luggage.)

 

[Urchin]

OOh I rang Emirates today to ask about something else and when I checked we are confirmed for a bassinet and we are on the bulkhead seats!! I'm so relieved!

This is really sad but I'm wondering if I can get a plastic needle for my cross stitch?