Planet Wilder

Traveling with Emma wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. I was quite stressed out about this. Imagining hours of little girl tantrums and boredom. But Emma was just an angel and we both are so proud of her and having super light toddler travel gears really helped us out a lot.

If you read our enroute to NY post, you can see how long of a travel day that was and that wasn’t our final destination. When we finally took off, it was around 10 something p.m. (scheduled for 9:05 p.m.). We were late leaving JFK due to air traffic congestion (really, that day was just a horrible day to fly). We were number 20 to fly — about an hour they say but it was a bit more. But lets move back a little bit… after we board and got settled in, a flight attendant stopped by, asked what Emma’s name is, gave her a few toys (each time the airplane takes off Emma gets two toys), and stuck a sticker on to the top of her seat indicating “special children’s meal.” So right there, Emma was already feeling quite special. Then the headsets came around (Emma got into hers really quickly) and right before the door closed, the wet hot towels. The hot towels were extremely nice that evening. Even though we changed and got freshened up before we board we were still feeling icky tired but the towels kind of perked us up a bit… at least enough until dinner. I got Emma’s towel first and then she’d take it from me. I showed her how to use it and by the time we got back to the U.S., she was a hot towel pro. It’s so cute, each time the airline does their safety announcements Emma would grab the laminated fold-outs and read through it. She even looked down to make sure the life vests were down there :D Now, we did have the CARES system but on Singapore Airline, I didn’t use it. It was too long of a flight and I don’t want to restrain her too much when she’s sleeping.

Although I love SQ for many things, I wasn’t so sure of their children’s meals. The side and main dishes were fine, and oh the desserts were better than ours, but the extra candies were a bit much. Two candies per meal! One Japanese sweets and one mini Tobleron. So we always smuggle those away before she sees them. Once she skipped a meal. She was sleeping and when she woke up she wanted a snack. This was on our return flight and Emma was already a pro at the “call button.” So before I could say no, she pushed it, waited patiently and when the attendant came, Emma asked for a snack. The snack came. Milk, cookies, and TWO Mars bars — regular size. OMG! I was just surprised there were many little kids bouncing off the walls. Besides the extra sweets, the service was great. I must say, Emma was quite high maintenance on each flight. The call button was her best friend when she needed something and she would turn it off right after somebody stops by.

SQ’s in-flight service was quite nice too (the 777 was the best airplane — bigger screens and just newer). Always something for Emma to watch. The options where all the Shreks, Surf Up, Dora, Sponge Bob, and some other TV cartoons that I wasn’t familiar with, many Disney/children movies, music, games, and more. She loved it and I did have to give her one dose of Benedryl because she would not quit watching TV.

She was fine with the airline toilets too. There was this one boy who kept crying each time he had to go. Poor mom and dad. Not sure what they did to get him to go. Felt rude watching.

Overall, traveling with her was a joy. Not afraid to go places with her after this.