Just a few short weeks ago we went on our first family holiday to Majorca. Having not been abroad with a child before we really didn’t know what to expect from Erin when it came to her first flight. I tried to prepare as much as possible but everything could have gone completely wrong and nothing I’d planned could have worked.
Before our holiday we tried to tell Erin what would happen on a regular basis even if we thought she wouldn’t remember or wouldn’t understand. I don’t think Erin really understand until we got to the airport hotel the night before our flight. When we got to the airport the next morning though Erin became very excited! She was happy to explore the shops and to look out of the window at the planes. I was really quite surprised at how she reacted to everything and how well she took everything in.
Once we got on the plane Erin was still really excited but she really didn’t want her seat belt on and she didn’t want to be constrained. This is something we battle with frequently and she hasn’t liked this kind of thing for a very long time. Erin started off in the window seat but we had to move her to the middle seat otherwise she just could have climbed around too much and not sat still when we needed her to.
A lot of people had told me that small children might not do too well with taking off because of issues with their ears popping. Erin didn’t seem to mind at all though and she didn’t complain or say it hurt once. We did use a tip from someone though and gave her something to eat at this point and we made sure we had her favourite crisps with us to help. Food was definitely the way to go at a couple of different point during our flight so it’s really worth taking plenty in your carry on luggage. We did order meals but Erin wasn’t fussed about eating this at the time.
Along with a lot of food we also took loads of things for Erin to do. I really tried to find some brilliant plane toys for children Erin’s age to keep her busy. To start with, we opened up the Moana playset that I got from The Disney Store and this was a massive hit. However, there were some smaller pieces and we soon realised they were going to get lost easily so we had to hide a few bits in John’s pockets. Erin also had loads of fun with a new sticker book and doing some drawing too.
In between the playing, eating and colouring Erin also wanted to look outside a bit and to see what was going on. After the seat belt sign went off we did let her move around quite a lot and to take everything in as we wanted her to get to see the clouds properly!
Our flight was about 2.5 hours long and after about 1.5 hours Erin was quite grizzly and tired. She had been awake since 4:30am and at this point it was about 11am so she was certainly due a nap. We were so lucky with our first flight as the plane was nearly empty. This meant that instead of having Erin cry for me and cling to me, John was able to take her into another row that was empty and get her calm and quiet easily. I wish I could say the same thing for our flight home, which was a bit trickier but we still managed.
Erin actually slept until the end of the flight and after that as well! John had to carry Erin off the plane still snoring away and she only woke up just before we got to the luggage claim area.Sometimes that girl sleeps through the strangest things!
I couldn’t have asked for a better first flight with Erin. Everything people said would happen didn’t and really, it was quite enjoyable. She might not remember it by the time we fly again but if nothing else, I now have some experience in what to expect and how to handle things!
Fancy taking a bit of a closer look at our flight? Watch the video below:
https://youtu.be/pkj7fevM-ss
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