Vacation Voyage: Go!
As I type this, I sit on a balcony on a cruise ship, facing the Mediterranean Sea. I can hear the waves as our ship glides across the ocean and feel the soft breeze against my skin. My toddler sleeps in the next cabin while I listen to her on our baby monitor. I can hardly believe that I’m here and that this is how I’m settling into my evening. But then again, the journey here was something I won’t soon forget.
By the journey, I refer to the car ride to the airport, the overnight flight to Europe and the transport to the cruise ship. I promised I would share what I learned, so let me break down my experience for you.
The Car Ride
I completely underestimated this. It normally takes us about 35 minutes to get to the airport and this time it took us an hour and thirty minutes (thanks to a New York Yankee game that had recently ended). We did allot for 90 minutes as our worse case scenario and boy, did we need it. My daughter got pretty worked up on the way to the airport, so things didn’t exactly get off to a great start.
The Airport
Normally, I would have been concerned about how to keep my toddler occupied while waiting for our flight. However, this was actually a non-issue. We had just enough time to go through security, buy water and magazines and change her diaper one more time before we boarded. I guess that was the silver lining to our traffic problem.
The Plane
I know this is the part you wanted to know about. Here’s the scoop: our daughter did remarkably well (for her). If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you’ll know that she is a “spirited child,” a nap-free energy resource who puts the Middle East oil reserve to shame.
We boarded the plane at about 8:30pm and, taking the advice of a friend, let her explore her explore her entire seat area. At first my husband and I were surpised she wasn’t whining to go to sleep (as her bedtime is normally about 7:45pm) but as our friends predicted, she was so wired that her excitement won out. No whole milk on the beverage cart, so we tried to give her a bottle of toddler formula. Wrong move, she quickly rejected it (I guess after having cold milk it probably tasted like lukewarm chalk water, so I really don't blame her).
Finally, I put the armrest up between our seats, laid her head on my lap and stroked her hair to calm her down — and it worked. Within ten minutes, she was out!! Score!! She was asleep by 10pm. We gently placed her in her own seat, lined her armrests with pillows, tucked a blanket around her and got some zzzzzzzzzs ourselves. She slept for five hours, and we landed an hour and a half later.
Once she was up I did the following: fed her breakfast, turned the television on the chair in front of her to cartoons and gave her plastic cups to play with from the drink cart. That was all we needed for the trans-Atlantic flight. Even now, I still can't believe it. We then had to change planes to get to our ultimate destination in Venice, but that flight was only 50 minutes long (which seemed like a gift after our trans-Atlantic flight). Our daughter managed that one okay with minimum whining. My husband and I consider ourselves very lucky.
The Transfer
As I mentioned, we changed planes in Zurich to board a plane to Venice (our final destination) and I need to take a moment to honor the great gift from the people of Switzerland: the Zurich Airport. Should any of you venture to Europe and require a transfer to your ultimate destination, I would strongly suggest transferring in Zurich. This airport is the most elegant, simple, helpful, and useful design I have ever scene. It makes New York's JFK Airport look like a garbage dump (and no, when compared, I am not exaggerating).
We had to change terminals when we arrived so went to seek out the monorail. When we paused for a moment to consider which direction to go, an airport attendant asked us if we needed any assistance, simply because he thought we looked confused. But apparently this is his entire job: to walk around looking for confused travelers and help them (need I say more?). Also, the airport has an entire family playroom for parents with young children. It has a bathroom for parents, and place to park your strollers, an entire playroom filled with beautiful wooden toys and a six diaper changing stations with free wipes for you to use (for a moment I could have sworn it was heaven). So, who feels like writing to their senator to request a Family Center for their local airport?
In conclusion, I honestly don’t know if it was luck, or skill, or angels that made this a fairly smooth process for my husband, my daughter and me. Maybe the Travel Gods above decided to smile down on us for this flight. If so, I’ll take it and say thank you. What I’ve learned is that preparation is key, and that no matter how many toys I had, my daughter played the longest with things she saw me with (hence the plastic cups). And, I’ve learned that despite my great fear of taking her off her normal schedule, she adapted. I was the one who had trouble accepting the change to her normal routine. And hey, if it comes down to taking a vacation or not, I can learn to embrace change. Bring it on!
Author: Amy
