Florida - Travelling with a baby

Despite some trepidation, we decided to travel with our 10 month old boy to Florida. It's not a location we would've chosen to go to ourselves, but the weather is warm in March, and it's a good place to go with kids. Plus, we had a villa, so we had all our home comforts (washing machine, microwave, oven etc.), plus our own pool outside, so it was ideal, really.

Flight out - Early Check-in
We were flying with BA from Gatwick. We drove down the night before and stayed at the Hilton which is connected to the South Terminal. The flight was from the North Terminal, but it's no great hardship to get the monorail over there. BA do this Early Check-in where you can check in from 4pm the night before your flight which is very handy. (Virgin do it too, so let's not be biased here!). We got there just before 4 and hung around for a while. Unfortunately, nobody decided to turn up til nearly half past - not great when you have a small child who needs feeding very shortly! Not to worry - I'm sure the wait the next day would've been much longer. It's definitely a good idea to get rid of your luggage the day before, as it's one less thing to queue up for on the day you fly. But you do have to be organised about what you leave in hand luggage, especially with the restrictions on liquids these days.

The next day we just got straight in the queue for security to go through to departures. And WHAT a queue! It was horrendous - really badly organised and just a nightmare. We must've been in it a good hour at least. Still, it was very thorough, so I guess we can't complain too much as they're just keeping us safe in the air, but they could definitely do with some more x-ray machines!

The departure lounges at Gatwick are very good - small shopping malls, basically, and less crowded than Heathrow. We still had the pushchair at this point - you can take it as far as the plane and they stick it in the hold at the last minute. We'd requested a 'skycot' as soon as we'd booked the holiday, and this is a very wise move with a small child. It's actually quite small. Our 10 month old would only fit in it with his legs bent slightly, but they're supposed to be ok to use up to 2 years of age, but I think that would be a pretty tight fit!

In the end, he was a little diamond on the flight. No trouble at all. He just sat and played with his toys most of the time and was as happy as larry. There were a few small kids on board, and none of them were any trouble at all.


Arrival at Orlando International
We arrived pretty much on time. Unfortunately, the push chair does not get returned to you at the plane, so we had to carry the litt'un all the way to baggage reclaim. And we had to hold him while waiting at immigration which, as you can imagine, was not a speedy process. Baggage reclaim was just behind immigration, though so we picked up our push chair there and the luggage was through pretty speedily. We loaded up the trolley with our cases, but no sooner had we got them on, you have to take them all off again and put them through another x-ray machine! So off they came, through the machine, and then loaded them back on again. Hurrah, we thought, we'll be off now. How wrong we were! Just round the corner you have to load all your cases back onto another belt for them to transport it over to the main baggage reclaim area! Then you get on a train to take you there, too. We arrived there WAY before the luggage did, and you have to pay for luggage trolleys here - currently $3 - which is a bit of a con, but we didn't have much choice. This was a real pain, and added a long time to the waiting around. Finally the luggage turned up, and we went downstairs to pickup the rental car from Alamo. We had used Alamo a couple of times before and the queues had always been REALLY bad. But thankfully, here, there was no queue at all so we were into our car very quickly. We had booked an infant seat and had expected it to be fitted in the car for us already. But it wasn't. They were all just piled in a big heap and you had to do it yourself. Now, bearing in mind it was about 3 in the morning to us, I didn't really want to have to sit down and read a whole instruction manual before I could put my child in the car! So we asked if they could fit it for us. The reply was just beyond belief! - "Sorry maam, it's a liability issue"!! Unbelivable! They wont fit it in case they get sued if something goes wrong! This is something we've got to look forward to in the UK with the ever increasing compensation culture. In the end it was fairly simple, and we were away in our Chevrolet Malibu. We had to pick up the keys first from the real estate management company which was in nearby Clermont and then it was onwards to the villa itself, on highway 27, just South West of Orlando.

The Villa
We eventually found the villa, and got the littl'un straight to bed. He was obviously absolutely shattered, and was just sort of staring at us with a vacant expression on his face, poor little thing. We hit the sack pretty soon after ourselves. I think it was only about 7pm Florida time, but this was pretty late back in our own time zone! We all woke up very early (about 4am), as you always do travelling in this direction, and decided to take a trip to WalMart to get some provisions. There's one just 5 minutes up Highway 27 (near the junction with the 192) from where we stayed, and it's 24 hours of course, so we stocked up on food, etc.

The next couple of days were spent not doing too much - adjusting to the time zone, which we had to do a bit slower than we would normally do as we had to adjust the littl'un, too, and you can only keep him up so late every night! We took a drive aorund the area one morning, just to familiarise ourselves with the place. We went to International Drive, where all the main attractions are. It was very foggy this morning, but the fog was very localised, so you'd be in and out of pockets of fog all the time.

One of the other things we did early on was check out the shops. We went to the Florida Mall. This is apparently the biggest mall in Central Florida, although it's probably smaller than Bluewater in Kent. It's worth a trip for all the usual shops - a few department stores etc. And a typical food court with a Taco Bell and various other eateries. Another mall worth doing is the Mall at Millenia. It's smaller than the Florida Mall, but it's classier and more pleasant somehow, and has more stylish shops.

Something else we decided to do was visit Babies R Us. This is located on East Colonial Drive. We were just amazed at how much cheaper everything is in the US. Even AVENT stuff (which is made in England) is typically half the price in the US! How can it be cheaper to ship it to the US and sell it than it is to just sell it in the UK?! It just shows how ripped off we are over here!

One of the main 'attractions' we did first was Ripley's Believe it or Not. This is located on International Drive, and, if you haven't heard of it or seen the TV program, it's a collection of exhibits from around the world, mainly on weird and wonderful things, plus the world's tallest man, fattest man, smallest man. That sort of thing. It's worth a visit for a couple of hours, and it's fairly inexpensive compared to the theme parks.

The first main attraction we did was SeaWorld. This is a HUGE complex just off International Drive. It has all the usual stuff you'd expect. We sat in on the killer whale show: Believe. This was very good. It only lasts about half an hour, but you have to get there a good half hour in advance of the start to be sure to get a half decent seat. Word of warning: if you sit in the 'soak zone', you will get VERY wet! Probably not ideal with a baby! We walked around the park some more and saw some of the other animals. We had lunch in a restaurant which did healthy options (few and far between in the US!). Most of the eateries at SeaWorld seemed to be self-service style places which is perfect with a child as you can be in and out as quickly as you need to be.

Later in the holiday we went to Kennedy Space Center. This is about 1 hour east of Orlando on Merrit Island.
The toll road cost a grand total of about $1.75. Hardly worth charging for, really! Sadly, Kennedy didn't work out quite as well with the litt'un. He seemed to be having real trouble with his teeth on this day so he was very grizzly all day! Most of what you can see at Kennedy is done on a bus tour - there are 3 stops to take in. The first was a viewing platform from where you can get a good view of the launch pads. There's a small snack bar here, so don't worry if you get a bit peckish, plus some bogs if you need a slash. There's a lift to the top of the viewing platform, and a slope to take you out on the balcony even if you have a buggy. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that you can't take your own push chair on the bus tour. You leave it in the 'stroller park' at the bus stop and you can pick up one of their strollers at each stop, although they're not very good - quite hard and functional, and not very comfortable. If you have a baby who can't even sit up yet, you'll have to hold him. The next stop was a large hall filled with a huge rocket and a variety of other small exhibits. We didn't stop here long as Harvey started to kick off big style so we made a sharp exit and got the bus back to the visitor's complex! We walked around here a bit more - there's a fair amount to see here, too - Space Shuttle, rocket garden etc. All worth a look. There's a half decent self-service restaurant here, too, but we decided to feed Harvey outside on a bench because he'd been a little pain all day and we didn't want to inflict him any others! Everybody was lovely, though. The bus driver gave him a NASA coin to play with when he got a bit grumpy on the bus, and other families were entertaining him on the bus when he was getting sad. Thanks guys!

The last big theme park we did was Universal Studios. The worst aspect of this is the distance from the car park to the actual theme park itself. It has a few moving walkways (like at airports), but you're not allowed strollers on here, so we had to do the whole walk 'manually'!
It seemed to be a good time of year to go - the queues weren't too bad early on in the day, so we decided to take it in turns to do a couple of rides. I went on the Earthquake in the San Francisco area first. This was very good - after a few introductory talks on special effects, the main event starts. You get onto a subway train and drive off and pull into another station... And then... well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Save to say, if you sit on the other side of the train to the one you get in on, you will probably get wet! And I wouldn't take a small child on there, as it's very loud and would probably scare them!

The other ride I went on was the Revenge of the Mummy ride. This was a roller coaster which is mainly in darkness so you can't see what's coming! Mummy's and scarab beetles come out at you etc. And you get thrown around a fair amount. Definitely not one for the faint hearted!

My wife also went on Twister - which is a simulated tornado. Apparently also very good, but not advisable for a small child - I saw a few young children (5 or 6 years old) coming off it crying, so be warned!

Yes, there's nice scenery in Central Florida, too!

Something else we did was go to Lake Louisa (no, not Lake Louise) State Park. We found this purely by accident by just driving around the area. It's located on Highway 27, about 7 miles north of WalMart (or about 10 miles north of the junction with the 192, on the west side of the highway). It only costs $4 per car to get in, and it's beautiful. There are two main lakes you can get to by car - Dixie Lake (the smaller of the 2), and then Lake Louisa itself which is a LOT bigger. We were there about 10am and there was literally nobody else about which made it all the more fantastic. Dixie Lake has a small pier to walk out onto, whereas Lake Louisa has a sandy beach and a lot more shorline. We heard a few alligators thrashing around in Dixie Lake and, unsurprisingly, you're not allowed to swim in it! However, Lake Louisa does have a bathing area, but there is a sign up saying that there may be alligators and you do so at your own risk! I think you'd have to be mad to swim there to be quite honest.. It goes without saying that we stuck to the pool at the villa.
The park is definitely worth a morning of your time, or if you're a keen hiker, a bit longer, as there are various hikes to other smaller lakes which are bound to be completely deserted because everybody else is at Disney!

Downtown Disney

Somewhere else worth a visit is the Downtown Disney complex, in the south east of Disney World. This is on Disney property, but it's not inside the theme parks so you don't have to pay to park or to get in or anything. It's basically just a collection of shops and restaurants, mainly with a Disney/Childrens theme, but there's a huge selection of stuff to choose from, and it's all fairly good value (compared to UK prices, anyway). It's certainly worth spending half a day here. There's even a Christmas shop so you can stock up on all those tree decorations! The food choice wasn't that varied, though, and tended to be a bit on the pricey side, so choose carefully.

And that was about it. Time in between was filled by swimming in the pool, and going round the shops, and, of course, eating! You'll be doing plenty of that in the US!

The flight back was fairly uneventful - Harvey slept through most of it, although it was quite bumpy so the seatbelt sign came on a few times which means you have to take him out of the skycot as they're not secured into it. But we managed to do it a couple of times without disturbing the litt'un, thankfully!

Would I do it again? I think I would. But it would have to be a villa - you just couldn't manage in a hotel with a small child, especially as you wouldn't be able to do anything once they'd gone to bed!
One useful tip for travelling with a small child is to take more bottles and/or food than they would normally have in that time. The reason being, they might not sleep during the period they would normally be asleep, so you need to be offering them some food every 3 hours or so. We got caught out here, assuming he'd just be asleep, but he just stayed awake for hours after he should've been in bed! Thankfully one of the BA flight crew said they had a few spare jars of food on board and she gave us a couple which we fed him as soon as we cleared immigration. On the way back we played it safe and packed a couple of extra bottles, but as it turned out he just slept so we didn't need them.

Seeya, and thanks for reading!