Car Seat or No Car seat...That is the Question?

[Windy City Heather]

We are flying to Jamaica (4 hour flight) in 2 weeks with my 2 1/2 year old. I can't decide if I should take the car seat. I would love your opinions. We flew to Disney in early December. The trip down was fine, only complaint was not being able to use the tray with the car seat. The trip back she learned to kick the seat in front of her. The gentlemen finally got up and moved. Our flight will be full and the person in front of us will be stuck. I have a flight attentant friend who suggested turning the seat rear facing. When we arrive we will take a 1 1/2 hour bus ride. The buses something have seat belts and sometimes do not. It is hit or miss. I keep going back and forth on whether I should take it or not. Any opinion is good.

[egoldber]

I know exactly the buses you are talking about (we've been to Jamaica 3 times). I don't recall them having any sort of seatbelt at all. And frankly, the bus ride is SCARY. Twisty, windy roads and the drivers go very, very fast. I do not usually get carsick, and I am usually nauseated after the ride for several hours.

Is it an option to take a helicopter flight instead? My DH swears that the next time we go to Negril, we are taking a helicopter and not the bus, regardless of the cost.

HTH,

[Windy City Heather]

The road to Negril is not so bad. It's the road to Oco Rios that is really bad. We had seat belts on the trip back to the airport last time. We also took a tour and that bus had them. Have you taken your daughter to Jamaica? Did you take your car seat?

[egoldber]

OMG! If the road to Ocho Rios is WORSE than the road to Negril, I would REALLY take a helicopter!!

We have taken her to Jamaica, but we stayed at a resort in Montego Bay. We did bring the carseat because we bought her a seat on the plane and she was only 17 months at the time. Honestly, I refused to take her on the buses. Te taxi in Montego Bay did not have seatbelts so we could not use it on the taxi ride to the resort.

We are getting ready to go to St Vincent in a couple weeks and we are not bringing a car seat at all. She uses the lap belt on the plane and the taxi to the resort is only 10 minutes.

[Windy City Heather]

Thank you. I just needed to know that I was not out of line in not bringing the car seat. Also, the road to Negril was redone about 2 or 3 years ago. It use to be really bad but now it is a nice paved road. So, you might have been on it when it was really bad.

[egoldber]

Ah, I did not know that. It has been at least 5 years since we have been to Negril. Good to know.

More food for thought though. If you do not bring your carseat, your DD will have to sit, belted in her seat for the 4 hour flight. We started not bringing a carseat on board an airplane when DD tunred 3. At that time, I think she was just barely old enough to be able to do that well. So think about your DD's ability to sit nicely while only belted in the airplane.

HTH,

[Windy City Heather]

For safety reasons I think she should be belted the whole time but I think she really is only required to be belted during take off's, landing's and turbulence. As a lap child they sit freely on your lap? I will check with the airline about it. I think she will sit fine for take off's and landings but I don't think it is fair to make her sit the whole ride when the rest of the plane can get up and move around.

[egoldber]

But being belted for "takeoff" means from the time the door closes until the captain turns off the fasten seat belt sign. That can be a loonnnggg time (I have had to wait 15 minutes to an hour before) depending on how long you have to wait for takeoff. And similar on landing, they have to be belted from descent until you are parked at the gate.

And in my experience, its actually easier to convince DD to stay belted most of the time, with being unbelted as the exception. That way, she gets used to being belted, instead of having to coax her to be belted for the times the seatbelt sign comes on for turbulence.

If you don't have a portable DVD player, you may want to consider one. I find it to be invaluable for air travel.

Just food for thought.

[Windy City Heather]

That is a good point. I had planned to teach her about the seat belt sign. I was going to tell her that anytime the seat belt sign came on she had to put her seat belt on or they would not let her ride on the plane. If she can't ride on the plane she can't get to Jamaica and if she can't get to Jamaica she can't meet Elmo. She loves Elmo and I think that might convince her. She is still so little, I think if she is in her seat belt she is not going to be able to reach the tray. She is going to need to eat and she loves to color.

We do have a portable DVD player. I love it for flying but the bad thing is she does not understand that it has to be turned of on decent. She has a fit. We have traveled a bunch but this is the first time I have even considered not taking the car seat. She gets a new toy and a new snack on every flight. I try to save the new toy for the decent so she does not notice as much that I am putting away the DVD player.

[egoldber]

Are you going to Beaches? If so I would be curious to hear of your experiences there when you get back.

[Windy City Heather]

Yes, we are going to Beaches. We went to Sandy Bay last year. I would not recommend it. For just a little more you can go to Beaches Negril. Sandy Bay is smaller, with less activities. The nursery is a converted room. It is small and dark. We checked it out the first day and my daughter was fine with it. We took her back to stay our second to last day. As soon as she realized we were leaving she had a fit (not normal). They said go, go, go she will be fine. I stayed outside the door. She kept screaming. When I finally went back into get her they told me she was fine. They said she had stopped crying. They also tryed to muffle her cry. I took her with me. That night we eat at Negril. We took her in the nursery because I wanted to see it. She did not want to leave. We said we were leaving and she waved to us. She was fine there. My travel agent gave me a schedule of all Seasame Street activities. They get to make cookies with cookie monster, dance with zoe and have story time with elmo. We can't wait. I will report back when we get back. We will not be back until the 26th. So, expect a report a few days after that.

[egoldber]

Sounds super! Have fun!