Saturday, August 1, 2015

Naples, Florida May/June 2015

A couple of months ago we spontaneously decided to join my partner's parent's, sister, brother in law and nephews for their upcoming holiday to Florida. We managed to get really cheap flights and cheap accommodation due to having a family friend in Florida who rents out holiday apartments.
My partner was nervous about travelling such a long distance with a 12 months old but I assured her, everything would be fine, when on the inside, I was dreading the journey just as much, if not more...

I did some research about how to survive the long 9/10 hour flight with a squirmy toddler travelling as a lap infant as we didn't have the funds to book her her own seat.

The long anticipated day finally arrived May 31st and we were on the way to the airport with two massive suitcases, a stroller, a car seat and 2 pieces of hand luggage.
Emilia and I have flown to Germany 4 times already, so we know the drill at security and I pack my bag sensibly and also buy most of her milk/food at the airport as we have well stocked drugstores after security!
We settled into our seats on the plane when we noticed a lot of empty seats in the back of the plane. The pilot made his welcome announcement and asked us to remain in our seats for now and then, once seatbelt signs went off we were free to take any of the empty seats.
I kindly asked the flight attendant if there was any chance we could have a row of three seats as it would be lovely for us to have that extra space with a baby and she came back a minute later telling us to move seats before take off as otherwise all seats would be gone.
We really appreciated having the spare seat.
Take off went smoothly and I was smug when Emilia fell asleep quickly after her bottle and slept for two hours...but that would be all the sleep she was having for the remainder of the day. But to be honest it really wasn't bad. She sat in the middle seat just enjoying life, snacks, our attention and the flight map on the screen in front of her.


That 9 hour flight flight really went quickly and soon we landed in Miami.
The crew and other passengers complimented her on her excellent behaviour and her mummies were proud!
By the time we cleared immigrations and customs, got our cases and the shuttle to the hotel it was 5:30pm so I decided to just try and keep her up until as close to 7pm, which is her bedtime at home, though obviously this would be almost midnight at home.
She had been awake for 10 hours by the time she went to sleep and only napped for 2 hours all day.
The first night went ok but Emilia and I got up pretty early trying not to wake up my partner.
We took a walk around the hotel and then went to have breakfast.
The staff were awesome and paid Emilia so much attention, she loved it!

After breakfast Emilia had a quick nap and then we drove from Miami to Naples, where we would stay for the next 12 nights.



We had the most amazing time, Emilia did so well considering we were pushing her to her limits every day and she was still getting over the 5 hour time difference and temperature change.
Every day we went to the beach or pool in the morning, then home for lunch and naptime. Afternoons we did some exploring before going out for meals in the evening. Often we'd meet my partner's family for dinner.




Afterwards we quickly stopped by the shops to pick up supplies and Emilia was never in bed before 8:30pm.

Wherever we went, people were asking us if Emilia was always this happy, she just smiled so much. People said she had made their day by smiling and waving at them.
Oftentimes she'd wave at people who weren't even looking at her(for example people at the table across the room in the restaurant) but once they caught sight of her, they waved and smiled back, then Emilia would engage them in a game of peek-a-boo. She really was a lot of fun!
In supermarkets she was offered free cookies and bananas and one afternoon at a bakery, she was given a yogurt tube for free :)



We had a bit of an issue with food, she wasn't a fan of the baby food available in the shops and we weren't prepared to buy her the kids meals in restaurants, so we reverted back to feeding puree pouches or 7 months jars(instead of the toddler meals she would eat at home) and lots of bread and bananas...
Then in the second week she seemed to have got a tummy bug, so we tried to give her a simple diet of bread, bananas and apple sauce but by that point she was fed up of bread and bananas...
If we are travelling again while she's still on some baby jars, I would definitely bring more of the ones she is used to.



We spent our final night in Miami and once again decided the city just isn't 'us', so we will remember this and fly into Orlando next time!

The return flight didn't go quite as well as the outbound flight. Emilia had napped only 45 minutes all day and to top it all off, our flight left 2.5 hours late, 9:30pm instead of 7pm. Emilia was really starting to lose it at that point. I had tried my best to get her to sleep in the airport, carried her in the sling and sang endless nursery rhymes to her, but she just couldn't settle.
The crew was slow to get the drinks and meal services out and by the time the cabin light was finally dimmed, it was well past midnight.
Emilia slept 3 hours, in my arms, waking up crying every 15 minutes.
The crew was lovely though, giving up their own seats(in the last rows) to give us a third seat again plus always offering extra meals for Emilia.
Then to top the 'not so good'(but definitely not terrible) flight off, Emilia decided to throw up her yogurt all over ME just after the 'fasten seatbelt' sign had come on in time for landing. Perfect :)

We are so, so glad we decided to go on this holiday, it was an amazing time as a family of 3!!