Brisbane area!

[scicaro]

So people in tomorrow world. It looks like we will be getting an invite to a wedding of some friends who live in Brisbane.

Should we/shouldn't we?? Do we really want to take 2 smalls on a flight that long?

Halcyon - any tips for flying that far with small people?

It will be in October which also means it will be during school time for mini1 who will have just started. Should we be considering taking him out of school for a trip.

What do the wise women of the tree think?

[Deleted]

Travel is very educational... Don't worry about school x

[scicaro]

I'm kind of leaning towards the school thing isn't important. It's more can we cope with 24 hours in a plane with 2 kids and the jet lag once we get there.

[Deleted]

Yeh that part I don't know sorry :/
Friends of mine have travelled between perth and frankfurt with their kids since they were babies - I highly doubt she put more thought into it than 'lets get on the plane' (they are now 14,18,20)

[HalcyonDaze]

Taking out of school at that age I can't see it being a problem. I know preschool and proper school are different, but LC missed virtually all of the second term last year and it didn't really matter. You guys are bright, you'll be able to help mini1 with anything he does miss out on. I had LC send postcards to his class to keep in touch and so they remembered him, though again at that age friendship groups are huge and so the all sort of glomp round together and he slotted in fine when he came back.

For the flight - will stopovers be possible? A friend of mine prefers the go straight through method, I much, much, much prefer have a night in a hotel on the way over and a slightly longer break on the way back home. I find it helps my sanity.

We also tried to book our flights to be through the day as much as possible. Again, personal preference, but we figured we had no guarantee that LC would sleep on a night flight, so rather than try to entertain an overtired and possibly feral child who should be sleeping, it was better to entertain a happier child during a day flight (plus flying from OZ it works well with day flight to Singapore, arrive in singapore at night, go to hotel and sleep in bed, back on plane the next day).

For entertainment, an iPad or iPod or something with games and movies was great. Plus we had Uno, another card game, a friend bought me some of the wipe off crayons (I can send some over if you can't get them) and she printed up and laminated various CBeebies show characters so we had wipe off colouring in pages. We had a mini etch a sketch and story cubes, plus he did some of the seat back entertainment stuff. I'm sure we had other stuff as well.

And snacks - loads of snacks. In part as the airline told us that even ordering the nut free meal didn't guarantee it would be free from nuts, but also being able to hand over food when he wanted it and not wait for the staff was good.

Walk laps of the plane - the A380 is good for this.

He did better with jet lag than us - so that is one thing to remember - you'll be stuffed and the kids will still want to be up and about and playing.

Can you get apartment style accomodation in Brisbane - again there is no way I'd do a long stay in a hotel room with jetlagged kids. One night in an airport Hotel was enough!

StripeySocks might have more to add.

[gertieshirtypants]

Bugger all of that.

Yes you should and you should have a pissup and if I have money I will fly up and see you and maybe stalk Gecko_Wrangler.

[treehugger]

Yes, you should definitely have a piss up with gecko. Isn't that the main reason for visiting Brisbane?!

[HalcyonDaze]

And what gertie said as well - I'm thinking a long weekend in BrisVegas would be fun.

[ozziegiraffe]

I'm less than 3 hours drive from Brisbane - as long as the piss=up is on the weekend I'm up for it. I want to see some of you IRL.

[scicaro]

You are all very persuasive ;-)
We don't have any details yet - date and location for wedding aren't yet arranged but rest assured I'll keep you all posted.

[poppy]

as to the taking mini1 out of school - I wouldn't worry too much, he will catch up and the experience will be good. Friends of ours took their children 4 & 6 out of school for around 6-9 months to travel around Australia - the girls have never looked back and both now have good jobs.
I like having a stopover on the way there and back the same as Halycon, then again I'm not travelling with little kids. I feel it helps adjust to the new time zone. In saying that, I know LisaMNZ feels it is better for the kids to go straight thru.

Yes, a Brisbane piss-up sounds a great idea.

[sare]

nothing to add other than that October is one of the nicest months in Brisbane (which is probably why they are scheduling the wedding for then) - usually warming up, sunny and low humidity.

[no idea @wino]

self invited to gecko/sci piss up thanks!

[gertieshirtypants]

Were we supposed to wait for someone else to invite us?

[MsBelleRae]

Jan 18, 2013 5:38:54 GMT -5 no idea @wino said:

self invited to gecko/sci piss up thanks!

Gecko! Please tell her she is missed! I'd love to see her round here.

[scicaro]

Jan 18, 2013 7:16:06 GMT -5 gertieshirtypants said:

Were we supposed to wait for someone else to invite us?

Nah surely invite is assumed....

[no idea @wino]

gecko is a doting or dottering grand mother!

[Tulipana]

The Brisbane area is fun!! I really liked it. Make sure you pop over to Noosa too.