dlf, what a great idea with the angel pins! I almost cried when the nice lady offered to switch seats. It had already been a hectic return trip with delays and nasty check-in attendants.

In other news: someone ate all the chocolate out of my desktop candy tin. I put in a note that says "Someone needs to fill me up." I'm getting tired of feeding someone who makes 3 times what I make!

Nope no swirlies...short sheeted beds, other icky stuff but no swirlies...they never could have picked me up anyway [img]smile.gif[/img] .
When my boys were 5, 3, 17 months and newborn I used to fly with some of those inexpensive angle pins in my pocket to give to those folks that helped me. One poor woman actually had the baby throw up on her...she got the extra special pin... [img]smile.gif[/img] ....

Oh yeah! And don't let your kids know everything you've packed or they'll work their way through it all in the first 10 minutes. Dole out the activities, snacks, etc slowly. If you're lucky you may even land with stuff still in the bag to use on the way back home.

Lots of the handheld games (electronic or not), gum, crayons and even though some Dr and such have come out against medicatiing children before flying as psoted above we do benadryl (bet they dont have 5 kids flying at one time, either)- some airlines even let u bring a car seat/car booster seat or hold smaller ones on lap (some require ticket some dont)- lots of snack and drinks although I dont know how the new security restrictions cover food and drinks yet

Thanks everyone for the all of the great ideas and tips! Separate the snacks, small fan (hubby might need that), etc, all will help.

We are all SO excited! Disney is fantastic! This will be the girls' first trip there. We have our Halloween parade/party tickets and our costumes, myself and the oldest as pirate girls, hubby as Shaggy and the little one as Daphne from Scooby...so cute!

We've got 2 1/2 weeks to go and I'm already too excited to sleep...

We've flown many times with our son and it's been wonderful. A few tips I've picked up along the way:

- Check airline regs for carry on size, allowed items (ie juice boxes, bottled drinks, etc may not currently be allowed), foods/snacks on the plane, etc.

- Don't put everything in one bag because you may get separated on the plane. It's better to have a few things in each bag that you can pass back and forth.

- Take along some books or magazines about your destination so you can plan your activities.

- Plan to visit every bathroom on the plane at least twice.....

- Remain calm - they'll follow your lead.

- Don't assume that other travellers think your children are as precious as you do or that their stories are darling or that they want to play scissors - paper - rock with them 45 times. (Not that you would - but some parents do...) Inside voices, quiet activities, respect for fellow travellers. And remember extra batteries.

- Assign duties to you and your husband before you even leave the house - who carries the blue bag, which child do you watch, who keeps the tickets.

- Besides just the flight, travelling and Disney can be overwhelming and overstimulating for kids. Plan plenty of breaks and down time. You can't do it all in one visit anyway so pick the few key items that are important to you and anything else you squeeze in is just icing on the cake.

Have a BLAST!!! (I love love love Disney!)