Car Seat Dilemma

[AlohaPride]

We are flying from Honolulu to Seattle to take a 14 day cruise in Alaska this August. In Hawaii we never use taxis, so I don't know how they work in relation to transporting children. We will not be renting cars on our trip, and plan to use taxis for transportation to and from our hotel. Do we need to bring all three of our car seats? How does it work taking a taxi with children? What about travel with cruise line tours? Will we need to provide the car seats and boosters for those excursions as well?

 

I will bring their car seats, of course, if I have to. I'm not looking forward to them taking up space in our inside cabin, LOL.

[092306]

If your children ride in car seats at home, then you would need them if you are planning to take taxis while traveling. For excursions, it could vary based on the company and what you can pre-arrange as far as having car seats provided, but I would feel better bringing my own. I know a lot of the tours through the cruise line use bus transportation and they don't provide car seats. We have one child and don't want to lug a car seat so we've only travelled with our son from our local port (no taxi needed) and do excursions that are walking/stroller or boat tours.

[cb at sea]

If you take shuttles, rather than taxis, you won't need carseats....it will be buses, so no car seats needed.

[AlohaPride]

Thanks everyone! Does anyone have any experience with BubbleBum booster seats? I'm thinking this might be a good alternative to bringing along our "usual" car seats.

[Prinycesa07]

I was just going to ask how old they were & if old enough recommend bubble bum. I haven't used it but it gets really good reviews.

[ShanteS]

We are flying from Honolulu to Seattle to take a 14 day cruise in Alaska this August. In Hawaii we never use taxis, so I don't know how they work in relation to transporting children. We will not be renting cars on our trip, and plan to use taxis for transportation to and from our hotel. Do we need to bring all three of our car seats? How does it work taking a taxi with children? What about travel with cruise line tours? Will we need to provide the car seats and boosters for those excursions as well?

 

I will bring their car seats, of course, if I have to. I'm not looking forward to them taking up space in our inside cabin, LOL.

 

This is a workable dilemma but how old are your children? You could get away with putting your older kids in CARES harnesses and put the youngest in the carseat on the plane. Also, I took my 2 year old on her first cruise last August and had to cart her monstrous Graco My Ride 65 around everywhere. It stored really easily in one of the closets and I still had room to hang long dresses.

 

Even if you have to carry more than one carseat get creative with transporting them. Use cable ties to secure them to your luggage or get one of those backpacks that allows you to carry the carseat.

 

Thanks everyone! Does anyone have any experience with BubbleBum booster seats? I'm thinking this might be a good alternative to bringing along our "usual" car seats.

 

Be careful with booster seats as most are not approved for use in air planes because they only have a lap belt. The flight attendants will not allow you to use it.

[Lerin]

Shuttles and busses do not require carseats-in fact some don't even have seat belts so a car seat would be useless.

 

It is the law that all children be properly secured in taxis however.

When we went to Alaska, we found that some cabs had car seats but most did not. None of them had more than 1, and of course they all weren't the proper size or quality. You could probably call ahead of time to arrange something, but that could be difficult.

[Athankfulheart]

I would recommend Ride Safer Vests. If you have one that is too small for the vests then I would recommend a Sit n Stroll. We have used both and actually resold them on Ebay after the trips. We recouped most of what we had spent because there is a high demand for temporary use of these items. We actually wound up purchasing a second sit n' stroll a few years down the road and kept that one longer. The best use of that one was when we took 7 children including an 18m old to Hawaii. We took 2 flights and stayed on Oahu for a few days before and after a cruise of the islands. We used that stroller for planes, trains and automobiles as well as a booster at restaurants and all kinds of things. It was one of our best purchases ever. It really is easy to fold and unfold the sit n' stroll even when your child is in it. It just takes a few practices.

 

Edited to add that when we took that trip. We had 4 in car seats/boosters.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Athankfulheart

[AlohaPride]

Duh, ages would help! My girls will be 7 (but very skinny), 5 1/2, and almost 4 by the time we sail. My two oldest are already at the 40 pound limit for the bubblebum and I'm thinking my youngest will be right there by the time August rolls around. If not, we'll just take her Diono Radian RXT (which folds flat) with us.

 

I can't believe this topic wasn't one of the first things I thought of when booking the trip! LOL It came to me just a few nights ago. We've been planning this trip for a year already.

[Mom2B&Z]

If your children meet the booster minimums, then this can be the easiest solution. However, there are not many almost 4 year olds that can sit properly in a low back booster. The Radian is a nice seat for travel, a bit heavy but the fact it folds makes storing it much easier. There are NO boosters approved for airline use, because a booster positions the shoulder harness portion of the seatbelt, which is not present on an aircraft. You can use the radian, they install easily and have a nice low profile that allows the child to use the seat tray.

I'm a former Canadian car seat tech, the bumble bum is not approved for use in Canada because our standards have criteria against punctures, which it doesn't pass. However, I understand it crash tests well. Personally we bring the bottom of our Graco TurboBoosters for our boys when we travel now, as they are 9&6 yrs. DS2 had his Britax marathon until he was 5 yrs ;).

As for those who say you can't find seatbelts in port, I've never had this problem. If you ask, you will find. It may take a little longer, but it is possible. The ports of call forums are a great source of information, you can likely decide whether you can find a cab with seatbelts or make some sort of hired car arrangements.

If I were you, I'd bring boosters for your girls and the radian for the youngest. Then I'd be practicing how I'm walking through airports, going through security and storing everything once on the plane before we left home!

 

 

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[Athankfulheart]

Duh, ages would help! My girls will be 7 (but very skinny), 5 1/2, and almost 4 by the time we sail. My two oldest are already at the 40 pound limit for the bubblebum and I'm thinking my youngest will be right there by the time August rolls around. If not, we'll just take her Diono Radian RXT (which folds flat) with us.

 

I can't believe this topic wasn't one of the first things I thought of when booking the trip! LOL It came to me just a few nights ago. We've been planning this trip for a year already.

 

I would just go with the cheap Graco backless boosters for the oldest two and then leave them after your last useage day. They would take hardly any space in your cabin and provide the same protection as a BB but at a much lower price.I have petite children but I am comfortable with putting my 7yo in a booster for temporary and brief trips. such as this. You could fit a couple of those into a tote bag and they are very lightweight. My 11yo just got out of a harness seat so I understand wanting to be conservative on moving them up. I would keep my 4yo in a seat though. Your Radian would be perfect for that.

 

 

Edited to add: We have Graco Nautilus for 3 of our kids now 7.9.11 and we decided not to bring the bottom booster with us incase of loss or damage. We got a couple of basic backless boosters and just put our 11yo in the seat belt alone. She has JUSt graduated to no harnesses before this trip ( 1/14)

Edited April 2, 2014 by Athankfulheart

[Mistyhon]

We bought 2 bubble bum boosters specifically for this before our previous cruise. They work well. We'll be bringing them again in October.

[cruisegirl06]

If it is primarily getting to and from the hotel in Seattle, you might look unto shuttle/transit options that provide or don't require car seats. We did several days in Chicago with just public transit (no car seats) and have sought out tours on busses to avoid having to haul a car seat in a cruise. We were in Seattle a few years ago, and I recall decent public transit (granted hauling 3 kids and luggage on transit may be more of a challenge than bringing car seats...)