Vancouver Transfers & Car Seats

[IUBeth92]

We will soon be leaving for Vancouver to embark on our Alaskan cruise. Any ideas on what to bring for him in terms of a car seat? He has his own seat on the plane, and I wasn't planning on bringing the actual car seat for our vehicles. I know we have paid for transfers to/from airport and to the hotel and port, but I don't know whether I should bring a booster seat or not. He will be 4 in September and is close to 40#. I would greatly appreciate any positive suggestions.

[kriskropmemories]

Although the law in BC does change July 1 for residents requiring anyone under the age of 9 to be in a booster I do believe you would be exempt in a rental vehicle or passenger van.

When travelling with my 4 year old I elected not to take the booster and just adjusted the belts so that it was over his lap only.

 

Cheers,

K

[All4fun1]

We bought our 5yr old a Ride Safer Travel vest recently to travel with http://www.safetrafficsystem.com/

This exceeds govt safety standards and is safer than a booster (watch the crash test videos on their site) with the exception that a High back booster will provide side impact protection and obviously, the vest doesn't provide that. DS uses it in MIL's car and it's not as "easy" as a booster seat is but it's not that difficult and his safety is my highest priority. DS (5) rides in a Britax Regent 5pt seat in the family car but it's not airline approved and it's too big to travel with.

 

Another option you can consider is a folding high back booster like a Compass B510 or 530, or even a backless booster. The HBB will be the safer of these two options. HBB's provide 70% more protection compared to a backless booster or the seatbelt alone a side impact. HBB's also do a better job of keeping the seatbelt positioned on the child properly and encourages children to sit properly as well.

 

Please please do not put the shoulder strap behind a child, or let them ride in a lap only belt. This is truly unsafe for anyone (even adults). Just do a search on seatbelt syndrome. It's not safe, even in a low impact crash.

[fishnips]

We rented car seats for our rental vans from Seattle to Vancouver, although now we decided to bring our own car seats for the time spent on our land tour after the cruise.

[6rugrats]

Be safe and bring the booster. Why would this be so difficult?

[IUBeth92]

Thanks (to most of you!) for your POSITIVE responses. I really like the vest idea.

[lmg1230]

We did an Alaskan cruise leaving from Vancouver last summer when our youngest daughter was almost 4 and still in a car seat. We arranged for an airport limo that would provide a car seat to pick us up and transport us to our hotel on the waterfront. That eliminated the need to travel with a carseat as we knew that apart from the trip from the airport we were only going to be on boats, trains and motorcoaches.