I was recently asked to be a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding in Hawaii and of course I accepted. I mean who wouldn't want to stand next to one of your ride or dies in one of the most exotic locations in the world. I met this Hawaiian princess about 10 years ago when we were on the JET Programme in Kobe. Through many ups and downs, tears and laughter, this cupid of ours (she introduced my husband and I) had found her German Prince Charming and I was ecstatic to be a part of their happy ending.
The only thing that made me reluctant was traveling with a very mobile 9.5 month old. It didn't help that he had gastro prior to flying and had infected me...but the show had to go on! (More about our hospital visits in another post.) I had researched profusely on how to make this the easiest trip possible and we narrowed down our purchases to:
1. JetKids
We ordered this on recommendation from a friend who was also traveling from Osaka to Hawaii for the wedding with his daughter - who is 1 and a half years old. I had seen this on social media and completely forgot about it. I quickly ordered the JetKids not realising it didn't include the mattress and side pillows. The BedBox is sold separately from the RideBox! The sole purpose for buying this was so that Ren could sleep. We ordered the BedBox and it literally arrived 5 minutes before we had to leave the next day. Thank goodness for Amazon Japan!
I felt that it was convenient having an extra space to consolidate all of Ren's essentials; his extra clothes in case of an emergency, favourite toys, diapers and wipes. However, it was an extra bag to carry as he is too young to use the JetKids as a RideBox so for that reason I found it a pain. On their website is a list of airlines that approve usage of the JetKids and our airline, Hawaiian Airlines, wasn't approved but it did feature as a family friendly airline.
Ren is a pretty good sleeper and usually goes down at about 7PM everyday. We had kept him up as late as possible and he fell asleep as soon as we took off. I held him and dozed until dinner was served - my husband fed me - haven't you heard the saying, "Don't wake a sleeping baby!" As soon as dinner had finished being served, we set up the bed a it put Ren down. He is quite a tall baby so he didn't fit across his seat so I had his legs over mine and that's where he slept for a few hours.
On the way back, as soon as the airhostess saw the JetKids, we were told that setting it up was prohibited...So we just laid it flat and piled bags on it to make the bed. Same difference?
Would I recommend it? I'm indifferent BUT I plan on using it on our next flight to South Africa.
2. GB Pockit
GAMECHANGER!
We bought the standard Pockit and it's dimensions are Length: 20 cm / Width: 32 cm / Height: 38 cm and weighs 4.3kg. No wonder it won the Guiness World Book of records for the smallest stroller! The only issue we found was that we needed two people to set it up. One to hold baby and one to unfold/fold. I am aware that some of the other models have a one hand unfold function and in hindsight, we should have chosen that one.
Would I recommend this? HECK YES!
The gasto has tapered off and the jetlag has subsided...we are almost human again.
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