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Original poster

Please help me with this dilemma

18 replies

fretaway · 20/06/2009 22:39

Me and dh will be travelling to Singapore and Australia next year with dd who will be 2 years and 4 months by then, and just about to book flights. The thing is we will be travelling with friends, who are childless and they reckon they will be going on a daytime flight which will leave at 11:15am. The thing is I am contemplating going on a night time flight separately which might be better for dd as it is around bed time for her and she will sleep on the flight, but if we do that we will get there in the evening around 6pm and not sure what she will do then.
Our friends are trying to get me to go with the daytime flight and said they will help entertain her on the way but I'm so not sure! What would you do? The possibility of sleep in the night ourselves (not guaranteed) or constant entertainment in the day with awake toddler?

OP posts:

SOLOisMeredithGrey · 21/06/2009 03:08

I travelled on a night flight with a 3.2yo and arrived in Singapore in the afternoon local time. Was absolutely fine IME.

lulalullabye · 21/06/2009 03:57

Are you stopping over in SG ? If so, we did the day flight to sg and then they were so tired that by the time we got on the Aus leg with a three hour stopover they slept for a straight 7 hrs on the aus flight. dd1 was 2 and dd2 was 8mths. I think whichever way you do it it will work because they will be really tired at some point and zonk out !

savoycabbage · 21/06/2009 05:17

I don't think that it will make that much difference and certainly wouldn't go on a different flight.

We left at 11.30pm and got here to Australia in the morning. My two, who are good sleepers, love sleeping and who were knackered as we had been to a pantomime the night before, didn't go to sleep on the first flight until after about 6 or 7 hours. There was too much going on and they were excited to be on a plane. They are 5 and 2.

We went straight through and they only slept for a few hours on the second flight. And that was with the help of medised....

We landed in the morning and the adreneline kept them going until an early bedtime at 6ish. Then they were fine after that and just slept normal Australian times.

I think that what ever flight you go on, she will just go to sleep after a while. It's a hell of a long flight but too exciting to sleep at first, whatever time of day or night it is.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 21/06/2009 08:11

fretaway

We boarded an evening flight (think it left around 9.15pm) to Singapore and we arrived there around 4.30 in the afternoon.

Would suggest getting the evening flight (BA for instance have two evening flights; BA11 and BA15) rather than the daytime one (which on BA's schedule is actually a Qantas plane).

Will your friends really want to entertain your two year old, my guess is they'd be wanting instead to nap, eat and watch the films.

BTW if you can stopover in Singapore for a day or two before flying onto Aus that would be far better for you all.

squeaver · 21/06/2009 08:24

When we went to Australia (without stopover) with our dd at almost exactly the same age, we chose to get the daytime flight and it worked out really well.

It meant we arrived in Sydney at about 10pm and she went straight to bed, slept and got up the next morning raring to go. It didn't eliminate jet-lag altogether (we had a couple of nights of her waking up at 2am, but that was to be expected) but I think it really helped.

Also you don't arrive really early in the morning when you're all knackered and you have to try to entertain a 2 yo for 12 hours until bedtime.

If I was doing it again I would definitely opt for a daytime flight.

SOLOisMeredithGrey · 21/06/2009 10:47

Phenergan is a helpful accompaniment on long haul flights too. Like Atila says, a few days stop over in Singapore is really helpful. We did 3 nights there before going on through to Perth.

moondog · 21/06/2009 10:48

It will be shit whatever you do.
Just accept that.

lulalullabye · 21/06/2009 11:30

Don't stop over in Singapore for a few days as you just end up awake ar two in the morning with a full of beans two yr old, in a hotel room with no space !!!

Best to get over the jet lag in Aus and stop over on the way back when there is no jet lag, much easier believe me !!

spinspinsugar · 21/06/2009 12:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SOLOisMeredithGrey · 21/06/2009 13:27

Lulalullaby, my experience of Singapore stop over was very far from yours clearly. We had good sized rooms at the Miramar hotel and it was child friendly too(even when Ds wet the bed, the cleaning lady didn't make a fuss over it), the buffet food was great and there were some lovely places to visit during our stay. Ds didn't seem to get jet lag and nor did we, and arriving in Australia was without jet lag too.

spinspinsugar · 21/06/2009 13:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

inscotland · 21/06/2009 14:28

We took the daytime flight with DS who was 8 months old at the time. It was swings and roundabouts if I am honest. He was so alert on the flight into Singapore. Only slept for 40 minutes the entire 12 hours. We were knackered as was he. However we landed at 8 am and were in our hotel room at 9 am where we crashout until lunchtime. Got up and about and put DS down at his normal time of 7 pm. No jetlag. No problems and he was up at 7 am the next day.

The flight was terrible but in the end we had a great 4 days in Singapore. A daytime flight might not be too bad with a 2.4 year old. Keeping her entertained is probably easier than an 9 month old.

I feel if we had gone with the night time flight arriving in Singapore at night then we'd all have been up into the wee small hours however, I'll never know.....although I am emigrating next month but not sure if I am going through Dubai or Singapore yet.

Original poster

fretaway · 21/06/2009 21:46

At the moment I think we have moondog's opinion and will just expect the worst to happen, so anything better than that will be a bonus.
We are expecting to stay in Singapore for at least a night: it's a choice of an 11:15am flight from Heathrow, arrive at Singapore in the morning, stay for one night and then flight out to Perth is at 9am the following day. The alternative is to fly out of Heathrow in the evening (9:15pm), arrive in the early evening, and stay 2 nights instead.
I wouldn't rely on my friends to babysit dd either though they might provide one or two hours worth of entertainment. Then we just have to fill in the other hours! dd has a tendency to lose it when she gets overtired, am conscious of the fact that if we get on a night flight and she kicks off it would be worse for other passengers than in the day.

OP posts:

lulalullabye · 21/06/2009 23:45

Solo, very jealous of your singapore experience . We stayed at a very nice hotel with adjoining rooms but still crap. Saying that, we all had filthy colds and the irritability levels were huge to start off with.

SOLOisMeredithGrey · 21/06/2009 23:48

Having a cold and travelling to Tesco's is crap lula, never mind thousands of miles! I'd definitely go back to the same hotel if I ever went again. It was lovely ~ cheap too! and the breakfasts exotic and not so exotic fruits...never tasted such wonderful banana's...

AttilaTheMeerkat · 22/06/2009 17:03

Hi fretaway,

re your comment:-

"We are expecting to stay in Singapore for at least a night: it's a choice of an 11:15am flight from Heathrow, arrive at Singapore in the morning, stay for one night and then flight out to Perth is at 9am the following day. The alternative is to fly out of Heathrow in the evening (9:15pm), arrive in the early evening, and stay 2 nights instead".

Have done the 9.15 pm flight arriving into Singapore late afternoon. We all slept well that night but the next morning I felt a bit jet lagged. However, a decent breakfast and being out in the fresh air helped a lot.

Re the first option as well check in times vary a lot between hotels; the room may not be necessarily ready for you if you arrive in the early morning.

I would go with the second option overall; two nights on a plane without proper sleep and something other than an airline meal to eat is a heck of a long time as well.

Don't worry unduly about the other pax. Just do your best!.

PortAndLemon · 22/06/2009 17:12

Get the promise that they will entertain your DD in writing, preferably notarised , and then go on the same flight as your friends.

daisysue2 · 22/06/2009 18:20

Do the night flight. Once you arrive you get to have a nice dinner in the hotel stay up late with baby and then all go to bed around midnight, remember even though it would have been her bedtime she wouldn't have slept that well so will probably up for going to bed early. Have done the early flight and it is a nightmare as you are so tired when you get there. It's actually such a relief to know that you can go to bed quite soon after that long flight.

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