Traveling with a Large Family

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Contributed by J Seitz

What is it like to travel with two adults and five children ranging in ages of 16, 14, 12, 10, and 3? Imagine structured chaos meaning everyone has a part to play during the vacation and each person knows prior to travelling their specific role. However, to a casual observer, the players all look like chickens running around trying to catch one worm. 

Since summer is just around the corner and most parents want to create whimsical vacation memories with their children do not let the idea of travelling with such a big group hinder your fun. Do not cancel those travel plans, there are ways to still travel with lots of children and create those memories without crying yourself to sleep.  These are just some tips to help combat the stress of planning a trip. Those tips will work with any family size. To use a phrase from Pixar’s Up, “Adventure is out there” happy travels.  

Planning where to go stage:

• Establish which cruise line fits your family dynamic. (i.e. time, cost, location)
• Search Pinterest for unique ideas regarding travel and scale to fit your family’s needs (or even check out vacation ideas here on abcfamilytravel.com and their youTube channel)
• Look into booking with a travel agent. Your agent can help customize your cruise plans and help get exclusive deals not advertised (thanks Karen!)
• Involve the children with the planning, get them excited about their vacation. Let them know they have a say in the trip as well. This will limit the I’m not interested vibes teens sometimes emanate.

Knowing what to bring stage:

• Decide what type of identification will adults and minors need to have for the cruise (my family uses passport cards which are easy to carry and cost less) 
  • Note: while adults can choose to use driver's licenses, in the cases of evacuations only passports or passport cards will be valid. See REALID article mentioned on this blog.
• Follow a packing checklist and cruise preparation timeline  
• Also make sure you don't accidentally pack something not allowed on cruise ships. Some common things might surprise you.
• Purchase packing cubes from Amazon. Those little cubes save so much space and helps keep everything. 

 

Tips for traveling stage:

• To cut costs, bring your own snacks for airplane rides.  Even bring an empty container to fill with water.
• When waiting in line, have one parent be in front and one pulling up the rear so no one is left behind.
• Have one parent hold all identification to present to TSA