Travelling with your dolls: issues/ideas/etc. Part I

1. Do you travel with your dolls?
Sometimes

2. If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling?
I stuck him in his own bin to do through the x-ray machine at the security check point at the airport It was amusing
Once on the plan I had an empty seat next to me so Hian got to sit in his own chair, with a seatbelt of course. The stewardess loked at us funny but pretended nothng was out of the ordinary.


4. Do you have any tips for traveling on planes/trains/boats/etc.?
boats: make them wear a life vest
planes: get a seat where no one will sit next to you so your doll ca have their own seat. Or if you don't want to deal with young kids don't sit in the first couple of rows where the unaccompanied minors sometimes sit.

 

1. Do you travel with your dolls?
I just traveled with 2 of mine on a plane back from College. o:

2. If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling?
I honestly did not get to see security's reaction, I had been pulled aside because I had a kilt on that set off the alarm. Sooo I had to be patted down, and they were like shoving the wand around in my kilt. My friend I was traveling with mentioned "I think you got to second base with security!" They also asked me if I had a rabbit in my top hat. |8

I don't think they reacted very much since a lot of art students go through there. I'm sure they've seen many BJDs before. xD

3. If not, where would you like to travel with your dolls?
well hrmm I guess I'd like to take them on cool trips I go on anywhere. They're really fun to walk around Savannah with.

4. Do you have any tips for traveling on planes/trains/boats/etc.?
well padding and be careful with them? xDD obviously.

 

When I moved back from Japan, I was carrying a year of my life with me in my bags.
That year included my SD10 and Hound.
I was initially going to unstring them and carry them in pieces, but I worried about security asking to open the bag and one of the pieces getting lost. So, I just removed their heads. I wrapped EVERYTHING in soft blankets that I was bringing home with me (I just can't seem to find cute blankets this soft in America!) and fit them into my carry-on. I also made sure to remove their eyes and place them in a different location.

I'll be moving soon for graduate school. I'm not sure exactly WHERE I am going yet, but now I have THREE 0_0 larger dolls, and they are all coming with me. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess.

 

Usually doll carriers (either handmade or from company sites) work well. I have a big duffel bag I commissioned from Nefla a long time back, as well as a single-doll bag I commissioned from belladurmiente87. (If you want to commission a bag, though, I'd talk to Nefla- I'm pretty sure bella has some unresolved transactions here)

If you don't have time or money for a doll carrier, here are some things that work well:

A backpack where your BJD is wrapped in a soft blanket or lots of bubble wrap
A messenger bag where your doll is sitting down and padded well (I'd include the face cap, if you have one)
Carried and covered on your lap
In a duffel bag with a LOT of padding - wrap each doll individually if you have more than one

...and I guess a regular doll carrier! Or a nodded violin case like someone was suggesting.

 

1. Do you travel with your dolls?
I did it one time, and i had no dollcarrier (i still don't have one) and put Finn into my suitcase, i traveled with a bus and was so afraid that something could happen to him, but nothing happened ^^. But i won't do this a second time, its bad when you can sleep even if you're tired as hell.
2. If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling?
Um... when i opened my suitcase and just saw Finns hand and thought he was broken ^^"

4. Do you have any tips for traveling on planes/trains/boats/etc.?
Get a doll carrier as soon aas you have money for it, and if not take your doll with you on whatever you travel (but look out for those guys who stares at you like they want to eat you) Or just leave your dolls at home. thats the only way nothing can happen to them in my opinion.

(excuse my bad english o.o.... grammar where'd you go?!!)

 

1. Do you travel with your dolls?
I have done it once or twice, but only with my yo-sd and the truth is that I finish worried by if it happens something to her during the travel.

2. If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling?
To do photos to her in a site place completely different from the habitual environment.

4. Do you have any tips for traveling on planes/trains/boats/etc.?
To relax and not thinking about that she is in the suitcase, because the trip will be very long.

 

1. Do you travel with your dolls?
yes, when i feel like it. on long trips i usually take calhoun.
2. If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling?
not so much traveling, but i like to put him in my coat or purse and have him peek out from time to time at people. not so much weird, but funny to see their reactions.
3. If not, where would you like to travel with your dolls?
everywhere.
4. Do you have any tips for traveling on planes/trains/boats/etc.?
nope

 

i have a slight dilema. I'll be going to london this spring semester for about 10 weeks and really want to bring Illiana with me (she's an msd). I know she needs to go on the plane as a carry on but i would really like to bring my violin with me so that i don't lose practice but then there is also my laptop and such to worry about. i have no idea how to pull this off safley. if i have to i will just have to leave the violin at home (my instructer told me 10 weeks without practice wont be really damaging) any ideas?

Also I would like to bring her around the city with me (if that's a good idea at least) but don't know a good way to carry her. I don't want to hall around a violin case and i still would need to be able to have other items with me, like money, cell phone and of course a camera. any ideas for this?

 

I've flown with my dolls before. I had a doll bag (purchased from Dollmore) and I packed them into that. I used a doll box cushion and made sure they were strapped in with the straps inside the doll bag. I didn't get hassled at the airport and there weren't any problems with them on the plane (I kept them with me, I didn't store them in the overhead).

While traveling by car, I essentially did the same thing. I had several doll bags and I put them all inside, strapped them into the bag/carrier (using the bag's internal straps) and hid them under some blankets. I made sure to take them into hotels with me, though, as I wasn't going to leave them in my car overnight.

One thing that might work well if you're doing a lot of traveling (or walking about) is to purchase a backpack doll carrier, or mod your own doll carrier into a backpack. Dollmore sells backpack doll carriers and they can hold at least two dolls each. I know doll carrier makers say "Only one doll", but I have found that's not true at all. I've always been able to put two SD sized dolls into a SD sized doll carrier made for one, and I can put a SD and two to three Yo-SD sized dolls into one SD sized carrier too. I separate them with a small blanket (like the ones Luts sends) and then use a doll box pillow to insure against doll damage.

I hope that helped/made sense. LOL

 

I think it requires serious responsibility when taking your dolls outside. If anyone owner has the guts to actually let asking strangers touch it, leaving it somewhere safe when necessary, etc.

 

I just went traveling with my Elfdoll. I have a large bag that I took as my personal item and I sat her inside with her wigs. The first flight, the guy said nothing, but the second flight I was watching the screen and he kept staring at it. He started laughing and saying 'It's alive!' and then said he'd never seen a doll like that before. Nothing bad happened. I kept her under the seat on the plane and just kept an eye on her.

 

I'd gently pack her in a backpack as your carry-on since that counts as the personal item, and if you wanted to take her with you in town, I would gently wrap her in a thin blanket and put her in a large purse or backpack as well. I hope you find something that works for you

 

This past summer I traveled by plane with my dolls. I just packed them really well into my carry on and made sure that they were well protected. It worked out just fine. I was super paranoid the whole time but no one said anything.

 

I travelled with my MSD to Anime North this year and I wrapped her in some clothes and laid her on top of my laptop in my carry-on. The security at my airport here looked at her oddly when they hand-checked my bag after doing the x-ray but at least they were careful. I'm not sure they realized what she was at first. Once she was through security I just held her in my arms until I could re-pack my bag properly at the gate.

I took four MSDs with me to NC a few years back and kept them wrapped up in blankets and clothes in my carry-on backpack and they were fine. Didn't even have to take them out at security that time.

 

I normally only bring dolls on a trip if there's some specific reason to, i.e. a convention or show, or visiting doll friends. And I normally only ever carry dolls in a carrier-bag with pillows and straps. But when I was going to be schlepping around Japan for 2 weeks straight with a full suitcase & really really small hotel rooms, and only had one 45cm SDC with me, I gave up my usual rule.... I put Rowan's face-bubble on with a good amount of bubblewrap & swaddled him up like a papoose in a big kaffiyeh scarf, then tied it up with a smaller scarf. Then he just rode in my messenger-bag or day-pack. If he's near your body at all times, turns out they're usually pretty safe. (And I don't need to tell you how tightly crowded the trains can get in Tokyo...!)

Travelling with the doll carrier bags, I've never even had to pause at the security scanners before.... But on our way out of Osaka, Rowan did get the lady's attention ("you have any liquids?") and he had to be run through the scanner on his own a second time. I said it was an expensive doll and she was very courteous with him, handling him like a museum piece. The plus side of this is that all 3 of us got the entertaining view of Rowan on the X-ray screen: It sees through all clothing & only stops at metal, so there was a happy grinning naked bald little Rowan, with only his earring & studded wristlets & big stomper-boots showing on the screen.

 

1. Do you travel with your dolls? Yes.
2. If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling? I was on a twenty-six hour bus ride and some idiot threw his huge-ass backpack on top of one of the bag with my mini in it (I was in the weird back seat without overhead storage and had my things in a corner near me). The impact broke her hands.
3. If not, where would you like to travel with your dolls? n/a
4. Do you have any tips for traveling on planes/trains/boats/etc.? Not really. I have nearly always just carried one in my arms, even on an airplane. I have a big purse that I could tuck Eva into as long as she was in a sitting position. If I were worried about her or Isolde being jostled about, I could just put their face-masks on and place them in my rolling carry on. I think I'd be more worried about them if they were in a carry-on or a doll carrier than if they were in my lap or on the seat next to me.

 

Do you travel with your dolls?
Yes indeedy. He's been to Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. He was supposed to go with me to California, but I opted not to take him because of the fact I was going there for a concert and didn't want to have to always be worrying about him, since I couldn't be with him/see him every second. LOL
If so, what was the funniest/weirdest experience you've had with them traveling?
While I was moving across the country, my family stopped in Mississippi and I went to take a picture of Kyoharu, so he could have his own travel photos and the security guard came up to me and asked me "what is it". LOL
If not, where would you like to travel with your dolls?
Even though I do travel with my boy quite a lot I would LOVE to take him to Kyoto and Tokyo for photoshoots, and anyway he is Japanese so it'd be like coming home for him. lol

 

Next week I'll be traveling to Canada by car. Sometimes in the past I've crossed the border without incident, other times I've had to get out of my car and let the border patrol perform a random search. I would really like to take my dolls with me, but I'm concerned about them being handled or touched without care(when the car is searched, you have to leave everything in the car, and I feel like if I tell them not to touch the dolls, it will seem suspicious). I've thought about possibly packing them in their boxes and gift wrapping them, to keep them from being bothered. Does this seem like a good idea? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Any experiance with crossing the border with bjd's would be great.

 

I dont know anything about crossign the boarder but maybe if you kept them in a box that says fragile? and leave it untaped so they can open the top and peek in?