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

I'll be going away next weekend for a little trip to Sedona, AZ (only about 3-4 hours away by car), and I'm definitely taking Leuca with me. I would worry incessantly if I left him behind, and I think it'll be rather fun to travel with him. Definitely lots of good photo opportunities in Sedona, too!

As for actually flying with him... I don't know if I would. Well, I pretty much avoid air travel like the plague, so there really isn't much chance of that happening anyway.

 

I'll quite happily take my doll on any journey which doesn't involve trusting them to unknown people. For my 60cm girl this pretty much limits me to when I'm travelling by car, but now that I'm getting a tiny I can probably take her abroad too.

 

I actually bought my doll while on Vacation :3
I'm leaving back to Oregon tomorrow but I'm in California and I went to the Volks store and couldn't hold back XD
I think that taking dolls on vacations is better because then they can enjoy it too :3
But it also depends on where your going, cause you also have to be careful of the weather and if your doll will last the trip @3@

 

I took Zaphod with me to the UK last year, my parents went for a day and I didnt work back then. Bf was on holidays or so and I decided to join. I didn't get to make many pictures of him while there, because there was just too many people ... But I liked having him with me.

On a longer trip I don't think I would bring him. 1. My bf doesn't like dolls, they would ruin his holiday >.< 2. what if something goes wrong? I can't take them on every thing we do and leaving him in a tent is a big nono ...maybe if we rented a house but still. No dolls on holidays for me They are safely packed away home

 

I wouldn't take a doll in holiday with me for quite a few reasons, firstly I wouldn't want to risk damaging them - constantly taking them from one place to another along with a load of other things doesn't seem like the best idea to me when you don't know where you're going. Plus they could get lost or stolen. I know that all the chances of that are slim but I never take valubles on holiday with me, it just isn't worth the risk to me.

 

I'm taking my boy on vacation with me to the beach tomorrow. I probably wouldn't be so bold, but I only got him Tuesday and I can't bear to leave him at home after waiting for three months for him to get here. We're renting a house so I'll have a secure safe place to put him. I've wrapped him in scarves and tied him in the fetal position. He's layered up to be safe and secret and I'm going to put him in my backpack and watch him closely so he won't get crushed.

 

I take my non_bjd dolls lots of places, so taking a BJD with me would just depend on where I'm going, and who'd be there. I wouldn't feel bad about leaving them in a hotel room or anything like that, but I would want an extra safe carrier bag for them to sleep in.

 

I bring some every chance I get! The number depends on where I'm going, how I'm getting there, and how long we plan on staying.
Last year, we drove to Hollywood, FL, and I took seven (3 SD, 4 MSD) in my tote bag in the car.
We just moved to Kansas from Florida a couple weeks ago, and I brought five with me ( Soom Sphaler, Mecha Angel, IH EID, and two SD).
I've taken several with me on planes. Stuffed my Mecha Angel into my carry on, and others into that wonderful tote bag.

Just be careful how you pack them, and handle what you packed them in.

 

First off I apologize if this has been posted before (I looked but didn't find anything)

It's recently become very likely that I'll be moving back to the UK, maybe even as soon as next year. I'm very happy of course as it's my home, but there are some things that have me worried.
4 (possibly 5) resin things to be exact.

All of my belongings will be packed up and put in a shipping container and travel from New Zealand to England, and I won't see them for months.

When we moved here a lot of our things were damaged or broken beyond repair. (they even dented our fridge somehow)
So of course, the thought of my little gang being thrown around in a container with a lot of heavy things that could crush them, or even being placed at the bottom of a pile of other boxes is simply horrifying.

I'll likely be taking my MSD on the plane with me, and my tiny too. But the others are all SD's.
Thinking about it I may take off the others heads and take them on with me, too. (Maybe also hands?)

• Has anyone here had to do something like this?
• Is there anything I can do to help keep them safe other than wrapping them in 500 layers of bubblewrap?
• Potential dumb question; is taking FairyLand dolls on a plane safe? (because of their magnets) I'm paranoid of going there and then being told I can't take them on the plane.
• Any other suggestions?

 

I haven't had a personal experience with this exact situation, however I can suggest a hard shelled gun case would work wonders to preserve your SDs in the violently handled shipping container. Bubble wrap doesn't really help if the cardboard box they are floating around in is crushed, but in a rigid case lined with foam, pressed firmly in place, they should do ok.

You can even wrap the gun cases up in bubble wrap and put them in an extra (big) box just so that they have less of a chance getting tossed around themselves--or the fridge if you're taking it back to the UK...

...It worked for Indiana Jones to survive an atomic explosion, right??

Check this link for gun cases:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...72_TGP&parentType=index&indexId=cat20772&rid=

 

Might be a little expensive, but pack them up individually and ship them to your new address. Purchase insurance and tracking, report them as fragile to the post and write "fragile" or use stickers on the box. Use 3-5 day EMS/Global Express mail (not sure what New Zealand's equivalent service is). Drop them off a day or two before your flight home. That way, they are not in one giant container and likely to be bumped around and broken. Also, you will see them sooner

Not sure about the magnets, call the airport in new zealand and ask about your situation.

Happy moving and safe trip .

 

DIL took her puki to Disney World within USA but she had them in purse and no issues that I recall. I took an MSD on plane and it went well for her. I agree on shipping them to your new address if you know what it will be or the gun case idea sounds good. Bubble wrap is good but yes if box was to be crushed not any good. If you had a friend or relative in UK you could ship them over time like one every 2 months so they can be checked if they arrive okay. Good Luck whatever you decide and better to be safe then sorry.

 

If you're willing to pay, pack an extra suitcase and take them with you on the plane. If you wrap them all up in bubblewrap, they won't take all that much space and will be a lot safer.

 

I have never had to move overseas. BUT...my husband does work for a large airport, repairing bag belts and luggage handling equipment. The stories he has to tell about malfunctioning baggage equipment is enough to make your hair stand on end. Even the most carefully prepared luggage (ie; all tags tucked in, all straps fastened down) gets ripped apart, seemingly at random. Then the contents are usually destroyed by the mechanism under the bag belt. And it seems to happen every other day. I really can't recommend any method except for paying extra and taking your dolls on board with you. I wouldn't trust my clothing to these machines, much less my dolls. And this isn't a small town airport; it's supposed to be one of the better ones!

Edited post to observe that you could un-string the dolls, and that would make a much smaller package.

 

Hey, maybe you could put them IN the fridge! (I mean, a padded box with them in it, in the fridge...) Protection from crushing, temperature changes, moisture..
At least some type of hard-sized container like that, anyway.

Also, I've NEVER heard of magnets not being allowed on planes. Lots of things have magnets in them, so I'm sure we'd know about it if you couldn't take magnets. (Anyway the magnetic field of small magnets like that doesn't go very far. It wouldn't be able to reach anything it might damage.)

 

I used to work for an airline.

Current guides for carryon baggage differ by airlines; most allow you two bags of their stated dimensions and one "personal item" like a coat. Find the dimensions of the allowable bag from your airline and get two of them.

Get a Scott e-Vest: this does NOT count as a bag, it counts as a "personal item." http://www.scottevest.com/?gclid=CITs-Iz7-KICFZFg2god6hlIgw It has 22 pockets that will hold literally anything and you will not need a purse.

Unstring your dolls. The magnets in the headcaps won't matter. using bubblewrap, cushion the pieces. Put all the S-hooks together in a small plastic bag and when you get to the airport security station, take that bag out and put it on top where it is visible. Five dolls will easily fit into two bags this way. You will have them WITH you on the plane and they will never be out of your hands except to pass through the x-ray. Kiki-chan at Junkyspot regularly flies between Puerto Rico and Minneapolis with three to five dolls and several heads in this manner.

 

w... want.

 

Wow, what a cool vest o:

Thanks for your suggestions, guys! I might try and see if I can find a carry on that will hold all of them unstrung. The main problem is I'm as strong as a slug xD but there are those ones with wheels..

Failing that I will be putting their bodies in the fridge! Or something similar. I can never think of these things on my own, so thank you for all your help

And yeah, there's no way I'll be putting them in my suitcase, my last trip ended in my giant sturdy case being bent out of shape, eek!

 

HA! I've got a story with airport security too.

It was last year when I was flying home to Las Vegas from Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Airtport. I had my SD13 boy in my coffin case that I had made. I had traveled with the case before so I had no fear of any problems. As
I was in line waiting to go through the scanner, I had two security guards give me good comments about my case. This made me really happy because I was a little paranoid that someone would go crazy and point at me just because of the shape. But luckily that didn't happen.
But going on, when I reached the scanner I pushed the coffin, shoes, and my backback through it. When I get on the other side of the scanner I look at the guys at the screen and see a look of odd, wide mouthed surprise on their faces. I take a peak at their screen and I see my doll's naked body outlined red (the scanner when through his clothes). They ask me "What is that?"; I say "Its my doll"; To make it sound less crazy I add that I'm an artist and I photograph him in different environments...which is true. The scan guys are so "wowed" and surprised that they tell some other guards to look too. One of the female guards asked if they could see my doll and I showed her and the others. My boy is all dressed in black with knee high boots and red eyes. The comments were good from them and they went on to ask me what school I went to and where I got my doll. I make the conversation very short because all of the attention from security has gotten me dirty looks from the people behind me trying to go on.
All in all I'm glad that everything went ok in the security area but still to this day (which it's impossible) I wish I had a picture of my doll on the scanner screen because it looked so amazing!

 

You put it into words before I could. This is exactly what I was thinking