Travelling with Type 1 is no big thing - I do it regularly and few people bat an eyelid.
I have a letter from my diabetes clinic in case airport security get pushy but in over 20 years, I have shown it once. I see it as insurance ... just in case. I have never had a global health card or insulin passport or id card.
The most important things for me are
- keep all diabetes kit in your hand luggage while travelling. Your checked in luggage may not arrive at your destination at the same time as you. Once you reach your hotel, you can leave some stuff in your room (but not in direct sunlight) and take out as much as you would back home,
- take at least twice as much supplies than you think you will need. This includes insulin, insulin pens - if you use reusable pens, take a spare - test strips, needles, lancets, hypo treatment, spare CGM, ... I do not take a spare finger prick meter but I do ensure I have spare batteries for mine. (I have only broken my meter once in 20 years - it got waterlogged on a very wet walk in Wales and I nervously relied on my CGM for remainder of my trip because Welsh village pharmacies don't sell meters.)
- when on the plane, keep your hypo treatment with you in your seat - having a hypo while taking off and knowing you need to take off your seatbelt to get to the overhead locker is not fun.
- there is no need to tell anyone your personal medical history unless they specifically ask. Some people tell airlines and airport security. I only tell them if I need to - it's personal.
- if all your diabetes kit is going to take up too much off your hand luggage, some airlines may allow you to carry an additional medical carry on if you ask beforehand. Given, I travel with hand luggage only for a week and hate to carry multiple bag, I have no experience of this.
- when away, your daily routine will be different to usual - you may do more exercise (likely in Disneyland) or less (if your idea of a holiday is relaxing by the pool all day), you may drink more alcohol than usual, you will eat different food, ... - so your diabetes may be less predictable than usual. So make sure you have plenty of hypo treatment with you at all times.
- as I mentioned above, it may be useful to ask your diabetes team/DSN for a letter to carry with you. GPs may provide this but they tend to charge whereas diabetes clinics do not. The letter should be written with no specific dates so can be used multiple times. I keep mine with my passport and it is getting very tatty.
- if you are anxious, you can request a sunflower lanyard. Before covid, this was useful to get priority for boarding but its value was reduced when it started being abused by some as an excuse not to wear a mask during the pandemic (it was genuinely used for this purpose by some).
- remember insulin is fine at room temperature for a month. It you are travelling somewhere hot, many of us use Frio wallets to keep insulin cool (but not as cold as fridge temperature). I avoid using fridges in hotels as they may be unreliable - there are tales of people coming back to their room and finding frozen insulin - and would definitely not give my insulin up to someone else to keep in their fridge - you have no idea who may take it out of a hotel kitchen fridge for example.
- have fun!
