21 people, 2 ECV's, 3 strollers - My Dream Trip Update 8/16 Day 5, 6 & 7 The end

Your husband is a spitting image of my parent's neighbor. They could pass as identical twins.

I can't wait to read your trip report.

That's really interesting about your parents neighbor. . If they were in Philadelphia I would think it could be his cousin. I saw him in a news article years ago and did a double take as i thought it was my husband at first.

The report will as soon as i can get things organized
 
Can't wait to hear all about your trip!! Hope you got to relax some with all the stress before the trip!
 
Can't wait to hear all about your trip!! Hope you got to relax some with all the stress before the trip!

I am working on pictures right now. I didn't take as many as I had thought I would but still took a great deal. I did get to relax a little.

Just found your report today and I'm really enjoying it.

:welcome: Thanks for joining in and I'm glad you have enjoyed it so far. I had a few drs. appointments to deal with so a little behind but will be posting a trip update soon.
 


That's really interesting about your parents neighbor. . If they were in Philadelphia I would think it could be his cousin. I saw him in a news article years ago and did a double take as i thought it was my husband at first.

The report will as soon as i can get things organized

Actually they live in the Mayfair section of Philly.
 


Hope everyone had a good holiday. I wound up sick and no voice for a few days but it gave me time to organize my pictures and notes. So without further ado I start the trip report.

Day 1 - And we are off
D-Day minus one always has me wondering why I waited til the last minute to pack. This trip was no exception. I did have all of my lists made out and fine tuned so packing was easy. I wound up with 2 bags to be checked in because I just couldn't fit all of our clothes into one bag. I had purchased new luggage and the largest bag wasn't very large, only about 25 inches. My old suitcase was 29 inches and it's amazing what that 4 inch difference makes. I had one carry-on with all of the electronics: FIVE cameras (yes 5 cameras), power cords, Christmas lights, spare batteries, chargers, camera chargers, etc. The bag was HEAVY! I also had a carry-on with all of Jim's meds and a few other things and my backpack with snacks and my Kindle.

My son came earlier than I expected to pick up my spoiled pup Chewbacca. She loves appending the week with his family and their 2 dogs. She is spoiled rotten by my grandson. My Chewbacca - she is a Chug and not a big and hairy dog.


I cleaned out the cat box, did the dishes, took out the trash, all the mundane household chores that need to be done anyway and hoped my son would get the trash to the curb. I should have told him to do it because he is no different now than when he was a child and had to be told to do it constantly. The cans were still full when we returned home. With that done I actually got to bed by 10 and managed about 4 1/2-5 hours of sleep so I was happy.

I was up by around 3 AM. We had a 7 AM flight and with the amount of people and Jim's medical issues I wanted to be at the airport by 5 AM. I made a quick cup of coffee in the Keurig. Fast and easy clean up and did a last minute check of everything, especially the electronics. I went to Scotland a couple of years ago and packed the wrong charger for one camera and wrong extra battery for the other camera. I didn't want to make the same mistake.

I had the bags by the door and I waited. Since Mike backed out of the trip he was taking us to the airport in my car. Mikey and Crystal were going with Big Crystal, or DML as I may refer to her from now on. She was supposed to head to Jennifer's and grab the kids and some luggage and then Jennifer was heading to my son's house to get Jay. My kids all live within 5 minutes of each other. I told Jen to be at the house by 4:15 at the latest. At 4:15 Jen called to tell me that she couldn't reach Jay and oh yeah all of us were going down in my car. WHAT??? I have a van so it seats 7 people. We would be cramming 8 people, 5 of them adults, and all of the luggage in my car!!!

I called Jay he was ready and already heading out of the door. Just as I hung up Yoko texted me to find out what gate as American flies out of Terminal B and C. They were already at the airport. Then I waited to find out why we were all going in my car. I am used to Jennifer being late but DML is usually on time. She overslept. We emptied my storage area as best as possible. OK granted it probably needed it as I have some chairs and pool things in there from the summer. Somehow we managed to fit 6 suitcases, 8 carry-ons, 2 backpacks and 4 purses in the car. I just couldn't see anything and I may need new rear shocks soon. I was scraping the ground and could not see out of the rear window at all. Mike told me I could drive. As I scraped my undercarriage backing out of the driveway DML called to say she was 5 seconds from the house. OK then. I slowly pulled back into the driveway. We shifted some luggage and people and finally got on the road at 5:01 AM. Only 45 minutes to an hour later than I planned. Mike told me I could drive again. Probably a very good thing as I made it to the airport in 20 minutes. On a good day it's a 30 to 40 minute drive. Yes, I was speeding. I have FOP tags on my car so I can get away with it.

We arrived at the airport around 5:19 and I headed right to ARRIVING flights. I couldn't figure out why i couldn't find the terminal. Oh yeah, I needed DEPARTING flights. DUH! Went around the airport and finally reached the right terminal at 5:30 AM. Now I was over an hour behind my nice relaxing plan. We got all of the luggage out of the cars and headed in to check all of the luggage. We were on 3 different reservations so it got very confusing. While the kids dragged the luggage for me I made sure Jim had a wheelchair. After we paid for all of the suitcases, downside to American is you pay for luggage, and got them on the conveyor belt I relaxed just a second or two. Then I realized that the tags and boarding passes were all mixed up. Got it fixed, boarding passes anyway, and we were off to the TSA. We still had a ton of carry-ons to deal with and Jim. i took Mikey with me and Jim. He is Autistic and I figured a melt down would be easier handled by me. I talked him through everything and he did great. Jim sailed through TSA with no problems. I had my carry-on pulled for further inspection. The agent was great and explained to Mikey that I had so many cameras they wanted to see them all. Satisfied we were safe I was cleared and on we went. We were on the FURTHEST gate away. I made sure Jim would pre-board and chatted with the friends for a couple minutes, frantically looking for Jen and Beth et al. We had gotten to the gate at 6:15 so not bad timing all things considered but pre-boarding started at 6:25. They called Jim, me and Mikey to get on the plane and still no family. I panicked a little but needed to get Jim on the plane and settled.

One of the escorts came and wheeled Jim while I struggled with all of the carry-ons we had. I found Jim's seat and got him settled and the largest and heaviest carry-on with him. I told Mikey we were further back in the plane so follow me. I was halfway to my seat to find Jim following me. Since the strokes he gets confused at times and forgets things. He was in row 5 and we were in rows 28 and 29. Told Jim not to move and got Mikey back to his seat. Thankfully one of the very nice air stewards helped Jim back to his seat and helped him buckle in. I got Mikey settled and my other carry-on stowed away and called Jen, then Beth and DML. Finally got one of them to answer and they were at the gate waiting to board. I relaxed for a few seconds again. Bill decided he didn't want the seat I paid extra for and I wound up sitting with Jim for take off.

Plane Pictures

Mikey all settled in


Jennifer, Mikey and Ella


Crystal and Jay who was already giving me a hard time about pictures


Crystal (AKA DML) and Isai (AKA "Z")


Sitting up front paid off for take off pictures. It was a clear day and I got some nice pictures of the Delaware River




When we were allowed to move around the plane I switched seats with Jay. I got a picture of Beth, Bill and the boys


I was proud of the boys though they did really great flying. I had cookies to eat that we made at church but no one wanted any. We played musical seats with Jim and I got to sit up there for landing too. I don't know what the flight plan was but we were further out over the Atlantic than I am used to but finally we were seeing the Florida coastline


We landed about 20 minutes ahead of schedule but had to wait for the ENTIRE plane to unload before we could get moving. Of course we had to stop at 3 different bathrooms because nobody could go at the same time and one had a changing table in use and Ben needed a new diaper. Seriously we landed about 9:20 and this group shot was taken 30 minutes later but at least we were finally heading to the Magical Express


And of course we needed a picture in front of the airport tree


Fake monorail pictures, the only ride we all took together.










We got to Magical Express and it was a nightmare. The lines were long and we were shuttled into several different ones so we got split up. Of course Beth's group was totally separated and the people between us refused to allow her to join us. I wasn't overly concerned but her friend Fallon was ready to go off. We just yelled over their heads to Beth. I wasn't sure we would even get on the first bus anyway the lines were that long. I was wrong. Of course as we got Jim to the bus I realized that people were in the accessible seats. I told the Disney people we would wait for the next bus because there was no way he was steady enough to go to the back of the bus. The driver went on board and pointed out to the people that they had to move. They weren't happy and tried to put up a fight that they were there first. The driver just pointed to the accessible sign. We all got on the bus except for Beth, Bill and the boys. Fallon tried arguing they were with us and needed to be on this bus. Beth didn't care. Finally all settled in we were on our way and soon were seeing this







I called Walker as soon as we got off of the bus since they had called twice to deliver the scooters. No sooner had we gotten all of our carry-ons off of our bus, Beth's bus pulled up. I knew they would be right behind us. Of course because we used a travel agent I didn't do on-line check-in. That was a HUGE mistake. Yoko and Danielle didn't know to skip it and were already checked in. Then Beth headed to the store to price shoes for the two little ones. She had them in PJ's for the flight and forgot to bring their shoes. Seriously I still want to know how you can forget shoes! DML went with Jay to wait for the scooters and Jen and I got in line to check in. If you have the option to check in online DO IT!!! It just makes life so much easier. We arrived at the resort at 10:53 AM. This is based on time stamps on my pictures. It took us 90 MINUTES to check in and there was no line ahead of us.

When I made the reservations I told the travel agent I had 2 requests: Baseball or Football Building although I knew that was on an availability basis, and that the rooms be close together and Jennifer's and DML's rooms had to be connecting since Mikey was in DML's room. Close together was important because one of the scooters was going in their rooms. Now we were listed as a group so close proximity should have been accommodated. There was one room ready so Beth took that one since she and Yoko were taking Uber to Walmart. Bill took the boys to the park and her friends went to the parks. We stood there for 90 minutes while the CM did who knows what. Seriously how hard is it to get THREE rooms checked in. Finally, we took everything to Bell Services assured that we were checked in and that we would get a text when the rooms were ready. I needed to get Jim's meds in a refrigerator and thankfully Bell Services could handle that.

Finally at 12:43 we were heading into our first park.

To be continued and will things begin to look up after such a rough start. Stay tuned to find out.
 
I'm here!! I have read everything (most of the things I knew already, but still fun to read) and I'm ready for the next installment. For such a large group, it seems like things went pretty smooth. But I would have not had the patience you did with that large of a group. Just my group of four can drive me nuts sometimes. Can't wait to see what happens next and all of your photos!!

Susan
 
I'm here!! I have read everything (most of the things I knew already, but still fun to read) and I'm ready for the next installment. For such a large group, it seems like things went pretty smooth. But I would have not had the patience you did with that large of a group. Just my group of four can drive me nuts sometimes. Can't wait to see what happens next and all of your photos!!

Susan

Thanks for joining in. People read and don't comment and I get lonely thinking no one likes me lol.

Things did go somewhat smoothly other than that 90 minute check-in process. That was insane and driving me insane. Believe it or not I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would. Other than a couple of the little ones I had to sneak pictures all of the time but I do have pictures.
 
WOW- what a story so far! excited to see how this continues, glad to hear you did get to go!
 
WOW- what a story so far! excited to see how this continues, glad to hear you did get to go!

I was really happy we were able to get to go. There were times after Jim's strokes I worried about it but thankfully the doctors gave the OK. I will be updating when Flickr cooperates. Had a few issues yesterday.
 
Day 1 Part 2

We finally made it to our first park of the trip. Where you ask? EPCOT because of our ADR for the day.




I did get my only group picture, our group, of the trip here.


Jay was trying to hide, Z didn't look happy but Jim actually had a smile on his face. Then we got a magical shot.


I thought it was a frog, Ella laughed and told me it is a lizard. I think I needed coffee. Another pic heading in. Nice to see they reuse the topiaries


And my clown was at it. Ella loves to get silly in pics thankfully.




I made the shirts for the kids to wear on the plane. I wasted my money. They were peeling before the day ended. Anyway at this point we had a choice to make. Our first FP+ was for Figment but we were close to being really late. I always like Spaceship Earth as my first ride so i gave them all a choice. Spaceship Earth won.

The access area was really crowded so we had a bit of a long wait




Jim got mad at me here. I know the walkway can be slowed and he is really unsteady on his feet so i told them that while he can walk the distance he is still a fall risk. He got REALLY MAD!!! The strokes effected his emotion center so he does get mad easily but he also is having a hard time facing his limitations. I told him to get over it. Got a picture of Jay and Mikey


I tried really hard not to take pictures on the ride but i couldn't help myself, I am obsessed. We headed to our next FP+ so the kids could meet some characters. Now before the trip my daughter and DML decided they were going to make their own autograph books. I had to research every character greeting because there would be dedicated pages with pictures etc. Then they realized that it would cost at least $30 per book for all of the supplies. We stopped for autograph books as we entered the park. We ran into Beth and her family on the way. She had just gotten to the parks and her boys now had shoes. I still seriously wonder how you forget to pack sneakers in the carry-on. She also forgot their Toy Story boots that Wyatt is obsessed with and prefers.


Anthony's shirt was bought from a vendor. It lasted much better than the ones I made. Benny was getting tired


We parted ways and Jay went with Beth. I expected this to happen but not quite so soon. Truth be told I was a little hurt by it. We saw the characters and the kids had fun
Mickey




Goofy and one of the better interactions with a character




Minnie


Of course we needed a rest room break again. I swear I don't know if Ella has a bladder the size of a pea or she just likes to check out the bathrooms. I checked the Disney App on my phone and found out that the wait for Journey into the Imagination was relatively short. We headed off to find Figment.
Mikey enjoyed the ride but the noise level was to much for him


He really does have a serious sensory issue with noise. The kids had fun playing around in the pavilion for a few minutes.




I told them I was heading out since Jim decided to skip the ride. They followed. At this point we had been in the park for about 2 hours and had managed 2 rides, a few characters and 2 bathroom breaks.

It was almost time for our ADR so we headed to the World Showcase. I took pictures along the way


I was starving as I had been up for almost hours and had a handful of cookies to eat on the plane. We passed the Feast of the Three Kings holiday booth and I veered in. I decided in honor of Z being 1/2 Mexican I would get the Shredded Beef Tamale with Avocado Crema and Cilantro Rice - $5.75, to share.


Turns out Z doesn't like Tamales. The rest of us all got a bite and really enjoyed it. There was a touch of heat but it wasn't overpowering. My only complaint was there was almost no beef. DML promised that the next time Big Z makes Tamales she'll invite me over. His are supposed to be really good. Took a pic while we shared


Beth texted me to see where we were as they were already at the restaurant and wanted to check in - they were STARVING!!! I told her to check us all in we were on our way and only a few minutes away as long as her father kept up with us.

I will leave you all in suspense as to where we had our first meal. Picture limit and I have to go watch the kids for the afternoon.
 
Glad to see you started the TR part. Sounded like a crazy travel day!

Crystal (AKA DML) and Isai (AKA "Z")

Does she work at Woods? My friend is a nurse there, has been for about 20 years or so

Jay was trying to hide, Z didn't look happy but Jim actually had a smile on his face. Then we got a magical shot.


I thought it was a frog, Ella laughed and told me it is a lizard. I think I needed coffee

^ That's Paschal the Chameleon from Tangled, fun picture!

Looking forward to the next installment
 
Glad to see you started the TR part. Sounded like a crazy travel day!

It was definitely not the smooth start to the trip I anticipated.

Does she work at Woods? My friend is a nurse there, has been for about 20 years or so

Wow what a small world it is. Yes she does work at Woods.

^ That's Paschal the Chameleon from Tangled, fun picture!

Looking forward to the next installment

I am chagrined. I have never seen Tangled. Next installment will be coming soon.
 
My Chewbacca - she is a Chug and not a big and hairy dog.

I have a Chewbacca too. Our Chewie is a black and white Dutch rabbit.

It sounds like a stressful travel day. Credit to you for taking such a big family group - not something I'm in a hurry to do! Looking forward to the rest of your trip.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top