"And he totally thought he was safe on the benches"....A hot August TR. Complete.

[DisneyCAL]

August 15-23, 2017
with a special reveal the day before...

"And he totally thought he was safe on the benches"

I'll start by linking my pre-trip report Go Big or Stay Home. This should give you a better sense of our cast of members but to make a brief intro we are family of 4 with DH36, DW (me)32, DD6 and DS6 (twins are almost 7). This trip was planned because I was getting the itch to go back and kids were begging. We kept this one a surprise. Since last December I have been planning and researching and as my kids say "click click click, scroll scroll scroll". I will start off this TR with our reveal day.
I had put together a set of scavenger hunt clues that started at the house and brought us all the way to our hotel near the airport. I kept the clues unrelated to Disney as I knew they'd figure it out if I did.
We started our scavenger hunt after dropping our furball Ghost (2 year old samoyed) off at "doggy camp". The intro went like this:

Mommy and Daddy love you so much. We want to do one last fun day before you go back to school. Today you are going on a scavenger hunt! You will read clues that will lead to a big prize. It may take a couple of hours or a couple days to get to your prize but lets see where this takes us and have some fun. You must work together, taking turns reading the clues. You must find the next clue together. If you have trouble solving the clue there is a number key that will tell you the answer. Are you ready?

1.Follow the clues to find a prize for you. The first one is easy, it’s in your shoe!

2. This one is easy too, just take a look. Your next clue is where you can find a book.​

 

[heaven2dc]

What a fun surprise! Love the clues (and your kids are too adorable!)

 

[DisneyCAL]

Clue #3 & #4

​

 

[dvc at last !]

Great start - love the reveal - your children are cuties !

 

[DisneyCAL]

Great start - love the reveal - your children are cuties !

Thank you.

 

[Disneyluv4evr]

What a cool way to tell them. I loves scavenger hunts.

 

[DisneyCAL]

Clues #5, 6 & 7

At one point Collin had said he thought we might go to Disneyworld but I gave him a white lie that we didn't have enough money for that and he let it go thank goodness.
​

 

[DisneyCAL]

Clues 8, 9 & 10

We finally got to a clue that took us away from the house. Rick had double checked things and locked up and we were on our way. On step closer to Disneyworld!

We settled into the hotel which was great especially for the price. Cheaper than the one at the airport but much bigger including a little kitchen and a king bed. Plus parking was an extra $10 and we could leave our car there the entire week and use the free airport shuttle! Definitely using this place again.

https://youtu.be/BAKtT_ADQds

We then headed to a place called Nomad's Adventure. This was a place we went to for Father's Day and had a really good time. It's a giant arcade with rock wall and glow in the dark mini golf. When we went for Father's Day we got the maxed out point card which in the end we realized how far the points went and we had considerable points left so I kept the card for another time. Since this place was 10 minutes from the hotel I thought it would be a great place to spend a couple hours and contribute to the family fun day theme. We played until we ran out of points.

We then headed to Ruby Tuesdays which was just down the road from the hotel before going back to the hotel to get the kids ready for bed. ​

 

[Lesley Wake]

I love this scavenger hunt! So cute and I can't wait to see their reactions to WDW!

 

[DisneyCAL]

Final Clue: Reveal Day!
Rick and I woke up at 4:45am and got dressed and tried to let the kids sleep for another 15 minutes. We tried to pack the little items we took out and then woke them up. They first read a poem and then got dressed. Note that I was tired with not much sleep due to anticipation so I sound cranky in the video but actually wasn't just groggy.

We then gave them their outfits to get into which spelt out the prize! This I should've handed the cam over to DH to tape so it's a little messy from trying to help them while holding it.

​

 

[cinderaimee]

Aww what cuties and a fun way to reveal the trip!!

 

[DisneyCAL]

Travel Day 1 Tuesday 8/15
Part 1


After a night of not very much sleep (thanks anticipation), the alarm went off at 5:00am. I got ready while Rick took care of his cords and electronics. Collin woke up to pee then laid back in bed. I checked his skin as last night he started to look like he had some hives on his back and butt from something. I thought perhaps something he ate or maybe the new detergent I was using. We gave him clariton and advil junior. Once Rick and I were ready we did our reveal. Collin and Zoey were very excited! We repacked and headed out for the shuttle at 6:00am. A less than 10 minute drive and we were checking in at the airport. Check in and security went smoothly. I stopped to buy some antibacterial gel while Rick and Collin used the restrooms. We then headed towards our gate and stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast where Zoey proceeded to accidentally slam Collin’s hand in the beverage case door. We ordered milks, waters, bagels, and coffee. At the gate we sat to eat before boarding. I took Zoey to the restroom right before boarding and she came into the stall with me and commentated on my pottying. We then boarded and took off with a smooth flight.



We landed a couple minutes early and headed to baggage claim. All our bags were just coming out as we got there. Then we went to side B for the Magical Express Bus. A couple minute wait to check in then we went to line 4 for Beach Club and went right onto the bus with no wait. The bus drove off about 5 minutes later.



We stopped at Boardwalk then Yacht Club then Beach Club. From bags to Beach Club it took 1 hour, not bad! We went to the front desk to check in. There was a long wait to be seen (a reoccurring thing this week). The room wasn’t ready yet so we took out our swimwear and left our bags with bell services.



We used the Stormalong Bay (sab) bathrooms to change, grabbed a few chairs to drop our stuff (near where the slide comes out- the whole trip the same spot). We decided to enter the pool via the slide first. Be mindful of your glasses on the slide as the waterfalls can take them off, but this was a way better slide than the slide at Grand Floridian. We check out the entire pool and swam for 2 hours and took lunch at Hurricane Hannah’s. Rick had the burger, I had the pulled pork sandwich and the kids had chicken tenders in pails. All very good for a quick service.
​

 

[DisneyCAL]

Tuesday Day 1 8/15
Part 2

Around 2:00pm we got our room ready text so got our bags and went up to check it out. We have Beach Club Villa room 238 which is facing the quiet pool and canal about 6 rooms down from the elevators and stairs. It was a pretty quiet room other than the occasional footsteps from above and rumbles of fireworks around 9:00pm. You could even see some of MK fireworks from the balcony. The room was clean, spacious, and comfortable. I truly loved the washer and dryer in the room.



We took this time to also order our Amazon Prime Now which arrived in under 2 hours and Bell services brought it up for us. After making the order we went back down to SAB and swam for another hour before washing up for our first dinner at Via Napoli in Epcot.

We entered Epcot through the Internation Gateway (IG) about a 5 minute walk from the room. We learned that the stairs from our room were faster as there was only one working elevator this week. As we were walking it started to rain so we put on the poncho and took out an umbrella. It only rained a short time and we were still able to make our FP for Test Track on time.



The kids had their first ride and loved it! We then gave the kids their first Epcot Scavenger Hunt Clue for Italy and walked there. Throughout the week we gave clues to each of the countries and they had to figure out the country and then find the penny press machine. Each country they got a pressed penny and Rick will be turning it into a necklace for them.
We checked in at Via Napoli and we were seated in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only wait there. We waited a long time to be waited on for drinks, a long wait for the food, and didn’t even get half our drink order until the food came. Dinner took a whopping 2 hours.



We headed out for the hotel after that as we had had an early morning. We also stopped in at Rose and Crown Pub for some Macallan 12 neat. We did this a lot on the trip, pretty much every time we walked by UK pavilion.

​

 

[ontdvc2015]

Love the scavenger hunt idea for telling the kids, I will have to remember that for when ours are both old enough to participate. Following along on this one.

 

[MinnieWebster]

I love the scavenger hunt! Looks like so much fun!

 

[DisneyCAL]

Love the scavenger hunt idea for telling the kids, I will have to remember that for when ours are both old enough to participate. Following along on this one.

It worked out well. I messed up the video of a couple of them but they had a blast doing it. And of course I had to video my daughter half dressed cause that's just her, always half dressed!

 

[DisneyCAL]

Wednesday Day 2 8/16/2017

We slept in until 8:30am catching up on some sleep before getting ready for our day. Once ready, we checked into Cape May Café for Minnie’s Beach Bash Buffet and were seated quickly. Rick ordered a bloody mary and I had a mimosa. We all went up to the buffet as the characters weren’t nearby yet. We came back with plates full of eggs, pancakes, waffles and more. The scrambled eggs with peppers and goat cheese were so good and so were the pancakes with the banana sauce I had two helpings of it. The kids got to meet Minnie, Donald, and Goofy in their swimwear.



We then went into Epcot to do the silhouettes in France. They were just opening up but Rick changed his mind and wanted to upgrade it to a characature and the guy that does them wasn’t there for another hour. So we killed that time easily in Japan at Mitzukoshi Department. Zoey did pick-a pearl and got a nice white 6 ¾ pearl. I had ordered her a cinderella carriage necklace to hold it. Later in the week she went on Splash Mountain and it fell off. I recovered the necklace but the pearl fell out and was lost forever. Also at Mitzukoshi we got Collin a new pokemon figurine and Zoey got a kawaii culture bear thing. They had a cute backpack too but I didn’t get it. We also tasted plum wine and picked up our usual pocky and Koala Marches and a couple of the good fortune kitties. We headed back to France and picked out the set we wanted for the characature, it took an hour. It was hotter than hades outside and Collin was looking rough, his rash getting worse and worse. While they sat to do the picture Rick and I got champagne and bought Zoey a pretty provincial style dress. Their picture came out amazing. The artist depicted their eyes perfectly. It came to around 90 dollars but was worth it.

​

 

[DisneyCAL]

Wednesday Day 2 8/16/2017
Part 2

Collin got up and couldn’t handle the itch so we took him to Epcots First Aid Center. Adam the RN treated it with calagel, gave us time to relax and sent us with extra gel and some emergency numbers. We walked back through the IG to the hotel.

We weren’t sure what this reaction was so Rick took Zoey to swim (although this didn’t work out as there was lightning under 6 miles away and lifeguards closed SAB. I took Collin to the solarium to play pokemon cards.



Around 4:00pm we got ready to go back to Epcot. Collin was starting to walk funny, we thought it was because of the rash behind the knee but he wanted to do more scavenger hunt. We gave the next clue which took us to Mexico. We walked around the market there, listened to the mariachi band, rode 3 caballeros, and ordered avocado margaritas to go. I feel like 3 caballeros is way underrated, I love that ride however simple it is. This was also when the second and last rain we experienced came down but it was short lived.



The marg was huge and difficult to finish before our next clue took us to Norway. We had to do our FP for FEA so Rick and I walked around the shops trying to chug it without getting a brain freeze but to no avail. I really liked FEA which was a surprise. The drop was less than Maelstom but it was still fun.



After that we did clue 4 for Japan. It was time to check in for Teppan Edo for dinner. We stopped at the koi pond real quick before checking in and being sat in the very back room. We were sat with a very nice family from New Jersey who happened to live in the town east of where I used to live. The dad and son hit it off with Rick in conversation about Japan and gaming. Rick had the steak and shrimp combo, I had the scallops and the kids had the chicken. We all enjoyed the show and food.



When we finished, Collin went to stand up and couldn’t. His knees hidden under the table had swollen along with his ankles. I said we needed to hike it out of the park. I didn’t want Rick to throw his back out carrying him so Mama Bear mode turned on and I picked him up in my arms. His knees hurt so bad I had to carry his 60lb body in front of me rather than piggy back. So, I carried him all the way across Epcot Showcase lake and out the exit to the hotel in 100 degrees getting around crowds. When we got to the room we took pictures of his rash and legs and got ahold of our on-call doctor at home. We sent her the texts and she got back to us with possible diagnoses and told us to pick a hospital not a walk-in clinic to take him to. I chose a children’s hospital in Orlando, called an uber and grabbed Collin and left. Rick stayed with Zoey and got her to bed. He stayed up most of the night texting back and forth with me.



The ride took about 40 minutes and the driver gave him a treat to make him feel better. We arrived at 9:40pm and went in to the emergency room and got him a wheelchair. The waiting room was hell. Freezing cold, a long wait, and an annoying stupid parent was chasing her toddler around making the girl yell and shout. We finally got into a room around 11:15pm. The doctor and nurse came in and had blood and urine taken. They came back with the diagnosis of Erythema Multiforme which is an auto immune response to a virus. Lucky for us it’s not contagious. Unlucky for us it was a severe case that attacked his joints causing the swelling to point of not walking. He was given an IV and filled with fluids, pain medication, and high dose Benadryl. After 30 minutes while I was talking to the insurance lady to fill out the paperwork he started screaming and crying and heaving. The lady grabbed a puke bag and notified the nurse. He came in and gave him anti-nausea medicine. He was screaming so much that I just lost it and started balling my eyes out. Another 20 minutes went by and he passed out. I pulled up two chairs and tried to lay next to him, holding his hand but I couldn’t nod off. The doctor and/or nurse kept coming in to check in on him. The rash was starting to lighten up and the swelling not so bad. The doctor around 1:30am came in and said we can try to make him stand and see if he’s in pain. If he can stand we could choose to push a steroid and send us on our way with a script, if not we would spend the whole night until he improves. It took some poking him to wake up, when he did he farted in front of the doctor, that’s my Collin! He stood and seemed ok with it. We got the steroid via IV which took 15 minutes. The discharge nurse then came in, I signed forms, got the script and she took his IV out. He woke up from that and gave the nurse an evil eye saying “why you doin that?”, I tried to calm him down and he went back to sleep. I got our stuff together and hailed an uber and carried him out, dead weight of being asleep. The construction at this time in the morning in Orlando was insane so it took a little longer to get home. We got into the room at 3:00am, I turned my morning alarm off and cancelled Be Our Guest breakfast. ​

 

[rdkeim]

OMG. I'm sorry you had this happen on your vacation! I hope your DS improves and is able to enjoy the rest of your time in DW.

 

[cinderaimee]

oh my goodness, how scary for all of you! I'm glad your DS was taken care of quickly. Hopefully you are all able to enjoy the rest of your trip