There's Always Too Much Sauce - A July 2022 TR *Updated 3/23

[amazingact21]

I really enjoyed your report, your writing style drew me in and kept me smiling as I read along.

Thank you so much for the kind words.

What a great ending to your trip. Thank you for sharing your magical memories with us

It was so much fun sneaking just a teensy, tiny bit more Disney into our trip. Thank you for reading!

Thank you for sharing your trip!!

Thanks for following along. I know you had a lot on your plate this past year, so I appreciate it!

 

[amazingact21]

Love hearing about your trips! Thanks for sharing with us, and Happy New Year! <3

Thank you for reading. Hope you all are having a great New Years, and you're relaxing during your break!

Awesome report.. I enjoyed reading it!

Thanks so much for reading and following along!

Brilliant trip report. Thanks for sharing it all with us
Oh and a Happy New Year to you all

Thank you. Hope the New Year is going well for you and your family. I just saw you went to London over Christmas. How great! Were the ravens out at the Tower?

 

[amazingact21]

Thanks for sharing all the fun! I always love your trip reports and feel like I have seen your family grow up over the years. I always love hearing about Evie and Landon's adventures!

Thanks, Susan! It's hard for me to believe how much my kids have grown since Landon's first trip. Even writing this report, it amazed me how much they've grown and changed.

What a wonderful trip and TR! Thank you for sharing - great fun following along. The first of your TR's I remember reading you were pregnant with your DS This trip seemed to have it all - time with your kids, other family and time alone with your DH. Loved the ending with your surprise trip to DS before heading back to England. I really hope you decide to write about at least one of your subsequent trips but understand if you don't. Again, thanks for taking the time to share your Disney adventures and Happy New Year!

I really appreciate our conversations throughout the writing of this report!
Landon's first trip feels like a lifetime ago. I love having the mementos of these reports to look back on and remind myself they weren't always moody preteens.
Hope your new year is going well!

Thanks for sharing. I understand not wanting to share as much about the kids as they get older. I am the same way. I don't put much out on Facebook anymore but I am more open to share here as it feels a bit more anonyms here so I am more abt to share more.

You had a great ending to your trip.

It's a fine line, isn't it? You make a really solid point, though, about the boards being a little more anonymous than social media. Plus, I try not to post any photos that they might one day cringe at.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Were the ravens out at the Tower?

no

 

[amazingact21]

no

That's such a bummer! Every time I went in '22-'23 they were in their cages because of the bird flu. I thought they would've been out and about by now. The last time I went, one of them had managed to escape, so I did get to hang with them for a bit.

 

[vamassey1]

But you've tried breakfast there, which is something I haven't managed yet.

I would really like to do breakfast again.

Were you able to take him on it?

He got his ride on MMRR and few others he didn't bargin for.


Thank you so much for sharing your report. I love your writing. I really hope you do another report.

 

[amazingact21]

He got his ride on MMRR and few others he didn't bargin for.

Uh oh, that sounds like some rides might not have been his favorite.

Thank you so much for sharing your report. I love your writing. I really hope you do another report.

Thank you for reading!
My resolve didn't last long.

 

[amazingact21]

Hello everyone! The completionist in me is going crazy not writing anything about my two other trips to Walt Disney World. There’s a little voice in my head going, “But what if you want to go back and read about this vacation?”

I never wrote a report for my 2011 honeymoon cruise onboard the Disney Magic, and it gnaws at me. Why chronicle my memories for all these years and leave some out?

And April covered my first Challenge weekend for a runDisney event. I feel like I want to revisit those days.

Plus, there’s a personal reason I want to document those memories.

Last fall, my mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer. I flew back to Florida in December and helped her as she underwent surgery to remove her kidney. The surgery was successful, and the doctor is optimistic that the cancer was contained and hadn’t spread yet. The recovery, though, has been brutal. Anything I can do from far away to distract her is a good thing, so recapping our amazing trip could be a positive thing.

Realistically, this might have been the last time my mom visits Walt Disney World.

So there’s no way I don’t have this trip written down.



Which also brings me to share that Alex and I are very optimistic we will be able to go to WDW in April! Once my mom got her diagnosis, we changed our plans to have Alex’s mom come and stay with the kids while we were gone. But then Alex’s mom was diagnosed with cancer. (In a six day span we got those pieces of news. It was a HARD WEEK.) So, of course, Disney went out the window. But then Alex’s mom had her surgery and is great now. Hers was caught during another surgery and it was a miracle they found it so early on.

And my mom’s doctor is confident that as long as her scans in the next few months continue to show no progression, there’s no reason she can’t come in April. Honestly, I think it’s the thing she’s using to get her through the recovery. Every time she has to get up and walk her laps, she tells me she thinking about getting to spend time with her grandkids is her motivation.

It wasn’t until this past weekend that Alex and I felt sure enough that we were going that we booked park passes. Only 98 days until we’re back in Disney!



Now, why don’t I start a new thread for this trip? Simply put: it’s not going to be very long. My mom and I had fun on this trip. So much fun that we hardly took photographs. We were all about relaxing and living in the moment, that we don’t have a lot to share in terms of pictures. It made the most sense to me to just add it to the bottom of this one.

All that being said, I hope you all will stick around a little bit longer as I talk about what it was like taking a mother/daughter trip to Walt Disney World, what the Springtime Surprise Challenge was like, and what the parks in April was like.





April 12th, 2023:


Departure day is always an exciting time, but I knew this one was going to be a long experience. Because I was traveling in the middle of the week, Alex had to drop me off at London Heathrow extra early, to get the kids back home in time for school. So even though my flight wasn’t until noon, I was dropping my luggage off seven thirty.

Saying goodbye to the kids was hard; they realized once we got to the airport that mom was leaving for a week and didn’t want to part from me. This wasn’t the first time I’d left them, but it was the first time I was going somewhere they wanted to go, too. I have no doubt jealousy was driving their clinginess.

I did feel a little guilty going to WDW without them, but I also knew it was important to show them that adults have to make and pursue goals. runDisney was what I set my mind to, and it was time to pay that fee.

Plus, when the kids were little, Alex and I made a decision. Because he’s in the military, Alex has to travel a lot for work. Sometimes, it's for a week, sometimes it's for six months. It's the job. Alex and I work together to teach the kids that that’s what normal looks like for our family.

Because of the comings and goings, I do my best to keep the house a stable, safe place that functions as normal as possible in his absence. And due to that, Alex and I agreed I needed to go and do things for myself every once in a while. It was important for the kids to see that mom has interests and jobs beyond them, and it's good for them to spend time with their dad.

When they were younger, I used to go on weekend adventures with fellow moms. In England, a good friend of mine and I tried to go out once a week to dinner and drinks, with various people joining along.

This time, it was to go with my mom on a trip to Walt Disney World.



Once I detached Landon and Evie from my side and hugged Alex farewell, I got in line for security. Heathrow’s always takes a long time, and the story I shared about my liquids being in a different Ziploc bag happened here.

After I was clear, I settled in to wait for my gate to announced. I hate Heathrow’s setup, with everyone hanging out in a big holding pen until forty five minutes before departure. It’s too claustrophobic.

At some point during my wait, I realized that I was by myself and could go buy whatever junk food I wanted. Nobody was there to admonish my selections.



I went and got myself some salt and vinegar chips and a Cadbury chocolate bar.

It was the perfect brunch.



Those chips actually lasted me throughout most of my trip and gave me something salty to grab when I was feeling snackish in the room.


It was a great start!



The flight was listed as full when I began boarding, and as I sat down and watched people stream onto the plane, every seat was being claimed.

But then the flow of people began slowing.

I was sitting in an aisle and there was a window seat to my left.

I kept waiting for someone to claim it.

Every time a single traveler came near my row, I held my breath.

It was going to happen.

It was a full flight!

Soon, there were no other empty seats.

If anyone else came aboard, my adjoining seat was the only free one left.

I waited.

Texted Alex with my hopes.

Waited some more.

Until finally…

“The cabin doors have now closed.”




HOORAY!

International flight with a row to myself!!!



I have to say, I don’t consider myself a lucky person, but whenever I fly solo, I have the best luck. The year prior, all four of my flights landed over an hour early. This past December, both flights there was an empty seat next to me.

And this one.

(And the one at the end of the trip, but I’ll get to that.)

I think it’s just the universe balancing the scales from traveling with the kids.

Oh, you flew international with a dog, a three year old, and a six month old? Oh, you hit a storm on the way back from your father in-law’s funeral and had to sprint to another gate with a five and two year old? Oh, your toddler dislocated her shoulder as you were boarding an international flight?!

Here, have some extra space.







Not long after we were in the air and settled, lunch was served.

I think Virgin Atlantic serves better food than other airlines.



The pesto ravioli was really good, as was the chocolate pudding. It had a nice sea salt flavor to cut the sweetness.



Over the course of the eight hour flight, I napped, read my book, and watched my favorite comedy on the seatback screen:




Then, eventually, we had arrived!


Who else feels like they’ve arrived when they’re riding the Fake-O Rail and hear, “Hi, I’m Buddy Dyer.” All while smelling the moldy carpet and feeling the bright Florida sun on their skin?



My mom had driven down this day and agreed to pick me up from the airport.


We should have known this would not go well.


My mom is terrible with directions.


I’m terrible with directions.


For anyone observing us, we must have been a comedy of errors.



The first strike against us was that I was reliant on the airport WiFi. So I would start calling her to try and see where she was, and the call would fail. Or she’d send me a message that never went through.

The app on her phone told her I’d be at the domestic baggage claim. When I explained to her that I was, in fact, in the atrium, she got lost trying to get there.

Then we realized we were on different sides. (A and B.)

I told her to meet me at the USO, but she couldn’t find it.

Eventually, she said she was near the Universal store, and I yelled at her: “STAY THERE. I am coming to you.”

It was five o’clock by this point, which meant I felt like it was really 10 o’clock at night, and I’d been up since 3 a.m. Trying to locate someone in a busy airport after a long day of flying was…not the smoothest start to my trip.


And if that was not sad enough, my mom forgot where she parked.



When we managed to find it and get on the road, she told me that her GPS took her to the wrong resort earlier.

No more driving today, Mom.



The two of us were originally going to stay at the Beach Club this trip, but after finding an amazing deal, I switched us to:

The Wilderness Lodge.


Best decision ever.

I could not have asked for a better resort this trip. It was so perfect, it was the only place I wanted to stay at next April. Everything from the quiet grounds, to the easy bus transportation on race days, to the convenient QS location, won me over.






We got to the resort, unloaded my bags and both of us unpacked and settled into our room. It was only four or five rooms down from where Alex and I stayed the previous summer.

Must be the military special.



Since my mom drove, she was able to bring a lot of things to make my life easier. A sound machine to help me go to sleep early, a water filter for us to refill our bottles, my protein cookies, and my coffee that I like.

I joked that we were making a trade. I got her British tea that she loved for my coffee. Heaven help the housekeepers if they decided to snoop through our bags. Probably thought we were crazy people, so many beverages.


The positive of traveling from Europe to do the races is that I was already on a race weekend timetable. Waking up at 2 a.m. to get ready for the runs shouldn’t feel too bad, since that was 7 a.m. back home. I had decided beforehand to keep not adjust my body to the new timezone and just keep going to bed and rising early.

And my mom is one of the quietest people I’ve ever met. She can read, use her ipad, get ready for bed, and I’d never hear her.

So the two of us went down to Roaring Fork and grabbed a dinner of turkey sandwiches and chips around six thirty. Then we strolled the grounds, with me showing my mom the Copper Creek Cabins and Geyser Point and the pools.

My mom grew excited for our stay.


Then, at eight o’clock, I went to sleep.




Up Next: I Can Say I Rode It. But I Don’t Need to Say I Rode it Multiple Times

 

[piglet1979]

Last fall, my mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer.

But then Alex’s mom was diagnosed with cancer.

I am so sorry to hear this and so glad that both of your mom's sound like they will be ok. I am sure it was so tough to handle being so far away and both at the same time.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m Here! Positive vibes for your mom and mother in law!
your travel day was really good overall, minus the airport challenges finding your mom and the car
WL is a wonderful resort and this was the trip I was able to meet you!
I‘m excited to hear more!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Who else feels like they’ve arrived when they’re riding the Fake-O Rail and hear, “Hi, I’m Buddy Dyer.” All while smelling the moldy carpet and feeling the bright Florida sun on their skin?

ME!!!

My mom is terrible with directions.

I’m terrible with directions

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

And if that was not sad enough, my mom forgot where she parked.

Em I may or may not be known to walk through car parks pressing the “unlock” button on my keys in an effort to spot my car lights flashing in such circumstances

It was five o’clock by this point, which meant I felt like it was really 10 o’clock at night,

I know that feeling only too well which I guess is a good thing if it means you’ve make it from this side of the pond to the US side

No more driving today, Mom.

Isn’t it lovely when Disney takes over and does all the driving.

The Wilderness Lodge

It looks wonderful. One day I will make it there. Gorgeous resort from the photos I’ve seen.

Since my mom drove, she was able to bring a lot of things to make my life easier. A sound machine to help me go to sleep early, a water filter for us to refill our bottles, my protein cookies, and my coffee that I like.

Aww moms are the best!

Waking up at 2 a.m. to get ready for the runs shouldn’t feel too bad, since that was 7 a.m. back home.

Gotta be the first time jet lag has been truly positive.

Then, at eight o’clock, I went to sleep.

You made it to a reasonable bedtime. Well done you

Just wanted to say I’m thinking of you all and sending positive vibes for your mum and mother-in-law. Cancer sucks! I’m glad to hear that both mums are on the road to recovery and can think of no better motivation for your mom than a trip to wdw with those precious grandkids. Take care of yourselves

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Wow. You have had a rough time with the big "C" and your family. I am so sorry you went through all of that but it sounds like things are good now?? Also - when are you going in April? I will be there April 8-14 for my best friend's wedding AND my birthday. If you are there during that time, I'd love to say hi!

 

[rdkeim]

So happy you decided to recap your trip! Sorry about the troubling news on both your Moms. But it sounds like things are going in the right direction for both. Even though you don't live close, at least you're in the US and you can more easily spend time with them. Anxious to hear about your April race trip!

 

[vamassey1]

Plus, there’s a personal reason I want to document those memories.

I'm so glad you're doing this.

Last fall, my mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer.

That's a hard one. My Mom had Kidney cancer too. She had the kidney removed. The recovery was really hard but she never had trouble with the cancer again.

But then Alex’s mom was diagnosed with cancer. (In a six day span we got those pieces of news. It was a HARD WEEK.)

Oh dear, a double whammy. I'm so glad to hear they are both recovering.

Every time she has to get up and walk her laps, she tells me she thinking about getting to spend time with her grandkids is her motivation.

That is the best motivation. She needs to build her strength for their visit.

Because of the comings and goings, I do my best to keep the house a stable, safe place that functions as normal as possible in his absence. And due to that, Alex and I agreed I needed to go and do things for myself every once in a while. It was important for the kids to see that mom has interests and jobs beyond them, and it's good for them to spend time with their dad.

I think this is a fabulous outlook. Kids need to know that parents are people too.

I went and got myself some salt and vinegar chips and a Cadbury chocolate bar.

Nice combination of salty- sweet.

International flight with a row to myself!!!

Who else feels like they’ve arrived when they’re riding the Fake-O Rail and hear, “Hi, I’m Buddy Dyer.” All while smelling the moldy carpet and feeling the bright Florida sun on their skin?

Me!

We should have known this would not go well.

Oh dear, but oh so funny to read about.

I'm directionaly challenged too.

The Wilderness Lodge.


Best decision ever.

Totally agree!!!!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Nice combination of salty- sweet.

Talking of salty sweet combinations- sorry for hijacking your thread Alicia but I feel you will thank me after - my daughter spent Christmas with her in-laws in Denmark and they made this really simple treat that is scrumptious ( and very moreish). Take some salted peanuts and mini marshmallows and mix them all up in a big bowl ( the bigger the better for more treats )with melted chocolate ( she used Cadbury’s but they had used dark chocolate and it’s basically just down to your personal preference). Put little dollops of the mixture on some non-sick baking paper or use muffin cases if you prefer and set in the fridge until hardened. Then enjoy

 

[vamassey1]

Talking of salty sweet combinations- sorry for hijacking your thread Alicia but I feel you will thank me after - my daughter spent Christmas with her in-laws in Denmark and they made this really simple treat that is scrumptious ( and very moreish). Take some salted peanuts and mini marshmallows and mix them all up in a big bowl ( the bigger the better for more treats )with melted chocolate ( she used Cadbury’s but they had used dark chocolate and it’s basically just down to your personal preference). Put little dollops of the mixture on some non-sick baking paper or use muffin cases if you prefer and set in the fridge until hardened. Then enjoy

That does sound good!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

That does sound good!

They are delicious

 

[cindianne320]

YAY! I'm so glad you are continuing to write about your trips.
I'm so sorry about getting all that scary news in one week. I am so glad that both of your moms are doing well. <3

 

[amazingact21]

I am so sorry to hear this and so glad that both of your mom's sound like they will be ok. I am sure it was so tough to handle being so far away and both at the same time.

It was really hard living so far away. I told my friend, "In the fifteen years I've been a part of Alex's military career, this is the first time I wish he had a different job." I'm just grateful we were back in the states, and I could go home to help.

I’m Here! Positive vibes for your mom and mother in law!
your travel day was really good overall, minus the airport challenges finding your mom and the car
WL is a wonderful resort and this was the trip I was able to meet you!
I‘m excited to hear more!

It's embarrassing how bad my mom and I are with directions. You should have seen us the first time we went to DAK years ago, back when I'd only visited once or twice before.

It was wonderful getting to meet up and visit. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again this coming April.

 

[amazingact21]

Em I may or may not be known to walk through car parks pressing the “unlock” button on my keys in an effort to spot my car lights flashing in such circumstances

That's Alex's go-to move in a parking garage, as well. Better than the panic button, though!

I know that feeling only too well which I guess is a good thing if it means you’ve make it from this side of the pond to the US side

That arrival day, when you have to force yourself to stay up, is the worst! How did you all fare when you visited over the summer?

Gotta be the first time jet lag has been truly positive.

It was one of the few times it worked in my favor.

Wow. You have had a rough time with the big "C" and your family. I am so sorry you went through all of that but it sounds like things are good now?? Also - when are you going in April? I will be there April 8-14 for my best friend's wedding AND my birthday. If you are there during that time, I'd love to say hi!

I am definitely happy 2023 is in my rearview mirror, and hopefully 2024 will be a lot smoother.
We'll miss each other by a few days! I'll be there 17-23.