This is not going well...

Cloudboy

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Back in early December I had a little extra unexpected money in the budget. I somehow got the idea in my head that my father and aunts, who absolutely love sitting outside and watching the animals, would enjoy a quick trip to the Animal Kingdom. At first my father was dead set against the idea - it will be a disaster, he said - but slowly he came around. So tickets were booked, villas rented, and the trip was planned.

My father, 2 of his sisters and his brother in law, all over 70, were coming. originally so were two cousins - one in his 30s, one in her 40s, were also supposed to be joining us. First my cousin had to bow out - she is in the guards and was called to training that weekend. Then in March my father went into the hospital because of breathing problems, and never came out. Realizing that this will likely be their last big trip (as well as two of theirs first), I decided to push ahead with the trip. Well Dad, you were right.

First, while I travel quite frequently, I had never traveled before with 3 deaf old people. Let me tell you, that is not a fun experience. And do they ever bicker. The whole trip has been nothing but yelling back and forth. Not fun on a plane.

We made it down, picked up a rental car. Infinity GX60, nice car. but turns out the back seat is too difficult for any of them to get into. So they have to squish into the back seat. And so they continue bickering. How you parents deal with that for years on end I do not know. We got to the hotel, took so long to check in that we didn't have time to go to the rooms before heading to our dinner reservations at Boma. Boma completely failed to impress them. Everything seemed to them (well, to me too) to be just cafeteria food with a little bit of spice added. And 70 year olds don't eat enough to make buffets particularly worth it.

We did manage to spend a few minutes outside watching the giraffes. That of course was accompanied by lots of talk about how much nicer the other zoos they have been to were. I had to stop and pick up an annual pass anyways, so we headed off to Disney Springs.

Keep in mind it has been a few years since i was down here, and the place has completely changed. So part of it was me not parking where I needed to. I spent a good 40 minutes waiting at Guest Services, which I might add is the biggest mess I have ever seen, while the rest of them, instead of wandering around, decided to sit on a bench near the fountain for the entire time. The one comment I got about Springs was that it was just like our local mall, but without a roof.

We have two full days don here in FL, so instead of spending two days at the parks, tomorrow we are driving all the way up to Leesburg to go look t some tractor barn my cousin found on the internet and insists on going to. I am trying to make the best of it and diverting a half hour to go over to Mt Dora and do the Dora Canal. Hopefully that will prove more successful, assuming no one pushes anyone else off the boat.

Wish me luck in trying to push anyone.
 


I'm not sure that things went a little better today than that I was a little more prepared for what to expect. We adjusted the seating this morning to separate people better (70 year olds, 5 year olds, little difference). That helped a little bit with the car ride. This morning we headed up to Leesburg, which is a bit north of the Orlando area, about an hours ride north. Here's a surprise - Disney has hills! And I don't mean an overpass, I mean real, hilly areas! We drove up rt 27, which was a pleasant surprise. And yes, there IS a lake Minnihaha! Our destination was Paquette's International Harvester Tractor museum. I can't say it was a hoping place - in fact we were the only people there and go a personal tour, but they guy has an awful lot of tractors. The tour guide is quite the tractor buff and will tell you ALL about them. I will be honest, I found it a bit boring, but others in our party thought it was great. We got to meet the owner/collector himself - super friendly guy! We ended up spending a couple hours there, which was more to do with the spiel by the guide, I would probably have breezed through it in about 45 minutes. Still, if that is your thing...

Next stop was the Premier Boat Tour of the Mt. Dora Canal. Actually I do highly recommend it, though our party may not have enjoyed it as much. It was a pretty overcast and not too warm day, so there were not a lot of animals to be seen In addition, traffic through the canal was heavy, so the driver couldn't take his time and I think a lot of the animals were scared off. So the tour is on these pontoon boats, I think there were about 18 people on board. There is a tiny little bathroom like shed on board, for emergency use only. The first half hour is cruising across Lake Dora, which I guess is pleasant enough. Again I wise and had my two aunts sit on different sides of the boat, so there was not a lot of arguing between them. You then enter the Dora Canal. This is a waterway that connects two lakes. The first part goes through a mobile home park. It is this really weird old world kind of feeling - at once totally hick, and yet somehow kind of neat. You then pass under a bridge, and then suddenly you expect to hear banjo music and see a steamer come the other way. We are talking real Huckleberry Finn stuff here. The whole trip down is really looking for Aligators and other animals. The first time I went on the ride, several years ago, I would say I saw a good 3 or 4 dozen gators. 'course that was a warm sunny day. This time most of us saw maybe 5. My poor aunt only saw 3, because she just couldn't find them in time. My uncle spent the whole time looking dead straight ahead. When we got off he asked what all the commotion was on the boat. He saw 1 gator and 1 bird. I then realized what the problem was this whole time - his hearing aid battery had died and he didn't know, and didn't know what the heck was going on! So, when we got back we made a stop at the new WalMart on 192 West. I thought the one on Turkey Lake Rd was big and crowded! This one needs fastpasses for checkout lines!

We were going to head to 4 rivers for BBQ, but decided it was too far, so we ended up at Carraba's. Outside of a little tiff about spinning spaghetti on a fork, it was fairly quiet, mostly because they all scowled at each other and didn't say anything. We took a detour around around Vista Blvd and around the MK parking lot on the way home. Of course with all the construction I got totally lost but they got to see some fireworks from the car. My aunts decided that they would take their scooters for a spin. Apologies and a warning to those attending the Animal Kingdom tomorrow for all the people they plow down. I'm expecting them to throw us out of the park and tow the scooters away. We're at Kidani Village, which I have to say has much less atmosphere and animals as Jambo House does. They tried to go out to the overlook, but apparently got stuck in the elevator. One went in, but the doors closed before the other could get in. Then, aunt #1 couldn't back herself out of the elevator so spend a good 15 minutes going up and down. I had a panicked call from aunt #2, but she doesn't know how to use a cell phone so dropped the call before I could find out where she was. So I walked up and don the whole east side of the resort a couple of times looking for them. I eventually found them out in the portico in front.

So tomorrow is the big event - Animal Kingdom. My cousin has already expressed his lack of interest in going. So if you see two old ladies driving recklessly on scooters arguing with each other, a dazed thin old guy oblivious to the all that is going around him, and redneck in a truck driver shirt dropping the f bomb every 90 second, stop by and give the dazed bald middle aged guy with them a little encouragement. I need it.
 
I’m sorry that you are going through this...it sounds a bit maddening no matter how understanding you might try to be. On a positive note, it makes for a very funny read if you don’t mind me saying :).
 


Oh dear! This reminds me of traveling anywhere with my Mom and my aunt. They could turn how to drink coffee into an argument! LOL!!!

The Harvester Museum? OMG, My dh woudl love to visit. We have a small farm with a flock of Farmalls, a few Deeres. And a Ford.The newest is old! LOL!!!! He loves old iron!
 
Oh dear! This reminds me of traveling anywhere with my Mom and my aunt. They could turn how to drink coffee into an argument! LOL!!!

It's even better. Like I said the three of them can't hear, and refuse to turn up their hearing aids. They bicker because the three of them aren't even talking about the same subject!
 
I am just going to consider this trip as a write-off. Typing this out has been therapeutic because I am now simply thinking of it as a comedy. Thank God we fly home tomorrow.

Today we went to the Animal Kingdom. For a while anyways. We got a late start because my cousin and uncle were watching the car race. I don't think they belong in New England. Anyways it took a little while to get my aunts out the door with their buggies. Supposedly you were supposed to be able to take them apart, but we coudn't figure out how to get the seat off to start the process. There are tons of different instructions on the Internet and YouTube about how to do this. None of them matched what was on the ECVs we had. Fortunately we figured out how to get the both of them in the back of our rental SUV.

First off we had problems getting into the park. As I mentioned earlier my father was supposed to be on this trip, and they gave us a Magic Band for him. Of course teh bands only show first names, and as my cousins first name is the same as his, apparently my cousin took the wrong band. In the old days of tickets and cards that was an easy fix, but no, not with today's advanced technology. That took us almost a half hour to get straightened out. We made a beeline for the Kilimanjaro Safari so that we could try and get fast pass. But I live in an older time, and apparently it is ALL done online now, and the days of being able to just go to the park and not have to plan your every move 6 months in advance are gone. So we were stuck for 45 minutes in line to get on the ride. That ended with the first big broughaha over leaving the buggies right there.

We got stuck in the very back two rows. I was smart enough this time to split the two sister up, but instead the two women sitting next to us complained the whole time about how rough the ride was, how bad the driver was, how fast she was moving, yada yada. If it is not one person, it's another. I also realized that the hearing aid battery wasn't the fix I thought it would be - the whole ride my uncle just looked straight ahead. I am not sure he saw a single animal. He hasn't talked about any, anyways. Then again he hasn't really said anything. The Gorilla Falls trek went better, outside of one of the aunts getting upset she couldn't keep the bird chart.We ate at Tusker House, which everyone failed to enjoy. They all thought it the food was too weird (except or the mac and cheese). I though thought it tasted like cafeteria food.

We were going to head to Asia for the jungle trek, but as I didn't want to backtrack and I wanted to split the walking up, so we did the Legend of the Lion King. We were of course standby for that, but they only had room for one scotter, The more able aunt sat on a bench while they took the buggie away. Supposedly it would be waiting for us at the exit. Well, so much for that. There was a cast member there who did start to look for it, but he got lost somewhere. We eventually found it over with the strollers after another heated argument. For all I know that cast member is still wandering around trying to find it. Never saw him again.

And on cue it started thundering as we left. Trying to thing of something to do in the rain, we headed for Rafiki's. On the train, there can only be one scooter per car, so we got split up. We spent most of the time at Rafikis looking for each other. The one thing there I do like is the old Binaural 3D sound booths. These are the last remaining ones I know about. I managed to get everyone in the booth and with headsets on. It was only after the audio started I realized my mistake - as these people can't hear out of one ear (at least), the whole Binaural thing wasn't going to work. Fail. It started raining as we took the train back. We rented scooters from Buena Vista, and they had nicely included ponchos in the basket, so I did not take the ones I had purchased. Oops. The ponchos they provide are barely buig enough for one person. let alone a person and a buggy. And they don't split at the sides. So the scooter had to survive the rain.

For what it is worth the scooters survived the rain perfectly well. The skies had opened up as we were exiting Africa so we decided to just give up and head back to the hotel. My aunts just put their buggies on fast and headed for what they decided was the exit. My cousin raced to manage one and me and my uncle went with the other. Since they had no idea where they were going a few wrong turns were made, but we managed to get them back on track. We would have been out of there 10 minutes earlier, but we were both waiting for the other group on the opposite sides of the same ticket booth, wondering where the other were. Fortunately there are dryers in the villas, so we were able yo dry our soaked clothes. I had bought a new shirt for this trip, and as I looked at my pants I realized that it apparently was not in the least bit color fast. I now have a pair of pink-fade Columbia convertible pants.

So that is about it. We went to Toojays for a fortunately quiet supper as we didn't want to do too much. We stopped at Jambo House for souvenirs and to go check out the savanna, but that looked closed and as I was not up for another elevator adventure we are now back at our rooms getting ready to fly home tomorrow.

Over dinner it was decided that the highlight of the trip was the tractor museum. Animal Kingdom didn't really seem to impress them, and two of them couldn't even remember we went down the Dora Canal. It was not the memory I was hoping to end up with. But at least I now no longer have it on my conscience that we never took the trip. Hopefully the flight home is uneventful.
 
Oh my............ it sounds painful and hilarious all at the same time *grin*

My mother and her best friend of 60 years decided on a road trip to Savannah Georgia. I won't go into the whole funny story but let's just say the morning of their trip they had left the window down all night and so my moms friend had to sit on a trash bag the whole way.
Then that first night when they stopped at a hotel they called me in a panic that their GPS would not charge...even though it was plugged in all night! Oh no how were they going to make it to Georgia with no GPS they shrieked??!
I painfully went over on the phone (uggh) on how to plug it in and what buttons to push and nothing! They then suddenly after an hour realized they were trying to charge my Garmin GPS with the best friends Tom Tom GPS cord! :teeth::teeth::teeth::teeth::teeth:
Their whole 5 day trip I was their assistant on the phone! I wanted a vacation after that!:worship:

So thanks for the great story and update Cloudboy! Keep your story coming! It's sweet and funny and I wish I could buy you a drink or get you something to endure it all easiero_O:P
 
Oh my!!!! WHat a trip! I cannot even imagine. I gave up on road trips with the two of mine after our annual trek "back home" to bring flowers to the graves that was filled with wrong directions, constant bickering * they loved it, I was a mess* and long discussions about food, where to eat, etc. Too many hours later I came home woke up covered in hives all over the resulted in an ER visit, met my future DBIL who then called my sister to describe the huge red bumps that covered my front the neck down, and then shot me up with epinephrine.
 
I'm sorry the trip wasn't what you were hoping for. But you did it and one day you will smile fondly at the memory and have a little chuckle at how the whole trip turned out. Because laughter is sometimes the only way to stop yourself from crying or swearing at the frustration of it all. Thanks for sharing.
 
I really enjoyed your trip report!.....as a parent of four young ones I can relate! Same stuff just different decade!! Getting split up, getting lost, not liking the food, and if you substitute pool for the tractor museum you get the point. All the money spent on the parks and my kids were just as happy at the hotel pool!! It may not have been the trip you wanted, but I bet it will be the trip you will remember the most.....even years from now and long after they have passed on. Also by sharing you gave a lot of us some humor and to appreciate every day is a gift, no matter how the day goes!!
 
Yikes! It seems like you are handling everything with grace, though.
I'm not sure I would be able to do the same!
 
What a saga - bless you for trying to do this for your family, I know very well how difficult the older generation can be to be around sometimes. You did a good thing!
 
You are a good person for planning this trip! If I can make a prediction, in a few weeks they will remember this as being the best trip ever. All the glitches and difficulties you remember will fade from their memories.
 

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