"This is supposed to be the happiest place on Earth, and I AM NOT HAPPY!"- An August 2016 TR New!

[Kbendig]

So two months have passed now, and I am really starting to look past the bad on the trip. There was a lot of good a lot of fun, but at the time I often felt trapped. As in, I just want to go home trapped. But it was fun, it was Disney, and we learned a valuable lesson. My son can not handle the summer in Florida. I think part of dealing with the bad for me is writing it all out. It'll help me find the good in there too.

So to begin, the who's:

Me! I am Karenann a 39 year old social worker from NJ. Well, almost a social worker, if I ever get my license. The state is soooo slow. I have worked with kids in foster care as well as with families. And no, I would never want any clients to act like I did at points on the trip. I was a brat. But this was a special trip for me. A year before I lost my third child, and when I lost the last two (twins) I went to Disney a year later. So this was my trip, my time to recover. Only this time I also had a 1 year old, the surviving twin. At times when I needed the happy I got the grumpy. So I am trying to focus on the happy.

Dan- My husband of 14 years. We honeymooned in Disney, and have been back only with kids. He went once as a kid while I went almost every year. So he doesn't love it, but he does appreciate that it's a great vacation with kids. And he has fun, he just doesn't like admitting it. He is a programmer for an engineering company.

Kevin- The birthday boy! We chose the week we went because it was his birthday week, he was turning 9. He got to decide where to go on his day, etc. Any kid would be thrilled to be there for their birthday. Not mine. You see, over the summer he was bullied and he spent a good part of the week scared he would be made fun of. Thankfully some random teen made it better, but I'll get to that later. This is his third trip, his absolute favorite park is Epcot. He loves hidden mickey's and spaceship earth.

Ashley- She is my rainbow baby. She is a very happy little girl and despite being a bit early she is catching up and doing amazing. She LOVED the characters and the rides. She even got to meet her idol, Doc McStuffins.


When: August 23-30

Where: All over! POR, AKL, and BWV. POR was not in the initial plan, but we added a day. I will never do 3 hotels in a stay again!! While Disney makes it easy to move, I like to unpack and make it my home for the week. But we managed.

Now, I should mention that the issues were not all Disney related. Our kitchen was being redone while we were gone and there were issues we tried to deal with while there. And our cat was in boarding and slit her paw open requiring emergency surgery and they almost amputated. So, the week as stressful without August Florida heat. 

Next: Preparing for the trip

 

[Melissakay1q]

Yay social work! :fist bump of solidarity:

 

[kfcamm]

Oh my goodness - so much stress while your trip is going on. We went to Florida and while travelling through GA, our pet sitter called and said our lock on our house door was broken and the house was wide open. Nightmare! Luckily we got in touch with a neighbor who went out and fixed it. We always think about our pets while we are there and worry about them. Looking forward to hearing about your trip nonetheless!

 

[MamaMeggie]

Just wanted to tell you I'm so sorry for your losses.

 

[ariane37]

Whoa, we had a pretty crappy trip last Nov. but so far yours sounds worse Really stinks to be having issues at home while you're away!
I hope there was some good in there, too!

 

[Kbendig]

Just wanted to tell you I'm so sorry for your losses.

Thank you.

 

[Kbendig]

Yay social work! :fist bump of solidarity:

Yay! None of my clients had a crisis while I was gone, double yay!

 

[Kbendig]

Oh my goodness - so much stress while your trip is going on. We went to Florida and while travelling through GA, our pet sitter called and said our lock on our house door was broken and the house was wide open. Nightmare! Luckily we got in touch with a neighbor who went out and fixed it. We always think about our pets while we are there and worry about them. Looking forward to hearing about your trip nonetheless!

Oh no! I'm glad you were able to get your neighbor. Our last trip we came home the day before Sandy hit, so we had to call our neighbor and ask him to put all our stuff away. Thank goodness for good neighbors! The cat had never been boarded before, but had to be because of the kitchen, so the poor thing must have been stressed. She is still limpy, but considering they told us she would never use the paw again I am thrilled.

 

[Kbendig]

Whoa, we had a pretty crappy trip last Nov. but so far yours sounds worse Really stinks to be having issues at home while you're away!
I hope there was some good in there, too!

A crappy day in Disney is better than one at home and all that right? We definitely had good times, and a lot of times we will look back on and laugh about some day. Not today, but some day.

 

[Kbendig]

So first of all I can not for the life of me figure out how to post pictures. So if someone can help me, using small words, I would appreciate it. I am dealing with 4th grade math here, so my brain is not working very well.

So let's begin with a little background on how we got to the trip.
It started in November, when I got a seasonal job at Target to get through the holidays. I was supposed to only work until January, but they asked me to stay on. We decided if I would stay on we would use it for a vacation. We tossed around a few ideas, but decided to go to Disney. Honestly, that was the first thing mentioned so we could have stopped there but I guess we wanted to show effort? So we started to save.

And then one day in April I got home and my husband was crying. He doesn't cry. His mom that lives 600 miles away in Ohio had surgery a few days earlier, he talked to her daily, but he got a call from his brother that something was wrong and she was in the ICU in another hospital. Hours later she was being sent to Indiana to have her intestine amoputated. It took some convincing that we would be ok, and if anything I would drive the kids out, but he finally drove out to Indiana. He was gone a week, she was dying and his brother was in denial.

A few weeks later there was no improvement but she was transferred to an ICU back in OH. At that point we took a long weekend out so the kids could say goodbye. It was hard, she never met the baby, but she did seem to notice she was there. And then a few weeks later we got a call that she would be taken off life support. We left the day she was removed took 2 days of driving but she lived long enough for us to see her. We had a service there and then a month later a service at the family cemetery in WV.

At this point we questioned if we should still go. All of those hotels added up, but we decided to just go for it. We already booked the hotels by renting timeshare points so we would lose a good chunk. But we were originally driving down and going to Clearwater and St. Augustine too. So those got cut. Then my son was so upset because he wanted to see Winter and Hope. And after everything this kid had been through, we had to make it work. So I tried to add a day to the first hotel but couldn't, so we decided to just stay at another hotel. We would fly into Tampa, go to Clearwater, then drive to Orlando. We went back and forth about the car but finally decided to keep it a few days.

So we finished making our plans and then my sister says she will be there 2 weeks before us. SERIOUSLY?!?! She knew when we wanted to go, why didn't she tell us this earlier. She was visiting us over Easter, we talked plans, she could have mentioned it. So that kinda stunk since we couldn't change the reservation.

So July comes and we send a letter to our landlord that we will be gone and it would be a good time to redo the entry like he wanted. So he comes and measures and I notice he is measuring a lot. Well the entry needed new flooring, but he was going to do that and the kitchen and then just redo the entire kitchen. He tells us this the beginning of August. GAH! So we packed and packed and packed the kitchen, the hallway, the main closet, everything had to be packed. Plus work, plus kids, plus vacation plan. We were moving furniture until 10PM the night before we left. And then off to bed we went.

To get up at 3 to head to the airport.

Next up: Day 1

 

[PrncessA]

Joining in, I hope that the good in the trip outweighed the bad.

 

[Kbendig]

Day 1:

Our flight was at 7am, which sounded good at the time. Until we thought about what time we had to leave. I set my alarm for 3, had my son just get dressed for the next day, and packed the baby a change of clothes for when we land. I got up at 3, showered, but my husband hadn't slept well so he was already up. Soon we were all up. Awesome, we may leave early. That was until I couldn't find my license. Thirty minutes later I was all set. I had changed wallets and it was in my old one, that I hadn't used in months. I was driving for months without it on me. Awesome.

The plan was for my husband to drop me and the kids off, I'll deal with the luggage and he will go park the car. That went well but we were running a little late. Security was fine, except the formula for the baby required an extra scan and it took forever for them to get to it. I mean, I'm not complaining they had to do it but we waited 15 minutes for them just to go grab the bin to do it. Then we walked to Starbucks for some breakfast. Coffee and breakfast sandwiches in hand we looked at the time and it was already 6:30. We were boarding! So we went to wait in line. Now what we have always done was my husband goes on with the car seat and I stay off with the kid/s and let them run around until final boarding. Less time on the plane the better. So as we discuss it we hear the grunt of doom. Someone pooped. I grabbed her and RAN to the bathroom hoping it would be fast. It was not. I walked back in time for final boarding. We all go up and we had no time to situate so the coffee had to go. We had no more hands. We make it on and to our seats, and the flight attendant comes over and asks to see our tickets. I hand them to her and she yells "no, they are in the right seats." Huh? There was a lot of commotion only to find out the 2 guys sitting next to my husband had booked seats apart from one another so they just took those 2 which left a couple not in their seats. That was taken care of, and the couple was super nice.

We took off, and my son had no idea we were not heading to Disney just yet. I thought for sure he would notice but nothing. It was a great flight, no turbulence or anything. The baby, well she screamed a bit but ended up falling asleep. We landed in Tampa and went to get our luggage, which was right in front of a mural for Clearwater Aquarium. Again, no idea. He is not very observant. We took turns in the bathroom, bot the baby dressed, and off to get the car. We were on the road by 10:30.

I read some bad reviews about the Aquarium. It's not cheap, and it's not huge, but it was a great time. We really did enjoy ourselves there, I would recommend going to anyone. Don't expect a mini Sea World, cause you're not getting that, but expect to see some amazing animals. We then left and found a place for lunch, a block from the beach. It was a small place with only 1 table that could put a high chair, but the food was AMAZING. Around 2PM we were done and since we got up so early decided instead of going to the beach for a while we would head to Orlando. We stopped at Publix on the way and grabbed some water, baby food, and a few other odds and ends. Loaded up and headed to POR to check in. We got the text the room was ready on the drive. We were in #18, which wasn't a bad spot. We unloaded and sat for a while.

We decided to take the boat to Disney Springs to walk around and grab dinner. Mistake #1.
1. The baby hates boats. We didn't know. She screamed the whole time. This was even more fun a BWV.
2. My son is on ADHD meds, and because we had an early start and weird day he didn't have his meds. Between that and the lack of sleep he was off the wall.

But we made it there, walked around for a while and had some sushi for dinner. By then we were all tired, I wanted ice cream but they all were throwing fits so we went to get the bus instead. It took forever, we really had bad luck with the busses this trip. But we got on and were soon back at the resort. And we couldn't find any of the ramps. I mean, eventually we did but we found them to be lacking. So that set everyone off and fight #1 began. I sent everyone to the room and went to get some drinks and snacks. We were all tired and cranky. It was around 9 PM when I got back to the room. We all got changed and into bed by 10.

Looking back, we should have eaten at the hotel and just stayed in. Even a quick dinner was still a long trek that no one was up for. But hey, it could only get better right?

Next up: Our first ride will be the one called "first aid".

 

[Kbendig]

Joining in, I hope that the good in the trip outweighed the bad.

Welcome! It mostly did, but it was a lot of lessons learned.

 

[ariane37]

That's for the "grunt of doom". I remember those days!
A few years ago we arrived at the airport for a trip to Disney. All happy, right? Went to check in at the JetBlue desk, hand the attendant our licenses. Only, DH's had expired 2 months prior on his birthday Boy was I pissed while they were figuring out what to do I told him I was going to go with the kids without him! Luckily they let him go....

Those arrival days that start with an early flight are always rough. At least you had a nice time at the aquarium!

 

[Kbendig]

The baby and I are home and sick today. The husband and son are at school and work, and better stay healthy! But it gives me time for another update!


Day 2:

We woke up around 7 and showered and got dressed right away. We had breakfast reservations at Kona for 9:15 and even though we had the car we still had to get out of the hotel room. We didn’t unpack much so getting ready for the day wasn’t hard, though it did take a few days before we remembered everything and got the routine down. Kevin was sitting on the murphy bed reading and Ashley was standing by the end trying to see what he was doing. I was drying my hair and my husband was getting suitcases ready. We hear a scream followed by crying, Ashley fell. My husband went over and consoled her and she was fine. We finish up and at 8:45 we are all ready to go. I go to put a bow in Ashley’s hair and its wet, I look at my hand it’s covered in blood. Her hair was so long no one noticed she had a huge gash in her head. We stop everything and it takes almost 15 minutes but the bleeding stops enough that I feel ok waiting to go to first aid.

We try to figure out where the ramp is, and finally find it. Load up the car and off to Poly we go. The hotel is gorgeous, but that parking lot was confusing. By the time we get inside it’s 9:30. I wasn’t too concerned, she had gotten hurt so if they weren’t busy they would still take us. We were walking over to check in and some guy pushes me out of the way to get there before us. Pushed me. My husband was like, did he just put his hands on you because I’ll go report him. I talked him out of that, and while they did get seated before us the place was empty anyway. My first thought was if he has a small child, but no he had a teen. She can wait long enough to not have him push me.

We sat down and ordered our coffee and juice. We were excited for the coffee and it didn’t disappoint. My husband wants to stay there for the coffee next time. Kevin got mickey pancakes and wasn’t wild about them. I tried a piece and understood. They weren’t bad, but they were a weird texture so I could see how he wouldn’t like it. My husband got the samoan and he loved his. I got the tonga toast and it did not disappoint. It was a bit rich so I didn’t eat it all but the boys gladly helped. Ashley had a little of everything. We pay and leave and go to the first park, animal kingdom.

We get to the parking lot around 12 and Ashley is sleeping, so we decided to wait a little bit before heading in and let her sleep. As we are sitting there we hear a thunderstorm coming in. It’s one thing being in the park already but we decided to wait it out in the car. We waited…and waited…and waited..

Around 1 we decided to go to the first hotel and at least be inside and relax. Kevin and I went in because Ashley was still sleeping. Kevin had no idea we were staying at AKL, so he was very excited. Even more so to learn we have a Savanah view room! The room wasn’t ready but we were able to get our buttons, make sure the dining plan was good to go, etc. We went out to the car and she just woke up. We decided to go inside for a bit and look around. We parked the car and tried to open the back and it wouldn’t open. At all. We decided to just leave it for now, the storm passed and we wanted to get to the park for a while. We went and grabbed the bus and were soon heading into Animal Kingdom.

First stop: first aid.

We explained what happened, and at this point we just wanted to get something to clean it. They checked her and she was ok. Then the nurse hands me info on urgent care. “She is a girl, so you’ll probably want to go and have it glued so it doesn’t scar. Girls shouldn’t have scars.”

We walked out and I turned to my husband and asked if I heard that right. I did. Well it did heal on its own and it’s a small spot that will most likely fade as she grows. But really? Blah! That out of the way we decided it was finally time to go and so some stuff.


Next up: safari adventures

 

[Kbendig]

That's for the "grunt of doom". I remember those days!
A few years ago we arrived at the airport for a trip to Disney. All happy, right? Went to check in at the JetBlue desk, hand the attendant our licenses. Only, DH's had expired 2 months prior on his birthday Boy was I pissed while they were figuring out what to do I told him I was going to go with the kids without him! Luckily they let him go....

Those arrival days that start with an early flight are always rough. At least you had a nice time at the aquarium!

OMG! I am glad they still let him on, I would have gone without my husband too.
There was another grunt of doom on the way home, as we were walking on during final boarding. "You have 4 minutes". We changed her on the plane. Babies have the most incredible timing.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I haven't read all of your report yet but I wanted to jump in about pictures.

What I like to do, which is easiest, is to pull up the picture that I want from my computer - as in double click on the picture icon and then a big picture shows up on my screen. Then I right click on the picture and choose "Copy". I then go to my post, right click where I want the pic and choose "Paste".

Sometimes the picture is too big. If all your pictures end up being like that, you'll need to use a program like Picasa to make them smaller. Picasa is free from Google. After you download it, go back to the picture that you wanted from your computer, double click on the picture icon to make it pop up on the screen like before. Right click on the pic, this time you should have the option to "Edit in Picasa". Click on that. Your picture will come up in the Picasa program. Once it does, click on "File" then "Export Picture to Folder". Leave everything as it is except for the pixels box. Change it to 800. Then click on okay. Picasa will export your picture and automatically open the folder for you with your downsized picture.

Then you do as you did before, open the now downsized picture from the folder, right click "Copy" then go to your post and right click "Paste".

Good luck and let me know if you have questions!

 

[ariane37]

I haven't read all of your report yet but I wanted to jump in about pictures.

What I like to do, which is easiest, is to pull up the picture that I want from my computer - as in double click on the picture icon and then a big picture shows up on my screen. Then I right click on the picture and choose "Copy". I then go to my post, right click where I want the pic and choose "Paste".

Sometimes the picture is too big. If all your pictures end up being like that, you'll need to use a program like Picasa to make them smaller. Picasa is free from Google. After you download it, go back to the picture that you wanted from your computer, double click on the picture icon to make it pop up on the screen like before. Right click on the pic, this time you should have the option to "Edit in Picasa". Click on that. Your picture will come up in the Picasa program. Once it does, click on "File" then "Export Picture to Folder". Leave everything as it is except for the pixels box. Change it to 800. Then click on okay. Picasa will export your picture and automatically open the folder for you with your downsized picture.

Then you do as you did before, open the now downsized picture from the folder, right click "Copy" then go to your post and right click "Paste".

Good luck and let me know if you have questions!

Hmm, I wonder if doing this is quicker than using photobucket? Because all my pictures end up being too big. Photobucket is easy but it's a pain in the butt to keep going from here to photobucket and back........

 

[ariane37]

So sorry about your daughters' head I'm glad it wasn't worse. And I'm a little surprised at what the CM said in first aid! Even if that's how she feels it's weird to say. And FWIW I'd prefer my boys not have scars from their injuries either lol

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Hmm, I wonder if doing this is quicker than using photobucket? Because all my pictures end up being too big. Photobucket is easy but it's a pain in the butt to keep going from here to photobucket and back........

I find it incredibly quicker than Photobucket. Once you get Picasa, you can just take all your Disney pics (edit them if you want,too) and export the lot of them into a smaller size and then they're ready to go when you need them. I think Photobucket takes ages to download everything and resize. And sometimes the resize doesn't actually work.