It’s the little moments that count!! 3/31 KathyRN137 & Lurkyloo's podcasts

[mrsksomeday]

Installment Links​

Introductions etc​

Didnt we check two suitcases?​

A rodent in Bills hair!​

A view from the tray & Wishes Dessert Party Part 1

A view from the tray & Wishes Dessert Party Part 2

Throwing the plans out the window Part 1

Throwing the plans out the window Part 2

Off to see a butler

Ugly Crying at the Grand Floridian

Moving to the Boardwalk Part 1

Moving to the Boardwalk Part 2

Disappointments, surprises, and a serenade Pt 1

Disappointments, surprises, and a serenade Pt 2

How did we miss that?? Pt. 1

How did we miss that?? Pt. 2

Life update 3/09/13

SWW Fastpass? We dont need no stinkin fastpass!!

SWW Fastpass? We dont need no stinkin fastpass!! Pt. 2

SWW Fastpass? We dont need no stinkin fastpass!! Pt. 3

I can't believe I forgot it!!

The Yeti has secret jewelry?

Night at the Boardwalk

Time to go back to reality

We did some podcasts

 

[mrsksomeday]

Hi, I’m Tracy, Bill, my significant other, and I are Walt Disney World fanatics!! This is my 9th trip report about our 11th trip together. I am not going to do a lot of introduction, if you want to know more about us there are a bunch of links in my signature.

This is us on our favorite ride Toy Story Mania:

*photo credit Terry aka oregondaddyof2
Bill has Cerebral Palsy and is always rockin a power wheelchair

. He is hilarious, with a wicked sense of humor and is highly intelligent. I adore him, he is amazing, wonderful, and a million other adjectives. He has my heart to infinity and beyond. I am usually shy, a loner, and am always planning another trip, ALWAYS. If I didn’t have a WDW trip to plan I think I would die of a broken heart. WDW to us is home, it is a place of joy, happiness, and acceptance.

Bill finds that in the “real world” people judge him by his disability. Just because he has no balance, his right arm doesn’t work right, and he has a speech impediment, this doesn’t mean that he is mentally disabled. So many people don’t even talk to him, they turn to me, especially when ordering at a restaurant. “What will the gentleman be ordering” they ask me…. “I don’t know” I say then turn to him. “Bill what do you want to eat”. Then he tells us. This highly frustrates both of us. The “real world” seems pretty judgmental to me as well. I am overweight and not just a little. I swear people think I am contagious sometimes. I swear, fat doesn’t fall off me and attach to you. If it did I would make sure I stood next to some people I didn’t like for a VERY long time

. In WDW, we are talked to, welcomed, accepted. It is like going into another world and we can’t seem to get enough.

This trip was for Bill, he loves Star Wars so this was to celebrate his birthday by going to the first Star Wars Weekend. His actual birthday is in June, but with my pasty white skin and the” fat” factor I would probably spontaneously combust in the June Florida sun

so we decided May was better.

Originally we had planned May 16th – 22nd. Ohhhh if you know us, you know it didn’t stay that way. We are date changers, resort movers, ADR flip floppers. We are BAD. One thing that couldn’t change though was the original reservation at Boardwalk Villas. We had rented points, so we had to stick with that no matter what. When renting points you have to do it pretty early to get the resort you want, so we had booked this reservation in August 2011. That gave us a lot of time to think, WAY TOO MUCH time to think. Addmoredaysitis was hitting us hard, it struck Bill first but then I became infected with it too, before I knew it we had added more days. The arrival day moved back to May 11th. I was worried about money, I am always worried about something it is just the way I am, so I talked Bill into making the first reservation be at Pop Century. Easy peasy, we have been there several times, wouldn’t have to worry about a thing when we got there (foreshadowing maybe?

)

We live in Southern Illinois, so we usually fly out of St. Louis. We drive up the night before and try to get some sleep before our flight. I say “try” because something always seems to happen to keep me awake. No matter how well I plan, something happens. Oh boy this trip was NO exception.

We made it up to St. Louis and tried the Cheesecake Factory, it was my first time and Bill was happy to go back. The man loves cheesecake. We had a good time and checked into our hotel. Everything was going really well. I had been texting with my DBFF (Disney Best Friend Forever) Toni, aka oregonmommyof2 ever since we got to the restaurant. I think I told her goodnight and that I would text when we landed at MCO. I am Bill’s caregiver as well as his woman so I helped him lay down for the night. We had had issues with the wheelchair charging on the last trip. He uses a different powerchair at home, this one is smaller for the buses and the rides. I had done a test run with it before we left and all was well. I plugged the charger in and went to lie down. Something made me look over at the indicator lights. RED LIGHT means ERROR. I unplugged it, messed with it, plugged it in again, ERROR. I did this for about 20 minutes. I was a mess. We had to be up at 3:30am, we couldn’t go to Disney without knowing why the wheelchair wasn’t charging. I texted Toni in a panic, she was so sweet and talked me down. She said she would do whatever she could to help. Bill and I talked about what to do. He said go to WDW, see if we could get the charger to work, if not call a medical rental place and rent a charger or even a powerchair if we had to. I hated starting the trip off with uncertainty, little did I know that this was just one of the issues we would face during this trip.

Next installment… Didn’t we check two suitcases?

 

[oregonmommyof2]

YAY!!!

FINALLY!!!

GEEZ!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

YAY!!!

FINALLY!!!

GEEZ!!

Thats it ??

Are you writing your next installment on your PTR??

 

[oregonmommyof2]

We made it up to St. Louis and tried the Cheesecake Factory, it was my first time and Bill was happy to go back. The man loves cheesecake. We had a good time and checked into our hotel. Everything was going really well. I had been texting with my DBFF (Disney Best Friend Forever) Toni, aka oregonmommyof2 ever since we got to the restaurant. I think I told her goodnight and that I would text when we landed at MCO. I am Bill’s caregiver as well as his woman so I helped him lay down for the night. We had had issues with the wheelchair charging on the last trip. He uses a different powerchair at home, this one is smaller for the buses and the rides. I had done a test run with it before we left and all was well. I plugged the charger in and went to lie down. Something made me look over at the indicator lights. RED LIGHT means ERROR. I unplugged it, messed with it, plugged it in again, ERROR. I did this for about 20 minutes. I was a mess. We had to be up at 3:30am, we couldn’t go to Disney without knowing why the wheelchair wasn’t charging. I texted Toni in a panic, she was so sweet and talked me down. She said she would do whatever she could to help. Bill and I talked about what to do. He said go to WDW, see if we could get the charger to work, if not call a medical rental place and rent a charger or even a powerchair if we had to. I hated starting the trip off with uncertainty, little did I know that this was just one of the issues we would face during this trip.

I know how stressed you were when this was going on. I was glad to be able to talk you through it.

Great start to the TR!! Let's get this baby rollin', I have a feeling you have another type of report to begin...

Thats it ??

Are you writing your next installment on your PTR??

Patience WOMAN!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

I know how stressed you were when this was going on. I was glad to be able to talk you through it.

Great start to the TR!! Let's get this baby rollin', I have a feeling you have another type of report to begin...



Patience WOMAN!!

Thank you again for being there for me, I would have been a crying puddle if it hadn't been for you.

I have a feeling this TR will go faster than the others, Toni is going to throw a fit

if I don't hurry. It seems she wants me to write a Pre Trip Report for December, although I don't know why??

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Yeah!! A new TR!!!

Sorry it is starting off stressful though. You have me sitting on the edge of my seat, so go ahead... write another installment tonight!

 

[ddstratton]

Oh, YAY!!! I love your trip reports. Even if I did more reading than posting on your last one.....

I don't like the sounds of this whole chair-not-charging issue...

 

[oregonmommyof2]

I have a feeling this TR will go faster than the others, Toni is going to throw a fit

if I don't hurry. It seems she wants me to write a Pre Trip Report for December, although I don't know why??

Really??? You don't know why??? Maybe I have been a little too subtle...

 

[Baloo]

YAY...a new TR!!!

Keep her in line and writing Toni!!!

 

[oregonmommyof2]

Keep her in line and writing Toni!!!

Oh, I FULLY intend to!!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Yeah!! A new TR!!!

Sorry it is starting off stressful though. You have me sitting on the edge of my seat, so go ahead... write another installment tonight!

Hi Tammy, it is written and will be posted sometime this week .

Oh, YAY!!! I love your trip reports. Even if I did more reading than posting on your last one.....

I don't like the sounds of this whole chair-not-charging issue...

Hi Darla!! Thanks for joining. I didn't like the sound of the whole chair not charging issue either .

Really??? You don't know why??? Maybe I have been a little too subtle...

YAY...a new TR!!!

Keep her in line and writing Toni!!!

Hello!! Thanks for being here. Toni tries to keep me in line .

 

[heaven2dc]

Hurray! another TR I love reading all about your adventures! I hope the wheelchair battery doesn't turn into a dilemma but sounds like it may have....can't wait to read more

 

[Tinkermom76]

YAY can't wait to hear all about your trip. I have never been to SWW so it will be nice to hear about that too!

 

[DisMomAmy]

You started!!

I hope everything worked out with the chair... I don't like that this was "just one of the issues" you would face!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Hurray! another TR I love reading all about your adventures! I hope the wheelchair battery doesn't turn into a dilemma but sounds like it may have....can't wait to read more

Thank you so much for reading.

YAY can't wait to hear all about your trip. I have never been to SWW so it will be nice to hear about that too!

Hello!! Thanks for joining us.

You started!!

I hope everything worked out with the chair... I don't like that this was "just one of the issues" you would face!

Hi Amy!! Thanks for being here. I hope to not drag this report out for long.

 

[mrsksomeday]

It seemed as though 5 minutes after I closed my eyes the alarm went off. We got ready and the accessible shuttle was waiting for us:

We were on the first flight out for the day. Usually I let the curbside people check us in, they do it very fast and I don’t mind giving them a tip. We were there too early for them so were in line at the Southwest counter at 4:24am. They had to fill out paperwork for the wheelchair and ask us questions this is why I don’t check us in online but I think we are trying it on our next trip.

As I have stated I am a big girl so as to not have any embarrassment

at the airport, I buy the extra ticket, the “customer of size” ticket, the extra seat for my fat to spill over into

. In buying that ticket there are always seems to be issues with Southwest printing them out. Their computers don’t like the “XS” you input in the “middle name” box to flag it as an extra seat. On top of the fact I had cancelled and moved the dates for the beginning of the trip, it sent the computer in a tizzy. The ticket agent had to call her manager and it took about 20 minutes to get it figured out. I am not a fan of flying and this made me even more nervous. Tickets in hand we headed to security. They were having “issues” that morning and didn’t have anyone in place yet to be able to pat Bill down. Finally someone showed up. I put everything through the machine and met up with him, they were still feeling him up. You would not believe how much they do to him and the wheelchair. I will have to video it one time.

While we waited at our gate, I facebooked, he messed with his baseball fantasy league and then a Southwest employee was asking us if we were ready to go. We are usually the first people on because they have to take the wheelchair from us and put it in the belly of the plane. I take various things off it before I let them handle it. We keep the tray, the footrests, and his air filled seat cushion. I have to show them how to disconnect the power. They usually give me a couple of minutes to do this, but for some reason they started sending people down while I was transferring everything. Normally the flight attendants will help me a little to move things along quicker, not this time. I have never had flight attendants that were so self-involved in my life. This rattled me a little again as I felt I was holding people up, I am a people pleaser so this flustered me. I was so much happier in my seat.

We had an uneventful flight, made our way down to ME, and luckily they had an accessible bus right there for us. It was nice because usually we sit and watch many people leave the terminal while we wait for one. Not that I am complaining, I like being able to let ME drive us. I sat in front because I wanted that great Walt Disney World sign shot. Look at the windshield:

EWWWW way too many bugs, they should have to clean the windshield every time before they leave to take us to our happy place

.

More bug shots:

Bill hanging off the side of the bus:

I really like the cast members at Pop Century, they are always really friendly and talkative. The guy I was talking to was singing along with “I Will Follow Him”. I thought that was appropriate as I would follow Bill anywhere. They also like to make art:

We went to check in and Miss Slow Pokey was driving me insane. We are in Disney, we don’t want to stand here, we have stuff to do!!! Of course the first room wasn’t anywhere near we wanted. I swear they don’t even look at the requests sometimes. We prefer ground floor for a variety of reasons, she got on the phone and they found a room for us. With the tiered room locations now it seems we would be in a preferred but not pool location (we didn’t pay for pool view, I kept telling her) but she said the computer gave us an $84 credit. Who was I to argue with her?? We grabbed the key cards and went to the food court.

Can they give us anymore fries??? Seriously:

(inside joke alert…. THEY HAD CARROT CAKE!!!)

I was pleasantly surprised they had Cherry Coke at the fountain drink station. Bill was HAPPY, he is a Mountain Dew man but does like his Cherry Coke. After lunch we headed for the room. Hmm 50’s section, this room number looks familiar? Why?

Why? Because it was the same exact room that we had in December, that is why. The landscaper CM’s were watering plants and the spout was right next to our door. Bill has a bolt on the bottom of his chair so it locks into place in our van. I had to lift the hose over him so we could get into our room, we must have looked crazy.

We got in the room and wow our luggage was there, oh wait, well one piece of luggage is there. It is after the 3 hour time they state in the ME documents so I called baggage handling to see if it was accidently delivered to the room we were originally assigned to. “No Mrs. B, it seems we only have one bag listed for you.” HUH???

He says he will look into it and call me back in 15 minutes, well 30 went by so I called back. Come to find out he is the only one up there right now so every time he tried to call me someone else would either call or come up to his area. He still didn’t see any information about another bag, he would talk to the people that were getting ready to come in for the next shift, tell them about the situation and gave me two phone numbers for Southwest. He told me to call the 1-800 first, then call the MCO one because some of Bill’s meds were in the bag.

The lady at the 1-800 was a WITCH with a B. She was rude, uncaring, and sarcastic. I am usually a very laid back person, but she had me very mad and I let her know it, I ended up hanging up on her. I called the MCO number and the difference was like night and day. Elaine was fantastic, knowledgeable, and caring. She said she thought the bag might have just decided to take a trip on to Raleigh but they were great at that airport at sending stuff back on the next flight. She asked me to call later that evening and hopefully one of her co workers would have info, she was off but would be calling me the next morning to make sure we got our bag. Bill and I thought it was time to take a nap. I decided to try to charge the chair again and I couldn’t believe it, it was charging!! We got up and decided to just stay at Pop for the night.

Hello Lady:

Hey Bill is that Florida sunshine bothering your eyes?

Ohhh Pretty!!

We went back to the food court, had dinner, bought some pins and other stuff and went back to the room. The wayward bag was there waiting for us

!! I called the MCO Southwest number back and left a message for Elaine to let her know we got the bag and thanked her for her help and understanding.

We thought it was time to end this day and go to bed, would tomorrow be any better??

Next installment… A rodent in Bill’s hair!

 

[ddstratton]

Yay! for the chair deciding to charge. And BOO! for the rude people you encountered. And I must be hungry this morning. Those cheese fries and the fruit cup both look very yummy to me right now...

 

[DisMomAmy]

It sounds like there were a lot of bumps along the way, but yay for making it to Disney, the bags finally showing up and the chair charging!

 

[justakrazymom]

I am so in!!