The "too many resorts" trip, Feb 5-20, 2013

[kaoden39]

Hi Molly.

I just wanted to check in and let you know that we are all okay. I started posting on my blog about everything if you are interested.

 

[bumbershoot]

Disclaimers: I've had a few glasses of wine, after a 5 day juice cleanse and no alcohol for 2 weeks, and I tend to post without thinking on Disney topics....

So, Wilderness has been my secret favorite for a long time. Poly has really taken over, and if money were no object I'd pick the Contemporary, but when it comes to cost and availability, WL is my favorite. People compare it to GCH but it just doesn't compare, right? I freaking love WL.

How do you like the Agent P game at EPCOT? DD was so MAD that we didn't finish it in March. We were at EPCOT for like 3 hours, and I wanted flower and garden photos. We got to try some yummy foods (DS and I loved the fruit sushi) but DD didn't forgive me for not finishing the Agent P game.

So, have you ever watched the MK fireworks from the TTC boat launch? We did, by accident, in December, and it was awesome! DD is noise sensitive, and can't do fireworks in the park. But she was fine with this setup, and since they pipe in music it was perfect. If we had planned in advance we would have watched from the Poly beach. We did get a Ohana window view our first night too, but the kids kinda were checked out that night because they had a long day. TTC is a hidden gem for viewing fireworks. We were staying at Poly, near the TTC, and happened to get off the monorail at TTC while Wishes was happening. I took some nice photos, and DD didn't freak, which is awesome.

How is MIL?

Are you on Facebook? Should we be friends? PM me if you want. I'd love to share photos, but I don't always want to share on disboards.

Sounds like you were having a fun evening!

I don't think the Grand and WL are alike, now that I've spent time at both of them. At first I sort of did, I mean it's easy to feel that way of course. But I don't feel comfy at the Grand, for whatever reason (and some of them are quite specific to myself...like how I dislike how dark *I feel* it is because my vision is so messed up thanks to lasik). I always want to be comfy in the lobby, just hanging out, and the Grand has good memories b/c DH got a job offer by phone while there, but ultimately I just want to leave when I'm there. But at WL it's just comfy and I long to spend more time there. I REALLY cannot wait to spend more time at the mini-lobby in the villas.

Agent P is so similar to KimPossible, and we had previously done ALL of KimPossible. So there wasn't the huge pull to finish it, and everyone was fine with the shortened version. I'm sure we'll do the whole thing at some point, or maybe I'll hang out with my School Bread and Grand Marnier slushie (hmm, I'm not sure that that sounds like a good combo...maybe beer instead) and people-watch while the guys do alllll of Phineas&Ferb.

I haven't seen the fireworks from the boat launch, no. We keep meaning to watch from the Poly, but that just doesn't happen.

I'd love to see pix and whatnot, but I will warn you that I am possibly the most hideously boring facebooker ever. I'm long-winded (though that should not be a surprise), I whine (again, no surprise), and I often wonder if people see my status updates at all (similar to wondering how many people here have me on Ignore, LOL), so if you want all that, give me your info!

I sure do know how to talk myself up, eh?

Hi Molly.

I just wanted to check in and let you know that we are all okay. I started posting on my blog about everything if you are interested.

Thanks for that! I'll check it out. Glad you're OK.

Checked it out; that was a lovely post about Loren. Sorry the news crews were so invasive. Makes me glad my old friend who lives in Sac'to doesn't do the news anymore; I would hate to have to call her up and yell at her!

 

[kaoden39]

Loren read it today. He was so full adrenaline that he didn't realize that he went back into a burning house. He is very reluctant to be called a hero but to me he is a hero. I am writing another post now. It helps. I have decided to write it through the whole process.

 

[bumbershoot]

Forgot to answer the MIL question. The answer is...who knows? After telling me to my face that she still wants me to know everything and get the phone calls from the healthcare providers, I hadn't gotten a call in two weeks (until today, but it's just a robocall). Since she's chosen to drive again she doesn't need our help with anything. I made what felt like one last round of calls to try to talk some sense into her healthcare providers so that they would get her off the coumadin and onto plavix like her GP wants, and haven't heard a peep since.

The GP wants to switch the drugs, but wants a neurologist's opinion. The neuro person that was overseeing the hospital doctor who officially put her on it is saying that SHE didn't put her on coumadin so she won't be the one to take her off (even though there had been an official appointment with this neuro person so one could call her Kyung's neuro-person (she's not actually a neurologist but she portrayed herself to be just LIKE a neurologist).

K went to a different neurologist, but went alone, so he had NO CLUE why she was seeing him (fabulous). Got a call from them explaining (condescendingly) that she is on coumadin because she had strokes (they had finally realized that their facility had the digital copies of all the scans made at all the various facilities)...like we didn't know that. I was, um, not entirely sweetness and light when responding to the lady on the phone. I wasn't mean, but I made SURE she knew that we knew all that, that they were wasting everyone's time with this, and that the intention of the visit was to get her off of coumadin. And that maybe they should walk over to the GP's office and have a talk with him, instead of this game of "telephone" they are playing. Because that's the whole point of choosing THAT neurologist who is in the same healthcare system and the same building as the GP.

Ugh.




Michele, although I haven't experienced something like a house fire, I feel that I have had negative things happen to me, and I definitely find that being able to talk about it in a blog sort of way helps like nothing else helps. Glad you're doing it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Packing up included our new Owner's Locker. Hope it's going to be of help to us. (I think it will)

Cute little bird that was outside our window in the morning. E took these pictures.

I miss Wilderness Lodge.

Ah, I knew the water was that close to the quiet pool! But people were super-tired and didn't want to walk over there.

Packed it all up, left the Owner's Locker with Bell Services to get picked up, left the carryons with Bell for later. Experienced RAC for the first time, where we left our checked bags with them, and they transport it to the airport and have it all checked in for us. (worked like a charm, it was perfect!).

Then we returned the car. We were going to return it on the 18th, but changed our minds and got the return date changed. Returned it to the Dolphin. Returning to the airport (and therefore not needing to take Magical Express) would have been *hundreds* of dollars more. Guess they needed the car at the Dolphin? Returned it (took much longer than I expected it to take), found our way through the hotel to the Boardwalk area, walked along to Epcot's International Gateway and went on through.

Got a terrible streusel thing from a cart (the cart receipt said it was Joffrey's, so I wish I had gotten coffee instead...the pastry was a plain, terrible, bland waste of calories) and went in to see Oh, Canada for the first time. It put us a little more behind schedule than I wanted to be (we walked into the line just as a show got started), but it was worth it. Martin Short is funny, and Canada is beautiful. Worth it!


Walked on through towards the front, and here's our path. The Oz area is new, and it probably won't remain (but it sure seems like it should, it was so pretty and fun-looking).

They were getting ready for the Flower and Garden Festival so the exact floral arrangements change, but it's always pretty.

We got on through to the front gates, found the cab stands, and headed on back to the Lodge!

 

[bumbershoot]

I had us scheduled to do all these things at certain times, and I swear I had communicated fully with Robert about the timing, but I figured out a little while from where we were at this time in the story that he thought we were *late*. I had said over and over what my thinking was, WHY I had timed us the way I had timed us, and we kept checking the time and checking in with each other, so I had NO way of knowing that he had got it into his head that we were desperately late.




So that all played out with us talking to each other in such a way that an innocent bystander (the caricature artist E decided to do his picture) quite obviously thought that he and I were on the last legs of our marriage. I was stressed that he was stressed, I was also MYSTIFIED and totally blindsided since we had been talking about it repeatedly that day...he was stressed because he thought we were going to miss our bus (please let us note that we got back to WL MORE than 4 hours before our flight!).

I had padded the time for each part of our day, and he knew this, but it wasn't remembered.

Le sigh.

But it's not the last legs, I promise. It's just that our style of communication doesn't translate well to other people. When it's just the two of us, we're fine and it's fine and we work it out. But in front of other people, well we should just shush if we're confused and stressed.

Before the stress really came out (also before I figured out what was happening in his head) he had run to get some food. Got veggie sushi, but it has ingredients we cannot have. Happily, they allowed him to return it (VEGGIE sushi, not raw fish), but then he got stressy b/c he was hungry. Dagnabit.


But hey, I got this arty picture!

We were early (regardless of what Robert thought) and our scheduled bus was late, so we had a good amount of time to relax and get everything together. We sat outside in some sunshine to relax, apologize, and snag some of Eamon's food, LOL.


Someone before the trip had said that they take ME to the resort, but use other methods to get back to the airport. The ME there is the "happy bus", and the bus at the end is the "sad bus". And it was! Doesn't it just look sad?

Sad boy.

Had to stop at the Poly to get some people.

When we got on board at WL, there was a family of 5 sitting in the front rows. Cute little kids that I smiled big at (so cute!), it all seemed idyllic and happy.

A few minutes into the drive, however, it all changed. The kids weren't being supervised enough for being in the front rows of a coach bus. I grew up on a coach bus, since my dad worked for Greyhound, and you do NOT get up on your knees while it's moving. Not unless you want the possibility of being a moving projectile hitting the windshield! So Littles need supervision, and they weren't getting it. The adorable little bitties started crying and whining and making horrid noises. I literally put my earplugs in before we even left the property. It lasted the entire way to the airport.

Got off, and oh yes I still had my bright orange earplugs in when I got off the plane, because there was still heinous amounts of noise issuing forth from certain adorable little faces.

We got our carryons and nearly ran into the airport, thankful to be on our own again.

Since we were nice and early, we had a good amount of time at the gate. Got on the plane in a good amount of time. Because of the way United does things, if I book all 3 of us together using DH's miles, we get basic seats. If I book one of us alone, then the other with Eamon, each of us gets upgraded to the premium economy seats. For whatever reason I booked all 3 together, so we got the normal seats.

The plane was nearly full, just a row or two empty. A row two rows in front of us. Empty. And finally the family got on. OH no. It was the family from the ME bus.



We were very happy to change planes in Chicago, even though we weren't in the right terminal for our normal Brioche Doree. Just happy to be away from the children that were not good travelers and the parents that could have supervised the kids a tad bit more (seatbelt-free explorations during seatbelt-light-ON times, woooo! they really have no problem with the kid-as-projectile idea, it seems).

Plus, that part of the O'Hare terminal has a (replica of a fossilized) dinosaur! Nothing wrong with that!



We got home, we were tired (E was so tired that in the car he kept waking up thinking that I was insulting him...at one point I read a new billboard about a car or something, and he woke in tears saying that I had called him a bad name...sooooo tired), we slept.


And there's the trip! Sad that it's over, Eamon?

I would say so!



Thanks for reading.

 

[nunzia]

Thanks for sharing!..great TR

 

[kaoden39]

Forgot to answer the MIL question. The answer is...who knows? After telling me to my face that she still wants me to know everything and get the phone calls from the healthcare providers, I hadn't gotten a call in two weeks (until today, but it's just a robocall). Since she's chosen to drive again she doesn't need our help with anything. I made what felt like one last round of calls to try to talk some sense into her healthcare providers so that they would get her off the coumadin and onto plavix like her GP wants, and haven't heard a peep since.

The GP wants to switch the drugs, but wants a neurologist's opinion. The neuro person that was overseeing the hospital doctor who officially put her on it is saying that SHE didn't put her on coumadin so she won't be the one to take her off (even though there had been an official appointment with this neuro person so one could call her Kyung's neuro-person (she's not actually a neurologist but she portrayed herself to be just LIKE a neurologist).

K went to a different neurologist, but went alone, so he had NO CLUE why she was seeing him (fabulous). Got a call from them explaining (condescendingly) that she is on coumadin because she had strokes (they had finally realized that their facility had the digital copies of all the scans made at all the various facilities)...like we didn't know that. I was, um, not entirely sweetness and light when responding to the lady on the phone. I wasn't mean, but I made SURE she knew that we knew all that, that they were wasting everyone's time with this, and that the intention of the visit was to get her off of coumadin. And that maybe they should walk over to the GP's office and have a talk with him, instead of this game of "telephone" they are playing. Because that's the whole point of choosing THAT neurologist who is in the same healthcare system and the same building as the GP.

Ugh.




Michele, although I haven't experienced something like a house fire, I feel that I have had negative things happen to me, and I definitely find that being able to talk about it in a blog sort of way helps like nothing else helps. Glad you're doing it.

You poor thing with your MIL. It is like having a teenager. I have a lot of experience with that and I know it is no fun at all.


The blog has been an amazing thing for me. I have found that since I have been writing it I am sleeping better. That in itself is amazing.


I am going to miss your trip report. Quick you need to plan the next one.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm glad you are sleeping better. That is SO good to hear.

No worries about trips to come, as I have apparently lost my mind. The other way to look at it is if I have lots of things planned for the future, I'm less likely to overspend on random things at home, and less likely to do silly things like last-minute trips.

Although speaking of spending, I *have to* get E a proper school desk and chair. He's been working on a laptop desk from Ikea that Robert got, while sitting on the couch, and he is developing some awful habits because of it. Half of the learning -work time each day is spent with me telling him to sit properly, and it's making us both a bit nutty. Ah, just had to yelp at him again about it. Proper desk and chair might not instantly make his posture perfect, but it'll be less inviting to slouch down. That's what I hope at least.

But I think I just found a supplier that will be much less expensive than the one I was previously looking at, so that's good.



Robert caught my rotten cold, poor guy.

 

[kaoden39]

Poor Robert.


I think that a desk is a good idea for E. I plan on getting my kids desks for their rooms. They are older and should study without the others interfering.

 

[bumbershoot]

I plan on getting my kids desks for their rooms. They are older and should study without the others interfering.

My mom got me a psuedo-drafting table when I was in high school; it was fabulous for homework.

 

[kaoden39]

I think that Ikea is going to end up being my friend.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think that Ikea is going to end up being my friend.

I can really recommend the Billy bookcases. Except for one that fell over during a move and important parts of it broke (it was a tall, wide one, it had glass doors on it, and the glass door got wrenched which ripped off part of the side "wall" of the unit), we've had our Billy shelves for years.

Many people avoid the lower-end of the cost spectrum *couches*, because they don't last that long. I have never had an Ikea couch so I have no experience in that.

We bought a mattress from them, and while it didn't work out for us, their great warranty on mattresses did.

And everything else there is just fun. They have their new "Ikea family" program which gives a few extra discounts, a free frozen yogurt (we can't have it b/c of corn syrup, sadness), free coffee at the restaurant, etc.

 

[kaoden39]

I can really recommend the Billy bookcases. Except for one that fell over during a move and important parts of it broke (it was a tall, wide one, it had glass doors on it, and the glass door got wrenched which ripped off part of the side "wall" of the unit), we've had our Billy shelves for years.

Many people avoid the lower-end of the cost spectrum *couches*, because they don't last that long. I have never had an Ikea couch so I have no experience in that.

We bought a mattress from them, and while it didn't work out for us, their great warranty on mattresses did.

And everything else there is just fun. They have their new "Ikea family" program which gives a few extra discounts, a free frozen yogurt (we can't have it b/c of corn syrup, sadness), free coffee at the restaurant, etc.

I am mainly interested in the things like the Bully bookcases and desks. That sort of thing.

 

[bumbershoot]

Heeeey...youuuuu...guyyyyyyyys!

In case you are pining away for me (bwa ha ha), I have been unable to escape the pre-trip-report curse. Find me here. If you choose to accept the mission, that is.


Michele I was just skimming your blog, and obviously the way you're quoting songs at the beginning just rubbed off on me. Only, obviously, I'm not quoting songs, but older TV shows.

 

[kaoden39]

The songs kind of make it more interesting for me and I am kind of trying to tie it all together. Thanks for reading it. How did you find it?

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[daisy_77]

Great end to a great trip!

I hate the sad bus!!! I am heading over to your new(ish) PTR!