Well Begun is Half Done...When Plans Go Awry (UPDATE: 4/30)

[danceintherain]

Hey Everyone! Thanks for stopping by my trip report.
Sometimes Disney plans go perfectly, and sometimes everything blows up in your face. This trip was about in the middle, and for that reason, it wasn’t our most magical. We still had a good time, but I consider it more of a learning opportunity, because learn we did.

First of all… The Introductions

There’s …
Me (Becca) – I’m the planner and Disney expert of the group (surprise, surprise). I’m also a stay-at-home Mom to one sweet little boy. I was an early Disney World convert, since my family lived in Orlando for 9 months when I was 5 years old and pretty much every non-family visiting vacation we took for my entire childhood was to Disney.

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DH (Logan) – His first trip to Disney was for our honeymoon in 2009 and he LOVED it (phew!). He’s an officer in the US Army and loves fishing and other outdoor activities. His favorite thing to do at Disney is eat….usually.

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DS (G) – His first trip was in November 2010, when he was 3 months old. He of course doesn’t remember ANY of it, so our recent trip was practically our first one with him. He’s a chatterbox who loves Donald Duck, Lightening McQueen, and trains.

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Sister (Kami) – She was thrilled to be able to join us on this trip, and ended up being super helpful. She’s 19 years old, and a Disney lover (she came on all the family trips with us, but wasn't born until the year after we moved away from Florida) but had never stayed on the property before.

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As I mentioned above, DH and I honeymooned at Disney in January 2009.

We returned in July 2009 with my family (off property stay though)

and again in November 2010.

The November trip was a last minute thing after G was born, because DH got stationed in South Korea, and we didn’t get to join him until May 2011. While I don’t think it’s a bad idea to take a 3 month old to Disney (he was actually SUPER easy at that age) it wasn’t my first choice for his first trip. It was more a family bonding thing before we were separated.

This trip was a long time coming for me. While we were in South Korea, I really wanted to go to Tokyo Disney, but it didn’t work out. Two of my grandfathers died while I was over there (6 months apart) and I came back to say goodbye to both of them.

Let me tell you…traveling to and from South Korea wasn’t cheap. Even if we could have gotten past that shot to our budget, there wasn’t enough time in between to fit in a trip to Disney, especially with DH’s work schedule being what it was. That Japan park taunted me for the better part of the time I spent in South Korea, but I just couldn’t make the trip fit. I was pretty bummed…

April ended up kind of falling into our laps. I was hoping the weather would be cooler than the summer (I was wrong, but more on that later) and it was the one week my little sister had off during the spring. I also wanted to get a trip in before G turns 3 in July.

I wanted my sister on the trip, for the most part, because while we were in Korea DH was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. It short, it’s a heart condition that makes him prone to motion sickness and sensitive to extremes in weather (again….more on that later). I figured an extra adult would be helpful, even just for company.

I was right.

 

[danceintherain]

Introductions - Page 1
Pre-Departure - Page 2 Part 2
Leaving on a Jet Plane - Page 2
Magical Express
Arrival at Port Orleans - Page 3
Rental Car - Page 3
Groceries - Page 3
Sleep - Page 3
Getting a Little Goofy - Page 3
Gardens & Ducks - Page 3
Hibernation - Page 4
Circle of Life - Page 4
Islands of Adventure - Page 4
Ollivander's - Page 4
Suess - Page 5
Ohana - Page 5
Downtown Disney - Page 5
Enchanted Tales - Page 5
FP Hoarding - Page 5
Big Top Circus - Page 5
Sorcerers - Page 5
Hollywood Studios - Page 6
Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano - Page 6

 

[Monny2AE]

Count me in!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Yay! I'm here! Waiting for more!

 

[danceintherain]

Thanks ladies! It will probably be a kind of slow start, because it will be a bit before my Photopass photos come in.

 

[wiigirl]

In for your TR!

 

[archdandy]

Following over from your PTR. I can't wait to hear all about your trip. That's so weird that you mentioned your husband has POTS. I've been doing research on it for the past week or so because I believe I may have it as well. I'm planning on going to my doctors to talk about it after our trip in a week.

 

[FlaNani]

I'm in! Looking forward to reading your TR!!

 

[danceintherain]

Following over from your PTR. I can't wait to hear all about your trip. That's so weird that you mentioned your husband has POTS. I've been doing research on it for the past week or so because I believe I may have it as well. I'm planning on going to my doctors to talk about it after our trip in a week.

He actually decided during our trip that he thinks he has something else, so he asked for a referral to see a neurologist...
In general, if you think you have POTS, you need to have a tilt table test done. That's the only thing that really confirms it one way or the other.

One of the hardest things about POTS is that there's no exact treatment for it. It's trial and error for everything, so I think he wants to have something that's more treatable and possibly "curable."

It's definitely a rough diagnosis, and he's been having a really hard time with it. He was very active before, and I don't think he's come to terms with the fact that he may never get back to what he once was.

I think the most important thing is to accept it as your new normal and learn to adjust based on that.

In for your TR!

I'm in! Looking forward to reading your TR!!

Great! I hope I'll be able to keep it interesting.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Came over from the April thread!

 

[pwdebbie]

I understand about getting used to a husband's "new normal." Your husband and son are the ones I met, right?

 

[danceintherain]

Came over from the April thread!

Nice to see you here!

I understand about getting used to a husband's "new normal." Your husband and son are the ones I met, right?

Yes, they were the ones you met. We had barely gotten back to the park and through dinner at Mama Melrose, when DH decided he needed an early night. I'm just happy he was up to taking G with him most of the time.

 

[Fields]

Looking forward to reading about your trip!

 

[Monny2AE]

Hope your DH gets everything figured out with his condition. It's been a while that you guys have been trying to get answers.

 

[donnac1218]

Can't wait to hear more about your magical trip!

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
Here from the April Facebook page and I am the moderator for the DIS Trip Reports Board.

I think I saw you, but I just can't go up to people and say, "hey" my dh thinks I am Disney nuts the way it is.

Sorry to hear about your dh. I don't have a heart condition-but when you get my age-menopause-dizziness, heat flashes-you learn to live it. Nothing can be done. I hope he finds his answers.

We had up and down days too-but I've learned it will happen, no matter what kind of vacation you are on.

 

[danceintherain]

Looking forward to reading about your trip!

Thanks!

Hope your DH gets everything figured out with his condition. It's been a while that you guys have been trying to get answers.

I think now we're to the point where we have the answers...he just doesn't like them. They did up his beta blocker dose at his last appointment, so we'll see if that helps at all.

Can't wait to hear more about your magical trip!

Thanks!

Hi,
Here from the April Facebook page and I am the moderator for the DIS Trip Reports Board.

I think I saw you, but I just can't go up to people and say, "hey" my dh thinks I am Disney nuts the way it is.

Sorry to hear about your dh. I don't have a heart condition-but when you get my age-menopause-dizziness, heat flashes-you learn to live it. Nothing can be done. I hope he finds his answers.

We had up and down days too-but I've learned it will happen, no matter what kind of vacation you are on.

You should have said "hello." I have yet to meet a single DISer.

Disney is definitely the easiest vacation for us for a number of reasons. I keep considering other places, but I get caught up in all the details. Disney has details too, but all the available information makes the planning so much easier.

 

[danceintherain]

I’m going to go ahead and get started, before I lose momentum. It will probably be close to a month before I have my Photopass photos, so we’ll see how far I get…I can always supplement the photos later.

Our trip got off to a rocky start before we even left home…

Thursday the 11th started off great. I was completely packed, and my to-do list was practically non-existent. I even had a beautiful moment with G. I told him that we were going to go to Gaga’s house (what he calls my Mom) and then to see Mickey Mouse, but I needed his toys picked up first. Well….he helped! He actually filled a few buckets without me shadowing him. This was fairly impressive for a 2 year old, especially a spoiled only child like he is.

his "let's go to Gaga's" face​

Then a pretty big problem surfaced…

Since DH had Friday off, we had planned on driving to my Mom’s house near Kansas City on Thursday night, so we’d be that much closer to our trip, even though the trip didn’t start until Saturday morning.

Well…one of the last things I needed to do was make sure all the photos on my SD card were transferred over to my computer and external hard drive.

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I HATE deleting photos. Usually, I just buy a new SD card - a habit that DH hates. The last time, I bought a 4 gig card, which has lasted me for quite a while, but I knew I probably couldn’t get away with buying another one this time, and I was down to my last few hundred mega bytes. I knew that wouldn’t get me through the trip.

This is where my brain glitched.

Usually, I think things through really well to the point of over thinking. Occasionally, I’ll be moving too quickly and not take the time I need to really understand what I’m doing. This was one of these moments.

The brain glitch led me to hit “CUT” instead of “COPY” and to put them directly into my hard drive, instead of my computer first.
In my defense, my computer already had most of the photos on it and I was kind of in a hurry. My plan was to move a few of the photos back onto my computer after the SD card was clear.

Well…something happened. The kind of thing that happens, when you’re in a hurry, and paranoid about technology…
When I tried to copy a few of the photos onto my computer, it didn’t work.
So I tried again….
Then DH tried….

He sent me off to keep busy by packing the car, which was a struggle of its own. I had to take the wheel off the stroller in order to fit it and all our suitcases in the trunk. I was proud of myself for a few minutes before I remembered the gravity of the photo situation….

Something with the connection wasn’t working.
DH thought the hard drive was damaged, so he started some program to retrieve the files, and left the computer to sit overnight.
We definitely weren’t going to make it to my Mom’s that night.

 

[pwdebbie]

Computer glitches are so frustrating! How can something that is supposed to make our lives so much easier cause so much stress. I came home from our trip, plugged my memory card into my computer and . . . nothing. The computer didn't even register the memory card being there. Eventually I figured out to plug my camera directly into the computer and I was able to download my pics from there. But I still don't know why the computer isn't sensing the memory card. I'll worry about that another. At least my pictures from our trip are on the computer and uploaded to photobucket also.

 

[danceintherain]

When I woke up the next morning, I jumped out of bed and ran to the computer.
The program Logan used supposedly “retrieved” all the photos, but it wanted money to actually save them. I decided that before I would resort to that, I wanted to see if I could resolve the problem in a different way.

We don’t have many work surfaces in our house. The main one is a small round kitchen table. We also have lots of kitchen counter space, but for now we don’t have any desks or any other tables that stay out all the time. Our printer is sitting on a foldable TV tray. I’m planning on remedying this problem as soon as possible, but that’s a story for another time.
Basically, if we want to sit down to work on something, we either have to sit at the kitchen table, or use the floor. Most of the time, when I’m on the computer, I’m sitting on the couch with it on my lap (that’s the purpose of a laptop, isn’t it?)
Well…apparently my lap top doesn’t like this practice, especially when I connect it to something else via the USB port.

Our first attempts to retrieve the photos had the lap top sitting on the end table or on my lap, and the external hard drive sitting nearby. What I failed to realize was that every time I moved the computer, the USB connection broke, and THAT’s what was causing the problem.

So when I woke up in the morning, I decided to try sitting at the table. Well…it took me only a few minutes to retrieve all the photos, because with both the computer and the hard drive sitting on a flat immovable surface, the connection stayed strong.

Luckily, this means that it’s just me abusing my USB connections, and not that the hard drive is damaged. PHEW!

Anyways…it reduced my stress levels a great deal before we left on our trip to know that my photos were safe. We did a little more cleaning around the house, and threw the last few things in the car. I think we left around 10am, because we arrived at my Mom’s around Noon. She was still at work when we got there, but she brought us lunch on her way home (she took a half day, so she could spend some time with her grandboy).

Once we arrived at my Mom’s house, I used the afternoon to finish up G’s Peter Pan costume (Yes - I dressed G up like Peter Pan for one of our days, and it was ADORABLE! Stay tuned for photos).
I had already done most of the costume, but I still needed to make the hat. It took me two tries to get it the right size, but it wasn’t hard.

My Dad dropped by, and my parents decided that my Dad would take us to the airport in the morning, and my Mom would pick us up when we got back. I had been prepared to just drive ourselves and park at the airport, but it’s always nice to have someone else do the driving for the money savings ($7 a day to park at the airport) and convenience (we had 4 suitcases, a car seat, a stroller, and a back pack – not fun on the airport shuttles).