An Imagineer Fell For Bill - **New 10/19 Last 2 installments**

[mrsksomeday]

And we are off...

Where is the bus??

Bill’s happy place

Topiaries everywhere!! Part 1

Topiaries everywhere!! Part 2

Topiaries everywhere!! Part 3

Topiaries everywhere!! Part 4

Bill wants a walk up?? Part 1

Bill wants a walk up?? Part 2

Bill wants a walk up?? Part 3


Destination D Day 1 Part 1

Destination D Day 1 Part 2

Destination D Day 1 Part 3

Dave Smith Part 1

Dave Smith Part 2

Dave Smith Part 3

Dave Smith Part 4

Destination D End of Day 1

Destination D Day 2 Part 1


Destination D Day 2 Part 2

Destination D Day 2 Part 3

Destination D Day 2 Part 4

Magic Kingdom bound

Time to leave our Happy Place

 

[mrsksomeday]

I am addicted to most things Disney … Walt Disney World, Disney movies, Disney TV shows, etc. I can change about any conversation into a Disney one and we can come up with just about any excuse to schedule a trip. Those pesky Annual Passes whisper to me - “book a trip, book a trip” and most of the time I listen. When D23 dangled Destination D in front of me, I had to go, didn’t I? So we went to Walt Disney World May 11th - 17th. I will be posting pictures from two different cameras and my cell phone.


Who are we?

ME: Tracy

, 41 I am a DOCP (Disney Obsessive Compulsive Planner) and I have recently learned I have PWDD (Preoccupation With Disney Disorder)thanks to the DISer BoBippity. I am either planning a WDW trip, writing about a WDW trip, or writing a pretrip report about our next WDW trip. I dream about Walt Disney World all the time

. Bill and I make plans for the next trip while we are in WDW. It is a sickness that I never want a cure for.
I will make a confession up front, you will not see one picture of me from this trip, none were taken. I have already been punished

by oregonmommyof2, I promise there will be pictures of me when we go in December. I am very overweight and extremely upset with myself at the moment, but am as we speak working on the issue.

HIM: Bill

he always has a smile on his face, 41 (as of this week), he loves Disney as well, he just hides it a lot better than I do. He is a computer geek, wickedly intelligent, and has excellent driving skills. It is NOT easy driving a power wheelchair through massive crowds at WDW, but he does it with ease. Bill has Cerebral Palsy and has never let him hold it back from doing anything he wants to do. He is my hero.

Here are two pictures from us on previous trips:

We love Dopey!!

On our favorite ride EVER!!

** photo credit oregondaddyof2 **

We live in Southern Illinois so the logical choice of an airport would be St. Louis, but we are NOT logical people. We drove to Nashville, TN. Now why would we do that? We had to meet his parents at their vacation home in the Smoky Mountains after the WDW trip. This way we would be closer to that destination. I will never do two back to back trips like this again. Bill and I are just not Smoky Mountain people. We look at the wonderful mountains, ohh and ahh for about a day and are ready to go home and plan our next WDW trip.

Some people think we are crazy, but face it, you have to be as well or you wouldn’t be reading this now would you?

Besides the Disney planning disorder, I also suffer from chronic lateness when it comes to leaving for a WDW trip. I have all the intentions in the world of getting to the hotel and going to bed early. Does that every happen? Not that I can remember. It has turned into a joke, a sad pathetic but funny joke between the two of us. Now this time it wasn’t just me, Bill decided to download some movies onto his Droid and that took longer than expected. So we were finally off and before we made it to Nashville it was dark. Bill decided to watch his movie “The Other Guys” and we piped the audio through the van speakers. A good idea until they started shooting and it freaked me out before I realized it was the movie. Oh and the sirens didn’t help my nerves either. I kept looking for a cop and Bill was cackling at me. The hotel gave us nice room we had picked up dinner and were off to sleep before we knew it.

We usually take the first flight out but changed it up this time and weren’t flying until 11:20am. The hotel doesn’t have an accessible shuttle and we were going to have me drop off Bill and the luggage, go back and park the van (would have been free parking while we were gone) and take their shuttle back. In the end we just decided to park the van at the airport. They had some handicap parking spaces free right next to a shuttle stop. We were out of the van, I had taken the luggage out, and a shuttle van pulled up… shuttle mojo

.

The shuttle van was awesome! The ramp built into the floor at the front right of the van, they had a great tie down system and it went quickly. Bill got to sit up toward the front for once:

I sat down and took a picture of where the heck I parked the van so we could get back to it.

Great airport mojo for the line to get our boarding passes:

We do this instead of online because they have to check Bill’s wheelchair. They note any damage, the color, what type of batteries, etc. Then we got in line to go through security. I love the Nashville airport, the wait was so short. I had decided to check all bags except for the one on Bill’s chair. It was great not to have to put all that stuff in bins. I got to walk through the metal detector while Bill was doing this:

We walked to our gate picking up something to drink along the way. We both just messed with our phones wasting time. One the way back from the bathroom I did a double take. I told Bill I thought the guy behind us was the lead singer from Lonestar, a country group. I said I wasn’t sure. Bill said “his name is right there on his bag”. So I sneaked a peek and the tag said: “Richie McDonald”. Decisions, decisions… do I say anything to him? I didn’t want to have a bunch of people bother him. I took a stealth picture:

I couldn’t take it so I said “excuse me, are you Richie McDonald from Lonestar”. His face lit up, he smiled and said “yes I am”. I told him I didn’t want to bother him, I just wanted to let him know “Amazed” was one of my favorite songs. He thanked me, he told Bill Hi, and I told him I didn’t want to take up anymore of his time. I turned to talk to Bill and about 5 minutes later I got a tap on the back. It was him asking me my name, he pulled a CD out of his backpack and signed it for me:

Wow I didn’t expect that. I said thank you about 3 times and he went off toward his gate. About 15 minutes later I heard them calling for boarding on the other side and Richie came back over told us to have a good flight and to tell Mickey Hi for him. What a sweet guy!

Before long we were called to board. They let persons with disabilities on the plane first. Since Bill has a power chair they almost always let us be the first ones on the plane so I can get him situated. I noticed the plane looked a little different than the ones we had flown before. I went to step right before the door of the plane and instead of it feeling like a hard surface it was squishy and twisted my ankle a bit. The flight attendant asked if I was ok and I said I was fine, got Bill where he wanted to sit, then showed the ground guys how to work the chair. After I sat down I noticed the strap on my left Mickey Croc was broken, it must have happened when I stepped weird.

We took off, got clearance to use electronic devices, and got Bill set up to watch a movie. I saw that he fell asleep so that was my cue to do the same. The flight seemed fast and we had the smoothest landing we have ever had. I want that pilot every time! By the time we got the chair and got down to ME it was 3pm. We got some ME mojo too. Look at the lines:

A CM always has to request an accessible bus, one came in about 5 minutes. Here is the annual Bill hanging off the side of a bus picture:

I sat in the front for two reasons: 1) I seem to want that Walt Disney World sign shot every trip and 2) being a big woman I don’t like squeezing past all those people when it comes time to get off the bus. It makes me uncomfortable, them uncomfortable so I just would rather not do it. Bill has no problems with it:

I did get a picture of the sign but YUCK they need to clean their windshields every once in a while don’t you think?

There was a French speaking family right behind me and it was so cute when the video came on. The little boy was talking fast in French then I heard “Mickey Moust” and “Nemo”. That just made me smile even more than I already was.

We stopped at Caribbean Beach first, then:

Everyone got their luggage, strollers, etc and went in while I patiently waited for Bill. We had done online check in so I didn’t care about the rush to get in.

Next installment… Where is the bus?

 

[oregonmommyof2]

Here!!

 

[Belle83]

I looove the picture of you two on TSM! That's awesome. The celebrity encounter sounds very cool, it's great that he was so nice about it.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Great start Tracy! Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[Tinker_Tam]

What an awesome thing to wake up on birthday and find... A TR by Tracy!!! Its got to be a good year when it starts off this way!!!

 

[pooksma]

Great start! I am looking forward to following along.You have some great trip Mojo going

 

[ddstratton]

Woo Hoo! You got started! Can't wait to read more of your trip.

You guys had some major mojo going on this morning, huh? Shuttle Van mojo, boarding pass line mojo, celebrity meet mojo (how cool was that???) and ME line mojo. I'm hoping this keeps up throughout your trip. It sure made for a good start!

 

[Rozz]

Welcome back! I've been looking forward to your trip report. The title is intriguing. Can't wait to read more!

Happy Birthday to Tinker_Tam!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Joining.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Joining in!

Sounds like a wonderful first day and how amazing to meet a singer that you like and have him be so friendly.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Hello there! What a great start, wonderful mojo so far, and to meet the guy from Lonestar?? I love I'm Already There too.

 

[beckanoah]

Hopefully first page. Been waiting not so patiently for this report

I broke my no disboard posting streak too. It's been a while!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Here!!

Hi

I looove the picture of you two on TSM! That's awesome. The celebrity encounter sounds very cool, it's great that he was so nice about it.

Can't wait to read more!

I am so grateful to Terry for taking that picture, Bill looks so happy.

Great start Tracy! Can't wait to read more!!!

Thanks for joining.

What an awesome thing to wake up on birthday and find... A TR by Tracy!!! Its got to be a good year when it starts off this way!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Great start! I am looking forward to following along.You have some great trip Mojo going

Thanks for being here!

Woo Hoo! You got started! Can't wait to read more of your trip.

You guys had some major mojo going on this morning, huh? Shuttle Van mojo, boarding pass line mojo, celebrity meet mojo (how cool was that???) and ME line mojo. I'm hoping this keeps up throughout your trip. It sure made for a good start!

Hi Darla!! We were happy with how the day was going, thats for sure .

Welcome back! I've been looking forward to your trip report. The title is intriguing. Can't wait to read more!

Happy Birthday to Tinker_Tam!

Hi Rozz, thanks for joining. I always have such trouble with the report titles.

Joining.

Joining in!

Sounds like a wonderful first day and how amazing to meet a singer that you like and have him be so friendly.

Hi Lessa, he was such a nice guy. Part of me wanted to ask for a picture with him but didn't want to draw attention to him.

Hello there! What a great start, wonderful mojo so far, and to meet the guy from Lonestar?? I love I'm Already There too.

HELLO!! I love that song too, but Amazed it what popped in my head .

Hopefully first page. Been waiting not so patiently for this report

I broke my no disboard posting streak too. It's been a while!

So nice to see you here, thanks for joining!

 

[piglet50]

yea, you're here! loved the picture of bill in the back of the bus. he looks so happy. can't wait to read more.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Bill was safely off the bus and we checked in. We got 70’s section, room 0170 in between the Twister game and the Big Wheel. This is looking to the left for some reason I never took a pic looking to the right?

This was a convenient location close to the food court one way and close to the busses the other. By the time we got in the room it was 5pm. We weren’t in the room five minutes and there was a knock on the door, I opened and a CM was holding these:

Pictures don’t do these flowers justice. The arrangement is called “All my Love”. They bloomed throughout our stay. It was so amazing to come back to the room at night and see more and more flowers.

I noticed no fridge, I had requested one. The guy came in and wanted to plug it in right next to the bed, I told him we couldn’t do that I had to be able to get around the bed to lay Bill down. I suggested he put it in the hole that they were always in and he said he couldn’t do that??? Ok, well he ended up putting it next to our table. I thought that was weird. Has anyone read or heard anything about there being issues with the fridges in the dresser units at Pop?

Ten minutes after that the luggage arrived. I got things situated a little and we decided to not go to Kona Café and head to DTD instead. I called reservations and cancelled our Kona Reservation. We went to the DTD bus stop and there was a huge line, but there was a bus loading and another bus waiting behind it so we got on the second one.

We had never been near T Rex, so it took a bit to figure out how to get there. We checked in and they said it would be about a 20 minute wait. We were happy with that and started looking around. We came so close to buying a plush dino for Ace but didn’t. Then I was looking at the shirts and saw this one:

This made me smile and think of (DISer) brookenglish’s Henry. He loves the dig site at Animal Kingdom. I showed it to Bill and said “isn’t it crazy how a message board can change your outlook on things”? They called our name and we headed to the line to wait for our server Abdul. We sat down and ordered drinks.

Here is my little lush with his Caveman Punch:

I got a Category 5:

Bill got the NY Strip Steak:

I got the Chicken Salad, it was HUGE, I didn’t finish half of it:

Pictures from around where we were sitting:

Our server was very attentive and friendly. Another employee, Adam, came over and talked to us, he asked us how many trips we had done and what were in town for. When we told him about the D23 event he didn’t know what D23 was. We found many CM’s didn’t know about D23 either. We thought that was odd, he talked to us for 15 minutes. We were too full to get dessert so we paid and left.

We walked up to the bus stop at 10:40pm and there were many people waiting. A bus came and it was packed and only took a couple people. The bus driver got off the bus came over to us and said he had called in to let them know a wheelchair was waiting. I thought that was nice. I said we can wait like everyone else.

Bus after bus came for All Star Resorts and none for Pop. A relief driver, Bob from St. Louis, came to stand by us and couldn’t understand why the bus wasn’t there yet. He talked to us and told us we needed to move down there. Twenty-five minutes after that Pop bus came. It was full also, only standing room available. Bob said he would call in again and tell them how many people were waiting. At 12:10am a bus from Grandstand-Treehouse Villa came. The bus driver Kathy from St. Louis said she came because she kept hearing calls go out to pick up a wheelchair and she couldn’t believe no one had come. I had a transportation number to call to complain to but had left my phone in the room to charge like an idiot, that number is now in BOTH cell phones. We thanked Kathy over and over again for coming to get all of us. By the time she came to the Pop Century Pleasure Island stop, I had counted 9 All Star Resorts busses. Kathy said a tip she had would be to always go to the Marketplace bus stop especially if you are in a wheelchair. I thanked her, but said we shouldn't have to do that . We should be able to use any bus stop that an able bodied person does and expect to be able to get on the bus in a reasonable amount of time.

We got in bed around 2am.

(an email has been sent to WDW, I will let you know if I get any type of reply)

Next installment… Bill's happy place

 

[mrsksomeday]

yea, you're here! loved the picture of bill in the back of the bus. he looks so happy. can't wait to read more.

Hi!! I love that picture too. He has the best smile .

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That must have been really frustrating watching all the buses go by and not being able to get on.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Wow! So sorry to hear that you had to wait for what seems like forever to get on a bus. Hope things get better this trip.

We LOVED T-REx when we went!!! We did get that huge dessert to split though! YUMMY!

 

[heaven2dc]

How exciting - another TR! Loved the pics of Bill suspended in air getting ready to board the bus and the one at the back of the bus

I agree with you - you should be able to go to any bus stop and expect a bus in a reasonable amount of time. Your dinner at T-Rex looked yummy