Excuse me, you'll need to see security. What has Mickeystoontown done? Update 3/25x2

[mickeystoontown]

Disboards are acting up so I am deleting my last installment so I can finish it up and edit it. Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do it.

 

[MHTeacher]

Disboards are acting up so I am deleting my last installment so I can finish it up and edit it. Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do it.

SO weird! I just had finished reading this installment, and when I went to quote it, it was gone!

Oh, well-I'll wait until you get it back up tomorrow! Then I'll comment (again)!!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Disboards are acting up so I am deleting my last installment so I can finish it up and edit it. Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do it.

I was getting ready to reply to what you posted, having read it, and was wondering where it had gone! It's weird, because I just posted 4 updates to my TR with no problems!

 

[mickeystoontown]

So did John have any effects from the plants that he crashed into? your last picture of the back of the ship makes me want to go on another cruise, whether it be Disney or not. I would, however, bypass the crowds. Disney does still use the runway for emergency purposes too.

He didn't, thank goodness! I just knew that he'd have some sort of rash.

Looking back and my pictures makes me remember the good things about the cruise.

Thanks, although facts have nothing on your posts with your family members striking dance moves.

Aww shucks!

 

[mickeystoontown]

SO weird! I just had finished reading this installment, and when I went to quote it, it was gone!

Oh, well-I'll wait until you get it back up tomorrow! Then I'll comment (again)!!

I was getting ready to reply to what you posted, having read it, and was wondering where it had gone! It's weird, because I just posted 4 updates to my TR with no problems!

Oops sorry! I was struggling with the Disboards and Photobucket and somehow the installment posted before I had a chance to proofread and edit it. I wasn't even finished writing it when it posted.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Oops sorry! I was struggling with the Disboards and Photobucket and somehow the installment posted before I had a chance to proofread and edit it. I wasn't even finished writing it when it posted.

I thought it ended rather abruptly, that's why I waited at first to reply, as I thought you were going to come back and finish/edit it. Odd that it was being so weird to you.

 

[TeresaNJ]

That's a shame that there are so many rude people out there. I don't know what has happened to our society that people are so self-centered. Love seeing your island pics. It looks absolutely beautiful! Oh, and I admire your self-control. It think I would have promptly put my umbrella right back up and dared that woman to touch it again!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I thought it ended rather abruptly, that's why I waited at first to reply, as I thought you were going to come back and finish/edit it. Odd that it was being so weird to you.

I have no idea how the unedited installment even posted. I didn't hit reply/submit button. It just popped up after my computer froze up.

That's a shame that there are so many rude people out there. I don't know what has happened to our society that people are so self-centered. Love seeing your island pics. It looks absolutely beautiful! Oh, and I admire your self-control. It think I would have promptly put my umbrella right back up and dared that woman to touch it again!

It really is a shame. Some people think that there is no need to be courteous of others. Had we not gone on that bike ride, I may have lost my cool.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Burning! Believing! Boo-hooing!

**This update will not be the happy happy joy joy update that I normally post. This one has talk of medical issues and a not so happy evening. However, I always tell it like it is and post the good with the bad. Unfortunately, this is a bad. Not terribly bad but not good either.

As we were walking back to the ship, I could tell that John wasn’t in the best of moods. I was trying to gauge if this was simply because we had encountered so many rude people during the last couple of hours or if his medication levels were off. (I’m not sure if all of you know it or not but John suffered a brain injury long ago and has epilepsy. Just prior to our trip, the doctor had weaned him off some of his meds and changed up others.)

For John, if his trough levels drop, he gets irritable and antsy and the littlest of things will bother him. I thought that this was the case because: 1) When we were walking back, he said that his flip flops were uncomfortable and that he was going to throw them away as soon as he got back to the room; and, 2) He was sweating up a storm and complaining about how hot it was. This coming from the man who chooses to sit in the broad open sun instead of seeking shelter in the shade; and; 3) He was asking where we were eating tonight and if they’d actually have something on the menu that Hunter would eat. Yep, his levels were off. He needed to sit down for a while, put one of his "magic" pills under his tongue and have something cool to drink.

While riding on the bicycles, Hunter said that he’d like to see how long the line was for the Aqua Duck and we told him that we’d check it out when we got onboard. I asked John if he felt like going and he said that he did but he’d wait on the deck for us.

Burning!

The line for the Aqua Duck was fairly long but we decided to give it a shot anyway since this was our last day on the ship and we may not get a chance. If we were ever going to have a go at it, now was probably the time to do it. I gave John my backsack, our flip flops and off we went....right onto the burning hot deck! Holy moley moo moo cows! The deck was as hot as fire and the beginning of the line looked a football field away. I knew that we weren’t supposed to run across the deck so Hunter and I did the fastest tip toe walk we could saying "Ouch! Ouch! Burns! Burns!" all the way there.

As we got to the stairway leading up to the Aqua Duck, I could see that the castmembers had put down wet towels on the stairs for guests to stand on. Unfortunately, the towels were only on every two or three steps so at some points in time, we were standing on the burning hot steps. The other guests were kind (a relief from the rude ones on the beach) and weren’t crowding in on each other so that we could try and stay on a wet towel as long as we could.

John took our picture as we were waiting in line:

After 40 minutes, we finally made it to the front of the line and we were off! We made the turn over the side of the Dream, down and around the deck and then, all too soon, the ride was over. I knew that Hunter would have liked to ride it again but by the time we were done, the line was snaking all the way down and I knew that the wait time would be ridiculous. John said that he was feeling better but I could tell that he was in need of some time in the air conditioned quietness of our room. We grabbed drinks at the drink station and went back to our room for a while.

Once in our room, I used the body spray to spray down the room again and then I sat down in the window seat and John pulled up a chair and we watched the others slowly making their way back to the ship. Remember me talking about the stacks and stacks of towels the castmembers had unloaded on the island? Well, now they were making their way back to the ship and they looked much different. They were now in the back of trailers:

John watched for a while and then dozed off. While he was dozing, Hunter and I took showers and started getting dressed for our last night on the ship. I woke up John and told him that he needed to get up and get ready. When I asked if he was feeling better, he said that he was but I could tell that he still wasn’t his "normal" self. I asked if he wanted to just skip the show and stay in the room for a while longer but he said that he would be okay. While he was in the shower, I made sure that I had a few extra pills in my purse just in case he needed them. (He can put one pill under his tongue every 15 minutes until he starts to feel better. ) I flipped the television to the navigator channel to see where we were. (I haven't looked closely at the next pictures to verify the time but they are in the correct order so I must have taken these while we were waiting.)

Once John was finished up, we left our stateroom and went in search of the theater where Believe! was being shown. We only made one wrong turn getting there which was an accomplishment for us since we had been getting turned around on the ship every since we boarded.

Believing!

You aren't allowed to take pictures during the show but I did take a few of the theater prior to it beginning. We were in the balcony and a bit to the left of the stage.

John is not much of a show person but we all really enjoyed Believe! It was fantastic and I'd highly recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance.

As I posted several installments back, there were Photopass (I'm not sure of the proper name on the cruise ship.) photographers at various places on the ship. We hadn't had many pictures made but I still wanted to see them and both John and I knew where we were to go as we had passed it earlier that day. Score one for us for not getting lost again!

Once we got there, we were a little confused on what to do but figured it out fairly quickly. We looked through them all and narrowed them down to just 9 since they had a package deal when you purchased ten 8x10s. If there was a package that included 10 pictures, why did we pick just 9? Well, there was one picture of the three of us that we really liked and we were going to have them make a duplicate to give to Lacey. We were told that making the duplicate wouldn't be a problem and gave us a time to come back and pick it up. Once that was done, we decided to wander around for a while since it wasn't time for dinner yet.

During the time that we were figuring out the picture finding process, picking out the pictures, waiting in line to pay, etc., I could tell that John still wasn't feeling quite right as I could see his hands shaking a good bit. That's another of his "warning" signs.

I try not to hover over him or question him too much because it upsets him and makes things worse. So, I just watched him closely without him knowing it.

The "warning" signs don't always mean that he's going to have a seizure, Thank You Lord, it's simply his body's way of telling us that his meds are low, that he needs to slow down, etc. Usually, he feels better once he used his under-the-tongue pill(s) and gotten his next dosage in him. He takes meds at 7 a.m., Noon, 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. and he couldn't take his 9 p.m. meds yet or his levels would be off during the night.

*Sorry but I warned you there would be medical talk and details but they will help you understand the rest of this installment.

John suggested that we go to the shops and see if there was anything that any of us wanted. We, along with what seemed like a gazillion other folks who had the same idea, squeezed into one of the stores. We were all pretty disappointed with the variety of merchandise they had for sale and the only thing that we bought was a mug for John's brother. Can you believe that? Not one of us bought a Disney Cruise Line item for ourselves!

We noticed that the Captain was making an appearance and signing autographs in the store across the way and John said that he wanted to get his brother's mug signed by the Captain so we got in line to wait. It wasn't long until we were having our picture taken and having the mug autographed:

The Captain told us to enjoy the rest of our vacation and hoped that we'd be sailing with Disney again in the future.

We still had a little time before dinner so we went outside to walk around a bit. We came upon one of the other theaters and we stopped to pose for pictures:

Our walk took us outside and there was a beautiful sunset to our left:

And a neat cloud formation to our right:

There were some gentlemen on the deck and they were taking turns taking picture of one another and when they were done, I asked if they minded taking our picture together. One said that he didn’t mind at all and this is the picture that he took:

I wish I had thought to have him take another with the sunset in the background because the one that he took has us standing in a shadow. We stayed outside for a little bit longer and then started our trek to find Animator’s Palate. Even though we had a general idea where the restaurant was, it took us a while to actually find it and when we did John was frustrated. Normally, John is a very easy going, go-with-the-flow kinda guy but he was not in that sort of mood that night. The restaurant wasn’t open yet so we had to stand outside in a hallway with many other people and there was a family near us who were letting their kids jump around everywhere and they, literally, almost knocked me over when they ran into me for the umpteenth time.

The menu was posted on the wall in front of us and we could see that Hunter would, yet again, have to order a grilled chicken breast in order to have something that he would eat. The kids were still running around us while we were discussing our food options and when one of them started screaming, that was all that John could take. He was ready to get out of there. He was saying that there was nothing for Hunter to eat, that we’d be sitting beside the family from heck and he was sick of dressing up every evening. I asked him what he wanted to do and he said that he wanted to leave but he wasn’t going to because we needed to eat. I knew that John was going to go even further downhill fast if we didn’t leave so I told him that we’d just leave and find something else to eat.

As I said, John doesn’t like it when I hover over him and it upsets/embarrasses him when he feels like his condition is ruining things for the rest of the family. He didn’t want to stay there but he didn’t want to leave and it was frustrating him all the more.

**I feel the need to stop here a moment and say something....again, the good AND the bad. Any of you who have ever taken care of a loved one who has a condition that they can not emotionally or physically control should understand the positions our family gets put in.

While we are very fortunate that John hasn’t had a grand mal seizure in quite some time, John still lives with a lot of problems associated with his epilepsy. It’s tough on him knowing that, at any time, he could have a seizure, his mood could change instantly, he could be off work for days, weeks or, yes, even months, etc.

It’s also very tough on the rest of our family. Our schedules need to be such that they can be changed at a moment’s notice, our finances need to be as secure as possible in case John can’t work, we may/do miss out on things that we really wanted to do, etc. It’s an emotional rollercoaster at times.

I, as John’s caregiver when I need to be, have to be as calm and peaceful as I can in order to maintain normalcy in our family. It’s rough at times and I can’t always hold in my emotions. I may feel sad one minute and mad at another but I try not to show it. It’s tough, it really really is. I am not a Saint and, at times, I lose my temper. While it seems like my madness/frustration is directed at John, it’s really not. It’s at the sucky situation. Over the years, we’ve found that it’s best to not say much when one of us are at our wits end. It keeps us from saying things out of frustration which might hurt the other’s feelings.

Would I change my life if I could? Heck yeah! I’d change it so that John would be healed from his brain injury and that doggone bruise on his brain would mysteriously vanish and all of our troubles would wash away. That’s my daily prayer!

Back to the report:

I told John that we would just leave and see if Cabanas was open and, if it was, we’d eat there. We knew how to get to Cabanas from where we were and when we got there, we could see that it was closed. Okay, we’d go on to the fast food windows and eat there. The deck was really busy and people who were wet from swimming were bumping into us as we walked by them. This was not helping our situation at all! As we approached the fast food windows, we could see that only one window was open. Heaven help us! The situation was going downhill waaaaaay too fast and I didn’t know what to do to stop it.

John said that we would just go back to the restaurant but it was now after the time dinner was supposed to start. Hunter said that he’d just eat a hot dog from the fast food window. John was getting more and more frustrated and said that he was going to the room and changing out of the dress clothes. We could do what we wanted. He turned around and started walking away and a teenager going to the drink station ran smack into him. He kept walking.

Boo-hooing!

Here we were standing in our dress clothes on a wet deck, surrounded by hundreds of people running around splashing water everywhere and there was nothing more than a hot dog for dinner. Hunter was upset because we were upset and finally I just sat at an empty table and cried. This was not how I envisioned our first cruise....my husband frustrated, my son upset and me crying. Hunter nibbled on the hot dog and fries and I suggested that he go on back to the stinky stateroom, change his clothes and go on to Vibe and have a good time.

While I sat at the table by myself, I kept going over the cruise in my mind. At that point, I honestly felt like I had wasted my time and money on the cruise. There were only a few things that we enjoyed and all I could think was that we should have just gone to Walt Disney World and skipped the cruise. As I was thinking this, John came back to apologize and said that he had taken his meds and was feeling better. I told him how I was feeling and he said that he was thinking the same thing. He said that he felt like “we are on a boat with nowhere to go and we’re stuck”. Stuck on the boat and felt like we were stuck in the rear end because we had paid over $2,000 for the three of us to go on a three night cruise. We are a middle class family so $2,023.86 is a lot of money for us to spend for just three nights and that’s not including the additional $900+ spent on the tour, pictures, tips, etc.

Oh well, what was done was done and it couldn’t be changed. After drying my tears, we made our way back to our stateroom and upon opening the door, we smelled the bathroom odor again. I sprayed some of my body spray around the room and began to organize the last bit of stuff we had in the room. We threw away over half of the birthday cake that we had pre-ordered and took down the decorations. We were ready for this portion of our vacation to be done and over with and I hated that which made me cry again. Mentally, I was done.

It was while we were tidying up that I realized we didn’t have our driving directions back to our resort. John and I went to the Guest Services desk to see if someone could assist us. After waiting for five customers in front of us to be helped, we were called to the desk. I told the castmember what had happened and asked if she could help us and she looked at me and said “I can’t help you.” and motioned for the next guest in line. I explained to her again that we really needed directions and she looked at me as if I had two heads. “Sorry” was all that she said and then she said “Next”. I couldn’t believe that she didn’t even attempt to help us and couldn’t believe that Disney Cruise Line didn’t care about their guests who were heading to Walt Disney World to give Disney even more of their hard earned dollars. Thankfully, there was another couple standing there who gave us directions as best as they could. I thanked them profusely because, otherwise, we would have been winging it without any directions.

A while later, we called Hunter on the wave phone (he didn’t hang up) and told him that he needed to come back to stateroom so that we could order something from room service. After all, we hadn’t eaten anything since lunch time other than Hunter picking at the hot dog. Once he made it back, we ordered our food and it arrived in a timely fashion and it was quite good. We all went to bed that night not with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads but with, instead, the dollars signs we paid for the cruise swirling down the stinky cruise bathroom toilet.

When we docked the next morning, we skipped breakfast and were off the ship as soon as we had the remainder of our items gathered up. At the time that I booked the cruise, I had thought that we would never want to leave the ship and I was sad that we all felt the opposite.

Two weeks after we got home, I wrote a very detailed letter to Disney Cruise Line which set forth our complaints and observations. It took over a month to get a response and, when I did, it was a pretty basic “Sorry you didn’t have a great time. We hope you cruise with us again.” letter.

Would I ever consider going on another cruise? Had you asked me days, weeks or even a month after the cruise, I would have answered the question with a resounding “No”. Am I glad that we gave it a try? Again, had you asked me days, weeks or even a month after the cruise, I would have said that I didn’t know. Now, after many months, I would say that we might go on a cruise in the future. For sure, it’d be a Disney cruise after having seen the other cruise ships at the ports. I’d also make sure that I had done much much more research before we stepped foot on the ship.

**Up next: You gave the guy how much? Heading back to our home away from home!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I'm so sorry your cruise ended on a bad note, but I'm glad John felt better after taking his meds. That is my biggest fear about going on a cruise, the being "stuck" that you and John both mentioned. If you aren't enjoying yourself at WDW, or any other vacation, you can just leave, but not on a cruise. That's why I haven't really considered one. I sure hope your vacay improved once you made it back to WDW!

 

[DisBamaGirl]

Thank you so much for your honest re-telling of your experience! I'm so sorry that you had such a bad last night of your cruise. The fact that you shared it with all of us means that we can all see the good and bad sides of "cruising" and make more informed decisions about whether or not we would want to cruise sometime. Can't wait to hear more about the rest of your trip!!

 

[lovethattink]

You know I fully understand and can relate to E! creeping into vacation plans. I'm glad that he gets warning. Anakin does too, except when they happen in his sleep.

I wish your last night on the boat had been better.

 

[Tiggerrn2]

So sorry the cruise wasn't as "magical" as you'd hoped (and I am sure as magical as we were all hoping it would be for you). It's a bummer when something one looks forward to with great anticipation is less than we'd hoped for. Excited to finally hear about the land portion of your trip! And to see your photos. Hoping to see some resort photos up with your next installment before we head out.
Also, sorry for the difficult times you have with John's seizures. My DH is a diabetic and also suffers from seizures on occasion (usually several in a few months time and then none for years at a time So hard to figure anything out when it's like that. He will be on meds, then they take him off for a time and nothing will happen for a year or two, and then he will have several in a short period of time. I am hoping now that they just leave him on the meds. He is moody at times when his sugars are off. Like you, I just try to keep the peace. I understand it must not be easy for them, either. And I am sure that most of the time my DH doesn't even realize how he comes across at the time. I truly do understand how that is frustrating and sad for you at times. Being a caregiver (even if it's only sometimes) is a difficult spot to be in.
Hoping the next part of your adventure is magical once again!

 

[natebenma]

Oh, my, I am so sorry that your last night on the ship was such an emotionally and physcially draining one!

I can totally understand how that happened! A mix of concern, and annoyance with a dash of buyers remorse added. Definitely not a great recipe!

I'm glad you were all able to work through it, and were able to get some dinner from room service while you prepared for your departure.

I am totally annoyed at that CM who wouldn't help you with driving directions.

1) Not such an unusual request that they shouldn't have the info available
2) Even if she didn't have the info, I imagine she had access to a computer with web access.
3) "Next!" is NOT an appropriate response when dealing with guests.

At least there will be a magical arch in your very near future (even though the cruise CMs didn't help you find it)

 

[TinksThree]

Burning! Believing! Boo-hooing!

**This update will not be the happy happy joy joy update that I normally post. This one has talk of medical issues and a not so happy evening. However, I always tell it like it is and post the good with the bad. Unfortunately, this is a bad. Not terribly bad but not good either.

You know from my TRs that I don't usually hold back because I think that is all part of the experience and the TR wouldn't be true if we weren't honest. And sometimes, as hard as it is to bring those memories back up, in the end I think it makes you stronger and wiser. Plus as much as we all love Disney for being full of magical Pixie Dust...sometimes there isn't enough magic to remove us from real life!

So sorry that the last day of this part of the trip was so lousy! You wrote that so well that I really was able to empathize since I have had similar moments (but no epilepsy involved to influence the bad situation). Keith doesn't like to cruise because of the fact he feels stuck on a ship and we got so bored on the ship. We enjoyed our stops but the rest of the time it seemed so confined. Chris is dying to go on one for his senior vacation and last night we were talking. Carnival is the cheapest but I just feel like that is similar to staying in a Motel 6 (never traveled Carnival so just my impression) but when I mentioned Disney Cruiselines and their great military discounts, Keith was all over the Disney cruise...I do believe he is becoming a believer!!!

 

[Millie12591]

Lisa, I wish your cruise had been a better turn out. I'm a little shocked by the Disney's reaction to your unpleasant time on the ship.

I know I've said it before, but you've mentioned every icky reason why I wouldn't ever want to be on a ship with my family. I could see doing it alone or with some girlfriends at a MAJOR discount, but not for the kind of money they expect.
My husband hates crowds, which in turn has taught me to very conscious of them (when they never really bothered me before) when I'm with him, and when I'm worried about hubby's moods it takes away from what I'm doing at the moment.
Your a good wife to keep up with your hubby and I wished y'all had a better experience, again I'm surprised at how unhelpful you found Disney people to be.

I have a sneaking feeling y'all are about to get your happy on and have a great time once you get to WDW.

 

[Clamesa]

Your husband words."He said that he felt like “we are on a boat with nowhere to go and we’re stuck”. This is the same words my husband use everytime we discuss the cruise option. As myself I do not stand rude people, it really upset me and make me mad. Crowds there is always crowds at Disney but as DH said we always can pack an go ... in a boat you are trapped. I really was waiting for your report about castaway since that is the 80% of the reason we want to go in a D.C. and after reading the past report I decided it was not whortwhile for us. We are Disney lovers and I believe our money will be better expend at wdw.

I feel really sorry the cruise was not what you expected, but I'm sure the trip got a lot better after you went to your "home away of home" cannot wait to read about it.

 

[disprincessesmom1012]

I am sorry your cruise didnt end so well. I hope getting back to cbr makes up for it. John will br in my prayers. Maybe a few more people sending them up to god will be louder and finally be answered.

 

[sewmess]

Last days at your less than favorite place seem to end up just crappy. For us, it's EPCOT, which is why we say, "Never end on EPCOT."

I am hoping that the last part of your trip, with more family at WDW itself helped soothed the waters. No pun intended.

 

[jenseib]

oh gosh..I am so sad the evening turned out crappy. I would've ate without Skip though.

You are right..that is a landing strip on Castaway cay. I forget why it was originally built. I think it was some rich guys private isalnd oor something. Thre is a site all about the island.

BUT then when no one was living there or visiting it became a drug smuggleing base and they used that strip to make exchanges. I should go google and see if I can find the link.


Aha..here is a link to one of those histories.

http://www.disneydispatch.com/content/columns/the-626/2011/04-the-colorful-story-of-castaway-cay/