13 Days of Disney - Everything We Never Knew We Always Wanted - June 2016 TR Update 1/30

Jfsag123

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Introduction

Hello! If you’re coming over from my PTR welcome back, and if you’re just joining me here, nice to meet you. Here's a link to the PTR for anyone who cares to look. We had an amazing time on our June 2016 trip, even though it did not go at all as originally planned, hence the title of my TR. Looking forward to getting to relive it as I share it with you all.

Our first family trip to WDW was in May of 2013. It was planned in two months as a “once in a lifetime” trip. How many DISers started out that way? Halfway through the first day we knew we’d be back and before we left we decided to try to return every two years. Our second family trip was in March of 2015. We stayed onsite for the first time and DD celebrated her birthday while we were there. It was magical perfection.

We planned to return in June of 2017, but in May of 2015 we ended up with some unexpected extra money. What does a good Disney addict do when she gets extra money? She uses it to go to WDW, of course. We decided to bump the trip up by a year, but never told the kids. We let them go on thinking that we were not going back until 2017 and decided to surprise them the day we were leaving. Meanwhile, we had them doing countdowns to our trip, but they thought they were counting down to being one year out. They know that we are crazy Disney people, so it didn’t really strike them as odd to be planning and counting down to a trip that was a year away.

So here we are again…or for the first time if you’re new. ;)

Goofy hat selfie!

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I’m Kelley, a Disneyholic and the :-)cough:
obsessive :cough:) planner for our group. I love Beauty and the Beast and want to be Belle when I grow up. Somehow I don’t feel like that’s going to work out for me…My favorite WDW attractions are Splash Mountain, Philharmagic, Spaceship Earth, and Rockin’ Rollercoaster (a new love as of this trip!)

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This is my husband, Rees, the biggest Donald Duck fan you will ever meet. He loves Pete’s Dragon, the Sword in the Stone, and Rapunzel and his favorite rides at WDW are the thrill rides.

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Cora, age 8, loves Snow White, The Lion King, and Pluto. Test Track was her favorite ride in all of WDW on our first trip and still is. She also really enjoys the Haunted Mansion and Toy Story Mania.

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Alex, age 5, all about Toy Story, Star Wars, and Zootopia. His absolute favorite ride is Soarin’, followed by Toy Story Mania and The Great Movie Ride (yes, you read that right).

So that’s us! Up next: springing the surprise!
 
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Saw the link in your sig on my PTR and came right over! So happy you've started this and I can't wait to hear all about your trip :goodvibes
 
Yay! Can't wait to read all about it. We are surprising our DD 7 and 6 in February. I can't wait to hear all about y'all's surprise! Don't keep us waiting to long lol.
 


joining along

:welcome:

Looking forward to reading all about your trip!!

Glad you're here!

Saw the link in your sig on my PTR and came right over! So happy you've started this and I can't wait to hear all about your trip :goodvibes

Thank you! I'm going to have to start living vicariously through your PTR now that my trip is over!

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about your trip!

Glad you're here! How was your trip??

Yay! Can't wait to read all about it. We are surprising our DD 7 and 6 in February. I can't wait to hear all about y'all's surprise! Don't keep us waiting to long lol.

:welcome: Yay! Surprises are so much fun! But can be difficult as well. I will try not to delay too much in updating. ;)
 
A Little Back Story:

Those that read my PTR are familiar with the saga of my toe, but for those that are just joining me here, I will fill you in. Feel free to skip this if you don’t enjoy medical stuff. The short version is I injured my toe and it affected our Disney trip.

I am a klutz. Like, majorly. And the injury almost always ends up having something to do with my foot. I have broken my foot (just walking and not in heels), had it spiked with the toe pick of an ice skate, spilled boiling oil on it causing 3rd degree burns and nerve damage, broken more toes than I care to share…or count, and suffered many other more minor injuries that I won’t bore you with here. So it should have come as no surprise when I injured my foot again this year.

In February I stepped on a sewing needle that was somehow in my carpet at home. I don’t even sew. It went into my big toe on my right foot. I’m embarrassed to admit that my first thought was “at least it’s far away from our WDW trip!” If I’d only known…It hurt pretty badly, but I just figured it had gone in deep so I poured some hydrogen peroxide over it, slapped on a medicated band-aid and went about my day. I had made plans with my parents to take my kids to the zoo since they had a day off school and it’s often warm enough to do that in February here in Texas. I walked all over the zoo and my toe felt awful, but I didn’t think much of it.

Eventually it started to feel better, but never completely right. I was told that it was possible I had some nerve damage. Then in April my husband lost his balance, stumbled backward and stomped directly on my toe. The pain was so bad I almost passed out and I knew something was wrong. I went in for x-rays and discovered that the tip of the needle had broken off in the bone of my toe and I had been walking on it for the past two months. Joy! Because it was embedded in the bone, it would require surgery to remove and the earliest they were able to schedule me for was May 12 – 3 and a half weeks before we were scheduled to leave for Disney.

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I was devastated to see my beautiful plans flying out the window. We are pretty commando in our touring style and I was terrified at the thought of not being able to walk well on our trip. I was told by multiple doctors that I would likely be completely healed within 2 weeks of the surgery, giving me plenty of time before the trip to be back on my feet. Yeah, not so much. I was still in active pain with a not-completely-closed incision site when we headed out.

I was pretty disappointed in the days right before the trip – I had planned this surprise over the course of a year and here it was getting messed up by a freak accident. And then I reminded myself that I was going to WDW - for almost two weeks! I tried to remain optimistic about healing over the course of the trip and decided I would rent a wheelchair if I needed it while we were there. And just in time for the big reveal, I started to feel the magic again. The trip would not look like I had imagined it would, but we could still have a wonderful trip.
 
June 5 – Departure Day:

I did not get much sleep the night of June 4th. I spent most of the week leading up to our trip lying in bed with my foot elevated willing it to heal. On June 4th, I had to give that up and get everything finished and ready for our journey. We drive to WDW, which is a blessing because we can bring a lot of stuff and a curse because we can bring a lot of stuff. We had that car as full as it could get. We decided to pack the bulk of the car the night before we left after the kids had gone to bed so we’d be pretty much ready to head out right after we told them.

Here is the video of the reveal. It took them a while to realize what was actually happening and they still didn’t quite believe us after I turned off the camera.


Cora continued to randomly burst into tears of joy throughout the drive to WDW while Alex would out of the blue say things like “so wait, when you talked about (insert various things associated with WDW) all this time, you really knew we’d be going now and not next year???” It was a long drive…

We come from DFW in Texas and do the drive over the course of two days. We like to do a long first day with a shorter 2nd day. We ended up getting on the road at about 9:00am and set out for Crestview, FL., which, according to Google maps, is about a 10.5 hour drive from our house. We actually made it in about 10 hours because I speed (shh) and we only made one stop. I was pretty impressed with the kids for hanging in on a drive that long with only one stop, but they did really well. Maybe they were still in shock. Anyway, we stopped in Vicksburg, MS for gas and a potty break, then hopped right back on the road. We’d had breakfast at home and I’d packed lunches and snacks for the car, so we didn’t have to worry about grabbing food.

We arrived in Crestview at about 7:00pm. As much as we wanted to be out of the car, we passed up our hotel to pick-up dinner and fill-up the gas tank so we could get right back on the road in the morning. We got dinner at Zaxby’s since we don’t have those where we live. It was decent, but not the best. I’m a sucker for buffalo chicken, though. We spent the night at the Comfort Inn & Suites in a king suite because my (strange) children love sleeping on pull-out sofas. Here they are ready for bed. Alex has his ever-present Zootopia friends. Not pictured: Cora’s Simba doll being hugged tightly under the covers.

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I have no other pics of that night, as I was exhausted and my foot hurt like crazy so I just wanted to fall into bed. But also, I was super excited to be arriving at WDW the next day. DH and I watched episodes of The Simpsons until we fell asleep, which was a nice way to end the night.

Up next: a tropical storm and WDW!
 
I love the reaction of your kids! So sweet! I'd be over the moon excited and shocked if someone ever surprised me with a trip to Disney. Kudos to you for keeping it a secret for so long.

Our trip was amazing! We truly had a magical time! I think it's been our best trip to date.

Sadly, we have no plans to go back anytime soon. We do have a 4-night Dream cruise planned for October, 2017 so at least I have that to look forward to. As much as I love Disney, I'm forcing myself to vacation other places so next summer we are planning a Cape Cod/Maine trip and the following summer we'd like to head out west (we live in PA). DH and I were talking about future Disney trips on our way home and, right now, we'd like to go for two weeks in June, 2019. We are hoping some of the new stuff will be done and with two weeks we'll have plenty of time to do it all. We'll see if we can hold out for that long...
 
Oh my goodness! I am loving Alex's reaction. I love that he was "in one year" on the down low, like he was a side conversation that needed to be added to the TODAY comment!
 
I am a klutz. Like, majorly.
This is me too. I've sprained either my left or right ankle over 1 dozen times total. I've tripped from a standing position. :sad2: So I hear ya.


spilled boiling oil on it causing 3rd degree burns and nerve damage
:eek::scared1::faint:


I went in for x-rays and discovered that the tip of the needle had broken off in the bone of my toe and I had been walking on it for the past two months.
Holy mackerel. :scared:


I was still in active pain with a not-completely-closed incision site when we headed out.
Oh no :guilty:


And then I reminded myself that I was going to WDW - for almost two weeks!
That's the spirit! :cheer2:


It was a long drive…
:laughing:


I was pretty impressed with the kids for hanging in on a drive that long with only one stop, but they did really well.
What troopers!


because my (strange) children love sleeping on pull-out sofas.
I have one of those too. What a bunch of weirdos. :laughing:

My son begs to sleep on the pull-out couch in our living room :confused3. But the worst part is that he wants me to join him. My 37-year-old back and accompanying sciatic pain episodes do not appreciate that.
 
I am so, so sorry about your toe. That must have been some pain for sure. :crutches: I love all medical stuff so your xray was awesome to me, although, obviously not to you. :goodvibes I love the reveal!! My oldest like to squeal like Cora did, so I'm hoping my reveal goes like yours. It's crazy how much children love to sleep on a pull out. Any time we go somewhere out of town, they would rather sleep on a pullout bed, than a regular bed. Which is fine with me, because it normally means my DH and I are in a King bed instead of a Queen. More room for Me!:cheer2:
 
I've taken a loooong break from the DIS since our last trip was in 2011. I stick around and lurk because I follow my good friend MICKEYSTOONTOWN on here. I had to subscribe to this report because I'm a sucker for a good surprise and your kids reactions had me tearing up just a bit.
Sorry about your toe, OUCH!!! :crazy2:

Can't wait to hear more!
 
A Little Back Story:

Those that read my PTR are familiar with the saga of my toe, but for those that are just joining me here, I will fill you in. Feel free to skip this if you don’t enjoy medical stuff. The short version is I injured my toe and it affected our Disney trip.

I am a klutz. Like, majorly. And the injury almost always ends up having something to do with my foot. I have broken my foot (just walking and not in heels), had it spiked with the toe pick of an ice skate, spilled boiling oil on it causing 3rd degree burns and nerve damage, broken more toes than I care to share…or count, and suffered many other more minor injuries that I won’t bore you with here. So it should have come as no surprise when I injured my foot again this year.

In February I stepped on a sewing needle that was somehow in my carpet at home. I don’t even sew. It went into my big toe on my right foot. I’m embarrassed to admit that my first thought was “at least it’s far away from our WDW trip!” If I’d only known…It hurt pretty badly, but I just figured it had gone in deep so I poured some hydrogen peroxide over it, slapped on a medicated band-aid and went about my day. I had made plans with my parents to take my kids to the zoo since they had a day off school and it’s often warm enough to do that in February here in Texas. I walked all over the zoo and my toe felt awful, but I didn’t think much of it.

Eventually it started to feel better, but never completely right. I was told that it was possible I had some nerve damage. Then in April my husband lost his balance, stumbled backward and stomped directly on my toe. The pain was so bad I almost passed out and I knew something was wrong. I went in for x-rays and discovered that the tip of the needle had broken off in the bone of my toe and I had been walking on it for the past two months. Joy! Because it was embedded in the bone, it would require surgery to remove and the earliest they were able to schedule me for was May 12 – 3 and a half weeks before we were scheduled to leave for Disney.

20160414_120252-1.jpg


I was devastated to see my beautiful plans flying out the window. We are pretty commando in our touring style and I was terrified at the thought of not being able to walk well on our trip. I was told by multiple doctors that I would likely be completely healed within 2 weeks of the surgery, giving me plenty of time before the trip to be back on my feet. Yeah, not so much. I was still in active pain with a not-completely-closed incision site when we headed out.

I was pretty disappointed in the days right before the trip – I had planned this surprise over the course of a year and here it was getting messed up by a freak accident. And then I reminded myself that I was going to WDW - for almost two weeks! I tried to remain optimistic about healing over the course of the trip and decided I would rent a wheelchair if I needed it while we were there. And just in time for the big reveal, I started to feel the magic again. The trip would not look like I had imagined it would, but we could still have a wonderful trip.

my hubby had a freak accident about a month before a Disney Trip and i FEEL your pain. He almost ripped the end of his toe off in an extreme toe stubbing. He was lucky and it healed beautifully and it was a great trip.
 

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