5 more weeks; I'm going into Disney hyperdrive

[Mouse's Shadow]

5 more weeks; I'm going into Disney hyperdrive 5 weeks from today we leave for the World. I've gone into Disney planning hyperdrive. I need a way to expend some of my Disney energy. This is a first for me. I've enjoyed reading your experiences and want to add my own.

My I began thinking about this trip in October of 2004. I had just returned from taking my DD on a Caribbean cruse. It was an early graduation present, and I knew I wanted to do something special for our son when he graduated in 2006. My DH and I had many discussions on the subject and I was delighted when he suggested WDW. We had made our first pilgrimage in 1996 durning the 25th Anniversary Celebration; images of the big pink castle begin to pop before my eyes as I think back. It had been the greatest vacation we had ever taken. I don't have to explain the magic to you folks. But this time would be different and there where new things to condsider.

My son had been in a bad biking accident in 2001 and had suffered a severe brain injury when he was 16 and he is our miracle child. He has defied all the odds. The doctors never expected him to live; he did. He was in a coma for 6 months. They never expected him to come out of it; he did. They never expected him to be able to communicate; he can. And although his life is forever changed, he lives with enthusiasm, determination, and a wonderful sense of humor.

This vacation would be our first time traveling with him and his disabilities. So being the planner that I am I set out to find out all I could about how he could experience WDW. the many people I talked to were very encourageing and gave WDW high marks for being accessible. Little did I know that there was a DIS board devoted to the suject. But what do you expect I am a rookie. It would take me a year to figure that out. (slow learner)

I was looking forward to my 2nd trip to WDW in April of 2005 with my DD High School Show Choir. (boy am I jealous of all you mutiDISers) They performed at Epcot. (Boy am I a proud mama, She got to be a CM for a day) When I was there I was on a mission to see how feasible it would really be to take my DS. OMG did I go home excited. My DS could go and have a great time. Eventhough he's in a wheelchair there would be rides that he could ride. That's when the planning really began and the obession started.

 

[Avivasmom]

What a miracle your son is. I cannot wait to read your trip report and hear how your son enjoyed his time with the BIG MOUSE.

 

[pumba]

I am so excited for you and your family.....this sounds like the ultimate of all trips and I am anxious to hear all about it.......Please do not be afraid to ask questions of everyone and every board you need to help.....from food to rooms to attractions to disabilites.......we are all here for you

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

When to go was a no brainer. We had gone in Mid-October in 96' and it was perfect. We're hoping for a repeat performance. DS body doesn't regulate his temerature very well. So we're hoping to avoid the heat and the lines. Everything else was up in the air. I had an Official Guide, but of course that couldn't quench my need for Disney info. So on our way home from dropping our DD off at college, I made my husband stop at a bookstore so I could look for fresh fodder. I found the Unofficial Guide. My DH was scared when he seen the book's girth. A book that big, just to plan a vacation, could only mean trouble in the hands of an obsessed planner. But it was just what I needed. After all I had just dropped my baby off at college, I needed the diversion.

As I began to contemplate where to stay, I decided that not only would this be a great vacation for DS, it would be a great vacation for DH and myself. Because caring for our son is a 24 hour a day job, ( We have a nurse stay with him at night so that we can sleep) we decided we would ask a nurse to go with us. I thought this would be easy. After all who in their right mind would turn down a paid trip to Disney even if they had to work. But it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. We asked my husband's sister. But our trip would be during her son's Sr. year of school, and she would have to save her vacation days for college visits. (As it turned out it was a good thing we didn't plan on her, because she became pregnant and is due in mid October. guess she doesn't have to worry about empty nest syndrom ) One of my son's nurses is a single mother of 5, four of which are special needs kids that she has adopted. Yes, she's a saint. Her leaving town for a week wasn't an option. My son's other nurse doesn't like to travel, so that was out.
Luckily for us my DFIL and DMIL are wonderful. They volunteered to go with us to help us with DS.

So now I knew that I needed 2 rooms. One with a roll-in shower and one that connected. But where???????

 

[lookingforward]

I am anxiously awaiting your trip planning installments! Isn't it exciting to anticpate a vacation at WDW? Can't wait to hear more

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

Gee this is pretty therapeutic, thanks for letting me indulge myself

I spent hours on line looking at hotel pictures and reading the lists of amenities. The reality was that a deluxe hotel was out of the budget, but that was ok. We had stayed at CBR in our first trip and loved it. We were never in our room until late at night and gone at the break of day. I wished we would have had some down time to take advantage of the fun things the hotel offered. (There is never enough Disney time).

I had to begin to deal with the notion that this trip would be at a slower pace. (It's still very hard sentiment for me to deal with. I wonder if my DH will have to put me in a straight jacket while they enjoy the pool. Otherwise I'll be pacing along the pool's edge wondering what Mickey's doing while I'm stuck at the hotel. Sounds like torture, doesn't it? ) Anyway, I decided that POR would be a great choice for us. My DS has problems with chronic fatigue, so there is a high likelyhood that he may be too tired to go to a park at some point during the vacation. The fatigue could last a day or two before he's ready to go full tilt again.

The catch and release fishing will be great on such days as well as the pontoon boats. I read somewhere that POR made their main pool accessible by adding a sloped ramp into the water. I haven't seen that officially anywhere, but I'm hoping that it's true. I'm not too worried if it's not, because my husband and I can lift him into the pool if necessary. OK so I might have to spend part of my vacation by the pool, I'll find a way to suffer through it.

I didn't make a request for either a room in the mansions or the bayou. Even after reading about them I didn't know which one to pick, so I figure I'll let Disney surprise us. But then I find myself wondering if I'll regret leaving it to chance. (Yes I'm a bit of a control freak when vacation planning) Maybe some of you are familiar with the accessible rooms and can give me advice.

By this time it's September of 05' and it's time for me to make reservations. Just as I'm about take the plunge and make it official, I hear my DH talking to a dear friend in Alabama. Since my motto is " the more the merrier" I asked DH what he thought about inviting dear friends (DF) to go with us. It had been years since we had had a chance to spend any measurable time together. We called them that same week, and they said yes.
We decided to visit them for a long weekend at the end of Sept. So I thought I'd better wait to make the ressie, until I had a chance to get DF opinion. They thought POR was ok so I called and made the reservation, while we were on the road to home. How did we ever survive without cell phones?
Actually, they know how nuts I am about Disney. I guess they figured it's best to go along with me, after all you never know what a crazy person might do if confronted. They've been wonderful. I make the plans and they nod in acceptance. I've been diligent about asking for their input. I just want everyone to have a good time.

I'm sorry, I know I'm rambling.

 

[SueM in MN]

The catch and release fishing will be great on such days as well as the pontoon boats. I read somewhere that POR made their main pool accessible by adding a sloped ramp into the water.

I don't believe that is true. It takes quite a bit of space to add a ramp to the pols and I don't think that pool has had a renovation lately of the magnatude to add a ramp (called a zero entry).
Pretty much all the pools have added wheelchair steps. This is a set of steps outside the pool that come up to wheelchair seat height (it sort of looks like a set of steps going nowhere). To use them, you park the wheelchair next to the steps and then transfer from the wheelchair to the top step (which is the same height as the wheelchair seat). From there, you can 'bump' down the steps, step by step, until you reach the water. Coming back up is done the same way, in reverse.
The steps are useful for people who have good upper body strength and balance, but may not be useful for someone who doesn't. My DD can't use them because when excited, she has too much extensor tone (her whole body becomes stiff and she doesn't bend at the waist or knees) and she is too athetoid (writhing all over the place by themselves) in her legs when excited.

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

Thanks for the info. My son has right side paralysis, so making that type of transfer is out of the question. We have enough adults in our party, I think we'll be able to lift him in and out of the pool. Your info will help me plan. Thanks

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

So we're all booked. We made ADR for Spirit of Aloha. Mys son is doing the happy dance because he gets to see hula dancers And I kept reading. Interacting with the dolphins at Epcot caught my eye. How cool would it be for DS to do DID. I called to get info, the CM assured me that my DS could do the tour, as long as we got him in and out of the pool. So I'm excited. And I got even more excited when I found out that my Disney Card saved me 20%. DF got very excited about the idea and decided to go too!

When my DD came home from college, I was filling her in on my new found madness. She comments, "too bad you had to pick a time when I couldn't go. Guess I'm not part of the family anymore since I don't get invited to go on the family vacation"

OMG ......where did this come from. I had asked her if she wanted to go. I told her we would go right after Labor Day. She would have to miss move in day at school, but she wouldn't have missed any classes. She declined said she didn't want to go. Soooooo I went back to my original dates of first week in October. Never mind that she got to go to Italy for two weeks in June. We haven't even left yet and for the past year I have periodically gotten the I'm the neglected child speech. What is a mother to do? OK DD knows how to lay it on thick, but not thick enough for me to condsider canceling. I told her she could miss school and come if she wanted. But she's too responsible for that. No way would she skip class for Disney. Sometimes I wonder if she's really my kid.

Got rooms, Got tour ressies, Got guilt. Now I really start to worry about traveling with DS.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the info. My son has right side paralysis, so making that type of transfer is out of the question. We have enough adults in our party, I think we'll be able to lift him in and out of the pool. Your info will help me plan. Thanks

The steps may still be somewhat helpful.
For example, you might be able to lift him onto the top step from the wheelchair, then have someone stand with him for support while the wheelchair is moved out of the way. By having someone on each side of him, you may be able to still 'bump' him down the steps, lifting him a step at the time. You'll have to sort of look and plan it out and it would depend on which side the railing is on, where it is and how his helpers are able to fit.

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

Thanks, We'll check it out when we get there. It all new to us.

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

Having a year to prepare allows for plenty of time to worry. What if DS's ear doesn't heal, (2 surgeries in the past 18 months, even after 9 months, it still isn't healed.)How will he do on an airplane? The Doc tells me the ear will be fine. But he doesn't swallow well, what if his ears hurt? What if the rides make him sick? What if he has a seizure? How will we elevate the head of the bed for his nightly tube feeds. How am I going to get all this equipment on the plane? Will they allow me to take oxygen on the plane?

Some of the questions I have answers for. Some I don't. Miraculously a pulup of granulated tissue emerged from by DS's ear three weeks ago, which the Doc removed, and we've had no more seeping.
Disability services has been great. They gave me names of equipment rental places. We're having a hospital bed delivered to the room. (That's what my son sleeps on at home.) We're just going to ease into the ride thing and hope for the best. And although we're taking everything we need in case of a seizure we're praying we won't need it. I still have to call the airlines and ask what the procedure is to transport oxygen. So for several months we were just putt'n along.

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

January flew by quickly. All the annual doctor visits came due, but by the first of Feb. I was getting a Disney itch. I figured it was time to get plane tickets. To my surprise two of Delta's Orlando flights from Columbus, didn't have 5 seats left on them. The travel agent told me that another carrier wouldn't be announcing flights until June. I couldn't wait until June. So the agent found a flight leaving Dayton that was actually $35.00 a seat cheaper I like cheaper. It would only take us 10 minutes longer to get to Dayton, than Columbus.So we're set. We have a direct flight that leaves at 11:00am, which is perfect. We don't have to change our daily routine and risk making DS overly fatigued before we leave Ohio.

Feb. was a great month, because the most awesome thing happened. I found the DIS boards.

There were people like me. People who wanted to think of nothing else, but Disney. People who wanted to plan the perfect trip to the most perfect vacation spot on earth. There is a heaven on earth! So I spent most of Feb. just surfing.

Then March came. I had to put Disney aside and start thinking about my DS graduation. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but here graduation means one thing, the house needs to be renovated. There were rooms to be painted, landscaping to be updated, new towels to buy. You get the picture. So my Disney planning bug got diverted.

But in April, someone tried to rain on my pixy dust. Nobody likes wet pixy dust. I got a phone call from our travel agent. Our flights had been changed. Our carrier would no longer be flying direct flights out of Dayton. They wanted us to change planes in Atlanta. The prospect was terrifying

[We lived in North Carolina when the new Atlanta airport opened in the 80's. And it never failed. We would arrive at Concourse B, gate 5 and have 10 minutes to get to Concourse A, gate 999. We would run through the airport, knocking over small children to try to make it to our connecting flight only to discover there was an hour delay. Don't you think they could have told us that before we made our world record sprint.]

I'm sorry if I've offened anyone who loves Atlanta's airport. And admittitedly it's been a long time since I've had to make connecting flights from there, but who would want to take a chance. Changing planes would mean waiting for DS's wheelchair to be unloaded, taking DS to the bathroom (he always has to go to the bathroom), then sprinting through the airport only to find out that there wasn't a delay. I am afraid it would be Christmas before we would finally get to Orlando.

So I called the travel agent and ask if she could get us on a direct flight from Columbus. She called the airlines and they said "yes, it will only cost an additional $50 per ticket. The travel agent suggested that we not do anything and wait to see if the flights get changed again.

I thought about it for a day and decided to call the airlines myself. Changing planes with my son wasn't an option. I was an indian on the warpath. I called the airlines ready to fight. (I know these aren't supposed to be indians, but that's what they look like to me ) However, I got a wonderful customer service rep. that patiently listened to my dilemma and changed the flights without any futher charges. So now we're flying out of Columbus about an hour later than we originally anticipated.

Coming Next: When did they change ADR's from 90 days to 180 days

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

All aboard!

We got through graduation. In fact my DS had a great party. He was feeling energetic that day and was able to enjoy the whole day. He was worn out and wanted nothing more than to sleep the entire next day. Graduation itself was the following week. He had another great day. The whole stadium cheered as he got his diploma. Of course I cried.

So now it's June and time to get back to Disney. I had been away for so long. I get back on the DIS only to find out that during my absence, ADR went from 90 days in advance to 180 days in advance. What happend? I had my calender marked and everything. So I got on the phone to DF in Alabama to finalize dinning request. Unfortunately, my friend's father was very ill, and she had went home to North Carolina. Her DH told me that they trusted me to make the decisions.

Trusted me. They know better than to trust me when it comes to eating. My DF has eating restrictions so now I really didn't know what to do. But I had also read the Passporter Guide and I knew that DF could call ahead of time to make special request if she needed to. So I made our ADR's. There were some that I couldn't get. I wanted to go to Le Cellar on 10/6 for dinner. It would be my DH's birthday, and this restaurant was one of only 2 request that he made. I was able to get a lunch ressie, but nothing for dinner. I could live with that. Wasn't able to get a Mama Melrose's Fantasmic package, but they did have one availabe at Hollywood and Vine. Everything else went through. And I even got decent times. My DFIL is diabetic so meals have to be spaced well. For me the food at Disney is a major part of my vacation. I love food, I'm not snooty, so even if it doesn't meet gourmet standards I'm still a happy camper.

We're going to:
10/1- Marrakesh
10/2 - Biergarten
10/4- Prime Time 50's Cafe, Hollywood &Vine
10/5 - Breakfast Crystal Palace, Victoria & Albert's
10/6 - Le Cellar, Artist Point
10/7 - Ohana's Character breakfast, Les Chefs
10/8 - Coral Reef

When I booked the trip I made ADR's for Laua on 10/3

The DIS also alearted me to the free DDP. I called, but they said that they didn't have any available at POR, try back another time to see if anyone had cancelled. I read somewhere that Disney's computer system doesn't reset itself until it closes down for the evening. So at 7am I was back on the phone. I knew it was a long shot. I asked about the Free DDP, the CM told me she would check and put me on hold. And there I waited for about 10 minutes. I knew the answer would be "no", but what the heck. The CM came back on and said "You're all set for free DDP" I don't know how I kept from fainting. If I could get this rear-end to so a cartwheel, I would have done several of them. She aplologized for the wait, but she had to go through Disability Services to change the ressie. It took $1500 off our bill. I'm still floating. The CM was great. She was just as excited as I was. (Maybe not, but she was a great actress.)So for us, there won't be a bad meal. Even if a meal stinks, it'll be great because it's free. I even made extra TS because we can afford it now. I still have read all the reviews, but there won't be a bad meal in our vacation future.

Next: Gee won't Sept. 30 ever get here?

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

The saga continues:

So by the end of June I'm feeling pretty good about things. My ADRs are made. My days are planned. We're down to waiting. I came home one evening and my DH says, "the airline called something about changing the flight, you might want to check." So I'm thinking, "Oh, No, not again". But it wasn't bad this time our flight to Orlando leaves 5 min. later and our flight coming back leaves 2 hrs later. I actually did the happy dance. 2 hours later meant we could eat lunch before we leave. I really wanted to go to the Coral Reef so I got back on the phone to WDW. Since I didn't have to obsess about ADR, I began to hit the DIS boards, like an addict needing a Mickey fix, I start surfing like a mad woman. I get jittery just thinking about THE WORLD, which brings me to the present.


Now the Mickey Meltdown...

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

Three More Weeks!!!!

Last weekend was the worst. I began to wish that we could take my parents with us. They're both in their 70's. Mom's health is starting to go down. She would have to use an ECV if she went. Realistically this will be our last big vacation for a few years and probably be our last chance to share this kind of adventure with them. DH was out of town, so I got excited and started checking prices. But here's the problem. We're taking DILs; my DM and DMIL hate each other. So when I broached, the subject with DH, I got a very negative response. I can understand where he's coming from, but for the next two days I cried. Not in front of him, so don't you tell on me. OK I'm getting over it, but it would have been nice to have them along. So now I'm surfing the DIS boards while I listen to the park downloads. (I'm a sad little person But you understand where I'm coming from ) I'm reading every TR and DS and I have been watching Disney movies for a week. Aladdin is one of my favorites. I just love that Genie Thanks for listening, but I got to go, The Lion King is coming on.

 

[Avivasmom]

I am so excited for you all to go and cannot wait to read what an amazing experience you had.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Can't wait to hear about your trip! I hope you have an amazing time! (You're getting VERY close!)