Hello Everybody!! This is mrsksomeday's Bill. Now for more about me...
As you can see I like Star Wars
. I have been a fan ever since the first movie came out. I like almost all the characters but Yoda
is one of my favorites because he is so wise. He is more than a puppet to me. Frank Oz made him come alive. The only problem I have with him is that he sounds a little like Fozzy Bear
.
Even though I have Cerebral Palsy and have mobility issues, like Tracy said I have been to Disney World 8 times. I am going to tell you a little bit about some of my previous trips BT: Before Tracy.
My first time was when I was around 10 years old. (I don't quite remember exactly how old I was) My parents took me for my birthday. I was in a manual wheelchair back then. We drove from Indiana to WDW. Back then there was only Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It didn't take that long to go through the parks like it does now
. We did not stay on property, I am not sure how many resorts there were then, probably just the monorail ones
. We stayed at a Day's Inn in Kissimmee.
I don't remember much about that trip, except for the day of my birthday. It was raining very hard, we decided to go back to the hotel and go out for dinner. At the restaurant, the people that owned it were nice enough to let my mom and dad bring a cake in without me knowing it. The waitress brought my cake out with candles lit and everyone in the restaurant sang Happy Birthday to me.
My dad took me on most of the rides. Back then my favorite was Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. I got to drive!! I got pretty good at it, I didn't bounce us all over the place. I got to ride it 3 or 4 times in a row.
My second trip was more like National Lampoon's Vacation. I was 14 or 15, a freshman in High School. My parents told me I could take two of my friends with us. From the time we left to the time we got home we had problems that reminded me of that movie.
We drove again in a van that belonged to my dad's boss. We never drove straight through because my parents don't want to be tired before they even get to Disney World. They also knew my body wouldn't make it all the way without rest. On the first day we made it past Atlanta. Then the van started having problems. My dad had to take it to get it serviced it needed a new part. This meant we had to stay in a small hotel, it was a bit of a dump. We got two rooms. My friends and I were in one room and turned on the tv. We found a channel we shouldn't have been watching
. My parents heard the tv and heard us giggling, my dad came over and asked us to be quiet, but didn't tell us to change the channel.
The next morning the van was fixed, we were headed to Orlando. Everybody got in the van...but one. One of my friends got left behind, just a little bit. He saw us leaving and ran and jumped on the ladder on the back of the van. Everyone felt the van shake and heard a thump. My dad finally saw him in the mirror and pulled over to let him in.
We all made it there safely. We stayed off property again, I don't remember where. I was in a manual chair, it was easier to take in the van then the power chair. My parents let my friends and I go off by ourselves. We went to the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean, my friends helped me transfer onto the rides, it didn't bother them to do this for me.
On the way home, we went to Daytona Beach for a day or two. One night we went on the boardwalk. My dad parked the van on the beach. Back then it was ok to do this, however my dad didn't know there was a time that you were not allowed to because of the tide. The van almost got towed. It was hooked up to the tow truck when we were getting ready to leave
.
The next day we went on a boat
and went fishing in the ocean. I used to like fishing back then. One of my friends got seasick
, he went in the cabin to rest. I think that made it worse because he was by the window, when he looked out he could see the boat rocking. My other friend went talking to people all around the boat while my dad and I fished. The best thing about the fishing trip was we saw dolphins swimming with the boat. The trip home was uneventful, thank goodness.
The next trip was 2001, the week of Christmas. We drove again, we saw more traffic than usual. I would say because of the holiday and the tragedy of 9/11, people were afraid to fly.
This is the first trip that I really took in everything. I looked at things differently because I was older and I also took my power wheelchair. This is the first time we stayed on property. We were at the Grand Floridian
. No more dumpy hotels for us!!
This was the first trip where we got to go to all 4 parks. MGM was my favorite park because there were 3 things I liked. Star Tours (of course), Indiana Jones, and The Great Movie Ride, because I didn't have to transfer out of my chair. I thought that was so neat.
This trip is when I found out I liked to eat at O'hana, my favorite restaurant at WDW. It is also the time that I knew I wanted to come back more often because the castmembers were so nice to me and treated me like a normal person. They talked to me, not at me. I also saw how accessible it was there.
My mom and dad changed resorts two or three times before deciding on the Grand Floridian. I thought it was nice. They didn't ask me where I wanted to stay
, I would have said the Poly or AKL. I thought the theme of the resort was really detailed. I loved the huge Chirstmas tree in the lobby, all the decorations outside, and of course the Gingerbread House. We had a garden view room on the first floor. We had a good Christmas there.
The next two trips were with PA's. They were not my favorite times, but I am still glad I went. The reason they were not my favorite times is because I felt my PA's took advantage of me. We stayed at All Stars Music. One acted like she didn't want to be there, she just wanted to sleep most of the day away because after she had helped me lay down at night, she would drink alcohol in the room. It was always around noon before we got to the parks. I would tell her no more, but she didn't really listen to me
.
Oh yeah, I forgot we even missed our flight out of St. Louis because she got here late to pick me up and we got to the airport too late. That meant I had to buy two more tickets which made me short on money for the rest of the trip (Tracy had mentioned something earlier about my parents being upset about my PA's on previous trips).
My friend Larry was the other PA that went with me. I had a better time than with the last PA. He wanted to do more. We rented a car from the airport and drove to AKL with no problems, we didn't even get lost!! When we arrived, we tried to check in, I had booked a standard room with a roll in shower. The castmember didnt' say much after looking at the computer and said I will be right back. She went to talk to someone. She came back and said "we don't have a room like you requested, however we would be more than happy to give you two rooms with a savannah view, one with a roll in shower, for the same price you have booked". What was I going to say..NO?? That was a great way to start our trip.
I was more adventurous than Larry was. I thought I would be able to do more with him because he would be able to transfer me better than the last PA. This is when I found out he was prone to motion sickness. I wanted to ride Big Thunder Railroad, I had done this before with my dad. Larry told me he had problems with rollercoasters. I didn't mind much. There are so many other things to do there.
We went to the Disney parks for 4 days, then we went to the other place (Universal Studios
). It was the first time I went there. There is such a difference between WDW and US when it comes to accomodations for people with disabilities. None of the rides that I went on had the ability for me to stay in my chair (this was in 2003). Some rides I had to transfer into a manual chair to go on.
I like the movie Back to the Future, I was able to convince Larry to go on the ride. We didn't know anything about it. The ride is neat, it was a motion simulator ride, which was NOT good for Larry. We got off of it, he was sick to his stomach.
I had other rides in mind to go on, but Larry put a damper on the day. I wanted to go on Men in Black, Larry didn't feel like it. However I was able to convince him to try E.T. We got in line, not knowing anything about the ride. Like I have said before, I am adventurous, I will try anything once. We got to the front of the line, I looked at Larry, Larry looked at me because we both knew this was going to be difficult to keep me on the bicycle due to my balance issues. I should have known they would have bicycles because that was the main scene in the movie. Larry put me on the bicycle and then he got on the one next to me. The ride started, there were no problems... at first, I was able to stay on the bike. Then the bike started to turn, my right foot fell off the pedal, I looked at Larry and called his name. I told him to look at my foot. He reached over and but it back on. The second time my foot fell off, my bike was close to the wall. I thought I might hit the wall with my leg or foot. I was scared, I didn't want to be on tv as a "theme park accident". I made it through the ride, with my foot hanging down. That is the last time I will ever be on that ride.
One thing I wanted to do at US was see Tony Hawk, he was there doing a show that day. Larry didn't know who he was, he had no clue. He didn't want to go, he was more concerned about wanting to go to Margaritaville, because he liked the song. We didn't end up going to see Tony, it cost extra and Larry didn't have the money to spend on it.
We never went to the Islands of Adventure because of Larry and his stomach issues. I wanted to go and just look around, but Larry was sick and tired and wanted to go back to the room. It was time to go home the next day.
Next time I will talk about the first time I went with Tracy and Josh to Disney World and other stuff.
I want to thank everyone for reading the pre trip Tracy has been writing. I am glad you find it interesting and have been replying to us.
???)
) 
. Ok, yes that was a little dramatic, but I just like talking to people on the DIS, if it makes them guilty and they post, GREAT 
I'm so glad that you are posting on this PTR - can't wait to get to know you better. Though, through mrsksomeday I feel like I already do! 
.
