Chapter 29: Mid-Trip Crisis (Oh My!)
Well, folks, grab your popcorn
and Diet Coke
because it is that time again: time for me hang my head and confess the details of some very
un-magical moments of our trip.
I had (thankfully) forgotten many of the sordid details; after all, it has been over a year since this trip and I have recently lost my remaining TR notes. But, after looking at the pictures and noticing a few holes in the “action”, I talked to Ed (DH) and Tricia (DD) to see if I could fill in the missing pieces of my memory. Ah yes, the dreadful
Day Five.
Unfortunately, it was all coming back to me…. It just seems as though
every time we go to WDW, my family seems fated to experience some sort of major miscommunication/fight/meltdown right around day four or five.
I will refer to this phenomenon as the
"Mid-Trip Crisis."
You see, bad times at WDW are kind of like labor pains; you tend to forget their intensity as time goes by and just focus on the good stuff.
Selective Amnesia, I think it’s called.
I could attempt to analyze the Mid-Trip Crisis Phenomenon and try to rationalize why it occurs. I could single out variables such as fatigue, hormones, pain, sleep deprivation, medications, anxiety…so on and so on, blah, blah, blah. But really, what it comes down to is this: we might be able to temporarily forget our jobs, our classes, or our endless To Do Lists when immersed in the wonders of the World, but, we are who we are and we respond to stress in our own unique ways, whether we are at home or at Disney. Sometimes, we just don’t handle it better than others.
Now, it’s
not that I want to detract from all the pixie-dust. Trust me, we had plenty of that. It’s just that when it comes to these reports, I’m a big believer in “keeping it real.” Let’s face it: after months of research, planning, talking about and yearning for our vacations to arrive, the time comes when we’re finally with our family at WDW and then our moods and emotions have more ups and downs than the ToT.
Hopefully if any of you have had rough patches during your trips to the World, you will not feel so bad after hearing about mine. You are not alone!
And so what follows is the true story (hopefully fair and balanced) of what happened to an hormonal obsessive trip-planner, a Type-A hubby with a toothache, an elderly woman with swollen ankles and OCD, a 'tween beginning to assert her independence, and a stimming, shrieking, hyperactive autistic boy on that ill-fated
Fifth Day…
*************************************
When we last left off, our family was in
Liberty Square getting paper silhouettes done of Billy and Tricia. Tricia was now in a bad mood because I had “forced” her to wear a hair band for the sitting and was pouting the way only an eleven year-old girl can pout.
This, in turn, was irritating Ed because it embarrassed him in front of Aunt Rae and the CM doing the cut- outs. He was also getting annoyed that I continued to take pictures constantly with the digital camera. He glared at me while I snapped away while the kids were getting the silhouettes done. “Enough with the pictures, already!” he snapped.
Billy had been stimming (making lots of self-stimulatory noises and hand movements) in a fierce way…it was not his fault, really, he just can’t help it because of the autism.
But, it can grate on your nerves if you are exposed to it hour after hour without a break, and Ed’s tolerance for it has always been somewhat less than mine. It had been difficult keeping him still for the sitting.
And so, Ed was definitely turning into
Grumpy, which always pops my good mood like a pin to a balloon.
Aunt Rae was particularly quiet and withdrawn today; something was bothering her. Was it physical, emotional, or both? So that had me worried, too. And so, I suppose conditions were right for the first little tremor that would signal the impending quake:
Ed: “Where are we going now?”
Tricia: Silence.
AR: Silence.
Billy: “Hall of Presidents! Hall of Presidents! Hall of Presidents!”
(
*If you followed along with us on our previous TR, you may recall that my son has this “thing” for HOP.)
Me: “Well, we really should…..”
Ed: “Come on, we’re going to the Hall of Presidents!”
Billy: “Hall of Presidents! Hall of Presidents!”
Me: Looking at copy of
OP (
Operational
Plan) “Well, I thought we could do HOP after dinner at LTT. We really need to get to AdventureLand before they start putting up the ropes for the parade and its…..”
Fellow
Obsessive
Trip
Planners: Please refer to the original
OP for this afternoon, below:
Lunch: (~11:30) (CS) Cosmic Ray’s (5 credits)
TomorrowLand: Look for PUSH (12:40-1:00) / COP (?) (Stitch: Ed / Billy)
Liberty Square: Haunted Mansion / shadow pictures kiosk
AdventureLand: (
*Arrive well before 3:00 parade
*)
*During the Parade: Adventure Land: POC / (2:15 or 3:20) Pirate Tutorial / Jungle Cruise Carpets / Tiki Room
(
4:30 ADR)
Liberty Tree Tavern (
*w/Marilyn & Co.)(5TS Credits)
FantasyLand: Favorites (
*w/ Marilyn & Co.) Leave
MK ~ 7-7:30.
Wilderness Lodge: (via boat) Relax/swimming
A-Ha!! You forgot about my meticulously detailed plan, didn’t you!
Here’s where Ed (the most
un-OTP-er there ever was) just lost his temper and declared that he was sick of me always writing in my notebook for that “stupid report”, sick of me taking tons of pictures for that “stupid report”, and, most of all, sick of having to follow that “stupid operational plan.” And with that, he grabbed Billy by the hand and told us all that we were all going to the
HOP because that was what he and Billy wanted to do.
I stood there, stunned by the outburst, and I began to open my mouth. Then, I just shut it and dutifully followed the rest of the group around to the nearby HOP. I generally have a very high boiling point, but I was beginning to get hot.
It hadn’t been an easy-breezy week so far for me, either. Okay, I thought, he doesn’t want to listen to me.
Let him find out for himself.
And he did.
I stood back a little while Ed and Billy walked up to the colonial-attired CM standing at the attraction entrance. They spoke briefly, then Ed turned and walked back to the rest of us, looking annoyed as ever.
“They just started the show and the next one isn’t…”
“For another
30 minutes,” I interrupted, sharply. “I
could have saved you the trouble. Shows are on the hour and the half-hour.
That's what I was about to tell you when you walked away from me.” Hmmmph.
He just glared.
The others stood around, looking a bit tentative. Mommy was
just getting started with her tantrum....
“But, I guess I don’t know anything…I guess I’m just as “stupid” as this plan!” I waved the
OP dramatically in the air. “Well then, fine! Let’s just forget the plan completely and do it your way!” And with that, I
ripped the paper into little pieces and shoved it in my bag. So
there!!
They were stunned. I was mad. Mommy doesn’t get mad often, but when she does, she
does.
Now, in fairness, we were originally supposed to have done
HOP the day before, in which case, Billy would not have been quite so insistant. But, a member of the
Dream Team had unexpectedly led us to the
Haunted Mansion for a front-of-line experience. (Okay, let us all agree that receiving a Dream was a
totally acceptable reason for departing from the OP!) So, yes, Billy was anxious to see it. But I had fully planned to take him there after dinner.
Anyway, that was beside the point. I was tired. I was mad. Ed had snapped my head off and my feelings were hurt. He asked me what we were going to do next and I decided to give him the silent treatment. It was not one of my finer moments.
I have no idea how it came to pass, because at that point I refused to make any decisions as to where we were going. But the next recorded activity according to my “stupid” pictures was Splash Mountain. Now, you know that Aunt Rae was not ever going to do that ride, so she and Ed must have gone off to do something else. Usually they go on the ferry, but I cannot recall.
It was probably a good idea for me to take a little break from him and his grumpiness anyway, because apparently, it was catching. I definitely needed to get back to my Laughing Place. The kids and I donned our ponchos and off we went.
(See the Castle in the distance?!!)
Billy seemed quite anxious as the drop approached and gripped my arm hard! I don’t think he enjoys this part anymore! 
Nevertheless, he was all-
as we exited through the gift shop and I paused to shake off the soaking wet ponchos. Whew! I’m glad I made sure mine covered my seat…the last thing I needed was to have to walk around with a wet bottom!
The ride served to cool me off in more ways than one. My anger dissipated as quickly as it had risen and we trucked off toward our meeting place, I recall hoping that Ed’s had done the same...
Next Up: A
Magical Moment for Tricia
Kathy
when you got off. We always do the split thing to w/ the non-riders on TTA but I like to call it "the We-Way-People Mover"
. He wants to know when he can get another one. 
, sometimes he needs a minute to be ready for pictures.
I guess I do! 
donned her tiara and sash....
