Autism at Disney. Will we ever sleep again!!!?

[Ecomommy09]

Hey everyone! I love reading everyone's trip reports, but I haven't seen a whole lot that included the things we have going on! I thought I'd give this a try to see if it was any help to anyone else; and because it seemed fun!

Who are we: I'm Ecomommy (39, love princesses and avengers, trekkie since birth, disney trip planner). I'm introverted (sometimes to a fault) and I get really tired with long stints of human interaction. My ideal vacation is a trip to the beach (give me ocean and no people!). I've been to Disney twice. The first time was so long ago that I can't even tell you whether it was WDW or DL and I only remember 'It's a Small World.' We went back for a belated honeymoon in 2007 and only visited Epcot.

DH (Williampreza) (43, loves car racing and guitar, disorganized, 'Fightin til this day'). He's soooo extroverted, never met a stranger, always thinks my vacation plans don't include enough social outings! I think this trip may satisfy his desire to do things and not just lounge at the beach. Only Disney experience was our belated honeymoon in 2007.

ODD (E) (Turns 10 on this trip, loud!!!, has a rare genetic disorder (1/4 known cases in the world), non-verbal, intellectual disability, epileptic encephalopathy, sometimes violent, always up for an adventure). She has a magical power to convince ANYONE to give her food! This is bad because she has wheat and tomato allergies. We're going to Disney to celebrate the wonder of her making it to 10-years-old. She channels Stitch (fundamentallly sweet, but programmed to destroy) and Dory (I cry EVERYTIME I watch that movie). Never been to Disney.

YDD (Celery) (4, princess in her own right [sometimes Sofia, Elena, but Rapunzel is her favorite because no shoes], and just about as extroverted as her daddy). She is SOOOO excited about meeting princesses and riding rides. She asks me daily to turn on the 'disney movies' which means Youtube videos of POV rides, meals, and parades. Such a funny sweet girl and so helpful to her family and her big sister. Never been to Disney.

Next comes our plans, but I'm going to start this before I loose it. You'd never believe it, but I get interrupted A LOT. Right now, someone is mom-ing me....repeatedly.

 

[Ecomommy09]

Here's Daddy, the birthday girl, and little sister at the lake. I'm sure you are shocked there are no photos of me on the laptop. (Sarcasm)

 

[Ecomommy09]

The plan!!! December (CHRISTMAS!!!) at WDW

I've been planning this trip since August of 2018. Celery won't start kindergarten until next year, so this seemed like the last best year to go. And, E only turns 10 once! Who knew we'd ever see this day!

5 Nights and Beach Club in a CL One Bed Room Suite in December. I'm HOPING E can sleep in the little alcove area and have some privacy as she's not the greatest sleeper. ADR are Tuesday. I have a plan all mapped out.

Check in on Sunday but we won't be on site until after 18:00. I'm planning a quiet evening of unpacking, maybe swimming, and looking around the Boardwalk area.

Monday: Animal Kingdom (all day, though we will probably leave after dinner) with lunch at Tiffins (DH's request) and dinner at various quick service (E has SO many options at Satu'li Cafe, DH likes Barbecue, and I'm excited about Yak and Yeti).

Tuesday: Magic Kingdom Day 1 (hopefully with EMH, but at least until parade time). Lunch is Jungle Navigation Company. We will return to Epcot for dinner at various quick service restaurants.

Wednesday: Epcot day: Planning a breakfast at O'hana to see E's character (STITCH!!) and then head to Epcot in the afternoon. Plans include Celery's princess dinner (Akershus) and visting Elsa and Anna.

Thursday: Magic Kingdom Day 2 (later start). Lunch will be quick service (probably Pecos Bill) and a focus on Frontierland. We will return to Epcot that night for more quick service meals and some time with Crush!

Friday: Home again, but not until we finish Bon Voyage breakfast (Hello Rapunzel!)

SO>>>I'll update on Tuesday after we see how my ADRs pan out! Finger's crossed!

And, in case you don't currently have a 4-year-old, know that Celery will be eating a LOT of mac and cheese on this trip.

 

[Ecomommy09]

And finally a photo of me and my girls

 

[Ecomommy09]

Oh! The agony of ADR day. I have no idea how I could be so unlucky. I was up in plenty of time. I was logged in on multiple devices. I did not getone meal at a preferred time.

For our AK day, I couldn’t get Tiffins for lunch. I got Yak & Yeti at lunch and a dinner reservation at Tiffins that is at an ok time, but my kids are awful at dinner. DH and I will have to decide if it’s worth trying. I’ll cancel one of them.

I could only get O’Hana on Tuesday at 9:40. The time is ok for brunch, and this would probably work if they have EMM as we could skip breakfast there and just run to Poly to eat. But it’s not ideal.

I can’t get Jungle Cruise for any earlier than 13:00! I was told that wasn’t a popular reservation, but there was nothing earlier. On any day I looked.

I have NO Princess dinner!! I couldn’t get Akershus for any regular time (lunch or dinner). Only 20:20 at night. E takes her epilepsy med at 7, and crashes by 8! This is an emergency!

I’m feeling faint.

 

[Ecomommy09]

My gosh, ADR day has been a whirlwind. I've cried, raged, gotten my husband involved, and come out with a relatively OK plan.

The System Glitch:
I was frantically refreshing ADRs trying to find a princess lunch or dinner at any time that would work for us. I had a 1:20 for CRT pop up, but when I clicked to get it, the system wouldn't let me cancel my Jungle reservation that conflicted. Then, it told me that the system was down, and I couldn't make any reservations at this time. Meanwhile...I'm cooking dinner with three pots, trying to get Celery ready for swim class, and juggling E's demands for more food. I clicked back on the computer, and it had fixed itself! It let me have CRT!! I NEVER thought we'd find a reservation there, and hadn't even planned to try. Hurrah!

DH found Ohana at a decent time the morning we go home. This is the best time we've gotten and our flight is in the afternoon, so we should be able to make it. I really want to see Stitch, so I'm excited.

So: What do we finally have!

Monday: AK with Y&Y for lunch (and maybe Tiffins for dinner if we are feeling super fly)
Tuesday: MK with Jungle for lunch
Wednesday: Garden Grill (??)
Thursday: CRT!
Friday: Ohana

Not too shabby considering how badly things had gone at 9am

Meanwhile; on the home front; Celery stuck her finger in the lid for the parmesan cheese and got it stuck. It started to turn purple as she wailed. DH cut the lid off with some clippers. Mad house, I tell you!

 

[Ecomommy09]

Wednesday ADRs continue to be a question! Will votes we just do everything ! I’ve snagged Coral Reef at 11:10 and Biergarten at 14:40. I’m not sure we need two TS meals that day, but we will see what DH wants.

Wednesday morning, I want to ride over to MK and use the monorail to visit all the resorts and see the Christmas decorations! I think we might grab a snack at one of the QS restaurants. I looked and it seemed Tonga toast was available at the QS at Poly. After that, I don’t think we will really want a big breakfast, so I think we should cancel Coral Reef.

 

[Ecomommy09]

Now important things! Clothes!

Celery will be going as Elena, Rapunzel, Elsa, Sofia, and Minnie. She’s super easy. Her Elena dress is technically a nightgown, but she loves it. All her dresses are from Little Adventures. I’ve washed the Sofia dress a ton and they hold up so well! Love them!

E has no interest in princesses, but I’ve found her 3 Stitch T-shirt’s and a Dory Shirt. She likes t-shirts and they work well with her imported Australian underwear (big kid onesies to prevent poop smearing! The glamorous life!!)

I have Snow White’s Poison t-shirt from Ralph!!! Birds and fish flock to me, so DH always calls me Snow White.

DH will wear car T-shirt’s. So original....

 

[Ecomommy09]

I've managed to get Akershus for Wednesday evening. DH looked at the menu and said he'd prefer that to Biergarten; and so it was decided. At this point, I'm going to give up on trying to get different reservations. It's hard to quit looking when you've got it into your routine!

I also have booked a girl's getaway for February. My friend said she would go with me! It will be my first getaway without my children since my biggest girl was born! We are planning to stay at POR because it looked quiet and restful.

And to sum up:
We've got Beach Club
We've got airfare paid and scheduled
We've got a dog sitter
We've got dining reservations

Next is FP planning. I'm not really sure what I want to try FP for. I have until October to figure it out. Happy planning!

 

[chocolateavocado]

Following along! Sounds like you have a great trip planned! Your daughters are adorable!! We've only been to WDW twice; once in 2013 and then in 2015. We ar finally able to come back - going for Thanksginving - and can not wait!! We're staying at Coronado Springs in the new Tower this time. We stayed at the Beach Club last time and it was awesome! I'm sure you guys will love it

 

[Ecomommy09]

Following along! Sounds like you have a great trip planned! Your daughters are adorable!! We've only been to WDW twice; once in 2013 and then in 2015. We ar finally able to come back - going for Thanksginving - and can not wait!! We're staying at Coronado Springs in the new Tower this time. We stayed at the Beach Club last time and it was awesome! I'm sure you guys will love it

Yay! Coronado Springs looks so nice. DH and I were talking yesterday about how hard it is to pick what to do at WDW because everything looks so appealing. I hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[chocolateavocado]

Yay! Coronado Springs looks so nice. DH and I were talking yesterday about how hard it is to pick what to do at WDW because everything looks so appealing. I hope you have a wonderful time!

Thanks!! It was super hard to choose a resort! We were originally booked at the Polynesian again, but with the super high costs, we were able to swith to Coroando's new Gran Destino Tower and save over $1600 PLUS add an extra night to our trip The tower is brand new and opens next month, so it's kind of exciting to stay in a brand new buliding with a brand new room!!

 

[Eeyore daily]

Sounds like lots of fun to be had! I love Akershus with my niece, she likes Princesses too and is only a year younger than your Celery and she had a blast with the princess parade! I eat GF and there's so much delicious things at Disney that it's nice being able to eat at restaurants. Excited to hear more!

 

[Ecomommy09]

Sounds like lots of fun to be had! I love Akershus with my niece, she likes Princesses too and is only a year younger than your Celery and she had a blast with the princess parade! I eat GF and there's so much delicious things at Disney that it's nice being able to eat at restaurants. Excited to hear more!

Tell me more! I’m mostly worried about snacks. She doesn’t like sweet things , so I’ve been scoping out savory snacks. I can’t get anyone to tell me if the nacho cheese is wheat free! I know the hummus is, but I’ll have to bring our own pretzels!

I’d love to hear your experiences and things you loved to eat

 

[Eeyore daily]

The hummus and fresh fruit are good. I can't speak about the nacho cheese since I've never had it sorry! I know the popcorn is gluten free and pretty tasty. I have a huge sweet tooth so my snacks aren't usually savory

 

[Ecomommy09]

The hummus and fresh fruit are good. I can't speak about the nacho cheese since I've never had it sorry! I know the popcorn is gluten free and pretty tasty. I have a huge sweet tooth so my snacks aren't usually savory

That’s my problem! I’d be happy with dole whip, but she won’t be

 

[Ecomommy09]

Disney Releases Discounts!!!!

And we didn't get one...



I had in my mind that there was the possibility of a discount for our trip that might save us $1000 or so (deluxe resort, 25% off, might be worth it...) I'd been stalking the DIS for days prior to the discounts dropping. My husband and I had made bets about whether there would be a discount at all, when it would drop, and whether it would apply to our stay.

As soon as they announced ROR was opening on the Thursday of our visit, I figured we were SOL, but Tuesday morning, I got up bright and early and immediately saw the discounts had loaded! 2.5 hours, one dropped call, and a lot of hoop-jumping later...we were not able to get in on the discount. To be honest, I don't feel my TA has really done anything to help me at all. He couldn't get any of the ADRs I wanted (I stalked them myself, as you read above, until they were finally sort of right). He couldn't get me the discount. I believe I will just book on my own if we ever do this again.

At any rate, this all led to me soul searching on whether this trip is even worth it. I had hopes for a less-crowded, less-hectic trip to celebrate a big birthday. With ROR, I'm afraid it will be hugely crowded and it's so expensive. Admittedly, I have made choices that made this trip expensive...but we don't mind to spend money if we think the outcome is worth it. I'm very afraid it's not going to be worth it at this point. DH believes I'm just being negative. He says we should continue the plan, do our best, and that it will be fine. With that note...we continue on. It's 130 days until our trip. I'm not sure it's worth the money. Celery is so excited to wear her Rapunzel dress and meet Rapunzel. Disney, we are coming.

 

[Eeyore daily]

I think the "worth it" might come in when your children get to see their favorite characters. To me just being on property is wonderful enough.

Sorry about the TA, that's one of my biggest fears of using one. I'd much rather deal with that chaos on my own.

 

[Ecomommy09]

Our crazy Disney World friends finally released ADRs for Ohana on our resort morning! DH got the text, but didn't read it ! A few minutes later, I checked my email and saw the touring plans notice it was available! They must have released the whole day, because there were LOTS of times when I logged into the webpage. DH is happy. He really wanted to take E to meet Stitch (her spirit animal) for her birthday. After all, Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten! E can be SUPER hard to take care of, with all the poop smearing, seizing, crying, biting, hair-pulling, hitting, and general grumpiness; BUT she's family and we love her and would never want to leave her behind.

Our plan for Wednesday of our trip is to tour the Monorail resorts and see the Christmas decorations. We are staying at Beach Club, so we will have a sleep-in, eat a breakfast at the club lounge, and then walk to the Epcot Monorail station to catch the Monorail to the TTC. From there, we will visit all the big hotels and see their decorations. I told DH about the life-sized gingerbread house. He is afraid E will want to eat it . Promise we won't let that happen! Eventually, we'll wind up at the Poly in time for a late 2nd breakfast at Ohana with our friend's from Hawaii. After that, we are going back to Epcot to tour Future World and ride FEA. I believe Celery is too small for Soarin, and E couldn't ride it. I'm not sure if DH and I will try to ride it our not. For sure, we'll go through Living with the Land, E will LOVE test track, and Celery will meet Elsa and Anna.

Anyway, excited to have our last ADR settled. Is anyone else REALLY looking forward to the new Frozen movie!

 

[Ecomommy09]

While I was already excited about meeting the story tellers and bands at Epcot's Holiday Festival, it was only last night I discovered they serve foods at this event, like the other festivals. I totally fell down the rabbit hole of offerings last night and now I'm not sure about our dining plans. Most of those items seem to be snack credits, which I was planning to use for breakfasts. Maybe we should plan a few quick service breakfasts and use snack credits for those treats. If the offerings are similar to last year, the Canadian offerings look delicious! I also want to try the rice pudding and Moroccan yummies! I can't believe I didn't know that this existed!