Coming soon - our extended family European Fantasy cruise. "Laundry and toilets and busses...Oh My!

[tkd lisa]

Well, we're back from our blow out European trip. Since there aren't a lot of reports from Europe I thought I'd share ours if people would be interested. Warning, there's a lot of trip coming! We did 3 days in Edinburgh pre-cruise, the 7 day cruise, and 3 days in London post-cruise.

First a bit of introduction.

The cast:

Me -trip planner and funder. I'm 60 (turning 61 the end of September, which was one of the 5 birthdays, 2 anniversaries, and one retirement this trip celebrated). It's my 6th disney cruise (yeah gold status). I've done quite a bit of European travel for work, plus a previous vacation to the uk in 2021 with my mom, aunt and uncle. This whole trip was to celebrate my retirement.

DM - 87 years old, 3rd disney cruise. Uses a wheelchair due to a heart problem which makes her tire very easily. She's been to Europe twice before. The previously mentioned uk trip with me, and a group tour way back in the late 90s.

DA - in her mid 70s, first cruise of any kind. DA was a late addition to the trip, and boy am I glad she came. She was also on the 2021 UK trip, and is married to my moms youngest brother. Her birthday was 2 days before the cruise, while we were in Edinburgh.

DS1 -33 years old, also 6th disney cruise. He's beginning to experience mobility issues from a still unknown source. They're thinking degenerative arthritis or gout, but he uses a cane. He and his spouse have no kids, and are happiest with small doses of the grandkids. They enjoy the interaction, but like their quiet time.

DS1S- spouse of DS1. Turning 35 just before me, birthday number 3. Plus this couple is one of the anniversaries, the day we disembark.

DS2 -turned 32 two days before we left - birthday number 4. Also 6th disney cruise. DS2 is a US Navy submarine, currently on shore duty after several years of deployments. He and his wife are also celebrating an anniversary.

DS2S - 34, 3rd disney cruise. Stay at home mom, homeschooling my grandkids, which is a full time job!

DGD - 9 years old, 3rd disney cruise. This one is a bundle of energy! She loves theater, mythology, history and reading. Hates math and writing. Enjoyed her freedom on the ship.

DGS - just turned 5, birthday number 5! He's on the autism spectrum, and was non verbal until about 18 months ago. But now you can't stop him talking! This was his first ever flight, and avoiding melt downs from over stimulation was one of our concerns this trip.

Here's the whole crew on embarkation day. Strap in for the ride!

 

[tkd lisa]

Just a bit about the title, plus some of the unique elements I'll cover in the report.

Laundry - as you can imagine 9 people over 14 days generate a lot of laundry. We had planned to use the laundry units in our London and Edinburgh apartments, plus the dcl laundry rooms to keep things manageable, but didn't expect this to become such a central theme. Stay tuned to see why.

Toilets- mid cruise we had a middle of the night near disaster which certainly made the highlight reel. Luckily no one and nothing was harmed!

And busses - you may have heard that there was a strike of the London tube workers. I didn't think it would affect us since we had mostly planned on busses due to mom's wheelchair. Spoiler a
lert, it did impact us.

I'll also talk about the impact of traveling with a wheelchair especially in the cities and tourist areas. Wheelchair was a close runner up for the trip title!

 

[iona]

And busses - you may have heard that there was a strike of the London tube workers. I didn't think it would affect us since we had mostly planned on busses due to mom's wheelchair. Spoiler alert, it did impact us.

I bet it did! We were in London on Monday (we’re local and knew that once we got off the train into the city we could get to the places we wanted to visit on foot). I commented to my husband what a nightmare it must have been for tourists. With no tubes all the buses looked VERY busy and even though pretty much every taxi driver was working extra hours an empty one seemed very hard to come by.