Disaster Followed Us to Disney! A May SWW Report- Updated 10/28- Pics of CBR and AK!

[sl_underwood]

Neither wind, hail or tornados would stop us from getting to the happiest place on earth. Who are we you ask? We sound like the postal service creed, but nope, we are just a family of disney lovers and some star wars fans thrown in for good measure. For months we planned the perfect family vacation only to see it threatened by natural disasters, man made disasters, sickness, and a whole lot more. Was this the perfect trip, definitely not, but did we have fun? OH YEAH!


The Cast:
Me (Lora)- I love all things disney and I am pretty much a WDW addict. I enjoy planning our trips almost as much as going to WDW!

DH (Stephen)- Very silly, total geek, loves Star Wars and all things Disney

dd 18 (Kara) and her bf (Spencer) - She loves Disney, especially the thrill rides and the shopping, he had never been to disney world but enjoys hunting, fishing, and thrill rides.

dd 14 (Jess AKA Ventress on Disboards) is a major Star Wars fan, loves to write and loves music. She has an impressive autograph and penny press collection

ds 7 (Luke) loves Disney especially WDW. He also loves Star Wars, and is very facinated with pirates right now. Luke has autism which sometimes throws a few kinks into our plans. Definitely did this trip!

 

[Lidian]

I'm here!!!! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

 

[lovethattink]

I'm here too! Let the good times roll!

 

[lbuzz52]

I'm in!

I was nervous with your trip title. Glad to hear you enjoyed yourselves still!

 

[sl_underwood]

I'm in!

I was nervous with your trip title. Glad to hear you enjoyed yourselves still!

A bad trip to Disney is still better than no trip at all. We had both good and bad moments and while I never want to do a trip like this one again, we did have many good things that countered all the negative.

 

[sl_underwood]

This trip could have been called our roller coaster vacation because it had both ups and downs, twists and turns, and a whole lot of nervousness and even a little fear. Nothing really worked out as planned, but it rarely seems to with this family of mine. We left May 24th from Enid, OK and drove to Dallas. We had planned to leave at 2pm but heard the weather reports and decided we needed to get out of town earlier. Unfortunately, everything that could go wrong did. First, I was packing a suitcase and the zipper broke, so had to run last minute to buy a new carry on. Then, while I was heading back my tire pressure and check engine lights came on in my car so had to stop at the mechanics, which set me back two hours. By the time we actually got out of town it was 3 pm. By 4 pm, tornados were sweeping across Oklahoma with a vengeance. As we sat in our car on I-35, we listened to our radio describe scenes from just 30 miles away. We debated stopping but family and friends urged us to continue, speed if we had too, just to keep minutes ahead of the deadly storm. We followed their advice, driving scared, praying that we would stay ahead of it all. Our family and friends continued to call frantic with worry as we stayed at times just mere minutes ahead of the destruction. Everyone kept telling us if we could just get to the Texas border we would be fine as nothing had been reported in Texas then. We finally reached the border and started to sigh in relief only to find that storms continued to crop up everywhere. At 8:15 we arrived to Irving Tx at the Days Inn we were scheduled to check into for the night and just minutes later, tornado sirens began to go off, hail the size of baseballs began to fall and panic ensued everywhere. Jess, who was trying to keep the mood light (she tends to joke when she is scared) gave me several trip report names. The first was To Hell and Back, a Disney Tale. The second was Tornados chased me to Disney. I told her I had the perfect name, Disaster followed us to Disney. She laughed and said but Luke was in front of me… LOL… She really loves her brother, hehe.
Finally, after what seemed like hours but was in reality only a short time, we were able to eat, head to our rooms and attempt to rest, but first, we had to see the damage the storm had done. Our car was damaged heavily, including a cracked windshield and lots of hail damage but it was so much better off than most. Many cars had no wind shilelds left and two were turned over onto their sides. The destruction was awful. The entire night, I couldn’t help but lay in bed grateful that my family had survived it all, but saddened for those who had experienced so many losses. Reports on the news stated deaths, many of them children. One woman had lost her entire family, husband and three children. The news was heartbreaking, yet I couldn’t help but feel joy and relief because my family was safe and we were heading to the happiest place on earth in the morning. Definitely not the best start to our vacation... but would it get better or worse?

For those of you who missed the excitement, here is a news story
http://blog.newsok.com/weather/2011...vice-norman/?highlight=["tornado","outbreak"]
http://www.newsok.com/article/3573277?highlight=["tornado","outbreak"]
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2011/05/amazing-oklahoma-tornadoes-videos-may-24-2011/
And this was the one that caught up with us in Dallas
http://******************/weather-in-dallas/nws-2-more-tornadoes-from-may-24th-outbreak

 

[lovethattink]

Such a scary start!

I really like Jess's title, Tornadoes chased me to Disney!

 

[lbuzz52]

I think i know which storm you are talking about; that is the one that they cleared out a baseball stadium in Dallas for, right? It came our way the next day. And let me tell you, that is the first storm that i have been thoroughly scared for in a while. and we had more than our share of tornado watches and warnings this spring.
sorry that your car was damaged, but greatful that was the only thing it affected! hope you got some sleep after all that!

 

[sl_underwood]

When we left off, we were safe, but our car was damaged. Stephen fell asleep instantly, but the rest of us too awhile. By 1am, everyone but me was sleeping. I tried, I really did, but sleep just wouldnt come. I found myself worrying about my car and how much that would cost, I woried about family and friends and attempted to connect with everyone who had been in that awful storms path, and I worried that more would go wrong. We had to be up by 4am. I laid in bed all night watching the clock thinking if I go to sleep now, I can still get 3 hours sleep, 2 hours sleep, 1 hour sleep, well I am sure you get the picture by now. Finally, it was 4am and time to wake up everyone. This was not a fun experience seeing as only Stephen managed more than 4 hours sleep. Luke did not want to get up, but then he remembered we were leaving and jumped out of bed. Kara and Spencer were the hardest to get up and around. With no time to spare, we dressed and got downstairs to meet our shuttle that would take us to the airport. As we drove to the airport, I kept thinking we forgot something. We made it to the airport around 4:45 AM.
At the airport, we checked in, got our tickets, and headed to security. Security was a nightmare! We waited for about half an hour until it was finally our turn. At this point, Luke had been pushed around by the crowds and was not a happy camper. Stephen was in front and went through the security first to show Luke what to do. He refused, so Kara and Spencer went, he still refused, so Jess went. I stayed with him trying to coax him through the line and almost had him ready when the TSA agent demanded that I go through the line. I told him I would not go through before Luke. I tried to explain that Luke had autism but if we gave him a moment, I was sure he would walk through. The agent automatically hollered that we were refusing to cooperate and needed a patdown. I told him that this would upset Luke more and we did not need it. He would go through, just to give him a minute. The guy continued to argue with me, upsetting Luke more. Finally, another agent (I assume higher up than he) told him she would take over. She was a Godsend. She talked with Luke and asked him where he was going. He took a few minutes to be ready to talk but he told her we were going to Disney World to see his friends. She conversed a few more minutes about Disney and then she started to tell him about her job. She told him that her job was to keep him and everyone else safe on the plane. She explained that in order to do this, he had to follow certain rules. She gave him two options: go through the metal detector or be pat down. He thought about it and told her he didnt want to be touched. She said then he would need to walk through the metal detector. He agreed. And after nearly half an hour, we were finally through security. I am just grateful she came along. She obviously knew how to handle children, especially those with autism. By 6am, we were drinking our coffee and waiting at our gate. By 6:30, we were boarded, and by 7, we were in the air! The airplane ride was uneventful. Everyone but Luke and I slept. He watched Toy Story on his iPod and I finished some work that should have been done before I left. We arrived early in Orlando, 10:15 AM and headed to our Magic Express line. By 11, we were on our way to CBR!

 

[lovethattink]

That's a shame you didn't get rest and the line for security was so long. Thank goodness that woman came and rescued you and Luke!!

 

[sl_underwood]

We arrived at CBR shortly before noon and checked in. Check in didnt take too long, maybe 10 minutes. Our room was not ready so we headed to Old Port Royale food court to eat. Lunch was okay, but nothing special. After eating, it was nearly 1, so we headed to the bus stop. We were in luck because a Magic Kingdom bus pulled right up! We left Kara and Spencer at the bus stop (they were heading to DTD) and the four of us went to Magic Kingdom! By 1:30, we were in Magic Kingdom! This is where every plan I ever made changed. For those of you who followed my PTR, you know I intended to do Adventure Land and Frontier Land this day, but the moment we got on the Magic Express bus, all Luke could talk about was seeing his pal Mickey. In fact, he barely ate any lunch because he was in such a hurry. So when we arrived at MK, we grabbed Luke a GAC and headed straight to the Mickey Meet n' Greet.

After this, we saw the princesses because there was no wait!

All this was done in just minutes with no wait at all. After this, Jess was determined to go meet Flynn Ryder. Knowing it would be a long wait, we decided to split up. I took Jess and Stephen took Luke. Once we arrived at the Tangled Meet and Greet, we realized why the lines for Mickey and Princesses were short-everyone was in this one! Jess went up to the front of the line just to see him and promptly decided he wasnt cute enough to wait that long to meet, I called Stephen to tell him we could meet back up only to find out that he and Luke were riding the train. I had forgotten how much Luke liked doing this and was happy to let them ride. He said we would meet in Tomorrowland. Jess begged me to take her to the Tomorrowland Speedway so she could scare me, lol. The line was quick and the ride jerky (think I ended up with whiplash) Throughout the afternoon, I was texting with Lovethattink and we were attempting to plan a dismeet. We decided to meet at Cosmic Rays to cool off and hang out for a bit. Meeting her and Anakin was one of our trip highlights. Luke and Anakin really hit it off.

They hoolahooped together and then decided to go ride a few rides. We rode Buzz and the carousel of progress together and then parted. Luke had seen Buzz and he had to get back there. Got in line for Buzz only to find that he was leaving. Thought we were going to have a meltdown here but we didnt. I reminded Luke that we would be here for several days and I knew we would see him before we went home. All afternoon, Luke had been asking to ride Space Mountain so finally Stephen agreed to take him, not sure if it was a good idea or not.

Luke rode and appeared fine, never cried or got upset but the moment he got off, Stephen asked him what he thought andhe replied "That was awesome, but never do it again!" Lol. All trip he talked about it and asked to ride roller coasters but never could get the courage to actually ride them.
After Space Mountain, we went back to look for Buzz but he was nowhere t be found. Finally at nearly 5pm, we got the text that our room was ready and headed back to our resort.

 

[lbuzz52]

that really stinks that you were so stressed about your car! i hope it didn't stay at the front of your mind the whole trip!
Your first gate agent sounds like a real jerk! Thank goodness there was another who knew what she was doing! That could have really changed the whole mood of the day.
I'm glad that Space didn't scare Luke. I couldn't get my dd on it. I wouldn't have waited 2 hours for Flynn ryder either!
i can't believe tha tyour room took until 5 pm to be ready

 

[lovethattink]

Great picture of Luke and your husband on Space Mountain! You did much better than me on the Zurg pics. I didn't get a pic of all 3 faces.

I'm really glad we were able to meet up! You know, there is a big Star Wars Convention in August 2012. I think they are only selling 30,000 tickets. It's in Orlando and I bet Steve and Luke would love it! We have motel and tickets purchased already.

By the way, Anakin enjoyed seeing the pics!

 

[CdnCarrie]

Really enjoying your TR!

 

[kaileighbug]

Man it takes alot to get to disney now....out running tornados, hail damage, and security. Glad to see you made it safely. Luke is too cute with Mickey.

 

[loveysbydesign]

wow...what a way to start your vacay! great pix!

 

[mtgirl29]

Hopping on board!!! Cannot wait to read more!!!

 

[mtgirl29]

Wow! That is a scary start to your vacation. I am glad everyone was okay. I am really looking forward to seeing what you thought of CBR. We were there at the same time.

 

[CandleontheWater]

I'm joining in! I'm so happy that you and your family were safe after those deadly tornadoes! The stories of devastation this spring have been so awful, I'm glad you got to get away from it all for a little while.

I'm also glad that you ended up with a nice TSA agent, you would think that they'd have compassion towards children, especially children facing special challenges! Shame on them for the way they acted toward you!

It sounds like your first day in the parks was a success!

 

[lovethattink]

I've been without the internet for a few days. Hope all is well! We are all doing fine!