Hotel walls are boring, aka "the one where we got sick"

[bumbershoot]

Welcome to my super-exciting trip report, currently known as "Hotel walls are boring, aka 'the one where we got sick'.

As I continue to feel better and more positive, the title might change.



I could probably leave the whole report at the title, honestly. But I have a few brightly colored pictures, so maybe I'll write some more.

This January trip started off as a plan for a cruise. Pre-trip report here. February 10 of last year, we disembarked our first Disney cruise, wondering if we liked cruising itself or if we liked Disney cruising. DH (Robert) and I (Molly) knew we liked Radiance of the Seas in Alaska, but that was 10 years ago. I started looking at Royal Caribbean's cruises, and found a neat itinerary. Canaveral, Cococay, at sea, San Juan, Sint Maarten, at sea, at sea, Canaveral.

Then I realized I wanted to sign up for the WDW half Marathon. So I did. Only afterwards did I realize how far apart the Half was from the cruise, but both had been booked. We flirted with the idea of coming home in between. That seemed boring to me.

I decided to get to town early to get on the right time zone. That was a highly dubious decision. Getting up that early was going to be hard anyway.

So over time it became:
DS and I get into town on Jan 4
5K with DS on the 9th
DS does Mickey Mile on the 10th
I run the Half on the 11th
Go to Daytona on the 13th to spend time with extended family
Pick up DH at the airport on the 18th, to start time at Universal
Board Freedom of the Seas on the 26th, disembark on the 2nd, fly home.

This trip was to be the last of this sort of trip, because the kiddo is now in a dance company that follows the school calendar. We had to clear this trip with them before E could accept the invitation to join the company. This was a Really Big Deal.

I had GRAND plans. I homeschool my son, and we had done some lessons on Florida history and geography, on San Juan, on St Maarten. We had done some "and this is how much things cost" lessons by looking at all the excursions to be booked through the cruiseline. We had plans that would go along with that work once we got to Florida and San Juan (both have a Ponce de Leon connection).

We didn't, couldn't, do any of the follow up work.

Because on the 6th, I got sick. Megasick. Then the kiddo got it. Then my extended family got it. Didn't ease for us until just before the cruise. Got home and both DS and I ended up with ear problems. At the time that I started writing this, we were sitting on the couch, whimpering and saying "what?" a lot. Unhappy campers, is what we were.





Now we've fast-forwarded some days since I wrote the above as a first draft. We've both seen our naturopaths and we've gotten both eastern-type help and some western medicine help. We are now feeling MUCH better. And we're barely saying "what" anymore, plus, I can talk again most of the time (I lost most of my voice). It's amazing how much more positive I am when I feel better. Hmm, go figure!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[appleorchard]

Looking forward to all the gory details lol

 

[bumbershoot]

Our flight left at 8 or 8:30, can't remember which. We were supposed to be walking in at 6, go through security, and I was going to have a massage and then a manicure.

We got there later than that. Security was annoying. DS got TSA Prechek and I did not. The TSA guy was a poop about it when I asked a question, and seemed to be sending me away. Except that the entrance to the main line was ALSO there. So I went back, went past him, and to the next TSA guy. He looked at our boarding passes silently and pointed us to the left instead of the right. I went along with it; it was the family line. Which then linked up with the Prechek line. Bwa ha ha...

Massage place...closed? Wait, closed. It wasn't closed last October at this hour. Harumph. Didn't open until 8. Bah.

Went to Butter London for a manicure. It was OK, but after 3 days it was chipping. Wah.


Got some coffee and food, got on the plane with the kiddo! Saw this, and it made us a little jealous.

Fly fly fly, land. Get bags, go to Alamo, get a car. Got a VW Passat for the next two weeks. Drive to Pop with a stop at a Hess for snacks, water, and a Foster's for me.

I don't remember feeling sick, but I remember being a little slow in my thought process. I didn't think to ask for help in getting our bags to the room. I was a bit chilly. When the CM asked for a MagicBand to check if it was set up correctly, I couldn't remember which MB was the one for that part of the stay. That's not important to WDW, but it was, a little bit, to me.

Had to take more than one trip to our Preferred Pool View room (#1402), and while doing that (and cursing the universe for not making it obvious if there were luggage people to help) I got that feeling. You know the feeling when you KNOW you're getting a cold. Sometimes it's a funny sneeze that's just different. Sometimes it's a chill in the bones. Who knows what the feeling is, but everyone I've ever known to catch a cold or get an illness has had the experience. As we were dragging the last bunch of bags, I just felt that.

Not good.


This, however, was cool and good and unexpected!

There's my Owner Locker, just sitting there in the room! I didn't have to ask luggage services to bring it; it was just THERE. So dang cool.


I really really liked our room at Pop. The location was a bit funky when tired or dragging 1000 bags, but if not tired it would have been fine.

Coat pegs. So helpful!

Curtains from bed area to vanity area.

Vanity areas. Safe! Ironing board and iron! Ample room for hangers. Space to put stuff above...aw man, could have put some bags up there. Actually I, personally, couldn't have done so because my left shoulder was hurting something fierce by then. I was in such pain. So I couldn't have lifted it. We actually had to pack carryons differently because it was just me and Eamon; he's too short to put bags up, and I couldn't do much with my left arm.

Safe!

I thought the bathroom/shower was pretty nice.

Overtaken by stuff so quickly.

 

[bumbershoot]

Following along!

Yay, thank you!

Looking forward to all the gory details lol

Hoping I can remember them.

 

[appleorchard]

Oh, yeah. That feeling. I just had it a week ago. Thanks for the pics of Pop! I can't believe they pre-delivered your Owner's Locker-- that has never happened to us! I debated about getting ours for this week-- it's such a short trip-- but decided the sound-cancelling machine -- and any spare Fresca I have in there -- was enough of a reason. I can't justify ordering Fresca for delivery when it's just me. I live without it for 9 days when I go to Romania in the summer, so I know I'll survive--at least Disney has ICE!

 

[annmarieda]

I am here!!!

 

[annmarieda]

I had this page up and didn't load before I posted. You got an update in there!

I think that is one of my worst fears when it comes to a trip... getting "that" feeling.

Having owners locker there already sounds like a good thing considering you already were starting to feel poorly and had just dealt with all your luggage. I have been considering an owners locker. You basically get it delivered for one trip a year, right? Or it cost a bit more?

Your report is off to a great start.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh, yeah. That feeling. I just had it a week ago. Thanks for the pics of Pop! I can't believe they pre-delivered your Owner's Locker-- that has never happened to us! I debated about getting ours for this week-- it's such a short trip-- but decided the sound-cancelling machine -- and any spare Fresca I have in there -- was enough of a reason. I can't justify ordering Fresca for delivery when it's just me. I live without it for 9 days when I go to Romania in the summer, so I know I'll survive--at least Disney has ICE!

Do you go to Romania every year? That's really neat!

I'm slowly starting to work out a "this is what we do" sort of trip plan. Rather than the "every time I get a whim" plan we've been doing now. Especially since we have been bit by the cruise bug BIG time, we have to plan this all out now. And we are now working inside the school system's schedule because of dance, it's gotta be planned!

This visit was an extra delivery of the OL, but I did like having it. Can't quite remember what it has in it, LOL, but I wasn't unhappy to have it, except for when I had to move it.

I had this page up and didn't load before I posted. You got an update in there!

I think that is one of my worst fears when it comes to a trip... getting "that" feeling.

Having owners locker there already sounds like a good thing considering you already were starting to feel poorly and had just dealt with all your luggage. I have been considering an owners locker. You basically get it delivered for one trip a year, right? Or it cost a bit more?

Your report is off to a great start.

You get it delivered once per year for the yearly fee, and I think it was $25 for the extra delivery. [if you go even more often, though, you can get a higher level plan] Whatever I had in there made it worth it; we do tend to keep things like packets of safe hot chocolate, etc etc, in there (in zip top bags) so it saves some trips to the grocery store.


Having it sitting there was really unexpected and surprising! A bright spot.


I would have had a second post last night but I made a copy/cut/paste error and lost what I had typed. Whoops. You all know how disheartening that can be!

 

[appleorchard]

I'm on the board of a charity -- we have an orphanage in Romania. Sounds impressive, but it's just 7 of us.Every year we have a trip over to see the kids, run a local VBS and hold a week-long medical clinic. We have a nurse-practitioner who usually goes and we take a bunch of donated meds. Last year we didn't have an NP so we just did blood pressure and blood glucose checks and saw probably over 150 people during the week.

We also collect eyeglasses throughout the year and have an eyeglass clinic. We can't check anyone's prescription--they just try 'em on. We gave away 200 pairs last year.

We have 20 kids in the orphanage--most now are teens or tweens. We know them all very well since we've watched them grow up from the time most of them were three or four. We don't take kids younger than 3.

 

[nancy drew]

I'm here, reading along

 

[bumbershoot]

Aw, that's really cool!

Nancy, you snuck in there! Hi!



*********************************

From wunderground, it seems that from the time we landed to the end of that day, it was around 65 down to 60. I'm going to include weather info in my days because I'm done with Winter trips and I need to make sure I remember that I'm done with them!


(of course...right now wunderground is showing that it was 120 degrees, from 50, today in Lake Buena Vista...so maybe let's not take them tooooo seriously)




I originally had Brown Derby scheduled for dinner. I can't remember if I cancelled that the day before or earlier, but I'm glad I cancelled it. Everything took longer than I thought it should (seriously the story of my Disney life and home life as well...I should have it tattooed on me but it would probably take longer than expected and I'd have to leave in the middle of it) and it was kind of chilly and I just didn't want to go. So I'm glad we didn't have to.

Instead, we crossed the bridge over to Art of Animation and went to their food court. The walk from our Preferred Pool View room, even though we were at the checkin side of the building, was not that bad at all. Since we were doing it after dark the first time, it was slightly creepy, but really not bad.

My camera was taking some time to get used to the humidity, but here's the bridge and the fireworks we could see and some sights on the way to the foodcourt.

This is just unfortunate. I'm embarrassed for Crush.

It's obvious to me now that things were off, health-wise, because I had NO interest in eating this when normally (despite the edamame...tofu is fine but I don't like UNprocessed soybeans, it seems).

Mmm, bite size babycakes. That's the best way for me to eat them!

Veggie burger.

Caprese sandwich.

In a quest to be cool, I let the kiddo visit this place for a little while.

On the way back to Pop, hi Squirt!

More POPage.

E's expression is funky, but see the fridge? It opens the opposite way and in a different spot than I expected. I managed to scrunch my fingertips in between some part of it and some part of the dresser thingie because I didn't get that. Youch. You've been warned. Use the little molded "handle" that doesn't look like a handle, OK? (apple, whose real name I cannot remember if I know right now, that's for you since you'll be there soon!)

Outside the stairwell.

Approaching the inside.

The view from inside.

The view from somewhere outside our room. Would be MOST excellent at a different time of year, assuming no one had to sleep (though now that they have actual hours for the pools it's probably better).

I'm asking Eamon if he remembers anything else from that day. He said "I punched a yak". Um, OK. So there you have it. E punched a yak. Not sure where that yak was. Probably in his mind. Hopefully in his mind. Where do you find a yak in Orlando?

I think maybe he was kidding. All we remember, though we don't really remember it, was that we then went to bed.

 

[gister]

Sounds like a great experience, thanks for sharing.

 

[bumbershoot]

I really must get back to pop. My one and only tattoo is a silly thing that actually looks just like the Hippy Dippy Pool. No lie!

Morning showed up.

According to wunderground, it started off at 59 that day and got up to 82. I believe it. And it seems it went back to around 70 by the time the normal part of the evening was done.


Now even though I can say "in retrospect" this and that about my health, at the time I just figured I was tired from the flight. I had totally forgotten that a day or so before the flight I thought I was getting sick (Robert reminded me of this), and I was dismissing all of my chills and shivers and tiredness as just being travel-based.

That's why I had no qualms about meeting NancyDrew this day! I wanted us to be nice and fueled up, so we had breakfast at one of the food courts. I think we had omelets. I know E did.

Moving slowly, we made an unfortunate decision to take the bus into MK. I mean, nothing bad happened, but it was slow and annoying. And the line for MK was in the blazing hot sun.

That's interesting. Didn't think that was allowed. (hint: pretend the woman in the stripey shirt isn't there, and look ahead of her to her left and to her right)

We met up with Nancy's family at the Tiki Room, where we enjoyed the singing birds and statues and flowers and whatnot. We talked, Eamon and her kids seemed to get along very well. They rode the Magic Carpets and it wasn't too long before they needed to run and grab some lunch. We decided to split apart for that and E and I went off to play some Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom. This decision, rather than grabbing lunch of our own, was a very bad one. A bit later we met back up. Nancy correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we hit Jungle Cruise at some point? Am I making that up? Wow, I'm really fuzzy on this! I remember that we got in line for Pirates then got right back out of line for a bathroom break, only to come back and find it had broken down in the meantime. We rode that, too, later on, yes?

What ended up obliterating my memories was how E's energy just tanked in the Haunted Mansion line, sigh. He went all pale, needed food that I didn't have (well, I had food, but he didn't want it), needed water that I didn't have, basically he had needed lunch before that. He was feeling sick-sick so we let Nancy 'n family go on while we worked it all out. This is where we ended up.

That's right, the Great Rapunzel Ride. aka the bathrooms. At first we thought he'd escaped actually being sick, but nope. Basically he was going on an omelet that day, it was something like 5pm with nothing else but a little water, and that's just not enough for a kid. He needed food and water and a reset button for our day.

Our new friends' ride on HM was done by then, and we realized we had to say goodbye. Eamon usually doesn't have the mental power to think about others when he feels like that, but he did regret, even then, having to say bye to his new buddies. He really wishes we lived in their city.

I tried SO hard to get him to go to Columbia Harbour House for something, ANYthing, but he absolutely didn't want that. He wanted AOA foodcourt food. That was a LONG way away.

We made it to Crystal Palace and he got a headache. I diverted us to First Aid. They gave him an icepack and a quiet room back behind the scenes.

I deal with stress by making sure people are taken care of and then stepping back, emotionally. That is accomplished at WDW by pictures.

There was NO ONE ELSE there. I promise. This "ward" was totally empty. So from my seat next to E, as he napped for about 20 minutes, I snapped this.

Once I realized he was sleeping, which meant the headache had eased enough for sleep to happen, I relaxed. Let Robert know what was going on, calmed down. The place was so so quiet, it was nice. I had never been behind the scenes there, didn't know it was so hospital-y.

About 20 minutes later he just sat straight up, handed over the ice pack,and was ready to go! He hit the reset button.

As we made our way towards the exit, we ran into the electrical parade.

Our bus pickup spot was just about the last one there. Of course. We met nice people while waiting. We made it back. Got to the foodcourt that was needed. Ate. Went back to the room and watched more Stacey (as we had done every time we were in our room, of course!), and went to sleep.


Found the receipts. We had breakfast at 11:37 that morning. No wonder we didn't want lunch. This was the day that I bought a "length of stay" refillable mug, because I figured that with two caffeinated coffees in the morning and a decaf at the end of the day I would easily make up the 17.99 by the time we left. Ha. Whew. Got back and ate our second meal of the day at 8:29pm. Perhaps on a day that wasn't the day after travel that would have worked, but obviously it just wasn't enough food for the kidlet that day!

 

[nancy drew]

We met up with Nancy's family at the Tiki Room, where we enjoyed the singing birds and statues and flowers and whatnot. We talked, Eamon and her kids seemed to get along very well. They rode the Magic Carpets and it wasn't too long before they needed to run and grab some lunch. We decided to split apart for that and E and I went off to play some Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom. This decision, rather than grabbing lunch of our own, was a very bad one. A bit later we met back up. Nancy correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we hit Jungle Cruise at some point? Am I making that up? Wow, I'm really fuzzy on this! I remember that we got in line for Pirates then got right back out of line for a bathroom break, only to come back and find it had broken down in the meantime. We rode that, too, later on, yes?

We did ride "Jingle" Cruise, complete with a holiday joke overlay. And I forgot that we did ride Pirates together. That's the line where we had a nice long uninterrupted (mostly) talk because the kids were contained!

Our new friends' ride on HM was done by then, and we realized we had to say goodbye. Eamon usually doesn't have the mental power to think about others when he feels like that, but he did regret, even then, having to say bye to his new buddies. He really wishes we lived in their city.

Awww, we wish you guys lived here too! The kids really seemed to get along! Well, S and E sure did. Who knew that Nathan was battling a crazy auto-immune response that would land him in the hospital a few days later. He was SO not himself, and I should have known.

 

[bumbershoot]

Wunderground says this day's low was 44 and high was 79.

At this point, the forecasts were changing a whole lot. I think it had been slated to be warmer later in the week, but then it was changing, getting colder. Since swimming is fun, after breakfast at around 9:30 the kiddo went swimming.

By this time my shoulder, neck, and back were just screaming. I couldn't even imagine running with this pain. I started searching for massage therapists and chiropractors. One masseur was suggested but he was busy with the expo. I managed to make an appointment for the morning of E's Mile. I couldn't find a chiro who could see me. So frustrated.

After a couple hours I made the kiddo get out of the pool. We got warmed up and went off to Animal Kingdom. I can't find proof that we ate something lunch-y, but I'm sure we did because no one fainted or got angry or anything.

 

[bumbershoot]

We did ride "Jingle" Cruise, complete with a holiday joke overlay. And I forgot that we did ride Pirates together. That's the line where we had a nice long uninterrupted (mostly) talk because the kids were contained!



Awww, we wish you guys lived here too! The kids really seemed to get along! Well, S and E sure did. Who knew that Nathan was battling a crazy auto-immune response that would land him in the hospital a few days later. He was SO not himself, and I should have known.

So glad to know I didn't forget everything.

Oh I just feel so bad for Nathan! Has everything calmed down now? I know this isn't something that will go away, but has he had further bouts of it?

You knew something was wrong; you just didn't know the extent. It could have been so many other lesser things. I think it's normal that you didn't automatically know the problem's extent.

 

[nancy drew]

So glad to know I didn't forget everything.

Oh I just feel so bad for Nathan! Has everything calmed down now? I know this isn't something that will go away, but has he had further bouts of it?

You knew something was wrong; you just didn't know the extent. It could have been so many other lesser things. I think it's normal that you didn't automatically know the problem's extent.

Thanks. Things have pretty much calmed down.

I just typed out the "short" version and it was far too long. I'll PM you, because you don't need that whole novel here in the middle of your trip report. I do think I knew something was wrong, but it is hard when you are on vacation, especially at WDW, and you are just kind of stuck there and not sure whether to see a doctor or what.

But in case anyone else is reading along and wondering...

He has developed an auto-immune thing and outwardly looks/acts fine now, but there are things going on inside that we are monitoring. So far so good, and I am hoping it stays that way!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Look how soon you sail!!! So excited for you.



I found receipts but it's just about nice-and-early bedtime for us. I was up way too late being all supportive of Robert staying up, and now I'm sleepy!

 

[annmarieda]

You get it delivered once per year for the yearly fee, and I think it was $25 for the extra delivery. [if you go even more often, though, you can get a higher level plan] Whatever I had in there made it worth it; we do tend to keep things like packets of safe hot chocolate, etc etc, in there (in zip top bags) so it saves some trips to the grocery store.

Thanks for the info! I think it may be something to look at... we plan probably 2 trips a year. So it would be nice to have some things stay in FL. Sounds like we would just need to pay the extra delivery fee and go with the main plan.

Having it sitting there was really unexpected and surprising! A bright spot.

Those are always important on a trip... the bright spots.

I'm going to include weather info in my days because I'm done with Winter trips and I need to make sure I remember that I'm done with them!

OMG! I so here ya!!! I am looking forward to the October trip because I know I won't be freezing.

Everything took longer than I thought it should (seriously the story of my Disney life and home life as well...I should have it tattooed on me but it would probably take longer than expected and I'd have to leave in the middle of it)

Instead, we crossed the bridge over to Art of Animation and went to their food court. The walk from our Preferred Pool View room, even though we were at the checkin side of the building, was not that bad at all. Since we were doing it after dark the first time, it was slightly creepy, but really not bad.

It won't be long in my own TR that you will see that I took that walk from Pop to AoA myself. Not a bad walk...

Great view out of your room. I agree though... better during a different time of year. We had a pool view too... and never really enjoyed it since going to the pool never happened there.

I am quite jealous that the holiday decorations were still up on 1/6. We arrived just two days later...

I remember reading about E being ill. I am still sad to hear about it a second time. At least MK has a nice first aid center. I think all of the parks do. I have had to use them a couple times.