How I Spent a week in Florida w/o getting a tan!!!

[ShhhQ]

I am still trying to think about what else we did.... I think we kinda took it slow after that....

After leaving frontierland, which was quickly filling up... I think they were getting ready for a parade or something.....
The next thing I remember doing is arriving once again at the Pooh Shop at the end of the ride... I didn't get any pictures of the stuff we bought, but Mom got a T-shirt for herself, we picked up a shirt for our car tag-a-long.... she had given us $20 to pick her out something.... I bought a couple Pooh items to give to my best friend for Christmas... I was gonna type them here, but didn't want to put it in print in case she reads this..... and she is a big POOH fanatic!!!

I decided I didn't want to carry these items around for the next several hours and I really didn't want to drag them all over the park! Soooo... I decided it would be a good idea to have them delivered to our hotel... since this service was offered free and all..... well, apparently the cashier wasn't completely sure how to do this and it took her 4 or 5 tries to get it in the register... this took about 20 mins or so... I tell you the people in line behind me were getting real impatient and I kept trying to convey how sorry I was for their delay...

I would say it had to be around 4pm by this time and we still had 2 more hours until our ADRs,,,,, yet mom was getting sleepy again.... just like I am now......... Will finish this later after I wake up (did I mention I work 3rd shift and I just got home)

 

[winniethepoohsmom]

I'm glad you made the dismeet! That heat can be exhausting poor Mom. I'm wondering where you went to eat? After seeing all the pics I felt like I had just gotten off of small world. Linda

 

[sunlver]

Havent read a trip report in months.. But, I am enjoying yours. I think your title drew me in "How I spend a week in Florida w/o getting a tan!!"..good title
I am off to read the rest.

 

[ShhhQ]

Havent read a trip report in months.. But, I am enjoying yours. I think your title drew me in "How I spend a week in Florida w/o getting a tan!!"..good title
I am off to read the rest.

and I tried to think of a novel title when I started!

 

[dismom9761]

shopping!

So what to do for two hours...

 

[ShhhQ]

After we left the Pooh shop, we decided to stop and get a snack at one of the carts.... we both had a Frozen strawberry lemonade.... we just sat in the shade and ate them.

While we were eating, I spotted a line of people going to greet none other than POOH!!!! Well I knew I had to get his pic, but wasn't about to get in that long line..... so I went to the sidelines and snapped a few pics of him and Tigger too...

But I really wanted to get my pic taken with him and get an autograph....
oh well...


We then continued our journey into tommorrowland... I saw Space Mountain and wanted to get a fp... but when I tried it, said that it was too soon. So I borrowed Mom's ticket and got one....

I had almost talked her into going on Stitch's great escape, but they wouldn't let us park the scooters anywhere near the gate.. and then I noticed that the sign said there was a shoulder harness that may cause discomfort and I then talked her out of it... I knew she wouldn't be comfortable with that.

I saw the Buzzlightyear ride, but figured Mom wouldn't be able to handle it... so we passed it up! I was beginning to think I wouldn't be able to ride anything else!!!

Then we saw Carousel of Progress... I had heard some people saying this was a snooze show.... Mom needed to sleep some more, and I just wanted to do something.... so we got in line for it. There was a surprisingly long line, but when the CM came out and hollered for those wishing to see the Carousel of Progress, almost no one moved. We just went up around them and he pointed us to the a seperate entrance that was handicap accessible.... while we waited there for the door to open..... this character came walking up... I pulled my camera out and took this shot without even focusing... turned out pretty good!!!

SO THAT was what all the people were waiting for!!!! A meet and greet with Buzz Lightyear!

I had very low expectations of the show, but found that I truly enjoyed it!
Although I can't remember the tune now, it was rather catchy!
Mom of course slept through it, but I caught her humming the tune in her sleep!!!!!

We left this and it was less than an hour to our dinner ADR so we decided to head off... I remembered they showed the Hall of Presidents every half hour so we had just enough time to do that before we ate!

Now THIS show I found boring, however, I kept staring at the animatronics because a couple of them seemed sooooo lifelike I was wondering if they broke down and a live person was filling in for them!!!!

By the time that was over, we had about a half hour till our ADR, so we headed to Main Street.... I was leading the way.... as soon as I got by the fountain, I turned around to see where Mom was.... and she was GONE!!!!

I looked all around and couldn't see her anywhere!!! I felt like a Mother who couldn't find their young child....

 

[ShhhQ]

After a few frantic minutes of searching.... I finally spotted her.... when I had turned right she had continued to proceed forward and ended up on the other side of the fountain..... I was extremely relieved!

We then proceeded side-by-side to The Plaza!

This was the only dinner that I really wasn't looking forward too... I hated spending a sit down dinner credit on a place that served burgers! But we had our ADRs so we went.....

The plan was... after dinner Mom would catch the bus back to the hotel so she could go to bed and I would stay at the park and enjoy myself. I was most anxious for dinner to be over with and didn't enjoy it as much because of that.....

Mom ordered the Chili for her appetizer and I ordered the salad.... they were ok....

For our entrees... Mom had been looking forward to having a Reuben and German potato salad (which always makes me go yuck) so she had that and I just order a Mushroom burger and fries.... which we only ate half of....

I had been planning on getting a banana split for dessert, but found the service was soooo slow and I truly wasn't hungry for dessert by the end of the meal.... so I ordered cheesecake to go!

Mom took the rest of her sandwich to go as well.... but for some reason she wanted to have a banana split to go too.... and they boxed it up for her!

I had a feeling it wouldn't make it back to the room (and I was right, it fell out of her basket and ended up in the trash).

After we finished eating, we traded scooters because hers was fine and mine was acting herky jerky..... surging ahead and then stopping even though I didn't release the handle... so since she was going back to the room, she would just set it up to charge. She also took all of our stuff, including my camera.... so I didn't get any more pics at the park that night.

I was however was worried about her making it back to the room on her own!
She kept assuring me that she was a big girl and could make it by herself and I should enjoy myself... I told her there was no way I could enjoy myself until I knew she was safe!

We both had our cell phones, we put them on our lanyards so we could hear if they should ring.... I went out to the bus stop with her, because I wanted to at least make sure she got on the right bus..... glad I did cause those lines were confusing to me and she got kinda in the wrong one for a few min.(plus it gave me a better idea of where to go later)

It was about 10min to 8pm (our ADR was at 6, so that shows how long dinner took) and I told her to give me a call when she arrived so I knew she made it. AND if she hadn't called by 8:30 I would be calling her!!!! If she didn't answer, I would leave the park to hunt her down!!!! (now I don't know how I would have found her, but I told her I would)

I had an agenda now... there were 7 rides that I wanted to hit, and a little less than 2 hours to do it in! I immediately, went to Tommorrowland... where I didn't get to ride any of the rides I had planned earlier....

I stopped at Stitches Great Escape and there was almost no line.... I decided to park the scooter at the stroller parking and walk for the duration of being in Tommorrowland. I did like the Stitch ride, but I was distracted... kept my hand on my cell phone so as not to miss it should it ring! By the end of that ride, no phone call....
I then headed to Buzz Lightyear, again almost no wait..... I sat in a car by myself and grabbed a gun with each hand and just continued shooting till my thumbs were sore..... My left hand beat my right hand (no surprise there since I am left handed).... again no phone call!

I then had to use the restroom and then noticed it was almost 8:30 without a call... so I dialed her up! She answered almost immediately, I asked her where she was and she was in the process of trying to get the room door open..... Now I could breath a sigh of relief and enjoy the rest of the evening!

Was time to use my FP for Space Mountain..... I was scared, but ready to try it!!! I absolutely LOVED IT! I was with a woman and a couple boys... she had been on it before but it was their first time.... they wanted to do it again as we were walking down the exit ramp!

By now it was 9pm and the park closed at 10pm that evening.... I had 2 fps left to use... 1 for Big Thunder Mountain and 1 for Splash Mountain.... I wanted to make sure I got to do both those rides, but they were all the way on the other side of the Kingdom!!! I got back on my scooter and started booking it.... I was in a hurry and weaving in and out of the crowds walking around.... I did at one point offend someone as they yelled about all the inconsiderate scooter riders.... not that I hadn't had thousands of people walking out in front of me since we had arrived... I did feel bad about offending her, but I didn't do it intentionally... I was just trying to make it to the other side quickly!

I had wanted to revisit the Pooh ride and there was no wait there, but I passed it up.... (wish I hadn't though).... I finally made it to frontierland again.... parked my scooter by the fence and got in the FP line for Big Thunder.... glad I had a FP cause that line was LONNNNG even for the FPs... took about 10 mins.
As soon as I got off, headed to Splash Mountain... now unlike Big Thunder, there was NO WAIT AT ALL!!! I didn't even use my fp... just walked on!
I got drenched this time!
As I got off, I stopped at the gift shop at the exit.... Mom and I had been trying to find something to bring home to my brother who hadn't been able to afford to go with us..... I finally spotted a T-shirt suitable for a him! It was a dark blue with small scenes from splash mountain, space mountain, big thunder, haunted mansion, and Mickey's Philharmagic... I asked a man that was standing next to me in line if he thought that was suitable for a guy who got left behind at home... he wanted to know how he got left behind!

By this time, it is practically closing time.... so I figured I would leave! As I was heading back, I spotted Pirates of the Caribbean... and that was one of the rides I had wanted to hit.... there was a CM standing out there and I asked if it was too late to get on... he said I was just in time! It too was walk on and by the time I got off it WAS closing time.... I had no crowds.... until I hit MAIN STREET.... where it was wall to wall people!

It felt like 10,000 people were all trying to leave at the same time!!!! I don't know how long it took, but eventually I got to the bus and got back to the room...... I came back to this sight.....

and.....

What that pic doesn't show is that she fell asleep with her Rueben in one hand and the tv remote in the other.....

Unfortunately, I had to wake her because she was sleeping sideways on the bed... my choice was to wake her or sleep on the floor!

Btw... remember I forgot to put sunscreen on my face that morning.... my face was a bit pink, but no real burn!

Next day... My Birthday at Epcot!!!!

 

[dismom9761]

Great update! I would love to go to a park by myself and ride what I want...

 

[tracipierce]

Hey Michelle!
Great trip report Wow can't believe I'm on the pics,, I feel quite famous now
Wow I had no idea you had such an eventful trip, you looked so cheery at the dismeet, no-one could have guessed!
Glad to hear you and your Mom are doing ok,, can't wait to read the next installment

 

[mla1977]

Apparently she had grabbed the wrong bottle of pills and had accidently took her tranquilizers instead of stomach meds.... I asked to see her bottle... and that is when I finally understood! I had been soooooooo sleepy that morning and the road started to double up on me because she had made the same mistake earlier when she gave me the bottle of pills! Instead of stomach meds, I too had taken tranquilizers.... and not just one, I doubled up on em! No wonder I couldn't see straight!

Wow! You are lucky something bad didn't happen. We drove overnight from Philly to Memphis this summer and I could only drive in 1 1/2 - 2 hour stints because I was so sleepy.

 

[winniethepoohsmom]

Great update! How nice that was to get on all those rides at MK that night! How did your brother like his shirt? Linda

 

[ShhhQ]

Hey Michelle!
Great trip report Wow can't believe I'm on the pics,, I feel quite famous now
Wow I had no idea you had such an eventful trip, you looked so cheery at the dismeet, no-one could have guessed!
Glad to hear you and your Mom are doing ok,, can't wait to read the next installment

Glad you made it over. I was cheery... I was having a great time!!!!

 

[ShhhQ]

Great update! How nice that was to get on all those rides at MK that night! How did your brother like his shirt? Linda

hmmm... he is not the type to say thank you very often, but I think he did with that, so that must mean he liked it!

 

[ShhhQ]

August 31st - Epcot - my 36th Birthday!

My day begins with Stitch yelling at me to "WAKE UP"!!!
After the day Mom had the previous day, I decided to let her sleep in, but the phone woke her up.... I then told her to go ahead and sleep as long as she needed and then meet up with me at Epcot. My train of thought here was that she could get the rest she needed and I could go on a couple rides before she gets there. A Win-win situation! I get ready and stick on my BIRTHDAY pin and head out to the park....

So.... as a consequence, I actually arrive at the park BEFORE the gates open. This is the only time allllll week that this happened!

I decide that the ride that I wanted to do the most was Soarin' so I get in the area of the rope that would lead in that direction. I wish I had gotten my camera out and got a pic of Mickey, cause this was the first time I had seen him all week!!! He was in front of us on the other side of the rope! But if I had, I would have had a lot of heads in the photo cause I was sitting and people kept walking in front of me.....

As soon as the rope dropped, I headed off to the Land Pavillion and was directed to the elevator. I am unsure if this is a ride that Mom will handle ok or not so I figure I will check it out and decide. I had heard how great it was and figured I would want to ride it more than once. I go ahead and grab a FP for it before I get in line..... as it was the line was pretty fast moving and within moments I was at the door to the ride. I park my scooter right in front of the seats and the CM tells me they will move it. I notice that the seats are easy to get into and as they will move the scooter there is almost no walking.... maybe Mom COULD handle riding this.

So up we go..... into the wild, blue yonder!!! One thing about this ride... I sat in the back row and on the end.... I was able to see the edge of the screen in my peripheral vision and it was easy to lose the illusion of flying that way.

Unfortunately, I did Not enjoy the ride! I had soooo looked forward to it, but I have a problem with my inner ears and sometimes things will set me off. I wouldn't exactly call it Dizziness, but its the closest thing I can think of. The room doesn't really spin, but my equilibrium gets thrown out of wack and it makes it hard to see straight. This condition makes it impossible for me to go on simple rides that circle around.... such as a Merry-Go-Round. Occasionally, some large screens with motion will also set these spells off..... this happened this past July when I went to see Harry Potter and Order of the Pheonix (the spinning newspapers were the worst part) and it happened when I rode Soarin'.... I had to keep closing my eyes to avoid making it worse. I got off and staggered to my scooter.... I didn't feel too good, but it wasn't bad enough that I needed to lay down, I just needed to take it easy for a bit. Across the way, I notice a slow boat ride... that was good to go on. It was Living with the Land.

As it was getting on to about the time we usually got to the parks, I sat on this ride making sure I had the phone available so Mom could call me when she arrived at the park and we could meet up....

They had a tank of alligators.... see their gleeming eyes...

I can't remember what these fish were.... sturgen maybe?

Eel

HUGE pumpkin!!!

See the Mickey?

Halfway thru this ride, my cell phone starts ringing!!!
Do I answer it? Do I let it continue to ring? After all, I am still on a ride!

What to do.....

 

[dismom9761]

YAY Birthday at Disney!

Good decision on letting mom sleep in.. Too bad that you didn't get to enjoy Soarin'.

Ohh...let it ring....

 

[ShhhQ]

When I last left off... I was riding in the boat for the Living with the Land ride and my cell phone starts ringing....

I am not the type to disturb other people while talking on the phone, but then again, the ringing would be just as annoying. Besides, this call is from my Mother and if I don't answer she won't know where I am and may start to worry.... ok I am just rationallizing here!!!

I tried to answer..... but lost the connection, so I tried calling her... no luck!
NOW I am getting worried... this is how we are going to find each other!!!!

I get off the boat and get back on my scooter... all the while trying to call her. Apparantly I was getting no signal... as I left the Land pavillion, I was finally able to get thru to her.... my pentence for using a cell phone on a ride?

She was in the middle near the fountain and once I connected with her she was pretty easy to find.....

I let her choose where to go next, but she wasn't sure. A nearby helpful CM had a few suggestions..... Honey, I shrunk the Audience or Ellen's Energy Adventure..... Well... Honey, I shrunk the Audience is one that I was most anxious to see and while the energy show sounded promising neither of can STAND Ellen Degeneres.... UGH.. there was no way we could tolerate it! So guess which one we chose!

I didn't get a lot of pictures during the day at Epcot (85% of my epcot pics were at dinner) so here is a pic I snapped of Mom with the ball in the background.

We found the place for HISTA and went to the handicap entrance of the line. However, the CM that was there told us that we had to have a pass of some sort to enter through the handicap entrance..... now we were both in scooters and had never been told this before at any previous attraction. She preceded to tell us that we had to get one of them at the front gate or something.... my reaction was "Huh?" She then opened her clipboard in case she happened to have some on hand.... and found what she was looking for. It was basically a yellow pad of forms... she filled it out to allow 2 of us to enter thru to the handicap line. She gave it to us and told us we had to show it at the gate when we entered. We proceeded thru the line to the front.... there were 2 lines the handicap and the regular. We were the first in the handicap and there were several sitting along the wall for the regular. The wait time was about 10 min.... a group over in the other line decided to send one member of their party to get FPs for Soarin' that is when I remembered that I still had one that I wasn't gonna be able to use. I thought to give it away, but wasn't able to give it to that group.
(On a side note.... Later in the day, I even tried dropping it on the floor in the entrance to the Lands building so someone could find it and use it.... I was heading to the door to leave and casually dropped it to the floor... however, a helpful woman spotted it fall and she sent her son over to pick it up and give it back to me..... alas, I had it back and was a bit embarrassed... I thanked them and left.... with an unusable FP in hand!)

When they started letting people in, I had that handwritten pass in hand ready to show it to whoever needed to see it.... apparently no one did, cause no one else asked for it! I enjoyed the show, even though some of the scenes (such as when they moved the box that we were shrunk in) brought back a bit of that dizzy sensation, so I had to shut my eyes to keep it under control.

By the time we left that show, it was 11am.... time to get some lunch!
And I knew just where to go! Sunshine Seasons at the Land Pavillion!
We both wanted to see if we could get Mongolian Beef at the asian section.... and we did! I walked to the counter so I could carry the food so after Mom chose her food she went to the table to wait while I checked out... but I couldn't find the desserts! I asked the CM at the register if we got dessert and she pointed me towards the bakery..... she spotted my birthday badge and wished me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She then told me to get a cookie at the bakery and it would be free!! I picked up a piece of carrot cake and a piece of pb cake... and my free cookie! The cakes would be wrapped up and taken back to the room with us that night so had to choose ones that wouldn't melt to badly. My birthday was GREAT!

But the Birthday surprises weren't done yet.....

After we finished eating we decided to hit World Showcase! Where the best surprises were...

 

[dismom9761]

Great update! Sounds like an awesome birthday so far...

 

[winniethepoohsmom]

I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday at Epcot, I think that's the park I would pick on my B-day! Linda

 

[ShhhQ]

Sorry its been so long since an update.... we have been moving the past week or so and this has been my first chance to sit and actually write.....

When I left off, we were heading to the World Showcase....
We started in Canada we went into watch the show, but I was still suffering the residual effects from my Soarin' dizzy spell and found the movie hard to watch and had to close my eyes.... and umm got myself a bit of a nap cause of it....
Our next stop was in the UK.
We wandered into a toy store and I found something I JUST HAD TO HAVE!!!

As it was my birthday... and POOH is one of my favorites.... I had just had to have the BIRTHDAY POOH!!!
But a better surprise was just around the corner....
I wasn't aware of it at first but on the other side of this toy store there was a line leading to a back room.... a short line, fortunately!
It was a character greet line!!!

Pooh gave me a kiss on the cheek... I don't really like the way I look in this pic, but I love it anyway.

Pooh seemed very excited that I had a Pooh bear and a Pooh shirt on!

Next store the CM that was working in there was a real sweetheart.... she noticed it was my birthday and asked if I had gotten my birthday greeting from Goofy yet.... Nope... Well she made sure I got it! AND she gave me a certificate wishing me a happy birthday!

After that, the world showcase went downhill! As we left that store and left the UK, it started to rain! We chose not to watch the France movie, cause we figured it would make me sick like the Canada movie did. We wandered through the stores there but didn't see much of interest. Same with Morocco and Japan.... We did stop and see the American show, but the cm that was seating people there seemed to get ticked off that they were sending in yet another couple of wheelchair/ECVs and seemed rather rude! Sides that I got another little nap, but after that I felt better!
It rained almost the entire time we were in the World showcase and the stores were crowded because of it.... we didn't really stop again till we got Maelstrom and then Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros (formerly called El Rio Del Tiempo)
We really didn't enjoy looking at the stores too much and it seemed that 90% of the world showcase was stores!!!!
I was really disappointed in this part of Epcot... I thought there would be more displays to show more of the culture of each country.

We decided to use some of our snack credits and get some ice cream or something.... I got a frozen banana and Mom got ummm I can't remember, probably something like a drumstick.

We had about 2 hours before our dinner adrs and we each wanted to do seperate things, so we split up to meet at the restaurant.....

Up until this point we really didn't take many pics because of the rain and at this point it had calmed down to almost nothing, however I gave Mom the bag with all the stuff in it including my camera so no more pics until dinner.... but I promise loads of pictures at dinner and afterwards.....

Where do you think that I had to go alone?

 

[dismom9761]

Hi! Love the pictures of Pooh. Sorry the rest of Epcot was a disapointment.So where did you go?