In Chinese does "Watch out" mean "throw self under old ladies scooter?"

[justgeorgi]

Our New Years/Holiday Disney Trip!
The vacationers!Myself-39 years old, total planner! Have been going to Disney since 2nd grade. Former annual pass holder. I have been to Walt Disney World (too many times to count), Disneyland Paris and Disneyland. I learned a few things on this trip and was humbled at least once! Formerly an annual passholder when daughter was younger. Now we try to get there at least every 2 years. My last trip was with my daughter for her high school graduation present when she was 18. We went for Night Of Joy.

Husband-40 years old, goes with the flow. He loves Disney. He started going to Walt Disney World in high school when his school band marched down Main Street. He has also been to Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. Formerly an annual passholder when daughter was younger. He loves Epcot and ½ yards in England!

Daughter-19 years old and has been going to Walt Disney World since she was 18 months old. A former annual passholder when she was young and homeschooled. She was really looking forward to this trip because her boyfriend of 3 years was coming and she jokingly said this was going to be the “final test!” Did he pass? She is a full time college student majoring in musical theater, works 2 jobs and owns her own pageant coaching business and really was looking forward to relaxing after all her work and studying. While we were gone on the trip she received her letter from school and her grades and proud mom moment…she made the Deans List and straight A’s!
Daughters boyfriend-20 years old and has gone to Disney 2 times with grandparents and parents when he was younger. He goes with the flow, is easygoing and doesn’t complain too much. We like him and plan to keep him around

Grandmother-82 years old. She has been with us on a trip for New Years 4 years ago as well as several trips with her sisters and her husband over the years. This trip was planned before she was diagnosed with dementia. It is mild enough that she was able to enjoy the trip. Read further to see how it affected our trip. There were some INTERESTING moments to say the least.

Before going into details I will say that this trip was stressful for a number of reasons, most being the issues surrounding my grandmother but I’m glad we took the trip. Regardless of some of the very stressful moments it was full of laughter and several moments that I will never forget. There were times when I may have felt like going home though!

Pre-Trip details:
We booked a 3 bedroom condo from Grand Palms and got an incredible deal of $464 including TAX, DEPOSIT and CLEANING for 6 nights. The owner was quick to answer questions, quick to relay information and quick to get my receipt and key code information to me. As the trip got closer we added an extra night and I booked that at Staybridge Suites on International Drive for our arrival day with my Priority Club points through Holiday Inn. This saved me over $100 and we got a great, great 1 bedroom suite.

We booked a 7 passenger minivan from Hotwire and ended up with a Hertz rental. They were helpful and friendly, quick to get us the minivan the day we picked it up and very helpful later in the trip when we had an issue with the transmission. We planned to drive to Florida and have found that leaving between 4 pm and 6pm from our upstate NY home works best because we bypass NYC , Washington DC and Jacksonville, FL rush hour traffic.

We booked a scooter for my grandmother with Apple Scooters and planned to pick it up at Crossroads on the day we arrived.

We booked one breakfast at Tusker House and planned to eat at the condo for breakfasts and dinners most nights.

We booked five 7 day regular tickets through an acquaintance and planned to turn 2 of them into annual passes for my husband and I so we can head to Food and Wine in October. This was a NIGHTMARE…so more on that later when we get there…hold tight because it was a train wreck. This is where I…the all knowing Disney planner became humbled. It wasn’t pretty. I have never once used anyone but Disney for my tickets and I will never, ever, ever, ever do it again. I will say that I ended up saving $340 plus change on the 5 tickets and it was the only reason I did it. The $340 was NOT WORTH THE HASSLE and I’ll absolutely never, ever do it again. Never. Get the point? NEVER. Ugh.

Ok…so we have the basic plans down. First day of the trip report to follow. There will be moments…I can guarantee you that. There was laughter. There was swearing. And at one point a small boy was sucked under my grandmothers scooter. Yes, under it. Welcome to my trip report!

 

[justgeorgi]

Day before the trip begins!I worked today until 5pm and then went to the local deli to pick up meat, cheese and rolls for the trip. When I got home I did a load of laundry, packed up the rest of the things we needed and made a short list of things I needed to do around the house before leaving tomorrow. My husband came home from work, went to his bowling night and then came home and hung around for a little while before going to the local casino to kill time. He planned to stay up all night so he could sleep the next day and be fresh for his drive to DISNEY! He also planned to go to the bank and take out some money for the trip. I did a bunch of odds and ends and packed all my daughters competition attire for the pageant we were going to on our way home from Disney, played on the computer and stayed up until around 11pm and my daughter stayed up till around 9pm as she had to work early the next morning. Nothing majorly of interest really happened at all.

TRIP DAY!Husband came home at 6am, stayed up long enough to see daughter off to work and then went to bed. I stayed in bed until around 9:30 and although I wanted to really sleep in I just couldn’t. In the words of the old Disney commercial I was just “too excited to sleep!” I got up, made coffee and relaxed with the dogs on the couch with my laptop. I eventually showered, ran my aunt who lives below us to the grocery store and went and got my hair cut. My aunt is taking care of our animals and my grandmothers animals while we were gone and because she is sight impaired and cannot drive we wanted to make sure she had what she needed.

After I got home and let the dogs out, my daughter got home and hopped in the shower and checked over her bags to make sure she had what she needed. (She had more than she needed of course.) I made sandwiches and snacks and packed up the coolers. My husband woke up and we headed off to the local airport to pick up our rental van. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for the first of many, many coffees over the next 20 hours! It took almost no time at the airport and before you know it we had a very nice white 7 passenger minivan in our possession. We went home and packed up the van which actually took longer than expected, said goodbye to our dogs and cats and then off to pick up our daughter’s boyfriend. We were on the road around 6:30pm! We ate our dinner of sandwiches, fruit and chips and didn’t stop until we got into New Jersey for potty breaks and to fill the thermos with coffee. We had to remind my grandmother that we were ALL stopping to use the bathroom and wouldn’t be stopping again for some time. She at first refused and then after some convincing she realized she should try. It is very similar to dealing with a small child! The drive itself was pretty uneventful. The kids watched movies, we listened to the Sirius radio included in the van and slept most of the time. My grandmother refused to sleep and kept my husband awake with her stories. She had one for each exit we passed and she regaled him with these stories that he heard the last time we took her. These stories were missing some people and details due to her dementia but they were funny nonetheless and kept him awake!

We drove through the night and bypassed traffic in NYC, Washington DC and stopped in Georgia around 8am for breakfast at Waffle House. This is a tradition that we absolutely love! However this trip it wasn’t so good…they messed up each of our orders and they had a not very helpful employee who believed more in leaning and barking at others then she did in helping! They really screwed up the waffles (go figure) but we were so happy to be there and to be on vacation that we didn’t care! It was FREEZING when we left NY and still pretty cold in Georgia but it was warming up!

After an average breakfast which we paid for with pre-paid visa cards (less than $30 for all five of us) we got back on the road, stopped for a potty break and gas and arrived in sunny, beautiful Florida around 1:30 pm. We tried checking into our hotel on International Drive but they told us that we would have to come back around 3pm. I heard the housekeeper say “room is ready” but I didn’t push it. We went to Apple Scooters at Crossroads and picked up the scooter for my grandmother…it took less than 5 minutes! Great to deal with and very friendly and quick! We then realized “Hey we are starving” and went to Fudruckers Burgers for an expensive but quite delicious lunch/dinner. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel…of course going the wrong way on I-4 and backtracking. We checked in and everyone showered and freshened up.

My husband was pretty tired and dizzy. He was very ill a year ago which left him with pretty horrible vertigo. He said it didn’t bother him driving but stopping and getting out to pump gas and walk around it did bother him and being so tired from the drive he was pretty wobbly and dizzy. We inflated the inflatable mattress for the kids and pulled out the pull out couch and got all the beds situated knowing we were coming back from the parks really late. We stayed at Staybridge Suites on International Drive in a one bedroom suite. It was very nice, roomy with a great bathroom and separate vanity area, kitchen, dinette set, pull out couch, two tvs, free breakfast and snacks. I would definitely stay there again! The price was great (free for us with Priority Club points) but averages around $100 per night and they were offering all sorts of great deals at the front desk for savings! This was our first time in 19years staying on International Drive and I was impressed with the amount of very nice places to shop and eat!

After freshening up we headed to Walt Disney World! $14 to park???!!! Highway robbery! I gave the ticket and transportation center cast member the blood money and away we went to handicapped parking. It was pretty late in the day, after 6pm and I was aggravated that we had to pay for parking…especially since he said he would have let us go through except his manager had just done a walk through…argh. After parking in handicapped and pulling out the scooter we took our first walk to ticket will call.

This is where it gets sticky.
Remember when I said we bought tickets from an acquaintance? Yeah I saved $340. Was it worth the money? Did I get scammed? Did we even get into the park? We wanted to see the new castle show, the holiday wishes and the parade. It was just after 6pm and the park was open til 1 am. Stay tuned to see if we made it in and if anyone was seriously hurt in the process!

 

[justgeorgi]

When I last left you we were arriving at Ticket and Transportations ticket will call office to pick up 5 adult park passes to the Happiest Place on EARTH! I quickly got in line with my I.D. and my confirmation code only to be told that my tickets could not be issued because the card used to purchase them was flagged as stolen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT???? I was floored and upset obviously. A supervisor of some type was called over who held onto my drivers license and asked me a bunch of questions I could not answer. Now mind you at this point I was under the assumption that an acquaintance had purchased these tickets from her friend who worked in ticket group sales for Disney and that all was on the up and up. I called the person I booked tickets through and had her on my phone and she told me to head to guest relations at the Magic Kingdom and she would take care of it from there, told me not to worry, she had been doing this for 10 years and had never had this happen. I was freaking out obviously. Here I am on the 1st day of my 7 day vacation with NO TICKETS!!! IN the meantime the “supervisor?” held onto my drivers license. I asked for it back and she told me “No, you cannot have it back.” I said “Excuse me, why not? I’m heading over to guest relations at the park.” She said “Oh no you aren’t, you aren’t going anywhere.” I was FLOORED. I said “Excuse me, I can go anywhere I want, you need to give me my drivers license immediately.” The other woman who originally took care of me looked FLOORED as well and said “excuse me just one moment ma’am” and disappeared behind the little half wall and came back with my license and said “I apologize, here is your license, good luck at guest relations.” I thanked her and went off on my way. I was shaking I was so upset. In the 19 y ears I have been going regularly Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Disneyland Paris I have never, ever met such a rude cast member. She treated me like a criminal. I was in tears.

My family and I headed to the ferry and I had to convince my grandmother that her scooter would definitely be allowed on the ferryboat. This was a recurring theme with my grandmother. She has been to Disney many times, has gone with us before and on our last trip 4 years ago with her we rented her a scooter which obviously we took in lines, boats, rides, monorail, buses, etc. This was the dementia kicking in. She was actually nervous she would get turned away. I felt bad but was distracted by the whole “Will we have tickets” going through my mind.

The ferry boat ride over was nice and calmed me down. It was nice to see my daughter so excited to share this trip with her boyfriend and the happiness on her face was enough to calm me down. My husband told me not to stress out, that if need be we would just purchase new tickets and figure out how to get a refund later. In the meantime we arrived and went through security and then our ticket person called me back. She gave me a new confirmation code and stayed on the line with me while we went up to get them. She assured me that if they did not work this time the guy from ticket sales would meet us at the park and personally escort us in. REMEMBER THIS...it will come into play later in the trip! She offered us water park tickets or Disney Quest tickets for our trouble and I declined once the tickets worked. Should have gotten those perks!! With tickets in hand we went through the turnstiles. Again my grandmother started getting agitated, worried she would not fit through the turnstiles with the scooter and I explained to her that they opened the gate. Already this was stressing me out. What seemed obvious to us was not obvious to her at all and it broke my heart and stressed me at the same time. My emotions were swirling! Normally I take pics of the front of the train station before heading under the tunnel but with the stress and the ticket situation I just went through the tunnel. I admit I was stressed, upset and not at all my usual self but I tried to push myself into my “I’m in Disney” mode.

My daughter was so thrilled she was literally skipping, bringing me back to her days as a toddler and small child doing the same thing on Main Street USA. She goofed around and pulled her boyfriend down the street, excited to make her way in front of the castle. Maneuvering with my grandmother’s scooter already was proving to be “interesting!” She continually put it up to RABBIT in the crowds, flooring it essentially and gave us no indication that she cared at all about other guests. My husband kept reaching over to turn the scooter speed back to somewhere around TURTLE. She would then get upset or “sneaky” and turn it back up to RABBIT. We tried explaining to her that in crowds, stores and lines it should always be at TURTLE to save other peoples ankles. She said something along the lines of “They should pay attention to the scooter.” It was difficult to get her to understand. We have been in the park less than 10 minutes and already small children and unsuspecting guests are in danger of being run over by Richard Petty cleverly disguised as Betty White!


We headed over to Adventureland while my daughter and her boyfriend got Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Crowds were pretty thick but we made it in no time, bypassing all gift shops! We had plans to meet up with some pirates but the line for Jungle Cruise said 20 minutes and it was dark out. In 32 years of going to Magic Kingdom I have NEVER ridden Jungle Cruise at dark…so we popped into the 20 minute standby line. They promptly sent us to the handicapped entrance with the scooter and we were loaded onto the very next boat. SCORE one for the scooter! The driver guide was adorable, obviously was enjoying himself and our cruise was funny and enjoyable. I enjoyed it at night and look forward to doing it again! After Jungle Cruise we headed to Pirates and were escorted through a back door to get to handicapped entrance. I did NOT like this. I’ve taken the backstage keys to the kingdom tour and I expected to go “backstage” for this tour but not on my regular trip. The ride is lacking something when you don’t walk the long dungeon hallway. My grandmother had to transfer to a wheelchair so I don’t see the point in taking us past the castmembers entrance. I love the ride, don’t get me wrong and I liked the no waiting in line but it lacked “ambience” and I wish we stood in line. My grandmother enjoyed the ride and took the first conveyor belt trip back out of Pirates. This was interesting to say the least. I told her to walk quickly and hold my arm, she made it on! We wandered around the gift shop a bit while my daughter ran to get the scooter.

After this we headed to Big Thunder Mountain. My grandmother refused to go on, kept saying it would go upside down. No matter how many times we told her she had been on it before it was to no avail, she didn’t believe us. She is 82 years old and a bit of a daredevil, has ridden this several times but sadly cannot remember the details. We were sent from fastpass entrance to the exit to get on with the scooter. She sat with my husband and I sat behind them with my daughter and her boyfriend in front of them. In front of my daughter and her boyfriend was a mom and her son about 9, 10 years old. My grandmother IMMEDIATELY began swearing, threatening to kill my husband, etc. The long spew of obscenities was both hysterical and shocking. Did she enjoy the ride? YES. Did we? Um…sure? We were hysterical laughing at her antics but I was also very embarrassed by her behavior, especially when I had no control over it. I told her she could not swear like that on the rides or in front of children and other guests and she was so worked up she said she “didn’t give a ….” well you probably can figure out what she said. Yikes. Mickey Mouse I’d like you to meet Potty Mouth. My husband and the kids thought it was hysterical, I was stressed to the max, I felt like a rubber band about to pop.

We decided to try something more sedate and headed to Haunted Mansion. The line was out into the street and said 50 minutes. I knew that it was probably deceiving and figured we had nothing else to occupy our time so we got into line. Once we got to the split we chose to stay in the regular line rather than the new interactive side. I wanted to see it in daylight and take pics. We went into the stretching room and found out that my grandmother has a lot of difficulty seeing in the dark…and some of my family thinks its ok for her to keep driving….but I digress. We literally had to push the handle on the scooter to get her across the stretching room and to the handicapped entrance. This is where I got annoyed. We were escorted down a hallway and told to turn right…just to find ourselves at the exit of the ride back outside. Really…they should have just sent us there in the first place. I understand that everyone should wait in the regular line…but really? If we are just going to be sent outside to park the scooter then why are we being sent through the line? Makes no sense. I am sure we could have walked right to the exit but it was just poor planning on my part. Its only been one other time that I traveled with the scooter so I realized I still had much to learn about time saving and time wasting. We were escorted into the ride and I told the castmember they would need to totally slow down the belt because my grandmother would have trouble getting onto it and even longer to step into the ride. This will factor in later in the trip on the same ride. She managed to get in almost just in time thank goodness. She has very bad knees, is a larger woman and she is 82 years old…that combo alone makes it difficult. She enjoyed the ride and I pointed out all the new stuff they have done. We especially LOVED when the hitchhiking ghosts ripped our heads off and switched them! Absolutely AMAZING effects! I loved it!

After this we exited (with some difficulty again) and then went to find our place for the Holiday version of Wishes, the castle show and 2nd Main Street Electrical parade. We stopped for hot chocolate and found a great spot on the bridge coming out of the area near presidents…we settled my grandmother and her scooter near the bridge wall and she had a great spot. With a very small opening in front of her so she wouldn’t feel smooshed. The new castle show…its pretty incredible! I absolutely LOVED it…I got literally nothing on camera or video though…figuring I would get it later in the trip. After the show the fireworks began…and a woman squeezed herself into the 6 inch spot in front of my grandmothers scooter. She turned to her friend and said “I found a spot right here, no one is here, I can’t believe it.” Um…really? I tapped her on the shoulder and said she needed to re-squeeze out of the spot because she was blocking my grandmothers view and was in all honesty, right in her personal space. I understand some people have zero manners but REALLY??? She did move to the side a little bit but basically kept trying to squeeze back in. It wasn’t even that crowded so not sure why she felt she needed to have a scooter basket molesting her lol!

After the fireworks we moved back over the bridge and found a spot for the 2nd parade right in front of Liberty Tree Tavern…and found that the 2nd parade, in handicapped seating section basically means you have your own private viewing area. It was kinda, sorta, awesome! LOVED IT! After the parade we headed back out and had almost no wait for the ferryboat. We got back to Staybridge Suites, did all our bedtime business and got to sleep around 1am. Tired, exhausted, stressed…we all slept great!

Tomorrows plans-full day at Magic Kingdom, checking into our condo, grocery shopping and Magic Kingdom or Downtown Disney! Will we have tickets waiting for us at Will Call? Will our condo be nice? Will my grandmother run anyone over? Stay tuned…more to come!

 

[justgeorgi]

After a bit more stress (wait a whole lot more than any other trip before this) I left you with us falling asleep in our great 1 bedroom suite at Staybridge Suites. I got up first around 6:30 and showered and then woke my husband so he could hop in the shower before I woke the kids and my grandmother. We all finished getting ready and brought our stuff out to the van to pack it back up again. My husband and I also made sandwiches and gathered up snacks, packed up the soft sided lunch cooler and headed downstairs for the free breakfast offered by the hotel. The breakfast here was great..they had a make your own Belgian waffle section and a great variety of fruit, yogurt, cereal and standard bacon and eggs. Great for free!

Off we went to the ticket and transportation center where the cast member had to crawl thru the van window to rip the $14 parking fee from my cold, dead hands….or rather I gave him the money but begrudgingly slow. I hate that we are charged SO much money to PARK. What a racket! We parked in handicapped parking, unloaded the scooter and I tried to mentally prepare myself for the tickets to not work at will call again as well as prepare myself for the horrendous driving I knew would ensue once my grandmother sat on her scooter. We took the monorail this time and were on it in no time although my grandmother did manage to rip a chunk out of the wheel of her back scooter tire backing off the ramp out of the monorail!!! Here we go! We went through the security pretty quickly and YIPPEE today our tickets were at will call with zero issues. We were through the turnstiles without a problem! The kids took off for Space Mountain Fastpasses and hubby and Nana and I wandered to Tomorrowland stopping to get photo pass pictures done in front of the castle and in the rose garden. We met at COP and took a spin around this fabulous attraction, then went to Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor where the scooter got us prime seats and then headed over to Space Mountain. We left my grandmother with a large coffee outside the gift shop and headed off to fast pass land! The standby line was out the door but we were on the ride in no time. We were on the left side and let me tell you….the ride is great but rough enough in the dark to make it a ride I can do only once a day (or trip!) My husband’s vertigo was affected more by the dark than by the ride itself and he wobbled out of there. We met up with my grandmother outside the gift shop where she had purchased a Tinkerbell sweatshirt for herself. This sweatshirt really became an argument later in the trip. She insisted that the fur lined hood and body of the sweatshirt made it a “winter coat” and refused to wear it later in the week when it got really cold out. I kept telling myself it’s the dementia but oh my gosh I was starting to feel my eyes twitching!

We headed over to Stitch’s “show” and my grandmother loved it and thought his gross burping was hysterical and wanted to know how he did it! When we went to get in line for Stitch we got into the standby line and went almost all the way through it when the cast member (who could clearly see us in the almost nonexistent line stopped us and made us go back and “transfer” to a courtesy wheelchair. This was annoying in itself because we had to go back through the line, take the scooter and park it and then get a courtesy wheelchair. She should have told us this as we tried to get into the line and not after we had walked the whole thing first. We did as she asked, got the chair and went in through handicapped. They had to open the gate for the wheelchair and my daughter pushed my grandmother through. I guess I wasn’t really paying attention when the young lady at the gate was waving me thru the turnstiles but I walked in behind the chair. The girl said “I was trying to get you to go through the turnstiles” and I said “Oh I’m sorry, I guess I wasn’t paying attention. She said “oh Whatever” very snottily! I said “excuse me did you just say WHATEVER to me?” She said yes, you ignored me. I said to her “Well first of all I didn’t hear you AND I also apologized for not paying attention and 2nd of all, I am a paying customer and not only do I not appreciate getting an attitude from a castmember I certainly do not appreciate it on my vacation! She said “Whatever” again and turned her back on me. I was LIVID. Needless to say because of it we ended up going to the left and not the middle and ended up in the front row of the pre-show and not the middle row which turned out to be not a big deal at all. The castmember inside said “you are supposed to be in the middle section and I told her the young woman working the outside was very rude and turned her back on me. I tried not to let it ruin my day but I should have said something about it to a manager because it is just so rare to have rude castmembers and I think if we speak up they can do something about it.
We still had a few moments before we could get onto Buzz after Stitch so we headed to the People Mover. I love this attraction! It’s so simple yet wonderfully done and gives you a nice break and a great view. My grandmother with help managed the conveyor belt to the ride and back from the ride pretty well. We stopped to eat lunch and then headed to Fantasyland and went on Snow White, then Winnie The Pooh and Mickey’s Philharmagic and before heading out we went on the Haunted Mansion and checked out the interactive queue. It was adorable and very well done. I really enjoyed the extra touches like the melting candle perched on the organ! Again we were shuttled out of the line and back outside which is just weird to me. This time we were ready for it. It was VERY difficult for my grandmother to see in the dark again but we managed. After the ride we left to check into our condo.

We decided we would unload the van and let everyone settle in and unpack and rest while hubby and I ran to the nearby Super Walmart for groceries for the week. We rented a great 3 bedroom condo that was 1st floor handicapped accessible from Grand Palms Resort through Tim Swenson. He was great to work with and gave me a fabulous deal that included cleaning and deposit. We had it for 6 nights. When we got there the key code worked great, parking was right outside. The condo was wonderful, roomy and bright and clean. The bathrooms were roomy and there was a nice little laundry area. While my grandmother and the kids unpacked and got themselves situated we found a nearby Super Walmart that was just off 192. This was less busy than the other one on the other end of 192 and the one on 535. They had a nice wine & beer selection and also a good sized “Disney” themed section. We purchased a cute magnet for $1.99 that would have been $6.99 in the parks! We bought enough groceries and snacks for the week and headed back to the condo $150 poorer! We planned to do all but 1 breakfast at the condo, all lunches would be packed and all but one dinner would be eaten at the condo. So $150 for 5 adults I thought was a great deal. Prices were the same at this busy Walmart as they are in upstate NY so there were no surprises.

I called ahead to ask my daughter to start boiling water for pasta and when we got back I made a nice dinner of pasta alfredo, sautéed chicken breast and salad. After dinner we decided to head to Downtown Disney for shopping and dessert. Downtown Disney was of course VERY crowded. We did some shopping at World Of Disney and picked up a few things for the kitchen (adorable wooden spoon set which will probably be hung on the wall) and other things to bring home for friends and co-workers. We purchased enough to get the new fleece throw of the castle so that was sort of my gift to myself, I like them so much better than the woven throws.

Earlier in the day my aunt called from home. She told me that my grandmothers dog who is a tiny little chiahuahua had become very ill, vomited blood among other things. I had called another aunt to see if she could take her to the vet as my aunt at home is sight impaired and cannot drive. My aunt basically point blank refused and my husband ended up getting his mother to take her. This worked out well thank goodness. So anyway, my aunt called to fill me in the drama ensuing regarding the dog going to the vet. The vet said she was very ill and apparently had been fed the end of a turkey bone on Christmas day a few days earlier which irritated her stomach lining and caused an infection. We have told my grandmother for years NOT to feed her dogs people food but she doesn’t listen and with the dementia coming on this has proven to be an issue. Unfortunately my husband and I were stuck with a $540 charge to our bank account in order for her to receive treatment. I was very upset because no one wants a big charge let alone on vacation. I was also upset that both my aunts did not offer to help pay the bill, knowing my grandmother is on a fixed income and knowing we had to pay it. My aunt was upset because the vet said the dog would have died had she not gotten treatment and IV medicine and thank goodness they caught it when they did. Additionally my other aunt started drama insisting that there was nothing wrong with the dog and wanted to get the dog from the vet. I kept the call from my grandmother and we decided we would tell her about it when she got home.

So with that happening we stopped off at a few other stores while my husband took my grandmother to Once Upon A Toy to shop for a present for her great granddaughter. We ended up with no dessert because we decided to eat ice cream at home and after a little more shopping and photos taken of the new Lego displays we headed back to the condo. Our night ended with a load of laundry, ice cream, television and rest. We had a full day with drama that was out of our control and family issues we did not want to deal with on our vacation. Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we planned a full day at Epcot to ring in the New Year!