Introducing Amy to "Walt's World" *Updated twice 1/21 Last installments*

[maroo]

Whoops...

I understand about that walking...my feet were hurting! I am glad you guys are home...

I can't wait to hear about all of your adventures!!



.

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Awww Welcome Home! Sorry you got sick! I did too just after coming home. Its no fun. Can't wait to hear all about it though.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Welcome home Tracy and oh no that last paragraph sounds ominous

LOL, I didn't mean for it to sound ominous. I think I should have taken into account that she was a smoker. I mean I knew she smoked, she said it wasn't an issue at all. When she is here for 4 hours or more she smokes maybe once, but not on this trip. She said she was actually a pack a day smoker and she was always in search for a smoking area.

Ruh-roh.

Feel better.

TY, I hope I feel better very soon, I can't be sick, I have to help Bill.

Welcome home, Tracy!!!

Can't wait to hear the scoop!!!

TY!!

Whoops...

I understand about that walking...my feet were hurting! I am glad you guys are home...

I can't wait to hear about all of your adventures!! .

Hi Mary!! I had told Amy you can walk many miles a day in the parks and she might want to increase her walks with her dog to get ready, about 4 days into the trip she says "I really didn't listen to you when you said we would be walking a lot and I should have". My feet held up amazingly well. The standing always bothers me compared to the walking. I could walk all day.

Awww Welcome Home! Sorry you got sick! I did too just after coming home. Its no fun. Can't wait to hear all about it though.

Hello!! I could actually feel myself getting sick watching Festival of the Lion King when the fog was showing up. All the sudden I got stuffed up and a headache and thought "oh no". I hope I am over it before the next trip.

 

[TinkAsh2001]

I hope you feel better soon & that the trip was ok! Glad you made it home safe!

 

[luvfigment]

Glad you made it home ok but I am sorry you got sick! It will be interesting how the searching for the smoking areas will play out. Hope it was a fun trip and just think you will be back in 2 weeks!!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Welcome back!

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Welcome back Tracy and Bill! I am still bummed we didn't get to meet. I hope you are feeling better and I look forward to reading about your trip!

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

Welcome Home!
I can't wait to read about your trip!

 

[Baloo]

Hope you're feeling better!


It's funny how a trip with people you think you know can bring out all sorts of things you didn't know! OY! Been there done that!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Can't wait to hear about your trip... You've dropped a few hints on some other PTRs/TRs so I'm anxiously waiting to hear what happened.

 

[mrsksomeday]

I am in the process of starting the TR in Word. Not sure if I will post it before we leave (Nov. 11th) or after we get back (Nov. 18th).

Thanks everyone for reading. I am feeling better, but now Bill has a bad cough .

 

[mrsksomeday]

TR STARTS HERE!!​

Hello again everyone. Time to reintroduce the cast, first off those that were not coming, well only coming in flat form:
Ace: 4 year old Jack Russell/Rat Terrier (our dog) He is in 2 sizes because I wasn't sure which size I wanted.

Charley: less than a year King Charles Spaniel (Amy’s dog)

Now the live people that went on the adventure:

Bill: 38 - knight in shining wheelchair: My darling boyfriend, spousal equivalent, or what ever else you could call us. Gene Simmons (Bill’s idol) would say we have been “happily unmarried” for 4 years now. Bill has Cerebral Palsy, a speech impediment, can’t use his right hand, and uses a power wheelchair. He has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen, a fantastic sense of humor, and a smile that can melt your heart in a second. He has 3 college degrees and is currently working on his Masters in Rehabilitation Administration with a 3.8 GPA. He just got done building his second website for the company he works for.

Tracy: 38 - OTP: I’m pooh-sized, but really working on changing my life. I am a computer obsessed, soap watching, country/pop listening, Disney World A D D I C T. I totally admit it. I need a 12 step program for it, I really do. I can work the words Disney World into any conversation. I talk way too much about past trips, upcoming trips, and trips we haven’t even scheduled yet.

Amy: 22 – great friend: We met her in 2005 when Bill went to work for a summer camp for people with disabilities. They were camp counselors that summer and she is very familiar with Bill and his disability. She was in the same cabin with Bill for the first two weeks of camp. She has been a real friend to him, a true gem. Not many people give Bill a chance, they don’t get to know him, or they say they are his “friend” but usually don’t come around unless they need something. Not our Amy, she has been a fantastic friend since that summer and I don’t think she has any idea how much we adore her. She is wonderful with people with all types of disabilities, autistic children love her. I don’t know why she wants to hang out with people 16 years older than her, but thank goodness she does.

Ok, so where did we stay, what did we do while we were there, etc?
We stayed at Pop Century, 3rd time for Bill and I. This was Bill’s 10th trip, my 5th trip, and Amy’s first.

We did a MNSSHP, a Spirit of Aloha show, and a little thing you might have heard of called “Ip-Dip Fest 2008”.

Now that you know the basics, I hope you read about our trip. I had many hopes and dreams for this trip, too many as a matter of fact, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Next installment…where is the hotel?

 

[mrsksomeday]

(disclaimer – Bill and I are music fans, so we thought it would be fun to make the TR installment titles lyrics/titles of songs, cheesy yes, fun yes, are we going to stop NO)

I am going to steal some things from the PTR to show you the “plan” then what actually happened. I will warn you now, the obsessive trip planner in me was in a tizzy most of this trip. Things never turn out how you think do they?

The night before the trip, I took Bill’s electric wheelchair apart to clean it, so Bill sat on the couch. This only happens when he is getting his chair cleaned, he feels more comfortable in his wheelchair, so Ace gets really happy when Bill sits there.

Here is Ace and Bill. In the first picture Ace is looking at me, the second Bill is looking at me (work with me people I have TR pictures to take):

(please excuse the stuff on the back of the couch, see the highlighters? It was some of my planning stuff, also please excuse my use of parentheses, I use them too much)

In green I will post what the “plan” was, and in blue tell you what really happened, simple isn’t it ?

Fri. Oct. 17th: This is travel to St. Louis day. We will check into a hotel, the Marriott. Let Amy choose dinner somewhere around the hotel, go to bed early.

Fri. Oct. 17th: Took Ace to the boarders, he didn’t even mind this time (thumbs up). Got gas and picked up Amy about 12:30pm. This is where we got our first giggle. Our luggage was 3 suitcases, 1 for Bill’s medical needs, and 2 suitcases for clothes/misc. We pulled up and Amy had 2 very large suitcases, I can’t believe she didn’t pull her back out putting them in the van. She said she knew she packed too much but didn’t want to forget anything.

We were all eager to start our adventure and the time to get to St. Louis flew by talking to her. We were all starving, Bill and I had not eaten, and we were too excited earlier in the day and didn’t want anything. I thought why not have some fun before we go and I suggested we eat at:

We had a good meal, all decided that the “hooters” were more of an illusion than anything else on our waitress and were on our way to the hotel. It was not the Marriot. OMG you say? How could that be? Tracy adores the heavenly beds. Money people, it came down to money. Bill and I were going back to WDW in November and spending the amount of money for one night compared to where we went it was a no brainer.

The only issue was I hadn’t been to that hotel before and mapquest wasn’t quite right, so Amy whipped out her phone and got the GPS feature and we made it there, thanks Amy!!

Here is Amy with her massive luggage:

The keys didn’t work in the door to the room and I had to go get more. Here is the mandatory pic of the hotel room, it was an extended stay and we had a little kitchen with a full size fridge:

When we got settled Amy explained the luggage. She needed her flat iron, a hair dryer (she didn’t know there would be one in the room at Pop), her laptop, a blanket she likes, her Scooby Doo slippers, and some snacks. Pringles, Gatorade, cookies, etc. I think she thought we were going to starve her on the dining plan rotf.

I had to go get chocolate milk so Bill could get his pills down, that was fun trying to find my way back to the hotel, but who cares about that. I got out of the van and looked down and saw this by the front left tire.

It freaked me out, what if I would have run over this? Seriously, that is very unsafe. It looked like someone had pushed the parking bumper away with their car and this was left hanging there. I informed the front desk about it and went back upstairs. We were all in bed by 9:15pm.

I was out like a light. At 9:38pm I got a text message from Jodster (Jodi). Her ringtone is “Wishes”, so I didn’t realize it when it first went off I just laid there and listened to it. It finally dawned on me that I had a text, I opened my eyes and read it, but fell back asleep (sorry Jodi hugs). At 10:45pm my son called, I answered and said “um hello don’t you remember we are going to Disney tomorrow, we are in bed”, he had forgotten all about it. I turned the phone on alarm only.

Sat. Oct. 18th: We will be getting up at around 4:45am to get ready. The flight will leave St. Louis at 7:35am and we are scheduled to land in Orlando at 10:55am. Make the long walk to the Magical Express counter. I told Amy we will get many looks as a cast member walks us past the lines and tells us to sit on the bench while they tell the other CM’s to call for an accessible bus. People always look at us funny when Bill and I go wait there. Maybe they look at us funny because they think we are funny looking ? Who knows?

She will get to see the video on the Magical Express (ME) bus they play to pump us up before we get there. Yes, we better get a ME bus so she can see it, not a non ME bus or I will be an unhappy person. Think magical thoughts, I want things to go just right for us. I want that for all of you too when you travel, but I guess I am selfish - I especially want this trip to be a fantastic experience for her.

Sat. Oct. 18th: We got up at 4:30am, got everything together and made our way to the van. It was COLD!! Amy went down to smoke, she didn’t know the door would lock behind her and had locked one of her suitcases in the building just before we got down there, someone had let her back in. When it is cold, Bill doesn’t function well, he is cold natured anyway, but when he gets really cold she shakes. Shaking and driving a wheelchair don’t mix very well.

Here are Bill and Amy getting ready to get in the van:

I was worried the bag for Bill’s medical supplies was too big for a carry on, we were waiting in line for Southwest check in and I saw one of those “if you bag fits in this, it is fine for a carry on” right in front of us over the rope thing. I lifted the bag and went to place it in there and had a sharp pain in my left pinky finger. The weight of the bag had snapped my finger nail on both sides under the quick and it was bleeding. I had a first aid kit in Bill’s back pack, no problem right? WRONG! I couldn’t find it for anything and my finger was throbbing, it was really hurting.

We got up to check in, got Bill’s chair checked, our bags weighed, tagged, and got our boarding passes. Then it was Amy’s turn. She put the bag on the scale and it was 59 lbs. Oops, over the limit, I said she could transfer some of her stuff to one of our bags. Then she opened the bag I saw her laptop bag and said take that out. She was now under the limit and took her laptop as a carry on.

Security went smoothly and we went to wait for the flight. Amy found the smoking area and I took this:

We were first on the plane and let Amy have the window seat so I don’t have pics of them loading his wheelchair. It was an easy flight, but our ears were bothering us for a long time after we landed and Bill had the hiccups for hours on and off after the flight. He had them for a couple hours at a time, he has never had that happen before. We got off the plane and Amy called her mom:

Bill ready to get on the fake monorail:

We got to the ME location and it was a MADHOUSE!! What happened to the economy making people stay home? The tourism in Orlando taking a huge hit? The parks being empty? Well, that didn’t happen. Amy went outside to smoke, Bill went with her, and I got in line, the huge long line. They came back up and I told Bill to go to the end of the line and meet me where we usually go. I meant the end of the line where people get checked in at ME and leave that area.

I talked to the CM and told them we needed an accessible shuttle. Their standard procedure is to walk Bill and I to the left of all the lines so they can inform other CM’s that the accessible shuttle is needed. I went with the CM and Bill and Amy were no where to be seen. I finally figured out where they might be and they were by the benches in front of all the ME lines where people wait for the busses. See the craziness behind Bill:

The shuttle came really quickly and it looked like this:

WHAT?? HUH?? NO, No, no!!!! Where is the Magical Express bus?I was thinking to myself how crazy would I look if I said “excuse me, this is her first trip, we need the Magical Express, not some stupid yellow bus”, but I bit my tongue.

Here is Bill waiting for the driver to let him in the bus:

The driver actually knew how to use the restraints correctly woohoo:

It did have the same video:

It was just a let down to me. Before every long we arrived here:

Next installment… Does check in ever go smoothly?

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Yay!

I'm so happy that you started your TR!

OUCH! The finger incident sounds very painful.

I am kinda like Amy with my packing. I pack so much stuff because i just can't bear the thought of being without something I need! Fortunately, though, my DH is a very minimalist packer, so checks and carries one of my suitcases for me every time!

I am happy to read that they have hair dryers in the rooms a pop century. I read somewhere that they are available "upon request" and I thought they might run out since we're going at such a busy time.

Bummer about the non-M.E. bus.

I hope check-in wasn't too painful!

 

[DisneyJo]

Wooohooo it's started

Glad you arrived safely and boo on the non ME bus!

 

[Hedy]

Ouch to the finger!
Looking forward to more!
ETA-Nice sneakers, Bill!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Yay!! You started - I can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

So glad that you started!

The nail break sounds painful!

 

[maroo]

Yikes!!

I am sorry you got hurt before you even got on the plane!!!!


I am so glad you have started!!!!!!!!

Yeah!

 

[MRYPPNS]

Well we already have something in common from our trips. I (painfully) ripped almost every one of my finger nails off from the night before we left until about 3 days into the trip.

I started my TR....link in siggie.