"It's So Much Fun Not Knowin Where You're Goin" Oct. 2013 Celebration! **6/22 FIN**

[amberg93]

Haha fair enough, However, I did hear that Pizzafari attendance has sky-rocketed since that review.

Oh, and before I forget, thank you for clarifying the MB issue as I just could not figure out how you guys got them. Now it makes perfect sense.

Well how could it not with that magical review

Yep. Sorry that I had your hopes all raised. Maybe someday they'll just get over it and send them to Canada.

 

[amberg93]

Day 1, Part 3: Hunger Sets In and An Important First!


Alright, so when we last left off, we were heading through Tomorrowland.

But we were not planning on staying there (although we did glance at the wait time for Buzz but it was too high for our liking). So where was it that we were heading?

If you guessed Fantasyland, you're a winner! Have some chicken dinner.

I'm not sure what I was capturing here, but Disney is pretty wherever.

Construction looms in the distance.

I'm not going to lie, I know it's for the greater good, but it's kinda an eye-sore at the moment.

The next thing we did was stop over at Mickey's Philharmagic to look at the FP return time for Winnie the Pooh, but it was too late in the evening for what else we had planned. So, with a heavy heart we passed on it (well, a not so heavy heart if you ask Marie).

Just about then the hunger was starting to get to us, to me especially and it was decided that we needed to find something to eat. So, since we were already in Fantasyland, we went ahead and headed over to Pinocchio's Village Haus to grab some late lunch/early dinner stuff.

This really great worker Melissa offered to carry the tray over to our table, so Marie could push me because the floor was terribly uneven and bad for trying to wheel myself and even just for being pushed and carrying a tray at the same time. It was a huge help and she was very kind.

Marie and I both got the meatball sub because I'd had it last year and it was delicious. I couldn't even finish it all this time. Marie got apple slices and lemonade with hers and I got french fries and Sprite with mine.

Once we were finished with that, we went ahead and wandered, trying to find something with a low enough wait time that we could do and not be late for our plans later on. It was pretty tricky at that point as most wait times were high. So we walked around until we saw something that we wanted to do.

That's right! We're doing the Laugh Floor Who doesn't love a bit of laughing?

I was glad to see that they had added in elements from Monster's University even though I hadn't seen the movie at that point because I'd been in the hospital when it came out and confined from going into public places all that much when I got to leave the hospital.

Once that was done we headed out of Tomorrowland.

Who doesn't love the Castle? From any angle it's beautiful!

From there we headed out of the Magic Kingdom because we had other plans to keep. I know, it was a short stay there but technically we still started out our trip at the Magic Kingdom and that's what counts.

We were about to have our first Monorail ride! For some reason there is a lack of pictures throughout the whole first day. My bad.

Isn't the GF beautiful all the time?

The TTC.

Speaking of beautiful. Here's my wifey.

And our destination.

I just like taking pictures of Marie.

And Spaceship Earth. It's beautiful too.

We've finally arrived!

And now we're ready to keep that oh so important engagement

Continued in Next Post​

 

[TheMaxRebo]

enjoying the start of your TR!

First off though, congrats on your successfully proceeding battle and at the point of not needing any more Chemo! And so glad that you have a partner to be with you through the process and support you - can't imagine how hard it would be to do on your own.

Sorry your arrival wasn't as magical as you hoped - setting the bar to high is why I never stay concierge level at a deluxe resort ... oh, and I don't have the money for that - but mostly the bar setting thing

Even if you didn't get in a ton of attractions going MK and then monorailing it to EPCOT is a pretty great start!

 

[amberg93]

enjoying the start of your TR!

First off though, congrats on your successfully proceeding battle and at the point of not needing any more Chemo! And so glad that you have a partner to be with you through the process and support you - can't imagine how hard it would be to do on your own.

Sorry your arrival wasn't as magical as you hoped - setting the bar to high is why I never stay concierge level at a deluxe resort ... oh, and I don't have the money for that - but mostly the bar setting thing

Even if you didn't get in a ton of attractions going MK and then monorailing it to EPCOT is a pretty great start!

Thank you And yes, I'm very blessed with the support that I was given.

You're right. I should stay away from doing that again. It is a hard fall though. I should have known better. I'll take your advice for next time

Thanks, I was pretty happy with how things started out Epcot is my favorite park.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Haha, very true. Construction areas are NOT pretty. But it's gonna be amazin' when it's finally done.

YAY for a great CM at Pinocchio's. I love hearing stuff like that.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a short stay at Magic Kingdom. It's still a great welcome spot to start your trip and get the "feelings" rolling.

Can't wait to see where you're heading upon your Epcot arrival, but that monorail ride in still remains one of the best rides in Disney.

 

[amberg93]

Haha, very true. Construction areas are NOT pretty. But it's gonna be amazin' when it's finally done.

YAY for a great CM at Pinocchio's. I love hearing stuff like that.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a short stay at Magic Kingdom. It's still a great welcome spot to start your trip and get the "feelings" rolling.

Can't wait to see where you're heading upon your Epcot arrival, but that monorail ride in still remains one of the best rides in Disney.

I hope it is done soon. Or at least prettier when I return.

She was great, we gave her a thank you card.

Yup and that's why we went ahead and went there even though we weren't staying. Seeing the castle and walking down main street is one of the best feelings in the world.

It was pretty great to ride the monorail. Last year we couldn't park hop so we had no reason to use the monorail. Now we've gotten to ride it and understand everyone else's obsession with it.

 

[khertz]

Even only a short time at MK is a great way to start off a Disney trip in my book.

Taking the monorail into Epcot is SUCH a great way to get there! I have only done it once and loved it. Now that we always have a car, there isn't really a need to do it for us, but it gives you some great views of the park as you arrive.

 

[princess_momma]

Hello!! First, congrats on no more chemo!! That's so awesome!!

I'm so excited to read your TR! We got there just a day after you! It'll be fun comparing trips! So far...our first MK restaurant was also Pinnochio's, where I also got a meatball sub, which I also couldn't finish!

Can't wait to see where you're headed to next!

 

[amberg93]

Even only a short time at MK is a great way to start off a Disney trip in my book.

Taking the monorail into Epcot is SUCH a great way to get there! I have only done it once and loved it. Now that we always have a car, there isn't really a need to do it for us, but it gives you some great views of the park as you arrive.

Well it's like the Golden rule of Disney to start at MK

I was so excited to take the monorail and see what everyone else was about all this time! Plus, you're right, Epcot is so beautiful that it's insane. I'd gladly ride that monorail a million times for those views all over again.

Hello!! First, congrats on no more chemo!! That's so awesome!!

I'm so excited to read your TR! We got there just a day after you! It'll be fun comparing trips! So far...our first MK restaurant was also Pinnochio's, where I also got a meatball sub, which I also couldn't finish!

Can't wait to see where you're headed to next!

I'm glad that you're here and thanks so much

Ooh that is awesome! I'll have to keep track of yours too to keep the comparisons up. And see if maybe we crossed paths unknowningly

Those meatball subs are huge! They could feed two people, especially with the fries that they add on. I'm surprised anyone finishes them completely.

I'm planning on updating tomorrow so the wait won't be too long

 

[amberg93]

Day 1, Part 4: "I'm going to my happy place!"



So we made our way into the park, past the empty bag check line.

As you know, food and wine goes on during this time so we got the signage entering.

Despite our late arrival, we did what everyone does when they first get to Epcot. We headed straight over to The Land and went to Soarin'.

We weren't about to wait in that line though.

Nope, our engagement was actually a FP+ for Soarin' from 5:20 to 6:20. We got there a bit on the later side of the spectrum, but still it was better than the 95 minute wait that was posted

Yes, this line was much better.

The chapter of this trip report comes from this ride because as Marie refers to it, this ride is her happy place. On the other hand, this ride scares me. I'm always afraid of falling out or jumping out (whenever I'm from a high place, I feel this need to get back on the ground however I can as quick as I can. I'd never actually jump but I feel like I should. My new found depression probably didn't help with this ride)

We ended up in row 1A and Marie was thrilled because that meant no feet in front of us. It also meant that I held on tighter to her hand and took deeper breaths.

After the ride was finished, we looked around The Land a little.

These balloons are so cute.

Look at all the fall decorations out in front of the Garden Grill.

They even had a scarecrow.

After that we headed downstairs and went to ride Living with the Land. We didn't take any pictures but it was completely relaxing and we loved it just as much as we had last year.

On a sidenote: the elevator in The Land pavilion is the jankiest elevator I've ever rode in. It worries me. Don't ride in it if you can avoid it.

Since we still had time before our FP+ for Test Track would open up (not until 7:05) we decided to head over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

A quick snap as we walked by.

I love how cute it is out there.

So we headed on our journey to find Nemo in our clam mobile and had a good time. After that, we decided that since we still had time, we were going to go ahead and do something that we had missed out on before!

Turtle Talk with Crush! Since I was in a wheelchair, we had to go through a separate area to get in. There was another family waiting with their daughter and they were fairly nice.

Look at the pretty lights back there!

A blurry picture of the doors where we entered.

Our view in the theater.

We really enjoyed the show. It was so well done and we laughed a lot. The kids asked some really cute questions too. I don't remember any of them, but I awwed a lot.

Spaceship earth is so pretty at all points of the day.

Finally, we were on our way to Test Track to use our FP+.

So gorgeous.

We've arrived!

This was another first for us because last year when we went the ride was being refurbished. So we never got to experience the old one.

The ride was pretty busy that night with the regular wait time at 70 minutes on top of the 30 minute single rider line.

We each got to design our own cars since no one got put behind us and... we loved the ride! It was a great thrill and we screamed and had a blast.

My car was the most efficient in the group and got 3rd in another category. Marie got 2nd in two categories.

A redneck photo of our ride picture.

Our cars. Mine was the green one.

Continued in Next Post​

 

[amberg93]

Day 1, Part 5: Calling it a Day


So, we glanced around the gift shop and then we had to decide what we wanted to do. Epcot was open until 10 that night because of the Food and Wine festival. We had a FP+ reservation coming up for Spaceship Earth: Green Side that started at 8:05 which wasn't too far away.

However, we didn't know what to do in the mean time and on top of that, our tiredness was starting to get to us. We both knew that we wouldn't be able to last until the end of the night to catch my favorite fireworks show.

And that is how we ended up here:

Given that I was in a wheelchair, I got to get in first despite the line.

See, that was the bad part about the wheelchair. I always felt guilty when I cut a line. On top of that, people tended to look at me like "Why are you going in that line? You don't need a wheelchair." Which was really an eye opener for me to not judge people at all since you have no clue what is going on in their lives.

On the way back to the resort, they ended up playing my school's fight song which is also the U of M fight song as well. I sang along quietly as we made our way back.

Not too long later, we were greeted with this sight:

I have to admit that it was pretty

After that Marie wanted to stop for an ice cream sandwich in the food court. But much like last year, I wasn't in the mood for food and especially not sweets.

So while waiting for her, I wheeled myself out and watched Monster's Inc from the wrong way.

It was only supposed to take a few minutes but I ended up watching from where Randall tried to suck the screams out of Mike all the way to when Boo was beating Randall with a bat.

Finally, we were able to make it back toward the room. It was too cold for my taste, so I snuggled under a blanket and turned on the TV.

Yup, that's right. I learned the story of Duffy bear before sleepy time. Stacy's channel wasn't working at all during the time we were there. Neither was the DVC channel but it wasn't a complete loss because we aren't Stacy obsessed.

After that, I caught up on writing the trip report and called my family to chat for a few minutes about my day and to let them know that I got there alright.

Then we went to sleep. Super early and it was super lame but I was exhausted from traveling all day and so was Marie.

Continued in Next Post​

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

See this is the real benefit of FP+. To be able to enter Epcot that late and go right to Soarin' is just awesome!

I feel for you on Soarin', I really do. I love it, but I can certainly see how anyone with any kind of hight issue would be afraid since it's so realistic.

Glad you enjoyed Test Track. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like you may have found the camera? It looks like you're looking at it.

You make a really good point about judging people. This is why I ALWAYS give people the benefit of the doubt because you just don't know.

Ooh, yeah, I think I might have a little problem with no Stacey channel.

Honestly, it's not lame at all to get a good night's sleep on travel day. There's so many more adventures to come. No need to exhaust yourselves right at the start.

 

[freckles04]

Park hopping looks like so much fun! Maybe one day I will splurge for PH's or AP's. I have not done the Laugh Floor before.. do you think it is worth doing at least once? I'm afraid I'll get picked to be the person on screen (at least I've heard it works like that...)

 

[amberg93]

See this is the real benefit of FP+. To be able to enter Epcot that late and go right to Soarin' is just awesome!

I feel for you on Soarin', I really do. I love it, but I can certainly see how anyone with any kind of hight issue would be afraid since it's so realistic.

Glad you enjoyed Test Track. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like you may have found the camera? It looks like you're looking at it.

You make a really good point about judging people. This is why I ALWAYS give people the benefit of the doubt because you just don't know.

Ooh, yeah, I think I might have a little problem with no Stacey channel.

Honestly, it's not lame at all to get a good night's sleep on travel day. There's so many more adventures to come. No need to exhaust yourselves right at the start.

Yup, it was pretty awesome. And we still got to start teh day the way we wanted.

Soarin' is fun but it's so scary for me. I ride it though because Marie loves it and I'd hate to deny her her favorite ride. She rides Winnie the Pooh with me, so it's okay.

I got lucky on Test Track. I still don't know where the camera is but I was just smiling away and looking around, so it looks like I know where it is

Yup! I know next time when I go, there will be no grumbling about anyone who I don't know personally (and hopefully no grumbling about anyone I do know personally).

I know, a lot of people would have

Exactly! Besides, we were starting a long trip and I'm still not up to par.

Park hopping looks like so much fun! Maybe one day I will splurge for PH's or AP's. I have not done the Laugh Floor before.. do you think it is worth doing at least once? I'm afraid I'll get picked to be the person on screen (at least I've heard it works like that...)

I'm so glad that we got the APs and were able to park hop, even if we won't be doing it next trip because we don't ant to splurge on everyone else's tickets.

The Laugh Floor is great! It's lots of fun and it's cool, air conditioned and is a sitting show. We usually end up doing it in the evening, but it'd be a great way to escape the heat mid-day.

They do put people up on screen but it's only a couple of people and it's all good natured. I'm telling you, it'd be an honor to be on the screen

 

[RGirl]

Joining in!

What an absolutely wonderful reason to be celebrating - congratulations on finishing chemo! And you couldn't have picked a better way to celebrate.

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip.

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[amberg93]

Joining in!

What an absolutely wonderful reason to be celebrating - congratulations on finishing chemo! And you couldn't have picked a better way to celebrate.

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip.

And thanks for reading along. I'm glad you're here and thanks, I'm super happy to have finished chemo

Great update!

Thank you

 

[amberg93]

Real Life Update 1

So this has nothing to do with our trip but I still figured that I would share the news about what has been happening with my treatments.

I had a PETscan on November 2nd to see what sort of cancerous activity was still going on and on November 7th, I went to the University of Michigan to talk with a radiology oncologist there. Since they are the best in the state, my regular oncologist sent me for a second opinion about how to proceed with treatments given the way that my cancer had presented itself.

At the appointment I was given some news that I'd never had before and that was that when my cancer was discovered, it was at stage 2. Last time I'd been over there, they had told me my tumor was originally the size of a volley ball. They proceeded to tell me that on my PETscan there was no cancerous activity detected

However, I refuse to consider myself cancer free because I do need to go through 3 to 3 and a half weeks of radiation therapy before I'll be 'done' with treatments. I've finally gotten the call to say that I've got an appointment on Monday in another city closer to my town where they'll give me a CATscan and go ahead and figure out the exact place they'll give me radiation. After that it should start about 5 to 7 days later.

Since I don't know how I'll react to treatments (I hear fatigue is common and worse than with chemo even) I might have to cut down on how often I update. I still plan on updating before Monday and next week I should be able to get in a few updates as well. Once I start radiation, I'll probably post an update to let you guys know how I'm doing.

Thanks for reading along and I promise I'll get back to Disney very shortly


Continued in Next Post​

 

[RGirl]

Wow - that sounds like very good news!

I hope you handle the radiation well. I know some people don't experience as much fatigue as others. When I had mine (not for cancer, experimental treatment for a rare condition), I really couldn't move at all just from the fatigue, but the radiation treatments were not very focused (instead covering a large area), so the doctors felt that had something to do with it. I really hope you are one of the lucky ones who isn't too terribly affected by it.

 

[amberg93]

Wow - that sounds like very good news!

I hope you handle the radiation well. I know some people don't experience as much fatigue as others. When I had mine (not for cancer, experimental treatment for a rare condition), I really couldn't move at all just from the fatigue, but the radiation treatments were not very focused (instead covering a large area), so the doctors felt that had something to do with it. I really hope you are one of the lucky ones who isn't too terribly affected by it.

Thank you so much I'm sorry to hear that you had to have treatments of any sort but I hope that it at least did its job. I can't imagine being that fatigued and I'm glad that obviously that's a thing of the past

I hope I'm lucky too. I'm very worried about how it'll have an effect on me but I do hope that I don't have that much fatigue. I guess I'll just see when I get there