Nice to see so many of us have had great trips! We've been home for two days and tomorrow DH goes back to work and real life starts again.
My thoughts on our trip...
The good things-
-We really liked the Castle Inn and Suites and didn't find it to be too far of a walk which I was afraid it might be. The family suite was PERFECT for us as we have a large family and are often crammed into hotel rooms. The only negative thing I can say about the hotel AT ALL is the AC units are directly beside the beds which made me sick ... really sick. I have bronchitis and some wicked back/chest pain from coughing and spent the last two nights sleeping part of the night in the bathtub for humidity to stop the cough. BUT it was worth it for our little girls to say they “slept in a castle”
-Our rentals through City Strollers, Apple Scooter and Sixt car rentals went really well. We paid less then 1/2 of what I was quoted for other places with Sixt and had a brand new SUV (1400 miles on it).
The Surprising-
-I thought Cars Land would be bigger for some reason but I LOVED the theme!
-The Castle tarp and drained water and land closures didn't bother me as much as I thought it would --- hardly at all actually.
-It was HOT - like really hot last week and we could have skipped packing pants (about 20 pairs we had with us for 7 people three of which are messy little kids) and coats which we NEVER wore and had 13 packed. (One light hoodie and one wind/rain coat for everyone but DH who just brought one.) I ended up using way less of the clothes we packed and having to do laundry mid-trip because I brought layers and it was too hot for most of what we had there.
What we LOVED-
-I really loved doing BBB with my little girls. We had some Disney magic which I did NOT want to post pre-trip so as not to jinx it. Our youngest is 34 months and under the 36 cut off obviously, I talked about it earlier in the trip planning here. Due to the nature of my illness I talked to guest relations and they made an exception for her to go to BBB. She LOVED IT and spent the entire day dolled up as "Princess Allison" (We brought our own dresses instead of pretending to be a Disney Princess for the day my girls were themselves AS princesses.) Our older daughter who IS actually 3 didn't like being dolled up as much and ended up in shorts and a t-shirt in under an hour which shocked me because she LOVES dressing up at home.
-The wishing well was open that morning too which surprised me because it was supposed to be closed so I got some amazing pics of the kids all dressed up!
-Fantasmic - We LOVED it. We got there only 5 minutes before the show and got rail in the handicapped section which was amazing. What I didn't understand though was why they didn't fill in the section with the hundreds of people crammed next to the boat dock who didn't get passes once the show started. VERY unfair.
Other things that went really well -
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DAS! I was worried about trying to navigate the DAS system but it actually went super easily and we were able to do WAY more with it then we would have been able to do without. The lines for RR were 90 minutes at one point with no fast passes left and we were able to use DAS more then once. It felt a little unfair but didn't stop us from using it –lol. We were even able to combine it with parent swap!!!
On being handicapped-
-We had DAS for our son with autism. I had a scooter for me- One thing that DIDN'T work out well though was the scooter lines. DAS seems to be so streamlined and the wheelchair lines not so much. The signage wasn't always clear so I ended up in the wrong spots a few times, places I couldn't navigate. I was never clear if I was getting a return time or not, and sometimes we were let on rides right away even though there was a large line which I didn't think was supposed to happen or right at all. Even the same attraction minutes apart would handle the scooter differently so I never knew what to do. I could see that being VERY hard for some people to manage.
Oh and people are AWFUL when it comes to scooters! I've read a lot of reports of people who hate scooters and strollers in the parks because they "hit people" well people are TERRIBLE. People just would not give me enough room to drive the scooter, or would cut in front or just dead stop OR one kid walked right into me while I was at a full stop because I saw him coming. The ONLY thing I could do was stop though - I was entering through the exit on pirates = narrow hall, kid looking behind him and me with no where to go but time to stop and yell which didn't stop him from walking right into me. Pirates was were had the only rude person to us too. The wheelchair line is outside BB and that hall is NOT wide enough someone yelled at DH to not stop in the way and we were like "we aren't "stopped" we are standing in a LINE." I managed not to hit anyone, an amazing feat really, except my own 3 year old who at the last minute tried to grab something from my basket, she was fine just startled. BUT seriously people give MORE ROOM. My Apple Scooter was fine, I'm an experienced driver because I own and use a scooter on a regular basis but these are NOT high quality scooters and they don't stop as soon as you take your hand off the throttle like they "should". I tested and at one point had about 3 feet of roll after "stopping" I had to jam on the reverse more then once, WAY more then once to stop from hitting people and then I look like a crazy driver - lol. I resorted to using hand signals like driving a car because I couldn’t get anywhere without people walking where I was trying to go especially if I wanted to turn around which for an able bodied person is fine but on a scooter involved a LOT of dirty looks for pulling a u-turn. Disabled people sometimes want to turn around too!!!
Another note RE scooters there was a lot of conversation on the Disabilities board about passengers and I was worried how I would manage it. In the end I did carry my toddler a lot. Only once was I asked to put her down and that was in a building, the rest of the time MULTIPLE CMs saw me and didn’t say anything. I tried really hard NOT to have a passenger because I know that Disney requested you don’t and a lot of people frown on it but in the end people were just NOT giving me enough space to safely get my toddler anywhere. She was either getting pushed away from me through the crowd or walking too close to the side and at risk of getting under the wheels so I made the safest decision I could. I was able to walk some this week too so I pushed the stroller sometimes and parked the scooter while for example doing parent swap and then someone had to go to the bathroom which happened MULTIPLE times – lol. Two is just too little to walk safely in a crowd – my 3 (almost 4) and 5 year olds were just fine though. Someone needs to invent a stroller attachment to a scooter! I could have REALLY used that this trip!!!
The BUMPs-
-The only things that went "wrong" were me getting sick but I can manage that fine.
-Our daughter had an allergic reaction to "something" an at one point was COVERED from head to toe in a rash - we think it might have been the detergent on the sheets but it didn't itch or bother her in any way - just didn't look pretty of course on her BBB day.
-Also United Airlines - I have never flown them before and will NEVER again. Their customer service was terrible, terrible. Just the least friendly ticket agents I have ever seen and I didn't understand their process and THREE employees were in front of me and finally someone else from way far away had to come and help because they would do NOTHING and we obviously looked confused enough a manager came over. Awful airline. The flight crew on the way down was not friendly, the gate agents bordering on rude - only the FA on the way home was nice. She was AMAZING actually and we gave her candies and a Valentine to show our appreciation.
-The exchange rate being so terrible we spent more then we meant to - lol.
-The Olaf meet and greet line --- this was the one time I got REALLY upset. We didn’t realize that there were two lines. We waited 20 minutes in the snow only line and when we got to the front of the line the kids were talking about meeting Olaf so the CM told me I was in the wrong place and sent me to the other line! Ok no big deal but a bit upsetting after already waiting. The “right” line had a 30 minute wait we were told. The line was moving along and when we were third to the front it just stopped moving. Us and 3 other families waited OVER AN HOUR in the hot sun for our pagers with no CMs! Finally I got nominated by the other moms in the line to find out what was happening. They were short staffed and ran out of pagers because people weren’t turning them in. One lady in the line FAINTS from the heat, not nice fainting either like call an ambulance scary fainting and a bunch of the kids start to cry. (The line was ALL preschoolers and toddlers and moms while the older kids and dads were on rides it seemed.) We finally get our pagers and then they tell us the snow is now closed for 1.5 hours!!! Well had I just gone in when my turn was there in the first line we could have seen Olaf from a distance and played in the snow which the CM didn’t tell me and I didn’t know. I was very hot, tired, and angry and did ask for a manager which there wasn’t one. In the end they let us meet Olaf and gave me a pass to come back to the snow later so we wouldn’t have to wait a third time. It was VERY poorly handled and what should have been 30 minutes was over two hours with no real “reason” other then they were short staffed. What is even MORE odd is that building is HUGE there doesn’t seem to be any reason why the meet Olaf line couldn’t just be in the building and/or FP like Ana and Elsa. Very bad planning I think and I could see it getting worse as the lines get longer and the heat hotter coming into summer. It’s not even a themed or nice place to wait.
Back to the good though
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-I'm not sure if anyone else had "extra" magic re the closures but our family had 2 ride passes per day to skip the lines. That was AMAZING and so kind of the CM who did it. I didn’t ask, she offered! It was our super trump card for crazy lines and "I have to ride that NOW" moments
Really made the trip!
Between DAS, wheelchair lines (the short ones anyway), fast passes, switch rider, and those passes (other then Olaf) we didn’t wait longer then 20 minutes for ANY ride even ones with 40, 60, 90 minute waits! I don’t think our trip would have been nearly as good without all the line “tricks” and DS and I would not have lasted as long as we did in the parks. Because we were able to take LOTS of breaks in the parks and just people watch we didn’t have to go back to the hotel and I never ended up in first aid which I TOTALLY thought I would have to do since at home I can’t manage my condition for more then a few hours of being out. It wasn’t the miracle cure I was hoping for but I got to spend a lot of time not being “sick” last week
AND we totally shared the magic when we couldn’t use our passes for the day and met some very happy people and one AMAZINGLY sweet local couple who were so adorable and thankful and we got to share a special few minutes with them.
All in all we had a great time. Not sure if or when we can go back both because of the expense of taking 5 kids and my condition but this was meant as a bucket list trip and I feel like we hit almost all of the things I wanted to do. We watched a lot of shows, the girls did BBB, all three of our boys were chosen together for Jedi training, we rode on a tonne of rides. Oh and although it was WAY more crowded at times then I expected we didn’t even have too much trouble finding counter service tables to fit 7 and a scooter - that in itself amazed me! The only things I’m “bummed” we didn’t make time for were inoventions (I wanted to see the Pan Room), musical chairs with Alice and the Princess meet and greets – we met Ana and Elsa but didn’t do the other princess “stuff” which I wish we had. There was just SO MUCH to see and do that it was impossible to do it all even WITH all the closures! It was overall an amazing holiday and just what we needed for our family!
Time to get busy & pack. Girls were thrilled with their vday gifts/aka Disney goodies for plane and park. Slipped a wallet with spending $ in their backpacks & they were tickled with excitement & they loved the autograph books I ordered from Etsy! Now just waiting a few more days so I can see the weather. 
Looked up Universal, Legoland & Sea World & it appears they let you bring water & snacks to most-excited to have such items delivered this trip from Vons-such a bonus!
obsessing over my tissue issues with my shoes.....(Deep guttural sigh) hm.... perhaps I shall just wear what I am for the whole week and then go barefoot....it's a thought. Not necessarily a good one but hey can't have everything. Apparently! Lmao!! yada yada yada yada...... 
