Our Very Merry, More than Magical Disney Vacation!

[jaimee1024]

Cast members: Me (39), DH (39) and DD (6)...FIL along for first four nights of trip

Dates: December 1-8, 2006

I'm pretty new at this, so please bear with me! If you are reading this, thank you for letting me share my Disney JOY!

We left our house in VA on November 30 and drove to Amelia Island, FL to stay one night with my FIL. He joined us for the first part of our WDW vacation...his Christmas gift to us was paying for our upgrade to the Polynesian (from the Carribbean)! We were so excited to be able to stay at the Poly and my DD thanked him over and over again for "letting us stay at the Hawaii one"! Anyway...I felt blessed just to be on the road to Disney. I mean...I had actually been looking forward to spending 10 hours in the car, because it meant I couldn't be doing anything else. The Monday before Thanksgiving I woke up very sick...long story short...severe upper respiratory infection, anti biotics, cough syrup with codeine and two missed days of work. Also two missed days of shopping (for Thanksgiving and for our trip) and packing. One good thing came of it...I was able to change and make some ADRs and make lists of what to pack and also type up and print out my final itinerary. I joined TGM and let's just say I highly recommend him! Anyway...on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving I went shopping at Walmart for all the stuff I would need to cook the next day...I did at least already have a turkey thawing at home. I woke up feeling much better T'giving morning and another long story short...things were going GREAT! My Dad, who has had the roughest couple of years (he survived lung cancer in 2003, took care of my Mom who had ALS for several years, Mom died in Feb. 2005 and in Jan. 2006 my Dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor) Dad's tumor was successfully removed in surgery, but unfortunately it was malignant and he had to have several weeks of radiation. He also lost part of his brain in the surgery, so he has never been able to walk, talk and hear the way he used to. But on T'giving day he looked better than I had seen him in years. He was happy, smiling, joking around etc... I was HAPPY! I was also at ease knowing I still had the long weekend to finish shopping and packing for our trip. HA. It was all too good to be true. About 30 minutes before I was to take the turkey out of the oven my Dad went out to his car to get his cell phone. He never came back in. I found him laying on the sidewalk face down, in the rain with blood all over his face. He had fallen (still don't know if he passed out or slipped) and had a subdural hematoma. He spent five days in the hospital and has never fully recovered. (more on that later). Well...so much for shopping etc... I spent the next five days going back and forth to the hospital. I also had to work Mon-Wed. I packed last minute (at least I had my list prepared) and was up until about 3AM the night before we left...thus my happiness at being "stuck" in our car for 10 hours. I slept and read a book (in my attempt to not think too much about my poor Dad...who was staying with my sister). I really wanted to enjoy this trip that I had spent over a year planning...but it was going to be hard not to worry about Dad.

 

[jaimee1024]

So, we spent the night at my FIL's beautiful home in Amelia Island (a vacation spot all its own) and then headed for WDW the next morning. We got to the Poly about 1 PM and I went in to the registration desk figuring our rooms wouldn't be ready yet. I got in the line for people who had pre registered (I had done so the week before when I was home sick) and my FIL got in the regular line. Neither line was long, but ironically, my FIL who had NOT preregistered got waited on before I did. The one person in front of me apparently had a problem with his reservation. Oh well...so much for saving time! But the good new was that our rooms were ready! The bad news...they wouldn't have a bell hop available for 30 minutes. So we had to lug all our luggage to our rooms ourselves without a cart. This meant several trips back and forth to the car. In retrospect, we probably should have gotten a snack and drink at the hotel and waited the 30 minutes for a bell hop to help us...but we were anxious to get to our room as we had an early ADR for The Spirit of Aloha that evening. The only things I had requested when booking the rooms were that we wanted a NON SMOKING building (non negotiable for me) and that we would prefer to be on the side closer to the TTC. We were getting "garden view" so my expectations were not grand. What a pleasant surprise it was to walk into our spacious, clean, tastefully decorated room in Tokelau! We had adjoining rooms (with FIL) on the second floor with balconies overlooking the quiet pool. While standing on our balconies, we could look out to the right and see the fireworks at night!! I was very happy with this room placement. I certainly don't think it would have been worth the extra $$$ just to be in a water view or MK view room when the only time we spent in our room was resting, sleeping, bathing. Also, Tokelau is perfectly located...a short walk to the Great Ceremonial House, the TTC, Neverland Club etc...) We all showered, changed and headed down to the spirit of aloha show. The weather was ideal...low 70s that night. We got our picture taken at the entrance to the show, and I regret not buying it because it turned out to be the only picture taken with all four of us...oh well. We had PERFECT seats! We were seated right up front and center. The waiter says he can always tell who has planned their trip way ahead of time because they have the best seats. It payed off making those reservations 180 days out! We thoroughly enjoyed the show. The atmosphere was great and food was good. DD went up on stage to learn to "hula" dance and also went up to celebrate her bday (she turned 6 on November 2, but we were celebrating her bday at WDW). It was a lot of fun and a great way to start our vacation. We walked along the beach on the way back and stopped in the GCH to check out the shops a bit. Then it was back to our room for a good night's sleep! Speaking of sleep...I need to do that now (work tomorrow ) so I will continue this tomorrow!

 

[OhMari]

I requested a non-smoking room too. Did you have any proof that you needed a non-smoking room?

How is your dad doing?