Ricola
Enjoying my family!
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2001
- Messages
- 1,569
Episode 4 - The tOW!er of tERROR!
This is a quick story of day 4 of our trip. Don't look for days 1-3 cuz I'm at WDW and I ain't got time right now.
Saturday was a pretty eventful one for us. We were hoping to make it to TL on the last day before it closes for refurb, but when we opened the door to 50 degrees and breezy, we nixed that idea. DW went outside the door to check the weather and overheard some voices from near the pool, "There are actually icebergs floating in the pool! And there are people in there" coming from a little girl.
We let the kids sleep in a bit, then swung by the food court to fill our mugs with coffee and head to MGM to fulfill DS4 Christopher's half of our "I'll ride Test Track with you if you'll ride Tower of Terror with me." (Just so noone calls child protective services on me, DS has already ridden a half dozen times, and sometimes lists it as his favorite ride, although it does scare the bejeebers out of him while he's on it. He proudly sports a collection of souvenirs from his previous visits. And he knows I dislike test track because of the huge lines and frequent breakdowns that plague it.)
As we're weaving through the MGM lot in our silver rental Pontiac minivan that looks just like the 32,000 other silver rental minivans that always seem to park wherever we do, the really poorly designed cup holder fails to perform its one purpose, to hold the cup containing DW's hot coffee. Since we were turning to starboard, the contents thereof was deposited expeditiously into my left shoe, burning my foot and leaving me with sodden footwear to patrol the parks in. Ouch, that's gotta hurt, #1.
After having our diaper bag and video camera carefully searched for all of 3 seconds (no doubt to ascertain that we were not attempting to pack in some powdered sugar or coffee mate) and promising DS that we would rent him a stroller on day during our trip as a treat for him (his first trip without one has been going pretty well thus far) we made a beeline for the ToT, stopping only to pull on little DD Susan's little pink socks, which she enjoys squirming out of but which are the only thing keeping her feet from becoming popsicles.
Since there's no wait at the ride, and since susan needs her breakfast, Mom agrees to find a little patch of sunlight and feed her while DS and I head for the Hollywood Tower Hotel. He's a little apprehensive, but willing to hold up his end of the "deal". We file into the "library", about 2 feet from the wall, and I'm looking around trying to find a spot where he'll be able to see the preshow as well as possible, when I hear a thud and Christopher yells in pain. A 3' by 4' panel which hides some electronics or something has fallen from the library wall and hit my firsborn's Birkenstock-clad left foot right in the toes. Ouch, that's gotta hurt, #2.
When I try to calm him down, I quickly realize that this is more than just the "Ow, I stubbed my toe and it really hurts" kinda pain that passes pretty quickly. He's crumpled on the floor and wailing, with big big tears rolling down his cheeks. The bellhop in charge of our group, Mick, heard the commotion and came in, quickly realizing as I did that this was not just a little owie, whisked us off to first aid.
Luckily, on the way out, this now worried Dad, his adrenaline kicking in, and carrying his much-heavier-than-I-remember-him-being son on his shoulders, remembers his wife and daughter waiting happily in their small patch of sunlight, and decided to make a quick detour to let her know where we were headed. At this point, I know he's hurt, but I'm still kinda thinking the trip to first aid is a little overcautiousness on Disney's part. Then I decided to take his sandals off since he was riding on my shoulders anyways. His shoe was full of blood. I quickly had my hand full also, by the time we got to DW, I'm sure we were a heck of a sight. Mick went into the gift shop and got some paper towels, and DW packed up DD in the stroller and we were off to first aid in a flash.
I don't really remember much of the walk there. Talk about adrenaline rushing. We wandered through backstage areas, were seen by a nurse, looked after by Mick, who got Christopher a hat and signed photo from Buzz,
)his favorite), then taken by a shuttle van to a nearby (off-Disney) urgent care clinic to be seen by a doctor (who of course do not accept our insurance, so we had to put it on our already bulging credit card 
).
Luckily, no bones were broken, and stitches were not absolutely necessary (we just could not make the little guy go through THAT when he was already in do much pain.) A quick stop at the Subway next door for lunch (by now it's nearly 3 and we're starving) and a van ride back to the park, and Christopher is issued a wheelchair and we're back to our MGM day.
He decides he'd rather have a stroller, so we make the exchange. When asked what he wants to do first, he says, "Tower of Terror". Now that's a brave Kid!
(I'll continue the trip report later. gotta get some sleep.) Night all.
This is a quick story of day 4 of our trip. Don't look for days 1-3 cuz I'm at WDW and I ain't got time right now.
Saturday was a pretty eventful one for us. We were hoping to make it to TL on the last day before it closes for refurb, but when we opened the door to 50 degrees and breezy, we nixed that idea. DW went outside the door to check the weather and overheard some voices from near the pool, "There are actually icebergs floating in the pool! And there are people in there" coming from a little girl.
We let the kids sleep in a bit, then swung by the food court to fill our mugs with coffee and head to MGM to fulfill DS4 Christopher's half of our "I'll ride Test Track with you if you'll ride Tower of Terror with me." (Just so noone calls child protective services on me, DS has already ridden a half dozen times, and sometimes lists it as his favorite ride, although it does scare the bejeebers out of him while he's on it. He proudly sports a collection of souvenirs from his previous visits. And he knows I dislike test track because of the huge lines and frequent breakdowns that plague it.)
As we're weaving through the MGM lot in our silver rental Pontiac minivan that looks just like the 32,000 other silver rental minivans that always seem to park wherever we do, the really poorly designed cup holder fails to perform its one purpose, to hold the cup containing DW's hot coffee. Since we were turning to starboard, the contents thereof was deposited expeditiously into my left shoe, burning my foot and leaving me with sodden footwear to patrol the parks in. Ouch, that's gotta hurt, #1.
After having our diaper bag and video camera carefully searched for all of 3 seconds (no doubt to ascertain that we were not attempting to pack in some powdered sugar or coffee mate) and promising DS that we would rent him a stroller on day during our trip as a treat for him (his first trip without one has been going pretty well thus far) we made a beeline for the ToT, stopping only to pull on little DD Susan's little pink socks, which she enjoys squirming out of but which are the only thing keeping her feet from becoming popsicles.
Since there's no wait at the ride, and since susan needs her breakfast, Mom agrees to find a little patch of sunlight and feed her while DS and I head for the Hollywood Tower Hotel. He's a little apprehensive, but willing to hold up his end of the "deal". We file into the "library", about 2 feet from the wall, and I'm looking around trying to find a spot where he'll be able to see the preshow as well as possible, when I hear a thud and Christopher yells in pain. A 3' by 4' panel which hides some electronics or something has fallen from the library wall and hit my firsborn's Birkenstock-clad left foot right in the toes. Ouch, that's gotta hurt, #2.
When I try to calm him down, I quickly realize that this is more than just the "Ow, I stubbed my toe and it really hurts" kinda pain that passes pretty quickly. He's crumpled on the floor and wailing, with big big tears rolling down his cheeks. The bellhop in charge of our group, Mick, heard the commotion and came in, quickly realizing as I did that this was not just a little owie, whisked us off to first aid.
Luckily, on the way out, this now worried Dad, his adrenaline kicking in, and carrying his much-heavier-than-I-remember-him-being son on his shoulders, remembers his wife and daughter waiting happily in their small patch of sunlight, and decided to make a quick detour to let her know where we were headed. At this point, I know he's hurt, but I'm still kinda thinking the trip to first aid is a little overcautiousness on Disney's part. Then I decided to take his sandals off since he was riding on my shoulders anyways. His shoe was full of blood. I quickly had my hand full also, by the time we got to DW, I'm sure we were a heck of a sight. Mick went into the gift shop and got some paper towels, and DW packed up DD in the stroller and we were off to first aid in a flash.
I don't really remember much of the walk there. Talk about adrenaline rushing. We wandered through backstage areas, were seen by a nurse, looked after by Mick, who got Christopher a hat and signed photo from Buzz,
)his favorite), then taken by a shuttle van to a nearby (off-Disney) urgent care clinic to be seen by a doctor (who of course do not accept our insurance, so we had to put it on our already bulging credit card ).Luckily, no bones were broken, and stitches were not absolutely necessary (we just could not make the little guy go through THAT when he was already in do much pain.) A quick stop at the Subway next door for lunch (by now it's nearly 3 and we're starving) and a van ride back to the park, and Christopher is issued a wheelchair and we're back to our MGM day.
He decides he'd rather have a stroller, so we make the exchange. When asked what he wants to do first, he says, "Tower of Terror". Now that's a brave Kid!
(I'll continue the trip report later. gotta get some sleep.) Night all.
Hope he feels better soon
