Seizures, Storms and Surprises, May 09'-UPDATE 7/22

[Disney4nonah]

Well here it is folks, my Trip Report. It's been crazy since I got back. Wow, who knew it work missed me...

I hope you'll forgive the lack of food pics, more on the reason later.

Trip Dates: May 25-31, 2009
Stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter
Players:
ME - 37 - you can see more about me in my PTR, but I have a great love for all things Disney since i was a child and have been to Disneyland 19 times or 17 i can't remember. Perfectly happy family vacations, i remember them vividly.. Went to WDW in 1998 and have been dying to go back.
DH - 39 - Is extremely patient with the Disney Loving ME. Just likes going anywhere as long as we are together. It was his first trip and even though i tried couldn't get him to wear the First Visit Pin. But still had a great if tiring time.
DB - 24 - my brother, more about him in my PTR. He has Epilepsy and CP and the trip was challenging but fun for him. He Proudly wore his First Trip button! Le'ts see my brother love him so dearly but he's very serious, but had a great time laughing and is a great screamer on the rides...haha more on that later.

you will have to deal with my photos i took until i get my Photopass pics back, then i'll upload them. Loved them BTW.
Ok here we go......

 

[Disney4nonah]

Day 1 - Travel & DHS​

We were leaving on Sunday and as of Friday I didn't have a thing packed and I had to work late. I got home from work at 7pm and proceeded to do laundry, get out suitcases..begin to get frantic and was so happy my DH said i'm going next door to his friends to play video games. I was so happy i can get so much more done with him out of the way. Got some things packed, cleaned a bit. and headed over to my mom's to get my brother packed. My mom is remodeling her whole house and she was staying at a hotel but my brother enjoyed his freedom and wanted to stay home in his upstairs room, since they were remodeling the downstairs. I was able to get in the door, haha and get upstairs where we packed his clothes together so he didnt' forget anything. (he needs help with some things because he can't recall much). Wow he had gigantic shoes, so we had to upgrade to his bigger suitcase to fit 4 pairs (two pair of broken in tennies in case one gave him blisters, I was prepared). He was done i left went back home. Where hubby made dinner, Panini Sandwiches so good and quick and easy and as he pointed out very little mess he was so proud he even used paperplates...haha

Friday night was a laudry marathon.
Sat was a cleaning house and fold laundry marathon.

Sunday - woke up early and went to get my DB, he was going to spend the day with us as our flight didn't leave until 11:45pm. We went to the movies to see Terminator Salvation and then closed up the suitcases did a hour of name all the things we may have forgotten. And we were off to the airport.
Checked in with no hassle and went to the restaurant to eat since we wouldn't be for about 8 hrs. Before we knew it we were on the plane, i thought a red eye would not sold out. Alas, it was a full flight so we didn't get to relax and spread out. We were going to watch the movie but I fell asleep 1/2 hr. into the flight. When i woke up the movie was over and everyone was sleeping all lights were off that made it very easy to fall asleep until we heard we were landing in houston.
We were in Houston for an hour and a half and then were on the flight to Orlando, we all dozed that flight too. We woke up to the announcement we were landing...it seemed like minutes later we were walking to the baggage claim. I tried the same thing many other have done pointing out the mini monorail at the airport. I got two sets of raised eyebrows i guess i wasn't going to have a easily enthused crowd to deal with.... oh no....

I followed a tip i got on the site about getting the car first and then getting the luggage, must have been a one off thing as we got the car and walked over and we were the only luggage left. haha, oh well it was there, we grabbed it and went. Got to the car drove our of the garage and We WERE HERE...!!!!

First things first, we drove to the Winn-Dixie on Appoka Vineland Rd. and bought real coffee(I had the size 4 filters in my bag, thanks to anther Disboard tip), Water and Soda.

We left there and drove back to I-4, yes we could have taken the road that goes by DTD but then we wouldn't get to see the sign. So i made him drive back to I-4 and we took the Disney exit and saw THE SIGN, THE SIGN....and yeh, you'd laugh if you saw the smidge of sign i got a picture of, it was sad and just a taste of the GLOURIOUS shots to come later, NOT...

OK more later..... this might time out and then where would I be?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading more about your trip. My husband has epilepsy but his seizures are under control with medication. Still, a trip to Disney can sometimes be an overload for him.

 

[Disney4nonah]

Day 1 - Travel & DHS - Part 2​

I was so excited to see that sign!
The resort was so close and it wasn't hard to find it. Pulled up to the guard shack they looked us up on the board and they let us in...
We parked, I resisted the urge to run in. My DH said hey those kinda of plant in the front are ones that only grow inside at home...which we all laughed about. There were three people in line at check-in but because I checked in on-line DAYS AGO, we had one person at that line. I thought we'd have to wait, but another CM came out and practically just gave us our packet and wanted us to leave, so i had to say. This is my first time staying on Disney property and that was enough to cue her to give us all the In's and Out's. Of course I knew about everything, i've been reading the boards for months. But DH and DB they were enraptured and I told her it was their first time, so out came the buttons. My brother was very happy and the lady said you Must wear those everyday and boy did my brother do just that. It was great! DH on the other hand pocketed his. And two days ago i took DH's button and got shadow box frame for it we mounted it and gave it to my DB last night as a present. He was very happy as he just got his room painted in the remodel and made us take it up with him to hang it up.
We moved the car and made our way easily to our room, bottom level as we requested so no stairs for my DB (he gets shaky and is high as he's very highly medicated). It was nice, just what i had seen in pics, My DH liked the privacy curtain and it came in handy as we all woke up in the morning.
We dumped our stuff, no Unpacking for this crowd. It's my mom's fault she unpacked at Disneyland hotel once and when we left she left a drawer full of stuff. So since then we live out of our suitcases, thanks mom. I filled the refrigerator with our drinks and we Were out the door to go to DHS.
I forgot some important items as we left, keep in mind it's sunny and 85 at this point that's super hot to us NWer's.
I forgot for the FIRST AND LAST TIME:
-handicapped parking pass
-ponchos
Getting to the park was a breeze easy road signs.
We pulled up to the parking stands and they breezed us thru with a hand wave, that was nice having the resort parking pass in your window.
That's when i realized i forgot the Handicapped parking pass. Oh well it's our first day no problem...we thought.
We parked not too far out we thought for a Memorial Day holiday, very close...missed the tram so we walked. Got thru bag check, my DB always walked thru to show his little wallet around his neck he wears, even though i told him he didn't need to, He informed me it was the rules... Then the CM informed him he didn't need to...Well he did it everyday after that, so i just shut up. LOL
We got our tickets initialized and walked in and to the Wheelchair rental.
Now this was a fight, my mom had discussed with my DB that he really needed it, that he can barely walk around the mall without having a seizure the next day. So he needed to let us get him a wheelchair, he was mad. But my mom and the Dr. told him he really needed one. REMEMBER THIS PART FOR LATER: He told the us(you'll find out who later) he was really more embarrassed because he looks healthy and people might think he's using the wheelchair as a get to the front of the line pass.
Well we paid for the wheelchair for all the days we'd be there got our tickets and he jumped in with a groan.

Here is my first shot of the street at DHS, it's 1:30pm not too crowded, IMHO.

My DH & DB banished to the abhorent Wheerchair of Doom

More to come:

 

[Disney4nonah]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading more about your trip. My husband has epilepsy but his seizures are under control with medication. Still, a trip to Disney can sometimes be an overload for him.

I'm going to post some more now.
Yes, My brother has so many seizures the pills don't fit in the daily pill case anymore. Poor guy can't drive can't work, he really needed a vacation.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm going to post some more now.
Yes, My brother has so many seizures the pills don't fit in the daily pill case anymore. Poor guy can't drive can't work, he really needed a vacation.

My husband, John, used to take 36 pills a day. Now, he's down to 31. It tooks years and years for the doctors to get the seizures under control using several different combinations of meds. I am just thankful they make medicines to control the seizures.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Disney4nonah]

Day 1 - Travel & DHS - Part 2​

So I asked DB what he would like to do first. He said TOT because it was on one of the shows he watched. *cringe* I didn't really want to do this first. But we walked that way, man why did i have to ask. OK, i could do it i could just walk on and it would be over in no time. The time said 20 mins, we continually walked until we were on it was more like 7 mins til we were done with the pre-show. We got on and we should have planned better. I couldn't find those little handholders haha, so I held onto DH instead, Very tightly as he recalls. (he had a bruise)sorry hunny...LOL WOW what a ride and when you don't hold on, WOW WOW what a ride...My brother loved it screamed nice and baritone-ee...LOL in my EAR... Our pic was terrible couldn't see us, didn't buy it. I personally kept screaming, my purse, it shouldn't be in front of my face....but wasnt' letting go to tuck it in my seatbelt....Got off my DH thought it was a awesome way to get the trip started, loved the themeing and that it was so much more then a ride. He continued to feel this way the entire trip. I was happy that they were happy.
RnRC was at 40 mins and we didnt' want to stand in line and we were saving our FP to see if TSM has any. Walked that way after a stop for Frozen Lemonade and a Pretzel to share.
DB ready to enter TOT, sans wheelchair

DB deciding what we do next

DH holding my frozen lemonade so i can take his picture. He's Mr. Cool

We did the TGHR, it was fun...DH not too impressed we got off and i said wanna ride it again? He said um nope....ok moving on. I loved it...
Went past TSM all the FP were gone for the day, but we were coming back Sat for Star Wars Weekends so we weren't too concerned. We hit Muppets next, we all loved it, i forgot how much I loved it. Came out and took this.

Me and my DB, AW, he put his arm around me...*sniff*

We went and hit Star Tours, we had both been on it before. DH thought it was dated, hope the gossip is true and they redo this. Anybody have any news on that?
We then were going to hit the 4:30pm LMA Stunt show...on the way there had our pics taken on the Streets of America with our Photopass, we got to do a jaunty pose. Turned out good....
Got over to the show, went around to the wheelchair entrance on the far side. Got seated my DH was above us. Sat next to some nice ladies from the UK their husbands were above them, they kept teasing them...they were cute. The show started, it was very good....UNTIL
DB started to have a seizure, nothing to do but sit there with him. It went into a grand mal seizure started to get worried, the nice lady next to me; helped me hold him up because he was slumping forward. Found out later she was a nurse and had broken her foot two days before. I'm so glad she was there.
Just then it started to rain and they stopped the show, DB came out of the seizure and was out of it. The rain became a torrential downpour with sideways rain...and DB was freezing (i always took his fleece jacket with us after this). I FORGOT THE PONCHOS. WE were soaked..... and poor DB was shaking badly...I then looked my poor DB had lost control of his bladder while he was in his seizure, but OUR DISNEY MAGIC, we were soaked so no one knew. I was so glad he did have to be embarrassed. Anway rain subsided, we headed right out and he walked to the car and we went back to the room and he slept all bundled up. He said he felt fine just cold so bundled up at 6:30p so we left to go back to DHS for our 7:20pm ressie at 50s Prime Time Cafe. Got there with handicapped pass this time and grabbed the very nice parking wheelchairs(they have flags) and got into the park traded it for a park wheelchair. Got to the restaurant in plenty of time, sat in the living room and waited. DH saw a statue his grandma had at her house, I took a pic of him with it, but he deleted it only found out later. We were seated had Uncle Terry as our server he made us set the table with SUPER HOT just out of the washer silverware, he said it was chore slash torture...he was a Woot. We enjoyed him playing with the people seated a few mins after us. But he was nice to my DB and didn't bother him. My DB went to the bathroom and I called my mom and Uncle Terry didn't like that but i told him i had to call my mom to tell him about my brothers seizure and after that DB got a cute cupcake...he thought that was cool and never knew why...We will go back to this restaurant! it was good...
DB and I had the fried chicken, it was good and a lot of food, the pototoes were paste, ick... DH had the potroast and he said there wasnt' a bit of fat/gristle on it and he liked it. We shared the brownie sundae after we saw DB get a cupcake...we were jealous. $70 later before tip we were out of there. Went back to resort and went straight to bed, after all we had crossed two timezones and we had a EMH at MK the next day. We were beat!

Will DB be seizure free?
Will I get thru the day without crying for happiness?
Will we ever get to go on Splash? STAYED Tuned and find out...

 

[Disney4nonah]

My husband, John, used to take 36 pills a day. Now, he's down to 31. It tooks years and years for the doctors to get the seizures under control using several different combinations of meds. I am just thankful they make medicines to control the seizures.

He takes about 12 pills a day....and they up it every month or so when he has a lot of seizures, my mother will be happy when they are able to get them under control. I'm never around him that much, but I saw first hand how medicated he seems on all those. He was getting tired of me asking him how he feels, I'd ask for an honest answer on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, how did he feel? He always answered 10, I think he was aggravated and tired of me...Oh well what are big sisters for.

 

[racefanof88]

I'm in. Love your report so far . You are a brave woman to ride ToT. I am terrified of heights so that is totally out of the question for me. I am looking forward to your next installment.

 

[jelloarms]

Just letting you know I am on board!

 

[heaven2dc]

Hello from a fellow ex-Portlander!! Hopping onboard and am enjoying your TR I hope your brother doesn't have any more seizures during the rest of the trip but you were lucky to have had the nurse nearby. He sounds like he's in great hands with you though - what a sis!!

 

[Disney4nonah]

Day 2 - MK EMH - Part 1​

Our daily ritual began and worked out nicely. I would get up early because I was excited. I would shower, get dressed, slather on the SPF85 sunblock. And go get up DH he would do the same while i made his real coffee in that small coffee pot he'd make his with some left over for me. Then i'd get DB up last and he'd get ready, get his pills together. I wont' even go into how mad he was that i wouldn't let him take his pills at 7am EST since it was really 4am PST and would make him even more subseptible to having a seizure sometime during the day. I packed the ponchos, my 3x5 card with all my info for the day (secured from Disboards) THANKS DISBOARDS!!!. And water and let me tell you those 6 waters in that backpack were heavy until i could hang it on the back of the wheelchair, but was an outstanding savings since they were $2.49ea at the park...

Our goals, DH wanted Crocs which I knew from the boards were at MK. DB wanted a Hat and to be on the search for some good T-shirts, side note that boy had buko bucks saved I was impressed. Me I wanted to make it to RD and see the show... We had no ADR's for today but i knew we'd be eating at Pecos Bills CS since i had looked all the menus over and they had cheeseburgers and the "Bucket of meat" (Taco Salad) some had raved about. We were out of there in plenty of time to get there at EMH RP, I thought.
Driving there was easy, they waved us thru and we followed the Blue Handicapped Line they have to the Handicapped Parking, unloaded and walked since DB had said he didnt' want to ride in a wheelchair on the monorail that would be embarrassing and i just went with it, i can't fight every single thing. I wanted to ride the ferry but it didn't leave until 8:30a, Whatever, ruin my dream... When DH spies the Coffee Cart, so we had to stop get him an iced coffee and DB a giganto Cheese danish. me, i had trail mix, I was saving myself for churros, popcorn and dole whips.
We got in line for the Monorail to MK and waited :sigh: which gave me the perfect oppurtunity to take this.

DB looking chipper after his cheese danish, waiting for monorail

It was getting close to RD and still no monorail just us and a long line, wasn't too upset becuase I can be a little "intense" when I want to get somewhere and do something. But I had vowed I'm not stressing out this trip and making anyone else stressed. We loaded rode into the Contemporary and I noticed all the happy people at Chef Mickey's the one ADR i wanted and couldn't get for dinner any night we were there.... OH, happy Chef Mickey people, I'll get there and be one of you, one day, in your oh so happy, and as i've read HOT and LOUD venue.

The hordes and us offloaded and walked down the ramp to the entrance. We all did bag check with no problem and walked into our second park. We walked directly to the Photopass people and there was only one person ahead of us, SCORE! That person said we didn't miss much as RD only 15 mins earlier because it was so crowded and loud it wasn't fun and they had been standing in line for photopass for 15 mins. So there no rope drop but no getting smushed up in a crowd either.... Got some great Pics (cant' wait til my CD gets here). I love the entrance, got a little teary but it passed, WOOHOO didn't Cry! I was so proud of myself!

Standard Pic you know, I had to

Got a wheelchair and walked down Main Street

OK, why not so many pictures. I was pushing wheelchair and taking pics going down Main Street and my DH came up and said you either take pics of you push the wheelchair. I asked if he could push and he said Yeah, but we're not doing this the whole trip. Taking pics and getting in peoples way. Well, I never.... he was using his serious voice. But i wasnt' in anyones way, and the wheelchair only got stuck in the trolley groove for a second...So, what if DB was mad that he would drift sideways every so often... So i curbed the Picture taking to make peace. It was hard to push with one had that wheelchair has a mind of it's own. OH Well.... He did push most of the time...and anything up hills (all of frontierland)...

 

[Disney4nonah]

I'm in. Love your report so far . You are a brave woman to ride ToT. I am terrified of heights so that is totally out of the question for me. I am looking forward to your next installment.

Let me tell you I have an attack of the "I don't want to's" everytime I get in it. LOL Thanks for joining

Just letting you know I am on board!

Swell, I hope to get some more posted later...

Hello from a fellow ex-Portlander!! Hopping onboard and am enjoying your TR I hope your brother doesn't have any more seizures during the rest of the trip but you were lucky to have had the nurse nearby. He sounds like he's in great hands with you though - what a sis!!

Hello! NWer's Unite! We lucked out this trip...no Major tragedies.
Yeah he's great...he puts up with me... Thanks for joining!

 

[Disney4nonah]

Day 2 - MK - Part 2​

When I left you I had just put away my camera to focus on pushing the wheelchair. I knew we'd be back that way in awhile and i'd get my picstures when the throngs entering the park had subsided.
We headed straight thru the castle on our way to get PP FP's. It's my favorite nostalgic ride. We left that and went straight to HM, the nice CM saw we had a wheelchair and motioned us to come with her. We park at the exit and waited for a few more who were to join us, once we had 13 people in a very short time she led us into the Servant's Entrance, as she made comments on the lucky number of people we had we were led straight into the main room for the HM pre-show. AWWW Air conditioning, it felt lovely...
Then off on our ride, I had already read about the upgrades they were great, loved the staircase...Great ride, we exited grabbed our wheelchair and we were off to Frontierland. Wow walking that way is up hill...and it was getting hotter....We got to TMRR and rode it, quite a long line and my first experience this trip with the winding lines, it was fun. Reminded me of My little sister and I riding TMRR at Disneyland and we'd high five everythime we'd pass each other in line, which you did often winding back and forth, we rode that ride over and over...good times.
I rode with my brother this time we were in the back, super fun! He loved that he could "accidentally" squish me on the turns. We got off went to go over to Splash, realized it was a 30 min. line and that we couldn't get FP's yet because our weren't up yet. So we wandered back over to get our Piract fix on PotC! LOVED it all the updates which i had yet to see were great!
By this time I realized we need to go get DB his GAC, search for some Crocs and then go back to PP to use our FP's. Headed back to the front of the park and got the GAC very easily and it made me feel better just to have it. We all used the facilities and were off to do some shopping. DH found what he wanted DB found a hat he couldn't live without and i just waited with an empty wheelchair, good thing it was too early in the shops to be too crowded.
I could see DH heading back over after stopping to put on his new Crocs, while scanning the area with my eyes to look for DB, DH comes up and says you saw that girl by the Crocs, i think she was hitting on me. She said i had great legs, practically every thing but "Hey Baby, how you doin?". I just looked over and said, she's just being nice....OR WAS SHE...? LOL
He does have nice legs...
Found DB loaded up and went outside to see the Main Street Dancers singing DB's favorite song, which i had no idea until he starts singing it, and says I know this song...you knew...
We took some pics...
Then we bumped into this photopass guy, who took these.
GOT MY PHOTOPASS CD YESTERDAY!!!!
US

Look i could crop, nice.....

DB looking happy...

Here are the ones from when we entered the park

Going to post the ones from the day before at DHS on a separate post.

 

[Disney4nonah]

Here the photopass pics from our first day at DHS.
Some are the same pic just with different borders, I was so happy to see I could do this. Well worth the price.
Just got off ToT

Still living...

Differnt border

Jaunty Pose

Jaunty Pose Border 2

Jaunty Pose Border 3

Jaunty Pose Border 4

 

[mickeystoontown]

I absolutely love the photopass pictures. You guys can strike a mean pose.

 

[racefanof88]

Great updates . Your photo pass pictures are so good.

 

[crocko]

Following along.....enjoying the report so far!

 

[Disney4nonah]

Well folks, i have been having some WDW post trip depression, reading all those trip reports. Man so hard.... so I just did a hold the room for Pop Century for Jan 19-26, 2010. THAT'S RIGHT WE ARE GOING BACK.
REserved room thru smallworldvacations.com, becasue I couldn't find any news on 2010, and i knew if it was Value season i had to get my ressie in. So contacted small world and she told me I could book the space until prices come up! WOOHOO, i've decided to let them take care of everything!
NOW I'M SO HAPPY!!!
Only DH and I are going back, it was fun with DB but we are going back with nobody to worry about! Told my mother she supports our plan and is very excited for us!
OK, BACK TO TRIP REPORT NOW THAT I'M MOTIVATED !!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Well folks, i have been having some WDW post trip depression, reading all those trip reports. Man so hard.... so I just did a hold the room for Pop Century for Jan 19-26, 2010. THAT'S RIGHT WE ARE GOING BACK.
REserved room thru smallworldvacations.com, becasue I couldn't find any news on 2010, and i knew if it was Value season i had to get my ressie in. So contacted small world and she told me I could book the space until prices come up! WOOHOO, i've decided to let them take care of everything!
NOW I'M SO HAPPY!!!
Only DH and I are going back, it was fun with DB but we are going back with nobody to worry about! Told my mother she supports our plan and is very excited for us!
OK, BACK TO TRIP REPORT NOW THAT I'M MOTIVATED !!!

Hip Hip Hooray! You're going back to WDW! Nothing can cure the post trip blues like planning another trip!