Skip the lotion, we're just gonna be ashy!

[bookmama]

Hey Everyone,
We're back from an interesting time in Disney World and as soon as I finish uploading the photos I give you all the details. After all it's summer vacation and I run in the morning and have most of the afternoon to myself.

 

[bookmama]

Hey everyone,
Let me start by introducing everyone and explaining the meaning of our trip report.

First there is me: Leah

(that's my git'er done face) 36 chunky but a serious novice runner, photographer extraordinaire (for this trip) and an assistant at a public school in Philly. you can read all about it in the PTR. It's linked at the bottom.

Next is Devin: 15

the annoying teen that wanted to be incognito and not have his picture taken. Like he had a warrant out or something. He's also the "Rock" in this grand adventure. You'll see what I mean.

Then there's Mom:

Nana to everyone on this trip.

Albert 13, has Asperger's, bipolar and Oppisitional Defiance Disorder. All of which come into play over our time Disney.

Adrianna 6, she also has Asperger's as well as OCD and high anxiety. and the only girl in the bunch.

Last but not least:

Joell, spelled with 2 L's so his name is pronounced (Jo-ell). His having an identity crisis. He's changed his name 3 times to a different Power Ranger. He has Autism and enlarged something in his throat ( I forgot the name) that causes him not to pronounce letters, g, d, l and r. Makes conversation a little tricky but he's learning to sign.

So for the explanation of the title of this TR. Well when black folks (PC: African Americans) skin gets really dry it gets white and flaky. When you rub it off it kinda looks like ash. Hence the word ashy. So how does one beat ashiness? Lotion. See where I'm going here.

So our trip started out great. Everyone was up and ready to go when my brother came to pick us up in Mom's car. Quite honestly, Devin and Albert went around the corner to make sure Greg was awake. We loaded into the van and headed to the airport.

I brought Adrianna and Joell cameras as well as Albert so they can take their own pictures. Oh the plans of mice and men. We already mailed down our clothes so we beat the airline fee and we got to do express check in. two for one!

We got to the airport outrageously early but it was just enough time for them to relax before the flight. Even with Greg getting off at the wrong exit.

As we go through security check in we run into our first hiccup or should I say Autism Awareness Moment. As we put our backpacks through the scanner Joell panics and tries to run through the body scan, twice. Mom grabs him and litterally has to hold him and walk him through. Of course she gets pulled out for a random check and the TSA Agent asks to see mom's hands. She says, "can I give you one at a time? I can't let him go." The TSA Agent gives her the look and she says, "He has Autism, and he's scared something is going to happen to his bag." The agent says "OK, never mind. I understand." and let's them go.

The kids got to watch the planes come in and out while we waited for our flight. When we got to our gate Joell says, "My daddy works here!" Man were we happy his dad wasn't at our gate. We would've never gotten on the plane. Joell would've started banging on the window and screaming daddy, and just our luck, his dad would look up and all heck would've broken loose.

Anyway here's some pics with a view of our unsung hero. The blue towel I got as a gift from a teacher friend this year. Thanks Gross!

This is also the beginning of my food report with prices as we are not doing the dining plan and not staying on property. We had breakfast at the airport at MCD's used my BOGO coupon for breakfast. Devin got Auntie Annie's and was hungry an hour later. So he went to MCD's and got a sandwich.

Next up: Our Flight and hitting Orlando.

 

[mnrhannah07]

I'm here! Great start, looking forward to more! Glad you guys had a great time!

 

[bookmama]

I'm here! Great start, looking forward to more! Glad you guys had a great time!

Thank you for reading. I didn't think anyone was interested. I hope you like the TR.

 

[bookmama]

So when I left off we were waiting to board our first flight. This is Albert's, Sugah Mama's and Wellster's first flight. 3 Aspie children, 3 very different reactions. First the good . .. Wellster took to flying like a duck takes to water. He actually threw up his hands and said, "Weeeeee!" He absolutely loved it.

Sugah Mama she loved going up and flying amongst the clouds but man did she hate the descent. The air pressure kept bothering her ears and I had to hold her while the plane landed.

Now Albert, well he is afraid of heights and flying with him was crazy. We were seated like this: Wellster had the middle seat, Albert the aisle and the window was occupied by a woman. Across from Albert was mom. Behind them at the window was Sugah Mama, then me and across the aisle at the window was Dev. So we're starting our trip down the runway and Wellster and Sugah Mama was psyched. Albert grips mom's hand so tight i swore their knuckles turned white. Dev is like this is my 11th flight nobody done more flying than me. I'm like shut up Devin. So the woman sitting at the window seat offers to switch seats with Wellster so that he can look out the window. He says yes all excited and it goes downhill from there. He throws up the shade and. . .

Albert looks out the window and sees how far we're up and he starts hyperventilating. He breaks out in a cold sweat and is shaking like a addict with the shakes. I actually had to hold his hand through the seats. The poor lady was like, honey it's going to be okay. She was so upset. We told her that Albert was afraid of flying. Wellster is like look Albert and points to the window, and it just get's worse. Mom tells Dev, talk to Albert and the poor woman switches seats with Dev. Personally, I think she was just happy to get away from the whole situation. I don't blame her at all. Mom gives Albert a melantonin and it calms him down enough for the flight to land. I'm thinking as we land, thank God we didn't have to turn the plane around. God I need a drink.

So we finally land in Atlanta. Atlanta ?!! yes this was only the first half of our flight. We deplane and we set them up at a charging station. The Nook and phones get plugged in so mom and I scout around for food and we the sign for BK and DD we find DD but it was crowded. So me, being cheap, is still looking for the BK. Mom is like we don't have time. We have to get back, it irks my nerves when she does this. We finally settle on this bakery that's serves sandwiches and we get 2 turkey sandwiches and a tuna. We're walking back and mom's phone rings. It's Albert panicking because they announce they are boarding the plane. We hurry back grabbed three bags of chips and two waters and a bag of skittles for Sugah Mama's ears. Dev suggests them as a way to relieve the pressure. (it works by the way) We head back to the gate and they were boarding. . .but not our zone we were like 6. Finally we're seated, with Wellster, Mom and Albert (in that order) in one row, Sugah Mama and I behind them and Devin across the aisle.

When other people started sitting around us a German family was seated near us.
Dev slides across the aisle and says. "Mom, can I sit over here?"
I said, "I guess until whoever comes, why?"
"I think I was sitting in the wrong seat."
"Did you ask?"
"They're speaking German. I don't know German."
" Oh. Just say, 'Ubersetzen Sie, Anglishe Bitte. Ich sprache nicht Deutsche.' "
He just looks at me and sighs, this group of african americans are walking past and hears us and one lady gives me this weird look. What you never heard a black woman speak German? It was my second language as a child and I studied it in college.

So Dev and I switch seats and he keeps Sugah Mama entertained the whole way. Even having her sort and eat skittles on the way down.

 

[bookmama]

So we're finally on the ground. The second flight wasn't so bad; not so many dips on the way down. We of course get on the monorail and Wellster is super excited I didn't take any pics because I had to hold Wellster because he was so excited to be there. We take the elevator down because, of course, we've skipped the baggage claim and head outside.

See those giant bags next to us. Nope, not ours, only the ones on our back and 2 shoulder bags.

While we're waiting for the rental car shuttle a woman walks up and asks us if we wanted some juice. She said they were getting on the plane and couldn't take them with her. We said thank you. Magic

Our shuttle arrives and we're off to Payless Car Rental. They had the best rates at the time. I'm already up on the latest upsales and am ready to reject everything they throw at us.

So it's basically standing room only, not that we're not used to it but people skooch over so that the kids sit down. It only takes like 5-10 minutes and we're there. So we walk up to the counter, have the kids sit down and watch the Disney movie playing, and go to collect the car.

So the guy explaining about the car and the upsale begins. I'm like um, no. He goes on the spiel about insurance and I'm still like no. He's still going and explains that if anything happens to the car we are responsible. Like we don't know that. So he's like it $290.97 for the car and $350 hold on the account if we don't take the insurance and be liable for whatever happens to the car. So we actually listen about the insurance. It's 20.99 a day and it covers everything but tickets and that would be charged that day. Well we took it. Total cost: $479 and change with tax. We saved like $150-200, so this time it the upsale actually saved us money.

So what's our ride: Kia Sedonia, Red

We load everything up in the car and mom is trying to turn off the windshield wipers. She's complaining and again she irks me because she's fussing. I ask the man walking past who happens to work there for help. He shows her how and we start off with gps to pick up our clothes. Now let me tell you about us andGPS, we still manage to get lost with GPS, miss a turn, wrong street you name it. So I input the address to the UPS store and we're off. It takes us half hour and we're there.

Mom and I walk in the store and ask about our boxes. They were like, huh? I said the boxes are two big cereal boxes. The guy at the counter was like, Oh those, we were about to send them back. There was no name and number we called we didn't get a call back. You idiot!! I forgot to put my name on the ship to address and I didn't charge my phone for a couple of days. I was a little ticked about being transferred and giggley about school being out. Quite honestly, if I don't know the number I won't answer the phone. That 's the one thing I love about cell phones. The reject button!

Everyone was sleep in the car so Dev didn't witness my dumbness. We woke him up and he helped load the boxes in the car. I told him what happened and he just laughed. Man I can't stand that boy sometimes.

We texted Nita and Greg to let them know we hit Orlando and headed to Downtown Disney.

 

[bz8bls]

Ashy I knew who was writing this TR

This is starting off like a trip in the movie "Wally World" (African-Amerian style)

 

[bookmama]

Ashy I knew who was writing this TR

This is starting off like a trip in the movie "Wally World" (African-Amerian style)

HI!

I'm glad someone appreciates my snarkiness. Wait til you hear more.

 

[mickeyrus]

Sounds good! Keep going!!

 

[mousetravel]

I'm here for your TR!!!!

 

[TrulyMadlyDisney]

Good TR, can't wait for the rest!

 

[luvmy2babies]

When I went down the list and saw your title, I almost spit out my drink. I thought to myself this is a TR I have got to read. Then I looked and saw it was you. You commented on my TR earlier. We were there at the same time.

I slapped sunscreen on us everyday I think hoping for the sun otherwise we'd have probably been ashy too, especially my son. It's not that bad during the summer, but in the fall and winter, his skin laughs at anything but petroleum jelly.

Loooking forward to reading more of your report.

 

[bookmama]

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining me on our adventures. Luv2mybabies, mom says ashy is for everyone. We tried so hard and the sunblock just washed right off. You'll see.

So after putting the address to DTD into the GPS we're off. So let me start by saying that I like to save money any way I can. So the main goal was to save as much money as I can. One way, no tolls, that's right no tolls. For every day that we're on the road, not one toll we be paid.

Wellster keeps picking with Sugah Mama and vice versa. Then every two minutes it's "Are we at Disney World yet? I want to go to Disney World." Wellster said it like 50 times and we all wanted to strangle him. We told him to take a rest and when he wakes we'll be at Disney. Finally everyone drifts off to sleep but mom and I and I begin the interesting task of deciding which entrance way to go to. See this is our first time offsite so we're used to the Disney buses taking us everywhere. So I took a haphazard guess and we turned into parking lot 3.

Sugah Mama was the first to wake and she screamed, "We're here! Joell we're here!" What's the first thing he says, "I'm hungry. Can we eat?"

So we're walking trying to find somewhere to eat and I remember the EOS. Everyone on DIS says it's to die for and frankly, I love sandwiches.Since I planned this whole trip, that's where we going to eat.

One thing I liked about EOS was that you could go outside and they would buzz you when the food was ready. While we were waiting for our food Mom called Wellster's Maw Maw and let her know that we were here. She wanted to go but couldn't afford it but sent Wellster some spending money and bought him a couple of outfits.

Now you're wondering what we've ordered right? This will also contain a food report. Okay now that you've been warned. Here's what we ordered:

Devin and I each ordered a Cannon Ball

Wellster and Sugah Mama each got a kids pizza sandwich

Albert got The Italian

And Mom got the BLT

Now for dessert OMG! I got the strawberry shortcake. Now I'm not a big fan of whipped cream. In fact I hate it, but I was able to move past my prejudice and literally inhale this oh so yummy dessert. The strawberries were fresh and not mushy and the cake wasn't soggy from sitting in strawberry juice which is my other pet peeve, I hate soggy bread. I've actually pulled a sandwich apart to get rid of soggy bread.

Other's people dessert, well let's see. Excuse me I forgot to take pics of these, but it was kinda hard you see, with them inhaling the food as quick as I was snapping the pics. Dev got the cupcake bites, like little bits of shortbread heaven all in the mouth. Albert got the triple chocolate brownie and mom got fruit and the kids were a little too stuffed for dessert.

So the grand total: $56.22
4 sandwiches @ 5.99
2 pizza sandwiches @ 3.99
6 fountain drinks @ 1.99
4 desserts @ approx 2.29

Not bad for our first meal in WDW.

To be continued in next post .. .

 

[bookmama]

When we left off the family had filled their once empty bellies and we were almost ready to explore. While we were eating I noticed a DJ playing some pretty good music and there we kids hula hooping in the courtyard. I tried to get Sugah Mama to go over but she didn't want to because she thought it was a contest. She doesn't do well with contests, she's a little too competitive most times and she hates to lose. It can get violent. We're working on it though. But we did get Wellster and her to dance.

I apologize my Olympus gets a little grainy in the dark.

After we dragged them away we headed towards the Lego store and to the car. We walked past another band playing some good songs and we stopped to listen. They were called:

Of course it was to the irritation of Dev and Albert. But hey it's my vacay and I'll stop and listen if I want to right?

We get to the Lego store and of course it is overrun with kids and adults alike. Albert can't stand crowds but he braves his way in to look for something to buy. Not even 5 minutes later his right back out. He wants to go to the house. Meanwhile Sugah Mama and Wellster wanted to play with the mounds of leggos.

The pieces are too small for WEllster's hands so we go inside and see if we can find some that Wellster can use. He, of course, had to take a pic with one of his heroes

and off to the room we went.

Even Devin got into the act. I had to play spy because of course he didn't want to be captured on film. like that wasn't going to happen on this trip.

Albert desperately wanted to go to the house, it was just way too many people for him and we left DTD to see where our home was for the next week. As we rounded past T-Rex and Campero I said to those wonderful restuarants Oh I'll see y'all real soon. I told Wellster we were going to eat in T-Rex and he was super excited. I'm not going to tell you that we took a wrong turn and it took us an extra 20 minutes to get to the house but hey, like I said we can't go anywhere without getting lost.

 

[pooksma]

You are off to a great start and you have my FULL admiration for taking 4 kids to WDW. I have a hard enough time with one

 

[bookmama]

Day 1 . .. still continued

So we pulled up to the gates of the Grand Reserve (sorry forgot to take pics of the front gate) and we couldn't believe how nice it was. As disney vets, we are quite used to the over the top of Disney but this was pretty darn cool.
When we got to the house it was like wow! I'm thinking I'm pretty awesome for renting a house instead of 2 rooms onsite.

Awesome, right? Well the kids unpacked just enough to find their swim stuff and they were in the pool.

Mom and I put the stuff away from Publix and I mapped out our next days. Oh the plans of mice and men.

So here was the original plans (now laugh with me as you read)
Friday: MK day breakfast at CP and Pirates League for Sugah Mama and Wellster
Saturday: AK day lunch at RFC
Sunday: Epcot breakfast at OHANA, behind the seeds tour for me
Monday: Beach and Brevard Zoo Day
Tuesday: Epcot day lunch at WCC Segway tour for me
Wednesday: HS day with possible park hopper day to MK Girls tea with Sugah Mama and mom.
Thursday: DTD and home.

Oh yeah, we know how that went.

Tomorrow, our first full day at Disney.

 

[bookmama]

You are off to a great start and you have my FULL admiration for taking 4 kids to WDW. I have a hard enough time with one

Thanks for reading. Sometimes the only thing that kept me from going completely insane was the margarita and dacquri i promised myself.

 

[bookmama]

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

After a day of ups and downs we got the kids to bed. I told them that we had an early morning breakfast and we would be in the Magic Kingdom before it opens. So everyone went to bed.

Did I tell you I had the master suite it was super awesome. A walk-in shower with a whirlpool tub. I forgot to take pics of it but let me tell you I enjoyed every minute of it. The kids decided I should get the big master because I did all of the planning. yeah, like I was going to say no.

Morning arrives, and getting these people out was like pulling teeth on an enraged mama bear protecting her cubs. So I finally get them in the car and it's like 8:30. Our ADR was at 8:50 we still have a 15 minute drive and still get through bag check. We grabbed the ferry, I didn't take any pics because it was crowded and we're late. Did I tell you I hate to be late! I think it's rude and it actually drives me crazy.

We get to Magic Kingdom and finally through bag check. I'm actually dragging the kids to the entrance where you go before the park opens. We're power walking up Main St and I was not stopping for pics. It was 8:50. Dev's like follow me I know the way. One CM said you get 15 minutes. I knew not to stop because that 15 minutes will be 45 with this crew. No way am I letting anyone to stop. We round Casey's and we're walking along the pathway. Now I can breathe. We're almost there and we're not too late. All of sudden I hear Auntie, look!. Can you guess what caught their collective eyes? Castle? Nope.
This:

Yes you saw right, a rabbit. Get used to the unusual things that will catch their attention. As we're waiting for our name to be called the boys decided they wanted autographs books. Do know that I asked these fools if they wanted one since I was making Sugah Mama's and Wellster's and I got no. Now that we're about to go in to Crystal Palace, they're talking about autograph books. Dev says he wanted the official autograph book not my bootleg handmade book. I shell out the crushing $20 for 2 autograph books and pen as we head into CP.

We're seated in an alcove away from everyone.

we get the standard about the buffet and how the characters will come by. The boys get ready to hit the buffet when. . .

This was Wellster's and Sugah Mama's first character interaction. They did amazingly well. After Eyeore left we took the kids to get food.

Let me tell you I like CP food.

After one plate Dev had a nerve to say he was full. I told him, "boy if you don't get up and get another plate I will stab you." He was like, "mom I'm full." I told him you 'bout to become bulimic you going to eat some more food. He just gave me a stank look. Luckily some heroes arrived to save him from a serious beatdown.

The ever gallant:

After Piglet leaves the parade starts. Sugah Mama and Wellster jump up and run to join the kids. About halfway around, Wellster panics and mom runs to grab him. She happens to look up and a father nods and she nods back. She notices that some of the families with special needs children are seated in alcoves away from the hustle and the bustle. She tells me this when she returns to the table Sugah Mama returns to the table, super happy that she got to do the parade. This is another big first, she is very shy and usually shies away from big crowds. Thank You public school.

Dev and Albert are itching to go when the check comes. Dev wants to see it. He sees that it is $171 and he dang near faints. He can't believe the price. See last time we came to Disney we stayed onsite with the DDP so everything was paid for, he never saw a bill, just handed over his room key. So it was a little surprising for him. Me, I already planned for it.

The boys took off for fastpasses to the Mountains. Dev was determined to ride each one and Albert was going along for the ride. 3 minutes after they left Dev calls he needs his ticket. Wellster and Sugah Mama need a bathroom break. Sugah Mama loves the chocolate milk and tries taking it with her. Um no, you can't take the glass with you. A nice CM, I think her name was Marta, offered to get Sugah Mama a cup she could take with her.

 

[bookmama]

We're were on our way to Fantasy Land. I wanted them to get as much in as possible. We just hit Fantasy Land and guess who we see?

The line wasn't that long and we're the last family to see both Alice and the White Rabbit. Wellster is a little scared but Sugah Mama offers to stand near the White Rabbit so Wellster wouldn't be scared.

Sugah Mama gets an extra hug

and we're off to our first ride. The Mad Tea Party.

Wellster is a ride nut because his Maw Maw always takes him to amusement parks. This is another short line because MK really just opened.

They had so much fun spinning that we couldn't see straight.

Next Sugah Mama spotted Dumbo flying in the air. She pointed and Wellster wanted to fly too. So we're headed over to Dumbo, I was hoping that we would get to see the new interactive cue that was opening in July, you know a little sneak peek, but no go. We were ushered straight on through and we were on the next set of elephants to go flying. At first we were going to sit one in front of the other but Wellster ran ahead and another family got in the Dumbo in front of Sugah Mama and I. So Mom and Wellster were further up. Thank you zoom lens.

The ride was declared fun and we were off to our next adventure. As we're walking I spotted a new play area. Casey Jr. Splash and Soak Station. Sugah Mama was in heaven.

Wellster not so much

.

But after some prodding from me he was having a ball.

 

[bookmama]

After getting wet and cool I started prodding them towards their surprise. At breakfast I promised not to be so schedule oriented. Or as Wellster says, "I won't be so mean anymore." I'm so ashamed. I'm really a scheduler, it may look like I'm impulsive but 99% of the time everything has already been planned with a back up plan and a back up plan for the back up plan.

We're walking towards Adventure Land and guess what we see?

Sugah Mama is captivated and she whips out her camera.

She is all over the place trying to capture pics of this little family. I actually had to pull her from going behind the popcorn cart. She was in the zone.

I finally was able to pull her away as the ducks waddled towards Dumbo and that's when they saw Pooh. They were like "Oh we got their names, we don't need them." Whew! But, then we saw Pooh Adventures and they wanted to ride. The new que was fun for them.

[/IMG][/IMG]

The wait was 20 minutes or so, mom was like, are we going to make it? I was like sure, the ride is 3 minutes and we're real close to the Pirates League. (Do you notice my inner valley girl coming out with all the "like"s) They giggled the whole ride and Dev calls complaining about being hungry. I knew it. Since he didn't eat but one plate and a little bit of grapes now he's whining about being hungry. We tell them to meet us at Liberty Square. Too late they were heading past Dumbo now. We meet up finally and we're walking towards Adventure Land. Of course we get turned around and it time is ticking away. I ask a CM for directions to Pirate's League, the boys are whining and we tell them to wait until we get to there.

Finally we get to the Pirate's League with minutes to spare. Mom gives the boys $20 and they're off. Later when we met up Dev told me spent almost $15 on two meals. Wth?! Didn't I tell you to share?

Anyway, back to the good stuff. We check Wellster and Sugah Mama in. The CMs are wonderful. After they pick out their looks: Wellster wants Jake and Sugah Mama wants to be a mermaid. A wonderful CM tells them the most corniest joke that repeat for the rest of the trip.

Why do pirates become pirates? Because they can always say ARGH! They laughed so hard. It was a miracle because most children with Autism don't get jokes.

They sign their names and wait to be called.

Sugah Mama is called first and she's getting all mermaid'd up.

Next Wellster:

So Wellster's getting his tat and the CM says: " I heard getting a tattoo hurts, what do you think?" He puts a temp tattoo on Wellster's hand and nothing. He starts jumping.

still nothing. See what I mean about missing jokes?

Here's Wellster transformation:

Wellster gets done first and the call goes out. "Yo ho, ho, we found Jake."

The boys came in and Sugah Mama still wasn't done. They managed to do BTMR and Splash Mt. Dev said Albert screamed the whole way down. It's a big thing since Albert is scared of heights. He refused to do space mountain. Finally Sugah Mama: "From Sea to Shore and new mermaid is born!"

Notice her new bling?