Temporarily handicapped going to WDW - October 2007 TR

[SandraVB79]

Hello everyone. I still haven't written my 2007 trip report. Unlike many others, I can't recall what I did exactly on each day, much less the conversations I had (but I do remember what I ate where! one needs to have his/ her priorities, right?). So, in order to write this TR, I'll have to look at pictures and dig up my excel sheet that I used to plan the whole thing. But there are some things I can already write about now, without all that information.

The cast:

Me. Sandra. At that time 28 yo. Disney-fan, I love Mickey and Minnie Mouse. My favourite resort is DL, followed by DLP, followed by WDW. Sorry, can't help it!

DM or my Mom, Adrienne. At that time 57. After dragging her along to all Disney parks, she has become a Disney-fan too, although not as crazy as I am. But we're getting there, she already wears ears now when in the park!

Timing:
October 2007. And shame on me, I can't remember the real dates. First we wanted to go beginning of May, but I couldn't take days off from work, so we changed our plans to October. Because there was a space shuttle launch planned. For the 21st. It was planned for that day when I started planning in July, at least. Since we didn't want to miss that, the whole vacation was planned around that date! I think we left on October 19, flying to Washington DC with connection to Orlando, staying one night at DTD (Best Western). Next day was shopping (outlet village (Premium?) and Mall at Millenia), followed by driving to Cape Canaveral, where we stayed at the Radisson at the Port. Next day, the 21st!, we planned on visiting KSC and watching the shuttle been launched, but in between my planning and booking everything and the launch, they changed the dates. On the 22nd, we would go on a cruise to the Bahamas, followed by a week at WDW (AS Music). On November 1st, we flew back to Belgium, where we arrived on November 2.
That was the master plan!

The big drama:
In a final attempt to loose some pounds/ inches before having to show up in bikini on the Bahamas, I planned on using our hometrainer bike at home. It's located on a small platform between 2nd and 3rd floor in our house. Well, I was my own elegant self, and I fell off the stairs leading to it when I wanted to start my exercise. Verdict: torn ligaments. And at least two months a cats from my toes to my knees!
I can assure you, the devastation was way worse than the pain! I had spent so much time planning this vacation (I booked every single bit separately through the internet, trying to get the best/ good deals), and now this happened! So we went to master plan B: I lied to the orthopedic. And told him I was supposed to be a bridesmaid in a Florida wedding and really had to go.
Now, not only did I have the ligaments and the cast, I have also had a thrombosis in the past, which leads to cast (can't move leg) + heat a deadly combination for me. Literally. But I insisted on going to the "wedding", and told him I didn't want to die in the air plane (sitting still for so many hours is dangerous for me, especially if I can't wiggle my foot/ walk around the plane) or in the Florida heat. After telling me I was very irresponsible (I know), he became creative and told me about "ligacast" which is a fake cast consisting of plastic and velcro, and you can take it off! Done deal for me! So, I was supposed to return to him the day before leaving, he would take off the real cast and replace by the ligacast.
In the meanwhile, I was stuck at home with a lot of pain and crutches. And a master plan C: cancel the whole thing if it turned out I couldn't walk with the ligacast (I could only imagine how much it would hurt!).
I also somewhat rescheduled the trip, changing rooms to handicapped accessible ones, changing shuttles by rental cars, arranging wheelchairs at the airports, etc.

One day before leaving, the real cast came off, was traded in for the ligacast, and I told myself that pain is just an idea in between your ears. It's an illusion. I kept telling myself that like every single minute. Because I suffered. Big time.

But it didn't stop me from going on vacation!

 

[SandraVB79]

Now, that you know about the drama preceding the trip, you'll get some pre-trip blablabla.

We had booked a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas. Which included a formal night => Yeah! Me likey dressing up! Me no likey dragging big dress all the way to Florida/ Bahamas when I plan on shopping a lot there! Me needey another dress, that would be lighter/ easier to transport. So I had to go shopping. Not that difficult, right? Well, try that whe you're not supposed to put one foot down!
In the US, most shopping is done in malls, where you drive up pretty close to an entrance that is closest to the store you need. Shopping in Belgium is in shopping streets that are pedestrian only, and usually the store you need is nowhere near an intersection with a street where cars can drive. So, I needed a master plan (lots of master planning was done for this trip!).
My brother would drive my mom and I to the shopping street and drop me off as close as possible. WHich could basically lead to a police ticket, but we took the risk. Then he would go park the car somewhere around, adn we would call him to pick us up after our shopping was done. Then I would jump on one foot, helped by crutches and my mom to the store where I would buy a dress and then jump back to the car.
By the time I reached the store (about 1 hour later, usually takes 5 minutes), sweat was literally dripping from my back and my arms hurted a lot from the crutches. Sometimes I have stupid master plans, I should just have worn/ taken a dress I had.
Then, in the fitting room stalls, we did something that would shock so many community boarders: the stalls have curtains, and I tried on dresses with the curtain halfway open and my mom helping me. It isn't easy to step in a skirt or so when you have only one leg you can stand on! Good thing we are not prudes and not easily shocked!
So, I found the dress, jumped back to our pick up spot and survived this quest!

 

[SandraVB79]

Now that we got the dress down, I had another small problem: which shoes was I going to wear?
The doctor had told me that with that ligacast-thing, I could wear real shoes. Once I got it from the pharmacy, I tried it on on my other foot, and I don't know how he does it, but I couldn't fit it in any sneaker or so. Thank goodness there are Crocs! I could just fit my foot + ligacast in the Cyamans I have, and also the flipflops and other sandal-style I have.
I don't think I have ever travelled with such few pairs of shoes: 3 pairs!

Btw, remember there is formal night? With dress? And I only mention Crocs? haha! I was going to shock the cruisers!!!!

 

[SandraVB79]

Dress down, shoes down, me down....stairs, all my stuff upstairs!

At home, my bedroom is on 3rd floor. I spent all the days between drama-day and vacation day downstairs, because the stairs were too difficult. My family had put up a bed for me in the living room, and each morning and evening, the kitchen became my bathroom! I couldn't take showers anyway with the cast.

But then teh day arrived we had to pack. All my stuff being upstairs, me being downstairs, my mom being in between, it was a crazy day!

What I did was: drag myself upstairs (like: put your behind on the stairs and move up stair by stair) (sweat once again dripped off me by the time I reached my room, speaking of a workout!) I took all I thought I could nee dout of my closet, for my mom to take down a floor, where I then tried to assemble a suitcase that wouldn't be too heavy. Cutting down on number of shoes sure helped here!

As usual, packing lasted until late at night, but we got it done!!!!
One more sleep, and we're going on vacation!

 

[SandraVB79]

If I remember well, our flight was somewhere around noon. I had called United Airlines earlier on to ask for assistance in the airports, and to ask if I could get an Economy plus seat or a front row seat or so, with more space, because it was not like I could "bend" my leg/ foot that well to get in those narrow seats. They told me they couldn't help me, and that I had to be early at the check in, then they would assign me seats.

I think my dad dropped us off at the airport around 6 am. I wanted to be sure to get my economy plus seats! What can I say!
Turns out the United counter wasn't open yet. Oh well... at least we were first in line for when they opened! More or less. We found a bench near the counter and waited for them showing up. Thank goodness there is lots of good people watching at the airport!
When United people decided to start their working day, we were lucky to get our economy plus seats (with a surcharge, but they only charged for one person because they took a pitty on me) and told us they couldn't book that for our flights back. We had to do that in Orlando. Oh well, that was going to be a problem I was going to tackle later on!

Then we went to check in (they told us we could use the first class one, since that way I didn't have to wait in line! I felt fancy ) And then I wobbled through customs, duty free shopping (bought Burberry perfume) and security to teh gate. Where we had to wait for like 4 hours or so. Thank goodness again for the people watching
Btw, as you maybe have noticed: no wheel chair assistance at Brussels airport. We kind of suck in that area!

When boarding time came by (after me being very bored, haha!), we could pre-board. It's one of the "perks" of being an idiot for falling of the stairs. Once we reached the plane, no assistance either from theflight attendants. I didn't know what to do with the crutches and so, it was kind of weird they didn't noticed I wobbled like a duck with one foot and had some accesories to store away. Oh well...

By that time, all the others were boarding too, we left off, flew over the ocean, received a lousy meal, watched movies (can't remember which ones, but I do remember we each had our own little screen with a choice between different ones), we landed safe and sound at Washington DC, and we knew we were in the US when they were waiting for me with a wheel chair! Woohoo!
It scared me to death though, the wheelchair person is apparantly used to doing this and he kind of ran, I was really scared that we would bump into everyone. It's a weird height also to view the world from! One of the "perks" was cutting in line at immigration. My mom kind of liked this part, but I told her she could be the next one to "earn" this "perk", I'd rather wait in line and not be in pain!
Wheelchair person got us to our next gate, where we waited for our new flight, to MiCkey airpOrt. That's what MCO stands for, right?

My mom had been in DC before, but never in Florida, so for her it was really exciting to see it from the air! And to see the palm trees! And to get that Disney-feeling, right when you unboard the plane and have to take that monorail-like train! Oh, btw, once again, there was a wheel chair for me, woohoo!

Now, wouldn't you know, our suitcases survived the trip, woohoo! After loosing suitcases already a couple of times, I'm always so happy to see them arriving together with us!!!

If I remember correctly, we landed somewhere in the early evening at Orlando, and our biorhytms being at a moment in day that is 6 hours later. Meaning: we were pretty much tired and exhausted and grumpy and smelly. And in a lot of pain. We were not feeling the magic that much at that moment in time, haha!

We kind of managed to get to the rental cars, picked up our car (a Santa Fe, that was SO cool!!!!!!!!!!!) and then came the tricky part: driving to DTD. I had some maps from orlando area from previous visit, and I am a good map reader. However, due to some weird reason, I tought we had left the airport from one side, when actually, we left it on teh other side. So I couldn't figure out WHERE we were. Which made for a lote of cursing and yelling. Because I couldn't find where we were and my mom is always so stressed when driving in the US (that's why we try to avoid it as much as possible, it confuses us!)
Good thing there are a lot of signs to WDW, and after lots of DIS-unapproriate words, we found DTD and the hotel. We checked in, refreshed ourselves and were starving! So off to DTD we were. Bycar of course, since I couldn't bring up the whatever-was-needed to wobble to DTD by foot. ONE foot.
Too bad there wasn't one single free spot at the DTD parking. Thank goodness some people decided to leave and make room for us, hooray!
We had dinner at EoS, and as I already said, I can still remember exactly what I ate: the Full Montague, with ranch dressing instead of the standard dressing it comes with. No idea what my mom had.
I have pictures from this, they will be posted once they are online.

After our sandwich, I wasn't that tired anymore, and I was feeling the magic. WE WERE AT WDW!!!!!!!!!!!! Only for a couple of hours, but WDW none the less!
When one is at the Mouse, one has to spend money, so that's exactly what we did: enter the world of Disney to spend money. That's a good idea right, go shopping before your cruise, so that you have to drag everything you buy with you on the cruise and back, while you could have bought it just as easily one week later when staying a whole week at WDW?
Oh well, I wanted to be sure I had it. Too many times, I have said: I'll buy it tomorrow, and then it's sold out. Plus: you received a throw (well, at least if you paid some low price for it) after buying for a certain amount (good trick: if you spend money, we allow you to spend even more!) and I wanted to be sure to have the throw.
So of all things available, I bought a big heavy book. Sometimes I'm not that practical

After that, we kind of were tired/ exhausted again (jet lag) and returned to the hotel to get a nice sleep.

About the hotel: we stayed at the Best Western DTD, handicapped accessible room. The room was nice, clean, and that's all I need. Staff at check in weren't that friendly, but oh well... it didn't ruin my sleep!

 

[SandraVB79]

After a night worth of sleep, we were still tired. But, we had plans, so up up up, off we go!
I am not at all a coffee drinker, but I'm not human before I have my breakfast. But where to go for breafast? We had one of those tourist guides, filled with adds for buffets and breakfast, but we didn't want to drive too far (remember: my mom hates driving in the US) and I didn't really know which buffet would be good or not, close by or not, ... so we decided to hit DTD and see where they served breakfast. Turns out they serve it at EoS.
For once, I don't remember what I had, but I do remember my mom had something with spinach. Pictures will follow! What also followed me was a feeling of sickness. The breakfast sandwiches taste good, but they are so greasy, my stomach couldn't handle it.
But anyway, I felt human after my breakfast, I felt like a sick human in a lot of pain, but it was human! Plan for today was to go to the Premium (I think) outlets, to a Walmart or Target and then to Cape Canaveral.
Without too many problems, we found the outlet shopping mall, and spent most of the day there in the heat. I remember we didn't buy much, but I felt way too miserable to enjoy shopping. I can tell you that a ligacast isn't as good as a real cast! And it allows you to do way too much, which causes extra pain!
At that mall, we received driving instructions to a Target (they have these little cards with driving instructions to all places a tourist may want to go, very handy!) and we passed the Mall at Millenia, so I HAD to go in! We shopped a bit at Macy's (a bit = we bought way too much perfume and cosmetics) and bought an iPod for my brother. This was then followed by a trip to target for water etc, and to Home Depot for limegreen mickey heads. TG they weren't out of those!!!! By that time, it was already pretty late, and we decided to have dinner there, instead of at Cape Caneveral. We had dinner at TGI Friday's. I remember we had clam chowder, and they forgot to bring us spoons. Unbelievable how long it can take to bring someone spoons. Or forks and knives for our entree. They can't expect us to eat with our hands, can they??

Once dinner was over, it was very dark outside, we had to drive to Canaveral, and this of course stressed my mom! The drive itself wasn't too bad, but it wasn't very clear where to go once we were there. We ended up in some scary spots...
Conversation going like this:
Me: you know, this really looks like the setting for one of those movies where they crajack you and torture you and then kill you and...
mom: (yelling) will you shut up and tell me where to go? I told you we had to leave earlier, I hate driving in the dark, I hate driving in the US, the signs are not clear, do we have any idea where we are and where we are going? (add some heavy cursing in there)

In the end, we foud our hotel. I can only recommend it if you need one there: Radisson at the Port. It is decorated so tropically, that I really felt "on vacation". It was great!

After the stress of the day, the heat and the jet lag of the day before (and the pain), we crashed down in our beds, and dreamt of mice and cruises!

 

[SandraVB79]

A new day arrived, and I got my human feeling back after the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Made to order omeletts (sp?) and waffles! and so much more!!! I'm in breakfast-heaven!

Breakfast heaven was followed by a trip to the moon and back: we visited Kennedy Space Center. We did the tour, saw the movies, saw the shuttle standing there (it should have been taking off that day, duh!) etc etc. All things one can expect of a day at KSC. But we did it at a low pace, because I was feeling the fact of walking way too much the day before during our shopping. I tried to not complain too much about it, told myself the pain was just an illusion, but I admit it: at times I was really grumpy. Poor mom that she had to undergo this
Btw, you know what got most interest by all people on the tour bus at KSC? Not the shuttle, not some exciting space-thing, but an alligator!!! haha! I found that kind of funny.

In the evening, we had dinner at the hotel, it was a buffet with made to order meat and fish, and then back in our room, we started the preparation for our cruise: packing the suitcases, attaching the labels, packing the carry-on, etc.

And then we slept for the last time on our sleep number bed. Which, in my opinion, is an overrated, expensive inflatable camping bed. But that's just my opinion of course. I dodn't like it. Opposed to the bed we had the year before at the Hampton Inn... now that was a bed...

 

[SandraVB79]

This was the day I had looked most forward to! *gasp* not WDW, but a cruise! A real cruise!!!!!

I think that for Americans, going on a cruise is on the same level as any other vacation. It's something that is done by many people, in about every "class".
Not so in Belgium. In Belgium, only the very rich people go on a cruise. It's something that seems way out of reach for the "everyday" people. And this day I was going on a cruise! A real one, not the Jungle Cruise (on your left hand side, you have the African elephant, the second most feared animal of the jungle. On your right hand side, you have THE most feared animal of the jungle: his mother in law. BWAHAHAHA!!!!! I LOVE the Jungle Cruise!)
But this was going to be a Bahamas cruise on board of the Carnival Sensation. Because we are cheapos when it's about hotels etc: as long as it's clean, we are happy, we don't need deluxe, concierge, private butler and what not. I would never decline all that when offered for free, but I can't bring myself to paying for it!

Did I already tell you WE WERE GOING ON A CRUISE??????

We had another breakfast at the hotel (omelettes! waffles! all the other goodies!!!), loaded the car, checked out and drove to the rental place. It was hard to turn it in, we really got to love that Santa Fe!
From the rental place, there was a shuttle to the port and OMG! IT IS THE MICKEY BOAT!!! LOOOOOOOK!! It's the MICKEY BOAT!!!!!!!!!
I would love to one day cruise on DCL. But since it was about twice as expensive as the Carnival one, well, choice was easy. BUT I SAW THE MICKEY BOAT!!!!!!!!!

The Carnival Sensation was a little less spectacular, but we were still very excited to get on it! We checked in through the check-in for non-US residents, and then had to wait to get onboard. We were there early, I can tell you. There was also a bridal party waiting to get on board. That was one bridezilla, geesh... But it made for interesting people watching!

And then came the moment that made our mouth fall open: we were allowed on the ship and... saw a stampede as we have never seen before. Apparantly the buffet was open and apparantly all the others hadn't eaten for at least a month. Unbelievable. I have never seen anything like this. It was amusing and pathetic at the same time. But since I have already been flamed on another board for my opinion regarding this, I will just leave it at this.

What we did: find a quiet spot to wait for our stateroom to become available, so that we could drop off carry-on and crutches (in the meanwhile I had decided to not use them anymore: they didn't help my foot and only hurted my arms. Didn't change the fact we had to drag them with us). I had also prepared some surprises for my mom: I had ordered beach towels as a gift from Carnival + a voucher for pictures for my mom. She was pleasantly suprised by it! Once all that was taken care off, we had a light lunch at the buffet (the stampede was still going on); went to the welcome speech, had the muster drill and the ship left port!!!

And look! MICKEY BOAT IS RIGHT BEHIND US!!!!!! A Royal Carribean one was also right behind us.

For as far as I remember, we relaxed a little on deck, got ready for dinner and had dinner. WHich was very uncomfortable since we had weird/ creepy table partners. There was a man by himself, the friend he was supposed to travel with got sick. He was nice. Then there were two Indian men, they were completely rude, completely ignored my mom and me, etc. It made us so uncomfortable, that we requested another table. At another time. In the other restaurant. Haven't seen them again for the rest of our trip!
I don't remember what we did after dinner. I think we spent some time listening to live music, and then went to bed (after getting organised in the stateroom).

This day was like a dream coming true: I was on a cruise. I really was there. And a very very very painful ankle hadn't prohibited me from going!

 

[SandraVB79]

While we weren dreaming from mice and palm trees, the ship had brought us to Freeport, Bahamas. Now, for us, "Bahamas" is about as exotic you can get, so it was SO exciting!

But again, I need breakfast first! So we hit the buffet, had our breakfast (stampede was still going on!) and then started going back to our room to get our stuff when one of my nightmares came true: I slipped at the poolside and fell. The deck was wet from the pool (I guess) and very slippery, and I fell. Hard. And couldn't get up by myself. And my mom didn't even notice me falling!!!!! I had to yell at her 3 times before she turned around and noticed me being very elegantly on the ground! Thank you very much to the two nice gentlemen who pulled me up (there was no way I could get up by myself). Yes, it hurted. A lot. No, I didn't complain. When it's wet, it's slippery, and I should have paid more attention/ be more careful.
That fall was also the end of wearing my nice new white skirt on vacation. It wasn't nice and white anymore, but wet and yucky.

After getting changed, we got off the ship and WE WERE AT THE BAHAMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!
When I was planning this vacation, I wanted to swim with dolphins and go snorkling. Those plans changed after drama-day, and so we didn't have anything planned for our day on land.
We took a cab to Lucyana, which is some resort-place, shopped around a bit, spent some time on the beach and I even got to go in the water. How that went: I took off the ligacast. My mom kind of picked me up, and helped me getting into the water where I let myself fall in. I splashed around in the water (floating helped relieving the pain!!!). When I was done, she pulled me up again, dropped me on the beach, and I got the ligacast on again.
Oh, btw, by then, we were celebrities: people recognized us from the ship! That happens when you wobble like a duck instead of walking!

After all that, we felt hot and cranky and somewhat bored (we are not beach people), and went back to the ship. Where we got good spots to see people arrive almost too late before the ship left the port! You know you have to be in time, and yet, you have those who arrive 2 minutes before it leaves! It was cheap entertainment though

Oh, btw, tonight was "formal night", you remember dress etc? So, off we went to get ready. I washed my hair. Put on the dress. Put on the Crocs. Put on lipstick and called it good! My mom did the same, but with regular sandals instead of Crocs and no lipstick. We were ready to shock the uptight people who did the "real works": beaded ball-gowns, huge hair, tons of makeup, lots of fake diamonds, ...
Once again: great people watching!

There was the captain's cocktail (if you're not a big family, it's about impossible to get one of the free cocktails or appetizers, they basically ignore you), we had dinner (formal night = lobster night) and then watched a vegas-style show, which I liked. But then, I love musicals and kitsch, so this 80-style thing was really something for me, haha!
We also got our pictures taken etc.
It was fun. And it ended with us dreaming from mice and rhum while the ship brought us to Nassau, Bahamas!

 

[SandraVB79]

If I remember correctly, we were already docked by the time we woke up in Nassau. After getting dresses, we headed for breakfast. or at least, I headed for breakfast, by myself.

My mom has some gallblatter (sp?) problems, and she had eaten something the night before that didn't do her well. She had left me in the evening show to go early to bed (it was interesting for me to get back to the room by myself. I had no mom and no crutches to lean on! And there wasn't a hot guy to help me either )
By the morning, she still felt bad. So, she stayed in bed, while I went to breakfast (once again, interesting/ stressing mission for me!) This time, I paid extra attention into not falling!!!!
By the time I was back from breakfast, my mom was up and felt slightly better. She said. She looked just as green as my dress! But she stated she didn't want to spend that day on board while she should be visiting some exotic island.
So, off we were to visit Nassau. Our first mission was to get a stamp in our passport! It took some time and lots of asking, but we got it!!! I have a fancy passport now!

Then we wanted to sightsee... the lazy way. I couldn't walk that well, she didn't feel well, so we paid for a horse-and-carriage ride. Afterwards (meaning: when we were home again), I found out we were way overcharged, but it was nice anyway.

After the sightseeing tour, we had lunch in Nassau, as I wanted to try conch. We both ordered a conch chowder (good but spicey!) and one order of conch fritters to share (also good, but I ate most of it, since mom was still not feeling well).
What caught my eye was the coffee machine at the place: it was Douwe Egbert's, which is as Belgian as... Stella Artois beer! I was really amazed to see it there.

When we were done eating, we shopped a bit, and that was rather disappointing. I knew it was tax free, and with the USD being so cheap, I had assumed that everything would be way cheaper than in Europe. Well, turns out that a Longchamp purse, tax free and taken into account the good exchange rate (seen from our point of view), was way more expensive than in Belgium!!! Same with many other items. The only things we ended up buying are the typical souvenir stuff, like mugs and magnets and so.

Something we also visited was the museum about slavery. This was a "highlight", it's a part of history that really interests me, and the exhibition was really put together well.
After all that, we had ice cream (Haagen-daasz) and went back to the ship. It was really really really hot, and I was really really really suffering from the pain, so we decided to relax on board; we didn't feel like dragging ourselves further into Nassau.
We spent some time poolside, I went into the water (dangerous expedition to get In and OUT!), got changed, had dinner, went to bed.
We are boring, I know. We were just too exhausted to party etc.

 

[SandraVB79]

This will be the most boring day, it was just a day at sea.
We got up, had breakfast, learned to make towel animals, spent all day sleeping on some deck, stuffed ourselves with chocolate cake, had dinner, saw a show, packed our suitcase, went to bed.

I told you we were boring!