The Go's and the No's TR just back w/pictures!

[merrymouse1]

Hi all! Im going to attempt to do my first ever trip report. I have been inspired by reading all of your great reports and took tons of pictures, food included, and thought it would be fun to share. You can read my PTR to get the details about us but some quick facts…

Me, trip planner, disney lover and one of the go’s (PTR reference)
DH, only going because all my neighbors are going, one of the No’s (PTR reference) he will be referred to as No #1.
DD, 14 the other No of this trip, No#2.
DS, 12 he’s one of the Go’s I will refer to him as Chickie, He is quite the chick magnet (PTR reference)
DD, 8 We’ll just call her Sunshine also one of the Go’s. Heres a pic of all of us just to get our pictures started:

It all starts the day before with an early chemo appointment for my mom (stress), car trouble, getting my dog to my sisters, my parrots to the bird sitter etc and ends the day with finishing packing and just getting ready for a nice nights sleep when I smell something funny…Yup, my brilliant Dh (aka #1) decides he is going to self clean the oven. Well, this takes about 5 to 6 hours with the oven being on the highest setting possible. Here’s our conversation:

Me: What are you doing????
DH: Cleaning the oven. With the birds out of the house I figured it would be the perfect time to clean the oven. (birds and oven cleaning don’t mix, it can kill them)
Me: But its 8:00pm and we have to get up at 3:30am?
DH: So.
ME: We cannot go to bed with the oven on high!
DH: Stop worrying…Ill stay up until its done.

So I go on to finish my packing, get all the kids in bed etc so at about 9:30 Im getting ready to go to bed and go into our bedroom only to find my DH snoring peacefully. I knew he wouldn’t stay up. Now I cannot sleep for fear the house will burn down or we will all become exfoliated with the fumes! So needless to say when my alarm went off at 3:30 I was not to pleased with DH.

We all pile into the car blarry eyed but most of us are happy to finally be off.
So I notice my hubby getting anxious…We are getting into the car at exactly 2 minutes behind schedule. Im usually the high strung one but when we travel my hubby turns all tense and freakishly punctual. I further annoy everyone in the vehicle with my obsession with taking a picture of the clock.

Convo #2
No2: Good God, why are you taking a picture of the clock?
Me: Why? To document it for my trip report to my disney friends, of course.

This they cannot get over. All 4 of them groaning and thinking Im absolutely ridiculous. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it took me about 11 minutes of fidgetting with my camera to figure out how to turn the flash off. When I finally figure it out we are already driving and dh has no patience for my trip report so he refuses to pull over so I can get a clear picture of departure time so here is blurry pic:

Even though it says 4:44am (you’ll just have to trust me on this one) we really pulled out of the garage at about 4:32am.

Ride to Boston uneventful as long as you don’t count the negativity coming from No#2. Her disdain for my euphoria at this time in the morning is palpable.
We arrive at airport in what I feel is plenty of time to stop before security at Au Bon Pain for one of their delish ham and cheese croissants. I just love these and we don’t have an Au Bon Pain in the little speed bump they call a town in which we live. Dh’s travel intensity will not allow it…he is worried about the long line at security. So I pass but not happily. I have to settle for a Dunkin Donuts ham and cheese. (which my hubby waits in a huge line for and I only take one bite of later, shh, I didn’t dare tell him I didn’t eat it, DD croissants just don’t cut it when I could have had Au Bon Pain)
Anyway, we meet the J’s at the gate, they are on our flight and Mr J announces that Mrs J and I will be sitting in first class! A little pixie dust has landed on our shoulder. Two of his seats got an upgrade (he travels a lot) and it looks like the hubbies will sit back with the peasants and all the kids while Mrs J and I sit with the upper crust for a pleasant chat fest accompanied by hot towels and an assortment of refreshments. Here are some pics from the flight:

I won’t be adding pics of my neighbors in here as I don’t know if they would appreciate but I think this one is ok. How cute is this? This is my Chickie with the littlest J walking to ME. She just adores my Chickie. Chickie is super cool at all times but not too cool that he still won’t hold hands with a princess toting a princess suitcase.

We land something like 20 minutes ahead of schedule grab our stuff and were on the train thing on our way to Magical Express:

I had to crop middle J out of pictures so that is my Sunshine looks like she is hugging nothing

We are the first in line at ME and seconds later we are on the ME bus heading to our resort, first stop POR.

I think I will stop here as I have no idea if Im adding the pictures correctly. Will pixie dust continue to fall on us. Early and uneventful arrival at MCO, bumped to first class, no line at magical express???? Wait and see in next installment. Thanks for reading, well, I hope someone reads it.....Only about 2 people read my PTR....LOSER!

Next:
Post #2 and Post #8 (im too much of a newbie to figure out how to add the links so this will have to do)

 

[merrymouse1]

Ok, I made a few ****oos. First it was supposed to say affixiate not exfoliate and where is the cute picture of Chickie and Little J??? Here it is:

also I never mentioned the dining places I will be reviewing with pictures of almost everything:

Dinners:

T-rex
LeChef's DeFrance
POR food court
Grand Floridian Cafe
Wolf Gang Puck Cafe
50's Prime Time
Kona Cafe

sampling of lunches from

Cosmic Rays
Fish & chips in Epcot
sushi in Epcot
Mexican counter service
Caseys
Mels drive in (universal)
Yak n Yeti

Stay tuned!

 

[Dsnygrl1205]

Great start! I'm going back now to read your PTR.

 

[bkandreu]

I'm in!! This a great start and I love it so far.. especially the oven cleaning.. haha! Of course he would fall asleep! Your children are adorable and I'm looking forward to more!

 

[NewJersey Princess]

Wonderful start, I adore it!
I'm gonna go back and read your PTR.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Just read your PTR and I'm on board!

I'm excited to see how it goes with having that many people along. That's crazy!

 

[txtara]

I feel your pain with the No's and the Go's. My husband could care less if we go and my teenage daughter won't leave the boyfriend that long. There will at least be 3 of us that enjoy our trip!

 

[merrymouse1]

Hi All! Im going to attempt to write part 2. I made alot of mistakes on Part 1 so hopefully I learned something and can get this report done correctly. Anywho...I failed to mention in part 1 that we are traveling with 3 other families so 8 adults and 10 kids ranging in age from 15 to 4. So on to part 2:

We are the first in line at ME and seconds later we are on the ME bus heading to our resort, first stop POR.
Heres hubby and me. UGH! The extreme stress of the last couple of weeks is showing. Dark circles do not look good on me J

On the way I missed every thing I wanted to take a picture of. I must get a camera that turns on and can take a picture in less than a second. Anyway I managed to get a blurry shot of the POR sign.

I took lots more photos on the bus but of course in every one at least one of the J's were in the pics and Im so bad at photo cropping Im just going to skip them.

I did on line check in so it took about 5 minutes. Our room is ready, we will not have to switch rooms tomorrow and all of our neighbors are right next to each other, Alligator room, building 38. How great is that?!! Its about 10:30-11:00am and our room is ready and we are all together! Here is me estatic to be here and No2 doing her best to be utterly disinterested, as only a 14 year old can.

As you can see the lobby was pretty empty.

Here is our room. 3837. We can tell no one has been here in a while because the clocks have not been changed for daylight savings time.

This awaited us:

Here is a pic of the room to get a general idea of the size etc:

We head to the food court for some lunch. No#1 and No#2 get cajun chicken sandwiches, Sunshine gets a fruit cup and carrots, celery and dip. I get the pasta station, penne with alfredo with spinach, broccoli and shrimp it was DELISH! Chickie gets pasta too, fettucini with alfredo sauce. It’s a make your own pasta stand and and I try to talk Chickie into adding something nutritious to his lunch here is the conversation:

Me: Really? Just pasta with alfredo sauce?
Chickie: Yup.
Me: But its something like $10.50, don’t you want to add some broccoli, spinach, chicken anything?
Chickie: Nope, just pasta with alfredo.

So I give up and get him the plain pasta with alfredo sauce.
By the time the pasta argument was over No#1 and No#2 has devoured their chicken sandwiches so no pictures but here is a pic of chickie’s pasta in a box:

The chicken sandwich was described as good. The French fries looked a little weak, skinny little things. The pasta dishes were quite good and could easily be split between two people IMHO. And after all that pasta debate with Chickie he ate exactly 4 bites. I argued with him to eat more but he downed a soda and was just too full, he claimed. This will come back to haunt us later, Im still kicking myself. Stay tuned.

Ok I just found my receipts there is a million zillion of them but I found the ones from the food court from this day. We paid OOP because we don't start our free dining until the next day because today is a holiday.

bottled water $2.50
carrots and celery $3.69
20oz orange soda $2.39
fruit cup $3.39
2 chicken sandwiches with fries $17.58
Powerade $2.89
tax $1.95

Total: $34.39

chocolate milk $2.19
2 pasta your own way $20.98
refillable mug $13.99
tax $2.42

Total $39.58

So for a family of 5 for lunch the grand total was $73.97 Bring on the free dining!


We all headed to the pool. We met up with the J’s and the K’s for an afternoon of swimming and sunning. It was 42 in our hometown and a beautiful 80ish here at POR. Hubby had a few cocktails with his buds and promptly fell asleep on a chair. While No#2, Sunshine and I had these non-alcoholic concoctions:

Frozen lava smoothie and frozen orange burst.
The kids loved them they were a little sweet and heavy for me. Notice please that Chickie has been now in the pool for about 3 hours without a drink in him or much food for that matter. Our trip is about to crash and burn…..
Here's chickie having a blast in the pool:

Did I mention that Chickie has had several episodes of hypoglycemic attacks? No? I didn’t? Well you’re about to experience one. Yup, that’s right folks lets up the anxiety a little more for dear old mom.

We get back to the room, everyone showers about 4:00ish because we have DTD and T-rex scheduled for all 19 of us. (I forgot in the meantime the C’s arrive and have added her sister to the party so we are now at 19 in total)
So chickie emerges from the shower clutching his stomach and by the time he says: Mom, I don’t feel good….he starts to crash….I know this look well. Hands clutching his mid-section, completely white lips, eyes rolling and he’s falling. I manage to get him and rouse him a bit and then he’s vomiting. Yup, he’s going down. He doesn’t really vomit much because there is nothing in his stomach. This little Chickie has been up since 3:45am, traveled, spent 3 hours swimming in the sun with barely any nutrition. I am kicking myself for not insisting he eat more. But the fog that has been oppressively (is that a word?) sitting on my shoulders these past weeks is still with me and I cannot think clearly. So I put him on the bed, run to the K's room and beg for something to eat preferably something sweet. I return with chocolate chip cookies and a powerade. This I manage to feed to Chickie but he's still kind of just laying there. Then I notice he is laying right on top of the bedspread something I definitely would not allow in my unfogged state of mind
So No#1 says that we should get going to DTD. What???? but in No#1 typical push anything unpleasant under the rug attitude he declares Chickie will be fine and we should get a move on. Meanwhile, Im in a panic thinking of logistics....where is the nearest ER? I don't have a car, how will I get him to the ER? Call a cab? Beg for mercy at the front desk? Call an ambulance? and this is the convo with No#1

Me: Huh?
Dh: Ya, we’ll grab him something in the food court on the way and he’ll be fine.

This makes me want to punch him but Chickie is perking up a little, cookies and powerade will do that. And Chickie insists he wants to give it a go. So we walk to the food court albeit slow with me supporting my Chickie. We decide on a yogurt which he eats while waiting for the boat. Im still really worried, he is still not up to snuff, what if he passes out on the boat, how will we get him help then? What if he vomits on the boat? Needless to say I am stressed, really stressed. Im on very little sleep and I still have the fog. We get on the boats with the J’s. I start to take pictures etc

then a get a text from my sister…..

She writes: I have to speak with you. Call me.

So as everyone is enjoying the boat ride I am falling apart. Not only am I worried about Chickie now I get a scary text from my sister. I just want off the boat so I can call her and find out what is wrong. Im thinking my mom is in really bad shape and Ill have to fly home immediately etc. All sorts of horrible things are going through my head, I am close to tears and totally freaking out on the inside. I vaguely remember seeing he tree houses, the captain saying stuff about disney blah, blah, blah.. I get off the boat and call. My mom is having a rough day, had to take strong pain meds and is having other complications but she is still ok enough for me not to fly home. So I am a wee bit relieved and my sister assures me that this was expected and with the new meds and a days rest she should be better.

Everyone else heads away to shop but I go in search of food for Chickie. He feels like he could eat something like a sandwich or bagel. So I head to Earl of Sandwich and run into a mob of people, so no go. I try Wolfgang Puck Express. Chickie is a very bland eater. My girls eat and try anything, Chickie?…not so much. Hmmm, they have a chicken pesto sandwich so I ask the server if she can make him just a plain sliced chicken sandwich with a little mayo and lettuce? She says sure! So as we sit and wait I see all this really, really, yummy looking food go by but Im thinking it looks a little fancy for Chickie and Im praying he’ll eat it. So it comes and its in a pita pocket with herbs all over the outside and the lettuce is coated with something white but its not mayo. So he reluctantly takes a bite while I hold my breath and declares it the best chicken sandwich he has ever tasted! (insert hallaulah here) Seriously, hallalulah was going off in my head. It was also served with homemade potato chips that were to die for. I had a couple of bites of the sandwich and he was right, it was the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever tasted. So he perks up even more. He is able to walk unassisted but I still hold on to his arm. This tells you he is not completely normal as he would never, ever walk with me holding on to him in public normally. As we’re walking it just dawns on me that its dark out and a little chilly. BINGO!! Here is the something important I knew I was forgetting as I packed in my fog…..long pants. My kids only have one pair of long pants from the plane. So the search for sweat pants starts. Note to all: there are not a lot of sweatpants for purchase in all of DTD. Especially ones that are not plastered with disney stuff that any normal 14 year old would be caught dead in. Dh claims there was not any sweatpants in all of DTD, as he has been looking with No#2 and Sunshine while I was revving up Chickie. Well, I find a pair for Chickie and Sunshine in WOD and a pair for No#2 in T-rex store while waiting for our table. SCORE!

This is getting super long so I think I will end it here for now. Next up T-Rex with all 19 of us. Hmmm.....I wonder how that will be....

 

[merrymouse1]

OMG! those pictures huge! I forgot to resize them. Is that OK? Im so bad at this

 

[KGGJT]

thanks for sharing

 

[merrymouse1]

Great start! I'm going back now to read your PTR.

Thanks and welcome aboard! Im a rookie so you'll have to forgive my errors.

I'm in!! This a great start and I love it so far.. especially the oven cleaning.. haha! Of course he would fall asleep! Your children are adorable and I'm looking forward to more!

Thanks! Can you believe the oven cleaning thing? Who does that? Sometimes he is such a good wife

Wonderful start, I adore it!
I'm gonna go back and read your PTR.

Thanks and welcome!

Just read your PTR and I'm on board!

I'm excited to see how it goes with having that many people along. That's crazy!

Thanks and it got very interesting at times but all and all it worked out well. Welcome!

I feel your pain with the No's and the Go's. My husband could care less if we go and my teenage daughter won't leave the boyfriend that long. There will at least be 3 of us that enjoy our trip!

I know, I just don't get it. We're on vacations, we are eating, drinking and having fun, what is so bad about that? Welcome to my TR and Thanks for reading!

 

[merrymouse1]

thanks for sharing

Welcome and Thank YOU for reading

 

[15isto2]

Brilliant start to the report

 

[merrymouse1]

Brilliant start to the report

Thank you and Welcome! I love English terms...Brilliant...I must start using that more. Look for it in my next report

 

[IheartDDuck]

I understand what you're talking about with hypoglycemia. I was diagnosed with it when I was around 9 years old, and I completely understand that it is something that you absolutely don't mess around with. I'm glad that everything worked out in the end, but I do know that it was likely very stressful for you.

I can't wait to hear about T-Rex with 19 people.

 

[Garth]

Great report so far! Love the pics. We stayed at POR the week before you were there. Glad it was warm so you could get in some pool time. The temp ranged from 40-70 degrees when we were there (Nov 5-7) Brrr... No swimming for us. Coats and mittens.
Hope things start looking up for your son!