TR, Lots of pics and video, too-Celebrated Life, Disney Style!

[lori1043]

Adding trip report to end of pre-trippy.....



Okay, I have not done this before but have read many. I am hoping you will follow along on our journey to a special "spot" in our family's life. By the end of this post, you'll know WHY we need this CELEBRATION so badly!!!! It will never be completely over for us, but we take it one day at a time...

CAST:me(Lori-37, but 38 on our trip!), DH(38) of 14 years, DD almost 10, DD8, Hershey the dachsund(who I still don't know what to do with on our trip!!)my DB(34), SIL(33?), DN3. Friends and possibly some family still(mostly thirty-somethings and thier kids)...

WHEN: February 1-10, 2008 (Mardi Gras for us)
WHERE: POP Century for the lovely AP rate of $49 a night

HOW: not sure yet, I want to drive, DH wants to fly, waiting for a DING!

WHY: well that's it isn't it??? The real reason to go to Disney...so many, but THIS is our ultimate -we are CELEBRATING LIFE, we are!!

WHAT??????

Here is the quick time-line lowdown, backwards...

3/7/2008-DD10,5 official years off of chemo for leukemia
2/1-2/10/08-Our family, Celebrating LIFE, in WDW!!!
12/1/07-DD9 turns 10!
12/25/07-getting passes for Christmas from us.
2/07-???-very disturbing, DD9 has 5th's and then has subsequent hives, constantly for months, even now. She is itchy and has been to many docs, all who put her on tons of antihistamines. One even gives her an antibiotic that has the side effect of causing disorders,WHAT!!! you nut! NOT! anyway, it bugs me... and her, too....
10/14/07-7 years since we were told she was in remission!
10/13/07- my younger DD turns 8!!

alright, alright already... this can get long, I will jump back to September of 2000, to speed this up a bit.....ready?.....................................


September 1, 2000- I have 2 gorgeous healthy little s. They make me beleive in a higher power. I have always beleived, but they have brought it to life for me. The older one is 2 years and 9 months and the younger is 10.5 months old-sweet!!!

September whatever-2 weeks b/f the 15th, 2000-DD2.5 has a wierd fever, high, and unbreakable. It is a Saturday night, we call doc, b/c , like I said, it wouldn't go away-bathing, motrin, tylenol, etc,etc... Doc says give another 1/2 tsp and see if that helps...okay it helps a bit and we can get a little sleep. SUNDAY- she has NO fever, but is very listless and scary. MONDAY- I bring her in w/ other DD. They find nothing wrong with DD2.5 so put it off to being viral. She did have some sporadic tummy aches but doc(not ours) doesn't look into that. She does, however, finds that dd10months has an ear infection(kill 2 birds with 1 stone, right?). Okay, see ya!! Bye!!

September 13, 2000-get a phone call from Montessorri school DD2 is on, saying she is clingy and doesn't want to go outside(not herself at all), DH goes and gets her as I am an hour away. She had been acting a little funny-meaning, she was either sleeping a lot OR bouncing off the walls-no constant anything, but unusual. We get home altogether and I give her mac n cheese or some noodle casserole(my mind is gone, GONE, I tell you!) that she likes, but eats none of. I get her undressed at the table to go THROW her in the tub and notice her belly is huge, no, HUGE and HARD! Then I started calling people to see if she had pooped that day-yep! She has, and a few times, I may add-thank you very much, so no constipation

September 14, 2000-bring her in to the doc, actually got there before the docs at 7:45am. I knew something was wrong, that it isn't normal. But not that. THAT was no where near my mind. Anyway, see our beloved doc- who does labs, pokes her tummy repeatedly, asks other docs to poke her tummy-I am getting nervous here-HEY, anybody see me here??!!! What is going on?! Sends her for a CT. Doc winds up meeting us there to help me since I have a 11 month old baby in a carrier and God knows what is happening to my firstborn! I knew something was terribly not right when she came over to help me. MY DB(not the one going on this trip with us, another 1)was already there taking care of DD11months, while waiting for my DH(he was then an hour away). I thank God my brother was there, working close by... During the CT, I had to bribe her to be still with a princess barbie she saw at walmart, little did I know that I and she , would come to LOVE the happy medicine given before procedures...I didn't want her to have it then, hence the bribery. Doc says"come and see me in ONE hour. The LONGEST hour , no second longest hour of my 30 years here on this earth(at the time). I still have trouble going to that particular Sonic that we sat at trying to choke down some grossly unhealthy nutrition during that hour...That was day 1 of my realization that I am a stress eater!!! When I am in despair, I do not eat, nothing tastes at all... there is a difference! That has happened 3 times in my life, all DD and cancer-related...
back at the docs- we are told she needs to go to an
O-N-C-O-L-O-G-I-S-T, what???!!! My DH cousin had one of those and he died at 26 years of age....
"Bring the labs, bring the CT, meet the oncologist at Children's in New Orleans in admit, RIGHT NOW". But what do I do with my baby, does she come? "no, it would be better if someone could take her for you until you find out what is going on, if possible". But I have to get her the princess barbie doll, wait, WHAT?? I need clothes, baby food, etc, etc... aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my dad meets us at my house(he used to live close by) takes DD11months and her stuff that I packed in like 2 seconds and gave him the key to the house, just in case(he may have had one??). We pack 2 outfits for DD2and run in walmart in like 5 minutes(DH STILL teases me , that this was the fastest trip to walmart in HISTORY!-he thinks it should be documented)

At Childrens, as planned, the ONCOLOGIST meets us at admit, and admits us?? I was still confused and befuddled... tells us "I really think it is leukemia, but there is one thing we have to rule out". What?? huh??? What, anything else???? "cat scratch fever"-whoah-what a difference. Then why do you think it is leukemia??? "B/c I have been doing this for years and it looks like it is, but we'll do a BMA(bone marrow aspiration) in the morning to make sure"....
.....great night's sleep there....

D-DAY-our little D-DAY, September 15,2000-a Friday. We KNEW, we just knew, in our hearts, that it was leukemia. We prayed that it was not, but something told us we were dealing with cancer. On that note, I will tell you how much I didn't know- I didn't know leukemia was a cancer, I knew it was bad and kids were bald, but in my moments denial, it wouldn't link. I knew kids died from it b/c of all the St Jude marathons and Childrens' Miracle networks fundraisers I had to change the channel on b/c it broke my heart and I couldn't handle it-what a wuss I have been in my life. All they wanted was a buck or 2-to CURE this crap. My grandmother died from leukemia, I was there the night she passed. I was 15. I met the guy that was to be my DH a year later.

Okay, after her bone marrow aspirate and spinal tap, and all the stuff that goes with telling parents thier kid had cancer-docs, nurses, social workers, family crying in the hall, etc....ONE mom came up to me in the hallway and hugged me so warmly, she said, "God only gives this to the BEST of moms, He will get you through it". My FIRST thooughts were, "well, I wish He though less of me,then." She gave me a boost I needed. I remember very little of my family's comments to me-but that was profound to me that day. THANK you to that mom, whose child is also still with us on this earth! i see them most Christmas -times at survivor parties...

Then the fun began, the nurse that handle protocols and all the study stuff-remember it ain't cured yet, it is still, all STUDIES and protocols and road maps to what they hope will save your child. We had to sign our life away that day, okay, our child's life, not ours-but the heart was ripping in 2 for both of us. I had no idea what we were doing... "do you want standard treatment or do you want to join in a national study? Here are the 10 pages of each and you can look over it and let us know in the next few hours. We need this today, so she can start chemo ASAP". What the f---? 'scuse my language, as it ain't me, but this was deserving of it. Okay, she was in surgery getting a port-a-cath, so we frantically looked over this stuff and chose a study-she'll at the least, get standard treatment, and possibly better treatment-that was the goal.

That night, the nurse came in with her first chemos- me and DH said, "get this crap out of my baby, NOW". Another word, I beleive, is okay in lieu of the word cancer. The journey began....but i'll just give tyou the highlights and the good things that came from our DD having cancer...there ARE good things in every bad thing that happens to us, sometimes we don't see it till years later.......


FYI-This WILL get happier, I promise!!! I wasn't sure how to go about it, but there it is!

until then, if i didn't depress you too much, i'll see ya!

Lori

 

[Avivasmom]

WOW how scary....but so glad your DD is able to celebrate life and there is no better place then DISNEY.

I cannot wait to hear about your plans.

 

[JenH1969]

Wow- I am along for the ride- can't wait to read more- Jen

 

[lori1043]

I forgot to mention one particular day-"no mo' chemo" day-March 7, 2003.

I say it like that because there is a song...

http://www.speciallove.org/Camp Songs.html

scroll down a bit and listen-it is hilarious! Well, hilarious in some demented parent of a cancer survivor kid way.

Anyway, ever since this particular day, we have been looking forward to March 7, 2008, when our oldest baby girl was 10 years old, her 5 years off chemo. We CREPT into the talking about planning a big Disney trip b/c, well, who needs to be counting chickens b/f they hatch! Especially with those eggs!

As each year has gone by, we have gone over the threshhold quietly, breathing a bit easier each year. Thanking God for each day. I am now truly a day to day person. I have a hard time organizing an activity until the one before it is complete. even if it is a day apart. I just have my mind trained to not know what tomorrow may bring, what is in front of me is what I deal with, everything else can wait. Except this trip- I have been secretly looking forward to it for 5 years and been actively planning for a year now. We told ourselves, that if God allowed her to relapse, we were still going and "celebrating life", 'cause we are helping her fight it every step of the way. BUT, she has done well, is as healthy as we can expect a 9 year old to be(darn hives and allergies nonwithstanding). Hoping her every bit of healthy for Disney in February. If you pray, please do so for her health. We are sooooooooooooooooooooooo close!!


DH and I decided on no big off chemo party b/c we were tiptoeing through it-thinking it would jinx her or ask for it back. I know,wierd way to think, but we are/were out of our minds anyway!!!

On another note, DD on chemo, when she was 4, was told she couldhave a "wish" from Make a Wish-I flipped originally-thinking it was for dying children. I told them "no, b/c we are not going there" and the social workers told me that it was for any kid with a life threatening illness. Okay, well tell thier website that-do you know it was changed soon after-many people must have noticed that!! All hat settled, she had a wish. She had to draw it since she wasn't really talkative back then.

She drew Mickey....

March 2002, we went to WDW on Make a Wish, stayed at Give Kids the World( I highly recommend visiting-it is NOT sad to visit. It is a wonderful place). That would take 5 days to tell you how FABULOUSLY AWESOME THAT TRIP WAS!! 2 princesses for a week. We co-ordinated our trip with a friend we made in the hospital-another Make a Wish kid.

All I can tell you is that the next time we went to WDW, we were on a tight budget, and the girls asked when the limo was going to bring us to the plane!

Here is a link to Give kids the World:

http://www.gktw.org/

back to a little trip planning:

DH didn't want to go until March. Family wanted to go earlier due to kids in school. I homeschool, so I didn't care when, as long as it wasn't a holiday of summer or too far from the date of 5 years -DH didn't want to jinx it, or ask for it, as above. It happens to be a lot cheaper to go in Feb than in March at this point, so we decided Mardi gras was fine!!

Originally, we were doing 3-4 DAY DISNEY CRUISE, then a whole week in WDW-but finances didn't allow it, and still don't at this point. SOOOO , we are going for 9 nights and 10 days, possibly driving with a stop in Destin on the way home. This is our longest trip ever to WDW!! The past 2 have been very fun, and very budgeted 4 and 5 day trips. This one is defintely budgeted to a tee, but with leeway-YAY! Not that either way makes a differnece to me, as you have fun in WDW at the Grand Floridian or the ASMovies! Or even off property!

We are trying POP at $49 a night with an AP. Doing Pirate and Princess party on 2/5/08, and many other extras on this trip that we had not done before. We have 5 day park hoppers with days to chill and hotel hop and try different restaurants. More specifics later...

Lori

PS-glad you are joining in our journey!! We are soooooooooooooo excited-it can't come too soon.

 

[djcandyrocker]

WOW!
Sign me up too

 

[Phibbles]

very good start...sounds like it will be a great trip.

 

[lori1043]

Next step-DISNEY!!! 75 more days(or so, gotta' check TGM)!!!

DDalmost 10, had her every 4 month appointment with the oncologist today. It went great- she was bumped to 6 months!!!!

Then on to once a year!!!

The kids asked me the other day if we could start packing for Disney! I asked them to allow us to get passed Christmas and get the decorations down before packing!

We found out last week that some friends of our will be in Disney at the same time and will be joining us on a few occasions!!

see ya soon with more detail!!

Lori

 

[lori1043]

Okay, as I mentioned, we didn't have a party of our own when she finished chemo, but the oncology clinic did-then we decided to celebrate quietly on a camping trip to campground about 2 hours away. BELIEVE it or not, she got FEVER the first night!! Now, if you know anything about chemo, if you get fever of 100.4 or higher, you get admitted immediately. As she had JUST finished chemo THAT very day, and still had her port a cath in(they keep those suckers in JUST IN CASE-of relapse- for up to 6 months) so the hospital wanted us to come in for an admit. UGGGHHHH!

It was POURIN' rain outside and we were 3 hours away from New Orleans-UGGHHH! The allowed us to give her tylenol and come in in the morning-well, at least we were already packed-

Now DH was REALLY leary of celebrating anything realted to DD10 and chemo-he says we just be happy to sail through smoothly for now. BUT you must know that he did not put life on hold for it- we still had many lovely trips during her treatment when we had permission from her oncologist!! So, he decided the spontaneous trips worked out better!!!

Anyway, she was inpatient that time about 48 hours. We reschedlued our camping trip as we only had 1 day left. Fevr went away, home safely.

At that last day of treatment, we(me, DH, my mom, other family members) talked about doing Disney when she got to 5 years off treament(OT). About 3 years ago, I mailed all of family and a few friends envelopes and a letter-to start saving for a winter/spring "Celebrate Life" trip for our family-'cause we had all been through he-- with leukemia in my baby. And like i said, it's looking like my family and one of my brother's family only going plus a few friends families. Katrina changed some of it and my sister made some rotten choices that has used up her savings she had-but that is another story that could take 5 pages!! She has a DD5, whom we are very close to. I offered to take her on our trip-all she had to pay for was souvenirs-and my DSis said and still says, "NO". bummer. I was upset about it , as was DH, DB and SIL, but such is life. Like I said, and have no control over-my sisters wierd and rotten choices. Just pray for her. not that THAT in itself was wierd or rotten, but well.. I could go on-we (all of us) just wanted DN5 there, however we could get her there....

We ARE, however, excited to spend the time with DN3, who is so cute, redheaded and hilarious! Everything is "hers". She calls my DD's, "my Ash--- and my Hal--". We had her for a week a month ago and all she could tell us was "I stay here today, and going to Dinney world with my cousins tomorrow"!! I wish!!

Alright, so we booked our hotel rooms originally at ASMo in Feb 2007. We made us a grand gathering and sat...... and waited......... and Dis'ed......... and TGM'ed...................... and called................. and waited............... for it to get close enough to book our ADR's, buy our tickets and wait for codes and the Pirate and Princess Party tickets to go on sale. We are STILL waiting for possible Richard Petty discounts to come out (may be DH Christmas gift) and for TGM to make his last chages to the schedule of slower days.

I beleive it was in the beginning of summer that we switched our ressie over to POP century at a AAA rate.

Just recently I was able to book an AP rate(I have an AP and we plan on getting the DDE) for during the week. SO-5 nights at $49 and 4 nights at $69!!
Also got those P&PP tickets at a great AP price.

Anyway....
what do the kids want to do???

as much as we can in a 10 day time period...
visit:
the parks, of course
AKL
WL
FW for the movie
water park(if not too cold)
Give Kids the World
the luau at the Poly
Sci-Fi
Rainforest cafe
eat at the CASTLE, of course!!
(this was ROUGH, even on her Make a Wish trip)

I am looking forward to this trip also because BOTH of my kids will be big enough to ride everything-not that DD10 will-she is particular about what she rides and does and eats, etc... don't know where THAT came from (uhh, maybe the years of docs and me examining every body part every day and watching everything that went into her. uhh, maybe the chasing her with complimentary meds like vitamins and stuff to help the chemo side effects be less horrible-don't know if it worked, but I sure felt better!!!-maybe it was the constant washing of hands and serious cleansing of grocery baskets and eeewwwwww, a public bathroom(she had her own toilet seat that I kept in a baggie in my bag everywhere we went ), with the lysol and clorox wipes I kept in that bag too! Oh and the mask she had to where everywhere if her labs were low and she begged me to go somewhere))
Gosh, I am happy that is in our past. I HAVE loosened up unlike some other people I know!! I no longer carry the toilet seat and cleansers, but I still have the hand gel! I do make them put toilet paper on the seat if there are no toilet seat covers!

Speaking of toilets....

it started on the MAW(make a wish) trip.... lasted through subsequent trips and even till... now...

Imagine the girls suprise at going to the bathroom at Disney-automatic flush toilets. At first it scared them. (yeah, we were sheltered, had cabin fever, even, a few times). BUT I called them "magic toilets", you know, b/c we were in the MK. So from that point on, they were amazed by the magic toilets. Not scared of them any more! We still call them that. Even at Walmart... and wow, there are even magic towel dispensers and faucets-how COOL!!! Disney must have "imagineered that"!!! That is our story about that and we are stickin' with it!

tell you about our day to day prospective plans and ADR's next time!!!

Happy TURKEY DAY!!!!!!

Lori​

 

[Sabrina90744]

Lori, great start to your report, I'll admit, it had me ballin my eyes out. 71 days until POP!!

 

[wendypooh]

Lori ~

Cannot wait to get to WDW and help you and your family celebrate such a wonderful blessing!!

 

[lori1043]

Happy Thansgiving!!!!

Lori and family​

 

[Sabrina90744]

Bumping... so tell us about the adrs...

 

[lori1043]

Hey , sorry, it has been a while...

ADR's-not many, but hopefully GREAT!!! We do not focus too much on meals at WDW, but there are a few oldies for us and a couple newbies we will be doing...other than these, we are bringing our breakfasts, some lunches, doing the CS meals and LOTS of water and snacks....

I asked the DD's what places they wanted to revisit to eat at and the biggest reponse was Cinderella castle, Rainforest Cafe, and Sci Fi or 50's Prime Time Cafe. They had heard me talk extensively about the luau so they were all for that too. I asked about new places, but they knew they wanted these few places-and we only eat at table service places a few times per trip-THIS time will be a treat as were are going out more often...
We had been to Sci-Fi in 1995 and did not like it(before kids-BK) and we went back there in 2005 to check it out again with kids and we had a blast there. I have read really mixed reviews about Sci Fi, but we decided to go there again for this trip. I still have the glo ice cubes and cups from the last trip-oh, nevermind, our dog got to the cups that the kids left in the yard one day -BUT I do still have the ice cubes and they still work. The kids LOVED the car tables and ice cubes! I remember being concerned about the food since we had not liked it previously, but we did enjoy it last time-I was pleasantly surprised!!!

Sooooo.....
here are the ADR's:
We get there on Feb 1,2008 and will rest up and head to the Spirit of Aloha Dinner show, 8pm, Polynesian resort. I plan on getting there early to see if we can get a spot that allows us to see the fireworks over the castle from thier shore- but the timing may not work... anyway, that is my birthday dinner even though my birthday is not until the next day! I loved the luau as a 16 year old back in 1986(okay,you know my age now...) and in 1995, too, with friends- and had also read mixed reviews about it now-but I think my kids will LOVE it. I have made Polynesian chicken a lot since our last visit to the Poly. At least that is what they had the second time we enjoyed it-but LOVED thier banana bread-which I heard they don't serve anymore-BUT looking forward to new stuff anyway.

On Feb 2, 2008- we have no ADR's made as yet-thinking about Liberty Tree Tavern for an early dinner, BUT we are leaving the park at 7pm, so we may just eat back at our room....MEETING some Dis'ers at 6:30 that day before the P&PP starts, which we are not going to that night!

Feb 3, 2008-no ADR's but we are heading to Rainforest Cafe after our day at AK. Superbowl Sunday!!

Feb 4, 2008-Sci-Fi Dinner Theater-3:40pm(wierd time, but I mad it for a bunch of us-I may change that so I am not holding extra spots) So we will be eating a healthy snack at lunch and a light dinner later that night.

Feb 5th- Happy Mardi Gras!!!We are sleeping in and resting up for the big Pirate and Princess Party tonight!!! We may hotel hop to AKL or WL and eat at Whispering Canyon Cafe-haven't made these ADR's, but MAY. I just bounding us to a ressie if we don't wind up there... but then with the DDP, people scare me about making them b/c there may be no room if we do go. I swear, I haven't been sold on that DDP, but right now, it's messing with my plans!!! OTS-We have walked into Crystal Palace 3 times, no wait-well, maybe 15 minutes once- and now everyone tells me I have to make an ADR for that place. Darn DDP-in my way!!! We may also head to DTD. See , I like to wake up and decide after talking to our family those going with us and just have fun!

Feb 6th-CRT, 12:05 pm-getting HERE early!!! This was a must, good food or not- hey, we are NOT eating here just for the nutrition, right?!! HERE is where I may send some specially made deserts for the 3 gilrs in our party- to celebrate DD9's 5 years OT(off therapy-and yes, the childhood cancer field has theier very own set of abbreviations!! ). 5 years OT is a big deal in our circle!!!

Feb 7th- no ADR's , BUT plans for Fish n Chips in London!

Feb 8th-Friday-no ADR's, but if we do DTD we will have lunch at the Earl of Sandwich(DD9 has a HUGE aversion to McDonalds, and common FF overall. DD8, loves it-we'll see-may be making a Micky D's run while others are in line for the Earl of Sandwich!

Feb 9th- Give Kids the World(so we may eat outside the "world" this day), Universal possibly- no definitive plans!!
Feb 10th- sleeping in a bit and heading home, or maybe to Destin for a couple nights!

See ya!!....
next...what Parks we are planning for each day! Ans the days we have no plans.... what to do, what to do......

Lori

 

[Sabrina90744]

Sounds good Lori, our first trip I had planned all early morning breakfast ADR's but didnt take into account the time change, we missed all of our adr's but were very lucky to get all walk ups, every single day!!

I noticed you mentioned Universal. That is something I am thinking about, we went ahead and added the extra day, just a room only ressie. So I am actually planning on hitting a park on the 31st.

Can't wait to hear about your touring plans, see where I can stalk you at.


I can't wait for the mini-meet, we'll probably be on the same bus back to POP after the mini-meet. Havent made our adrs for that nite either

 

[lori1043]

Sounds good Lori, our first trip I had planned all early morning breakfast ADR's but didnt take into account the time change, we missed all of our adr's but were very lucky to get all walk ups, every single day!!

I noticed you mentioned Universal. That is something I am thinking about, we went ahead and added the extra day, just a room only ressie. So I am actually planning on hitting a park on the 31st.

Can't wait to hear about your touring plans, see where I can stalk you at.


I can't wait for the mini-meet, we'll probably be on the same bus back to POP after the mini-meet. Havent made our adrs for that nite either

Yeah, not sure either about Universal. We have 3 tickets to Universal left from DD9's MAW trip-we'd have to buy 1. I really don't want to end our trip on that note though.

Anyway, hoping to see you on the bus and even in the parks! I am going to update later today as we are having a small family/home/car lice crisis here-GROSSSS! Found them last night and we were up till 5am washing hair, washing bedding, spraying everything, combing through long curly hair and long straight blonde hair-all THICK-bagged up all the stuffed animals, bedding we can't wash, etc.... I am soooo grossed and it is almost 2pm and it feels like it is 9 am to me!! Vacuuming today, spraying car, etc....yuck...used the loaded stuff last night(poison type of lice removal) and letting kids use natural stuff every other day for a few weeks with one more loaded treatment next week. I HATE the chemical we need to use for this stuff!! Tea tree oil I heard is good too!!

DD9 and DD7 are sooo distraught though-this week has been rough on both, but especailly DD9-she found out about Santa this week(after many questions and then a really potent question to me-"Mommy , are you lying to me?"), then on Thursday morning had a flu shot, then Thursday night found out she(and her sister) has lice-welllll, her birthday is tomorrow and party tomorrow night-her best friends birthday is tomorrow and party is tonight- we had plans to bring the girls to tea(a tradition we started last year since they share the same birthday) and we had to cancel ALLLL of it. DD9-almost 10's family was coming over Sunday to celebrate her birthday- but even that is iffy now-she is really upset!
Big weekend ruined, but microscopic bugs-yuck-it makes me itchy!

Lori

 

[jordanyosh]

Hoping to run into you. I'll be at Pop/BCV 1/31-2/13. Pop 1/31-2/3........

 

[Sabrina90744]

OMG! I am so sorry, oh I went through that and I know the nightmare! I am so sorry your daughter's big day is a no-go. Give her a big hug for me.!

 

[lori1043]

Thanks....It really does blow BUT we made lemonade out of lemons and had "Lice destroying party " last night- watched "Meet the Robinsons" at midnight and had some caffiene-yes, even the kids!

Her is our itinerary as of right now; subject to change...

Fri-2/1-arrive, rest, Spirit of Aloha tonight. If we get in early enough, we will go do the Richard Petty Ride along, which is nicely discounted right now at $59-till the end of December. We do need to go to DTD or MK ticket spot to activate AP and get P&PP tickets. Check in, get fridge from a fridge swap, if available.

Sat-2/2-MK(we simply cannot DO Disney w/out doing MK first, and last too usually!) Mini meet at 6:30. Possible Liberty Tree Tavern or wait till we get to room and eat there-tending toward waiting and bringing some snacks to hold us over.

Sun-2/3-Superbowl Sunday! AK today. We are going to Rainforest Cafe at 4:30-ish. DH will be watching the SB with family and friends(don't know where yet!) , while DD's and I and possibly the wives of these friends and kids head to MK EMH.

Mon-2/4-Disney MGM. Sci Fi at 3:40 for 14, we have 7.5 going now! Need to change that soon! Oh yeah, my DB and SIL announced last night that they are expecting! This is #2! She will be about 5 months along in Disney! She swears she is not cancelling or the 3.5 year old child they have will go nutty! We have all been counting the days! Ending day with Fantasmic at 7pm. EMH here if we choose to do so, or park hop?? whatever!!

Tues-2/5-sleep in day. List of things to do, picking 1 or 2. Hotel hop, RPetty ride along(if not done already),etc...P&PP tonight!! Getting there for 5-ish! May be making ADR at Whispering Canyon... stay till end of P&PP!!!Walk out whooped!

Wed-2/6-MK in late morning, CRT for lunch, EPCOT future world in afternoon.

Thurs-2/7-EPCOT world showcase,opens at 11am. Possibly back to MK for evening for Spectro and Wishes (by 5:30pm or so).We like to close the park with Mickey ice cream bars and sitting by the castle watching the colors. THIS is our last day at the parks. If we choose to do another day, we need to add it on to our passes THIS day!

Fri-2/8-free day! DTD,Give Kids the World??? whatever we want! DB and SIL leaving today. FW for a movie? Hotel hop?

Sat-2/9-Free day-another park? Universal?GKTW? pack....

Sun-2/10-sleep in, head home....


For our open free days,Asking SIL what they want to do and see if we have the same ideas! If so we will do those things together. If not, then we go about our own stuff. Either way, I want to have more definitive plans by mid January for those days so we can get in everything we want to do.
I am the type that likes to walk slow on Main St and take in all the windows names, etc and find the little things that are so often missed. I can totally see us adding another day and skipping Universal. Our tickets last 30 years anyway. Give Kids the World is a MUST to visit. We want to purchase a "brick" there-something like Disney's bricks, but this goes to a great cause! Besides, I mmay not have my name on a brick in Disney, but I have to OWN a brick or a nail, with my 2 or 3 shares of Disney stock . DD's just got one share. DH opened an account for them and wants to purchase stock once or twice a year for them, of thier choice. Of course they picked Disney first!

Anyway- See ya!!

Lori

 

[Flossbolna]

sorry for the ruined weekend!!! this really sounds like everything went wrong! I just hope you got all the bad stuff out of the way now and will have an absolutely troublefree vacation at WDW!!

 

[lori1043]

sorry for the ruined weekend!!! this really sounds like everything went wrong! I just hope you got all the bad stuff out of the way now and will have an absolutely troublefree vacation at WDW!!

me too... sometimes we think if we didn't have a little bad luck every so often, we'd have no luck at all-but we have been blessed and TRY to look on the good side of all the trouble. I told DD8, on the way home Thurday night after finding out abou the lice, that the moon looked so pretty over the water(the longest bridge in the world we have to cross-the Causeway-24 miles long-featured on "The Haunted Mansion" movie at the end) and she says, "you know what's pretty mom, MY HAIR, WITHOUT BUGS!" She is right, and toooooo funny!

Thank you-Lori