Updated, Day 0 travel and arrival - Our extended family European Fantasy cruise. "Laundry and toilets and busses...Oh My!

[tkd lisa]

Well, we're back from our blow out European trip. Since there aren't a lot of reports from Europe I thought I'd share ours if people would be interested. Warning, there's a lot of trip coming! We did 3 days in Edinburgh pre-cruise, the 7 day cruise, and 3 days in London post-cruise.

First a bit of introduction.

The cast:

Me -trip planner and funder. I'm 60 (turning 61 the end of September, which was one of the 5 birthdays, 2 anniversaries, and one retirement this trip celebrated). It's my 6th disney cruise (yeah gold status). I've done quite a bit of European travel for work, plus a previous vacation to the uk in 2021 with my mom, aunt and uncle. This whole trip was to celebrate my retirement.

DM - 87 years old, 3rd disney cruise. Uses a wheelchair due to a heart problem which makes her tire very easily. She's been to Europe twice before. The previously mentioned uk trip with me, and a group tour way back in the late 90s.

DA - in her mid 70s, first cruise of any kind. DA was a late addition to the trip, and boy am I glad she came. She was also on the 2021 UK trip, and is married to my moms youngest brother. Her birthday was 2 days before the cruise, while we were in Edinburgh.

DS1 -33 years old, also 6th disney cruise. He's beginning to experience mobility issues from a still unknown source. They're thinking degenerative arthritis or gout, but he uses a cane. He and his spouse have no kids, and are happiest with small doses of the grandkids. They enjoy the interaction, but like their quiet time.

DS1S- spouse of DS1. Turning 35 just before me, birthday number 3. Plus this couple is one of the anniversaries, the day we disembark.

DS2 -turned 32 two days before we left - birthday number 4. Also 6th disney cruise. DS2 is a US Navy submarine, currently on shore duty after several years of deployments. He and his wife are also celebrating an anniversary.

DS2S - 34, 3rd disney cruise. Stay at home mom, homeschooling my grandkids, which is a full time job!

DGD - 9 years old, 3rd disney cruise. This one is a bundle of energy! She loves theater, mythology, history and reading. Hates math and writing. Enjoyed her freedom on the ship.

DGS - just turned 5, birthday number 5! He's on the autism spectrum, and was non verbal until about 18 months ago. But now you can't stop him talking! This was his first ever flight, and avoiding melt downs from over stimulation was one of our concerns this trip.

Here's the whole crew on embarkation day. Strap in for the ride!

 

[tkd lisa]

Just a bit about the title, plus some of the unique elements I'll cover in the report.

Laundry - as you can imagine 9 people over 14 days generate a lot of laundry. We had planned to use the laundry units in our London and Edinburgh apartments, plus the dcl laundry rooms to keep things manageable, but didn't expect this to become such a central theme. Stay tuned to see why.

Toilets- mid cruise we had a middle of the night near disaster which certainly made the highlight reel. Luckily no one and nothing was harmed!

And busses - you may have heard that there was a strike of the London tube workers. I didn't think it would affect us since we had mostly planned on busses due to mom's wheelchair. Spoiler a
lert, it did impact us.

I'll also talk about the impact of traveling with a wheelchair especially in the cities and tourist areas. Wheelchair was a close runner up for the trip title!

 

[iona]

And busses - you may have heard that there was a strike of the London tube workers. I didn't think it would affect us since we had mostly planned on busses due to mom's wheelchair. Spoiler alert, it did impact us.

I bet it did! We were in London on Monday (we’re local and knew that once we got off the train into the city we could get to the places we wanted to visit on foot). I commented to my husband what a nightmare it must have been for tourists. With no tubes all the buses looked VERY busy and even though pretty much every taxi driver was working extra hours an empty one seemed very hard to come by.

 

[tkd lisa]

Ready? Then here we GOOOO!

Our trip started August 27th, with three separate groups leaving different airports, meeting up in Philadelphia for our connection into Edinburgh scheduled for 7:20pm to 7:10am.

DA left Indianapolis at 11am, and was the first to arrive in Philly (around 1pm).

DS1 and his spouse flew out of Phoenix, which is where his in-laws live. They arrived in Philly around 4:30pm.

The main group flew from Tampa, leaving at 11, arriving at 1:30. Since there were 6 people plus luggage in our group, it took some planning. I packed up most of the luggage, DM (and her wheelchair), and DS2 and left the house at about 6:15. I took them into the terminal, to help with the luggage. Initial plan was for DM and DS2 to spend time in the USO lounge waiting on us, but the attendant said that there was a new policy that only military members were allowed. This wasn't a big deal for Tampa, but we had planned to utilize the Philly USO lounge to relax and catch a snack during our long layover. Stay tuned for that.

Next, I returned to pick up DS2's wife (hence known as DDIL - dear daughter in law), and the grandkids. We planned to park at an offsite extended lot because it was about $75 cheaper. Unfortunately I hit the unpredictable traffic that is becoming very common in Tampa. And since I was going against the pattern, the lights were not in my favor. I literally sat for almost 30 minutes trying to turn onto my main access road, within a half mile of my house! Given this challenge, and the travel time which was double what my 6:15 trip had taken, we called an audible and I parked in the Tampa economy lot. As a bonus for DGS, this meant a monorail ride over to the terminal which he loved.

-- Slight backtrack here -- As I mentioned in the introductions, DGS(5) is on the autism scale, and this was his first flight. In order to prepare him, we watched several videos, including the TSA one about going through security. But the absolute best prep was a video my DDIL found, called "Squeak's First Flight". With a human/puppet team, they explain how planes work, what to expect, and provide some great coping tools. I had also gone to the airport the day before and picked up a sunflower lanyard and requested priority boarding. Since DM needed this for the wheelchair, DDIL, DGS, and DM all were approved for the early boarding. Lastly, since DS2 is active duty military, he was eligible for precheck and took the kids and DM through that lane. -- Sidebar complete.

We made it to the airport, joined with DS2 and DM, and schlepped our way to the special services check-in. Big thanks to the team there. They got our 8 checked bags (including a collapsible wagon) checked, valet tagged DM's wheelchair and sent us on our way.

Next hurdle was actual boarding. As mentioned, DDIL, DM, and DGS went first. Then DS2 and DGD boarded with active duty military, leaving me to be tail end Charlie. Once on board, DDIL said the as they stepped onto the plane, DGS fell to the floor crying, stayed there a couple minutes, then said "Squeaks says it's okay to be nervous", and calmly walked to his seat! The flight was uneventful, other than the joy of watching DGS experience all the phases of flight. He loved looking out the window, and that cute little voice saying "here we go!" made us all giggle. He also got to see the effect of pressure on a sealed water bottle and thought that was really neat.

Once in Philly, DA met us and we went looking for the USO lounge. It was a pretty substantial walk, but DS2 went ahead and asked if we could all come in. They were kind enough to allow it, so we had a quiet place for a break. I have to give a big shout out to Wawa, which provided coffee, bottled drinks like tea, juice, and water, plus snacks.

Here's a picture of DGS playing with things from his activity pack in the USO lounge.

We stayed there a couple of hours, then headed toward our gate, and to meet up with the last 2 members of the party. According to google, there was a kids play area near our gate, but it had been closed during COVID and not re-opened. Slight disappointment over, we met up with DS1 and his spouse, got some quick food, and hung out to wait for our flight. A couple more pictures of the grandkids in the neat rocking chairs near the food court.



The boarding in Philly was absolutely RIDICULOUS! They were boarding multiple flights, and our flight was completely full. I wedged DM's wheelchair in near the door, and we planted the kids by her feet just to keep them safe. DDIL is subject to panic attacks, and crowds are one of her triggers, so this was quite challenging. We did all make it on board, and I had put the large group in the back of the plane, so that we would be out of everyone's way. DM and DA were on one side, and originally there was an empty middle seat. DA just switched with the middle seat person, so she could help with mom. I was on the other side with DDIL and DGS, while DS2 and DGD were the row in front of us. The other two were one cabin forward, and somehow their seats were separated, but they didn't care.

Flight was uneventful, but only DGS really slept. DGD got a couple of hours, no one else rested at all.

Next Chapter, Edinburgh Day 1!