Wheelchairs! NO MORE In-laws! And Who Knows What Else! PTR OMG UPDATE 01/April

[Vickyrowe]

Pre-trip report

Hello everybody, Welcome to my PTR!

I did have a previous PTR on the board, but life got in the way of those plans, so we have had to start again from scratch.

Who:

Me: My name is Vicky, Im 25 (26 when we travel) , I am a full
time carer for my DH, although I have done many jobs from mucking out stables , to cooking and waitressing.

This is me and DH at my 25th birthday meal, last September

Favourite Ride: I love Expedition Everest, I could ride it all day and not get bored , but I also LOVE Tower of Terror , so its a tie between both of those.

Favourite Character: Belle , without doubt , I love Beauty and the Beast , I even purchased a massive standee from my local cinema which take up about half of my lounge ( much to DHs horror when I arrived at the front door with it)

Favourite Movie: Beauty and the Beast

DH: My husbands name is Adam we met when we were 12 on a school trip to Germany . we were boyfriend and girlfriend for a while but split up and we got back together when we were 17 and 18 ( Im older and wiser lol) . DH has cerebral palsy, and is quadriplegic , he has to use a wheelchair all of the time, and I am his full time carer.

Favourite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain ( he cannot ride this anymore as we cannot lift him) or Toy Story Midway Mania

Favourite Character: Jiminy Cricket

Favourite Movie: Jungle Book

Thom: Thom is DH other carer , hell come in to give me a break, he has been in or life since we were in school , he looked after Adam in class, and after we left came to do some work for Adam taking him out and about so he wasnt stuck with his parents all the time .

Favourite Ride:

Favourite Character : Ariel

Favourite Movie: Little Mermaid

This is a photo of the three of us on our first day in Florida in 2011, This was DH and Is , Honeymoon!

Although it may not seem like the ideal romantic honeymoon , I definitely needed Thom there to help with Adam , any sort of care need an extra pair of hands especially when away from home and with an unfamiliar routine.
Also hopefully Joining us on our next trip will be 

Danny and Denise  My FIL and SMIL

Here is a picture from our wedding <3
From left to right  Me, DH, Danny (FIL), Denise (SMIL), Marcus (SBIL), Abby(SSIL)


Danny: Danny is Adams father, he last went to the world in 2001, with Adam and Adams Mum , after Adam had a major operation.

Favourite Ride:

Favourite Character:

Favourite Movie:

Denise: My SMIL, she has been with Danny since 2007, and has never been to any Disney park, so this will all be very new to her. Den is my partner in crime, and we can often be found putting the world to rights over a cup of tea ( OK who are we trying to kid! Wine , and lots of it )

Favourite Ride: To be decided

Favourite Character: Crush

Favourite Movie: Finding Nemo

When:

Due to Thom's other job we have to travel during the school summer holidays. This isnt ideal as it does push the cost up , but I know I wouldnt be able to cope with Adams care on my own so we dont mind paying at all.
We are hoping to go sometime in the last two weeks in August , we have yet to fix any dates though.

Where:

Again we have to discuss the but Im in love with Saratoga Springs at the moment, I like its proximity to Downtown Disney , and the layout of the 2 bed suites.

I also like Old Key west , but if money was no object Id love to stay at Bay Lake Tower ,

Last time we were in the world we were staying off site and were relying on taxis to get back to our condo, we arranged with our driver to pick us up from the Contemporary a few times, we loved how easy it was to walk to Magic Kingdom .

Although I would be happy to sleep in a cupboard just to be on property and that little bit closer to the parks.

We will be staying in a 2 bedroom suite with myself and Adam in the master , Danny and Den in the second bedroom , and poor Thom is relegated to the sofa bed .


I hope you enjoy coming along with us on our journey.

I will update when I book anything , or if anything major is decided , or because nothing ever runs smooth with us , when any disasters occur!

Vicky x

 

[Vickyrowe]

Update No. 1.

Before anything is decided as to dates or hotels etc., its very important to us to arrange with the airlines we will use how we will get all Adams equipment to Florida .
We are hoping to fly from our local airport in Newquay, Cornwall, UK, to London Gatwick with Flybe.
And then fly to MCO, with Virgin the next day.
I arranged with Virgin last year for them to carry Adams electric wheelchair and his mobile hoisting system last year, and for them to have a special supportive seating unit for his seat. All I should need to do now if contact them once we have our flight details.

On the other hand I seem to have sent Flybe into meltdown over the past two days!
I sent the a very simple e-mail asking if the size and dimensions of Adams chair are suitable for the size plain they use on our route.
Its only a short flight (about 1 hr) and they use a small propeller plane .
Twice they asked me for a booking reference, although I told them in my e-mail we hadn't booked
After a few confused messages from them, I think I have got through to them and I am waiting on Newquay airport to confirm they can deal with Adams chair.


UPDATE!

Just had an e-mail this afternoon to say , we are cleared to fly from Newquay to Gatwick

YAY !

 

[Vickyrowe]

Now we are able to fly to Gatwick instead of having to drive 2 cars, pay for car park etc. The plan for our pre-flight day is coming together.

So far the plan is to have a leisurely morning, pack the last of Adams care stuff and our toothbrushes, chargers etc. and probably grab something quick like McDonalds for lunch, as it’s only 2 minutes from the house.

Hopefully we can get an afternoon flight so we can arrive at Gatwick at around 5 pm.

The In-laws will get a lift with Adam’s step brother and meet us at the Airport,

My dad will come and drive our car to the airport, with all of Adam’s stuff and our bags then he can take my car back to his for the time we are away.

When we land at Gatwick, we will grab our bags and check into the Travelodge just outside the airport for one night.

For us it was important to be able to stay close to the airport the night before, so I can keep Adam in his daily routine.

When we flew in 2011 we drove to Bristol to catch our early morning flight, which meant leaving Cornwall at 2 am.

I ended up staying awake for 46 hours ; I felt like death warmed up and vowed never to do that again.

We will wake up early the next morning, take the hopper bus to the terminal and check in , once we've cleared security etc. we can grab a bit of breakfast , splurge in duty free and look forward to the evening when we arrive HOME!

 

[Vickyrowe]

OK so I have only just realized i forgot probably the most important heading ................ WHY !


Don't judge me I'm naturally blonde !

So why are we going ? , well:

Adam and I we're married in the summer of 2011 ( July the 2nd , to be exact) and we had booked to go to Disney World for our honeymoon! We had to wait until August to go as Thom had to take time off to come with us.

Anyway Literally a week before we flew out , Adam's Dad and step-mum call us and say they want to pop round and speak to us

They sprung it on us that they had decided to get married the December , and they wanted me to arrange it all, as I had planned my own so well. !

Right so I was to plan their wedding on my own in 4 months , when mine had taken 28 months !!!!!!!!!!! NO PRESSURE THERE THEN!

They we're so lost with everything that went along with wedding planning I pretty much had free rein , but they both wanted as they put it a proper wedding in a church ! Major headache number 1 : Adam's dad and Denise we're both divorced so we didn't even know if this was going to be possible .

Headache 2 : I had a week to secure at least a ceremony venue before I flew out of the country and wouldn't be able to do any booking till September!


Anyway to cut a long story short , I spoke to the Vicar who married Myself and Adam , and managed to secure a beautiful small church in a local village , there were about 20 guest, Denise's Dress ( The first one I made her try she fell in love with it ) A lovely meal at a local restaurant and a reception at a local club!

There were a lot of calling on friends and relatives to help but we got there,

As we will be all be celebrating our 3 year anniversaries in 2014 , We thought it would be nice to take a trip together. We have been saying for years we would love to get Danny back to Florida as he did love it when Adam was small, but then they hired a villa and only had 5 days in the parks etc, so he had a very narrow view on what Disney was like.

I'm slowly winning him round to the idea that it's not all queuing and fast food

Hopefully my next update will be to say we have started to book some things

Vicky x

 

[Vickyrowe]

to the world , my beautiful Niece Skyla !

My sister in law, and her Fiance were blessed with Skyla on the 1st of Feb!

She is absolutely beautiful, and it means I'm going to need a considerably bigger case for all her presents

 

[happybelle]

Following along. Your niece is beautiful.

 

[Jets fan]

Hope you have a fab holiday, I love the planning part of a holiday, it's so much fun and you sound like you enjoy it as well. Am looking forward to reading more

Tina

 

[Vickyrowe]

OMG ,How plans can change!!!

As you can probably read above our original plan was to go in the summer school holiday, so the end of August 2014.

I was speaking to Thom today and I explained that I had found flights with Delta, for less than half the price but they were for my Birthday?

After talking over what would be my dream holiday, we basically decided why not go for it !!!


It will save us money and it means I can be in America for my Birthday (25th September) and Food and Wine Festival, and MNSSHP!!

OMG OMG OMG !

I dont think I've been so excited EVER!

The only catch is we would have to fly from Heathrow , so we will either have to drive , or still fly to Gatwick and get across London with all of DHs equipment in tow :/

And we will have to catch a connecting flight at JFK, but I think we would have about 2.5 hours to play with so it shouldn't be too rushed.

I will outline the new plan asap but the laptop is about to die

Vicky x

 

[Vickyrowe]

Right , I know that this is going to be posted on April Fools Day , and I keep having to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming

Our new rough plan , that I put together today is

WHEN:

23rd Sept 2014- Fly, London Heathrow - JFK - Orlando

25th Sept 2014 - My Birthday (27th)

7th Oct 2014 - Fly Home, Orlando - JFK - Heathrow


( date will be filled in as MNSSHP and Food and Wine are announced next year)


WHERE:

If we can get free dining and Adams parent do come with us we will still probably stay at SSR

If there is free dining but , no parents probably Coronado Springs

And if there is no free dining , we will stay at an All Star and pay for the dining plan.

( I have been able to price the hotels from Disney , but I will have to wait to book flight etc)

Everything at the moment rests on Adams parents, I'm not sure they are sold 100% on Disney yet, they keep dodging the issue

Even though:

1.I know they will enjoy it

2.They keep mentioning the price but spend the same on a cruise to the Med!

I'm hoping knocking £1500 of the first price i told them might sway things my way .

I still can't believe I'm going to be in Disney for my birthday

 

[Vickyrowe]

The ‘Let’s Start again’ update!

Right so after months of deliberation I finally managed to get an answer out of Adam’s parents
And…………

They are not going to come with us!!

I am slightly annoyed as they have had 6 months to decide and now the reason is money.

I totally understand that, It is a lot of money to go to Disney but.

The mother in law has just brought a brand new car, when her old one was fine, (she just fancied a change)

Quite a lot more than the cost of a trip!!

But no sad feelings when it comes to Disney, hey!

So let’s start again from the beginning!

 

[Vickyrowe]

New PTR for this trip!