Accessible Disney World - March 2017
We traveled to Disney World in Orlando in March 2017. We needed to get away after a long, cold Wisconsin winter, and we needed someplace known for being wheelchair friendly. Our oldest son, Luke, had traveled to Disney on a school trip in 8th grade, but our youngest, Josh, had never been there. The time was right for the Rules to get our Disney on!
Our 8 day trip went like this:
Saturday/Sunday - Drive from Whitewater, Wisconsin to Orlando, Florida
Monday - Hollywood Studios
Tuesday - Epcot Center
Wednesday - Chill day at the hotel, lunch & shopping at Disney Springs
Thursday - Magic Kingdom
Friday/Saturday - Drive home
Fair warning - this is a very long post...probably only interesting to immediate family or someone trying to plan an accessible trip to Disney. I wrote a trip diary on my phone - and I pretty much just copied and pasted it below.
We drove our mobility van, taking two days to drive from Wisconsin to Florida. Here are some notes and photos from the road:
Sat, March 18
7:48am and we hit the road. 39 degrees in Whitewater. I was up 'til 2:30am packing. Alarm went off at 6. Not feeling confident about packing of car. Very tired. Boys helped a lot. Luke's friend Sam watching our pets- hard to leave them. Mike at the helm. 1st stop will be gas and donuts in Janesville.
(10 minutes later) Much roused by donut and coffee. Excitement is back! We love the road!
Saturday, March 18
382 miles later, in honor of the birthday of Uncle Joe Rule (tomorrow), we stopped in Ina, TN for some tasty BBQ at Uncle Joe's BBQ. :) Some things are meant to be! Church of the Weird!
Saturday, March 18, (cont.)
We LOVE traveling this time of year because our WISCONSIN BADGERS BASKETBALL TEAM IS AWESOME and we pass the time by listening to their games as we cruise down the highway. This year... 65-62 Badgers upset #1 seed Villanova!!!! (Mama had to pull off the road - listened at a gas station parking lot - screamed like BANSHEES!!!!!)
We stopped for the night in Kimball, Tennessee. An accessible room with 2 queen size beds can be hard to find - most accessible rooms have one king only - so we were happy to find a Super 8 after only a few calls. Knowing we would probably stop near Chattanooga, I had done research in advance on Hotels.com, using the filter "accessible room" to narrow down results. So I had phone numbers of 5-6 hotels and called them on the way. We checked in - no trouble - plenty of space - pretty good accessibility in bathroom.
Luke and Mike turned on March Madness while I went out for food with Josh. After talking with Tim at the front desk for recommendations, I found a Chinese buffet right down the road (cheap and YUMMY! China Inn Buffet - highly recommend). They give you large styrofoam containers and you go fill them at the buffet then weigh them after. I filled one with fruit and desserts and two with food I know we all like - then took it back and we ate in the room. Mom and Josh also hit the Walmart next to the buffet for a laptop charger. We were both a little tired and giddy - which made the trip very fun because Josh likes to tell jokes, and as tired as I am HE IS GETTING FUNNIER! Must sleep. Sunday, March 19, 2017 Up and out by 8am. Cartersville, GA Waffle House and Texaco gas. It's not a trip south until we go to Waffle House. Luke wanted steak and eggs - really? Yes, really. At first we said no, but I had packed all sorts of food for the road, including yogurt and hard boiled eggs, but I decided to let him get it and not order anything myself. (Except coffee - gotta have coffee!) I was curious whether he would be able to eat the whole thing. I could always eat something from the cooler later. As it turns out he did eat the whole steak - and I got one of his eggs, all of Josh's hash browns, and half of Mike's sausages. I forgot that ordering for 3 with our family of 4 OFTEN works out this way - everyone satisfied while at the same time less wasted food and less cost. Must remember.
1:45 pm Highway 75 south of Atlanta, with only 5 hours and 7 minutes left on our trip according to our Garmin - we hit major traffic and we were stuck at "five hours and seven minutes until our destination" for a good half an hour. Luckily we listened to another big 10 team make the Sweet 16 (Michigan). According to our Garmin we only have to be on Highway 75 for another 298 miles. Hopefully some of them go faster than the 2 miles an hour we're going now. Also on the plus side it's 73 degrees and blue skies. Another BAAAD traffic area a bit down the road. Georgia sucks! Hwy 75 GA - Roughly 190 miles from Florida Turnpike South... Shell gas station pit stop (plantation theme? Really?) MANGOLIA PLANTATION. Cars lined up, gas pumped s l o w and no holder thingy. Mom annoyed. V. crowded. But M declares best gas station bathroom he's ever been in. Plenty of space - plenty of options (all 6 stalls wheelchair accessible.) Entering Florida 4:30 pm. Sunday 3/19 Florida Turnpike we hit another major traffic slow-down due to an accident... but after we passed the crash site we felt pretty fortunate just to be intact and safe and still heading to our destination. Count your blessings...you're almost there...and you are with the people you most love in the world going on an adventure. A prayer for the safety of those involved in that accident, and a prayer for our family as we travel down the road.
We pulled in around 8:30pm after making a reservation from the road at the Holiday Inn Resort - Lake Buena Vista in Orlando. Orlando is CROWDED and the traffic is terrible, but we found our way and the boys were super helpful unpacking. Wall-E was on in our room and we crashed hard after 2 full days of driving.
The hotel:
We stayed 10 minutes away from the Disney parks at the Holiday Inn Resort Orlando-Lake Buena Vista. Though it is possible to find deals to stay on site in the Disney resorts, it is definitely more expensive - especially at peak times like spring break. We were fine staying about 10 minutes away – driving to the theme parks each day. We paid about $125/night for an accessible room with 2 queen beds and a roll-in shower from Sunday night through Friday morning. We paid $20 to park the van each day at the parks we were visiting. We were able to buy theme park tickets right in the hotel lobby - for the usual obscene rates. (They don't discount those for anything!)
The room:
The hotel room was a great bargain - and it worked well for our accessibility needs. Mike uses a large motorized wheelchair to get around. There was plenty of space in the room and the bathroom for him to maneuver his wheelchair. The bathroom was truly accessible – good, solid grab bars by the toilet, a zero-entry shower with a fold-down chair and handheld shower head, a roll-under bathroom sink, and a large bathroom entry door. There were 2 or 3 van-only handicapped parking spots at the entrance near our room, as well as 4 other handicapped spots. We got a van spot every time we needed it. Ramps and entry doors were great for the wheelchair.
The room was a solid 3.5/5 stars in terms of “regular hotel room stuff". The beds were comfortable, the room temperature easy to regulate, the TV reliable. We enjoyed the on-site Applebee’s and ordered food from there one night when getting back from visiting a theme park and it worked out great (just make sure they give you silverware!) The pool area is nice, not too crowded, and there are 2 hot tubs. Though Mike didn’t use them – there was a working lift at the hot tub and the pool. There was a Keurig coffeemaker in the room and 6 K-cups to choose from (2 decaf, 2 regular, 2 green tea) – restocked daily. The rooms were cleaned daily and cleaned well. The pool area was nice – plenty of lounge chairs – and the kids also enjoyed the oversize chess and checker board, free ping pong (actually stocked with paddles and balls) and free kids activities at the pool offered by a friendly staffer.
My only gripe is that the wifi was unpredictable. If they fixed that I would have given them 4 stars. We heard a lot of complaining about the wifi from our boys.
The parks:
Hollywood Studios - an unexpected gem
My travel diary from the day:
"OK I'm convinced - we're a little nuts. After 2 days of driving I thought today would be a non-Disney day. A day to hang by the pool, get our bearings, nap, maybe scope out the scene for a park visit tomorrow. Mike had other ideas.I believe his words were "What are we HERE for? - let's go to Disney!" So we changed gears from a slow morning, and by 10:30 we had Disney passes from the front desk and were on our way to our first Disney theme park: Hollywood Studios. And God bless him, he was so right. It's 10:52 pm right now and all are asleep but I just have to copy a few pictures and blog this day because - again - I can't quite believe we did all that we did. We definitely spent 10:30a.m. to about 12:30pm getting our s#@t together at Hollywood Studios. It's been 15 years since Mike and I have been here and 2 years since Luke was here with his school group. Even since Luke's visit there have been changes to the Fastpass system, so we had to figure it out and then fight over what we wanted to do at the park. So a brief educational PSA: now EVERYONE gets the Fastpass Plus feature with the purchase of a Disney theme park ticket. Your theme park ticket is actually a little credit-card shaped thing for each member of your party. To get into the park you hold the ticket in front of a little machine at the same time as putting your finger on a fingerprint scanner. Your fingerprint and your card are now matched. Then you carry that piece of plastic around the park and use it to choose stuff you want to do and what time you want to do it. (You can also wear a MagicBand - a rubber bracelet that performs the same service - but I didn't learn about this option until later.) The whole thing is designed so that Disney can give guests the opportunity to choose what they want to do and assign them a time to be there - a one hour time block - and in telling people where to go and when - that keeps the wait times under control. That's the PURPOSE. Now the process.... If you know all this in advance, you can reserve your Fastpass plus choices online up to 30 days in advance. (60 days if you stay at a Disney resort). Super-convenient! For those of us buying our tickets on the same day as our visit
....and trying to learn on this on site...not so much. We had to go to a FP+ Kiosk and choose 3 attractions and what time we wanted to go to them. Technically you can still get into attractions in the "standby" line - sometimes the wait time in those lines is 90 minutes +. Soooooo...... it's pretty important, if there's something you really want to do in the park, that you get your act together and make a few selections. If you don't, you are likely to be standing at a Fastpass station bickering, debating, trying to guess if attractions are wheelchair friendly or not, and holding up the beautiful Italian family behind you in line. It took us three tries. Literally had to cancel, step out of line, try again, cancel, step out of line, go stand in the shade and have a snack break to regroup, then try again. It's not all fun and games, folks. Pause: Here's what I wish I had read before going to the park - if we had taken the time:
1) https://www.undercovertourist.com/blog/fastpass-plus-mymagic/ 2) https://www.undercovertourist.com/blog/disney-world-fastpass-plus-tips/ But eventually we did figure it out. 1:41 Star Tours first attraction, first Fastpass use. PERFECT choice. Man - did we luck out! It's a 5 minute, 3D Star Wars flying simulator. We got straight in - even quicker with the handicapped entrance skip ahead. Did Mike have to transfer to the seat in the simulator? Yes. Did the Disney staff make it easy? Yes, yes, they did! Was the ride awesome? Yes! And Luke was the spy!! (the only person in a simulator of about 100 to be FEATURED in the action!!!) Big grins all around!!!
Lunch at 2:30 at Muppet area. Yes, I took a Fozzie photo. Also ate at a place called PizzaRizzo - after Rizzo the mouse - my second favorite Muppet!! Caesar salads and personal pan pizzas. We wasted some - should have done the "order for 3, eat for 4" trick.
Conversation over lunch - from Josh who likes to make puns as much as his dad: "I'm gonna make so many Star Wars jokes it's gonna make your Jawa drop."
Then Mike- "You're really forcing it now." Yes those were both bad Star Wars puns. Keep up, people. Did I mention that Josh got to build his own light saber? OH yeah!
We took our time looking around for a bit b/c our next Fastpass wasn't until 5:35 pm. Both boys expressed an interest in going back to the hotel. Both were ignored. Then Josh let me take his photo with Donald Duck...thumbs up for Grandpa Fred!!!
Then we watched a dorky but fun Main Street Star Wars Show at 3:30.
3:55 major complaining about mom and dad wanting to go to The Great Movie Ride. Mostly b/c we did not have a Fastpass and the standby line said 40 minute wait. But we persisted. Dragged them kicking and screaming (or the teenage version: whining and threatening) into the theater. And then a miracle happened....we realized we had a rock star with us! Mike's wheelchair rock star status lets us cut the line. 40 minute wait cuts down to 5. Ice cream after to celebrate. (And actually - the boys would have been right. Don't tell them I said this, but a 40 minute wait for that ride would have been terrible. It was barely worth the 5 minute wait. I like the movies as much as the next gal - and watching them turn the best movies into bad animatronics - "It's a Small World"-style was painful. Watching movie clips from the best movies of all time was fun but I can do that from my hotel room. Or smart phone for that matter! And would it have killed them to give out a little free popcorn? What are the movies without popcorn!?) Restroom breaks and a little bottle flipping competition between the boys...and then we were the first ones in line for Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular - our second Fastpass. Another great choice! Wheelchair spot in front was primo- glad this is in the shade, though, b/c we are all a bit fried. Sun dried. Parched and out of liquid. (Did I mention it's about 76 and sunny today....wahooo!) We were first ones allowed in to massive covered pavilion with stage in front. Great show-wow! Fav. thing so far. V. entertaining and v. well done. Highly recommend.
7:11 We arrived super early for Fantasmic - the big "evening program" for Hollywood Studios. "Not worth the wait" would be my overall assessment. Huge crowd. You watch a whole show about Mickie Mouse's dream life - which is a recap of heros and villians from Disney movies projected on water sprayed up in the air. Hard to describe. That premise is cool, but the show itself - cool for 5 minutes then bleh. Was probably more fun for little kids since a lot of the Disney characters are featured, especially at the end. Wheeling through the crowd to exit was - difficult - but we did it. Getting out of the parking lot was easy - Disney does stuff like that remarkably well. Also, Mike is the best navigator EVER and even with construction and the traffic of all the parks letting out we were back to the area of our hotel within 10 minutes. 9:20 Drive thru from the Chick-Fil-A across from the hotel for chicken strips and back to the room. Barely lasted for Scorpion on TV 11:30 lights out for Josh/Mike/Luke. Mama blogs. Mama out.
Epcot Center - always a fan favorite
Epcot was our best day by far!
My travel diary from the day:
Tues, 3/21 EPCOT
6:30 alarm for me. I made coffee with the in-room Keurig (nice amenity, Holiday Inn!), and then I got Fastpass stuff done online (learning!!). I had made the boys pick out their Epcot attraction wishes last night, and online system was easy. That left plenty of time to let group wake up slow. At Epcot by 9:00 when it opened. Wandered a bit taking it all in, taking a few photos.
Luke especially got some beautiful shots. There is a special event going on - the March Garden Spectacular - and as a result there are bright, beautiful, blooming flowers everywhere- making every photo we take super vibrant.
10am Spaceship Earth - a ride inside the big silver Epcot ball-obligatory, Gotta do it. Almost the same as 15 years ago, but still good. Now perhaps more culturally aware and digitally upgraded. Video postcard created, and after you can send it to any email. I sent it to Great Soo. (Small glitch with wheelchair that could have been bad. Disney cast member who parked it jammed the right arm under a metal bar - causing the joystick to be stuck. The chair didn't like that, so it started flashing lights and froze the electronics. I hopped out of the ride first - repositioned the handle, turned it off and back on, then it worked. It was still jammed, but with a little work we moved it out and thankfully no permanent damage was done.)
Around 11 or 11:30 we started eating our way around the world. Shrimp skewers and braised beef in Mexico, Norwegian pastries (troll horn and cinnamon roll), German caramel shop for chocolate caramel swirl cookie for Luke and caramel apple for Josh/mom, then giant turkey leg for M from America, BBQ ribs for the boys Let the eating begin!
Lucky timing to get to China with just 12 minutes until the 360 degree movie - mom's favorite. So excited to share this with the boys! This movie strikes some chord with me...I'm so glad it hasn't changed. May have cried with gratitude at all the beauty I've been allowed in this world, especially at that moment.
3:02 and we have eaten our way around the park and are now too full and sleepy to do anything. Too full for crepes in France or fish and chips in England. But we have time to kill until Fastpass options at 6 and 7. We sit on a bridge and people-watch. We take more photos (the boys are now competing to see who can take the MOST beautiful shot.) We say hi to Mary Poppins. We find a shady, breezy spot along the water by the British pub Rose and Crown and veg out.
While here, many people walk by and see our Badger stuff and say "Go Badgers!" or "Yay Wisconsin!" We end up talking March Madness with some very fine folks who all agree the Badgers could take it all! So that was all kinds of fun!
Mike's feet and legs are swollen. We take off socks and shoes and try to get circulation going. The breeze helps. We wonder if we should stay here at this waterfront spot until we are hungry enough for fish and chips. We decide yes, this is a good plan. We make it so. Others in this beauty of a spot say it's a great place to watch Illuminations...the evening fireworks show. If they had hammocks we'd stay for sure!!! We got hungry enough to get fish and chips. Still with time to kill we walked back to Future World and took in a few walk in attractions: Ellen's Energy Show, The Seas - (met a dolphin or two.) Took family self portrait at the upside down waterfall. Tried drinks from around the world at the Coca-Cola station. (I recently gave up Coca-Cola so the boys are enjoying my pain.) (Josh edit: "Made her really angry cuz she couldn't have Coke." Luke edit: "I just need to charge my phone!
"Then we convinced Josh to go to Test Track. Mom went too. Cool to design own race car and then get on a ride that goes 65 miles per hour.
Fun!
Done.
Tired.
Dogs barking (Feet hurt)
Chix Caesar salad - Applebee's-in room.
All in bed by 11.
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Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) - shopping and sandwiches
Wed 3/22/17
My travel diary from the day:
Midway through our time in Florida....Wednesday...everyone slept in. I mean late. When we surfaced, we decided to take a day off from going to theme parks. This means we will skip Universal altogether and use our last day (Thursday) to go to Magic Kingdom. I have very few photos from this day - we were resting! Our activities included: 1) Pool time - Our only rule about a day of rest was that the boys couldn't just sit around in the room on their phones/laptops. Josh had been dying to go to the pool, so we started there. Mike opted not to go in, though there were lifts available. Instead he enjoyed playing chess (oversized chess/checkers set on the pool deck) and reading in the shade. I opted for the hot tub and reading as well. Luke and Josh did it all - chess, checkers, swimming and hot tub.
2) Food/shopping: When we got hungry we cleaned up and headed out to look for food. We decided to go down to Disney Springs, what used to be known as Downtown Disney.... known for great shopping and great food. (Picture Greenway Station in Madison meets the Miracle Mile in Chicago times ten and infused with all the stuff you could buy in the Disney theme parks. Then add restaurants with long lines. Add a Lego store with gigantic statues made entirely of Legos. There you have it.)
We ate lunch at the Earl of Sandwich, and we shopped at the Star Wars and Ghirardelli chocolate stores. We passed on the $65 light saber umbrella for Luke and the $165 R2D2 luggage for mom. I won't say how much we wanted these items at the time. Looking back I'm pretty happy with our decisions. Except we definitely should have bought MORE chocolate!
This area is probably very pretty at night time - all lit up along the water, with people and music spilling out of places like Rainforest Cafe and House of Blues...but we only saw about 1/4 of it and it was a hot 85 degree day (not that I'm complaining!)...and since we weren't into spending money it was a lot less entertaining. We came, we ate, we shopped a bit - and that was about all we could take away from it. I will say in retrospect that our kids were pretty great about not asking for purchases. It would be very easy to spend a lot of money there. Going there with kids who don't understand about money/spending/not whining about wanting everything they see would be super challenging. 3) Naps and leisure: Thus sated- we headed back to our hotel, where M napped and the boys and I made ourselves scarce.
Luke took time to hang out in the comfy couch in the hotel lobby, catch up on his digital life and check in with his friends. Josh made new friends at the pool. I read a book. A real, actual book. On a lounge chair under a bright Florida sun. It may have been 85 degrees and gorgeous. (Leisure=GOOOOOOD) 4) Nice Dinner Out: We ventured out again with the stated goal of steak for the boys and pasta for the grown ups. A place called Carrabba's Italian Grill filled the bill quite nicely. Luke gave Josh a geometry and algebra lesson during the meal for some reason - which was very entertaining. The food was great and disappeared from all plates. (No sharing meals tonight!) We sat outside on the patio under the setting sun and raised a toast to Florida.
A good day of rest. We went to bed early so we could get up early tomorrow. Ready to venture back out to Disney!
Magic Kingdom - not our cup of tea at the Mad Tea Party
3/23/17
My travel diary from the day:
This entry is a difficult one to write, because I can't say that we had a totally successful day at Magic Kingdom. I could just gloss it all over - or only focus on the parts that went well - but that's not very honest. And I need to write while the day is fresh in my mind, because I definitely write more notes to myself when I'm happy and want to remember good times and in this case... I also have fewer notes to go by. I'm setting this up a lot - I don't mean to. I just think we guessed wrong about the fun we could have at Magic Kingdom. We should've gone to Animal Kingdom I guess. In retrospect, we should've bought only 2 days of Disney theme parks and then spent one day at Universal, like we originally planned. But it was NOT all bad - truly. Here's how the day shaped up... First - I had made the Fastpass+ selections the night before - keeping in mind the input from the boys. Our Fastpass selections: Jungle Cruise - GOOD - I'll write about later Tomorrowland Speedway - TERRIBLE - I'll write about later Space Mountain - GREAT - I'll write about later Big Thunder Mountain - 6:30pm DID NOT STAY AT PARK THIS LONG - BOTH BOYS REFUSED TO GO ON THIS. The first surprise of the day was that the parking lot is NOWHERE NEAR the Magic Kingdom. You have to park in a lot far, far away, then take either a monorail or ferry boat to the entrance. So you're kind of geared up for Main Street and seeing the castle ... and then you have to fight crowds and crowds of people just to get to the security gate. Fighting crowds when you are nervous about running over people with a wheelchair is just not very fun. So we park and take the ferry boat to castle. Arrive at 10:17am. Main Street is super crowded, but we get a glimpse of the castle and catch the end of a song and dance show. I wish we hadn't. The boys definitely got turned off and got an unfavorable impression for the day from this show - because Disney entertainers are dressed in bloomers and vests and dresses and holding parasols (aak - I'm terrible at describing this - I'll just include a picture from the internet.)
The note I made on my phone is this: "Josh is super cranky for some reason. Hope he snaps out of it soon."
It's only when I look back at how our day started that I start to understand - after Storm Troopers and Star Wars at Hollywood Studios - then all the beauty and great food and fun of Epcot - then playing and playing lots at the pool - why did we make them come here??? In the moment, though, Josh being cranky just makes all of us cranky. (Thoughts in my head: "How much did we spend on these tickets?" "We have to put up with this crankiness until the fireworks show??") Our first Fastpass is Jungle Cruise - a classic favorite - so we head toward Adventureland. The wait was a little longer than we expected, but they only have one boat with wheelchair accessibility and there was one person in a wheelchair in front of us, so it was understandable.
20 minutes later - Disney figured out how to snap Josh out of a bad mood. Puns! The jungle cruise driver made a million puns, and our Josh was back! He loved it. Wahoo! "People think it's water in the elephant's trunks. It's snot. It's really snot."
After jungle cruise Mike needed to find a bathroom that was wheelchair accessible. This turned into a quest. At other parks it was no big deal - but Magic Kingdom is older, so handicap bathrooms are rare and NOT well marked. When you are looking for a restroom you need a restroom! And in a crowded theme park, this is not a fun process.
(SIDE NOTE: Whenever Mike is going to use a restroom anywhere, our system for the whole trip has been that the boys will take turns going with Mike. Sometimes the entry door is super heavy, or sometimes the toilet seat is too low with poorly positioned grab bars...or a million other things that could go wrong. The helper is usually not needed - but sometimes they have to come get me or help Mike if they can.)
In this situation Luke and Mike went in together - and discovered that it was NOT an accessible restroom. They had to go in search of another...but... ...as soon as M and Luke went into the first restroom, Josh and I went into and out of the Swiss Family Robinson tree house which was right there. But it was way too crowded! You don't want to have to stand around in a treehouse - you want to run around and swing from the branches.
Luckily we found a gate out...then wandered around gift shops a bit near the bathroom - watching for them to come out.......little did we know that Luke had been trying to call my cell phone - which was tucked in my camera bag set on low ring - they had gone off in search of a handicap bathroom in Frontierland...and I had the map, making the process harder. Long story - sorry - but this is how a family gets separated at a crowded theme park. Consider it a cautionary tale. If you separate - ever - keep your cell phones handy. They found Mike a restroom eventually and we reunited eventually, but this is not the quest we had anticipated, and spirits were not positive. But "Disney fate" intervened to show Josh a good time. I passed two kids with cool treasure maps and randomly said "cool maps". Their dad told me "go into that building over there and they will give you a map. It's a treasure hunt - I didn't know about it either but my kids have loved it."
Josh is always up for a treasure hunt- so we followed his instructions. After swiping his park pass, Josh was given a pirate treasure map. We then darted all around Adventureland seeking clues. For example the map showed a snake next to the Aladdin ride. When we got there Josh swiped his card and a robotic snake popped out of a basket. It was a king cobra that spit water on us! Then a robotic voice read our next clue - and we were off! At the end of the adventure Josh was given the prize of extra fast passes. (He would have preferred candy, but whatever - it was fun!)
Just about that time a rainstorm came rolling in. (What? A rainstorm? Really?) We found a table indoors where we could keep Mike's wheelchair safe, and mom and Josh went in search of good lunch food while Mike and Luke held the table. Long long long long long long lunch line, because everyone was taking rain break, but eventually we got nachos and fajitas and made it back to the table and fed our faces. By the end of lunch the rain had cleared - it was still overcast, but not raining. (Oh, that wasn't so bad.) Walked to Tomorrowland where we had a 2:00 Tomorrowland Speedway Fastpass for Josh. LAME ! Skip it! Josh is a phenom with a go cart....but this was NOT a go cart - this was a little kid ride with a steel track down the middle so the car can barely move. Any 2 year old can steer it, and it lurches all over the place no matter what you do with the steering wheel. (In my head all I can think is "We paid how much for this? Why didn't mama do her homework about what this ride was? We wasted a Fastpass on this?" etc etc) But we did it. Josh "drove", and I was his passenger, and it was lame. If you have a 2-4 year old do it - but even at age 5 Josh would have been disappointed. After the ride Josh melted down again, so mom did too. Thankfully we do not have a photo of that moment. The boys were literally asking to leave. We wandered around looking at the map and everywhere was stuff that was more appropriate for little kids and people who love princesses. We had accidentally veered into Fantasyland. NOT our cup of tea. Not going anywhere near spinning teapots, nor Beauty's village from Beauty and the Beast. Boys started refusing to do even the potentially fun stuff like Splash Mountain or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (roller coaster). No one was up for staying there through fireworks, which had been our stated goal at the beginning of the day, since they have not only amazing fireworks set to music but also a new drone show like Lady Gaga had at the Super Bowl. We needed a solution. Leave it to Mike to come up with it... Mike suggested laughter over at Monsters Inc Laugh Factory. Good call. Mike Wizowski, quick show, short and sweet, got us all laughing again. Wish it had lasted longer. When we came out we were in Tomorrowland again, and all in better moods.
Tomorrowland is visually pretty cool. We bought some Star Wars merch, wandered, took a few pictures and killed time until the big roller coaster Fastpass - Space Mountain.
To pass the time Luke suggested a ride on The People Mover. That was boring but a nice break - sitting is good at this point in the day. (Feet hurting? Bad shoes or am I just that old?) Then - it was time for Space Mountain - the scary dark roller coaster that goes very, very fast. in the dark. I don't even want to know how fast. Luke continued his trend of NOT going on any roller coasters, so it was up to Josh and I. It was awesome. We loved it. At one point I yelled "I'm gonna lose my lunch! and Josh yelled "Nacho Libre Cinco Gracias!" which makes no sense and he doesn't know why he yelled it! Good times.
Our mixed day had not yet included the obligatory once-a-day family photo, so we headed to the castle. Ended up taking a pretty great selfie at castle.
We grabbed a snack and listened to a great piano player at Casey's Corner on Main Street. Decided to leave. No more to do. (Or a million opportunities for things to do, but none that we were going to take) We had missed the 3:00 parade - not seen a single character that the boys would take a photo with - and we were all too tired to stay for fireworks. So we took a couple last Main St photos, and then - since we had already experienced the ferry - got on the monorail to the parking lot. Crazy day. It's probably not what Walt Disney imagined. It's definitely NOT what's in the commercials. As we left we saw a lot of parents with kids in full blown tantrums and lots of fatigued faces and tired feet. At that moment I questioned the sanity of whole outing. But now at home and looking at photos/reflecting back, I guess sometimes it's about survival. Sticking together and surviving together. And that we did. I guess that's not very Magical. But then again, maybe it is.
Heading Home
And that's a wrap for the trip to DisneyWorld. We needed a vacation from our vacation.
3/24-3/25
On the car ride home a couple interesting things happened.
We pulled out of the Holiday Inn parking lot by 8:30am Friday morning.
Trump and Paul Ryan do not have the votes they need to pass Trumpcare.
We stop for banana splits at DQ to celebrate!
We stopped at a Baymont Inn in Madison, AL at 8:15 pm - leaving plenty of time to settle in before Badger game that starts at 8:59pm. Go Bucky!
11:33pm Overtime for Badgers- Showalter with stumbling, one-footed 3 point shot - unbelievable!!! Showalter turns to Aaron Rodgers in the stands- and does the championship belt thing! Jumping around trying not to wake our hotel room neighbors!
One 5 minute overtime later...HEARTBREAKING LOSS.
Boo!
None of us can believe that ending! It's hard to settle in to sleep
And our vacation is over.
But we were IN the Sweet 16...
And we just had a GREAT vacation...
All I can think is...the ABC Wide World of Sports quote...."the thrill of victory, and the agony of the defeat."
Saturday morning we were all up early. We're all anxious to get home.
On road by 7:45 am.
HOME 7:45 pm!
Hi Speed! Hi Abra!
W H E W !!!!!