Thank you for another report! That sunset photo is beautiful! Congrats on the AP MB! Is that an AP slider? Your book looks great!
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You are absolutely going to cherish that photo book, I promise. I lost my father to cancer 5 years ago next week. I wish we had done a trip like this before he was gone. The memories you have made are so precious. You are an amazing young man.
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‘Tis indeed!
Absolutely no real benefit to it other than braggin’ rights. Lol
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It is a beauty!
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this is an amazing trip report! thanks for sharing and good luck to you and your mom with her treatment.
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Day 5 - The UNforgettable Morning
The day starts off rather early with a 7:30AM reservation at Chef Mickey’s. Even with yesterday marking the end of the “intense schedule” for the trip, I was concerned we had still scheduled too much so I had considered cancelling this breakfast. However, the possibility of recreating some of the reactions mom displayed on Day 1 kept me from cancelling.
We get down to Chef Mickey’s and check in. The cast member there gives us the reminder that we can take a photo, but the lounge is pretty full and the line is a bit long. Not that it matter as we only had about enough time to make it to the edge of the lounge before our little device began buzzing and it was time to eat.
This time, we were lead back and into just off the main thoroughfare and seated at a half bench/half seat (no slack jawed high schooler this time!). The hostess tells us that we’ll be last in line for the characters and she hopes that’s ok. We, of course, don’t mind at all and thank her and she departs. Almost immediately after, our waiter arrives and we place our drink orders and then I wheel mom over to pick out her choices. She doesn’t deviate much from her normal choices, but I’m ok with whatever so long as she wants to eat.
Once she finishes choosing, I wheel her back over to the table and then head back to get what she wanted. I, once again, load up on mickey waffles, eggs, and various other fares. By the time I’m back to the table, our drinks have arrived and I take the opportunity to take a quick selfie with mom.
The food is good, but the atmosphere is once again the star of the show. It’s energetic and kids of all ages are bustling about, waiting for the Fab 5. Mom slowly munches on her mickey waffle while I feel like I’m inhaling plate after plate. Soon the theme song starts and the gang comes out.
As they come out I take note of how much mom has eaten and it’s sadly not that much. I could feel a bit annoyed given the cost of this breakfast, but once I see her interaction with the characters, the thought is the farthest thing from my mind. As they come out and make their rounds, each character says hi to her and mom enthusiastically returns their greetings with energy I just haven’t seen in years from her, maybe even ever. Mom also seems to get how to “talk” to the characters better than I do as she is able to go onto have conversations with Donald, who asked how she was doing; and Goofy, who was telling her good luck and keep her energy up (I really don’t know, these were just what I was getting from the responses mom was giving them)?
Now, while mom has lit up when all the characters come around, it’s Minnie Mouse that garners the best reaction. As Minnie nears, my mom is transformed with the innocence of a child. Her eyes widen and her left arm starts shaking with excitement as she begins fidgeting in her chair, her eyes fixed on Minnie as she approaches. By the time Minnie arrives to say hi, mom looks like an excited toddler waiting to open a Christmas present, with the biggest smile I’ve seen this entire trip. Minnie blows her a kiss and mom returns it enthusiastically. This time, my camera was completely ready and I was able to get a photo of it.
As before, I decide whatever this breakfast was going to cost, it was at basement bargain prices. This was the definition of “magic.” Every photo on this vacation required a prompting from me to mom to “smile!” This, however, required no prompting and was as genuine as it gets. As such, the photo ends up being my favorite of the whole trip, though showing it to mom she is not a fan of it at all.
Once the characters finished interacting with her, they turn their attention to me. Obviously, I’m not sure what they’re actually saying, but if I was forced to guess, they each were understanding of the situation and responding not unlike the responses here :). This time, however, I asked if I could take a picture and of course they agreed. Giving the camera to their assistants though yielded kinda lame photographs. You would think since they probably take photos day in and out, it would be a tad better, still… they were useable for the most part.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t realize that mom wasn’t in any of the photos with me (other than being seemingly ignored behind me) until Minnie showed up. Once I realized that, I made sure to do a group shot…despite mom’s lack of smile.
After Minnie left, we finished up breakfast we headed back up to the hotel room to grab our gear and then it was off to MK.
Once we’re at MK, the plan is pretty simple to tour the park a little bit, and then head back to the hotel so mom can rest up for tonight’s Fantasmic second try. We begin heading down Main Street and the sun is already high in the sky and no current threat of rain. I’m very glad I brought our sunglasses and we sun screened before we set out.
As we make our way down the street, I notice the Cast Members handing out buttons and I see a face that I recognize that brings a huge smile to my face. “Hang on," I tell mom, "I gotta do something,” and I wheel us over to the button kiosk.
This was the cast member who was passing out buttons the last time I was here! I walk up and she is about to give me a pen, but before she has a chance to say anything, I tell her that while I know that she likely doesn’t remember me(3 days is impressive, but almost 2 years has gotta be pushing it), but she had a huge impact on my vacation last time I was here and I thanked her for such a great memory. I then asked if I could get a picture with her.
With a few words of thanks she agreed.
Mom looks on confused, but says nothing. I take the opportunity to introduce my mom and Marisa (ah ha! Now I know her name! Couldn’t remember it last time). With a quick hug and few more words of thanks from me, we depart and head deeper into the park. With a few more shots in front of the castle.
As we progress, Mom is now looking for a shirt she saw in earlier in the trip but is having trouble remembering the details, so we begin checking out several shops hoping to hit paydirt. After several tries, and even an attempt at using the Shop Disney app, we are unable to locate it. I start to suspect its a shirt unique to Epcot as everything else has been found.
While we’re exploring and searching, my fast pass window for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opens up. It had been down for refurbishment on my last trip and I hoped to get a ride in on this trip even though I’m not a coaster guy. I’m kinda nervous, but from all accounts this is supposed to a pretty tame coaster and only one step up from Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (which I enjoyed last trip), so I shouldn’t have a problem. Additionally, given the grim circumstances even surrounding this trip, I saw no reason to resist riding it.
Of course, mom has no interest in it (I had scheduled her a fast pass for her too just in case she wanted to ride it) and I think it’s probably a good idea that she doesn’t. Her pain pills aren’t doing their job and she’s a fairly sore already, so her getting onto a roller coaster probably wouldn’t be the best idea ever. I contemplate skipping the ride and just continue to tour the park with her, and float the idea toward her, but she’s against that. She suggests to just park her somewhere so I can go ride. Reluctantly, I agree and I find a shady spot in the stroller area that we both feel is acceptable that she can hang out and then take my place in the fast pass line.
The queue is obviously one of the more rustic I’ve seen, and very well themed. I particularly enjoyed the “pay window” that the miners would visit upon a complete days work. As we “descend into the mine” I am assigned a car with just me at about the middle of the train.
The ride begins and it’s quite a bit more violent that I was expecting. I use the safety bar to keep from sliding around the car with only moderate success. Still, overall I really enjoyed the ride.
I exit the ride, feeling very accomplished and head over to find mom. Apparently, while I was on the ride, another family had chosen the same spot as she to take a breather and had struck up a conversation with her. I wait for the conversation to wrap up and then I withdraw with mom and we tour a bit more.
After about another half hour or so of touring, more shopping (without luck), and a stop in the Big Top Souvenirs tent to grab a peanut butter and chocolate brownie…thing (that was delicious), mom’s feeling pretty spent and wants to head back to the hotel. I nod in understanding and agree and make our way out of the park and back toward the Contemporary.
We get back to the room around 11AM and mom climbs into bed. Making sure she’s all set to go, I then plug the Oxygen concentrator batteries back in and then let her know that I’ll be going back out to the Magic Kingdom. She sleepily acknowledges it and I tell her when she’s up and moving, to give me a call and I’ll come straight back.
Then I’m out the door and back on Main Street within 20 minutes (including security). I find myself soon ordering yet another dole whip and enjoy while I leisurely wander around. Soon the time ticks down to my 1:15 Fast Pass for another first for me: Space Mountain. However, before I can take advantage of it, my phone rings and it’s mom. She’s up and is ready to go, so I head back to the hotel immediately. Slightly disappointed I won’t get a chance to use my fast pass, but glad that she’s already feeling rested.
I enter the room around 1PM and I start discussing lunch with mom. We have a reservation for the Edison over in Disney Springs, but with the way mom’s been eating and my current lack of hunger, I figure it’d be a waste so I modify and cancel it all together. Mom, however, is in great spirits and is eager to do things so I’m delighted about that.
Our plan has us going to Disney Springs so that’s our next stop. We get down to the bus stop in record time and as we’re waiting for the next bus, I get a message on my phone that my Space Mountain fastpass just became an “anytime” fastpass. I guess the ride had gone down. While I know it’s a bad thing that it has gone down, I’m rather happy I might get another chance at Space Mountain later today.
Soon the bus arrives and we’re off to Disney Springs. Mom has never been before and was quite excited to check it all out, even if it was just an outside mall. We disembark and I recall my first time experience here and how different it was. On my first night here in 2016, it was pouring down rain and being there was a total backup plan. Today, however, the weather was clear and sunny with a light breeze that made everything pleasant. Even still, it might be pushing 80 degrees, but mom is wearing her sweatshirt and is a little chilly.
We wheel past several shops, destined for “World of Disney,” and happened to notice and stop in “Disney Corner”, I haven’t a clue what this store is at first but it seems to be an extension of the proper “World of Disney” store. The first floor yields really nothing of interest and while there’s a second floor, I can’t seem to locate a way to get the chair up to it, so we depart and continue on our way.
We soon find ourselves in “World of Disney” and slowly make our way around. Mom is still looking for that elusive shirt and we take some extra time to view all the clothing offerings. Still no luck as we finish touring the store. It’s then I realize that this store is much smaller than I remember and the ceiling decorations are missing. It dawns on me that “Disney Corner” is likely the place where all that merchandise from that room resides now. It wasn’t an extension, but rather a reassignment.
After we’re done with “World of Disney” we visit a few of the other stores, still looking for that shirt. Being here in Disney Springs, I am reminded that I too am looking for something I have yet to see: the Mickey French Coffee Press. It was everywhere the last time I was here but I haven’t see a single one yet. The only one I’ve seen is an Alice in Wonderland version that is focused on tea, which I’m not interested in. So with now two objectives, we visit various stores to hopefully locate our prizes.
Unfortunately, it looks like the French Press is a nonstarter. A visit to the kitchen-focused store (can’t remember the name) yields the information that it’s no longer sold. Slightly dejected, we browsed several other stores in Disney Springs. A second visit in the “Tren-D” store rewards mom with the shirt she thinks she saw. It was a teal Ariel shirt. In my mind, I’m thinking this isn’t right because mom has mentioned before she is not a fan of the Little Mermaid, so a sudden change doesn’t make sense for a shirt. Still, she seems to really like the shirt so I’m all for it. However, we can’t seem to locate one in the size she wants so it takes the help of a Cast Member who leads us around the store looking for it.
Sadly, it looks like the shirt she wants doesn’t exist in her size anywhere in the parks currently (she wants an Extra Large) and so the Cast Member leads us to another shirt that is similar. Mom seems to like this one just as much and we get that.
With newly procured shirt in hand, we head out and it’s off to Star Bucks so I can score some free frappuccinos (thank you, rewards!). The fact that the Triple Mocha frap (my favorite one that they discontinued for like a year) has returned during this time has been a wonderful addition to the trip. Mom’s all about the iced Caramel Macchiato and we take our drinks and continue on.
Feeling we’ve covered Disney Springs rather well, we make our ways to the buses just in time to see their Contemporary one roll out. A flash of annoyance goes through me as I realize I could have made the bus as I did last night at Animal Kingdom had I been solo touring and not had to worry about the wheelchair. Ugh, F*** cancer.
With the bus rolling away, we get into the queue and wait. With the heat of the day now bearing down on us (even under the shade of the queue), the wait feels even longer than it was (and it was a significant wait). Noticing we’re right by the the Polynesian and Grand Floridian bus stop, which had now begun to gather people, I decide whichever bus arrives next, we’ll get on it and just monorail back over to the Contemporary.
Soon, exactly that happens and the Poly/GF bus arrives and we get over into their wheelchair access queue. I think this annoyed a few of the people cause we did it last minute and suddenly everyone who was waiting had to wait even longer because we were to board first.
Once onboard, the driver noticed that we were in the Contemporary queue and asked for clarification of what we’re looking to do. Explaining my plan, he nodded.
“Which stop do you want to get off at?” He asked as he finished strapping mom in.
“Which stop is your first stop?” I replied, figuring he knew where this was going.
“The Polynesian will be our first stop. The the Floridian, which one do you want?” I was wrong.
“The Polynesian will be just fine.Thanks!” I said and he nodded and headed back to the front of the bus to let everyone else in.
As the people filed in, I stayed standing, making sure not to take up a seat as a bit of an apology for making them wait even longer for the bus.
Soon, everyone is in and we’re off to the Poly and I keep my eye out as we depart looking for the Contemporary bus, preparing to kick myself if it showed up just as we were leaving. It didn’t (thankfully).
We get to the poly and depart and I wheel us into the lobby. As we start to make our way to the Monorail station, I do a quick mental inventory of our gear and realize there’s nothing we really need at the Contemporary, we’re only going to relax for about an hour or so and then head over to Hollywood Studios.
With that realization, I pitch the idea to mom that we can just hang out here if she wants. I suggest that, if she’s tired, she can take a nap on the very comfortable chairs in the lobby. She nods in agreement and after a quick tour of the lobby and shops, we steak out two seats and mom transitions out of the wheelchair and into a plush lobby one.
Mom doesn’t seem all that sleepy so she doesn’t even close her eyes and instead we go through tonight’s plans. I also take this opportunity to get a dole whip float. True enough, this place gyps you on the dole whip way more than the Magic Kingdom. Still, it’s delicious so I can’t really complain too much. We spend the remainder of the time just relaxing in the hotel lobby. Once it’s time to leave, it’s off to the bus stop and onto Hollywood Studios!
We get to the park and the line for entry is long until I see the Annual Pass line. Patting my pocket (and the wallet inside that housed my AP card) like a pooch that performed a good deed, we fast-lane’d right through and were in just in time for our reservation.
Our reservation had us at 50s Prime Time cafe and if I’m honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. The food looked meh in pictures, I’m not huge on the “1950s” thing and I would rather eat at Hollywood Brown Derby or somewhere else. Still, mom really wanted to check this out so here we are.
I’m glad Mom called the shots on this one. Walking in, it became immediately apparent that this was going to be a different experience from any of the other dining we’ve done so far. We step into the check in area as a woman yelled out “CAAAAARRRRL! DINNER!!”
The Cast Member behind a counter asked for my reservation name and I gave it to her and she took our information and then instructed us to go wait in the living room until dinner. I nodded and headed in the direction she indicated.
Walking into the “living room” was surreal. Obviously it wasn’t identical because of the size and exact layouts, but it looked very much like how my grandparents had kept their living room for years growing up. We chose one of the smaller, emptier, “rooms” that was playing The Dick Van Dyke Show and I parked mom in there.
Soon, I hear someone yell “RANNNNDALLLLL! DINNER!!!” And instinctively I responded “Right, comin!” As soon as the words were out of my mouth I smiled with memories of mom yelling for us to come to dinner as my brother and I played in the creek that was behind our house.
I wheel mom back to the table and park her there and sit down. Unlike the living room, my grandparents’ houses never had kitchens like this so while parts of it looked familiar, the overall feel wasn’t the same. Mom-mom and Pop-pop certainly didn’t have TVs everywhere in their kitchen. I also note that the seating has one critical flaw: there’s no cracks or tears in this vinyl upholstery, how am I supposed to get that authentic paper-cut experience from sitting at the table when everything is pristine and new?!
I pull the silverware from the basket and unfold it for mom and then proceed to do the same thing myself. I then sat down and took in the atmosphere, the place was bustling with servers moving to and fro bringing out meals and clearing tables. Easily one of the more busier restaurants we’ve been in. A short distance away, I hear other names being called for dinner. Off the side, a kid is admonished by a server for “having that walkie-talkie at the table” that looked suspiciously like a cell phone.
Our server eventually came around “Welcome to the Prime Time Cafe,” he started, “I’m cousin Glenn, Aunt Becky has been working real hard all day making dinner tonight and you’re in for a treat.” Then, looking over the table, “Well I see you’ve been here before, so I guess I don’t need to tell you the rest,” he said with a bit of disappointment in his voice.
When I confessed that we hadn’t he looked a bit confused. “Oh, but you had set the table?” At this, I was starting to catch on to the gimmick and realized the theming this restaurant was on par with Be Our Guest, if not more so. The yelling for dinner, the introduction as a ‘family member’, and now the emphasis on setting the table; this was my childhood. I half expected next to be told to sit up straight, don’t talk with your mouth full, don’t chew with your mouth open, and no elbows on the table. I just smiled and mentioned I had just done the act out of habit. He nodded and launched into the presentation of the menu and noted the first two rules of the restaurant: “Set the table and no elbows on the table.”
Well… looks like I got at least one of them right.
He goes through the rest of the menu and leaves us to make our selection. After a bit of indecision, I just opt for the general sampler while mom elects the pot roast. While we wait for the food, we mostly watch the clips that play on the TVs. I especially pay attention to when the Disneyland Opening Day broadcast begins. Unfortunately, it’s only on for a minute or so before the channel changes to the Dick Van Dyke show. My attention is drawn away from the TVs when another party sits down at their table and the server (Cousin Annie) tells them to set the table. What was interesting to me was the entire party thought she was kidding, and that they really didn’t have to do anything. It wasn’t until Annie said she was serious and she wasn’t leaving until they do that they started doing the task, all the while looking around like they were waiting for the punch line of a practical joke.
Our food comes out and it looks pretty decent, but nothing I would consider stellar. Mom, however, has a completely different opinion. She dives into the food and makes really decent headway. In the past few days she has been eating a few bites and then declaring she is full, however it looks like I finally found the right combo of food so today she makes up for lost time and I am thrilled. I taste my samplings and I am delighted it tastes even better than it looked.
Mom tries, but only gets about three quarters of her plate down before she has to declare she’s full. This time I truly believe she is full and am happy she got down as much as she did. But then she looks at me and says “we need a box.”
I laughed and shook my head “No, we aren’t doing doggie bags here in Disney World.” I hate the idea of carrying a doggie bag around the park for the rest of the night. “They don’t even do doggie bags here.” I lie, I have no idea.
But mom is adamant. “This is good,” she says, referring to the pot roast, “I want it for later.”
Before I can object any further, Glenn comes around and asks if we need anything and mom asks for a box. Of course, he says “sure thing!” And vanishes for a moment to retrieve one. Shortly, he’s back and we’re loading what’s left of the pot roast into the container. Happy enough that she’s eating normally again, I don’t complain about it any further and soon we’re on our way out, with mom holding the doggie bag on her lap.
It looks like the rain is going to hold off tonight, so I wheel mom over to the Fantasmic theater to see if our tickets from earlier in the week are still good. The Cast Member there says they are and instructs me when to show up. Saying my thanks, we go and tour Hollywood Studios a bit more.
As we are walking back, I notice a Cast Member doing a water craft drawing on Sunset Blvd. I don’t think mom has seen one of these before so I stop to watch the guy do his thing. He’s drawing Mickey and I am personally fascinated by his technique of how to do it. I’m about to get an art degree and I still can’t draw worth a lick, so watching someone who can always impresses me.
He finishes up a particularly impressive Mickey and I get a picture with mom in front of it and then we go shop a bit.
After we pass through a few shops, mom suddenly doesn’t feel well and wants to head back to the hotel. Confused, and a little shocked (we were only about an hour away from lining up for Fantasmic) I ask if she’s sure and explain the situation. We won’t be able to make it back for fantasmic again, and this is our last shot at it. But she says she just doesn’t feel good at all and is practically pleading, so I agree and soon we’re back on the bus and heading for the contemporary.
We get back to the room and mom heads for the restroom and after a few minutes comes out and climbs into bed. Clearly, she’s done for the night, but it’s still very salvageable from my perspective. On the way back, I remembered I had that anytime fast pass for Space Mountain and this would be the perfect opportunity to use it. I tell her that I’m going to go use my anytime-pass =real quick and I should be back in time to watch Happily Ever After from the balcony. She says OK and crawls under covers and I put the HEA soundtrack channel on so if I should not make it back in time, she will still get to see and hear the show.
To zip through security, I leave my park gear in the room and depart for the Kingdom with only my phone and my wallet (that has my AP card in it). The walk is rather uneventful, but I’m hauling as I want to get in and back before the show starts. A family is on the walkway and upon noticing me coming up fast, move to the right and as I blast pass I nod in thanks.
The weather is cool and delightful and I kinda wish I woulda dragged mom out with me, but I want her to rest now. Zipping through security with no bag I get into Kingdom and already people are staking out spots for the show. I make my way to Tomorrowland and Space Mountain and get into the EXTREMELY long Fast Pass line for the ride. Overhearing a few of those in line, it seems Space Mountain has been down for most of the day and as such, they are letting everyone on now, so FPP line is about as half as fast as normal. The standby queue is clocking in at 120 minutes where as I have a 15-20 minute wait ahead of me.
I get into the queue and I’m taking everything in. I’ve never rode this ride before and to say I’m a bit nervous would be very accurate. This ride is iconic for Disney World and I’ve always wanted to ride it but when we were here when I was 10, my parents forbid it. On my last trip, I bailed on it because some of that old childhood fear creeped in and kept me off. This time, after already concurring Big Thunder Mountain, I’m sure I can handle this. Just… a little nervous yet. I’m still not good with heights, but supposedly there are none on this ride as everything is pitch black?
The line goes pretty quick up until one point where it just comes to a dead stop. The little touches of the queue are cute, but their novelty wears of quickly. One of the final parts of the queue, the video with the 3 teenagers “enjoying their trip” makes me nearly bust out laughing. In that typical “90s Hollywood cheese fashion”, the teens are swaying back and forth independently of each other, with the girl in front looking back to the two behind her with the look “oh isn’t this fun?!” I suddenly question the ride’s quality based on this video alone.
Eventually, I get to board and get a front seat in the second car. The ride begins and we’re off! Due to my fear of coasters, I had researched this ride on youtube, so I had a rough idea of what to expect. No major drops, no loops, nothing more terrifying that I’ve faced on a highway as I ride a motorcycle at 70MPH. But what I wasn’t expecting was the projected star field. Ths ride isn’t pitch black at all! I’m always amazed at Disney for being able to utilize the limited space they have and this had to be the absolute crown jewel I’ve seen them pull off to date.
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As the car goes up, down, left and right, the star field starts to give me a bit of vertigo and as we go up and then down at a certain point, I feel like I am in the vastness of space. It’s amazing. I had half a mind to turn around to the folks behind me to look at them like “oh isn’t this fun?!”… just kidding.
With the ride over, I’m as energized as I’ve been. I’ve conquered one of my all time fears and I want a souvenir to commemorate the occasion (I had a feeling this would happen, which is why I brought my wallet with my AP card), and I look forward to visiting the gift shop on the way out. Unfortunately, it seem Star Wars and basic space stuff end up being the subject of the gift shop and there’s nothing specifically calling out space mountain other than one or two t-shirts which are far too small for me (they were like little kid sizes).
As I finish searching the store for something branded with Space Mountain, a loud thunder clap draws my attention outdoors. Huh…It is pouring rain. But I mean “you’ve gone and made the weather gods mad” pouring rain. I contemplate staying in the store, but there’s nothing here and I promised mom I’d be back to watch fireworks with her from the room.
As I have no poncho, I steel myself for the rain and charge headlong into it. To my relief, the rain is actually warm and not the cold showers that we get up here in Pennsylvania. I’m careful with my steps to make sure I don’t repeat earlier in the week and nearly wipe out. As I near the main thoroughfare for Tomorrowland, the Happily Ever After show begins. I happen to catch a particularly dramatic angle as a red firework explodes over a darkened castle as I cross the tomorrowland. The fog and rain making the castle look more ominous than I’ve ever seen.
This gives me the idea to pull my phone out and record the show as I leave. The rain has caused a mass exodus though and we’re directed to use the “run off” area to exit the park It’s not long before I’m slowed by a ton of people. As we all march along like cattle, I hold my phone in an angle that it records everything behind my shoulder until the buildings block all view.
We make it back to the town square and I happen to look off to my right and see a ton of people in ponchos watching the show. I get another flash of inspiration and I want to see what they see. I maneuver my way over to Mainstreet and look down the road to …. Nothing. The castle is clouded by smoke, fog, and rain. There’s nothing there. Firework detonations and colored spotlights are the only visible light come from beyond the middle of Mainstreet.
I start laughing.
It starts as a giggle, then goes full “maniacal”. This is absolutely nuts. The park looks like it’s in the middle of a full on assault and all these folks, with colored plastic sheets covering them, stand around like this is a normal everyday occurrence. As I stand there, taking photos without a plastic sheet of my own, I envy them. It’s hilarious. I laugh even harder.
After a few moments, I remember I still need to get back to the room, so I about-face and exit out of the park with the throngs of people still making their way out. I don’t stop laughing until I get to the contemporary and get blasted by the frigid dry air of the lobby.
I get up to the room, and open the door, soaking wet. Mom looks at me a little confused, and so I proudly declare “Hey…I think it’s raining.”
Unfortunately, by the time I made it back to the room, HEA was over, so I put mom to bed proper, and went to change clothes. I still wasn’t tired but the park was closed now (or just about) so it was down to the Fantasia store to grab a pint of ice cream to celebrate my achievement of the day.and then out onto the balcony area of the Contemporary. By now, the rain had let up and so I watched the monorails come in. By the third one, it finally dawned on me to take a picture.
After I finished up my ice cream, I headed back up to the room and notice two stars over the park. (yeah ok, they were probably planes, but for this moment, they were stars!)
I climbed into bed myself and went to sleep. Not a bad day at all, but missing Fantasmic twice was a bit of a bummer.
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Wonderful, as always. 
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Love your mum’s face meeting Minnie! I can’t believe you couldn’t see the castle!! The weather must have been awful.
Another really great read.
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What a wonderful day!
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Your mom’s face meeting Minnie! I’m so happy for you that you captured that look. It’s hard for me to get pictures of my mom smiling and I may have teared up a bit of that one!
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Minnie at Chef Mickey was our favorite. She was so adorable. And that’s exactly how we feel with kids. What?, you ate 1 Mickey waffle and 1/2 slice of bacon? Eat child, eat our moneys worth! 
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Lovely trip report.
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Thank you, again, for sharing with us. What a great day (sorry about missing Fantasmic). Your mom’s face when meeting Minnie is pure joy - what a great capture!
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Thanks for sharing! You are a great story teller! Your mom looks so happy meeting Minnie. Glad you were able to capture that.
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Ok, so it’s been a bit since I’ve updated this. Apologies on that. School’s final weeks were killer and I had another trip to ramp up (and down) for. But the story isn’t over yet so… onward!
Day 6 - Trials and Tribulations
The morning starts, as it always does, with an early morning wake up in the hotel room. I let mom sleep in extra “late” today, as we don’t have any breakfast reservations today because today is a Extra Magic Hour day in Magic Kingdom. As she needed the rest and I knew we wouldn’t get any advantage from a breakfast in the park, I thought this would be the best course of action. The morning is cool and cloudy and everything is still soaked from the storm last night. I take a towel to the chairs out to the balcony to dry them off.
Once she stirs, we recreate our, now traditional, cereal breakfast in the hotel room. I settled down into the balcony seat gingerly(my fear of heights causing no sudden movements) with my cereal while mom sat on the bed closest to the window (but still unwilling to actually go out onto the balcony.) We had purchased a bunch of those “travel cereal” variety packages specifically for this morning, so we had a number of choices to choose from. It was a little tricky fitting them in the luggage down here, but worth it for this. While the Fantasia Market downstairs had a bunch, they wanted around $8 per package. Hah, no. However, I warned mom not to eat too much because I had plans for “2nd Breakfast” today.
As we ate, we are joined by birds looking for scraps. Mom becomes fixated on them and wants to feed them, so she throws a few pieces of cereal to them. To which a few hop over and scoop up the loose pieces. I suggest she can feed them better out on the balcony, but with a look of “nuh-uh”, I laughed as I understood getting her out on the balcony was just not going to happen.
Once the birds are fed, mom and I go over what we’ve done so far and what the plans are for today. Today, we don’t have much on the agenda other than Spirit of Aloha. Mom has been trying to see this show for years when she comes to Disney World, but circumstances always keep her from seeing it in its entirety. Today, we’re looking to change that.
Once we finished up 1st Breakfast, we grabbed our gear and headed out to the Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the lower crowds and to just walk around and do some shopping.
We get to the park and the sun starts to come out, drying everything off and warming the air to a comfortable level. We roll over to the Emporium and go through looking for souvenirs. Mom’s has become reluctant to buy anything because she suddenly thinks we can’t afford anything, even with my reassurances that she can get anything she wants…short of a certain jewel-encrusted castle that costs more than my car.
As we make our way up Main Street, we catch a performance of the Trolley Show. I think I liked the autumn show a bit more, because as I write this, I’ve already forgotten what the song is where as the Autumn one still pops up in my head every once in a while.
We continue onto Liberty Square where it’s time to enjoy 2nd Breakfast at Sleepy Hollow Inn. I order a large Mickey Waffle and mom gets the Egg and Cheese Waffle Sandwich. The waiting for it was a bit awkward as there was no table free to park mom at so instead we waited in the little area which was mobbed with people. Moving was impossible and while it would have been ok without a wheelchair, it was a nightmare with one. After a while and inching up, I was finally able to get through the crowd and set mom up to the side so we could more comfortably wait. Almost as soon as this happened, a table opened up so I quickly scooted mom over there to claim the table and went back to get our food.
Once food was in hand, I joined mom at the table and we enjoyed 2nd Breakfast next to the castle. As I dined on my delicious fluffy Mickey Waffle, I marvel at the setting once again. Eating here next to the castle, with the warm sun shining in the morning, makes this restaurant on par with, or arguably better than, any other dining experience here in Disney World for me.
A loud “quack” brings me out of my musings and I notice several ducks have joined everyone for breakfast (not Donald). The one mallard seems particularly interested in our table, but he’s nuts if he’s thinking he’s getting any of this waffle. I look over at mom who is still contently working on her waffle sandwich. Once again, the meal is silent, but I’m content so long as she’s enjoying herself. Which the quick smile she flashes at me confirms.
After the duck loses interest in our table, he decides it’s time that it’s time to blow this pop stand and takes flight. On his way out though, his flight path was a little off and nearly collides with mom which caused a few moments of surprise and hilarity.
After we finish up 2nd Breakfast, we take our coffees and stroll around, take a few photos of things. One thing I’ve actually been wanting to see is the Cinderella Fountain. For some reason, when I was here last, I couldn’t find the thing so I was looking forward to checking it out. I wheel mom up to where it was and get a photo of it with her.
As we finish up there, I look at my watch and we’re nearing 11AM and mom is starting to fade and she wants to head back to the hotel so that’s exactly what we do. Once I get mom back to the hotel, I plug her POC machine back in and begin the process of recharging all her batteries. She climbs into bed and I pull up the park info channel on the TV and the music fills the room once again. Mom settles in and I let her know I’ll be heading out and check on her to see if she needs anything. She sleepily tells me no and to have a good time. I nod as she falls the rest of the way to sleep.
With that, I’m out the door and head toward the monorail. I’ve been itching to try some food from the Flower and Garden Festival but haven’t had a chance yet, so I’m looking to fix that now and moving with a bit of energy. I also am feeling that I could be called back at any moment if mom should wake up, so that fuels my speed even more. I’m through security easy enough and soon on the monorail listening to the narrator. I don’t even understand why, but the narration on the monorail has become as important as anything else here in Disney World. I do notice there’s a difference in the speech though. Before, in 2016, as we headed toward TTC, he wished those who are departing a safe trip home, but now there’s no mention of it at all.
I soon disembark into Epcot and the sun has since disappeared and the clouds have turned ominous as I head into World Showcase. On the way in, I noticed the sign for Annual Passholders to get their free magnet, so I change course real quick to pick it up. It’s a useless little trinket but a nice thing that Disney has done for AP holders.
Once I deposit my magnet safely in my park bag, I start counterclockwise in World Showcase and come upon the Honey Bee-stro, which is apparently a new booth here in the festival this year. I think this is a good place to start for the food so I look over the menu but don’t see that much interests me until I see the “Honey-Peach Cobbler Freeze” Now we’re talking. There’s an alcoholic version but as I don’t drink I opt to go for the cheaper virgin one.
The system they have for giving you your order is surprising to me. You make an order at the front, pay, and then they give you a receipt. You walk around the side and there’s a cast member there who takes your receipt, then announces it to the “kitchen” at the moment and then they make it. I found this strange as the line quickly grew using this method. I would think someplace like Epcot would use a far more efficient system, something like McDonald’s uses, where the order is displayed on a screen in the back. Still, I got my small cup of freeze soon enough and gave it a try. Absolutely fantastic! The crunchy honey “crystals” at the top set off the creamy treat.
The treat doesn’t last long enough for me to make it back to the main thoroughfare as I basically inhaled it, so then it’s off toward England and France to see what they have to offer. I’m after something seriously chocolaty, so I’m thinking France is my best bet. As I enter into France, I look over the menu and I see chocolate there, but nothing major enough for me, or at least not at the price they’re asking. The sky is starting to look ominous though, so I need to figure something out here quick before rain forces me indoors or mom calls saying she’s rested again.
I remember that there’s an ice cream parlor on the Boardwalk, which can be accessed from here and I’ve been wanting to see how long it takes me to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios. So I spin around and head out the International Gateway toward the Boardwalk.
When I did this walk last, I thought the boardwalk was in the middle of both Hollywood Studios and Epcot but I quickly discovered I was wrong. Within 3 minutes, I had entered onto the boardwalk and made a bee-line for Ample Hills Creamery for some ice cream.
Like most things here at Disney, the amount of choices is almost dizzying, but I see they have a new feature than last time which is the “flight of ice cream.” Perfect option for me and I load up several flavors, my favorite being the “baked/half baked” one. Which is part cookie dough, and part fully baked cookie.
As I exit out of the creamery, the rain has started so I finish my ice cream under the awning of the Screendoor General Store. Even though the ice cream was done, the rain was not, so into the store I went to check it out.
After I was done in there, the rain was starting to let up, so I decided it was time to see how long it was going to take to get to Hollywood studios and began heading in that direction. The distance was considerably longer than Epcot and I clocked myself taking 17 minutes to finish. I was a little disappointed with my speed, but happy that I had a concrete time to work with in the future.
I get into Hollywood Studios, but I’m not wholly sure what I want to do. I’ve pretty much seen everything here in the park, but then I remember I’m a little behind in my Mickey Pretzel consumption so I figure now is as good a time as any to catch up a little. I begin wandering the park looking for a stand that sells them and settle on the one just outside of the Chinese Theater.
I get into line and am only there about 10 seconds when my phone rings. It’s mom. I check my watch and it’s considerably earlier than I was expecting and exactly what I had been mildly dreading.
“Hello?” I ask, already mentally plotting a course out of the park so I can get back.
“Hey, you need to get back here,” she sounds very upset, “There’s someone knocking on the door saying our time is up and we need to get out.”
This doesn’t make sense at all. “Wait, what do you mean? Who’s telling you that?”
“I don’t know. They’re just telling me our time is up.”
“Are they there now?” I mentally run a list of who could be giving her such an command at the contemporary, the list is a grand total of zero unless it’s a guest confused on where they were.
“No, they left.” I can tell she’s on the verge of tears in her voice. “Can you come back please?”
“I’m on my way.” I say, probably a little curt though I’m not mad at her at all. If someone bothered her while she was sleeping for such a threat, I’m going to rip someone a new one.
“Please can you come back?” She repeats
“Yeah, I’m on my way.” I reassure her as I am already making my way to the bus stop. Again, my voice probably not sounding the most sympathetic.
After a few more pleads for me to come back, and me reassuring that I am, I hop on the bus and headed back to the contemporary. As I ride, I play the conversation over in my head. Her confusion at the end with not accepting/understanding I’m already on my way keeps sticking with me. She’s confused so I start questioning what’s really going on.
After about 15 minutes, I’m entering the Contemporary lobby and I head over to the front desk. It’s time to get some answers and I’ve had time to calm down, so I ask the Cast Member there if everything was OK with the room and recounted what mom had said to me. The Cast Member looked utterly confused about the situation and looked at his terminal nodding that everything with the room was just fine.
I thank him for his time and head up to the room. Upon entering, the room music is replaced with standard TV programming and mom is there watching. I ask her to, once again, tell me what happened and she kept saying the same thing: someone knocked on the door and said get out, our time is up. I reassure her that whatever it was, it had nothing to do with us and relayed what the front desk had told me, that everything was perfectly fine with the room and that should there be any issue, no one should be calling the room or knocking on the door and instead should be reaching out to me directly.
This seemed to calm her a bit, but not entirely so I recommended she try to get some more sleep and this time I would stay in the room. She seemed to be ok with that and settled back into bed and I made my way to the balcony. As I did, the TV happened to play a trailer that caught my ear. The trailer was for one of her crime shows and they kept threatening that the villain that their “time was up.” Suddenly, I started to get an idea of what was happening. She was having a lucid dream and was hearing the show bleed into her dream and probably heard someone outside the room as they were making their way through the hall. (Or, and I didn’t think of this until I am here writing this, it was a security check and just happened to hit all the wrong timing.)
I relaxed a little with that knowledge and let her sleep. Eventually, it was time for us to head over to the Polynesian for our Spirit of Aloha show. I start the “process” of leaving around 1.5 hours before the show just to give her time to get moving and we’re out the door within a half hour.
We get to the monorail and are through security fairly quickly and then grab the elevator up to the platform. We don’t get a few feet out of the elevator before running into a crowd of people. I feel this is a bit odd, but don’t pay it much mind.
However, it becomes clear that there’s a problem with the monorail. The crowd has now grown to a level where we cannot move (with a chair) and getting back down is impossible. So we wait there for about 40 minutes before finally Disney Cast Members officially announce that the monorail is down and that we should depart to the buses. I smirk at the recent memory that I saw a factoid somewhere saying the monorail has a 99% uptime rate. For this week, it seemed to be that entire 1%.
It takes another 15 minutes before we’re finally back on the elevator and able to move freely. Looking at my time, I see we’re cutting it really close but we can still make it on time. We get out to the bus stop and see it’s mobbed. We start to wait for the bus but there’s apparently no bus heading directly to the Poly and instead are taking on the “monorail resort loop”, so it’ll go to TTC then to Poly, then to the Grand Floridian, then back here.
After 15 minutes of waiting, I decide there’s more than 1 way to skin a cat here and head over to the Magic Kingdom, even though it’s lightly raining. I figure there’s bound to be buses to the Poly there and if not that, we can take the ferry to the TTC and walk over.
I approach the Magic Kingdom bus lot and the rain begins to grow stronger and I make sure mom is wrapped in her poncho. I look at the destination chart and notice that none of the buses are going to the Polynesian. That’s odd. I flag down a security cast member and ask which bus goes to the Poly only to have him confirm there is none that goes there. Weird, I could have swore that they go to the Poly.
A little dejected, I wheel mom over to the ferry where a ton of people are disembarking and notice there’s no one heading toward the ferry. As I had never boarded the ferry from MK before, I decided it was best to double check with someone to make sure this was, indeed, the place to board. I walked up to the booth and asked the cast members inside “How do I get to the ferry?”
The girls inside looked at me like I was playing a joke on them. The one pointed her thumb over her shoulder and said cautiously “it’s right behind us?” Nodding, I said “right, but where do we board?”
Their confused look only increased and it caused me to replay the question in my head to try and determine why I was getting such looks. It didn’t take much for me to realize that my question sounded incredibly stupid. Trying to recover, I mention I’ve never boarded from MK before.
The girl stumbled through her confusion and said it’s also right behind us but it’s not taking traffic right now. Shocked, I simply blurted out a confused “oh, ok, thanks.” And gathered mom up.
In the few seconds it took for me to get back to mom, my shock work off and was replaced with full on frustration. I wheeled mom back to the contemporary in the now driving rain and approached the, very mobbed, bus stop. Realizing I would never get her chair through the crowd, I decided to go in the lobby through the back way and then rejoin the mob. As we do so, the concierge greets us and I quickly ask him if there’s more than 1 bus coming and he nods.
“Oh, absolutely! It’d be crazy out there if we didn’t!” He said, reassuringly.
“It’s crazy now.” I fired back immediately, with far less joy in my voice. I tried my best not to snap at him, but at this point the show was already started and the mob outside indicates that the buses are not plentiful.
He seemed to realize the gravity of my frustration and the smile disappeared from his face and he gave a nod of apology and I continued on my way out of the lobby. I get mom back into the “line” (and I use that term loosely) and we wait for the bus.
Finally a bus comes around and we board first, thanks to the wheelchair thing, and soon we’re off to the TTC. As we go, I overhear a passenger say they’ve been on this bus for over 2 hours trying to get wherever it was they were going (I don’t remember). I look at my own watch and happen to realize we are now a full hour into the show.
As we ride I look at mom to try and read her emotions on her face but she’s just staring off blankly. None of this is really registering with her. Small blessings, I guess.
We finally get to the Poly and disembark and head into the lobby toward the registration desk that I had noticed earlier in the week when we were hanging out in the lobby. However, there was no one there and so I waited a few minutes thinking that the attendant was just away. As I had absolutely no idea where to go, I really didn’t have any other choice but to wait to see if someone showed at first. Eventually, it became obvious that no one was coming so I flagged down a cast member and asked them where the show was.
“The dinner show? That’s nearly over!” The elderly man said bluntly. Thanks, man… can I have some more salt for that wound?
After explaining that we still wanted to get over there, he gave us verbal directions with the note “I’d take you, but I have to be somewhere else.” He then vanished off behind a door and I wheeled mom out on to the path.
Thankfully, the rain had stopped at this point so it wasn’t completely miserable. As we walked, I made the decision to see if I could get a refund, even though the website said there were no refunds and I never tried to get ahold of anyone to cancel ahead of time. But seeing the last quarter of the show didn’t appeal to me for how much money we plunked down for this so I figured we’ll just have to try again next time. I ran this idea past mom real quick and she disappointingly agreed.
Eventually, we found the counter (after getting a bit lost) and I left mom at the top of the stairs while I approached the desk and explained the situation about why we were late. The Cast Member completely understood and offered to give us passes for another show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take her up on the offer as we had the Dessert Party already for tonight and we were leaving on Monday and the show doesn’t happen on Sunday or Monday, so this particular time was our only chance. Realizing that, she immediately offered to refund the money. She even went as far to say if we wanted, we could watch the end of the show from the back.
Declining, I thanked her and headed back to mom. Once there, I knelt down to be at eye level with mom and relayed everything that was said at the counter. Mom was in agreement that if she couldn’t the whole show at this point, she’d rather see none of it. She’s had enough of the piecemeal style of taking this show in. Nodding sympathetically, I agreed with her, and we started to determine what we wanted to do now as we only had about an hour before our dessert party started up. We could either go back to the hotel room or go to MK and get dinner. We were there for a few minutes contemplating our options and we must’ve looked pretty pitiful because soon the girl from the desk came up and asked if we were OK.
I said we were and just deciding what to do now. Once again, the girl offered for us to watch the rest of the show, this time directing the offer at mom, and added she’d be happy to bring some food out for us at no charge. This is the level of Disney Customer Service that I am always impressed with.
This time, it was mom who declined politely. After asking if we’re sure several times, the girl finally conceded and we thanked her again for her compassion and we started toward the lobby (before it began raining again).
On our way to the lobby, we had decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom, and get food at Pinocchio Hause. I know it’s considered sacrilege for some, but I was looking forward to one of their caprese flatbread pizzas and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to rebound from all this.
As we entered the lobby, I checked to see if the monorail was still down and the cast member at the front desk confirmed that it was. Not wanting to have another bus fiasco, I thanked him and wheeled mom out and past the bus stop and we headed toward the TTC to take the ferry to the Kingdom. Of course, there was always the danger of the boat not taking traffic TO the magic kingdom now, so as we got closer, I had to ask the security guard if it was.
He confirmed that it was and I let out a sigh of relief as we went through security and eventually found ourselves on the boat. Things were looking up as we were on of the last ones on and the ferry launched almost immediately. I kept gauging mom’s level of disappointment and it seemed to be about where I expected: obviously was looking forward to the show and sad she didn’t get to see it.
Once we were at the gates, once again, I was incredibly glad of the “pass holder only” line. What could have been a significant wait turned into nothing other than waiting for mom’s magicband to cooperate with the tapstyle. Once we were through, I wheeled her directly to Pinocchio Hause with the idea of sitting and watching the Small World boats.
As we neared the restaurant, the rain picked up again and, as the outside seating was empty due to being wet, the interior of the restaurant was packed. So much for my hopes of watching the small world boats…
I parked mom off to the side and got into line to order our pizzas. Being particularly hungry, I had ordered 3 pizzas. 1 for mom and 2 for me. We had them soon enough and I found a table for us and did some less-than-graceful maneuvering as I wheeled mom and the pizzas over to the table.
We began eating and overall it wasn’t bad, but the pizza wasn’t as good as I had before (0 for 2 on the pizzas this trip) but it sufficed. Then I looked at my watch and saw it was already 7:30. Somehow we had burned up a whole hour in transit from the Poly to sitting here. Urging mom to finish her pizza, she only ate about a quarter of it before declaring she was full. As we didn’t have time for us to sit here and let her work at it, I took her at her word and let the matter drop. Meanwhile, I woofed down the last of my first pizza, realizing I wouldn’t have time to eat the second one.
I decided to take it with us and had mom hold the pizza while I wheeled us out toward Tomorrowland Terrace, suggesting she help herself if she was hungry. The rain had started up again and I put some extra speed on to get Mom out of the rain and into the covered area of the Terrace. We get the entrance and go through the registration and again we’re on time but that means we’re “late” for this party. Once again, there’s no open tables for easy wheelchair access so, once again, I have to maneuver mom to the center of the mass of tables.
When she’s settled in, I offer to get some deserts and run down the list of what she wants. She says she wants nothing but I suggest things I saw on the table. When I land on “ice cream” she nods, probably just to shut me up, and I dash off to get the goods.
I gather up a bunch of the little cheesecakes, cookies, and other dessert items and put them on a plate and come back to the table. I drop them off and grab two things of coffee and also bring them back. Finally, I head back out one more time to get the ice cream. This is exhausting.
Unlike the last time, there was nothing interesting at all about this ice cream experience. It’s different Cast Members and so it was more assembly line than it was anything else, but I was happy for it as I didn’t really have time to interact with anyone this time around. I collected the ice creams and headed back to the table, finally able to sit for a few moments.
Mom ate about half her ice cream and then put it down, saying she didn’t want anymore. Meanwhile, I attempted to eat the now-waterlogged pizza (Thank you, rain) and decided it was lost cause and set it to the side. In compensation, I cleared the plate of dessert items and the ice cream in record time and went to get seconds.
I came back and finished up the second plate and, now feeling full, asked if mom wanted anything else. She didn’t and I asked if she wanted to go to get our spot for the fireworks. That she did want to do and so we gathered up our gear and headed out. The rain had stopped and as we we were actually early, the garden area was completely clear this time as compared to last and I was able to get mom right up to the fence for a great viewing angle. There wasn’t really a place for me to sit, but I didn’t care.
We waited for a bit, making small talk with a couple who had joined us and marveling at the amount of rain we had seen this week. Eventually, it’s about time for the show to start and everyone gets settled in when mom turns to me and asks if we can go back to the hotel room.
We’re about 10-15 minutes away from showtime.
Confused, I ask what she means and says she’s cold and wants to go back to the hotel room. I warn her we won’t be able to come back but she is certain she wants to go. I examine her face, looking for signs of reluctance or uncertainty that she wants to do this, but I see nothing. So I concede. As we start to wheel out, the couple next to us is surprised. “You’re leaving??” The woman asks and I confirm that we are and wish them a great week and we head off.
I get mom back to the room and she climbs into bed. Quickly, I turn on the TV and tune it to the music for the show channel, and with good timing as I make it just as the show starts. From there we watch the fireworks from the room. While this was always a goal for the trip, watching the fireworks from the room, spending the money on a fireworks dessert party and then not enjoying said fireworks (when it wasn’t raining especially) left me a bit annoyed. I know it’s not her fault, so I’m not angry at her, but that was a lot of money I feel we just spent on desserts. …correction: MY desserts and her ice cream.
After the show, mom is now beat and I put her to bed and then decide to head back out to the Kingdom as it doesn’t close until 12AM. I get into the park and make my way to the people mover. I have never ridden it at night and I’m really looking forward to checking out what it has to offer at night. It’s actually pretty interesting seeing Tomorrowland glow at night while zipping above it.
After that, I pretty much just do some more night photography and walk around the kingdom. I grab a dole whip (or 2) and enjoy the park until the Kiss Good Night.
After the Kiss Good Night, I’m pretty beat so I make my way back to the hotel and turn in.
Easily, today would be the most trying day of the whole vacation. Not being able to get mom to her show really bugged me, and then essentially wasting the money on a dessert party left me frustrated. For all my planning and experience in being able to create contingency plans, everything just fell apart when it came to this. In hindsight, I probably could have taken a bus from MK to the TTC, but even then I’m not fully sure. I didn’t count on the monorail going down in such a grand fashion and for the buses to be so backlogged that even mom’s “wheelchairs first” privileges ended up being almost useless.
The upshot is I got to see a wonderful display of Disney Customer Service as the girl from the Poly, I felt, went really out of her way to try and make things right for us even though it wasn’t anyone’s fault. I understand that the monorail tends to go down, so I wasn’t really angry at that, I was more frustrated at the lack of viable backup options (of course, some of it being my own fault by not knowing certain things about the MK Bus lot). While I know it didn’t cost the company anything, offering up some food and suggesting we watch the show to the end, had done loads for my mood as mom was obviously disappointed and that we weren’t going to get to see the show.
Hopefully, the next day would prove to be better.
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What a frustrating day all round!
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Yeah, this day was an exception to the rule “a bad day at Disney beats a good day at home.”
Not this time. I seriously was ready to just call it and go home after this. If it wasn’t for the difficult logistics involved, I very well might have.
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Day 7 - A better day than yesterday (mostly)
Today there’s nothing on the docket as the Kingdom had an Early Morning Magic so we have no breakfast reservation. This works out perfectly too as it’s pouring rain and pushing mom through the water has pretty much lost all appeal.
Mom wakes early around 6AM and is experiencing significant confusion this morning as she keeps calling me by her exhusband’s name and is concerned with how we’re getting home. I explain, repeatedly that everything is taken care of and she doesn’t need to worry and it eventually calms her down and she drifts off back to sleep.
I shower and get ready for the morning and start some light packing as tonight is our last night here. While I’m doing so, mom wakes again and is irritable, saying we can’t afford this vacation (heh, lil’ late now to come to that realization). I again calm her, give her her morning medication, and she falls back to sleep.
It gets to be around 10AM and I finally am getting antsy and I want to do something more than sit in a hotel room all day (even though I am prepared to do so given mom’s condition and yesterdays fiascos). Mom wakes up again just in time and it seems her meds are kicking in and she’s finally more agreeable. I ask what she would like to do and she says she wants to sleep. I ask her if it’s then ok if I head out and do some stuff and she nods cheerily saying “sure!” I think the pills are working a little TOO well right now… heh.
After confirming three times, I then take my leave and head to the Contempo-Cafe to grab some breakfast at 10:40. By 11, my large mickey waffle is ready and I enjoy it over in the Outer Rim area, listening to the commotion of Chef Mickey’s a smiling at the recent memory of our two meals there. Once finished, I head up to the monorail to head to Epcot. I figure a few more offerings from the Flower and Garden Festival are in order.
Aaaaand the monorail is down again. But unlike yesterday, the cast members are little faster on the announcement and even offer anytime/anywhere fast passes to everyone waiting. And of course, some people, when given something, feel the need to keep asking for stuff. The group in front me keep asking for fast passes and the cast member, seemingly unsure what to do, ends up giving them each 3. After scoring their fast passes, the family keeps asking for more but finally the Cast Member says he can only give out a max of 3 and that he has to hand out more to the other guests. Somehow feeling “stiffed” the father angrily snaps “fine” walks off without even saying a word of thanks. Looking defeated, he looks at me and asks if I would like another Fast Pass but I smile and shake my head. “Nah man, I’m good. One was more than enough. Thank you.” I say a little loudly so the group in front of me had a definite opportunity to hear me. Upon hearing this, the cast member seemed to rebound a bit and smiled and walked on.
I leave the monorail platform and make my way to the elevator, but see the large lines waiting for it. Since I have no wheelchair to worry about, I immediately decide the stairs will be much faster and I spin around and head toward them. As I near, a little boy crests the threshold of the floor and, upon seeing the top of the fantasia’s Mickey Mouse outline, screams with all the enthusiasm a 4 year old can muster “MICKEY MOUSE!!”
You said it, kid.
I make my way down to the ferry with nothing else of note happening and board. It’s a few minutes before we launch so I take the opportunity to fill out some notes. Eventually we launch and disembark to the TTC and I’m just waiting to hear “monorail’s down” but the message, thankfully, never arrives.
As I wait at the monorail platform toward Epcot, a family next to me is discussing the monorail fail. Apparently, the train itself is stuck on the tracks and that is causing the issue. The mother of the group ponders out loud about how they’re going to get the train off the tracks.
Without thinking and only half way realizing I even did anything, I bluntly blurt out “dynamite” with a smirk. However, only the daughter heard me so she giggled. But the mother, who was wrapped up in her own question wondered what caused her daughter to suddenly laugh. When the daughter pointed at me, my eyes went wide and I had to do a quick mental rewind to make sure I said nothing offensive and then repeated what I had.
After the exchange the monorail arrives and it’s off to Epcot. Disembarking I immediately head over to World Showcase for another Peach and Honey Freeze. Yup, still delicious.
After I get that I wander around the other pavilions, eventually arriving at Japan and try the fruit sushi. Not bad, but it doesn’t blow my socks off like the Freeze did. After that I stop through various gift shops and stumble onto the mythical shirt that mom was after at one of the merch booths. I was right, it was a Minnie shirt that was the same color as the Ariel one and was showcasing the Flower and Garden Festival. I immediately grabbed her size and made the purchase.
With shirt in hand, I headed out of Epcot as it was getting near time for our Tiffins dinner over at Animal Kingdom. I make it back to the hotel without issue, taking the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom and walking back to the contemporary.
I enter the hotel room and see mom asleep. I wake her up and help her get ready to go and eventually we’re out the door and on our way to the Animal Kingdom.
We get there without issue but it’s starting to rain. As we enter the park, I ask mom if she would like to go to the Nomad Lounge until our reservation is ready. This will get us out of the rain and I really don’t have anything to do in Animal Kingdom yet as our Fast Passes don’t start until after dinner.
She agrees and so I wheel her over there and enter. After we check in with the desk for our reservation, we’re about a half hour out, we make our way over to the lounge. The place is pretty much empty so we pick out a spot and I help mom transfer out of the wheelchair and into the, very comfortable looking, lounge chair. Soon, the waiter comes around and we order a thing of churros and he vanishes off to get the order started when mom looks at me and says she’s cold.
I ask if she wants to go outside where it’s warmer and she nods so we do, after I let the waiter know that we’re moving. We pick a spot out on the deck and I find it to be perfect. It’s warm but we’re still out of the now-lightening rain.
As we sit there, I see a drink menu and I begin flipping through it. The design of the thing is awesome and fun to look at. I eventually come up on some sort of guava-infused drink that had a glowing flower, the Happy Macaque. Thinking that’d be a neat little keepsake, I ordered two of those once the churros came out.
We tried the churros and it was not bad, but they were churros, not a whole lot of new ground can be made here. Conversely, the Chili-Strawberry dressing was great, and I was practically licking the little bowl by the time it was done. Soon our drinks came out and they were sans the glowing flower. Confused, I asked why they were missing and it was apparently because these were not the alcoholic versions of the beverages, but the waiter offered to get one if we wanted. I nodded enthusiastically that we did and he said sure thing.
As soon as he departed, our buzzer that our table was ready went off and I gathered mom up and we headed inside. After stopping by the bar to let them know we’re being seated, we headed into the dining room.
We’re seated and the waitress comes up and greets us. “Hi!” She says, cheerily “So it looks like you’ve been here before?”
This catches me completely off guard so I blurt out “apparently!” Which, for those of you playing at home, is not the proper response to that question. I feel it came off a little jerk-ish and I didn’t have a chance to recover before she launched into her presentation of the menu and the restaurant.
Resigning that I am just going to look like an idiot today, I mention we’re doing the Rivers of Light dining package and the waitress nods that she already knew that. She points out that nothing on the menu is out of bounds and leaves us to make our selections. Meanwhile, the server from the nomad lounge appears with our glowing lotuses (which I would later find out that they charged us 3.99 a piece for).
I ended up going with the charred octopus, roast duck, and the chocolate ganache. Mom opted for a salad, the Wagyu Beef, and the chocolate ganache. Everything, as expected was delicious, and I cleared each plate with gusto. Unfortunately, mom wasn’t hungry at all, so she ate absolutely none of her dinner except for a few bites of the potatoes that came with the beef.
We had them box up the main course and headed out to Animal Kingdom to walk around. We walked through pandora and wandered through the various other nations as the rain started again. Soon, it was time for our Kilimanjaro Safari ride and we got in line.
We got to near the end of the line when we were directed to go through a side entrance that was designated just for those in a wheelchair. We wait there for a few minutes and eventually are instructed to roll mom onto the truck and they clamp her chair down with ties. Eventually, we are off and the rain picks up even more.
Thanks to the rain, the animals are awake and moving around. The giraffes are in the midst of being fed, so they’re very active as they clamor around the gate for food. The elephants happily trounce through the rain and the young ones splash in puddles.
The ride comes to end and mom can’t wait to get off. She likes the animals, but the hard ride of the truck leaves her disenchanted all together. The rain had let up toward the end of the ride but was picking up again even harder than before, so I spot a closed vending kiosk that still had its umbrella up and wheel mom under it and we wait it out.
As the rain pours down, mom declares she wants to go back to the hotel. I explain to her that our time to line up for Rivers of Light is nearly here, we just need to hang out for a bit but she doesn’t care, she doesn’t want to be in the park anymore.
Normally, I would have agreed and began making our way toward the bus, but at this point, I’m rather annoyed. She didn’t eat anything at dinner (which was considerably expensive), if we leave this will now mark the fifth show we will have missed, and this will also be the 2nd time we would have missed this show this week. Now, I realize all this is very petty, but I had had enough of caving to cancer and after yesterday of just being a complete disaster I need SOMETHING to go as planned… so on this request, I refused.
Mom was initially angry, “I want to go!” She snarled, a temper tantrum developing quickly due to the way the disease (and cure) affects her, and started to try to wheel her way out on her own. I stopped her and wheeled her back under the umbrella. (Like how was she expecting to get all the way to the hotel without me?)
I kneeled down to be at eye level. “Look," I said calmly, but firmly, "we just spent a lot of money on this, you didn’t even eat, and I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. If we leave now, we won’t be able to see it. I’m asking you to just hang in there for a little while longer and then we’ll leave as soon as it’s done.” I said the last part as compassionately as I could, but I’m sure it came off cold.
But apparently what I had said landed somewhat and she just got quiet, pouting. Which was good enough for me. So we waited for the rain to stop and then I wheeled her over to the tree of life as we still had some time before we needed to be heading over to the theater where Rivers of Light takes place.
At the front of the tree, we take a few photos and mom seems to have forgotten about the argument a few minutes ago. Fine by me! We walk around a little bit more and visit the gift shop to burn up the rest of the time and head over to Rivers of Light.
Once we’re there, they offer us two options of seating, either top of the stands or at the bottom (front row). Wanting to give mom the best view possible to show her this was worth the wait, I opted for the bottom thinking “front row is best row” and wheeled her down the path to the seating.
We sat for a bit as we waited for the show to start and eventually it starts with the … “priests”(?) making their way through the stands doing their dance. The show starts and then stops about 5 minutes in as one of the floats fails out on the water. It takes about 20 minutes, but eventually the show restarts and it goes through without a hitch, just minus one cat-themed float.
Overall, I found the show to pretty amazing. Technologically speaking, it was great to see “holograms” being employed in such a fashion. I did feel that some of the videos they used seemed oddly low resolution compared to some others they used, but overall very impressive.
However, I’m not sure the front row might have been the best seating. The lights from the holograms beamed right into my eyes at times and it was hard to see the whole show as often 1 float took up a lot of what we could view. If offered again, I’m not sure if I would want to sit in the front row again when the back row might be a far better viewing experience.
With the show over, we waited a few minutes for the crowds to clear out so I didn’t have to fight through the mass exodus. While we waited, I asked mom how she liked the show. She shrugged apathetically and said it was ok.
Looks like it wasn’t worth the wait after all. With that, I resigned to keep my end of the bargain and we started making our way out of the park. We get in front of the tree of life and I stop to let a show happen, but mom is still more interested in leaving and asks why we’re stopping.
I try to point out the projections on the tree, but mom didn’t seem all that interested, so I figured it was a lost cause and continued on our way.
Soon we were on the bus and back at the hotel room. Soon as we get in the room, mom climbs into bed and I sort out the charging of her equipment.
Once she’s settled in bed, I go take a seat out on the balcony. The rain has once again passed on and the moon is now high in the sky and creating a dramatic look over the Kingdom.
I take a few photos, trying to capture the scene, but the moon is really far from the castle so the attempts prove a little unsuccessful. Realizing this is kinda just me spinning my wheels, I decide to head down to the fantasia market and grab an ice cream. But first, I head into the BVG and grab myself a delicious looking cookies and cream cupcake. Which, of course I totally forget to take a photo of.
Taking both ice cream and cupcake back up to the room, and again sit on the balcony to eat the prizes when it suddenly dawns on me that I am nowhere near hungry enough to eat both (I could try, but I feel I would get sick), so I store the cupcake into the fridge next to mom’s dinner, feeling a bit bad about how the night played out.
Mom is out like a light now, and the rest of Disney World is pretty much shut down now, so once my ice cream was done, I climb into bed myself and fall asleep.
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I have an elderly mother with some health issues and I can commiserate with some of your experiences. I’m impressed at the effort you put into this - I can barely get mom to and from the grocery store without her needing a nap and me needing a stiff drink afterwards!
I can very much empathize with you putting in all this effort and getting an apathetic “eh, it was OK” response or only a few word answers. It sucks when you want to bring them joy and you don’t feel like you pulled it off.
Regardless of what she thought of RoL or any other experience of the trip, she has to know how much you care, and that’s a priceless gift at this stage in her life. Keep fighting the good fight; it’s a thankless job, but worth it!
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