The Sunshine Family (and Little Dude) Does Disney Again! - PTR - Sept 2011 UPDATED 7/25 About This Page:

[Sunshine Family]

Trying to do a semi-final write up so that I can post this on the boards. Seems like just when I have things kinda set for plans, something comes up and kicks everything around. Some have been good things: we’re arriving a day earlier than I had previously planned!! Some have been mixed blessings: Fantasmic is now every night, but does that mean DHS is going to be super crowded the entire trip? Some are sad (but with good results): Stitch had a horrible asthma attack Labor Day weekend and it helped to really show her that she is not going to be able to do Disney without a wheelchair or ECV.

So, who is this cast of motley characters?
- Me! Tink. The planner, the organizer. The person who is much wiser this trip than last
- DB, the husband.
- Stitch (aka KCSunshine, you may have seen her on the boards.)
- Little Dude, the too adorable service dog.
(you can see longer intros in my trip report that I wrote up from our Sept 2010 trip; link to the report is in my signature.)


From left to right: Little Dude, Tink, Stitch and DB

How and when are we doing this trip?
Well now, that would be trampling on my other attempts to write up this trip So please read below from what I wrote back in early May with a few updates to keep it current.

[Sunshine Family]

I mention in my trip report, we made a pact to go back to the World in Jan 2012. We came back from Disney to DB’s last week of work and an empty promise of a job. He spent 6+ months looking and it was very stressful. Stitch was working on finishing up her master’s while working part-time. And I was carrying the weight of the entire household on my back - I had the steady (and full-time) paycheck. I had the medical benefits for DB and I. It was very stressful.

And to make it all the more interesting, less than a month after coming back, I was on a new project working on something that I had never done before, with a completely new team and it was based out of the city. So I spent four+ months commuting to NYC 3 to 5 days a week while management scrambled to find a replacement for me - I wasn’t supposed to be running the project, but the person had gotten a new job and someone needed to do the work. I volunteered to help fill in the gap, not expecting it to take so long to find someone qualified. Eventually we did, and I was back at my normal work location and projects around the end of February.

But the stress had gotten to me - I told DB that the second he took a job, any job, I was booking a trip to Disney, damn it! I had just had it. We had been saving for Disney while this was all going on too, if you can believe it! As we cut things out, like cable, long-distances, etc, we took the difference in the money paid out and put it in a separate account. It was there in case we needed it for other bills, but we tried to keep that money untouched. It was the Disney money, funded solely with what we were sacrificing. Some cut backs were easy; don’t miss long distance with cell phone plans. Some were hard; I miss watching “It’s Me or the Dog.” Others were a snap - new generic versions of my medications!!

And then that magical call came - a job offer!!!! At slightly above the rate DB was earning previously. Also came with a slightly longer commute, but it was a job!!! *do the happy job dance here* And he likes the job and the people he is working with. It’s turning out to be a great match. Ok, we do miss the paid time-off, that’s a huge con. But it’s a job!

And true to my word, as soon as the paperwork was signed, I was on the Disney site, scoping out when to go back.

The original agreement was January 2012, thinking that would give us enough time for DB to get a job, pay down the debt I had expected from the unemployment and save up for Disney. But we were in much better shape than I was expecting and he found a job quicker than the money was going to run out (Yay unions, yay severance packages!!) In doing my research, I also found that it can be very cold in January, too cold for the pools. And some major rides can be closed.

So, that got me thinking about going down this year. If you’ve been following along since the very beginning, or if you’ve seen my post in the Special Needs forum, you know that there is a certain date in Sept that has a lot of baggage with it. Not just for Stitch, although the effects of that day are worst for her than us, but bad for all of us. (do me and Stitch a favor - don’t mention this in any replies to this trip report. I bring it up for information only and do not want to discuss it. If I see posts with talk of that day, I’ll have to abandon the thread - I can’t risk the nightmares.)

This year is the double digit anniversary and with that additional hype, it will be best for us to just run away for a magical holiday. And as a bonus, there is a pin trading convention the same weekend at Epcot If you remember from trip report, Stitch and I got completely hooked on our last full day at Disney. Completely and totally hooked!!

[toddjodybrent]

Have a much deserved magical trip!

Can't wait to read more!

[JKnott17]

Great start! I'm glad you were able to push up your trip, can't wait to read all about it.

[KCSunshine]

Are we there yet?!?

[Sunshine Family]

The plans so far:

Stitch and I fly down on Monday Sept. 5th and squeeze in as much pin trading as possible before DB comes down the afternoon of Friday Sept 9th. Since he’s now a contract employee, there are no paid vacations or days off. Also, he just took two days in June for our yearly camping vacation, so we don’t want to push it. And then we all fly back on Wed Sept 14th. So for Stitch and me, that will be NINE WHOLE DAYS at Disney Nine days!

We are staying at Port Orleans - French Quarters, which just finished their heavy renovations, so all the beds are now queen-sized. We picked POFQ with lots of help from people on this board. One of the biggest reasons was the compact layout. At the time that I booked the room, Stitch and I were discussing/arguing about the need for a wheelchair (I wanted her to have one, she felt she would be fine without it.) POFQ is the smallest of the moderate resorts. And its sister resort of Port Orleans - Riverside has the shadiest fun pool. As you can tell from the pictures, I’m pretty fair skinned. Bonus: Open Mouse rated this their highest moderate resort for those with mobility issues, that factored in too!

Another reason why we are staying here is that this is a test. I’ve been debating about DVC for a couple of years, wondering if it made sense. Somewhere on this board, a person was kind enough to lay it all out in terms of return on your money: If you stay at deluxe resorts, you will start saving money using DVC in about 5-6 years. If you stay at moderates, 7-10 years. And values can’t really compare. And this information was on price alone, no dining plans or packages or anything like that and assuming one week trip per year.

So, can we stay and enjoy ourselves just as much at a moderate as we did at a deluxe? I’m sure we can. Will we have the same level of care to our special needs? I don’t know. I do know that the concierge at the Boardwalk Villas was *fabulous* for our last trip, helping us every single day we were there with one thing or another. What will the treatment be like at a moderate? Do they have the staff to keep the same level of attention? Will we be ok being “so far away” from the parks? Although, as a bonus, we are right across the street from the pet kennels for our trip to Animal Kingdom! (As a comparison, in all my other traveling, I can’t remember using the concierge half as much as we did for that trip - traveling with special needs really does interesting things to your plans, ADRs, health, etc.)

I have never stayed at a Moderate. When I went to Disney as a kid, other than the first trip when we stayed in a cabin at Fort Wilderness, we always stayed off site. So I have nothing to compare our experiences to. Hopefully after this trip, we’ll be able to decide if we want to do DVC. Of course, the money situation has to keep brightening for this to work, but I believe that this trip will be very valuable for us.

[Sunshine Family]

Originally Posted by KCSunshine

Are we there yet?!?

Not according to our tickers!!! I love that you have two in your sig. I got one in my sig. I got the count down on my iPhone and I think you do as well. Hmm, did anyone write it up on the calendar in the kitchen yet though???

[KCSunshine]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Family

And its sister resort of Port Orleans - Riverside has the shadiest fun pool.

Yay for shady pools where I won't burn really bad in 15 minutes like I tend to do.

[Sunshine Family]

Originally Posted by toddjodybrent

Have a much deserved magical trip!

Can't wait to read more!

Thank you!!!! While our last trip was great, there were definite not so magical moments. So I am hoping that this trip will be extra magical now that we have a better idea of what we're doing (traveling with special needs always makes things interesting.)

Originally Posted by JKnott17

Great start! I'm glad you were able to push up your trip, can't wait to read all about it.

I can't believe I was able to either!!!! OMG, my Mother (gently) freaked out on me about it though. "Are you sure you can afford it? I mean, DB has been unemployed for 6 months? You're not putting this on your credit card are you?" Which for her is a super huge big deal. My Mom grew up in a family of 5, with only Grandpa working as a Vo-Tech teacher with no college degree. So my Mom (and everyone on that side of the family) knows how to stretch a dollar. For her to be asked such questions really spoke to how shocked she was that we moved our trip up so many months.

As do I, I was careful with the steps we took after he lost his job and put the money in a different place "just in case." We also lucked out with one of the medications that both DB and I are on is now generic as that alone is $40 a month saved right there. And we're not staying deluxe, and we have free dinning and I booked our airfare very early to lock in a great rate and my in-laws are watching my dog, Molly, so we don't have to pay to board her. All these little things are helping to make it an affordable trip. By the time we have to send in the final payment in July, we will have enough in the "special savings" account to cover the whole trip, except incidentals. And by the time we leave, there will be enough money in that account to do those little things.

And again, thank you union!! The severance was a huge help, and we really stretched every penny we got.

[Sunshine Family]

The day-by-day plan, long format

Monday September 5 -
Up before the sun to catch one of the first flights out. DB will be a dear and drive us to the airport. We’ll land around 10:30am, probably getting to the hotel between 12 and 2pm, using DME (which will also be new for us.) There is *no way* we are going to a park this day, as it’s Labor Day and everything I’ve read states that the parks will be packed. I doubt our rooms will be ready though. Stitch’s ECV should be there when we arrive at the hotel, so I figure she’ll need an hour or so to practice driving it. The main goal is to hit up the Character Outlet up on Vineland Ave and buy some pins for trading. Maybe afterwards we’ll enjoy the pool, maybe go to Downtown Disney. And early to bed. I’m hoping to keep this day low-key.

Tuesday -
Don’t have to get up before the sun, but close I have breakfast reservations at ‘Ohana so Stitch can meet up with Stitch! And Lilo. I’m figuring that since Epcot is open early that day, we can catch a bus from POFQ to Epcot, then a monorail to TTC, and then the monorail to the Polynesian for breakfast. Originally I was thinking we’d keep this day low key as well, and doing some resort hopping and pin trading. But the call of the Magic Kingdom is strong, young one!

So it’s off to MK, where we’ll do all the rides that we can with a service dog (so no roller coasters, Peter Pan’s Flight or Tea Cups.) On the list is.. well.. everything else!! Looking at what I’ve written down, the only definite no are: Stitch’s Great Escape (I do not like this one); Swiss Family (too much climbing in that weather); Buzz Lightyear’s Ranger spin (boring!); and Hall of Presidents (images from *that* day). If we’re really crazy (and feel up to do) we’ll stay for Wishes that night! We’ll see how we’re doing. Oh and ear hats!!! Stitch has to get a new ear hat as the custom one from last year has the patch “1st Visit” which isn’t true anymore. So a new hat for her

Wednesday -
Try #2 for Animal Kingdom. We’ll board Little Dude early am for the play group, which is across the street from the French Quarters. I’m planning on walking him over and dropping him off. Then to the Tusker House for a character breakfast with Donald Duck and friends. Based upon information from Cinder Abby, we’re going to hit up EE first, and then the Safari. If we get to AK with enough time before our reservations, we’ll do that even before breakfast. And then we’ll do the safari. Currently, I’m planning on leaving the part between noon and 2pm, making this park a strict half day. Anything that we want to come back and do will have to go on the list of “things to do next time.”

I’ve seen it mentioned multiple times that this is a hotter park than the rest because of the lack of A/C; that doesn’t mix well with Stitch being an asthmatic. Granted, she’ll have the ECV, but I have a feeling it’s still going to be hard on her lungs. And no Little Dude to comfort her. I’m thinking we’ll end up back at the hotel mid-afternoon for a dip in the pool. And then go pick up Little Dude Much easier to do the pool without him. He hates water and gets so upset when we’re in the pool that he whines. What a cutie Maybe we’ll do another park in the late afternoon, evening. I did get park hopper for a reason! There is always Wishes and Illuminations!

Thursday -
With Fantasmic! now showing every night, this day has totally changed. No more DHS for this day. Instead, we are having breakfast at 1900 with Alice, the Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins. So it’s a coin toss between Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Or the pool. (noticing the pool pattern here? That is Stitch’s big thing to do this trip.) Or DTD. Or we could do resort hopping and pin trading. While having Fantasmic every night means that the crowd calculations at touringplans.com show that every day is a bad day at DHS, it does open up a lot of flexibility for us. This is a good time to take a slow day as well. I know us, we’re going to be all out at Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, combined with the new park on Wednesday, this is really starting to sound like a perfect day to check out *all* the pools at Port Orleans. Some one needs to do a report on which one is the best!

[Sunshine Family]

Friday -
Last day for pin trading without DB!! Right now, the plan is to go to DHS and do the shows. DB will meet us in the parks around 4-5pm. Then we can either get in line for Tower of Terror and Rocking Roller Coaster (and have DB hold Little Dude) or we can decide if we want to do Fantasmic! Since Stitch will be in an ECV, we don’t need to do the dinning plan to get a place to sit. Which I appreciate as I’m not a huge fan of the TS places at MHS. Whatever we do, it won’t be Epcot!

Saturday -
Breakfast at Cape May with Goofy, Minnie and Donald. We had a great time here last year and it was fun meeting DB’s long lost brother (aka Goofy). And DB’s request was for more sit down breakfasts. I like breakfast, but a bowl of cereal will do me fine. He wants eggs, bacon, the works So to breakfast we shall go! As for which park - it’s a toss between Magic Kingdom or Epcot. We’ll see how things play out. Probably MK as Stitch and I still need to ride all those roller coasters. And the Tea Cups! Can’t forget the Tea Cups. Still need to figure out the best way to get to Beach Club from POFQ.

Sunday -
Le Cellier for lunch (YUM!) and then Epcot public pin trading between 2pm and 5pm. Dinner will be at Cape May Cafe - unlimited snow crab legs. YUM!. And if I did this right, we should be able to walk from the end of dinner back into Epcot and catch Illuminations. (Yes, DB is aware of the public trading this day and that we want to go. He’s ok with it, so long as all the other time that we’re all together we don’t spend massive amounts of time trading.) The goal is to make this day so busy, on purpose, that our heads spin and we don’t realize anything in the outside world (like the date.)

Monday -
Open day. We may do DHS if we haven’t been on Star Tours yet or want to ride Tower of Terror again. Or Epcot. This is basically our last free day as tomorrow (Tuesday) is already rather planned out. So this will be chance to catch up on anything that we wanted to squeeze in (or the day to start writing up another “next time we must!” list.)

Tuesday -
It’s all about the Kingdom, baby! We have tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween, but right before that for an early dinner, we have reservations for Cinderella’s Royal Table. I’ve never done this before and I’m really looking forward to it. And last year’s Halloween was just beyond awesome, so I’m expecting that this year it will be just as good.

Wednesday September 14 -
Early flight home. Because we had to wait for DB’s work approval on his trip, I booked our tickets separately. DB will leave an hour before Stitch and me, but that shouldn’t be a big issue, just an annoying one. Then pick up my dog from the in-laws (my dog is not a service dog, so she stays home), do some laundry and get ready for work in the morning. Oh and start planning on our next trip.

[Nimros]

Just getting caught up - sounds like great plans so far.

Please do me a favor and call Best Friends and see what they recommend for you walking Little Dude over there! (I think they should provide a shuttle service; that would be a great idea!)

[Sunshine Family]

Originally Posted by Nimros

Please do me a favor and call Best Friends and see what they recommend for you walking Little Dude over there! (I think they should provide a shuttle service; that would be a great idea!)

Yeah, I saw your comment in your trip report that the road is rather busy. It's on the list to call tomorrow (as well as book him for the day.) If they don't have something, then I'll call Disney and ask them what we're supposed to do. They're the ones pushing folks to be car-free and then moved the kennels out of the parks. I hope that one of them will have a solution.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Jenny Pot Pie]

Our vacations will overlap!
Me and my family will be in the bubble Sept 3-10 - but from the looks of your plans, we will be in different parks each day.
Happy planning!

[PamelaK]

Sounds like it is going to be an AWESOME trip. Since you learned a few lessons from your last trip, this one should go MUCH smoother. Can't wait to hear about it.