Solo-on-a-Scooter AbD DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/7/2012) - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Solo-on-a-Scooter AbD DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/7/2012)
Solo-on-a-Scooter AbD DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/7/2012)
This trip, which involves a week in California, 3 days in Seattle, followed by a week-long Alaska cruise, will be posted in two forums: Disneyland Trip Report Forum and Disney Cruise Line Trip Report Forum. This portion, which is a mini-pre-trip-report, will be in both places.
I’m very excited about this trip, but didn’t start out that way…. This was supposed to be my once-in-a-lifetime trip to South Africa with Adventures by Disney! I had been told on several phone calls to AbD that my scooter would be no problem on this trip and thought I was all set. I was on cloud nine with excitement and anticipation. Then, when my TA Marisa went to make the final booking, it was denied. They said not only was the trip NOT accessible, but that very few of their trips were. The reasons they gave were vague and I figured that some guest(s) had had issues and legal forced them to stop offering accessible trips. I’ve since found out that the reason is that one part of the trip involves a flight on a small plane with a per-person weight allowance of 40lbs. Since my scooter is 35 lbs, that would put me over the limit. Still disappointing, but least I have a reason. I’m not surprised that many of their trips can’t accommodate mobility devices—the world is not Disney World and can’t be retro-fitted, but I do wish more of the trips were available to me. Marisa worked VERY hard to try to find a trip that would be spectacular enough to take the place of this dream trip and we ended up with the AbD “Backstage Magic” trip which involves tours of Disney Studio, Imagineering, Muppet Studio and backstage tours of Disneyland and California Adventure. Sharon (PrincessSharon) did a trip report a few years ago of this trip and it sounded AMAZING! Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I’m flying to Seattle for the 7-night Alaska Cruise on the Wonder! Thank you, Marisa, for all your work on this! It’ll be a challenging trip to pack for, that’s for sure. Since I’ll be doing my usual solo traveling I wanted to go the luxury route, with all transfers and baggage-handling done by others! By doing the combo of AbD and DCL, this will work just great!
So, the bare outline of the trip is:
7/21/2012 fly from Boston to LA.
7/22-27 Backstage Magic, Adventures by Disney
7/27 night-time flight to Seattle
7/27-7/30 explore Seattle
7/30-8/6. DCL Alaska on the Wonder
8/6 fly from Seattle to Boston
I have plans to meet up with Jeannie (Dlandmom2) and her kids in Hollywood and, I hope, will also see Sharon and Karen (Zacksmom) at DLR at some point. As Sharon has mentioned in her AbD trip reports, one of the “problems” with AbD is that you don’t get a whole lot of details about each day’s itinerary, which makes it kind of hard to plan meetings. I know there’s a lot of free time built into this tour, though, so have no doubt that we’ll figure something out. I’m hoping to do live reports, at least for the California and Seattle days, but internet access is so slow and expensive on the Wonder, I may have to write the days up live but post them when I return.
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Sometimes real-life rudely affects pre-trip excitement and planning and that hit me big-time this year. On June 5 my mother had to be placed into a nursing home. Her mental decline happened so rapidly. It’s hard to believe that 3 weeks ago she was living on her own and now she’s in a locked facility, sometimes not knowing what decade it is or who I am. This procedure, along with closing up her apartment, has completely taken over my life. Since even when she recognizes me her short-term memory is pretty much gone, she never remembers who has visited her even a few hours before. This makes it easier, in a way, because whether I visit or not she won’t remember, but I still feel I need to check in several times a week. I’m cutting back, though, and have people to take over for me during my trip. The big problem is the mind-shift involved to tell myself it’s ok to relax and enjoy myself.
Today the trip has forced itself back to my notice—Cruise Documents and luggage tags have arrived!! I’ve really not planned out what to pack or anything yet, although I have filled out the on-line registration. I still don’t have the Adventures by Disney luggage tags and packet yet, but I imagine it won’t be long now. So, somehow, probably without much help from me, I’ll get myself to the airport in 28 days with a full suitcase!
(Again, until I get to LA, this report will appear both in the Cruise TR forum and the DLR TR forum)
I am so sorry about your mom...I work on two secured memory care units and I see how difficult it can be on the families....so I am sending a few extra hugs! . It definitely more than okay to relax and enjoy yourself and I am sure that is what your mom would want, too.
Congrats on the Disney Mail...that is always a nice package to find in the mailbox!
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
I am so sorry about your mom...I work on two secured memory care units and I see how difficult it can be on the families....so I am sending a few extra hugs! . It definitely more than okay to relax and enjoy yourself and I am sure that is what your mom would want, too.
Congrats on the Disney Mail...that is always a nice package to find in the mailbox!
danielle
Thank you, Danielle, for the hugs and for the work you do! My mother is in amazingly good physical health for 84, so it's likely to be a long relationship I have with the nursing home and caregivers. It does seem to be a very nice, caring one.
Oh Laurie, I'm so sorry to hear your mom is going through this change in her life, and it also affecting you. Please know you are both in my thoughts. Sending you extra hugs.
Relax and enjoy your well-deserved getaway. Congrats on the cruise mail, which always helps to brighten things up a bit.
Can't wait to hear all about your adventures Laurie!
I'm sorry about your mom, but like others have said it's ok to relax and have fun while on vacation. for packing!
6/25/2012
My AbD pre-trip packet arrived and, boy, do they know how to ramp up the enthusiasm! If you’re thinking of doing an AbD trip and don’t want a sneak peak at the surprises, you probably should stop reading now because I think there are many spoilers ahead from this point on. They do vary the trips, though, so it’s possible that even if you’re doing the Backstage Magic your trip surprises will be different from mine.
Here’s what the outside box looked like:
And when you open the top:
And what’s inside:
1. Very nice, small backpack. (Now I have to decide if I should use this as my flight carry-on instead of my new Vera Bradley backpack!)
2. Pre-Departure Handbook and checklist. (tips for packing, more daily itinerary details, phone numbers to leave with folks at home, details of meals, gratuities, laundry, accommodations, weather, etc)
3. luggage tags and how to use them.
Presented beautifully. So, now I have my AbD documents AND my cruise documents. YIKES! I really need to give packing some thought!
Laurie - you are going to LOVE the ABD! I did Backstage Magic last August and was blown away. I actually know some people on the same adventure so I know you will have a good group! It sounds like a much deserved trip.
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. It definitely more than okay to relax and enjoy yourself and I am sure that is what your mom would want, too.
for packing!
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
It sounds like a much deserved trip.
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