Stitch, Spooks, and Smiles: Updated 12/13!
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statelady01 · 11-11-2005, 10:33 PM

Stitch, Spooks and Smiles : A First Whole Family Trip!

Cast of Characters:

Maureen, age 32
Kevan, DH, age 36
Kevin, DS, 10
Katie, DD, 9
Matthew, DS, 6
Emily, DD, 4
Beverly, MIL, 59
Aaron, MIL’s DS, 12

Background/Pre Trip:

I began hitting DH and DMIL for this trip around Christmas last year. Beverly and I had made a great trip with the boys to Disney in March 2003 and they were dropping the occasional hints about going back. This time DH and I agreed it was time for the whole family to go and even though we embraced this idea, it was a little daunting, in that it would be the first time we would be traveling with Katie any real distance. For those of you who don’t know, Katie has autism. She has pretty limited communication skills and faces the challenges that many autistic kids do- having a hard time with change, places with many people and not having structure. We were pretty certain that Walt Disney World would having us face these challenges on all fronts- but given that she knew each character by name, liked watching Disney videos and the like- we were cautiously optimistic. Our oldest Kevin, has Asperger’s Syndrome, however, he had been to WDW once already and I felt he was very well prepared. Matthew was anxiously dropping quarters in our coin jar knowing they would add up to a continuous flow of Mickey Bars and Emily, our youngest, prepared for her first trip by listening to both the EPCOT Illuminations and Happiest Celebration on Earth CD’s at great length.

Per the boys request, we checked into the Contemporary for our stay but as it was October, I had anticipated it would be booked full – and that proved to be the case. DH Kevan and I consider the Polynesian our happy place so there was no love lost on my part when we decided on a garden view there. The boys were a bit disappointed but I showed them pictures of the arcade at the Polynesian, as well as the volcano pool- let’s just say, that cushioned some dashed hopes quite nicely. Next came our airfare, and as usual in our area, I jumped on it when it dropped just a bit below $300 per person on American. Made our final payment right on time and stashed some savings away every chance we could get.

About 3 weeks before we left, a box arrived from Downingtown PA and we knew that Lynn had sent some Disney magic our way. I was feeling a bit down in the dumps because around that time, Katie had begun to show a lot of resistance to going to WDW and being on a plane! It really had me worried- what kind of reaction would she have when we have to board that plane for MCO?? Anyhow, the box contained lots of goodies for our trip and it really lifted my spirits and got me excited. We would just do the best we could with Katie and hope for the best.