Rides, Rainclouds and mishaps....Disney Style About This Page:

[CinderAbby]

Glad you got the glasses back Sorry about the auto train being cancelled What a nightmare!! More please

Thanks Marnie. And it really wasn't the nightmare that it sounded like - at least not to me it wasn't. Maybe because I was still in Disney and not in the "real world'. Or mabye because it wasn't a complete surprise - we thought about the possibility, but only briefly.

Getting caught up...
I am so glad that you got your glasses back. And your last day was wonderful - Clarabelle and Horace were a real coup! Bummer about the Auto Train, though. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks. It was a good day and a yes, shame about the train but part of me wasn't surprised. We knew Fay was coming but we really thought the train would have plenty of time to get loaded and leave before the storm hit.

Glad you got your glasses back and how cute that Abby got to be a guest skipper on the Jungle Cruise, I will have to remember that for when we go. I am so sorry that your trip home got completely changed though due to Fay. You really have such wonderful attitude about things though.

I forgot to say that I'm glad you enjoyed your dinner at 1900 Park Faire, it's one of our favorite places and also what a great photo of Abby with the step-sister!!

Thanks, I was happy to have them back. I would never have known about the guest skipper if is wasn't for those other kids, so I wanted to pass it on to others. Abby had fun with it, why shouldn't others have the same opportunity. As for the trip home, what can you do? Rant and rave and get upset?? It wouldn't have gotten me anywhere. Besides, we were still at Disney in the Magic Kingdom. Not much really seems that bad when you're there. Plus too, part of me wasn't surprised about the cancellation.

The 1900 PF dinner after this year's experience will definitely be a meal to be considered for the next trip, whenever that might happen.

What a wonderful last day (except for the train issue). I am really impressed with how much you do in Fantasyland without going insane! I don't think there's anyway I could convince DH to go on IASW that many times in one trip. Usually two times on each ride, each trip, is his limit. It sounds like you had a great trip. I'm curious about the ride home though. More soon please!

Thank you. I think the reason why I can do the rides so many times is because 1 - I don't have any other kids getting tired of the rides and 2 - most times, I was watching and listening to Abby. If you don't know, Abby's Autistic and she was termed as having Echolalia at 3 1/2. She could talk, but when she talked (which was rarely) what she said was mostly repeating what she heard (from us, from tv programs, the instructions from computer games that automatically got repeated each time she started the game, things like that.) She could never answer questions - she would just repeat the question word for word. Every once in a while (when she's tired or truly doesn't understand something) she'll revert back to the Echolalia, but she's just come so far that I enjoy hearing what she says. Even in just the last 2 years, the growth in just her speech, her conversations and her imagination is just so phenomenal that when she goes on rides like those in Fantasyland, she has her own running commentary. It's finally all her own thoughts and comments, not anything she's heard on tv or a story memorized from a book so I enjoy hearing it. To see things through her eyes and to hear what she has to say about things - that, to me, is truly magical and worth every repeat ride on Peter Pan or Small World, no matter how many times we do them. Each ride is always different with her and brings a smile to my face (and occasionally tears to my eyes.)

[CinderAbby]

Tuesday the 19th

The alarm went off at 6:30 and neither Lenny nor myself wanted to get out of bed. Because I knew Lenny would do the bulk, if not all, of the driving I got out of bed but let him sleep a little longer. I got dressed and headed to the food court. It was cloudy but dry. I got Lenny his coffee then headed back to the room. Lenny was up but we were moving slow so there was no way we were going to be out by 7. While Abby slept Lenny and I just cleaned up everything that was left and got it moved to the truck. With only a few things left to go, I headed to the food court again. Lenny had thought to bring umbrellas to the room, which was a good thing as it was raining this time. We had a bunch of snack credits left and I wanted to use them up so I bought pastries and chocolate milk - things that would travel with us. I noticed the cashier had brown bags with handles so I asked if I could have one of those instead of trying to carry the tray one handed. With my bag in one hand and my umbrella in the other, I went back to the room where Lenny took the milks from me so he could finish packing up the coolers. While he did that, I munched on one of the pastries (a chocolate croissant, yummy) and called mom. She was concerned for us and I just wanted to let her know we hadn’t left yet but we would be soon. When I finished talking with mom, I went and woke up Abby.

With Abby awake and everything in the van, Lenny stopped for a couple of minutes to have a pastry. I did a quick once over of both rooms, found they were empty and closed and locked Abby’s connecting door. Back in our room, Lenny closed and locked our connecting door. We shut off the lights, gathered what was left and headed to the truck. It was now 8 AM and the rain had stopped again.

Having not planned for the train to cancel, I had no maps nor any mileage to help guide our way but we got on Osceola Parkway. We were going to stay on here until I-4, then head to I-95. There was no sense, in our minds, to follow 417 back to Sanford since there was not going to be a train, so I thought. Once we got on I-4, Lenny and I were trying to figure out what to do about Amtrak. Mom had told me the night before our train had been cancelled and that we could get a 100% refund on our passage. The only problem with that? I had actual paper tickets in my hand and until Amtrak got them back, I wouldn’t get my refund. I had called 1-800-USA-RAIL and they told me my only options were to turn in the tickets at a station or send them certified mail. I didn’t want to use the post office - the tickets were worth almost $550 and I couldn’t afford for them to get lost. So the agent I talked to gave me the direct phone numbers for the Sanford and Lorton stations so I could call and get their operating hours. Lenny told me to call the Sanford station just to see if anyone would answer. I truthfully didn’t expect anyone to be there. When mom told me our train was cancelled, for some reason I thought the south bound train scheduled to arrive on the 19th had also been cancelled, but that didn’t happen. When the phone call connected, I learned that the train was still scheduled to arrive at 9:30 AM and that only ours was not running. I told this to Lenny and he said since we knew the station was open, we would stop and turn in our tickets. It was easy enough to get to from I-4. I had looked at enough maps online before we left that once we saw the sign for the Auto Train, I knew where to go.

There didn’t seem to be much traffic on I-4, especially around Orlando, so we had made good time, arriving at the station around 9. I went in and in no time had the refund on our tickets. After a quick trip to the bathrooms, we were once again on our way and back on 1-4. The weather was cloudy and it sprinkled a couple of times, but we knew we were ahead of the impending hurricane. I called mom again and told her we were on our way and that I had gotten our money back for the tickets. Glad to hear both those things, mom told me to call her at home when she took lunch. Since this wasn’t an out of the ordinary request, I thought nothing of it. After a little while, it started to pour, but we just plugged along. I took some pictures of the clouds as we were driving.

The difference in the colors just made us glad we were heading north to home instead of south for vacation. We made really good time since the speed limit down South is 70 and by the time I called mom again, I think we were crossing into Georgia. I’m not positve as I didn’t take good notes coming home. Besides, mom was about to drop a bombshell on me that pretty much left me in a daze the rest of the afternoon.

Lenny was driving (and had been all morning) and Abby was happy in the back seat watching something on the tv.

It was mom’s lunchtime, so I called her. She asked where we were and what the weather was like. We chatted for a couple of minutes, then mom said, "I gotta talk to you about something. " I always hate when I hear those words. Usually, it means I’m in trouble or I’ve made a boo-boo. Expecting something along those lines, whenever mom came out with. "We lost Gertie, she passed away while you were gone" I was in complete shock and immediately started crying "NO, what happened." Lenny hearing that, immediately knew it involved Gertie. He said something like "The dogs didn’t get her did they?" Remember - we have 3 Golden Retrievers as well, but they were awesome with her - they could all be loose in the living room together as long as one of us was there.

Mar 2008 (when we adopted her) to August 2008

I don’t know when it happened or why (neither do the vets) but she was termed a "sludge bunny." I guess her body started taking calcium out of her bones and putting it in her kidneys making it so she couldn’t use the litter box. She also stopped drinking and eating. Mom told me this started on Thursday night/Friday morning so she spent a lot of time going back and fourth between the vet and Tufts emergency hospital over the weekend. Supposedly everything that could be done for her was. But on Sunday night as mom was getting ready for Gertie to come home on Monday, Tufts called and told her Gertie was gone. I can only imagine the shock my mother must have been in. I know how I felt. It had to have been worse for mom. She was still home with all of Gerties stuff surrounding her. Not only that, I called mom frequently (a couple of times every day we were gone) over vacation. Not once did she let on or tell me that something was wrong. So from Friday until Tuesday, I don’t know how mom handled it. I called home happy as could be asking how everyone was and she was home with one less member of the family and keeping it to herself.

So anyway, I got off the phone with mom, and trying to keep my voice down, I told Lenny Gertie got sick and was gone, that the dogs had nothing to do with it. I didn’t want Abby to know at that point in time so I just kept my voice down and tried to hide the fact that I had been (and still was crying). Had I told Abby, she would have reacted in one of 2 ways. She was either going to think I was joking, which would have made it harder when we got home. Or she would sit in the back and cry while I was in the front unable to comfort her. So I kept my mouth shut. There was nothing I could do, no way I could change it. So going down the highway at 70+ MPH with the rest of the traffic, I did the only thing I could. I stared out the window at the passing scenery and tried to cope with the fact that Gertie was gone. The only things that helped me at that time were the facts that I knew she was no longer sick and that I had taken the time to say goodbye to her before we left. I almost left for vacation without doing it, but something stopped me and told me to go back in the house and say goodbye to her.

A while later, I know we stopped for lunch and gas - I looked through my credit card receipts to know this. After lunch, I was tired of thinking and remembering, so I started looking through the different coupon books I had gotten at a rest area somewhere. Since the train cancelled on us, we had no place to sleep.

Despite this nap, Abby slept well at the hotel that night.

I was trying to figure out the best place for us to stop for the night. I was thinking maybe we could make it to North Carolina and looked through that magazine, but everything just seemed so far away. Lenny even said it was too ambitious to go that far. I had been hoping to put enough miles behind us to still stay at the hotel in Pennsylvania that I had booked back in January for Wednesday night. They had a 24 hour cancellation policy so if you don’t cancel in time, you get charged for one night. I didn’t know when that 24 hour period started, so I didn’t want to cancel and learn I still had to pay for a room. When I came to the realization that we just couldn’t do it, I called the hotel in hopes that I was outside of that 24 hour period. I explained what had happened with the train and said there was absolutely no way we would be able to make it to the hotel since we were driving from Disney. I heard the girl talking in the background, but couldn’t make out what she said, then she cancelled the reservation for me. When I asked if I cancelled in time, instead of saying yes or no, the girl said "You’re good, there won’t be a cancellation fee." I don’t know if that means I made it in time or if they waived the fee because of the circumstances.

Now I still had to figure where to stay for the night. Looking through the South Carolina book, I kept mentioning different places to Lenny. This was sometime around 3ish. Lenny finally told me to look for whatever was about 1 hour away. He was getting tired and wanted to stop for the night. Since I had been looking at Florence, South Carolina and it was under one hour away by that point in time, I looked through the coupons and found a Comfort Inn (our hotel of choice outside of Disney) for something like $39 for the night. I called them on my cell phone, explained about the train and asked whether they had any rooms for the night. They did, so I asked about the likelyhood of getting one of the coupon rooms when we arrived. The girl I talked to was very nice and said it wasn’t very likely, so I booked a room instead of waiting until we got there to get one. A king room with a pullout cost me a whole whopping $16 more. I couldn’t believe how cheap the hotel room was. We go to North Conway and a king/pullout room is close to $150 a night. We didn’t really care how or why the room was so cheap. We were just happy to have a destination that had a bed. Once we got to this particular exit in Florence though, we found out why the rate was so cheap. There was something like 9 hotels and numerous restaurants and gas stations in the area. And for the $55 plus taxes we paid for the room, we were really pleasnatly surprised.

The hotel itself actually had several 2 story buildings. The downstairs opened into the parking lot like a motel. I think upstairs opened into a hallway - we were downstairs. The lobby area was good size and had a little fish pond -with 4 good size fish swimming around. There was also a computer and printer here for guest use. The people who checked me in were really nice and pleasant. They also said they were glad we made it there safely (which made me feel good whether they meant it or not). Our room was really spacious and the pull out bed was even made up (most hotels the bedding is in the room but I have to make up the bed).


It also had free wi-fi internet access. This was the one and only time I used the computer all trip - and that was to find a new hotel for Wednesday night. The pool (way warmer than those indoor "heated" pools) was located outside closer to the main building and was really refreshing. Especially since when we got to Florence it was hot. But that was okay. All we saw was blue sky, there wasn’t a rain cloud in sight.

After swimming, we went to the front of the property where there was a Quincy’s Family Steakhouse. Kinda like a Bonanza/Ponderosa but there was no break in price if you wanted both the steak and buffet. We went strictly buffet. I found the buffet to be small compared to most places, but there was enough to fill us up. Especially since our server brought out rolls and croissants that were huge and buttery. She also kept our soda glasses refilled. Unlike the girl who rang us in (no personality and it seemed like it was a bother to ring us in) this girl was really pleasant and made us think of our buffet here at home where they always stop by the table and chat a minute and keep coming back to see how we’re doing. When we were done, we left her a nice tip and headed back to our room. We were all tired so soon after, we called it a night. Every time I tried to close my eyes though, Lenny kept making comments. I can’t remember what they were, but for someone who likes it to be quiet when the lights go out, he was awful chatty (and I laughed to myself about it). I don’t know if I just fell asleep on him or if he just stopped talking, but it wasn’t long before I was sound asleep.

[lauren-roxy]

Darlene, I am just so sorry about Gertie and I just feel for your poor mother too. I am so glad that something pulled you back before you left to say good-bye, those things happen for a reason. Glad you were able to get a hotel for such a great price.

[bitterchickey]

Oh how sad!! You did the right thing(of course..) keeping it to yourselves till home though. Sounds like one of those illnesses you can't even know about til it's too late. Happy to hear that even though the train cancelled on you, things on the trip home fell into place.

[chezp]

How awful about Gertie.

[emtpej]

Sorry about Gertie --

I glad you found a place in Florence -- my dear mom likes stopping there as it is a good halfway point and there are MANY motels in the area. It must have been in the cards for you as I believe that is where the Auto Train stops and changes crews and refuels.

I'm glad you got out before the storms started and did not have to drive through too much!

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about Gertie!! Glad you were able to find a place to spend the night, and were able to get a refund on your tickets!!

[mousestruck]

All caught up. Sounds like you had a wonderful last day at MK, despite the bad news about the auto train cancellation. I'm glad you got your full refund and arrived safely at the hotel. It's so hard going home!

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Just getting caught up on your last two updates. Great last day! We had the same Anastasia as you did at 1900 PF! She was great--so funny yet so sweet with our DD at the same time.

Sorry about the autotrain being cancelled, and really sorry about Gertie.

[Princess_Wantabe]

So sorry about Gertie
I'm glad you were able to get that refund and find a place to sleep!

[B.M.]

Sorry about Gertie, but glad ya'll are trucking along to get home.........

[Lemap760]

That was a jammed packed last day you had. Sorry the train canceled on you, but at least you didn't get stranded at the airport.
Sorry to hear about Gertie.

[Rainbowy]

It seems like the three of you made the best of that wet week! Good for you. That was a rough night for us too! Monday night Tuesday morning was probably the worst time for anyone in the park that week. No one was sure what would happen the next day, and lots of flight delays etc. I hope it wasn't too bad driving out on tuesday, It sure looked scary especially Tuesday late afternoon. By then almost everyone was back at the resorts, there was not an empty seat in the huge lobby at WL! It was like everyone was hunkering down for the night. I hope abby wasn't too scared. I am glad you found a nice place to stay and swim! I am sorry about your rabbit.

[CinderAbby]

Darlene, I am just so sorry about Gertie and I just feel for your poor mother too. I am so glad that something pulled you back before you left to say good-bye, those things happen for a reason. Glad you were able to get a hotel for such a great price.

Thank you and that's the way I have to look at it - it happened for a reason. I may not be able to explain it, but at least I had that chance to say goodbye to her. And I really think that hotel was the only bright spot that day. The room was huge, the pool was nice and the price was lower than I expected to pay anywhere. I would definitely stay there again.

Oh how sad!! You did the right thing(of course..) keeping it to yourselves till home though. Sounds like one of those illnesses you can't even know about til it's too late. Happy to hear that even though the train cancelled on you, things on the trip home fell into place.

I just couldn't bring myself to tell Abby. To her, we were still on vacation.
And as for bunnies, that's the way it is with them. I read online and in a magazine I have that bunnies, being prey animals, hide when they're sick or injured. So a lot of times with domesticated ones, by the time you find out about something, it is too late to help them but mom did the best she could. Gertie's at peace and no longer sick. I have to be content knowing that.

As for the trip home - wait until you read the next installment.

How awful about Gertie.

Thanks Cheryl

Sorry about Gertie --

I glad you found a place in Florence -- my dear mom likes stopping there as it is a good halfway point and there are MANY motels in the area. It must have been in the cards for you as I believe that is where the Auto Train stops and changes crews and refuels.

I'm glad you got out before the storms started and did not have to drive through too much!

Thanks EJ. Florence was a good place to stop - there was everything - food, gas lodging. All you had to do was pick the name you liked best. And now that you mention it, yes, it is where the Auto Train stops, I never even thought of that. Had I, we probably would have looked there first instead of thinking of going further. And we did luck out weather wise. Other than the sprinkles and that one storm that lasted maybe 20 to 30 minutes, if that, we didn't get any wind or any more rain coming home.

All caught up. Sounds like you had a wonderful last day at MK, despite the bad news about the auto train cancellation. I'm glad you got your full refund and arrived safely at the hotel. It's so hard going home!

Thanks. I don't know about anyone else, but it's just Disney that it's hard to go home from. Most other places, it doesn't bother me to leave. And the train cancelling wasn't that much of a surprise. We had considered it, but didn't think it would actually happen. I think I was acutally more concerned about my refund than I was about driving home.

Just getting caught up on your last two updates. Great last day! We had the same Anastasia as you did at 1900 PF! She was great--so funny yet so sweet with our DD at the same time.

Sorry about the autotrain being cancelled, and really sorry about Gertie

Thanks. There's some things you can't change even if you want to. But if I had my choice, I would take Gertie every time over the train.

IMO, everyone at all the character meals was great. They all seemed to sense that Abby's a little different and did a wonderful job with her.

So sorry about Gertie
I'm glad you were able to get that refund and find a place to sleep!

Thanks. Those were our two big concerns (well 3 if you count Fay) that day and we lucked out with both

Sorry about Gertie, but glad ya'll are trucking along to get home.........

Thanks, we (well Lenny acutally) tried his best to get us as far from Florida as he could. I don't think it was even the thought of the rain or wind that bothered him. I think it was the thought of the tornadoes we heard come from the hurricanes that bothered Lenny the most. And that little tidbit of info came from the woman who cleaned the laundry room - up until then, I never even thought of things like tornadoes hitting Florida and/or Disney.

That was a jammed packed last day you had. Sorry the train canceled on you, but at least you didn't get stranded at the airport.
Sorry to hear about Gertie

Thanks. We were lucky that we weren't stranded, but I certainly feel bad for those who were

It seems like the three of you made the best of that wet week! Good for you. That was a rough night for us too! Monday night Tuesday morning was probably the worst time for anyone in the park that week. No one was sure what would happen the next day, and lots of flight delays etc. I hope it wasn't too bad driving out on tuesday, It sure looked scary especially Tuesday late afternoon. By then almost everyone was back at the resorts, there was not an empty seat in the huge lobby at WL! It was like everyone was hunkering down for the night. I hope abby wasn't too scared.

Hurry and tell us how you got home!!

Thanks. Sprinkles and storms at Disney are nothing new to me so we were prepared with our ponchos everyday. I can't even imagine what people at Disney were thinking though Monday night / Tuesday morning. I know our thoughts were "thank goodness we're going home and don't have to worry about it." The clouds that morning were really dark and threatening, but by the time we got to Jacksonville (around 10:30/11ish I want to say), the clouds were just a light gray and nothing came from them. Florence was hot and sunny when we got there around 4 or so.

Abby actually wasn't scared at all - probably because I only told her it would be a lot of rain and wind and we weren't panicking. She easily picks up on our actions and even though we didn't want to stick around, we stayed calm. Besides, we were leaving that day anyway so the only thing we really did differently than planned was leave around 8 instead of 11. It's not like we cut the vacation short due to Fay.

[MMMD]

Thanks for the updates.

1. So sorry about Gertie
2. I LOVED the pics of Abby at 1900 PF
3. You and Lenny are such easygoing people. While you had your share of monkeywrenchs this trip nothing got you down. You still made sure Abby was having a great trip every moment. What great parents.