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[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by KMB733

Sounds like a great time at DHS!!

Thanks Kathy, it was.

Originally Posted by tinker_me_happy

We were standing in line for TSMWM and a family came in the entrance you would use with a little girl in a wheelchair. When they got up to the CM at the Fast Pass/Regular line junction, she got out of her chair and walked. My sister started to say something about "why does she only need a wheel chair to cut the line" when I pointed out that there was MORE to the picture than meets the eye! After a better look she understood. I knew from the second I first saw her entering that she was autistic, but then again, I deal with pediatrics all the time! But the sad part was that poor family chose the handicapped side to enter on (I really think the little girl had a very hard time with people too close to her!) and they were STILL WAITING after we boarded our car!
It makes me crazy when people make assumptions! My sister usually never does, so I was a bit shocked, but she "pulled back" immediately when she saw the full situation and was embarrassed by her outburst (a quiet one, but an outburst non the less!). Walk a mile in someone else's shoes...

I think others (not including your sister) would rather assume the worst than give a second look. I didn't notice any looks this year but I know last year we got a really dirty look from someone using a wheelchair in the standby queue at Buzz in the MK. She had a wheelchair but Lenny was on his scooter and we were in the FP line. And at the point she saw us, there was no way for her to know if we had a FP, if we were allowed there because of the scooter or what but she certainly was gesturing towards us and talking a lot with a nasty look on her face. Trust me, if Abby could wait - especially with that many people around - we would be but the more people there are, the quicker she loses it. And even without people, or very few, 30 minutes is pretty much her max time. She paces and self stimulates. A lot of times, I'll stand there and rub her shoulders and unless people know, they probably don't realize I'm doing it to help her remain calm. People will do what they will do and if they want to assume the worst, they're going to. Like you, I've noticed others from the standby lines getting on rides ahead of us (not TSM though, but that is probably the only consistent exception) but between Lenny and Abby, we go the way that works for us, even if it turns out to be a slightly longer wait.

Originally Posted by saibot0001

I am glad you all get to use GAC card, Darlene! We have a lot of friends who have autistic children ( all varying in degrees) and I'm glad Disney has that available for families. My nephew was recently diagnosed and he can be fine one moment and then a sound or touch of something can cause a melt down. I actually was hoping that when you said that you were able to ride it 3 times that the ride has calmed down since we were there last year b/c it was a crazy mad house! . As for my hubby, I hope the Star Tours does not bother him. He will try it one time like you did and if it does bother him, he will sit it out in the future. He doesn't even bother watching 3 D movies at the theater anymore b/c they are just blurry and weird for him to watch. Hoping you post something soon as I'm anxious to read more!

Thanks but I'm sorry to disappoint you with TSM not calming down any but the GAC really is a huge help for us. If they didn't have some sort of accomodation, we wouldn't be where we are today as I would never have taken Abby. I grew up going to Disney so I already knew how bad it was crowd wise and from our experiences at much, much smaller parks with Abby, I knew she'd never be able to handle it at Disney - it would have been a huge disaster.

And just a question with your hubby (you don't have to answer) but is he colorblind at all? I ask only because Lenny is and depending upon what type of glasses get used, he can't see the 3D effects either - just all blurry lines and weird looking like you said. With Disney having the shades of brown with the glasses, he has no problems though and can enjoy watching 3D.

It's gotten late so I won't post anymore tonight but I promise I'll post something tomorrow.

[mcc0313]

Just caught up on your last few posts. What a great day at AK, except for the scooter problem (and even that issue was taken care of very quickly, great service fom Walker) it just sounded as everyone was having a great time. Love the pictures of Devine, we missed here this trip, I wondered if maybe it was becuase of the heat the day we were there but we passed over there a few times and no luck. I love that Abby loved KRR - the best spot to to cool down at AK and when it is hot I don't even mind being wet for a bit

Sorry that movie night did not turn out that well in terms of the sound not being loud enough and the unwanted sights, but glad that they enjoyed swimming for a bit and a resort evening is always a great way to gear up for another early day.

Another great day at DHS, glad the chef at CMC took good care of you, Angel says they make her the bet dairy free waffles there, she said they are the fluffiest...lol, and we also have great interaction with the characters seeing them more than once during breakfast. Sorry about Star Tours making you feel a bit ill, I used to feel that way from the original so I was not looking too forward to the new one, but I was going to try it...maybe my luck that the two times we headed over one time the wait was just too long and the second time it was down.

Three times on TSMM - glad you were able to enjoy it so many times that day without too long of waits. So wondering how the break time at the resort turned out before dinner.

[lazanya]

Sounds like a wonderful breakfast and a great day at DHS!
Yay Abby for winning a round at TSM!!

[Cam22]

I missed reading your TR yesterday, and found I was already 5 pages behind tonight. Both your day at AK and DHS had some great fun! You have also gotten some terrific pictures!

[saibot0001]

Darlene, I think he could have some colorblind issues, but he swears he does not and he has never been diagnosed with it; however sometimes I have to send him back to change clothes b/c he matches things that do NOT match. LOL

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Just caught up on your last few posts. What a great day at AK, except for the scooter problem (and even that issue was taken care of very quickly, great service fom Walker) it just sounded as everyone was having a great time. Love the pictures of Devine, we missed here this trip, I wondered if maybe it was becuase of the heat the day we were there but we passed over there a few times and no luck. I love that Abby loved KRR - the best spot to to cool down at AK and when it is hot I don't even mind being wet for a bit

Sorry that movie night did not turn out that well in terms of the sound not being loud enough and the unwanted sights, but glad that they enjoyed swimming for a bit and a resort evening is always a great way to gear up for another early day.

Another great day at DHS, glad the chef at CMC took good care of you, Angel says they make her the bet dairy free waffles there, she said they are the fluffiest...lol, and we also have great interaction with the characters seeing them more than once during breakfast. Sorry about Star Tours making you feel a bit ill, I used to feel that way from the original so I was not looking too forward to the new one, but I was going to try it...maybe my luck that the two times we headed over one time the wait was just too long and the second time it was down.

Three times on TSMM - glad you were able to enjoy it so many times that day without too long of waits. So wondering how the break time at the resort turned out before dinner.

Thanks - we did have a couple of great days and even with the scooter not working, it really worked out time wise - in terms of both the time it happened and the length of time it took to get it resolved. For DiVine, it could be your timing - or hers. I know the day we saw her, she didn't stay in one place, she kept moving around so I don't know where she ended up. For KRR, that's what I figured too - it was the best thing to go on when it was that hot and after the first couple of minutes after getting drenched, I didn't notice that I was wet. I know I didn't dry that fast but I just didn't notice it. When it comes to the movie and the other sights, unfortunately, we probably won't go back and try for another movie, especially if there's the chance of that happening again. We did have a great day at DHS and at breakfast - we'll certainly go there again. I agree that luck has been in your corner for not riding Star Tours so I don't know whether to say sorry or congrats . 3 times on TSM - and we loved it every time and as for the rest of the story, you'll have to check back later on.

Originally Posted by lazanya

Sounds like a wonderful breakfast and a great day at DHS!
Yay Abby for winning a round at TSM!!

Thanks Jodi - it was. And Abby was very happy that she won TSM that last time

Originally Posted by Cam22

I missed reading your TR yesterday, and found I was already 5 pages behind tonight. Both your day at AK and DHS had some great fun! You have also gotten some terrific pictures!

Thanks Cam - we did have a couple of good days, but our DHS one isn't over yet. You'll have to come back later to finish it off

Originally Posted by saibot0001

Darlene, I think he could have some colorblind issues, but he swears he does not and he has never been diagnosed with it; however sometimes I have to send him back to change clothes b/c he matches things that do NOT match. LOL

It sounds to me like he might. Plus too, I have Lenny in the background telling me (yet again ) that 60% of the male population is colorblind, with the majority of them having red-green colorblindness. That's they type Lenny has and while he can sometimes distinguish shades of certain colors, there's other times he just has no clue - about the colors I mean

[Sunshine Family]

Originally Posted by CinderAbby

Thanks, it was a wonderful day. Oh and to answer your question about Walker Mobility (in case you missed what happened with our replacement), they were wonderful about it and we got a replacement delivered right to us in the AK. From original phone call to make the reservation to the replacement scooter to the thank you card we got in the mail, we really enjoyed going with Walker. Everything went nice and smoothly and I don't have a single complaint about them. If anything, they're Disney like in their Customer Service.

Thank you! I told Stitch your story and she was happy to hear that they were so responsive. They've been great in phone calls so far, and are even going to make sure she doesn't get a blue ECV

Originally Posted by tinker_me_happy

We were standing in line for TSMWM and a family came in the entrance you would use with a little girl in a wheelchair. When they got up to the CM at the Fast Pass/Regular line junction, she got out of her chair and walked. My sister started to say something about "why does she only need a wheel chair to cut the line" when I pointed out that there was MORE to the picture than meets the eye! After a better look she understood. I knew from the second I first saw her entering that she was autistic, but then again, I deal with pediatrics all the time! But the sad part was that poor family chose the handicapped side to enter on (I really think the little girl had a very hard time with people too close to her!) and they were STILL WAITING after we boarded our car!
It makes me crazy when people make assumptions! My sister usually never does, so I was a bit shocked, but she "pulled back" immediately when she saw the full situation and was embarrassed by her outburst (a quiet one, but an outburst non the less!). Walk a mile in someone else's shoes...

Yeap. We've run into similar issues - Stitch looks like fine externally, but crowds are a huge issue. Hence why we travel in the off-season. Sometimes we've been lucky and the line shorter than FP or standby. A lot of times, though, we wait just as long, just in a less crowded area.

[CinderAbby]

Thank you! I told Stitch your story and she was happy to hear that they were so responsive. They've been great in phone calls so far, and are even going to make sure she doesn't get a blue ECV

You're welcome - I'm glad my info could help you. Like I said somewhere, we were impressed with them years ago when Lenny saw one of the scooters in the parks and he talked to the person who rented it. Now that we've used them ourselves, we're still impressed with them and really have THE perfect example (a scooter with problems) of how they "deal" with problems. They certainly get a huge from us.

[ilovedisney247]

It sounds like you had a great day at the Studios! I' glad everyone enjoyed most of the rides. I'm sorry that the new Star Tours makes you spin--I found it much better than the old version in terms of my motion sickness!

[CinderAbby]

Sorry this is so late tonight. It was a busy day for me with errands, etc that I forgot all about promising to post more. It's late but at least I did what I promised I would.

Sunday July 24th Part 3
　

What was in our windows when we returned to AS Sports

　
Once we got to the room, I pulled out my confirmation number for Chef Mickey’s and I learned our dinner wasn’t at 7 - it was at 7:30 . I wasn’t too thrilled with that as we were all getting hungry so before Lenny and Abby started getting changed, I called Disney Dining to see if I could change the time. The CM who helped me was very friendly but she told me that Chef Mickey’s was booked solid for that night and the only time I could get if I canceled my ADR was the same 7:30 time slot. I thanked her for her time and said that we’d keep it then. We were hungry but Abby really wanted to eat with the characters so we’d just have to wait.

As Lenny and Abby changed into their bathing suits, I thought about doing laundry but the laundry room was packed with people so I skipped it. I decided to go swimming instead so after I changed into my suit, all three of us headed to the pool. We didn’t see any members of the BTG, which made me happy. The water was a little bit too warm to be refreshing but I still got a chill by the time we had to get out.

We went back to the room to get ready for dinner and Lenny was talking about going into the MK after dinner. I just looked at him and said we wouldn’t get out of dinner until after 9 PM and that I was already too tired to do the MK, there was no way I would be up for it that late . He didn’t believe me about dinner going that late however so he changed his mind and said we should watch the water parade from the Poly. I told him we’d see about that but if the timing was right, we could do that.

I don’t remember what time we left AS Sports or what time we even got to the Contemporary but we got checked in, had our photo taken and had just sat down when the pager went off. I think the server we got was named Tom but I don’t remember because he had no personality whatsoever. He didn’t come around the table too much but one of the times he did (really early in the meal), I made a comment to him about how hot it had been and that we’d be needing lots of refills . He took the hint and even though he wasn’t at our table, he was in the area enough that as soon as our glasses were almost empty, refills were showing up at our table. He might not have been the typical Disney server IMO - the ones that stop by and chat even if for a few seconds at a time just because or while they remove dishes - but our table was clean and we never found ourselves without refills . And come to think of it too, another thing that set him apart from other Disney Servers is the fact that someone else (with more of a personality) removed at least 90% of our dishes, not him. Our server did end up getting a nice tip - because of the cost of the meal - and we left hoping the person bussing the table would get his fair share too. He probably did because this was a meal I put entirely on my card so there was no cash the server could try and hide.

We had good interactions with the characters as well. We saw both Pluto and Mickey twice and everyone else one time.

By the time we were done with dinner, it was after 9 PM (told you Lenny ) and I was totally exhausted . I didn’t even want to go anywhere to see the Electrical Water Pageant because that would have meant lots of waiting and transferring. It was already after 9 so that meant the only places we could actually see it from was the WL, FW, the Contemporary itself or the MK. The last two were out of the question because I knew it shows late - after 10 - which left FW or WL and I just did not feel up to going to either location . We said the heck with it and just headed back to AS Sports for the night - we could use the sleep more. Once we got back to the hotel though, I decided to get our laundry together for the morning. Lenny wasn’t thrilled with that and told me if I insisted upon doing laundry, he wanted me to try and sleep between loads so I could get some extra sleep. I told him I’d worry about that when I actually woke up in the morning and soon after that we were all sound asleep for the night.

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

It sounds like you had a great day at the Studios! I' glad everyone enjoyed most of the rides. I'm sorry that the new Star Tours makes you spin--I found it much better than the old version in terms of my motion sickness!

Thanks. We did have a great day in the Studios. Really - you found the new version better? Did you maybe get a less intense show than we did? I know it has different versions but I just don't know how many or how intense each one was. I know the second time for Abby and Lenny they said it was better than when I went on but I'm going to be gun shy. It made me sick once so I'm not about to try it again. I know years ago (and I'm going back years) I was okay on the old Start Tours ride but I could never do the Body Wars one. That one made me sick even back then but Star Tours didn't. Oh well, if that's the price I pay for getting older, I'm fine with it. It's the day I can't do anything at Disney that I'm in trouble

[omd]

I just love the pictures of Abby with Mickey and Pluto they are my favorites so far. She just looks so happy.

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had a great time in the pool and at CM's!

[lauriep]

Great pics from the pool and dinner! It's great to see Abby have such a wonderful time with the characters.

[Cam22]

Pool time and Chef Mickey's both look like fun!