Trip Report 5 Adults vs 1 ten month old. Guess who won?!

Hi All!
Back from another stay at WDW and it was different for sure!
We had a new traveler with us and definitely did Disney differently for that reason and a few others.

I would like to give you guys a heads up before you read any further.
If you have read my trip report from last year you may be aware that my husband (Gary) is being treated for cancer and there are some references in here to how he is doing, because that changed a lot of how we toured this year.
If you are uncomfortable following along because not everything is pixie dust in this report, I will not in any way be offended if you click away. (I much prefer a sexy vampire book myself to a story that has moments of sadness)!
Luckily there were some great family/baby/children moments that brought us joy and new memories were made!

So with warning given and to those who are going to hang around, let's begin!

Our group consisted of myself, Cindy, my husband Gary, my son Seth, my daughter Aleisha our son-in-law Julio and our now 10 month old granddaughter Una. (And PS, she is a crazy girl)!!
We stayed at Bay Lake Oct. 21-27th.

Cast and crew (and one of my favorite pics of the whole trip).

To arrive at Disney everyone was coming from different places at different times. Gary and I headed down from Pittsburgh with an afternoon flight. We left around 2:15 pm and got in close to 4:40 pm-ish.
Us headed to the air side on our version of the monorail.

We had time to eat at Friday's (I think it was). Gary had some potato skins that he liked and I had a kids mac and cheese and french fries that I thought tasted pretty good.

In the meantime my little sleepy head was headed to Orlando from Sacramento with her mom. They started out at 6 am-ish, west coast time.

She did seem to perk up to her usual nosy self once they were on board!

One thing you will notice this trip is a disproportionate amount of baby pictures!

Seth headed down from Georgia, deciding to drive.

As crazy as it sounds, our 2 flights landed within 6 minutes of each other and we were able to meet Una and Aleisha as they got off of the monorail thing!
So excited to see this Mickey 50th wrap on one of the cars.

And Grandpap and Una's airport meet up!!

Julio wouldn't be arriving till the wee hours of Saturday am so we don't have any travel day pics of him.
Next up, is grabbing 800lbs of luggage and off to the Magic Bus!

 

[mpaulam]

Great update! The picture of Una with the ears is priceless!!

 

[Songbird76]

It's funny you commented on the onions. I seriously didn't see those till I posted this picture! Someone else at the table must have scarfed them up!
And thanks. She is turning out to be as we used to say, "quite the pistol". (Whatever that means)!

My mom always called little ones like that a "firecracker". She said pistol a few times, too, but firecracker makes more sense.

 

[Songbird76]

Thanks, I'll tell Gary you liked them.
He commented the other day that looking back on it now, how disappointed he is that he didn't go with us and wear his "special shirt".
And we're finding that we can't settle on the grandma's names yet.
We figure it'll work itself out as she starts talking and addressing us as something.

She'll probably learn to associate you with something....maybe even Disney. You might become Grandma Disney. One of my husband's cousins had 2 little girls, and one of the grandmas always carried a bag of marshmallows in her purse for them, so she became Grandma Marshmallow. My niece already had Grandpa and Papa, so her great grandpa became GGP (Great Grand Pa) and her two dads' names both start with J, so she calls them Daddy Jess and Daddy Jim. I'm sure she'll figure it out herself.

 

[Songbird76]

Reading both posts, I have to be honest and say I was blessed when it came to my DD going to sleep - from day 1 she just went to sleep when I put her down. The universe however decided that consequently I would need to suffer during her teenage years … I would have preferred a poor sleeper

I cheated. I used the method where I started off standing right near the crib, and then every few minutes, I took a step toward the door. It takes forever before you're out of the room, but it works. And every night, you start a step further away from the crib until eventually you can just put them down and walk to the door and they are used to it....kind of like boiling a frog. You just do it gradually. And my son would wake up in the middle of the night freaked out, but I could go in and sing to him for a bit and he'd conk out while I was singing. Ah, the things we do as mothers. You certainly learn to be resourceful!

 

[MickeyCB]

Great update! The picture of Una with the ears is priceless!!

Thanks, we're on the home stretch now!

 

[MickeyCB]

My mom always called little ones like that a "firecracker". She said pistol a few times, too, but firecracker makes more sense.

Firecracker for sure is making sense! Aleisha sent a video yesterday of Una on the rocking horse Gary made her when she was born. And she was STANDING on the seat rocking!

She'll probably learn to associate you with something....maybe even Disney. You might become Grandma Disney. One of my husband's cousins had 2 little girls, and one of the grandmas always carried a bag of marshmallows in her purse for them, so she became Grandma Marshmallow. My niece already had Grandpa and Papa, so her great grandpa became GGP (Great Grand Pa) and her two dads' names both start with J, so she calls them Daddy Jess and Daddy Jim. I'm sure she'll figure it out herself.

Grandma Diz. Not sure how I'm going to like that one!

I cheated. I used the method where I started off standing right near the crib, and then every few minutes, I took a step toward the door. It takes forever before you're out of the room, but it works. And every night, you start a step further away from the crib until eventually you can just put them down and walk to the door and they are used to it....kind of like boiling a frog. You just do it gradually. And my son would wake up in the middle of the night freaked out, but I could go in and sing to him for a bit and he'd conk out while I was singing. Ah, the things we do as mothers. You certainly learn to be resourceful!

Was this a method you created or one you learned about somewhere? There are so many things online for young parents now.

 

[MickeyCB]

DAY 7- FINAL DAY (WITH A LITTLE MK THROWN IN)!

Aleisha, Julio and Una were up and ready to go. We went down to the front of the hotel where the pick up occurs.
We each said our goodbyes. It was sad, but the plan at the time was we would be flying out to Sac for Una's first birthday and spending Christmas there. Plans have changed a little.

The bus was about 10 minutes late, not too bad.

Bye babies!!

We packed up all of our gear and ate some of the breakfast foods we had left.
We checked our luggage with bell services.

Gary gets super antsy on leaving day. He is always worried we will miss our bus and doesn't like to go anywhere. We weren't even getting picked up till around 1 pm so I laid down the law and said we were walking over to the MK. I had 2 goals. I wanted to take my time in the Emporium instead of getting rushed and I wanted to ride the 7DMT one more time. He grudgingly agreed.

We caught a little of the Dapper Dans on our way in. (Wasn't sure what to do with the S there @Tuvalu, had to look it up)! My grammar stinks on a good day! They are so neat!

I started to look around the Emporium and Gary blew threw it so quickly he's calling me on my cell trying to find me. Apparently he was already at Casey's.
But, I was very excited because I found this little ornament that wasn't there the last time we buzzed through. So I did get one treat that was actually from the MK! It lights up too!

And then one of my most fun Disney moments occurred next.
The photo pass photographers were very busy so we were trying to do a selfie. A lady coming by with her partner and 2 small children offered to take our picture if we would take theirs. Sure no problem. We got ours first. And this was a day for bums. See the photo above with the Dans too!

Anyway, the lady asks me to wait a moment. No problem. She whispers to me that the kids don't know about the next thing to happen. She and her partner have the 2 kids stand in front of them facing me, castle to their back. She pulls out a little onesie and holds it up to her chest, with something written on it, I forget exactly, along the lines of, "It's the next mouseketeer!" I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Apparently she's going to use that as the baby reveal to the kids and her family back home!!!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 7 continued...

We continued our walk up Main Street.
I know fan reviews are mixed on the castle colors, but I liked them. And like anything they will fade if people feel they are too bold.

We got another photo in front of the 50th Mickey and Minnie statues.

Then we headed back through the castle towards 7DMT, my all time favorite.

A view from the back side of the castle.

I rode by myself as Gary didn't want to try to squeeze his legs into the narrow seats. He has had problems with this in the past.
This poor kid in front of me was so scared! I think he would have crawled up into his dad's shirt if he could figure out a way to do it.

I think the cottage is so well done.

Here I am, squinting into the sun, but that's ok, I was on my most favorite of rides!

After I exited the ride I found Gary sitting on the wall by the entrance, waiting probably a little impatiently for me. This was the best shot out of 10 I could get of him.

Time to head out of the park before Gary combusts! (We still had 2 hours till the magic bus was to pick us up). But since I didn't want him stressing anymore we went ahead and ambled out.

 

[Darstarr]

You see the Landshark box in the picture above?

Do I???
It was the first thing I noticed! I love Landshark.

I am also a big fan of candy grams

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 7-departure day continues...

We headed back towards the castle to walk through and there was a dad in front of the carousel trying to take a selfie of him and his son. I offered to take a pic for them and he was so cute and thankful for something that took literally 30 seconds of my time. I like to think about people like this back home, and hope they enjoy that picture of the 2 of them and it brings back good memories.

Gary grabbed this photo of me on the front side of the castle. I really like the 50th emblem.

And completely random thought, but, one of the reasons I fell so in love with Disney was little things like this. The incredible attention to detail that sadly seems to be fading. An example is the absolute joy of seeing (what I thought) was a janitor crew stop and put on a spontaneous show on the sidewalk, and so many more little wonders that are disappearing.

We cruised into the Confectionery on our way out. And as I commented in @Tuvalu's trip report, I thought these were marked $25 and was fairly certain I wouldn't buy them. Then Gary pointed out that they were $40 for goodness sake!!
They're not gold, and the container isn't gold!

As Gary was on a forced march out of there, I caught what I think is a (slightly) artsy photo!
Too bad there are humans there!

We decided to ride the monorail over to the Contemporary where I wanted to get some lunch before we left for the airport. Gary was really struggling at this point and refused to eat anything except a Mickey Bar as his lunch.

We walked over to Baylake via the bridge and got this photo taken by a couple and we took theirs.

We went down and retrieved our luggage (way early) and sat out front waiting for our bus.
I finally caught one of the 50th monorails while we were sitting there.

What happened next was kind of weird.
While we were waiting for our bus a van pulled up. The driver got out and asked if we were Gary and Cindy and that he was there to take us to the airport. We looked at each other and then I questioned him. I thought we were waiting for the large bus. He said he was sent to pick us and one other family up in this van was all he knew. He works for Mears.
So hoping we weren't being kidnapped we got in the van and waited. The other family never showed up and off we went. He did indeed take us to the airport and took us straight to the curbside check in so we didn't have to drag our bags inside. Gary gave him a nice tip. It was very convenient but I think I would have liked one more ride on the magic bus before it shuts down. We didn't get to ride one in from the airport either.

We had tons of time at the airport because of this and had only one concerning event and that was a gate change and our flight taking off a few minutes late. We got into Pittsburgh at a reasonable time and made it home uneventfully.

In summary, a trip to Disney usually has highs and lows.
It was so cool to have our granddaughter and the rest of the family together. I'm glad they could all make time in their busy schedules to go with us.
Gary was having problems eating and started to have mild cognitive problems for the first time right before this trip. I am very very glad he was there and he has been enjoying the pics of Una and the little videos from this trip.

I decided to give you all an update on Gary, but in the next post.
So if you don't want to read about it you certainly don't have to.
I really really appreciate all of you following along with us. It is so nice to be able to share our trip with people who "get it'

Big old EDIT 12/12... AS @Back!Elbow!Shoulders! pointed out the title of this trip report in her comment at the end, I forgot to put the final score!!
I am pretty sure it was ADULTS 1 VS BABY 1 ZILLION!!! Crazy girl was unstoppable! (Sorry @Back!Elbow!Shoulders! I know this doesn't help your cause)!

 

[MickeyCB]

So to all of you that hung in through the whole trip report, thank you very much.
I tried to write the report as we experienced it, not with the knowledge we gained after we got home.
This post has bad news and maybe some positive news. It's weird to put all of this on here in an online forum, but some of you have met Gary and others have followed along with us on this journey.

As I mentioned throughout, Gary had a really hard time eating. It was uncomfortable and he wasn't hungry. The second change was the cognition.
We got home on Wednesday and the next morning I texted my friend who is a gastroenterologist and believe it or not he got Gary in for an endoscopy 4 hours later. We found out he had all kinds of erosions and inflammation that was keeping him from eating. The doctor put him on a few meds and it improved greatly, in a very short period of time.

But, the real problem was found out on Friday. He was already scheduled for a routine PET as I mentioned in the report, but his PCP that I had talked to before the trip added a brain CT.
That showed that Gary's cancer has spread to his brain. It also was associated with bleeding and that is why he began to have the cognitive problems.
Needless to say, devastating news. We had a very frank discussion with his oncologist and he was told his prognosis is not good.

But, then as in all things it gets weirder. We were referred to a radiation oncologist at Shadyside who walked in the room, crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I can't see any cancer, there's too much bleeding, let's recheck in 8 weeks."
Say what?!
An MRI was done that day that didn't reveal much more and they wanted another CT brain.
This was done last week and the bleeding has stopped, and the associated swelling is way down.

So right now we are in a holding pattern. He's getting chemo but not the full regime because one of the drugs can cause bleeding. He will get another MRI in Jan. to see where to go from there. If indeed there is cancer he will have radiation treatment.

I asked Gary where he wants to be for Christmas and he has asked to be home. So we will got to Sac. for Una's birthday and then they are flying home with us. Seth will be coming up from Georgia too.

Oh, and to just add a little humor (sort of) to this mess. You can not keep this man down.
The week or so after we were home it was beautiful outside and Gary decided to go fix something on the porch roof, slid off the ladder, struck his chest against the roof edge and fractured a rib!

Thank you all for your kind words to us, they have been greatly appreciated.

 

[RememberWhen]

Sending you, Gary and your family good thoughts. I hope you’re able to celebrate a nice holiday together as a family. So lovely to follow along on your trip. Thanks for bringing us all along. May 2022 be a good year.

 

[MickeyCB]

Do I???
It was the first thing I noticed! I love Landshark.

Apparently they do to. When I cleaned out the fridge on check out day I noticed there was a lot of milk left but no beer!

 

[MickeyCB]

Sending you, Gary and your family good thoughts. I hope you’re able to celebrate a nice holiday together as a family. So lovely to follow along on your trip. Thanks for bringing us all along. May 2022 be a good year.

Ty very much, we appreciate your kind thoughts. I'm hoping it will be good. We get to see their new house and also get to celebrate where he is comfortable.
And, thanks for following along.

 

[Tuvalu]

Sad that our paths did not cross at the MK on Wednesday. Would have loved to meet you both.

May you have a happy “Una” birthday visit in Sac and a blessed Christmas with your family at home.

 

[MickeyCB]

Sad that our paths did not cross at the MK on Wednesday. Would have loved to meet you both.

May you have a happy “Una” birthday visit in Sac and a blessed Christmas with your family at home.

I just looked at my photos from Wed. We entered Main Street at 9:44 according to the time stamp on my photo!
Sorry to have missed you.
And thank you very much for the kind words. My thoughts are with you and your family this Christmas also.

 

[riverside]

Great TR!! I enjoyed it & I’m really glad that the whole family was able to go!!

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for the update on Gary; I really wanted to know and wouldn’t have felt comfortable “prying”. I’ll keep him in my thoughts and I hope your family Christmas is fabulous (how could it not be with that pistol/firecracker/cutie patootie?)

And I absolutely love love the picture of you, Aleisha, and Una

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Thank you for such a fabulous TR. It was lovely seeing you all make so many wonderful memories.
Have an enjoyable Christmas and please keep us updated on Gary in 2022. I know we don’t know each other but following along on these wonderful Tr’s makes you feel you do know and care about everyone

 

[TheMouseFan]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! It is wonderful that you were able to take it with your whole family and that you will be together again at Christmas! Cherish the time you all have together! I hope Gary's rib is feeling better soon and that he continues to feel well enough to do stupid things like climb on the roof!!