Cancer's not going to stop us PTR/TR

Hey to everyone out there! :)

I'll explain the title of this thread in a little bit, but first things first. Let's meet the cast!

This is my grandniece, River. She is 2 years old and this will be her first trip to WDW.

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And this is her older sister, Leah. She is 3 years old and this will also be her first trip to WDW.

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Aren't they cute? LOL... The both of them have been watching a lot of Disney movies to know who the characters are and are excited to meet up with them.

This is their mother, my niece, Bianca.

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Also going will be my folks. This picture was taken during our trip in 2011 at the Crystal Palace.

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Had a great time during that trip.

Also joining the party will be my girlfriend, Jennifer. She goes to WDW about every other year with her family. However, it's only for a couple of days during the Christmas holiday. This will be her first time going for a full week and staying onsite. She'll also be celebrating her birthday while we are down there.

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She's totally rockin' the Star Wars/Big Lebowski mix t-shirt! She's a fan of bowling, Star Wars and, of course, WDW!!! That makes her an awesome girlfriend!

And finally, this is me. My name is Todd and this picture was also taken on our trip in 2011. Obviously, getting ready to enjoy 'Ohana.

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I know that the date says it was in 2010. However, the date, and time, was not set on the camera that we used. As you may have noticed, I'm wearing a Grumpy Dwarf t-shirt. He is my favorite character. I completely identified with Grumpy growing up. I had a hard exterior, but deep down I have a heart of gold and I'm very loyal, just like Grumpy.

Anyway, my folks, and I, had planned, last year, to take my niece and her two daughters to WDW. However, due to many "life" changing things, we were unable to go at that time. We had promised the girls that we would take them. So, we've managed to get things together and keep our promise to take them this coming September.

Well, about a month to two months ago, my mom had a cat-scan done. The results came back that she has cancer, again for the 4th time. This time it has affected her liver and part of her lungs. After several visits to several doctors, the diagnosis was pretty much the same. There really isn't much that they can do other than treat it with the most toxic cocktail of chemo possible to give her another year or two of life. The chemo is so strong that it will cause chemical burns on the skin. My mom, being the tough person she is, decided to do the treatments and to keep our plans on going to WDW.

Her doctors all agreed that if she felt well enough that she should go to WDW. Reason being that it's a positive influence. That if it makes her happy, it can help in fighting the tumors. My mom, being a huge fan of WDW, said that this cancer isn't going to prevent her from going on this trip. That, no matter what, she was going!

I was glad to hear that. I think she knows that this could be her last time to go to WDW, barring a miracle happening. So, we're going to do our best to make this a great trip for her. Having her 2 great granddaughters there for their first time and seeing it through their eyes is going to really make it special for her.

We've got photopass+ for this trip to take as many pictures as possible. We'll be staying at the OKW resort. We'll have 2 rooms. A studio for myself and Jennifer. A 2 bedroom for the rest of them. I'm really getting excited about this trip and I plan on posting as much as I can about our trip, as well as posting as many pics as I can...

Hope I can make this an enjoyable ptr/tr for everyone to read and follow...
 

Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday- the princess/we're on a mission day!

Friday... ahhh.. our last full day in wdw... it's also the day where jenn and I would have to ourselves except for breakfast and dinner.

we get up in the morning and meet everyone at the bus stop. the girls are dressed up in their princess outfits. we are heading on over to the Polynesian resort to have our breakfast at 'ohana. another one of my fav's for breakfast. as we arrived we got our pics taken, got our leis and were seated soon after. quickly the characters started coming out and the girls were excited. first time they got to see stitch and lilo. they thoroughly enjoyed that. we enjoyed their reactions and the meal as well. good food, indeed. near the end of our meal the little parade they have in the restaurant started. the girls wanted to join in and away they went with the maracas. big smiles on their faces as well as ours.

today was the day that the girls were going to meet some of the princess characters in the newly opened fairytale princess hall. it's located where the snow white ride used to be. plus they were going to try and do some other things at magic kingdom.

jenn and I were on a mission that day... LOL... a couple of days earlier, jenn's mom called her to congratulate her/us and to also see if she would pick up a map to each park. well, jenn decided to have a little fun with this request. not only would she pick up a park map from each park, but she'll also get park maps in Japanese. her thought was to send the ones in Japanese first, then the following day send the ones in English. LOL.... however, we also decided to go to each park that day to get them and fit in some rides we didn't get to do earlier and get pics of just us in each park too. make as much use of that photopass+ card as we could. quite the mission...

so, after breakfast was our 1st stop....

magic kingdom....

we hopped on the monorail and headed on over. walked down mainstreet and got a few pics taken while there. we decided to head on over to big thunder mountain railroad. on our way over we saw the parasol cart. we stopped to take a look because both of us had the same thought. how cute it would be to get smaller parasols for the girls that would match their outfits... they were relatively inexpensive, by Disney terms.. the both of them, with their names and designs hand painted on them, totaled out to be a little over $23.00... not bad. so, we bought 'em.

continue on over to big thunder and we see that chip and dale are out with a short line to see them. both jenn and I said we HAD to stop there to meet them. it was a lot of fun. they noticed our engaged buttons and saw the ring on her finger and immediately tried to take her away from me. it was hilarious! they did great in that! got some pics of that interaction.

we finally get over to big thunder and it was a walk on.. great!!! rode it and had a blast! exit that ride and we immediately head on over the haunted mansion... another walk on.. had to ride this one for sure! such and amazing time and still a great ride after all these years.

we exited this ride and jenn says to me that she really wants to meet Cinderella since we are here. not a prob! let's go. we get in line in the new area to meet Cinderella. it's really interesting to see how they have this set up. 2 separate lines. one line goes to see snow white and Rapunzel. the other goes to see Cinderella and aurora. it's themed really great with a glass slipper in the middle of the hall that is all speckled and lit up. really cool actually. got many pics from there as well.. aurora asked me how many dragons I had to slay to win the hand of my fair maiden. I told her that she really made me work for it. that I had to slay over 20 dragons... LOL....

after we met the princesses we went over into the new fantasyland area to check it out, take a few pics and try out the new little mermaid ride. another walk on. it was a good ride.. the theming was done well too. was impressed by that. after that ride we picked up the parasols, grabbed the maps and got on a monorail to head on over to epcot!

made it to epcot, picked up the maps, got some pics taken, rode test track, got a quick snack, did some shopping in mousegear. saw another grumpy dwarf shirt that I soooooooo wanted... I think jenn's getting it for me as a Christmas present. yes, i'm a fan of grumpy dwarf and I already bought 2 shirts while I was there. anyway, after shopping we hit the maelstrom ride in Norway. on the way back we stopped at the mexico pavilion and had more pics taken, then back over to the Disney visa rewards m&g to have more pics taken and pic up another free 5x7 pic on our way out.

we then got on a bus and headed on over to animal kingdom. picked up more maps, had more pics taken, rode dinosaur, took another quick break to have some snacks. we were having such a great time. it was then that we noticed that it was getting close to time for our dinner reservations, which were at chef mickey's at the contemporary resort... off to catch the bus we go.... :)

we got there a little early so we did some looking through some of the stores there at the resort. met up with the rest of the family and got checked in to chef mickey's. gave the girls their parasols, had our pics taken and seated at the table to begin enjoying our meal and meet more characters as they came to our table...

yes, Donald was one of the characters there and river saw him on the other side of the restaurant. she kept asking when Donald was coming over to see her. she was soooooo excited... when Donald came over she gave him a big hug and a kiss. but was it still enough to be her favorite? or was jake the winner? still to come....

we told the folks about our mission and how we had one more park left to go and that was Hollywood studios...

after dinner we head on down to the bus stop to catch the bus to Hollywood studios.. that's when jenn said.. OH NO! she forgot to set up her check in flight apt/info at our resort. well, this required us having to walk over to magic kingdom to catch a bus back to our resort. yes, we hurried as fast as we could and through a sea of people going to the mickey's not so scary party at the magic kingdom....

we got onto the bus and head on back to okw. went to the front desk and got her taken care of, grabbed refills with our mugs and head back on our to the bus stop to go to Hollywood studios, which closes at 8... well, it was 7:20 when the bus pulled up. I said it'll be close but I think we can do this. lucky for us we were the last stop at our resort AND we managed to catch all the green lights all the way there. we got to the park, entered, grabbed the maps and quickly found a photographer to get our pics taken in that park!

WHEW!!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED AT THE VERY LAST MINUTE!!!! :) :) :)

what a way to end our day....

more to come...
 

Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
got a lot of photos coming from Friday.... i'll just start with the morning and work through the day...

breakfast at 'ohana....

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Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
magic kingdom

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on our way over to big thunder we saw these 2 and had to meet them.

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and on our way over to meet Cinderella, I got a picture with the dwarfs. ok, wish it was the actual characters, but oh well... it was still cool to me.... :)

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Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
with Cinderella and aurora.

Cinderella telling me I did a good job in proposing in front of the castle and that she loved the ring.

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aurora asking me how many dragons I've slayed to win the hand of the sweet maiden.

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Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
here are some pics of the girls with all 4 princesses in fairytale princess hall.

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Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
next in the day was epcot.

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this next one is my favorite pic of me in it. I normally don't photograph well. however, this guy got a good pic of me..

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Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Saturday - check out day....

we had such a great time during our stay at wdw, but some things do come to an end. our trip had finally reached it's end.

we had one more meal left, and that was breakfast at Olivia's in okw resort. we all got together there and had a lovely breakfast. we talked about how our Friday went since jenn and I took off to be by ourselves for that day, while the rest did their thing. that is also when I learned who won the battle between Donald and jake...

the folks took the girls back to downtown Disney Friday night to do some final shopping before we all left for home. at the world of Disney store they had a couple of items that river was deciding on which one to get. one was a Donald duck hat and the other was something to do with jake...

and the winner is......































Donald duck....




seems the old smooth talkin' Donald *LOL* won river's heart in the end.. sorry jake. you did put up a good fight, but Donald won out in the end... :)

anyway, we finished our meals and had some left over snack credits. into the general store we went to get all the snacks that we could take on the trip with us, filled our mugs one last time, said our goodbyes to jenn as she didn't leave for her flight until a few hours later, got into our cars and made the trip back home...

as we were leaving the resort, I hear a voice from the back seat say..

goodbye Disneyworld....


put a smile on my face... however, for me it is not goodbye.. just a see ya later.. as I know jenn and I will have our disneymoon....

I could tell the time there really helped my mom and her spirits.. it was the boost she needed during that time.... she had another treatment this week and once again it's completely wiped her out. her white cell and platelets are down... here's hoping that she won't need another transfusion and she bounces back soon.... she has hopes of being able to go on one more trip... a trip where the whole immediate family can go to wdw.... not sure if that will happen....

but this is Disney... and dreams do come true....

thanks everyone for all the great posts you've made. thanks for following this thread.... and thanks for all the prayers, well wishes and magic Disney dust... we can't even begin to say how grateful we are for that!!!!

from my heart to all of you.... THANKS! :)
 

LuLaSue

Well-Known Member
Wonerful report! All the ladies is your life are beautiful but that little one, River, is just a doll face!! Makes my heart smile to see you all had a brilliant time!
 

Obi

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
thank you both.

we're hoping these treatments she's been getting, with one more to go, will enable her to have another year or two of life. the rest of us are going to try and figure out a way to get the whole immediate family to go on one last trip. to help bring my mom's wish to a reality. not sure how we're going to do it, but if it's meant to happen, it will.

yes, river is cute... that's what saves her butt sometimes.. LOL... she's got a wild streak to her, almost fearless...
 

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