Trip Report Hurricanes, Foot Pains and “What The Crocs Just Happened?” Anniversary Tale – A Sept/Irma 2017 TR (COMPLETED)

So here we are again… Another amazing trip is over.

My original title for the is report was:

The Best-Laid Plans Of The Mouse & Men… because so many of our carefully thought out schedules & plans were completely turned upside down by Irma and other “forces” along the way.

However, Ross and Julia who do not share my love for Robert Burns or John Steinbeck vetoed that and came up with their own title.

Before I begin our tale, I want to express and offer our thoughts and prayers to all who suffered in Hurricane Irma as well as Harvey & Maria. There are times when I joke about the fact that we were in Florida during the hurricane, but in no way do I not realize the devastation that was caused to so many.

That being said... Let the Trip Report begin! Who’s in?

 

[Berry91]

Yay for hope!

 

[meg0039]

After our visit with royalty, we made way for our next FP 7DMT. I have no idea why I don’t have a picture from it.

Then I asked if we should head to PP which had a 20 minute wait time posted, but once again Hope had other ideas. She said she wanted to go to Maurice’s cottage. Maurice’s cottage? What was she talking about? At first I thought she meant 7DMT – because it has the little cottage at the end – but she said, “No thank you.”

I should mention that Hope has been on a kick that when she wants to say “no” to something her go-to phrases are ”No thank you.” or “Sorry guys.”

Julia suggested she meant Enchanted Tales with Belle. I looked at Hope who was beaming – “Yes!” she answered. So we headed over that way.

View attachment 240589

I was a little hesitant. This was a tough attraction for me a couple of years back and on our last trip I managed to avoid it. It was hard to see all the kids take part in the story of Belle with Hope just watching and not having the ability to participate. I remember making that a goal for her and we have worked hard on it. She has taken part of our 4-H club’s International Night skits where she has portrayed a South Korean bird and the bridge from Billy Goat’s Gruff. But she has always had a “supporting cast” and an adult close by who knew her issues – so they were ready for anything. That would not be the case here at WDW.

I hoped the wait would be too long. Nope - it was a walk on. Then I told myself it would be fine because she would probably not even want to participate – she just wanted to watch the story. But that was short lived. As we entered the line she announced, “Hope’s going to do it.” My stomach turned. I didn’t respond right away, but then I suggested to her that we all just watch this time.

Julia scolded me. “Let her do it!” she said quite emphatically. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s Disney!”

I conceded that Julia was right and when they asked who wanted a part, I held my breath as Hope raised her hand high and jumped up & down. The main characters were picked without her being chosen, but then they said for anyone that wanted a part to come up. I watched my Hope walk over without me by her side, holding her hand, guiding her movement. I was a nervous wreck. I held my breath as they presented her with a picture frame. I imagined her knocking into Belle or the other children, or even worse, what if she started to shout out her own version of the story?!

But she didn’t. She held her picture frame with the biggest smile on her face and got into the line with everyone else. I started to cry. Julia laughed at me.

View attachment 240590 View attachment 240591 View attachment 240592

They paraded everybody into the next room and the show began. Belle made her entrance and she and Lumiere told their tale. I continued to have bursts of tears mixed with heart palpations and a panic attack all the way through. I waited for something to go wrong... but nothing did.

View attachment 240593 View attachment 240594 View attachment 240595

At the end, when they announced everyone to Belle, I considered running over to tell them Hope’s name – because she doesn’t always answer when asked. But I remained seated assuring myself that it was more important for her to do this by herself than for everyone hear her name. When it was her turn, they introduced princess Hope. She told them her name!

View attachment 240596 View attachment 240597 View attachment 240598

At the end she came running over to us and exclaimed, “Hope was a picture frame!” I hugged her so tight and told her, “and you were the BEST picture frame in the entire world!”

It took me a bit to regain my composure and I’m sure that several people around us must have thought I was completely insane. As soon as we exited, I had to paused to text pictures to two of her therapists that have been with us since she was 2 years old! They no longer "officially" work with us - aka they don't get paid to work with Hope. They are considered part of our family and they continue to keep in touch with us so they can be a part of Hope's life. I am very blessed. So I just had to let them know about our picture frame!

Every time we go to Disney, Hope seems to show a huge “growth moment” and this was definitely one of them.

I am crying with you! Yay Hope!

 

[blreinsel]

Hope's experience at Enchanted Tales melts my heart! What a huge milestone!

 

[Figment Forever]

Port Orleans French Quarter and Riverside share Lifeguards, the ones cleaning the pools. Riverside unlike French Quarter has so many pools to clean. One by one they got to them all. Most of the CMs that are lifeguards at the resorts are college program students. Most stayed overnight at one of the resorts. They were also the same CMs that were entertaining the Children in the Lobbies. As they did not have homes to protect and double time wages if they agreed to hurricane duty they were one tired pumpkins. Our at the Wilderness Lodge were running day 2 on about 4 hours sleep. But they generally have low pay and rent to pay, hurricane duty while so tired they came away with both an experience to share and 2, 24 hour days of of good overtime pay. A win for those low paid CMs and the guest. Kudos to them.

The CM's were AWESOME! They did so amazing entertaining everyone in such a stressful time.

I keep feeling for you in this part of your trip. I had these feelings the first hurricane we endured. This was hurricane #3 for me and my family. I was confident in the buildings. My DD and I slept right through the impact. Oddly my DS did not. He did not sleep well and was concerned like you. I was a bit surprised, he is my oldest, his late 20's and surprised he didn't really remember hurricane #2 at Disney.

I'm hoping this was our first and last! But I am so glad we did not cancel.

I'm kinda sad you missed the couple days before the hurricane in the parks. We pretty much walked onto everything. The day before the hurricane we did Future World completely and the World Showcase. We moved onto the Magic Kingdom and walked onto everything. We left Tomorrowland at 930, 900pm close but they continued to allow late arrivals on attractions. But like you guys we also found the parks pretty empty the next few days too.

I also wished we had the day before in the parks - but no regrets, we had an great time! I don't we will ever walk onto so many attractions again. I wish Ross had been with us to experience it. I think he thought I was exaggerating when I described it to him.

We spoke to a photopass photographer at the WS entrance. He said how they were contracted and with their personal time most had opted to take time off and many moved North of the impact. He was one of the few photo pass photographers we saw in Epcot re-opening day. The Characters were out and their handlers but not matching photographers. People were just taking their own photos. I felt for the people who had purchased photopass. Mine was with my annual pass, still others bought the package. I hope Disney dealt with all that.

That makes sense then. There were a few characters - like Mary Poppins - who did not have a PP photographer.

 

[Figment Forever]

Wow! What a great morning at an empty MK!

Glad to hear that Hope liked BTM

I hope Julia's foot problem isn't too serious!

It was awesome - a once in a lifetime feeling.

There would be many more rides through the wild wilderness.

Her foot seems to be fine now. I think it was a "Disney drama issue." But she was a trooper the whole trip.

Other than Julia's foot pain, it sounds like you all had an AMAZING day at MK!

Yes - it was perfect, even though we were missing Ross.

So happy for Hope, I am still wiping away tears. A great reminder of what Disney is really magical at doing. Makes me want to apply for a job there right now!

I still get emotional thinking about it. Disney is truly a magical place!

This made me cry! I'm so happy for you!!

Thank you!!

I feel bad for Julia. I hope her foot will get better soon in your TR! It's awful having to walk so many miles with pain in your feet. Especially if it feels like there's a bone out of place.

I think she wanted to hop in Hope stroller at times!!

 

[Figment Forever]

Wow! I’ve been following your reports for several trips and it is such fun to see the progress Hope has made. What an amazing accomplishment for Hope. Julia is such a perceptive young lady! It’s wonderful that she is such a champion for her sister. Hope Julia’s foot didn’t cause too many problems for her!

Thank you so much @LisaBelle !! I keep telling Julia she should think about becoming a therapist - she has great insight. We dealt with her foot - it was very strange and we still don't know what brought it on.

I would say that morning in MK was worth all the Hurricane precautions. Awesome that Hope loved BTMRR!

Thanks @fractal! I have no regrets abut going early. It felt like a once in a lifetime experience!

Wow, reading your story about Hope brought me to tears!! You have such an awesome family

Thanks so much @becca_ ! I still get emotional about it!

I am crying with you! Yay Hope!

Thanks @meg0039 !

Hope's experience at Enchanted Tales melts my heart! What a huge milestone!

It was so special - I can still get weepy about it!

 

[Figment Forever]

Yay for hope!

Thanks so much!!

 

[Figment Forever]

Sorry guys, I'm trying to catch up here. It's the last week of soccer for Hope and Julia has a workshop upstate this weekend so I'm trying to sneak some time to write. Plus Disney's PP website is so tedious downloading all the photos. It took me hours to get all my pictures off before they expired.

A little off topic... What did you my Princess Hope want to be for Halloween?

Yep - there's my Hope... The Joker! lol Julia is Bendy from "Bedny and The Ink Machine". So not a Disney Halloween for us!

That's my sis - the one who was mad at me for flying into a hurricane. She made the girls' costumes.

 

[Figment Forever]

Day 5 Continued...

We hopped on the express monorail to the TTC and then onto a monorail to EPCOT.

Once again, Hope was not happy with the monorail ride. She covered her ears and rocked back and forth a little - which meant something was REALY bothering her. Again, I think it was the loud “whooshing” noise of the air flow. (At least, I think that’s what is was.) I tried distracting her by having her look outside along the way.

Soon we reached EPCOT.

I suggested we ride Spaceship Earth, Hope didn’t want to ride, but I told her we were riding. For some reason, she didn’t like it this time which I found strange because she really enjoyed it last year especially creating her own future. She kept her hands over her ears which meant she wasn't too thrilled.

 

[Figment Forever]

We headed over to The Land. I was going to get a return time for Soarin, but there was only a 10 minute wait, so they let us walk on.

Then we walked across to LWTL and again there was no wait, we walked right on.

I really like this ride - but it reminds me of the horrible gardener I am!

We were getting really hungry. Since our ADR for Boatwrights was canceled 2 nights before, we had to schedule another reservation. We decided on eating in WS – but where did we go?

 

[Figment Forever]

We headed towards WS. We walked by Imagination and couldn't help but ride once.

No - not Mexico....

No Norway for us this time...

We thought about China, but didn't like all the reviews.

Japan – Julia’s favorite! For a long time, Hope hated Hibachi restaurants – she hated the heat from the table and the fire. But I was feeling pretty good that she would be okay – so that’s what we decided on.

We checked in and got a pager, which I think we had in my hand for 2 minutes before it went off. Lol We headed upstairs to a very empty restaurant.

 

[Figment Forever]

We sat at a cooking table and for a few minutes I thought maybe we would be all by ourselves, but right after we gave our orders they sat another family.

Hope ordered the chicken, Julia got chicken & shrimp and I got the scallops. It was all amazing! Either that or we were just ridiculously hungry. The chef put on a great show. We all cleaned our plates. The only thing I didn’t like was that they cut up the noodles into little pieces – which I thought was odd.

For dessert, Hope got the fruit cup, I got Green tea ice-cream and Julia got the green tea cake.

Needless to say, we were stuffed when we were done and waddled downstairs to check out Julia’s favorite store.

 

[Figment Forever]

I think Hope loves everything Pokémon because of her sister.

We really liked the tribute to Japan pop culture.

 

[Figment Forever]

When we exited, we decided to walk around WS for a while.

We walked over to the American pavilion. I had heard so many good comments about the show; I really wanted to see it. When we got there, I was afraid we missed it for the day, but we were in luck as there was one more show. We had a little time so we sat down and relaxed a few minutes. Julia’s foot continued to bother her on and off so I figured this was a good way to rest it for a while. We looked around for a bit.

Hope found a painting she liked.

The CM’s were awesome here. They chatted away with us. One led us to the elevator upstairs and told us we could relax in the theater.

Needless to say – it was quite empty. I would say there were about 2 dozen people when the show started. It was a great show! When we left, Julia asked if we could go back and see it again.

 

[Figment Forever]

As we left, we realized our walk around WS would be interrupted. It was 9:00pm and time for Illuminations. Julia and I really didn’t want to watch but as soon as it started it got dark and I really didn’t want to walk into anyone, so we paused to watch it. Hope was happy. It was a nice show. I don’t know why I don’t like Illuminations like the other fireworks shows.

When it ended, we started to walk again – it was EMH. Julia wanted to get a crème brule so we headed over to France. We walked into the country for the first time. I find it amazing that we never really stop and explore around. When we found the bakery, I couldn’t believe how pretty and large it was. I thought the gift shop had a few unique things. Being a Marie fan from The Aristocats – it was nice to see her represented.

Julia had her crème bruile and I got a frozen something – I forget what is was. I think it was cappuccino.

We sat and relaxed and talked about our adventures thus far. Hope was fast asleep.

 

[Figment Forever]

We completed our walk around WS and made our way back into FW. The park seemed quiet even though there was still an hour to EMH left. Julia wanted to ride Mission Space so I told her she could ride by herself - since I knew Hope was out for the night. She did. I waited by the little space playground.

When she came off I knew something was wrong by the look on her face. I was worried about her foot – so I hesitated before I asked her. It was not her foot – it was the new mission. I asked how it was and she said she wanted me to form my own opinion and she didn’t want to taint my reaction – but she thought it was horrible. “Boring” was the first adjective followed by “disappointing”.

I wanted to pick something up at the Imagination Pavilion – so Julia rode solo again and met me in the gift shop.

Then we said good-night to EPCOT.

Hope never woke up. Julia took charge of the stroller while I carried her on the bus. It was funny, the line for POR was pretty full but there was only a few people waiting for FQ- that bus was right in front of our stop. I joked with Julia that we should take the FQ bus and walk over. But her foot was still bothering her so I thought it was smarted to be patient and wait. The bus for FQ pulled up and the few people got on and then the bus rolled a few feet ahead and stopped for POR! We had to laugh... we could have gotten right on and still went to POR. We let everyone fill up this bus and then waited for the next one so we could get a seat. It wasn't too long of a wait and soon we were on our way. It was a great first day in the parks.

Eevee was waiting for us when we got back home.

Up next: Hurricane Irma has passed, but Tsunami Ross is on his way.

 

[lostpro9het]

but she thought it was horrible. “Boring” was the first adjective followed by “disappointing”.

As the kids say these days, she is on point! The new MS is a poor replacement for the lieutenant Dan version.

 

[disneypearl]

I'm glad that you were able to make a showing of the American Adventure. It is such a great show! I think it's a hidden gem in the World Showcase. I always leave wishing they sold a cd of the songs, but no such luck.

 

[12in12]

I feel the same way about Illuminations, I have tried hard to like it but just don't.

 

[riverside]

As the kids say these days, she is on point! The new MS is a poor replacement for the lieutenant Dan version.

I was not impressed with the new MS in the least either.