Day 2- Magic Kingdom
This trip was scheduled to be a 7/6 (evolved into a 8/7 then went screwy from there) with Magic Kingdom bookending the trip. One bit of non-MK news from this day was that we were able to book a Soarin FP+ for our last scheduled day!
Our first day ended with my iPhone telling me I walked just over 13 miles on day one. But with day 2 being our only opportunity for my absolute #1 favorite Disney thing---ROPE DROP- we were back at it early on day two. We used snack credits for breakfast at the Riverside Mill Food Court (along with our refillable mugs). In our mental battle between Pop Century & POR, this was one that was definitely in Pop's favor. The biggest issue, and one that comes into play later, was with the soft drinks. Each Coke dispenser was spitting out flat Cokes. Ever notice you've never seen a flat Coke in a room with a Pepsi at the same time? After our quick breakfast, we headed to the bus and were on our way to the parks. Here is as good a place as any to give a tip of the cap for the installation of the bus time trackers at the bus stops. Overall, bus service was a wash between POR & Pop.
We got to the park in time for rope drop (I think I have pics, will add in another entry). I dont know why, but I take that over anything Disney does. Each year I have a different daughter or niece on my shoulders as we sing along. If you've had multiple jobs in your life. If you've lived in multiple homes. If you've had multiple cars. You know that feeling you sometimes get when someone says the words- work, home, or car. You have that one that is firmly entrenched in your mind's eye. The word home comes up, I usual, for a moment will catch a flicker of a memory from a one bedroom apartment my wife and I first lived in 17 years ago. Well, when I think of, or hear Disney, I think of Rope Drop at Magic Kingdom.
A little after noon we caught the boat to the Wilderness Lodge. I love the Wilderness Lodge. I mean, my "If I win the lottery" resort is the Poly. But the, "When I get the kids out of this house: resort is the Wilderness Lodge. I love everything about this place and the lobby is one of my favorite locations on property. We were there to do lunch at Whispering Canyon. During our last trip a very odd CM bothered McCall so much that I just had to book it again for this trip. Other than the opportunity to be kinda mean to my younger sister, we genuinely like this restaurant. After eating our body weight in ribs, sausages, and potatoes, we decided to take go back to POR for a midday break. Lisa and Butch stayed behind and did.... whatever old people do? I'm thinking Small World, Country Bear, the railroad. The rest of us crashed for three hours.
We returned in time to catch our second and third favorite WDW productions with Celebrate the Magic and Wishes. And all it cost us was having to sit through the Main Street Electrical Parade. Guys, I don't get it. My father loves it. My sister loves it. My wife does not hate it with the proper vigor. Ella, playing the "Daaaaaad... My feet hurt" card really hard enjoyed the show from my shoulders. By 10:45pm we were headed out of the park.
By 11:45pm, we were settled into our beds. Lawton and I shared one bed. Brandi and Ella the other while Madison had the small bed. While in bed we laughed as we heard Jackson (my one year old nephew) yelling in the next room. We are horrible people and knew that Jackson was terrorizing the other room. This is where it gets interesting. We all have a minimum amount of sleep we need to operate. For me it is 5 hours. So, I ask my wife for the time. She said 12:10am, to which I replied, "All right guys, we have to be up in 5 hours and 10 minutes". Within a minute the room was quiet and Madison was already snoring. And then it happened.
At approximately 12:40am, I awoke to Lawton, our first child and only son, in the midst of a grand mal seizure. His mother is epileptic so I have seen three of these in my life. But this one was different, especially considering he had never had one before. I know the drill, don't restrain, don't stick anything in their mouth, roll them on their side so they dont choke. I'm doing that while screaming for help. The best I can describe it was like having an out of body experience. Two minutes into the seizure, with my father on the phone with 911, I remember standing over Lawton and I could see his right eye. It was open and the blood vessels were blowing like a row of dominoes falling. All I remember thinking was, "that's weird" while crying like a fat kid with a skinned knee. A moment later, McCall throws me out of the way and says, "He's not breathing". Sure enough, Law was turning purple. She performed mouth-to-mouth and, like magic, everything settled down. His seizure was over and he was breathing.
Faster than you could imagine, two, followed by four more, EMTs arrived in our room. With the most unbelievably authentic bedside manner, while still maintaining their professionalism, these men had my son checked out and transported the three of us (Law, Brandi, me) to a hospital in Celebration. Within 2 hours we had a CT scan an EKG and a doctor to explain everything to us. The doc said everything looked fine and Law was perfectly healthy. Said if this is his one and only, and unfortunately it would not be, that we could chalk it up to the body just hard re-booting. We headed back to the hotel and watched over our boy as he slept. The next day was a wash as we took the doctor's orders and gave Law 24 hours+ to rest.
Not wanting this one post to drag any longer than necessary, I want to reference a "win" and a "loss" here. Disney, and POR were excellent during this. They followed up with us constantly. Were willing to pay for our cab fare back to the resort (we didnt let them). When we decided to extend our stay an extra day because our rest day prevented us from going to the park, they gave us the extra day free of charge. They were excellent and would be even more so after the next episode after day 5. I will forever speak the praises of POR and of their staff. And yes, we've already sent the War & Peace of thank you e-mails to disney with the names of everyone who went above and beyond for us.
As for the loss, it goes to the foodcourt. As I mentioned earlier, my wife is epileptic. Her trigger is artificial sweeteners of all things. She has to avoid diet drinks, gum, etc. Well, as I also mentioned earlier, we had a problem with flat Cokes, from the dispensers throughout the stay. On day 3, as we were lounging around the resort, the issue with the drinks came back up. Lawton echoed what we said as I tried my luck at the dispenser he had been trying all week. Well, the Coke wasn't flat, it was diet coke. We do not know what his trigger is yet, but best we can tell it is NOT diet coke. But in a time when food allergies are getting the attention they deserve, this should also be monitored.
