I put this here since it happened while we were vacationing at wdw even though it's not necessarily Disney news. That said, here's a little story from our trip:
My wife and i had originally scheduled our trip to try and satisfy 3 things. First, we wanted to be there for the 40th. Second, we wanted to enjoy a few days during f&w. Most importantly, we scheduled this trip so we could get "belly pictures" for our baby to be! After a few months, we decided that trip was too close to our due date (November 2nd), so we moved the trip up a bit.
We ended up being booked 9/14 through 9/20 at akl kidani village. We were excited to learn there were going to be friends of ours there the same week! This was also our first stay at kidani, and we had a few dining reservations at new spots, so we had a lot to look forward to! We decided to drive figuring we’d be doing some extra shopping for little man including stops at the outlets and the mall at millennia.
The day we left, we had a doctor’s appointment as a final confirmation that my wife was still good to travel. We also did some research and had a map of hospitals every 30- 45 miles throughout the trip- just in case, and we brought all of our medical records of our pregnancy.
Our week was great! We loved kidani and I really, really liked having a vehicle on property. They accommodated my request of having us close to the lobby too. We enjoyed seeing our friends who were vacationing at the same time as us, and we were even able to meet up with friends we know who work there.
We really enjoyed getting some great pics at some character breakfasts; they really played up the pregnant thing lol. We ate at saana, rose and crown, via napoli, wolfgang puck express (best value for a counter service by far!!!) and kouzzina for the first time and loved them all. We even spent some time at the character meet and greets, and had a blast!
Monday came and we hit ak and mk for a few pics, took the afternoon off, and finished off the day at espnzone for monday night football. Oddly, we had even talked about leaving a bit earlier on Monday instead of Tuesday afternoon, but thankfully we didn’t. I enjoyed several beverages of choice at espnzone, so by the time we were back in our room falling asleep by 1130 was a fairly quick process.
Then the fun started, and my life changed forever!
Somewhere just after 2am I heard my wife get up from bed to use the bathroom. I vaguely remember her call my name the first time. But the second time was accompanied with “honey, I think my water broke…..”! I jumped out of bed and into the bathroom in a flash! “Maybe not. Maybe he just kicked my bladder” was what I arrived to. So, we crawled back into bed…. 5 minutes later, “nope! It definitely broke!”
Wow! We had planned “just in case”, but we really thought we were fine. We were 6 weeks early! I quickly helped her into comfortable clothes, got dressed, and grabbed what I thought we’d need for the drive to the hospital. We made our way to the elevator and to the empty lobby where I saw only one cast member doing custodial work. I asked for a manager, unfortunately she didn’t speak English very well, so she was a bit confused. So I gave a quick yell back towards the office lol.
The poor woman who answered got more than she was bargaining for. I said to her “ok, two things. First, I need exact directions to Celebration hospital. Second, we are supposed to checkout in a few hours and I don’t think we will be able to since my wife’s water just broke.” Her response was “huh?” (Inside I felt like laughing my rear off, but there were things that needed to be done) I repeated myself and she then insisted on calling 911 instead of us driving. We agreed and soon there after the ambulance arrived. I had pulled my car to the lobby, to follow them to the hospital.
Obviously, this drew the attention of what seemed like the rest of the cast members on duty. They were great! They got the info needed for the hospital and even got us laughing and a bit more relaxed for what was going on. My wife wasn’t having contractions yet, so it was a bit easier to be less worried I guess.
Off we went to celebration hospital! I won’t bore everyone with all of the non Disney/ medical stuff, so bear with me as I jump past a few things.
We were there for about 10 hours until they decided to transfer us to Florida hospital Orlando, near downtown. Still no contractions, so we thought it would be best if I stopped by the resort to let them know what the current status was since we were supposed to be checking out, plus there was no way I would have been able to keep up with the ambulance on that long trip up I-4.
When I got to the desk the shift had long since changed, so I again asked to speak to a manager thinking it would just be easier. While one cast member was going to bring the manager, the other two I was talking to asked if they could be of any help. I explained everything to them, as the manager was approaching, and was nearly scolded with concern. “You go take care of your wife. Don’t worry about the room. Just let us know when you won’t need it anymore!” Looking back I’m not sure why this surprised me.
I rushed back to the room to get a few other things we needed, and I was off to the hospital. The Walt Disney pavilion, to be exact!
Baby Elias (yes we had this name picked before the trip- lol) was born at 1:50 pm on Tuesday September 20th- 5lbs, 13oz and 18” long! He was happy and healthy even though he was 6 weeks early! He did have high biliruben levels for jaundice, which can be very common especially in premmies, so he had to stay for observation for 4 more days.
We ended up using the room at kidani for 2 additional days until my wife had been discharged. And after checking in with them after little man was born, the front desk (everyone seemed to know who I was now- lol) gave us a little care package- a onesie, a ‘mickey’s first t shirt”, a signed pic of the fab 5 wishing him the best, and a mickey towel for a baby. The room ended up being given to us at a greatly reduced DVC point value.
I have to admit to breaking down in the elevator back to my room. They didn’t have to do any of those things. The room being available was enough.
After my wife was discharged, we both went back to akl to checkout. They overheard us joking to each other about maybe taking him into mk to get a couple quick pics before heading home, and gave us two one day park passes! We checked out very grateful and headed to the Ronald McDonald house to be closer to Elias for the rest of the time we were there.
I have to give a ton of thanks to the Ronald McDonald house as well! They were wonderful to us!
Two long days later, my little man was ready to leave the hospital! I’m sure some may think we were crazy, but we decided to go to mk for some pics. Elias was 3 days, 20 hours old when we took him into the Magic Kingdom for the first time!!! We got a few in front of the train station and with Mickey at the meet and greet in the town square theater. Then it was off on our trip home- with one additional souvenir, we had some very anxious grandparents waiting!
BEST DISNEY TRIP EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
