Day 10 - Sunday, August 28
By the time my sister and I woke up at 8am (we slept in for once, lol), my aunt and grandma had hit the road. So, I called JetBlue right away to see about our flights. First, I checked the status on my phone, and sure enough:
Yeah, cancelled. Who would’ve guessed? Oh right, me, and all of JetBlue, despite what the customer service rep had told me the day before! So, before we checked out of POFQ, I called JetBlue and - shockingly - got to a rep in only 5 minutes!
Bad news - all the flights to Buffalo were booked until Thursday. My sister was starting a job at a new school (she’s a school librarian), and they had one seat left on a direct flight Tuesday night, so she took that seat. Then, I was on the same direct flight, but on Thursday.
I emailed my boss, who was not happy. But literally - what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars to fly on another airline, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten anything anyway (I know the AP was crazy on Monday).
At this point, I was running out of clean clothes, so before checking out of POFQ, I washed my laundry (and my sister’s) again. Then, we checked out and took a cab to POP.
The line to check in at POP was crazy! Literally, we waited 40 minutes (our longest line of the whole trip), and just before going to the desk, a manager met us in line. We asked her if they had rooms for the next few days, as we had to extend our stay past the one night, due to the hurricane. She had a laptop and checked - they had a room (thank goodness), and she also said to tell the CM to apply the hurricane discount.
Our CM was really nice, but a CP just starting (she was from Estonia, I believe), and check-in took a half hour. She didn’t know how to apply the discount, so my sister had to get the manager, who helped her. For the additional 3 nights, it was $214, which was a good discount, but neither one of us could afford it. What could we do, though?
Our room was in the last building, so we hoofed it over to our room. We’ve stayed in values before, but I have to admit, I missed our comfy room that became “home” at POFQ. Still, we decided to drop our stuff off, and we headed to AK to see Finding Nemo: The Musical.
Back on our first day, I promised my sister we’d make it back to see it, but we never made it back. At least we had an opportunity to get back there!
It was a scorcher, though, and we made it to the show, melting, enjoyed it immensely, and decided to head back to POP.
At this point, I would like to point out that somehow, all my pics are gone from this day! It was hectic moving hotels and running around, so I know I didn’t take many, but still, where’d they go?!
Anyway, another observation: I love the music at POP! Both at the bus stops (oh, and missed the covered bus stops at POFQ!), and in the buses, the music is awesome. On the POP buses back, they play a mix of oldies, newer songs, and classic TV theme songs. I was the only one singing, but that’s okay!
After a nap, my sister and I headed to MK for EMH. At this point, that rash on my leg was really bothering me. It had been on my leg for like 5 days, but it didn’t get worse or anything, so I just ignored it. Now, though, my leg was kind of swollen, and it really really bothered me.
So, in between attractions, we stopped off at First Aid. The nurse gave me some type of gel for rashes, and I applied it, moving along with the evening.
EMH lasted until midnight, and we made it until 11...we literally ran out of things to do - we had done everything! This was my longest trip ever, and was probably a little too long (well, just wait, you’ll see), but it was nice to be able to relax and slow down a little.
We did catch wishes from the walkway to Liberty Square. Partially blocked, but I’ve seen Wishes a million times, and it’s just nice to be there and see it, blocked or not. What we did get to see, though, was Magic, Memories and You! I was blown away! The effects were amazing, and I can’t wait to see how else they can apply this technology! It was really hard to see the pictures of people, and I dont know if I’d ever be able to pick myself out, but overall, I was blown away. We could only see the side of the castle, but it didn’t matter, the show was amazing.
I’m so sorry for the lack of pics! But, let’s move on to...
Day 11 - Monday, August 29 (Originally Scheduled Departure Day)
Okay, here’s where things kind of go off track...
I woke up Monday morning, and my leg was really swollen. My rash had like turned from a “normal” red rash (I thought it was heat rash!!!), to orange (sorry for being gross, lol). Half my calf was red, hard and hot, and it hurt - badly. At this point, I feared there was something really wrong, so my sister looked up urgent care centers, and we were going to take a cab. On the way out, we stopped at the desk to see if they recommended a place, but the line didn’t move and I was in agony so we went to leave.
A manager saw us and came over to see if she could help us. We explained the situation, and she took us over to the “quiet room.” Her name was Kelly Marlow, and she went out of her way to help, I want to say (thanks, Kelly!).
She said she could call us a cab to urgent care, but she suggested she call Reedy Creek Emergency first to come and assess my leg. I said that was fine, and the ambulance was there within minutes. In the meantime, she took my personal info so I didn’t have to give it 10 times (which was nice). The ambulance came, (one of the guys was named Rob - he was really nice!) and checked out my leg, agreeing that it definitely needed to be seen. They said they could take me to Celebration Health, but that I’d have to take a cab to Urgent Care. They did say that the ambulance ride is free, so they recommended going with them, so I did.
My sister rode shotgun, and I got my first ever ride in an ambulance. That’s kind of exciting...I guess. Here I was, on vacation, I should have been on a flight home by now, and instead I was on my way to the hospital.
We got to Celebration Health, and I went immediately to a room in the ER. Yes, a room. This ER was amazing! I had a huge room with a flat screen TV and my own bathroom. It was more like a spa than a hospital!
A nurse came in to ask me questions, then about 20 minutes later, a doctor came in, took a quick look at my leg, and prescribed me an antibiotic cream and also an antibiotic pill.
Kelly at POP had provided us with a taxi voucher to get back (she was amazing and so nice!), so we filled my prescriptions right in the hospital (luckily, my insurance paid so i only had copays), and called for the cab. Oh, and I paid $150 for the ER visit...yeah, I am on a really tight budget, and these extra days were really costing me! We had upgraded our tickets as well, so we could at least go to the parks for the extra days (came to only $50, but still, it adds up).
Still, we headed back to POP, I put on the creme and took the pill, and we decided to relax a little (I was supposed to take it easy on my leg), before going to Epcot that night.
My leg still really hurt, but I toughed through it, and enjoyed my favorite park. First, we enjoyed some chicken fingers at the Electric Umbrella:
A CM met us at the door and gave us a menu - nice new touch! It was like 5:05pm, prime dinner time, and the place was empty. They’ve messed around with their menu too much (and removed the toppings bar), so it’s sad to say that they seem to have lost their following!
Still, the chicken fingers were okay, and we had some grapes on the side. It tided us over, and on the way out, another market research CM stopped us. This time we qualified. He was a nice guy, but he was entering responses incorrectly, which my sister and I both noticed. Nice to give some of our opinions, though.
After the Electric Umbrella, we headed to one of my favorites, which we had missed so far:
I love this show so much:
And then we just kind of wandered around World Showcase. I could stay in Epcot forever, literally!
We stopped in Norway for some snacks. My sister had never been here (it was one of my mom’s favorites):
I had school bread (mmmmm...school bread):
And my sister had the cloudberry danish (sorry, no pic!). Amazingly, she didn’t really like it! I couldn’t believe it, but I guess to each her own! My school bread was amazing, as usual
We stopped in Mexico and bought my dad a Three Caballeros shirt, and then for our Epcot farewell this trip (for real this time), we took one more ride on SSE:
This was the wallpaper on my Nook, lol:
We called it a night, and I kept taking my meds (I had to take them like 4 times a day).