As the husband likes to say, with everything comes the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is also true of a Disney vacation. Let’s get the UGLY out of the way. . .
Our family traveled for 16 days, very FULL days. The airport was a 2 ¾ hours drive from our
home. We left our house at 6:30 am for
an 11:00 am flight. We arrived in Orlando at 6:00 pm Orlando
time. The next days were full of park
touring and cruising with Disney. It
also took a full day to return home. We
left our Disney resort at 8:10 for an 11:00 am flight. We arrived in Chicago before 1:00 pm to discover that our 3:00
pm flight to our next airport was cancelled.
After waiting for the airline’s customer service and talking to our
travel agent, we had seats on a 9:00 pm flight, luckily, and boarding passes
for standby on a 5:00 pm flight. After
two gate changes for the 5:00 pm flight, we watched the flight get pushed back
to 6:30 pm, then 7:00 pm. Finally, at
7:15, passengers were boarded. We
gathered our belongings and hovered at the counter watching the names on the
standby list—we were numbers 5, 6, and 7 on the list of twelve names. The boy was called first, but I went with him
to the counter explaining that there were three of us and held my breath. Boarding passes were printed and we were ON that
plane! It didn’t matter that we weren’t
seated together or that we had to gate check carry-on bags due to lack of room
in the overhead bins. We were on the
plane!
To contextualize our gratefulness, we had watched as folks
boarded planes, sat on the runway for four hours, deboarded, and the reboarded
again. We were hearing about planes with
no crews, many flights being canceled, and people trying to get home from as
far away as Paris—talk
about a long day! Also, we had initially
been told that there were no flights available until the next morning and there
would be no compensation for a hotel, etc.
Our moments of gratitude sank when the our plane sat on the
runway and the pilot announcing that they were getting a bad weather report and
were waiting for further directions. The
unknown status lasted for about ten minutes when we finally approached the
runway and took off. 30 minutes later we
landed. All of our luggage was on the
same plane and we gathered our bags and headed for home. You know you are a desperate vacationer when
you are buying your child a Fanta and mini donuts at 9:45 pm and tuck him into bed at midnight.
The quarter-sized angry blister on my right foot. |
The “UGLY” also included some physical ailments. I developed blisters about the size of
quarters—one on each foot. The blister
on the right foot popped when I pulled off the moleskin before bed on our last
night. It was quite a mess, but the good
news was that I was wearing flip-flops the next day. The blister on the other foot has yet to
pop. I am currently doing soaks in warm
water and Epson salts, which feels quite nice.
The husband also developed a red, blotchy, itchy rash that
traveled the length of his body. It
started on the ship on his arms and calves.
We requested bedding that had been double rinsed as he tends to react to
harsh chemicals. By the time we got to
Walt Disney World, the rash was traveling to his stomach and chest. We asked housekeeping for towels and sheets
that had been double rinsed. He went to
the First Aid station on the parks and was given topical ointment and Benadryl. We stopped at the First Aid stations at
multiple parks and bought Benadryl at our resort store. He then started wearing socks that covered up
his calves, protecting them from the elements.
All of this—the socks, Benadryl, topical ointments, and double rinsed
sheets and towels seemed to do the trick and his rash was fading by the time we
were coming home. He is continuing with
the Benadryl, eating yogurt, and taking acidophilus to reduce any incidents of
skin based yeast infections that he tends to be prone to.
Our baggie of moleskin and bandaids went with us to the parks every day. |
We were prepared for some things. . . we had packed
moleskin, bandaids, hydrocortisone crème, triple antibiotic ointment, and even
some over-the-counter allergy medication (though not enough for the entire
vacation). We also had an assortment of
medications for other potential needs including digestive aids, pain relievers,
and motion sickness.
There you have it; the “ugly” parts of our great summer
vacation. Glad to get them out of the
way!
Wow! That blister of yours is making my foot hurt. I'm glad you made it back; welcome home (and back to reality). We had a similar connection nightmare on our last trip and decided that we would only fly direct on all future trips. I'm looking forward to reading about the good, the great and the magical...so type, woman, type! I've been patiently waiting for 16 days and I'm sure you've got a lot to cover.
ReplyDeleteOkay. . . I'll get to typing. But back to reality also means back to work. More direct flights may be in our future. And, there was plenty of good, great, and magical! Thanks for being patient!
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