Thanksgiving with Mickey again...a November 2016 TRIP REPORT! (DONE)

[kittylady1972]

I am so sad to hear this news. I had a grandfather that I watch battle with cancer. I was in my first year of college when they stopped all treatment. I will be praying for your family.

Thank you for your kind words. Sorry about your grandfather. Sadly I have a very similar experience as my kids probably will soon know. My grandmother (my mom's mom) battled colon cancer and passed away during my senior year of high school after battling it for quite some time. Not long after that, my other grandmother (my dad's mom) was diagnosed with cancer. Since she was in her 80s at the time, she decided not to undergo any treatment. She died about a year and a half later, when I was starting my second year of college. I still recall that last visit I had with her when I drove home for the weekend and I'm not even sure she knew I was there.

My kids have never had really any experience with death of somebody close to them....which is a good thing. The closest thing for comparison was when my last grandparent, my mom's dad, passed away suddenly back in March 2006, right after my birthday. My kids were 5, 3 and 1 at the time though so while they had the chance to enjoy getting to know their great-grandfather, and he got to know them, they didn't really know or understand much about his death. I didn't take them to the funeral...they stayed with my in-laws instead for that.

So my heart breaks for them thinking about how hard this will be for them to go through. I lost my first grandparent at about age 8 or so, but I wasn't terribly close to him as my dad is the 2nd youngest of 8 kids in that family so it was a huge family that we mostly saw on holidays and sometimes summer gatherings. I can recall the day my mom got the call from my dad that he had passed just as I recall the days I received word of my grandmother's passing in college and of my grandfather's passing suddenly in 2006. Those moments just stay with you and I am not looking forward to my kids having that memory with them.

 

[piglet1979]

Thank you for your kind words. Sorry about your grandfather. Sadly I have a very similar experience as my kids probably will soon know. My grandmother (my mom's mom) battled colon cancer and passed away during my senior year of high school after battling it for quite some time. Not long after that, my other grandmother (my dad's mom) was diagnosed with cancer. Since she was in her 80s at the time, she decided not to undergo any treatment. She died about a year and a half later, when I was starting my second year of college. I still recall that last visit I had with her when I drove home for the weekend and I'm not even sure she knew I was there.

My kids have never had really any experience with death of somebody close to them....which is a good thing. The closest thing for comparison was when my last grandparent, my mom's dad, passed away suddenly back in March 2006, right after my birthday. My kids were 5, 3 and 1 at the time though so while they had the chance to enjoy getting to know their great-grandfather, and he got to know them, they didn't really know or understand much about his death. I didn't take them to the funeral...they stayed with my in-laws instead for that.

So my heart breaks for them thinking about how hard this will be for them to go through. I lost my first grandparent at about age 8 or so, but I wasn't terribly close to him as my dad is the 2nd youngest of 8 kids in that family so it was a huge family that we mostly saw on holidays and sometimes summer gatherings. I can recall the day my mom got the call from my dad that he had passed just as I recall the days I received word of my grandmother's passing in college and of my grandfather's passing suddenly in 2006. Those moments just stay with you and I am not looking forward to my kids having that memory with them.

I remember finding out about my great grand parents passing. The first one dies when I was in 3rd grade. I even remember everything about the funeral. It is like it is ingrained in my brain. This was my first grand parent to pass away and the first time I had to deal with cancer. I came home from school on a friday. I drove a friend back to my house and her parents picked her up their. My mom was crying on the phone in the living room. She got off the phone to tell me that my grandfather (my step-dad's step-dad if that makes sense) stopped all treatment and did not have long to live. He was already at the nursing home. On Saturday we went to visit him. I am not sure he knew we where their. I tend to be the strong one in the family when it comes to this stuff and I was the only one that was able to hold myself together while there. I cried when I got home. I went back to school in Sunday and talked with all of my teachers on Monday. He passes away on Monday night or Tuesday. I was lucky to make it home for the funeral. I was running late driving the 2 hours home, ran in the house to change and ran back out the door. When I left the awake all the antifreeze in my car was now on the ground.

I am 37 and have been very lucky to still have all of my biological grandparents, though my mom's parents are not doing great. My grandma is at the last state of Alzheimers and my grandfather mind is not great either. We have lost all of my step-dad's parents but besides that I have been very luck. We are now dealing with some medical issues with my husbands grandparents and I know that will be tough on my kids they are 9 and 10. I agree that I don
t want them to have the memory of that. I want them to only remember the good times. I guess it is just part of life but it really just stinks.

 

[kittylady1972]

I remember finding out about my great grand parents passing. The first one dies when I was in 3rd grade. I even remember everything about the funeral. It is like it is ingrained in my brain. This was my first grand parent to pass away and the first time I had to deal with cancer. I came home from school on a friday. I drove a friend back to my house and her parents picked her up their. My mom was crying on the phone in the living room. She got off the phone to tell me that my grandfather (my step-dad's step-dad if that makes sense) stopped all treatment and did not have long to live. He was already at the nursing home. On Saturday we went to visit him. I am not sure he knew we where their. I tend to be the strong one in the family when it comes to this stuff and I was the only one that was able to hold myself together while there. I cried when I got home. I went back to school in Sunday and talked with all of my teachers on Monday. He passes away on Monday night or Tuesday. I was lucky to make it home for the funeral. I was running late driving the 2 hours home, ran in the house to change and ran back out the door. When I left the awake all the antifreeze in my car was now on the ground.

I am 37 and have been very lucky to still have all of my biological grandparents, though my mom's parents are not doing great. My grandma is at the last state of Alzheimers and my grandfather mind is not great either. We have lost all of my step-dad's parents but besides that I have been very luck. We are now dealing with some medical issues with my husbands grandparents and I know that will be tough on my kids they are 9 and 10. I agree that I don
t want them to have the memory of that. I want them to only remember the good times. I guess it is just part of life but it really just stinks.

So sorry to read all that but definitely know how you feel.

 

[kittylady1972]

I feel like all I do is come here and bring bad news. Just as I was still processing the news about my MIL, my dad emailed me to tell me how poorly my own mom is doing currently. That sucks because I am just so far away and can't do ANYTHING for him. He is doing really great helping her, which he has done for as long as I can remember...but I know it can't be easy. All I know is as of this week she is sleeping most of the time, eating very little, and the cancelled her planned chemo treatment that she was to resume this week because she is simply too weak to tolerate it. I haven't broken the news to my kids about the latest diagnosis of THIS grandmother. The saw her at Thanksgiving, they knew how weak she was at the time, they haven't been provided as much detail about her condition because I've been waiting myself to hear about it. When I talked to my dad on Saturday, he gave me some hope. His email two days ago blew all that away because it sounds like she is simply ready to give up. Honestly can't blame her, she's been through so much but I do believe if she fought a bit she would have plenty left in her to give. I just don't know if mentally or physically she can do it.

We have plans to visit my parents next weekend, it's about a 7 hour drive from home for us. I'm bringing the kids but I'll need to prepare them at some point in case her condition has gotten worse. I told my dad to keep me updated. I still have hope that she will bounce back, I have to right now. However I also need to prepare myself for other possibilities and I need to make sure my dad has all the legal stuff in place to handle her care should he need to make some decisions. We've done a lot of this same legal stuff with my FIL regarding my MIL and now I need to do it with him. I emailed him lots of things I think he needs to do because if she doesn't improve at all there is a good chance she'll end up in the hospital.

Tonight we will hang out with my in-laws and have dinner and just enjoy our time with them. Expecting some horrible weather here in MD tomorrow so expect I'll be home all day and might get out another update. We'll see.

 

[ariane37]

My kids have thankfully never had to deal with the death of a loved one, but I remember all too well what it feels like as I lost my dad in 1999 at the age of 52 and my grandmother, whom I Was very close to, in 2004 when Ricky was only 2. I'm so glad she got to meet him. I know I keep saying this but I sincerely feel for you and your family and I wish you strength in them coming months to deal with everything, and also because I know you'll have to be strong for your kids, your dad, and your DH
On a happier note, your oldest DS's face is hysterical in the picture with Goofy where you guys are apparently attempting the can-can He clearly thought you all were nuts lol!

 

[kittylady1972]

My kids have thankfully never had to deal with the death of a loved one, but I remember all too well what it feels like as I lost my dad in 1999 at the age of 52 and my grandmother, whom I Was very close to, in 2004 when Ricky was only 2. I'm so glad she got to meet him. I know I keep saying this but I sincerely feel for you and your family and I wish you strength in them coming months to deal with everything, and also because I know you'll have to be strong for your kids, your dad, and your DH
On a happier note, your oldest DS's face is hysterical in the picture with Goofy where you guys are apparently attempting the can-can He clearly thought you all were nuts lol!

Thanks so much. We both feel we need to be strong for both of our dads, and our kids...and we just want to make things as easy as we can for both of them. I got better news by email from my dad last week and I spoke to my mom's sister over the weekend, who has been coming up to help my dad and staying with my mom so he can get out for a bit, and they were both encouraging. Sounds like my "threat" to visit my mom was enough (at least last week) to maybe motivate her to get up and around a little more so we'll see what happens when we visit this weekend.

Yes...that photo with Goofy was pretty...strange. I'm still not sure what Goofy was trying to get us to do...but whatever. Sometimes you just have to have fun with it.

 

[kittylady1972]

Life and stuff....

So if you read my response above, I did finally have some somewhat good news to report. I got a much more favorable email update from my dad last week about my mom. He mentioned she was getting up and around a little more and seemed to finally have more strength than she's had in quite some time. This was certainly good to hear as you can imagine. It's very likely that my "threat" of coming there to visit them, no matter what, may have been enough to motivate her to want to get up a little more. It could also be the effects of the radiation are finally clearing out of her system a little bit as well. I also spoke to my mom's sister over the weekend, who has been coming up to help my dad out, and she sounded a little more promising as well. This was all good news.

We spent some time Friday evening at my MIL and FILs house. I left work and picked up some dinner and we brought that over to them. They had some friends who have moved to Arizona in town and they came over as well. I really like this couple. We had a nice dinner and then all played some cards. My MIL chose not to play for some reason, but I know she enjoyed sitting there with us. While she's doing okay overall, you can just tell that she's in almost constant pain. I think they are supposed to visit a doctor soon to help her better with pain management. She still was in good spirits and we hung out for quite a while there which was nice.

Other than that, our weekend at home was pretty lazy. We did run out a few times to some home improvement stores as both DH and myself are scoping out making some improvements to our bedroom closets. We both have large walk-in closets in our bedroom, but I am a totally "collector" of stuff and my closet had just gotten out of hand. I wanted to make some improvements so we are scoping out some options for both of us. Other than that, we mostly stuck around at home, I had two tennis events on Sunday (played at 10am and then again at 7pm) and then we were all home yesterday and I played tennis again last night at 8:30pm.

I talked to my family a bit over the weekend about our upcoming May trip. Last week I had found availability for most of our stay at Boardwalk, and I almost moved us to that resort. When I checked again this weekend, that room was gone though. I really hate that we really do NOT have a stay at all for Sunday night right now. I'll continue to stalk the DVC website for openings for that night.

In other fun Disney news....my daughter and I got MagicBands last week...and they were the NEW ones!!!

These were annual passholder MBs, and since she and I upgraded our passes at the same time, we were listed as one shipment. I decided to pick colors and have them shipped...just to see what we'd get. Now that I realize they are the new ones, I have also had the boys select colors and their shipment should be next!

Also I had placed a Disney Store order a while ago, and found they had some MBs available at a discount. Though not the new ones, since I just LOVE Tigger, I ended up getting this one which arrived this weekend:

LOVE LOVE it!!

Note the PASSHOLDER slider on Tigger. I found this in our new MagicBand box after the fact. They are both orange which match Tigger perfectly of course.

Anyway it's the little things right? Having these certainly makes me look forward to our next trip so I can use them. DH got a StarWars MB as well from the Disney Store order, so now we all have "custom" 1st generation MBs and soon we'll have have the 2nd generation ones as well (or would they be 3rd, since I know the original MBs we have there are the thicker and thinner versions of those also).

I had hoped to get around to another update here over the weekend but it just didn't happen. I've got another busy week this week. Tonight after work is my daughter's weekly dance class, which she still attends even though she can't even put any weight on her foot yet. Tomorrow is her follow-up with her foot doctor to check her healing progress and get a timeline on when she can start using that foot again. I think we are still a few weeks out from that. Plus I have another tennis match to play tomorrow night. Thursday is my only true "free" day after work as of now...and it is also the day my oldest son will take his driver's license test! I scheduled it because my kids are out early from school that day, but since it's DHs day to pick them up, he'll be the one taking my son for his exam. FINGERS CROSSED that he does well! If he passes of course, it means my car insurance will go up, but if he doesn't pass I guarantee he'll be devastated for a while and it will be tough to get him to attempt it again anytime soon. I'm not in a hurry for him to drive really, but it will be nice for him to have that option if needed.

And just for fun, here's a photo taken last week of 2 of my five crazy animals:

Yes that's our youngest cat/kitten, laying there in the dog's crate, and what does the dog do? Nothing...she just goes somewhere else to sleep. It's funny that the kitten does her share of swiping at the dog from time to time when she gets too close to her, but she has no problem taking over her crate!


Have a great week for those still following along here!!

 

[ariane37]

So happy for the good news! And I hope DD gets good news from the Dr., it must be killing her not being able to be as active as she usually is.
So what do you think of the new MB's? I must admit, without seeing them in person yet I don't like the look-they seem too wide. Are they heavier than the older ones? I have clients who will be getting them any day now but it's their first trip so they don't have anything to compare them to. Steve and I have our AP MB's so normally I'd decline them for May, but I want to see the new ones so I'll definitely get some for us.
Are there no resorts available for Sun. night of your trip or just none you want lol? Although moving for 1 night isn't ideal.....I hope something comes up!

 

[kittylady1972]

So happy for the good news! And I hope DD gets good news from the Dr., it must be killing her not being able to be as active as she usually is.
So what do you think of the new MB's? I must admit, without seeing them in person yet I don't like the look-they seem too wide. Are they heavier than the older ones? I have clients who will be getting them any day now but it's their first trip so they don't have anything to compare them to. Steve and I have our AP MB's so normally I'd decline them for May, but I want to see the new ones so I'll definitely get some for us.
Are there no resorts available for Sun. night of your trip or just none you want lol? Although moving for 1 night isn't ideal.....I hope something comes up!

Hey there...just finished browsing through your dining report. I think I had read the first report before...because I remember reading about the grapefruit beer and thinking yes because I am not a beer drinker AT ALL but I have had that grapefruit beer at EPCOT before and it's one of the few I like well enough to drink. I still don't end up finishing it, so I don't necessarily love it, but I do sip it a little bit.

Thanks for the kind words about my daughter. Yes it's driving her crazy...so hopefully we will be there soon enough.

As for my opinion on the MBs...they are nice and they NO they are not heavier at all. I'd say they are about the same as the new ones. I don't necessarily like the wider part of them...and I was curious how the center would remove because I remember seeing you can put that center piece in other items. However it can only be removed with a small screwdriver, and no I haven't tried it. So it wouldn't exactly be easy on a trip so change that piece out to put it in other items (like the keychains I feel like I've seen in the promotional material) but on the bright side...at least you won't lose it. For fun I figured my daughter and I could, if we wanted, swap out the center pieces and put them in each other's bands making them multi-colored...but I haven't tried it yet.

Regarding my Sunday night issue...there really aren't any studios available in the resorts I want for Sunday night...though I could get a 1BR but that's more DVC points that I don't want to use because I want to take several more trips this year so I am being conservative with my points. Right now we have BC Villas (a studio) Friday night, Poly Studio Sat night, and then nothing on Sunday and Poly Studio Mon-Tue night. At the very least I may drop the Poly Sat night if we don't get one of the other waitlists and probably drop BCV for Friday (as much as I want to stay there too) and then stay at SOG Fri, Sat, Sun and Poly Mon and Tues night. I'd love to get BCV even for Sat night at least, or Sat and Sun, but right now my waitlists are a studio at BCV for all 5 nights or a studio at VGF for all 5 nights. I truly think I may just drop VGF waitlist because I think the chance of that happening, with so few rooms there, is pretty slim. I can try for that for a future trip, since my daughter really wants to stay there.

We'll see...I'll wait it out a LITTLE bit longer maybe!

 

[ariane37]

Hi! Good to know about the MB's, but I get the whole having to unscrew them thing. I've seen those new keychains for them, too. I also would LOVE to stay at the VGF! But Steve never makes up his mind about trip dates early enough, I think that's the hardest DVC to get.
Thanks for reading my dining report, too! I haven't got my CHH review up yet; I'm trying to keep that equal with my TR so it should be done soon

 

[kittylady1972]

Hi! Good to know about the MB's, but I get the whole having to unscrew them thing. I've seen those new keychains for them, too. I also would LOVE to stay at the VGF! But Steve never makes up his mind about trip dates early enough, I think that's the hardest DVC to get.
Thanks for reading my dining report, too! I haven't got my CHH review up yet; I'm trying to keep that equal with my TR so it should be done soon

You probably saw I made it over to the dining report as well. I'm pretty sure I commented there too...I think.

Yes VGF is definitely difficult. I've promised my daughter we will try for it one day...maybe that will be a girls only trip! I keep talking about doing one with her...not sure if it will happen or not right now.

 

[kittylady1972]

Still no update here...sorry everybody! I'm just behind and this has been a busy, busy week at home. On the bright side, thanks to the admins/moderators who finally moved my report over to THIS thread since it's no longer a PTR.

This week has been filled with two evenings of tennis for me, dance (still observing only) for my daughter, my daughter's follow-up with her doctor on her foot AND then her first physical therapy evaluation and session, trying to do some organizing of my closet (my bedroom is a major disaster right now thanks to that one) AND then this happened yesterday:

This is my oldest son...he'll be 17 in March. That's the car I bought for him about a year ago in the background. That smile is because he took his driver's license exam yesterday and PASSED! So it's official...he is ready to hit the road. However as a parent...I'm certainly not ready for it. He still hasn't gone out solo quite yet but that might happen tonight.

Tonight we are making dinner at my in-laws and for anybody who has ever had this...I am making Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli, which is a copycat recipe of the version served at the California Grill. It happens to be a family favorite and it's easy to make. I've made it a few times and actually prefer mine better than theirs I think...and the price is much better too!

Tomorrow morning we hit the road early for a 7+ hour drive to see my parents in NC. That means sometime tonight between dinner, playing tennis from 9:30pm-11pm tonight, and tomorrow morning I really need to finish wrapping the gifts I have for my family! Some are wrapped but some are not quite yet. I hate to do just gift bags but given my short amount of time...that might be the case.

********************
In Disney trip news.....

I tried to book my airfare for May last night...and then I couldn't find the credit card that I JUST received. The flights have gone up about $15 for outbound (each) and $5 each coming back so I need to do that soon. I called the credit card company and they are rushing me a new card they said I should have Saturday...so hopefully Monday when I return I can book my flights.

I've also dropped my waitlist for VGF because I just don't think it's going to happen and since we are still technically "homeless" for one of those May nights, I just added a 1-night waitlist at the Polynesian. I think we have a much better shot at that one over any of the others. There are still 3 more months to see if either of my waitlists come through. The other one is for several nights at Beach Club. We still have a fallback reservation at Shades of Green just in case for the entire time.

I continue to stalk the DVC website for other options, but no such luck so far.

 

[kittylady1972]

Oh I almost forgot...I posted this yesterday on FB as a TBT photo just because he was so little. This was the same kid who got his license yesterday...back in August 2001 when he was just over a year old...and we never dreamed driving would be here so soon:

They just grow up too fast!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Greetings from the road. Travelling currently wih a box of ziploc bags at my feet for one sick girl and my stomach isn't feeling awsome either. Just 5.5 more hours to go until home where we departed Saturday morning leaving behind a sick cat there who I am hoping is fine. Wish I could say this trip to visit my parents was how I hoped it would be but it was not. Mom is in really bad shape and if things don't improve...dad will have no choice but to stop treatment and call in hospice. He is going to talk to a doctor this morning for options. My mom came out of her bed and room for maybe 30 minutes when we arrived Saturday, and maybe 20 minutes totally yesterday and that was to sit at the table to eat lunch and her dinner..but asked to be taken back well before dad could even eat his own meal. Dad is awesome and handling things well so far. I think we have accepted that things just may not improve. I'm going through a whirlwind of emotions about all that as anybody would expect. Focusing on the good parts of the weekend which was having a lot of famiy over yesterday which helped keep us all distracted. Glad my dad has family nearby to support him (my mom's sister and my dad's brother and his wife) and I just hope he reaches out to them when necessary.

Time to focus on happy thoughts though...because distractions are great.

 

[kittylady1972]

And so it has been detemined after my dad took mom to the doctor yesterday that they will now discontinue further treatment for her. Hospice visited today. Her timeline is very short. My inlaws had their hospice visit over the weekend. It is just a matter of time for both of them, most likely less time for my mom right now.

I'm struggling with what to do right now, where I should be and when. Sorry I don't have a happier post to share.

 

[piglet1979]

I am so sorry. I was hopping to hear better news. My thoughts and prayers are with you guys.

 

[kittylady1972]

I am so sorry. I was hopping to hear better news. My thoughts and prayers are with you guys.

Thanks so much.

 

[kittylady1972]

And so amidst all the stuff that we are dealing with right now, worried for our moms, planning out final arrangements, trying to stay strong for our kids and for each other...we needed some good news.

I checked out flight prices for our next planned Disney trip in May. The bad news is that the flights I was hoping for on JetBlue had increased in price, no longer making them a good option for us. The good news was that the Southwest flights I was looking to purchase actually DROPPED in price, giving us new options. After much discussion about using our SW Rewards points and how to best do that...we made a decision and so over the weekend I BOOKED our flights for our May 2017 trip. I think by May we'll all need this trip together, back to our happy place. I'm very excited to have this to look forward to right now.

Still no luck on getting ANY DVC room booked for the Sunday night of our planned 4-night stay. I have SOG booked for all of our nights and we just may end up keeping it, which would be fine. My husband paid for the flights out of his personal account, so if necessary I'll use my personal account to pay for the hotel.

I've also booked a few nights at Disney's Vero Beach Resort in August. This is a splurge for us and we've never been to this resort. My hope is to make those nights a second vacation after maybe spending a few nights at WDW before that. The reason behind this trip is because we had originally planned to do a Florida beach vacation in April of this year, during Spring Break, and during that time we were going to spend some time at a hotel along the Space Coast of Florida and then spend a day going up to the Space Center. Well with everything going on right now, we felt it was best to can that trip. We'll push it to August instead, and make that an end of summer celebration trip and during our Vero Beach stay we'll take time to escape and head up to the Space Center because my 12yo is really looking forward to it.

With any luck I'll get a true trip report update here soon. Tuesday is already a bit of blur for me during that time (that's where I left off) but I should be able to remember it by going through photos of the day.

 

[kittylady1972]

STUDIO TUESDAY

After a full evening at MK the night before, I said there would be no rush to get out and about this morning. Most of our FP+ reservations were for late afternoon at Hollywood Studios so I figured we would aim for an arrival around lunchtime. What a different trip this has been with the lack of rush to get out to the parks each and every morning...but that's fine.

My original plan was:
TUESDAY Nov. 22nd: This is another Magic Kingdom day because I feel like we'll need two of them. Originally had lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern here...now cancelled. Instead we'll catch a boat over to Wilderness Lodge around 11:30am to get lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe around noon. We haven't been here in years...hope we enjoy it. Perhaps a break in the afternoon for dinner and relaxation. We have FP+s for HS beginning at 4pm so we need to head over there no later than 3:30pm. TSM, Star Tours and ToT are the FPs, but the little kids can only do TSM. If we can find the Toy Story characters here, I'd like to try to have the boys meet them. We can grab dinner here...perhaps try to new Pizza Rizzo...or we can head offsite and maybe find something else. If we stick around long enough, and everybody is up for it, we can maybe catch Jingle Bell Jingle Jam here.

But we all know plans are always subject to change and this was no different. We did not make it back to MK this day as planned.

First order of the morning for me was to head over to Bay Lake Tower and get my parents checked out and on the road. Since they were checking out way before planned, I just wanted to make sure the front desk was aware of that. DH and I drove over to BLT, headed to my parents room and helped get their luggage and mom into the car. Plus I had to get the wheelchair so that I could get it returned to the rental company and I had scheduled that for later in the morning at Saratoga Springs.

The front desk guy was kind enough to let me know that I should contact DVC just to see about having points returned to my account due to the early departure. I knew DVC was under to obligation to do so. (as a side note...I did finally email DVC guest services about a week later, telling them of our unfortunate situation with my mom's health...and they kindly returned the points to my account which was awesome of them.).

We headed back to SSR and I mostly hung around the resort for the morning. I can't recall what time they picked up the wheelchair but I do recall that they ended up calling I think my HOME phone number (but I have Google Voice, which notifies me of voicemail there and translates it to a text to my email) and told me the guy was waiting for me. And so that was all settled.

I think at one point my brother went off to purchase diapers and the rest of us decided to walk over to Artists Palette to get some lunch and do some shopping. I think this was that day. We ordered some food to bring back to the room to eat for lunch.

After lunch was completed, we caught a bus over to the Studios to begin another park day. According to my photos and video, it looks like we arrived around 1pm or so.

Still getting used to not seeing the hat up here any longer!

Based on the photos, we decided to hit Great Movie Ride first. There was a bit of a wait, but we knew everything would have a wait. I recall the line winding around outside the ride, but at least it was a nice day and we had our refillable popcorn bucket so we got that filled quite a bit while on this trip, usually to help us get through the lines!

We warned my brother and family and one part that might be a bit scary...and so they distracted the kids when that came up but otherwise enjoyed the ride.

Still had plenty of time before our 4pm Fastpass...so what to do? I know at some point we did Muppets 3D but I can't remember when exactly. I recall checking the times for Playhouse Disney Live and knew the boys would LOVE that. However I knew that MY boys...would not love it. So we made the decision that DH would take the boys to see the Star Wars Launch Bay and DD and myself would hang with my brother and family and see Playhouse Disney Live.

I want to say we just missed the show when we arrived, so had decided to wait for the next one. Then we spotted a line for character photos that included Jake from the Neverland Pirates as well as Pluto...and I think Sophia? I am not up on my current Disney channel shows any longer! Anyway we waited in line for both Jake and Pluto which was fun for the boys for sure.

And....here was where I was going to insert those character photos...but I just checked my PhotoPass account and they are ALL GONE despite the fact that I'm a Gold Passholder. So check in later for those...I've emailed support about them!

Anyway after the character photos, we headed inside to see Playhouse Disney Live, which was just as I remembered it for the most part, years ago when I last when in with my youngest son.

The boys were mesmerized:

I just loved watching them take it all in here!

We met up with the rest of the group after the show. Boys were not too impressed with the Star Wars thing...said it seemed more like an advertisement for the movies than anything. Too bad.

The "big" boys and my SIL grabbed a libation at a nearby stand, the rest of us had some snacks, and we made our way over for our FastPass here:

Always fun of course and as you can see my DH is not the LEAST little bit competitive!

Not one of my better scores:

Now we had some time before Star Tours...and the boys were HUGE Toy Story fans, so when we spotted the line for Woody and Buzz across the way from TSM we knew we had to get it line to meet them. This was met with some groans...and it was a LONG wait and sometimes the air was pretty stagnant in there. We kept telling the kids they could get out of line and go do something else and we'd meet up with them. They never took us up on that though.

We had some fun with the props in the line:

Our group interaction here with Buzz and Woody was great, the little boys were so excited and it's a great photo...that hopefully I can share here soon!

Once done with that, it was time for more snacks...and then the rest of the group had a FP+ for Star Tours. Since I am not a huge fan of this, and the littlest one was still not quite tall enough for it, I sat this one out and hung with him.

Our next stop was Tower of Terror. Since our FP+ was for 6:30pm, I'm sure we got there close to that and it must have been dark. I don't have too many photos beyond this.

I know again that the little one was too small, and I think my brother hung with him this time while the rest of us went on TOT. My oldest nephew did NOT enjoy it too much...but he handled it pretty well overall.

It was getting a bit late...and it had been about 6 or 7 hours now...and this kid was wiped out:

We did a bit of shopping in the area where I picked up these little beauties:

And soon we caught the bus back home. We decided we'd grab a later dinner once we got back to the resort. After checking out the local places, we chose a mexican restaurant and I placed an online order and DH and my brother ran out to get it. I decided to take a quick nap while they were out.

I was clearly still recovering from our late night out at MK the previous night. I recall waking up when I heard the food arrive....but I never got up to eat until much later. By that time, everybody had some food and had gone to bed as it was probably 8:30pm or so when we did get the food.

All in all we had a great day at Studios despite not getting to everything we had hoped but it was all good.

 

[kittylady1972]

Do you believe in signs from above?

I hadn't planned on posting today because it's been a tough day. Yesterday my dad called me at work to say my mom had taken a turn for the worse and I should come soon. I got in my car and drive 7+ hours south to arrive at their house around 8:30pm. Mom was doing okay, weak but able to respond to me a little bit which was nice. I spent some time with her. My brother also arrived a few hours before me.

This morning...I was already dreading what was sure to come, wondering just how much longer we would have with her. I woke up several times at night but finally got myself out of bed just after 7am. My aunt, who was also here, was clearly upset and said my mom's breathing was very shallow. I went in to be with her and it was clear she was struggling. It was tough to watch and at some point I just felt...it was time to get my brother in the room also. We all gathered around and as if she knew we were all there...she didn't last very much longer...and then she was gone from this earth. I'm thankful to have been here...and of course devastated.

Today has been filled with planning and arrangements, things we didn't quite get to before but were working on doing.

And then...as I sat here..about 12 hours after her leaving this earth...I get an email from WDW indicating that my Beach Club Villa waitlist for May...something I never thought I'd have a chance to get...just came through.

It's like somebody knew I needed just a little extra magic today...and gave it to me.