maroo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2008
During the performance two DISers were trying to get me on the phone. Of course, I could not really answer at the performance.
I returned the call and found out that they were heading out of Epcot. Oh no! I am going to miss them!
Heathersue and teresajoy have been my friends for a while. They are two of the ladies primarily responsible for The Big Give (where the ladies and men that are DISboutiquers make custom clothes for children going on Wish Trips). They did Lauren’s Big Give before her trip.
And I help with the Big Give every now and then, so we still talk often. And they were in Epcot! For just one night. And this was the last night of their trip.
I was hoping to catch up with them to watch Illuminations. Heathersue had left me a message on my phone to let me know that they were tired and heading out of the park soon.
I called and left them a message that we were going to try to ride Soarin’ before Rachel had to get back to the room early to take care of some medical stuff, but it was a while before I could call them back so I suspected they had already headed out of the park. 
We had decided that the four of us (Rachel, Rosemary, Joyce and I) should ride Soarin’ today for two reasons – one, we may not be back at Epcot after today and two, we wanted to make sure Ellie could ride it before we recommended that they come over to Epcot to get her to try it out.
So we headed to Soarin’. I had checked my iPhone application “Lines” earlier in the day and found that the FastPasses were already gone for the day when we arrived…so it was impossible for us to get a FastPass, so we would have to use the GAC. If we had not had the GAC, we would have had to skip the ride, because the wait was close to an hour and Rachel had to get back to the room because this was one of her long nights for medical stuff. Our entire schedule had been carefully planned around these nights when she has to do extra medical stuff.
By the way…”Lines” is a great application that is available on ALL phones that are web enabled. You go to m.touringplans.com and register. I believe it is free to everyone.
It has the approximate wait times and tells you predictions for wait times for the next few hours. It also lists “crowd scores” as determined by their statisticians and has a place where any user can add a time or let everyone using the application that a ride is “down” or update a wait time. The application is in BETA testing and the wait times are not 100% accurate, but I found that they were very close and definitely provided a lot of useful information that was easily accessible in the parks. I found myself checking it often. 
To ride Soarin’, Rachel has to be transferred on to the ride vehicle. She can’t take her cushion, either. But since the ride is only 5 minutes, it works for her. The ride, as always, was awesome and everyone enjoyed it!
At this point it was almost 7, I believe. We needed to head out of the park so that Rachel could get started on her stuff. I could have stayed in the park, but I was tired. The trip and lack of sleep was catching up to me and we still needed to get all of our stuff up to the room – I felt bad sending Joyce to the room to do all of that and take care of Rachel’s stuff.
On the way out, I noticed that Heathersue had called me. So I called her back. I expected her to tell me that she had headed out of the park already, since they had called to let me know they were heading back over an hour before that…but they were still there! And guess where they were…. THE LAND! They were right here! There was no way I was leaving without meeting them! Another blessing moment!
Joyce, Rachel and Rosemary were all a little confused…”You are meeting these people here? Now? How do you know them? You mean you have never met them?!?!?!” 
They were so confused. 
But, like almost every other DIS meet I have ever attended, I felt like I was meeting old friends. We hugged each other before we even really spoke. They were exactly like I imagined. I had read their trip reports from “cover to cover” and recognized them. We were all in pink shirts – which was so funny.
Here is our picture…They got pictures, too…so I hope theirs aren’t too bad of me.
It was great to meet them. We did not get to talk long. I introduced them to my friends and Joyce told me later that she really liked my friends!
Of course you did! I would only hang out with nice people! Joyce wanted to know all about The Big Give and was floored to think that people make custom clothes for people that they have never met.
We all walked to the buses and parted ways. I am so glad I got to meet them!
When we arrived, the bus had just pulled up and was letting people off! Another blessing moment! We really did need to get back to the room and get Rachel started on her meds for the night.
This time there was quite a line already for the bus. They have to load wheelchairs first, because if they didn’t, the person in the wheelchair is liable to run over their toes. Once Rachel is settled, they make us get on next and then let the rest of the people in line board. We had only one “rude” moment on the buses the whole trip (more about that later). I had heard nightmare stores from the DIS – but everyone was very kind to us. We were also considerate of them and stood in the bus until everyone else got a seat. I usually stood behind Rachel’s wheelchair in the corner of the bus, which is a pretty comfy place to ride, since you get to lean against the wall of the bus. 
In no time we were headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge!
But we were in for a surprise........
Up Next: Oh. My. Gosh.
I returned the call and found out that they were heading out of Epcot. Oh no! I am going to miss them!
Heathersue and teresajoy have been my friends for a while. They are two of the ladies primarily responsible for The Big Give (where the ladies and men that are DISboutiquers make custom clothes for children going on Wish Trips). They did Lauren’s Big Give before her trip.
And I help with the Big Give every now and then, so we still talk often. And they were in Epcot! For just one night. And this was the last night of their trip. I was hoping to catch up with them to watch Illuminations. Heathersue had left me a message on my phone to let me know that they were tired and heading out of the park soon.
I called and left them a message that we were going to try to ride Soarin’ before Rachel had to get back to the room early to take care of some medical stuff, but it was a while before I could call them back so I suspected they had already headed out of the park. We had decided that the four of us (Rachel, Rosemary, Joyce and I) should ride Soarin’ today for two reasons – one, we may not be back at Epcot after today and two, we wanted to make sure Ellie could ride it before we recommended that they come over to Epcot to get her to try it out.
So we headed to Soarin’. I had checked my iPhone application “Lines” earlier in the day and found that the FastPasses were already gone for the day when we arrived…so it was impossible for us to get a FastPass, so we would have to use the GAC. If we had not had the GAC, we would have had to skip the ride, because the wait was close to an hour and Rachel had to get back to the room because this was one of her long nights for medical stuff. Our entire schedule had been carefully planned around these nights when she has to do extra medical stuff.
By the way…”Lines” is a great application that is available on ALL phones that are web enabled. You go to m.touringplans.com and register. I believe it is free to everyone.
It has the approximate wait times and tells you predictions for wait times for the next few hours. It also lists “crowd scores” as determined by their statisticians and has a place where any user can add a time or let everyone using the application that a ride is “down” or update a wait time. The application is in BETA testing and the wait times are not 100% accurate, but I found that they were very close and definitely provided a lot of useful information that was easily accessible in the parks. I found myself checking it often. To ride Soarin’, Rachel has to be transferred on to the ride vehicle. She can’t take her cushion, either. But since the ride is only 5 minutes, it works for her. The ride, as always, was awesome and everyone enjoyed it!
At this point it was almost 7, I believe. We needed to head out of the park so that Rachel could get started on her stuff. I could have stayed in the park, but I was tired. The trip and lack of sleep was catching up to me and we still needed to get all of our stuff up to the room – I felt bad sending Joyce to the room to do all of that and take care of Rachel’s stuff.
On the way out, I noticed that Heathersue had called me. So I called her back. I expected her to tell me that she had headed out of the park already, since they had called to let me know they were heading back over an hour before that…but they were still there! And guess where they were…. THE LAND! They were right here! There was no way I was leaving without meeting them! Another blessing moment!
Joyce, Rachel and Rosemary were all a little confused…”You are meeting these people here? Now? How do you know them?
You mean you have never met them?!?!?!” They were so confused. But, like almost every other DIS meet I have ever attended, I felt like I was meeting old friends. We hugged each other before we even really spoke. They were exactly like I imagined. I had read their trip reports from “cover to cover” and recognized them. We were all in pink shirts – which was so funny.
Here is our picture…They got pictures, too…so I hope theirs aren’t too bad of me.
It was great to meet them. We did not get to talk long. I introduced them to my friends and Joyce told me later that she really liked my friends!
Of course you did! I would only hang out with nice people! Joyce wanted to know all about The Big Give and was floored to think that people make custom clothes for people that they have never met. We all walked to the buses and parted ways. I am so glad I got to meet them!
When we arrived, the bus had just pulled up and was letting people off! Another blessing moment! We really did need to get back to the room and get Rachel started on her meds for the night.
This time there was quite a line already for the bus. They have to load wheelchairs first, because if they didn’t, the person in the wheelchair is liable to run over their toes.
Once Rachel is settled, they make us get on next and then let the rest of the people in line board. We had only one “rude” moment on the buses the whole trip (more about that later). I had heard nightmare stores from the DIS – but everyone was very kind to us. We were also considerate of them and stood in the bus until everyone else got a seat. I usually stood behind Rachel’s wheelchair in the corner of the bus, which is a pretty comfy place to ride, since you get to lean against the wall of the bus. In no time we were headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge!
But we were in for a surprise........
Up Next: Oh. My. Gosh.
surfweb:
). Loving the TR so far. 
After a fun afternoon eating at LeCellier, attending the Candlelight Processional and riding Soarin we had to get back to the room and get settled. It was a little before 8:00 PM. 
So, we compromised and said we would take a regular room that was not technically labeled handicapped accessible if they would just add a transfer bench and a hand held shower head. We would just get Justin to help pick Rachel up if it was impossible for us to do it in the smaller bathroom. 
