What the heck? Is this allowed? The mickeystoontown gang is back in the World and together again! Updated 4/13 x 6

mickeystoontown

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Introductions

Hi there and welcome to my latest trip report! I joined the Disboards in 2006 and started writing reports soon after. Over the years, I’ve chronicled our journeys several times over and I’ve met and made many dear friends and hope to make many more. When I joined, I had no clue that my writing reports and sharing my love for Disney with others would still be going strong 13 years later. But, here I am and here you are.



As I said in the introduction of my last report (you can find that here), I write about pretty much everything even if the story is embarrassing to myself or others that travel with us. As I tell anyone who comes to my house or hits the open road with me, if you do something that’s notable, it’s going on social media and trip reports. It’s a given. The warning has been issued. If you don't believe me, look me up on social media and/or stick around, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Believe me when I say, I’ve had some doozies when it comes to embarrassing and hilarious moments. I mean, who had their front tooth fall out at Electric Umbrella? That would be me. Who fell into a manicured flower bed when I insisted that we take jumping pictures. That would be John. What family put each other in a choke hold and gave each other noogies while waiting for Fantasmic to start? That’s my family. And who had the entire group of people in the quiet pool area at Caribbean Beach laughing their heads off as we recalled the time that John fell asleep in the rocker recliner and me waking up to find the recliner fallen over with John still asleep in it? That would be us!


So who are the cast members of this trip report? First, there’s me. My name is Lisa a/k/a mickeystoontown. I'm a full time paralegal in a law office that specializes in family law. I’ve often said that I want to be something else when I grow up and three and a half years ago, I turned my Disney passion into a business and became a travel advisor specializing in Disney vacations. After having made 20+ trips to Walt Disney World with my family, I figured why not put my “boots on the ground” experience to good use and start helping people make their dream vacations come true? In my spare time (like I have any...), I like to sew, cook, spend time with my family and pretty much anything that involves being outdoors.


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(These are broken! Mine are broken!)


I've been married to my husband, John, for 35 years. John is a master craftsman specializing in custom cabinets and furniture. Give that man a saw, hammer and a piece of wood and he can make anything you want. He started making cigar box guitars a couple of years ago and he does an awesome job. We also have an Etsy shop for our woodworking projects and his guitars. John has epilepsy which means our every day life can be turned upside in the blink of an eye. You never know when it will rear its ugly stupid head. Even after almost 30 years, we are still learning to adjust.

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(Just a little bitty sip from my boot!)

In January, 2019, we made the decision to take one road trip per month for the entire year. We just went on our September, 2019 trip and have started planning our October trip. On some of those trips, we have stayed two days but on many, they are just day trips. We have visited national parks, a world historical site, several antebellum homes, searched for treasures in flea markets, won a few dollars in the casino, posed with Bigfoot and eaten some wonderful meals. These trips are all very budget friendly so that we can save for our annual Disney trips. They also help us keep our sanity until we are in our happy place again.

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(I feel like there's someone or something behind us!)

Also in the cast of characters are our two grown children, Lacey and Hunter. They grew up on Disney. Lacey was 11 on her first visit and Hunter turned 1 on his first. Lacey got a bit of a late start compared to Hunter but, even before our first trip to Walt Disney World, she was a fan of all things Disney.


Lacey is married to Jesse who likes Disney but isn’t as passionate about it as the rest of us are. They met when they were attending missionary college in Georgia and married soon after they both graduated. Jesse had gone on several men’s church trips and had used the majority of his time off work for those so he talked Lacey into going on the Disney trip with us and he’d stay home with their two dogs. Lacey is assistant administrator at a daycare and preschool. The same one that she attended as a baby. She is working with one of the ladies who used to love on her when she was just a baby. Isn’t that crazy!?!

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(Is there something on my face? No? Okay!)

Hunter is our music loving librarian. He is in a Christian metal band, Weeping Hour. They recently released their album and it rose to the Top 10 in metal music on iTunes within 24 hours of its release. They have also toured and played through several States with the most recent being in New York City! Not too bad for a boy from a small town in Louisiana. Hunter works at a local library as Youth Program Director.
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(I can see in 12D now!)


Both he and Lacey are super outgoing and never meet a stranger. They take that after their mama. I thank God every day that He has kept our family close and that we all get along very well together. Sunday dinners are at our house and they are very rarely skipped. It’s important that we see one another and love on one another as much as possible. Because you never know what tomorrow holds.

We may have all been acting silly in those pictures but we do know how to act "normal" in public. See:
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Sooooo, there you have it. That’s the mickeystoontown gang! I look forward to sharing all the details of our trip with you. Please please comment so I’ll know that you are here and reading. There’s no lurking in the dark corners of the Dis when it comes to one of my reports. The more you comment, the more we get to know one another. Making friends on the Dis through the love of Disney is what my reports are all about.

**Up Next: We want details!
 
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Hopping over from your last report . Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.
 


Yay! I'm glad to catch a report that I can start from the beginning! I've lurked on most of yours because I find them too late!
 
I’m here, of course!!! Can’t wait to, yet again, live a Disney trip through you!
 
We want details!

Now that the introductions have been made, I can start filling you guys in on the details of the trip. For John and I, it would start on November 14th and continue on through November 24th. For Lacey and Hunter, their trip would start on November 16th and end on November 24th. The first two nights on Disney property would be a room only reservation at Disney's All Star Movies Resort for just the two of us. This would be our second stay in an All Star resort and our fourth time in a value resort.

On the day that Lacey and Hunter were to arrive, we would start our package reservation which was also at Disney's All Star Movies Resort.

Before I get ahead of myself and give you alllll of the details, let me start with the days leading up to the trip.

I did really well preparing for this vacation. Weeks prior to the day we were to leave, I started picking up things that we would need. I put it all in our "heirloom room" (the extra bedroom that is made up of pieces of furniture and items that we have inherited from relatives) so that it was easily accessible but out of the way. Included in the room was our snack bag. The one that is filled with crackers, squirty cheese (that's a road trip staple), fruit bars, chocolate, cookies, chips and assorted candies. If the bag was kept in the heirloom room, we wouldn't be tempted to delve in and start noshing before we even left the house.

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I am cheap. I mean thrifty. So, many of the items were bought when on sale or from Dollar General using their digital coupons. If you aren't signed up for the digital coupons, do it! I haven't paid full price for laundry detergent in a couple of years. Not that I took laundry detergent on the trip but I thought I'd share that tip with you. If I buy the necessities a little at a time, it doesn't feel like it is hitting the pocketbook with such a punch. I also didn't want to have a long list of travel needs that had to be picked up on the weekend and be stressed out if I couldn't find what I was looking for.

On the morning of November 10th, the Saturday before we started the drive, I stripped the sheets from the bed, put them in the washer, cleaned the bathrooms and swept the floors. I have this thing about making sure my house is clean before we leave. We come home with a pile of dirty clothes and that's overwhelming in and of itself. Who wants to have to deal with load over load of laundry on top of a dirty house? Not I said the trip reporter writer.

The pictures below are of my laundry room on the day we got home from our 2017 trip. Yeah, that's a few loads and that's AFTER I had already done several loads. You may also notice that there's a piece of luggage that's not even unloaded yet.

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Before 9 a.m. on November 10th, I had three pieces of luggage packed and rolled into the dining room.

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and started working on packing more. Don't judge! I overpack every.single.time.

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Before 11 a.m., I had the last big suitcase packed and these guys were hanging out on top:


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I finished cleaning house and sat down to make a list of items that I would need to get from the grocery store on Sunday afternoon. I wanted to make sure that Mama had everything she needed (I buy her groceries the majority of the time.) and Hunter would have something to eat for the couple of days that he would be home. The dogs would need food as well. Mama kinda sorta freaks out about the dogs having enough food when she has to feed them. When we were on our 2017 trip, she kept calling me and saying she thought they would run out before we came back. So, I wanted to make sure that we had plenty of food while we were gone. No need to stress out an 84 year old woman who can sometimes have anxiety issues.

We had Sunday dinner at our house and Lacey and I looked over the last draft of our itineraries just to make sure we were on the same page. She also took the Magic Bands belonging to both she and Hunter and put them in her car so they wouldn't be forgotten in the shuffle and left at home.

Monday and Tuesday were normal work days for John and I. Of course, it seems like every deadline falls on the days before you are to go on vacation. I made sure that my boss had notes on everything that I had to leave undone while waiting on clients to get back with us. I checked in with all of my agency clients to make sure they didn't have any questions before I left. I also assured them that I'd still be accessible if they needed me.

Wednesday morning, I woke John for work and went back to bed to catch a few extra winks. We would be driving long into the night and into the wee hours of the morning so I needed all the rest I could get.

When I woke, I found a note that John had left for me. He was just as ready as I was to go go go!

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Before leaving for work, I pulled John's suitcase into the dining room and got the snack bag, water, etc. from the heirloom room and laid them on the kitchen cabinet. I wanted to do as much prepping that morning because we wanted to hit the road as soon after work as possible.

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**Continued in next post
 
Glad to see another trip report beginning. I love traveling along with you and your crew!
 
M - I - C - MR I
M-O-U-S-EEEG?
Seriously? I'm going to Disney World!


I mentioned in the introductions that John has epilepsy and how it can sometimes turn our lives upside down. About a month before our trip, John started experiencing some dizziness and a lot of facial twitches. His neurologist is no longer in our area but we do see him via video chat once every three months. Since he was in New York, they referred us to his partner and the nurse practitioner on staff. We went in to see the nurse practitioner and she was a little nervous about his symptoms. She added another medicine to his list of meds (he already takes 18 pills a day for his seizures and several different supplements on top of that). She said that they would do blood work and she'd talk with the neurologist to see what he suggested.

About three weeks prior to our departure date, they called and said that they wanted to schedule an MRI and EEG. Okay, well get busy with it! We didn't hear anything and John's symptoms had gone away. That's not unusual for epilepsy patients especially one like John who has a bruise on the brain and symptoms can come and go. I called a couple of times and left messages asking if they had the tests scheduled yet. I reminded them of our trip dates. Nothing. UNTIL....the Friday before we were to leave. An MRI was scheduled for November 14th at 4:30 p.m. Yes you read that right. November 14th. The day we were leaving. UGH! Now this may all sound like we are putting our trip ahead of John's health. We weren't. One thing that we have learned over the years is that MRIs don't always give us answers and EEGs are almost always inconclusive because, unless you catch a patient actually having a seizure, they don't show much. Or at least that's the case with John. Again, this is from almost 30 years of experience with epilepsy.

John's doctor is 30 miles from our house. In the opposite direction that we needed to head for Disney. Meaning, we just added 60 miles to our 811 mile trip.

Fortunately, my boss had court and was out of the office. I left notes for him, sent him a SO LONG I"M OUTTA HERE text and pulled out of the office parking lot at:



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I stopped by the house and put the ice chest and snack bag in the car while John took his shower. Once he was done, we tossed in his toothbrush in his travel bag and zipped up the suitcase used for bathroom stuff. We were on our way to the neurologist a little before 4 p.m. and arrived at the facility a few minutes before his scheduled appointment. Thankfully, they checked him in right away and he was the last MRI of the day. At 4:38 p.m., I took this picture and posted it to Facebook. Waiting on John while he has his MRI done.

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About 30 minutes later, John was done. Yay! We were officially on vacation! We drove through 5 o'clock traffic and finally got to the interstate. We stopped in a town not far from our house for hamburgers from the Sonic. While waiting on our order, I made the video below. Y'all disregard my country sounding self.


We finished our food and got back on the interstate. By the time we made it to the exit to our house, it was approximately the same time had we been leaving for Disney from our house. Yeehaw! We weren't behind schedule after all!


**Up next: Driving through a whole lotta nothingness!
 
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Great start with not ending up being late leaving. Crazy that they ended up scheduling that MRI on the day you were leaving, especially since you had called multiple times making sure they knew the dates of your trip. Looking forward to the rest of the report.
 
I have enjoyed reading your trip reports in the past, and look forward to this one.
:wave:
 
I usually lurk on the trip reports, but I had to come out of lurkdom to say how very much I enjoy your trip reports!
 
Yay for it being started! Sorry they scheduled his MRI on the day you were leaving, but yay for still getting out around the right time anyway!
 
I always lurk and never post, but just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your trip reports!! I'm looking forward to this one!
 
Im here! How wonderful you had another full family trip last year! I have been reading your trip reports for years! Always enjoy them!
 

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