So I know you are all anxiously awaiting the details of our Disney experience and to say I have a lot to blog about would be a vast understatement. Most of the pictures are going to be in an album on the side of the webpage (which is gonna take a few more days) - there are just too many to put in the blog itself.
I should start off by reminding everyone that this was our first "real" vacation as a family. Yes, we’ve been to SMA conferences, visited family, and even tried a couple of days in the mountains one fall, but as for a strictly family vacation…this was a first. There is a lot of planning that goes into taking a vacation at the High house. Just arranging all of Max’s supply shipments around our dates was quite a chore (to make sure nothing came while we were gone, and Max didn’t run out of any supplies). Add in the fun of not getting the van until the week before we left and making the maiden voyage a 7-and-a-half hour drive loaded down with all our stuff (suddenly that huge van became very small…really wish I had taken a picture). Needless to say the prep work the week before was long and arduous. Thankfully, with the discovery of Ears of Experience (a Disney vacation company), the one thing I didn’t have to worry about were the details of the trip. They really took care of everything. I have to admit handing over control was a bit daunting for me initially, but I am so glad I did, because it took such a huge weight off of us.
We headed out last Sunday and met up with my parents and brother on I-10. A special thanks goes out to my brother, who covered the cost for our hotel rooms Sunday night en route. On Monday our hopes for Sea World were almost dashed due to weather, but the rains lifted after 10am and it couldn’t have worked out any better. I think most people had canceled their Sea World plans for the day, so the park was not busy at all. We were there for about four hours before the rain moved back in, but it was definitely worth it. We got to see the whale show and even got a good look at a couple of walruses close up (which I have to say may have been the high point for all of us, seriously have you ever seen one close up, it’s crazy). Then we took a walk through the underwater shark tank tunnel. FYI – we actually enjoyed Sea World more than the Georgia Aquarium and one day passes are currently free for military and immediate family.
Now prior to leaving on Sunday, Aaron and I had a long discussion about schedules. Some people, basically anyone who has ever spent more than a couple of hours with me knows that I am a stickler for a schedule. This mostly works to our advantage, as Max needs to get his food boluses every 45 minutes, he can only be in his chair for certain lengths of time, and treatments have to occur regularly. Now I will be the first to admit that sometimes I am ruled by my schedule…my friend Kristen makes fun of me for scheduling time to relax (e.g. I may have told her last time she visited that we could lay out on the beach for exactly 45 minutes). This is how I keep my sanity or rather not let my insanity show. Now why is this pertinent to our trip…Aaron wanted to make sure we were on the same page regarding schedules, not to have one. He didn’t want the stress of having to feel like he was working against the clock the whole vacation. We agreed that the only time we would absolutely keep was the brunch with the characters and the dinner luau. Okay, I’m finally getting to the point…Monday morning my watch stopped working. I can’t even remember a time I haven’t worn a watch, seriously. Your thoughts? Did Aaron do it? Was it Divine Intervention telling me to relax? Who knows? Needless to say the watch went in our luggage and we still managed to feed Max and make all our engagements, who da thunk it?
Okay, back to the trip.
We arrived at the Polynesian Resort Monday afternoon. We LOVED it! I will never stay off the monorail again. It was so easy in terms of accessibility. Max totally got into the Hawaiian theme, saying Aloha to everyone he passed. Even better we could watch the fireworks from the beach at the resort. The service was awesome, typical of Disney, and the rooms were very conducive to our needs in terms of space. All the lush greenery gave the place a very relaxing feel and let’s face it, it’s the closest Max and I are getting to Hawaii. We watched the fireworks that night and turned in early to hit the ground running for the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday.
The Magic Kingdom was as magical as always. Having been to Disney World many times growing up there is something so special about getting to share the experience with Max. I think initially Max was very over stimulated, there was so much to see and so many people. Our first stop was for a guest assistance pass for our group. This is a red card that acts as a fast pass on to rides for those with disabilities. Incidentally, Max was in a chair, so the need for the pass was pretty evident, but if your special need is not necessarily as evident (e.g. autism) they recommend a letter from the person’s physician. Now the point of the guest assistance card isn’t to necessarily get you on rides any faster, but the mobility access points are typically via the fast pass line (basically the normal lines don’t meet accessibility guidelines). Depending on how many people are waiting with chairs it could actually take longer to get on an attraction as they only allow so many “handicap” people on a ride for emergency evacuation purposes. Thankfully, each park has a mobility guide for all the attractions, so we knew what rides we had to get Max out of his chair for, what he could stay in his chair for and what wasn’t even really possible. It also gave details for how to access all the rides. Combine that information with the itinerary from Ears of Experience and our day was way less stressful than we anticipated. Now this was the funny part, every ride we would suggest Max would tell us no. We made him ride Dumbo, which of course he loved, but then I had to make him ride Winnie the Pooh too…which they actually let him ride twice in a row. We absolutely could not convince him to ride the tea-cups, which is my all time favorite. He said it was for girls. By the time we made it to Tomorrowland Max had caught on. He realized that all the people waiting in lines meant there was something cool going on. Then he started stopping at every ride. Needless to say we ended up spending the majority of our time in Tomorrowland. We still have one day left on our passes, so we have promised to take Max back to the Magic Kingdom one day and see the night time parade, which was the only thing we missed on the trip.
The next day was the Animal Kingdom. We didn’t do to much there as it was definitely the busiest and least conducive for Max’s chair (lots of winding walk ways and bumpy surfaces). Max, Aaron, and my dad were able to do the Kilimigaro Safari, which they actually got stuck on due to a giraffe choosing to hang out on the path of the ride. Max really enjoyed it. It was super bumpy, so Aaron had to hold Max’s head, but worth every minute. We went through a little of Dinoland and even got a very personal stop from Pluto who was en route to another location. Pluto’s attendant kept having to tell people to keep moving that he was only stopping for Max. I felt a little bad about that, but he was so sweet. Max also got to meet his #1 favorite character, Goofy. Aaron and Max love to say, “garsh” to each other. A little Disney trivia for you…What is Goofy’s son’s name? Well, what else…Max.
That night we headed to what I would say was one of the highest points of our trip. The luau at the Polynesian Resort. Gosh, it has been over twenty years since Travis and I went with our parents to the luau (unfortunately, Travis had to head to a work conference, so he missed this and the rest of the trip). Max was really excited about the luau. It was actually what he talked the most about before we left. Well, we had great seats and Max could really see the stage well. The only thing we didn’t account for is that at the beginning of the show they called all the kids up on stage to hula. Well, there was no way to navigate his chair through the crowd and even if we could we didn’t see a ramp to the stage (which Max insisted was on the right side of the stage). Max was really upset, which was kind of surprising, because typically he doesn’t like to do that kind of stuff. I promised him that if there was a ramp I would make sure that we got him on that stage before we went back to the room. Sure enough a few minutes later I looked around a pole that was blocking my way and there was a ramp on the right side of the stage. A little while later Aaron spoke with the manager and explained that Max really wanted to go onstage and could we do that after the show was over and maybe see if one of the cast members would come take a picture with him. The manager told us to hang out after the show and he would see what he could do. Well, after the show the manager led us around to the side of the stage and out comes the majority of the cast to see Max and take pictures with him. They led him up on stage and proceeded to chat him up and take more pictures. A few of them actually brought out their own camera phones we took pictures of them with Max. He felt like such a star. I can safely say that me, Aaron and my parents were blown away. Aaron is supposed to send the manager one of the pictures for them to put up. Then the manager told us that the majority of the cast members are actually the children of some of the original cast members, so when we were here years ago we probably were watching their parents, crazy.
Our last day was spent in Hollywood Studios. It was another great day. Actually, every day we would ask Max what his favorite part was and he would say, “I love it all.” We started the day with breakfast with the Disney Junior characters. Max told Jake from “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” that he wanted to run over Capt. Hook’s feet. That made Jake laugh. We also saw June from the “Little Einsteins,” Special Agent Oso, and Handy Manny. My dad got tons of great pictures. I have to say Max made some pretty good decisions during our trip. Before we went to see Disney Junior Live on Stage Max wanted to go through an animation studio (where they show you how to draw cartoons). Well, what a good choice, who did we see inside…no other than Winnie the Pooh and THE MICKEY MOUSE. We went to go get in line for Mickey (clearly the longest line) when one of the character attendants motioned for us to come over to the side. They let us cut the whole line to go ahead and see Mickey. Max was totally chatting Mickey up. Aaron kept telling him that we needed to let Mickey see the other people waiting, but Mickey motioned for Max to keep talking. I will say this is where Disney and the workers really seem to “get it.” They know that kids with complex special needs already experience a much shorter day in the park due to fatigue and have to be transferred more often. Every bathroom stop for us took at least 15 minutes. I know some people joke about going to a park with someone handicap to skip the lines, but most people don’t fully understand the complex nature of a person who is in a chair and just how much work goes into caring for that person, not to mention kids without the “obvious” disabilities such as Autism who cannot tolerate large crowds, noise, and commotion. We just want our kids to experience as much of the park as possible too. We were very grateful for this favor. The characters were always so sweet to Max and would shake mine and Aaron’s hands.
Well, by dinner time that night the thing we feared most began to become a reality. Max started to need suctioning frequently. We didn’t have the heart to tell him that we couldn’t go to the Magic Kingdom parade due to his not feeling well. We feel like he already misses so much due to his immune system. Instead, we told him the parade was canceled. That is when we promised to bring him back for another day in the Magic Kingdom. He kept saying that he wanted to live here and not go home.
We headed back to Pensacola the next day, with Max needing frequent suctioning. Now we are in the full throws of strep throat. Max fell first, then Aaron and now me. Needless to say that is what has taken so long to get the blog post up. Can you imagine how long this post would have been if I was feeling better? Count your blessings!
Aside from the rest of the pictures from Disney this will probably be my last post until after Christmas, possibly the New Year. Thanks for keeping up with the High family in 2011. We are hoping for a much less eventful year in 2012.
From our family to yours have a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Peace!
Thanks for the update! So glad the trip went well. I saw on FB that you were all sick, but it sounds as though the trip was wonderful. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Posted by: Bridget | December 23, 2011 at 11:31 PM
What a wonderful trip! I'm sure Max is still talking about it. Feel like I got to catch up with you through the blog. I'm so happy for your family and can't believe Max is FIVE years old. I will put aside thoughts that I am also five years older cuz it's just not as celebratory when you're over 40. Love you all!
Shelli
Posted by: Shelli Quenga | January 04, 2012 at 05:24 PM
Aloha Max!!! It was awesome to meet you. I've been thinking of you since we last met on center stage. You have been a great inspiration to me through your strength and positivity. I saw it in your eyes you are afraid of nothing and know exactly what you want. I hope you continue to go after what your heart desires. You are a strong handsome young man and that 'smile' is rrrridiculoous!!! Always be proud of who you are. God loves you and so do I. May his blessings rain down upon you. Love and Aloha, tama
Posted by: Tama-Christian M.W. BENIONI | January 06, 2012 at 12:10 AM