The not so magical Disney trip

This is my story of the January Disney trip we took. I am just now getting to it.

Thursday: We left at 2pm on January 17th. My son fell asleep right on time and 2.5 hours into the trip we stop to go "potty" .Hubby comes around to get our son and I lock the car doors. Silly me thought he had everything with him, after all, how could he possibly come get him and go back to get his wallet and keys with him in tow. But that's what he did and I locked us out. I took him to the potty and remembered we had Onstar. Hubby already knew and was calling. Just like the commercial! in under 2 minutes CLICK, the doors were unlocked. Amazing! They made a potentially ruined day into just a little mishap. I was ecstatic. Got to the hotel half hour later. Just 3 hours trip time! The weather was hideous in Orlando. I should have known it would be a "Stormy" weekend in every sense of the word.
We settled in all of our stuff: the infamous igloo with all of his food and refrigerated supplements, toaster oven and all of the other "must haves" for all the "just in case" scenarios. Ordered a fridge and microwave as well because we don't have enough crap already. Headed to Downtown Disney after what seemed like forever in putting stuff away, organizing our son's stuff, making his food in a space of about 3" x 24". DD was right down the street so made it there quickly and as we got out of the car it starts to drizzle and never stopped. Walked to Wolfgang's which was really good as usual. Had reservations and sat right away. They never dissappoint. He ate his food which we had heated at the hotel and then got out his dvd player which he became increasingly attached to as the vacay went on. The more people around, the more he used it to tune everything out. After that he rode the train and rode the carousel again. We walked some, went to the toy store and headed back to the hotel by about 10pm. During all of this night my mother had just so many opinions to share over everything and orders "put the sweater on him" " watch his hand" " don't do this, don't do that""it's raining" " he is getting wet" blah blah blah. I secretly hoped it would be the last of it...but it was not even the first of it.

Friday: Woke up at about 8:30ish, did the morning stuff. Had coffee at the hotel which was awful. Had to fill up the igloo with ice because the fridge was not cold enough for all his stuff so that sucked. Hubby bickering with my mom all morning over the darn ice and what the best way to put away his food was. Me bickering with her to stop telling me what to do , how to dress my child and how to f'in feed him. At least my sweetie was asking " castle?" which means that our constant repeating of where we were going must have somehow sunk in finally. Left at 10am to MK. It was ugly outside , drizzling and with 90% humidity...yippie so much for all the winter stuff I packed since the weather channel said it would be nice and in the 40's. But I digress.... Park, tram and as we wait for the monorail he wants "potty" ,lol, we ask him to hold it. Poor thing, with the weather how it was it was probably a hard thing to do. Hubby rushed to the potty with him once in the park and I went to civic hall to renew our Guest Assistance Card. Can I hear an angel singing AAAAAAAA? YES! Without this card we would NOT be able to visit MK at all! I took my old one and without any questions, they renewed it. Yeh! I am serious when I say this is the single most important thing for this trip. I would have left back home had they not issued it! Walked out, showed him the castle and his face was just in awe, that is, until he forgot about it minutes later. Sigh. We went to the tea cups for the 1st time. After the pooh ride we won Year of a Million Dreams extra hour in the park on a non-extended hours day. BUT, we gave them to some random family because our plans for that night were not to this park :( oh well. With our guest assistance card, we were able to use the handicapped entrance, be in a separate waiting area that would not be so crowded or be allowed in first to make sure there was no breakdown for all rides. At most, we waited 5 minutes or so. The park was insanely packed though. I will NEVER again go during a long weekend for sure. No way! Headed to Dumbo. Right as they sit us in and it elevates it starts pouring! Why not? bring it on. Whatever. We got soaked. I was really trying to be positive here.Went to the carousel which he loved and finally to the Small World ride. He was now in heaven for sure. When we came out, we could not find the stroller. It was about 15 minutes but with our son it felt like an hour. He is screaming for his "Wagon" and the idiot cast member who moved it could not find it. Finally find the damn thing as our munchkin is now in full tears. We head to lunch at the Liberty place. While we wait, we see The Rock!!! I forbid hubby from going up to him since he was with his entire clan, about 12 family members. I did not want pandemonium for this guy. Lunch was yummy! went back to It's a Small World and then watched the 3pm parade. He loved the last float with all the main characters.This was the first parade that he has actually LOOKED at in the 5 times or so that we have been to MK since he was born. He usually cries or buries his face in the stroller. He walked up to the castle afterwards and with a very worried face asked " Mickey Mouse?"...it was so cute!In his mind, this is where Mickey lives, in the castle.

Did some shopping and left by 4pm. Again, bickering between hubby and my mom, my mom and I, non stop. For every decision or comment I would make, she would counter with a differing opinion and it was pissing hubby off! It's hard to take in all the nice things when all of this is the backdrop. Back to hotel and took forever to get the mouseketeer to nap but finally he did. We showered and left to the Contemporary for Chef Mickey's dinner with the characters. Shopped a bit, watched the fireworks from the lobby and then back to the restaurant to sit. Almost immediately the characters started to come by. No time to eat. He did not like Goofy at all! My mom wanted , but of course, wanted him to eat at that precise moment. "Who cares if the characters are here, I want to feed him". "Really?is this what we are doing here at Chef Mickey's? feeding him? Silly me thought it was for him to meet the Disney characters! go figure" Stupid. My son in the mean time was too overwhelmed and hid behind the dvd player and taking it away resulted in a floor tantrum which made every one around us miserable. It was a lose/lose situation. I think even Mickey was annoyed. LOL! But, hey, we continued to take pictures with the characters and make it the best we could. Goofy? nope. Donald? nope. Mickey? nope. He would not pose so we did instead. He did like Minnie mouse a lot though. The food was pretty average. This was the worst character dinner ever. Not because of my son's lack of interest or my mother being a PITA but because they just walk around, no show or anything like that. I envied the happy families who sang songs at the dinner table, ate ice cream peacefully on Mainstreet and the kids who begged to buy stuff at the shops. It all seems so normal and so far from our relationships with our son and family circle. Anyway….

Back to the hotel, exhausted mainly trying not to blow up and ruin our vacation. I mean, my mother was on overdrive this trip. She usually has bad moments and then calms down but not this time. Had it been hubby and I alone, it would have been more intimate and a much smoother trip. To add to the fun our son had not pooped. Poop is important as well all know ! We had chelated Wednesday and he has to pee and poop in order to detoxify. By not detoxifying all the crap (pun completely intended) is inside of him and makes him act out. He also does more stimming and becomes very hyper. But wait, there is still Saturday to go, woohoo!!!

½ an hour later, there was poop! The stimming remained though which was so difficult to watch and take. It can break anyone down watching your child act like a complete lunatic! Finally, I lost it. I didn’t scream like I usually do. I just cried. So frustrated. I fed him while crying and warned them both to stay the hell away from me and leave my son and I alone. After that moment of drama for me we packed and went back to Disney though that had not been the plan but we could not stay holed up in the room. Now, it was 80 degrees and muggy and we were wearing the 60 degrees clothing. Our parking spot was in HAPPY 79. Just perfect!Happy? God sure is funny. These Orlando forecasters have it all wrong. Went to Fantasyland and rode teacup and Dumbo where, guess what? IT STARTED TO RAIN AGAIN! Unbelievable. This time we had no hoodies on, so we were officially soaked. Did more of the same rides from the day before and ended with It’s a Small world again and he still loved it! Finished and waited 30 minutes for the castle show to start. In those 30 minutes my mother was crying, saying how this life was a punishment for her (personal drama I won't get into here), that I am so inconsiderate, that she is NOT opinionated (huh?). I ignored her and sat with my baby boy while we waited. I was hearing her complain to hubby but I was spent, no more blow ups for me. He told her off and told her that she needs to find her place and let me be the mom whether she agrees with my tactics or not. This went on the entire time. It took every inch of me to not throw her into the Disney pond. The show started and he was super happy and dancing. That is, until the witch part came out. He started crying, wanting to leave and refusing to look at the show, with his eyes shut closed. So frustrating. To add insult to injury, like I posted before, the cast kept chanting "dreams can come true" over and over which got me to choke back my anger and tears that this was such a messed up weekend with so many ups and downs. Finished the show and did one more ride before deciding to beg the lady at the Mainstreet restaurant to move up our 7:40pm dinner reservations to 5pm. She complied, yeh! I had to pull out the "my son has autism" card so that she would understand my urgency but whatever works at this point. Sat by 5:30pm and had a quiet dinner with a perfect view to the castle. It was a brief moment of heaven. We even saw some fireworks from the castle show while dining. That was a happy couple of minutes. I was just drained. Trying to stay positive and taking my trip in but with all the bickering and my mother’s voice it was so hard.

When done hubby wanted to leave back to the hotel. I stupidly insisted we stayed, again, trying to be positive. I wanted my son to see the Spectro parade with all the lights. We walk and find a perfect spot to wait for it and it starts pouring. Not raining, pouring, lightning and all. After waiting 20 minutes hopeful it would somehow stop, they announce the parade has been cancelled. Pure human hysteria. Imagine every single person in the park attempting to exit at the same time! Had we been single we would have dashed to the deserted rides. My son is freaking out because his legs are soaked and we attempt to pull out ponchos and umbrellas while running to the monorail. He hated my bright yellow poncho and my convincing him that mommy wanted to be Big Bird was not working. It was a human herd. We made it unto a monorail and follow the massive lines for the parking trams. They only had about 5 working! It was about a full hour before we got on one. One hour of my son having a “I am wet, tired, no nap, annoyed, sleepy, get me the hell out of here” meltdown. His shreeks were so loud that I know everyone around us wanted to kill us. We got those "looks" .We finally got on our tram and made it to the car and finally, the hotel. Insert BIG breath here. Took turns showering and we all hit the bed and passed out. No energy to even fight anymore.
Sunday: Of course, wake up to a gorgeous morning in the 40’s, beautiful blue skies and sunny. Hubby in a great mood because we are going home. I wanted to take advantage and do another park (yeh positive me)but I had it with him wanting to not be here and my mom so I bitterly agreed to leave. We still have 2 more days on our pass so I hope to use them in the summer either alone with my son or with hubby too. Home by 1pm and that was that.

Saturday: Good morning to all! He wakes up super irritable from the get go and no poop yet. More stimming, throwing himself full body against the bed and all that fun stuff. Left at 8am to MGM. Foggy morning and 60 degrees though the forecast was for 80’s, rain and cold weather at night. Get to the Jojo character breakfast he had loved last summer. They sit us in the wrong table. Then they sit us in a table in a corner which hubby did not want. Lastly, we get our 3rd and final table. He runs over to June and is mesmerized, for a couple of hapy minutes only though. He wants her for him and wants to dance with her which was great. After that, he wanted nothing to do with Jojo, Goliath and the others. Nothing. He even shoved poor Jojo and pulled Goliath’s tail (ok that part was funny)! So again, he hides behind the dvd, we take pictures with the characters, my mom gives her opinion of what we could have done differently and all her expert opinions and it was just such joy. Hubby is sitting pissed off because he does not want to be here. He wants to be home watching football, he paid for us to do this and he could care less about the characters this time around and he is about to kill my mother. I am in the middle of them both , trying to console my son and wanting to choke my mother as well. We leave to the Playhouse Disney Show but wait! IT”S F'IN CLOSED! You would think they would have told me that or I would have read that with all my Orlando message board research! Fabulous. I somehow find energy to try to make the best of our day and suggest the Little Mermaid show. We go in and minutes in he hates it and starts to scream (during the silent breaks) “WAGON! OUT! BYE BYE! ALL DONE! CAR!”. We request to be let out of the auditorium and leave. He screamed all the way back to the car. Once in the car, it was like nothing had happened. The weather was getting crappier by the minute. Found a Walgreens and bought some glycerin suppositories to make him poop and head back to the hotel. All the way back, my mom continued to talk about why she thought he had not pooped, what we should have done, what he was thinking, and all the wonderful motherisms. Hubby went under the covers to shut everyone out by hiding under the covers once back at the hotel, I put the suppository in and then wrote in my travel journal, my mother , you guessed it, kept whining under her breath and we all waited for him to poop.