We are embarking on a journey back to Disney world in May. This is our ‘at the moment’ plan but for any of you that have followed along on our previous journeys, you know lots of changes and adjustments with us happen on the fly. However as it stands.
We are staying at Caribbean beach resort, as when we went last year the kids fell in love with the skyliner so we are trying out a skyliner resort this time. We are going for our usual 16 nights as this works for us and we will be taking a few days out of the parks for break days. We find these essential to our anxiety and the ability to enjoy the holiday as a whole.
We will be trying out Discovery cove for the first time for our first break day and our second break day will be a resort day (exploring other resorts). Unfortunately we are unable to attend the water parks this year (or potentially anymore). My pain levels and joints do not allow me to do all the walking and stairs required and Richard is really struggling with his breathing and energy levels. As a result we need to avoid the water parks so we have had to look at other ways of spending our ‘down’ days.
We have chosen to go at the beginning of May this year in the hope we get a little less rain. We went last year at the end of May into June and had a lot of rain everyday. Not just the afternoon storm that is expected in Florida but hours and hours of it, this was very difficult to navigate with the two electric wheelchairs and two autistic children who shut down in the rain. We are hoping by going almost that month earlier there will be just a little less rain.
Although the dining plan has returned, having priced it up we do not feel it is worth us buying it especially when Riley and Richard (due to his condition) do not eat huge amounts. We have instead assigned our dining card that we got on promotion (which is a little over $1000), the $200 gift card and then added a further £350 per person for our food fund. This allows us to purchase a resort mug each and then have $51 per person per day for food and drink. This is approximately how much we had last year and it was plenty in fact we came home with around $900. We are mostly doing quick services this year. Last year the children found the buffets and sit down meals too stressful and have requested we limit them.
We are flying with British airways this time purely because they came up the cheapest at around £500 per adult. We are flying from Gatwick, which is our preferred airport and we will, as we have in the past, be staying at the premier inn down the road the night before we fly.
We are a little apprehensive about the holiday this time and in reality it is stopping the excitement that would usually be building at this point. We are concerned about Richard’s health and whether he is going to be able to cope with the physical requirements of a Disney World holiday. With already having two wheelchair users in the family it would be impractical to have a third chair. We are concerned about the children’s anxiety levels with this type of holiday. We have noticed that the parks cause a lot of anxiety for them and are trying to figure out if the enjoyment out weighs the anxiety caused, we are not sure it is.
In reality I believe this could be the last time we WDW for a while and we as a family are not sure how we feel about this. Disney world has always been my happy place, the place I go to in my head when the world is getting too much. On reflection of our last holiday there I don’t think this is now the case and it is now with apprehension that we go into this next one. Overall I know we will have a good holiday we always do but it will be whether the good outweighs the bad and whether we will do it all again.
