Aunt Apples Adventures 9/12-22 the UnMagical parts

[cal5755]

So this trip report is overdue. I was not sure if I was even going to do one at all... then it was do I
do one and omitt the bad parts?? But I am going to give both good and bad of our vacation (sept 12-22).
I am going to do 2 threads UN magical, then Magical (well maybe more than one magical)- gotta have a happy ending.

I have to say if this was my first trip I don't think I would have become a Disney Addict!!

CAST-
STAR - Apple 96, co-Stars, DS - Chris (13) DD - Michelle (9), DD Jackie (5), Me (33), DH (35), Mom (53), Cousin Cheryl (48) plus other relatives and friends who met us there.

Our trip started off on the wrong foot to begin with. When we got to the kiosk to check our baggage the gentleman handling us took 1 our and 15 minutes!! Yes he took that long to weigh our bags, check our id's and give us our boarding passes. By the time we got through security,another slow process with an elderly lady in a wheelchair and 3 children,our plane was boarding. The woman who was boarding passengers was SO RUDE to us. "your the party with children I called you up here for a reason now I have to go re-arrange seats so your kids aren't sitting alone, go stand over in that corner" UMMMM no you did not just tell us to stand in the corner did you?? I had to use all my might to be polite and say "excuse me mam but we just arrived at the gate because security had to check out our wheelchair and I am sorry if you are frustrated but please don't use that tone with me" I got a dirty look and a hmph.


Ok so fast forward to DHS day. We had lunch reservations at 50's PTC. We are a party of 12 so we are split to a table of 4 and a table of 8. There is no problem with this at all. We knew ahead of time this could happen. We had different waitresses and our tables were near each other but not next to each other. So the table of 4 is me, my two DD's and Aunt Apple. My waitress comes by slaps the napkins/silverware down and leaves without a word. No big deal I hand out napkins and silverware. Meanwhile,at the other table my son was made to set the table and he was given the nick name fuzzy. They are having a ball with their waitress Elizabeth. So my waitress, Nicole, comes to our table and asks what we want to drink, writes it down and leaves without even looking at me or the girls. When she comes back with the drinks, Elizabeth has the other table laughing loudly. My waitress gives a dirty look over at their table and rolls her eyes. My DD 9 says "they are having lots of fun over there." Nicole says "no they are just weird" with and emphasis on weird and this was not in character. I know the antics and I love this place for it,this waitress was just rude. When the waitress left my 9 year old started crying because her family was just insulted,though Nicole didn't know at that point they were with us. I was so upset that I was truly at a loss for words. I barely spoke to the waitress after that,never got a refill on the drink and never asked. On top of all that I was forced to pay the 18 percent as we were a part of a party of 12 when we booked! YES I know I should have called a manager over, but I kept telling myself that my daughter was tired and I was over reacting because I was tired etc. Trying to keep myself calm. Once we left the restaurant and I was talking to the rest of the family I was getting more and more upset instead of calming down. When we got back to the hotel I made a complaint. I have never made a complaint,or really ever had one in Disney. They took down the information and forwarded it to the proper place and left my number. A manager did call me to talk about the situation, we made sure Elizabeth got kudos for being such a great waitress, she even got a special thank you from mom with $10.00 on top of her 18 percent. The manager did offer to refund our dining credits but I did decline as we had way to much food. I just wanted him aware of how Nicole made us feel.

Fast forward to our first AK day. We leave the park to go to the hotel. As we are approaching the bus stop ASMU, we see a bus there and the driver is standing outside the bus. As we come closer the driver gets in the bus and we assume he is leaving and we will have to wait for the next bus. We are still walking and the bus is still there. We get to the bus and stand by the door, that is now closed. Still not sure if he is leaving or not,though there is not a full bus. It really would not have been a big deal to us if he pulled away. He opens the door and says "so do you want to get on?" "YES please" Well he ***** his teeth in and says "well take her to the other door then" refering to Aunt Apple. He lets the bus down flips the ramp and I wheel Apple on. He is strapping her in and I am talking to my mom through the bus door. He says ok and lets the rest of the people on the bus. We pull away and go around one turn and Aunt Apple starts sliding back and forth!! I look down and he only clamped one wheel in the back.. none of the front wheels and never lap belted her!! Dh starts video with his phone as I am strapping her lap belt and holding her front wheel with my foot!!! When we stop we asked him why he did not strap her properly and he said "its broken I think." Clearly lying. I said if that were true he would have asked us to wait for the next bus. I immediately went in to the front desk of the hotel to report JASEN. This was another complaint..safety was an issue. The manager of transportation did call to apologize and said they take safety very seriously and said that Jasen would most likely be terminated. (yes I felt guilty I never wanted anyone to lose their job..but I do want wheelchair riders to be safe)


The next day we spent in AK again. We leave the park and wait for the bus. We are the first family in line . We were a party of 7 . The bus pulls up and BOB from MA sees the wheel chair. Stares for a second. Closes the front doors and comes to the back doors. He looks at me and says " transfer her out of the wheelchair and fold it" I said " excuse me sir but she is 96 years old and she is safer in her chair while we are riding. She may have a spell of confusion and try to stand while we are in motion and it would be a safety issue." So I get a look and he lets the ramp down and I wheel her on. I watched and made sure she was belted in correctly. When he was done and put up the ramp the rest of the family boarded the bus. He YELLS "you know you are lucky I am a nice guy because I only have to let 4 of you on this bus" My husband was so mad at this point, because my mom sits down with my youngest in her lap. I hold my 9 year old on my lap and my cousin Cheryl has a seat. My 13 year old son and my husband are standing with the wheelchair! There was always 2 of us standing with her to keep her from grabbing strangers. The bus isn't even full and there are seats to be had! My husband is so mad at this point he starts saying he never wants to come back again. It is ridiculous the way they are treating a 96 year old woman etc, we are driving at this point and one of the passengers listening to DH talk to me pipes in how he agrees that the bus drive was out of line with his attitude. When we pulled up to the hotel everyone gets out and DH is with Apple and the wheelchair, the driver goes up to my husband and puts his finger on his chest and said "maybe you just mis understood me. most drivers will only let 4 passengers on with a wheelchair and if you read the pamphlet you got you would know that". So again we go immediately to the front desk to ask the policy about guests with wheelchairs. The front desk says there is no pamphlet and if you have a party of 30 with your wheelchair you can get on together. This time I didn't make a complaint right then I waited until I got home.. and for the first time I wrote an email to tell of our unmagical moments this year (of course I ended that note with a list of CM's who were beyond magical)


Even some ride CM's were rude about the wheelchair. One CM said "if she dont walk she dont ride" Ok I understand some rides don't slow down etc.. but first off someone should have mentioned that when we entered the line...and that CM did not have to be so rude about it after!! And on Buzz the last time we rode the cm said there was no w/c car. We had to tell him we rode it before and it was safer for her to be in the chair. Apple deserved better treatment than she got. It would have been forgotten too if it was an isolated incident but it happened to many times during our trip.

Continued Below...............

[cal5755]

Mousekeeping was so horrible this trip. We had 3 rooms in my family. One room had a dead bug in the sill when we checked in that my uncle had to throw away. In that same room there was a dirty footprint on one of the pillowcases that the maid had just turned over and covered up. The spare pillow was used and the next day the same pillowcase was left on that pillow we put on the floor!! On day 4 we took the sheets and pillowcases off the beds in that room hoping for clean ones. There was air freshener spray on the back of the toilet that the maids knocked over and broke to the point it could no longer be used and left on the floor. Our pantene shampoo bottle was knocked over and the cap broken and the bottle left on the floor with shampoo spilling out on the floor. I am fully aware that accidents happen but they should have picked it up at the very least...a little note saying oops would have been good too!!

Add to the fact that there was all this UN magic going on with CM's, you would not believe how some of the guests are when it comes to wheelchairs!! Especially on the buses. One night we stayed til MK was close to closing. We got to the line for the buses and it was LONG so we opted to wait back by some benches. 2 buses came and went so we decided it was time to go wait in line. There are 6 of us all together and we go to the wheelchair line. We board the bus no problem.. DH and I are standing with the wheelchair as the other guests are let on the bus. Mind you DH and I are both standing and this family starts in with " Joe why dont you break your leg so we can all get on the bus before everyone else...no not your leg.. just break your toe that way we all get front of the line passes for the buses" I am appalled by this... TRULY.... this is the first time we have had to deal with a wheelchair.. in all the times I have been to Disney I would NEVER put down a family that got on a bus with a wheelchair. The thing is we were a party of 12 ... we never ALL got on the bus with the wheelchair.. but MY family did. 3 kids, 2 parents and Apple is 6...and I do include my mom because she helps with the kids!! We also heard "oooh lets get a wheelchair..its like a fastpass" And more times than not Wheelchairs wait in the same line and/or have the same wait time! "We were even talked about by one lady who said to the person she was with -"the only reason anyone would bring someone that old is for wheelchair perks!!" How is that for respecting your elders?
Now these people offended me more because of who Aunt Apple is to us... she is actually the biggest TIP I ever got as a waitresss!! Her only living relative lost his leg in an accident and had hired a woman to care for Apple when she started getting confused. Every Sunday he still brought Apple in for breakfast and we slowly started seeing a decline with her. I always took Apple to the ladies room etc when she came in. The woman caring for her was actually abusing her and not feeding her. Dave asked me for 4 months to take Apple to live with us and I declined because of the busy life I have with 3 kids. Her caregiver came into the restaurant one day and Apple was filthy, with a slipper on one foot a sneaker on the other foot, pants with a hole in them...it was terrible... I called her nephew, at the table, in front of her cargiver and said I would make arrangements to take Apple by the following Sunday. She has been with us now for almost a year. The thing is she is part of our family now not just some lady I care for. My children adore her. I could have easily put her in respite care for that week and not dealt with adult diapers and temper tantrums, because a 97 year old is much like a 2 year old. We wanted Apple with us to experience Disney for the first time, as part of our family. She deserved it after all she had been through with her previous caregiver!! I think the UN magic of it all hit me more because of wanting to have a truly great time with her.

Ok, HONEST, I am done with the Un magic of our week. Apple LOVED Disney so the next part is all about the Magic. I just wanted to post this because I do love Disney... I am addicted to it and have 3 trips planned..the next in 35 days. I defend Disney when people ask why I go all the time and why I don't save money instead. I recommend Disney to everyone I know and give the number to MJ to anyone who asks for prices. I am praying that our trip in November with Apple goes a lot better because some of this trip really made me sad.

[cal5755]

Ok I am going to help with Homework then I will write all about the MAGIC of our vacation!!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I am so sorry that you had some un-magical parts to your trip!

We took my Mom, who needed a scooter due to her knee surgery, and we also had some challenges with busses, but mainly with other people who just seemed to be too self-occupied to understand that we weren't trying to skip a line or cheat the system in any way (just like you.

I'm hope that there was more magic than bad, and that your next trip is everything you hope it will be!

Here's to Disney Magic - we all need some of it

[TiggeRia]

First of all, I think it is absolutely wonderful that you took Aunt Apple to WDW with you--Disney is for children of all ages, even those in their 90's and I'm sure that she had a fabulous time. I am sorry about all your troubles about the wheelchair. When we go to DW, my father has to get an ECV because he only has one lung and can't handle all the long walking. There were many times we had to wait for multiple buses to come by in order to get on because there were already people on a bus and we would have to wait for an empty one to come by. And then there are the people who stare and comment - although we had more issues with guests as opposed to CM's. Now, whenever we go, I just rent a car so as not to have to deal with all of that. Even with all of the issues, though, DW is one of the most disability friendly places I have ever come across.

Sorry about the Mousekeeping, too. There is no reason for that. I have had some trips where the cleaning is spot on and others where I've had the same problems you've encountered. I hope that you let someone know about it.

I try not to let any of the unmagical things bother me, too much, though. It is Disney World, after all-and there's no place I'd rather be! Looking forward to reading your magical moments!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

That's horrible how people can be...

[KylesMom]

How disappointing that so many errant things occurred on your trip - I too think it's wonderful that you have made Aunt Apple part of your family and were able to show her "The World". I sure hope the magical times outweighed the nasty ones. Looking forward to reading about the good things!

[tinkerbell04]

I am sorry that you had so many bad experiences, but I am glad that you are saving the magical for the ending!

[faline]

I had some surgery earlier this year and thought about renting a scooter for our recent trip. I ended up not doing that but I was also steeling myself for unkind comments from others. I hope that you and your family had many more happy, magical moments and that these experiences did not overshadow the happy times!

What a great name you aunt has! I hope I have family members willing to take me to Disney when I'm 96 - if I am so lucky to still be here!

[Lizzie]

Sorry for all the bad run ins you had. But I bet you have some great memories and pictures to look at for years to come.

[ljv1975]

I am so sorry about the negative experiences you had on your trip. I can't believe how nasty other guests were to your family. I'm glad that Aunt Apple and your family ended up having a nice trip - I can't wait to read about all of your magical moments!!

[ytzking]

How did Aunt Apple react to all this?

[mouseketeer mom]

Oh my gosh, thats such a sad story about Apple and her previous caregiver. So sorry to hear about these very unmagical experiences.

[goofysbabe]

cal5755 - I hear you about how rude people are when you have someone in a wheelchair with you. My sister is in a motorized chair (has been since she was 17) and when we get in line with her for things (there are 6 total) we had comments too. I wanted to turn to others and say "don't you think she'd rather be walking than in this stupid chair!!!!", but my mother & father (who are always with me) would just die - if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all.


I JUST WISH PEOPLE WOULD STOP AND THINK BEFORE THEY SPEAK, HAVE BETTER KNOWLEDGE OF WHATS GOING ON BEFORE YOU SPOUT YOUR OPINION AND PUT THERESELVES IN THE OTHER PERSONS SHOES SOMETIME.

If that would have been one of their loved ones in that chair things would be different.

[yjgirl32]

I applaud you for wanting to take a very special family member to the most magical place. It's very very unfortunate that some people have to make rude comments about things they don't understand. I really hope you have a better time on your November trip. I will be going to the world next Sept with my mom- 66, aunt 76, father-in-law 63 (with Parkinsons) and mother-in-law 62. It's not an easy job to care for an elder relative. Have a great trip- thanks for sharing.

[Mackflava99]

Its sad to see how people in a wheelchair are treated-
if i had heard that "break your leg" comment, he may have had something broken.
I have no patience for rude people.

You are a very good hearted soul for what you do with Apple. That means alot more than what rude people do-

[Diznee4Me]

Read you day one report and glad to know there was a lot of good despite these unmagical moments.

I'm ready for day two!

[RedSoxFan]

I'm sorry to hear about all the un-magical events during your Disney trip. I can't believe how rude people are. Unbelievable.

[cal5755]

Thank you all so much for listening. I just never experienced anything like that in WDW.... but I am having so much fun posting the magical moments that I am getting excited for next years bounce back!! Apple will be 97!! Here is wishing her another year of continued good health!