During our wheelchair-monorail adventure, we encountered the nicest people you can think of.
First on our trip from Grand Floridian to Epcot, a nice family offered my mom to help her with getting me safe down the ramp at the TTC. The husband made sure my wheelchair was not going down down down fast, lol. Once we got down safely, they offered to drive us to Epcot. Which was like the husband would first drive us to Ecpot and then drive back to the Magic Kingdom to pick up his wife and two small children. I can't believe that people are so nice, because basically, we were complete strangers, we had only been in the monorail together for two steps! It was very nice, but I felt so bad for the children who were (half) asleep that we declined. I don't know the name of these people, but you were so nice, thank you so much!!!!
I then waited about an hour at the TTC while my mom went to Mousegear in Epcot to do my last-minute shopping; she got everything except one kitchen item. When she got back to the TTC, she tried to push me up the ramp towards the resort monorail. It was hilarious in some way, because there was no way that was going to work. She is short, I am heavy, that ramp is LONG!! Thankfully, a nice gentleman offered to push me up. Once again, such a nice person, thank you so much!
When we were on the monorail, I told her the Contemporary had boutiques we didn't visit yet, I told her to just leave me in the monorail station while she went speed-shopping for the spoon rest I wanted. While we were once again on the monorail, we met another very very very nice couple. The husband was in a wheelchair because of some illness, the wife had some inside information about Disney, and they gave me all these tips on who to contact at Disney for compensation regarding my fall. They were so nice to me, I don't know your name, and you'll probably never end up reading my blog, but I also want to thank you!
Thankfully, the Contemporary boutique had what I wanted, and we could continue to the Grand Floridian again (thank goodness for elevators to reach the monorail, yeah!)
At the Grand Floridian, we went to the concierge, asked them to call AS Sports, where they had promised to come pick me up whenever I was ready. However, they could not be reached, so the Grand Floridian sent their private driver with us to the AS Sports!
While I still felt miserable because of a lot of things (pain being the main one), I could really appreciate the efforts Disney made to make it a little more comfortable for us.
In the end, after I got home and went to doctors here and had extra tests done, it turned out my injury was way worse than just a sprain. The cartilage in my knee is completely ruined. It has been more than a month that I am on sick leave, at least one more month to go. I get injections with replacement cartilage in my knee, am going almost daily to physical therapy and I swallow pain medication like Dr House.
The doctors told me that while I might not completely recover, in the end I will be able to walk somewhat decently again, enough to go shopping and visit Disney. I really really hope they are right.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
My vacation
I went on vacation. Quite some time ago, that is. In April actually. Yeah. That is how long ago I went on my vacation. And haven't blogged about it yet. Hm.
I don't want to write a trip report like "we got up at 8, had this and that for breakfast, went out the door, turned left, ooh-ed and aah-ed on Times Square, had such and such for lunch", and so on and so on.
I would like to give my thoughts on everything about my trip, and I do realise I will probably get flamed for it. And it took me a while to find a flameproof suit. ;-)
Anyway, as I said, I went on vacation, with my mom who is my partner in crime, and in vacations. We left on April 11 in Brussels, flying into JFK. We spent 4 whole days in NYC followed by a day of transfers to Miami. After one night there we boarded for a cruise going to Key West and Cozumel. Our vacation then ended at Walt Disney World.
One of the first things I'll tell you about is how the vacation ended. It ended in the Celebration ER. The person who came up with that name, should be shot, lol.
I am such an elegant person, and I do not leave one opportunity unused to show that elegance. *insert some roling eyes here* On our last full day at WDW, I went to the lobby to check our pick up time for DME. While I noticed the gazillion cheerleaders in the lobby, I didn't notice a wet floor, and there were no signs to tell me teh floor is wet. I basically found out when I was on the ground, cursing in a not so Disney-like way because I had slipped and fallen. On my knee. Considering my weight, that is not a good thing. I can tell you my vocabulary wasn't the "klassiest" one.
I must say though, immediately there were people there wanting to help me, as well other guests as CMs. They asked me if I needed a paramedic or ambulance or what not. Well, the only thing I wanted was cursing and crying and a alcohol shot. It didn't matter which alcohol. Because my knee hurted so much. After a couple of trials, they were able to reach my mom in the room (while I was going to the lobby, she was calling home to tell we were doing OK, yeah, right) and after discussing with her, we decided an ambulance would be not such a bad idea, considering the pain and the fact I could not stand on my leg.
Can I say that that was the end of our planned day at Animal Kingdom? No parade at Magic Kingdom? No dinner at Grand Floridian Cafe? No last minute shopping? Can I say I cried like a child out of pure misery? It was the combination of pain, somewhat the shock of the fall, the fact we wouldn't be able to do what we wanted to do that day and the fact we were supposed to fly back home the next day.
The ambulance arrived, I got an ice pack, the brought us to the Celebration ER (what a name) and I discovered that not each and every US ER had a George Clooney working there. That was a bummer. :-( While nurses and doctors and quite some other people took care of me, my mom spent a lot of time on the phone with our travel insurance company, Touring. They did a marvelous job, really. Usually, when you don't have to stay at least one night at the hospital, you have to pay yourself and they'll reimburse you afterwards. Well, in my case, they took care of everything, they contacted the hospital directly and took care of everything. I wasn't able to think straight, and my mom's English isn't that good plus she panicks when something happens, so it's good they took over, and we could focus on other things.
After the X-rays and all, they declared it was a "sprain", gave me pain medication (I saw pink elephants fly!! weeee!!!), a brace and crutches. And called a taxi.
Once back in the hotel, Disney took over a bit. They reimbursed our taxi, took care of our phone bill for all calls to Belgium (btw, they charge 10 USD a minute to call to Belgium! That is pure robbery!!!). They also offered to send a personal shopper to DTD to get the items I wanted and they offered us a private driver to get to the Grand Floridian for dinner, after making us a second ADR there, a later one, since we needed to first sort things out with the insurance company. Like how I was going to get home, since I couldn't bend my leg, am already very tall to begin with and had a regular economy ticket.
After numerous phone calls with the insurance company (in the end we didn't even have to say who we were and who we were calling for, the dispatcher put us through directly) and after getting messages like "staying a couple of more days in the US", they were able to rebook my ticket for the original flights to business class. I must say, doing that when it's Saturdat night in Belgium for a flight on Sunday is amazing, since you can't reach American Airlines during the weekend here. They were able to arrange it, together with special assistance in each airport, etc etc etc. Their service was amazing.
After that was arranged, we were just in time to get to our original Grand Floridian Cafe dinner. As promised, a private driver from All Stars Sports drove us to the Grand Floridian.
We enjoyed a very nice dinner (salad with strawberries, steak and key lime pie/ cheesecake) and then... it turned out somebody stole my wheelchair!!!!! Yes, the CM had parked my wheelchair in the restaurant lobby, and some idiot guest must have stolen it. Many CMs toldme this was the first time ever they had something like that happen! How can you just take a wheelchair?? Don't you realize that that means a person who needs it will be in big trouble? The Grand Floridian didn't have any spare wheelchairs anymore so they sent a CM to the Magic Kingdom to get me one. While I couldn't get over the fact someone stole mine, I was amazed to see they did this to help me. That's the Disney-touch, I guess. After I had my wheels back *insert some rolling eyes here too* we were up to do our last minute shopping. Of course, none of the Grand Floridian boutiques had what I wanted. I told my mom that I knew that Mousegear at Epcot had everything, and I asked her if she felt comfortable enough to go there and get it all. She told me she would even take me with her, so off to the monorail we went, and we took it to the TTC. There it turned out you have to go down one ramp and up another one to get on the Epcot-monorail. No elevators. At all. After the adventure it was to get me off the one ramp, I told her no way I was going with her to Epcot. So she basically parked me at the TTC and went by herself to Epcot. About an hour later, she was back and after an adventure to push me back up the ramp, we were back on the monorail, woohoo!
However, the adventure didn't end there.
*to be continued*
I don't want to write a trip report like "we got up at 8, had this and that for breakfast, went out the door, turned left, ooh-ed and aah-ed on Times Square, had such and such for lunch", and so on and so on.
I would like to give my thoughts on everything about my trip, and I do realise I will probably get flamed for it. And it took me a while to find a flameproof suit. ;-)
Anyway, as I said, I went on vacation, with my mom who is my partner in crime, and in vacations. We left on April 11 in Brussels, flying into JFK. We spent 4 whole days in NYC followed by a day of transfers to Miami. After one night there we boarded for a cruise going to Key West and Cozumel. Our vacation then ended at Walt Disney World.
One of the first things I'll tell you about is how the vacation ended. It ended in the Celebration ER. The person who came up with that name, should be shot, lol.
I am such an elegant person, and I do not leave one opportunity unused to show that elegance. *insert some roling eyes here* On our last full day at WDW, I went to the lobby to check our pick up time for DME. While I noticed the gazillion cheerleaders in the lobby, I didn't notice a wet floor, and there were no signs to tell me teh floor is wet. I basically found out when I was on the ground, cursing in a not so Disney-like way because I had slipped and fallen. On my knee. Considering my weight, that is not a good thing. I can tell you my vocabulary wasn't the "klassiest" one.
I must say though, immediately there were people there wanting to help me, as well other guests as CMs. They asked me if I needed a paramedic or ambulance or what not. Well, the only thing I wanted was cursing and crying and a alcohol shot. It didn't matter which alcohol. Because my knee hurted so much. After a couple of trials, they were able to reach my mom in the room (while I was going to the lobby, she was calling home to tell we were doing OK, yeah, right) and after discussing with her, we decided an ambulance would be not such a bad idea, considering the pain and the fact I could not stand on my leg.
Can I say that that was the end of our planned day at Animal Kingdom? No parade at Magic Kingdom? No dinner at Grand Floridian Cafe? No last minute shopping? Can I say I cried like a child out of pure misery? It was the combination of pain, somewhat the shock of the fall, the fact we wouldn't be able to do what we wanted to do that day and the fact we were supposed to fly back home the next day.
The ambulance arrived, I got an ice pack, the brought us to the Celebration ER (what a name) and I discovered that not each and every US ER had a George Clooney working there. That was a bummer. :-( While nurses and doctors and quite some other people took care of me, my mom spent a lot of time on the phone with our travel insurance company, Touring. They did a marvelous job, really. Usually, when you don't have to stay at least one night at the hospital, you have to pay yourself and they'll reimburse you afterwards. Well, in my case, they took care of everything, they contacted the hospital directly and took care of everything. I wasn't able to think straight, and my mom's English isn't that good plus she panicks when something happens, so it's good they took over, and we could focus on other things.
After the X-rays and all, they declared it was a "sprain", gave me pain medication (I saw pink elephants fly!! weeee!!!), a brace and crutches. And called a taxi.
Once back in the hotel, Disney took over a bit. They reimbursed our taxi, took care of our phone bill for all calls to Belgium (btw, they charge 10 USD a minute to call to Belgium! That is pure robbery!!!). They also offered to send a personal shopper to DTD to get the items I wanted and they offered us a private driver to get to the Grand Floridian for dinner, after making us a second ADR there, a later one, since we needed to first sort things out with the insurance company. Like how I was going to get home, since I couldn't bend my leg, am already very tall to begin with and had a regular economy ticket.
After numerous phone calls with the insurance company (in the end we didn't even have to say who we were and who we were calling for, the dispatcher put us through directly) and after getting messages like "staying a couple of more days in the US", they were able to rebook my ticket for the original flights to business class. I must say, doing that when it's Saturdat night in Belgium for a flight on Sunday is amazing, since you can't reach American Airlines during the weekend here. They were able to arrange it, together with special assistance in each airport, etc etc etc. Their service was amazing.
After that was arranged, we were just in time to get to our original Grand Floridian Cafe dinner. As promised, a private driver from All Stars Sports drove us to the Grand Floridian.
We enjoyed a very nice dinner (salad with strawberries, steak and key lime pie/ cheesecake) and then... it turned out somebody stole my wheelchair!!!!! Yes, the CM had parked my wheelchair in the restaurant lobby, and some idiot guest must have stolen it. Many CMs toldme this was the first time ever they had something like that happen! How can you just take a wheelchair?? Don't you realize that that means a person who needs it will be in big trouble? The Grand Floridian didn't have any spare wheelchairs anymore so they sent a CM to the Magic Kingdom to get me one. While I couldn't get over the fact someone stole mine, I was amazed to see they did this to help me. That's the Disney-touch, I guess. After I had my wheels back *insert some rolling eyes here too* we were up to do our last minute shopping. Of course, none of the Grand Floridian boutiques had what I wanted. I told my mom that I knew that Mousegear at Epcot had everything, and I asked her if she felt comfortable enough to go there and get it all. She told me she would even take me with her, so off to the monorail we went, and we took it to the TTC. There it turned out you have to go down one ramp and up another one to get on the Epcot-monorail. No elevators. At all. After the adventure it was to get me off the one ramp, I told her no way I was going with her to Epcot. So she basically parked me at the TTC and went by herself to Epcot. About an hour later, she was back and after an adventure to push me back up the ramp, we were back on the monorail, woohoo!
However, the adventure didn't end there.
*to be continued*
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
