Last week the family and myself went to Orlando Florida for a much needed vacation. We were fortunate to be able to stay in my fathers time share which is only a few minutes away from Walt Disney World. We got to the condo around 10:30 P.M. and while I was getting us checked in Mrs. Zm and the boy went to a local grocery store for food stuffs. What they found was that this particular store was very limited in its stock and very over priced, my theory was because it was smack dab in the middle of a bunch of time shares and hotels. We finally got everyone in and settled for the night around midnight and we were all up at 6:30 the next day to begin our adventure.
After a breakfast of eggs and bacon we went off to Disney Hollywood Studios. I was smart enough to pack my handicapped hang tag which got us parked very close tot he front entrance. I picked up an electric scooter so I could drive around and save adding more stress to my hip. In the past Disney Hollywood Studios was not really my favorite park on the Disney Property but in August the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opened up and we were looking forward to that. Once we got our bearings were went directly to Galaxy’s Edge and were amazed at the level of detail, from the costuming tot he building we honestly felt like we were on a different planet, all throughout the area were various languages and animatronic creatures doing everything from turning a spit of meat under the engines of a derelict ship to in cages. The First Order was everywhere with various officers and Kylo Ren. We did several of the attractions like Smugglers Run where you are part of the crew of the Millennium Falcon, Mrs. ZM and the boy were the pilots and I was a gunner, there were three other people in the experience with us, it was a lot of fun. Mrs. ZM managed to find us a delicious lunch, and we generally had a good time. The afternoon brought us one of the biggest reasons we were there, at 3:00 we went to the scrap yards of Savi’s Workshop, where after some back and forth we were ushered into a back room to create something from a more civilized age, a lightsaber. The experience is immersive and is very compelling with lights and music, plus a very good main character. you have four styles to choose from both Mrs. ZM and myself went with Elements and Nature while little ZM went with protection and defense, I of course went with a green crystal, Mrs. Zm a purple one, and little ZM a red crystal as they were out of them in the gift shop and he wanted a whole set. I was greatly impressed by the experience to say the least, afterward we explored the rest of the park and ate dinner at a nice Italian place at the park, we also found out Disney will ship your stuff back for a fee so we have shipped our lightsabers home and they should arrive in a week or so. We finished our adventure there and made our way home. When we got back to the condo I was absolutely exhausted but I didn’t want to show that to my family, call it simple stubbornness or bull headed pride, but I wanted my family to at least have the illusion that I was just fine, I took all of my evening meds and went to sleep.
Friday saw us going to Epcot, in the past Epcot was always one of my favorite places especially the international area, mostly because I like the people watching. We were joined by Mrs. ZM’s parents for the day. We also came on the last day of the Food and Wine event which made Mrs. ZM very happy. We started our day with fresh French pastries and the day continued on from there, I was once again piloting a scooter and enjoying myself greatly. I am no where near as much of a foodie as Mrs. ZM and Little ZM, so I had the pleasure of watching them eat their way around the world and hearing their opinions on things. About mid day we cut Little ZM loose to go on some rides while the adults drove around the world some more. In the mid afternoon Mrs. ZM’s parents left and we found ourselves un-supervised. I noticed Mrs. ZM was having some troubles so I convinced her to get her own electric scooter, which she begrudgingly did but later did say it was a good idea. We had intended to stay to watch the closing fireworks and laser light show but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t happening or at least not when we thought it was supposed to, so after watching Little ZM dance with Remi from Ratatouille at a dance party we went back to the condo.
Saturday saw us going to Disney Springs which is a shopping area on the property, Mrs. ZM was nice and found me a scooter to drive around, again we spent the day with her parents and ended our night with a dinner at a lovely steampunk themed restaurant. Our general feeling was that Disney Springs wasn’t really our cup of tea, but it was nice to hang with Mrs. ZM’s folks as they live in Florida and we don’t get to see them very often.
Sunday found us going to Discovery Cove, which is part of the Sea World parks, we were going there as a gift to the boy as he is obsessed with otters and they advertised that you could swim with otters among other things, we were terribly disappointed when we found out that the otters were behind glass and you couldn’t even pet them. I was rather disappointed to say the least because I wanted my kid to have the best experience and I felt as though I failed him. We did get to swim with some rays and I got to pet some fish. Afterward we went to a comic book place we had heard about the night before as we went in I was a little disappointed it wasn’t very exciting, that is until I found the back room which evidently is a pretty cool night club and i regret not going with Mrs. ZM the night before when we heard about it, in my defense I was really tired and going to a comic book store at 9 P.M. didn’t really excite me.
Afterwards we went to Universal Studios City Walk, my god was that a shit show. We had to park on the ass end of nowhere, once we got there we found out we would have to go to Universal Studios to rent a scooter (would have to pay for admission to Universal Studios) so we ended up getting me a wheelchair and Mrs. ZM had to push it around which wasnt exactly easy as I am not exactly small. We did get to have a nice lunch/dinner and we got some candy. Then it was off tot he airport for our trip home.
Somethings that I learned on this trip: I hate my body right now, because of my sedentary job and a whole host of other things I am bigger than I want to be and feel ashamed, people do not see handicapped scooters and wheelchairs and they will get upset if you are right in their line of travel. I also learned that I need to communicate a lot better when I need something.
I needed this trip, it helped to recharge my batteries.