We celebrated Chris' birthday this weekend - complete with an Escape room, baseball game, and a random Shaq concert!
The Kick Off to Summer quick vacation is complete!
We decided to do a long weekend in Florida to help kick off summer... but we had some challenges along the way...
Chris had to travel to Mexico for work right before our trip and I think he brought home more than he wanted with a little traveler's diarrhea... He was ready to push through, load up on meds, and head out anyway...
We were supposed to leave on Saturday morning but about an hour before leaving for the airport our flight was CANCELLED! And there were no other direct flights leaving that day for under $1000 each OR the flights would get us there at midnight - which we didn't see the point of that. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. Chris could stay in bed and deal with his belly and we were able to snag the SUPER early direct flight Sunday morning for no additional cost. We just lost out on pool time and a nice dinner - which Chris wasn't hungry for anyway.
We woke up at 2am on Father's Day and made our way to Orlando - the flight was good and we were in the pool by 9:30am! Chris was better but a little beat up, but relaxing was good. The girls played HARD in the sun and we eventually got ready to run around the Monorail resorts and a nice dinner at the Contemporary.
**Warning - it gets gross**
Now our ambition may have gotten the best of us and the lack of sleep with the early flight, everyone was pushing themselves... Lucy fell asleep while waiting for our table and woke up...exhausted - dehydrated - and upset. We calmed her down and decided to proceed with dinner - big mistake! We were sat at our table, the nice restaurant of Steakhouse 71, and Lucy all of a sudden decided to turn her stomach out... ALL over the table... like it was intense - I was trying my best with menus and cloth napkins to keep it on the table while everyone jumped into action. Cast Members were there quickly to assist, but it was so chaotic, I didn't know what to do. She just kept throwing up - seriously at least 15 times.
After what seemed like forever, she stopped enough for us to exit and get her to the bathroom. I felt so bad for her and for the other people in the restaurant, but honestly, everyone was SO nice and tried to help. There is something truly magical about Disney and their customer service. The cleaning lady in the bathroom helped me clean poor Lucy up and I even gave Lucy my tank top to wear as she destroyed herself from her hair to her shoes... We bagged her stuff in a trash bag and headed back to our hotel as quickly as we could!
At this point we had been up 19 hours and needed to be done! And in a fun turn of events, back at the hotel room, it was MY TURN TO BE SICK! I spent the night in the bathroom with either a sample of the Mexico bug or maybe what Lucy had - no idea! Chris had the diarrhea, Lucy had the vomit part and I got both! Lucky me.
We decided to take it a little slower the next day and let everyone sleep in. Lucy felt like a million bucks the next morning and Chris was 100% too... but I felt SO queasy. So queasy. My stomach would cramp and flip and turn and just could vomit at any moment. We headed into Epcot at 10am to take it slower and I almost didn't make it. I can always dig deep and push myself for Disney and I almost left, that's how bad I was feeling. Chris and Heidi decided I needed a scooter to survive and they were right. I couldn't physically walk that much - not my feet or legs, but my stomach. We made it into World Showcase and everyone was enjoying themselves. I was able to keep down a Powerade and around 1pm actually felt like myself. Luckily, Heidi never got any symptoms like us!
The scooter ended up being good for everyone. We took turns driving it - and Lucy got to ride most of the time. It was good for Chris' back and Heidi liked messing around with it. Even with the scooter - I still got 20K steps in for the day! The rest of the day ended up being perfect. We had THE BEST late lunch at the Japanese Steakhouse and everyone ate so well. We did go back and take a break at the hotel and then stayed at Epcot until 11pm. I was SO happy my queasy-ness disappeared, almost as quickly as it came on and was able to enjoy some of my favorite drinks and food.
The next day we slept in until 9:30am and had ourselves another pool and resort day. It was very fun. We played miniature golf at an oddly difficult course, but Disney themed of course and just had nice family time. The only bummer was our dinner was one of the worst meals I have ever had.
There was a new Mexican restaurant, Rosa Mexicana, at our resort that was highly rated... well - we were fooled! The drinks weren't good - too sweet or two tart - just not the right mix and they didn't have a full bar - only their drinks - so much of it had spicy in the drink or smokely liquors, which I hate. We ordered the gauc - but nothing special for the cost. Chris' steak was 80% fat - like 80% and Chris is willing to eat the fat, but it wasn't rendered at all. My meal honestly didn't even have any flavor - like give me - chili powder or cumin or something! I tried the stuffed poblano pepper with black beans, peppers, quinoa, and cheese - but it tasted like a lean cuisine or hospital food. At this point - we had been rolling with the punches so we just found it really funny - so we laughed ourselves out of there. We were honest with the super nice waitress and she didn't seem very surprised. Even the table next to us was complaining about their food. We literally left crying laughing and made the best of it.
The evening was spent running around the resort having fun and I loved it.
The last day was a Disney Springs shopping day and then flying home! It rained at first and we got a little wet running to some stores, but luckily, we dried off quickly. It was fun going into all the stores, having some drinks, and just spending time together. We ended with another fantastic meal at Homecoming and off to the airport we went!
Chris had one more surprise and got us First Class seats for the way home. It was seriously perfect. Everyone was super comfortable and loving it. It really did end on a high note! Even though the trip had some issues - overall, we definitely made some memories and had a great time. I would do it again - minus the queasy part for sure!
Now for the few pictures - with people being sick - the pictures are lacking as well as - we did spend a lot of time in the pool!
Trying to play ping pong...
5am flights - no thank you.
So happy we could take a family vacation! Many funny memories for life!