Sunday, October 7, 2007

Disney World? But I need a vacation!

I have a household full of Disney fanatics... and 2 of them have not been there before. The preordered Mickey Mouse ears will arrive soon in the mail. The Disney planning book has been bought and waits anxiously on the bedside table for someone to open it. And the clock is ticking til we leave on Friday. I can hear the annoying little "tick, tick, tick" in the back of my brain, ticking til "D" day. Now you might think this stands for Disney but its could as easily stand for "Disaster".

Disney itself is not the problem. If I could wiggle my nose like the lady in Bewitched I would have not one apprehension. Because really its the travel that makes me crazy. And my psychiatrist husband is not being cooperative with getting me some anti anxiety medication. (humph) Though he has encouraged me to ask my doctor for a dose or two so you KNOW he thinks I will need it.

Traveling with kids is a nightmare! Traveling 12 hours with kids is a nightmare I may never wake up from. Or more likely you know the kind of nightmares you force yourself to wake up from and then you go back to sleep and it just continues or repeats itself. That is my Disney trip nightmare! In order that Cullen does not miss much more school we are shortening a week long vacation into 4 days. So by the time we get there we will have 2 days in the park. Of course I will still be in the psych ward when its time to turn around and drive home.

I do most of the driving because if i didn't we would be in the car for hours longer than necessary. Thank goodness for cruise control because when Edward drives he gets to day dreaming and we start going slower and slower. But even on cruise control we go sloooowww. I either drive or I sit in the passenger seat thinking not very nice thoughts and some actually slip out of my mouth. So I drive and the horde reads, watches movies or plays their hand held game systems. And between the fighting and the "Are we there yet?" which starts five minutes after we leave home I want to just pull over and get out.

(Haha! Edward just approached me with a "proposal", suggesting that we try to do most of the driving in one day so we have three days at the park. He say he will get us there. But you just ready the last paragraph so I am not sure how that will happen.)

So planning for all my fears. I am buying some ear plug to minimize the noise in the car. I am stocking up on batteries so the games just keep-a-workin. I might even bring some benadryl to drug the worst noise offenders. And buy a couple new DVDs that the kids have never seen so they are engrossed for long periods of time. Breaking the drive up with be a lifesaver. Starting early while the children are still "happy" and not forcing the driving day to drag on too long is key to my sanity. Will this save me? Probably not but the alternative without the precautions would be unspeakable.

I know the memories we will make at the park will be priceless. Edward and I went to Disney for our honeymoon and it was magical. To experience Disney through the eyes of our kids will be even more magical. The too and the from will be torture but maybe if I think about the worse case scenerio I will be pleasantly surprised how 12 hours can pass without total meltdown.

Disney here we come!?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi stephanie! i'm a friend of elysa's and she turned me on to your blog.

i do understand the frustrations of traveling with children - we've done A LOT.

one thing that we do is read aloud to one another or listen to books on tape. portable dvd players also are godsends!

you are a very gifted writer and designer...i wish i had a blog just so i could enter your contest!

i do have a website, though, which a friend of mine very graciously created and maintains. i'm trying to figure out a way to do it on my own though.

Gina Conroy said...

We love Disney and drive 2 days to get there every two years.

Hope you survived and get some great photos as proof you had a great time.

Welcome to Writer...Interrupted.