So when we arrived at the hotel last night, I asked the front
desk personnel about discounted tickets to Disney World – Magic Kingdom and she
referred me to the gentleman behind me who I thought was the concierge. Turns
out he wasn’t we was a rep from another hotel who offered a deal if you went to
a presentation… you know, those ones for time shares, etc. We decided for a
$120 discount off the peak prices for Magic kingdom that we had nothing to lose
to attend a free breakfast and meeting. I asked the man the qualifications, he
replied: You need to be in Orlando more than one day – check, you need to be
either single or married – now while I am not actually single, I did have to
say yes to this (He was aware my boyfriend was coming) – check, we couldn’t be
Florida residents – Check! He assured me there were no income restrictions or
guidelines – check! So, Doryn and I went to sleep, with an exciting day ahead
of us.
We woke up super early and neither of us like those mornings…
we’re both night owls. So we get ready and head to the location of the
presentation and free breakfast. I fill out some paperwork and turn it in… the
staff has me re-fill it out since I’m not married I cannot include Doryn on it.
We wait and a gentleman comes to us and leads us to a table….”You don’t
qualify…” he says and then continues on
“You must make $50,000/year to qualify….” BLAH! Of course he was the manager of
the operation and there was no one above him, so we had to cut out loses. We
left without our breakfast and our discounted tickets, but we did have our $20.
We were determined to go to Magic Kingdom, so headed out to
AAA. The local office offered tickets that were a little less in price from the
ones offered online, so I put my $20 towards it and Doryn handled the rest. We opted not to drive to the Magic Kingdom and
we took an Uber there, funny thing was he didn’t understand much English and
kept turning the heater on, when we asked for the AC… I couldn’t stop laughing,
then as we got out he asked us to “Give me 5 Stars!!!” lol.
Sites on our drive 
Balloon Animals at Breakfast!
Rawrrrr! Doryn wanted a T-Rex
Doryn isn't the tallest Baldy in this city!
The Magic Kingdom had a different feel from Disneyland. They had
a ferryboat take you to it across the seven seas. While we were only there for
3 hours and 15 minutes, we enjoyed 4 rides. But the heat and crowds were
unbearable, even with me in a wheelchair (due to my herniated disc,
degenerative disc disease and recent knee issues), we couldn’t get to the head
of the lines any faster without paying more money for a fast pass. But we did
enjoy the trip, none the less. The heat was really too much for both of us,
even with our bottles of water, our sunscreen and our hats… still too hot – I
think someone said it was 108 degrees out! Yikes!
We did have a fun meeting with a couple at Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad. We took the wheelchair entrance and as we sat there waiting
for a staff member, a couple came up behind us. A woman and her husband each in
motorized chairs. They offered us flavored waters and before you know it we
were chatting it up. They asked where we were from and what brought us to
Florida. I told them about our trip and what we were doing. She shared how she
had friends and family who went through cancer, some had survived. I think she
was glad to meet us, we talked until we boarded the back of the train – the
place that gets the most gravity!! WEEEE!
I think Magic Kingdom needs signs directing people to
different attractions. Even with the map in hand it was hard to find the
entrances and the rides we wanted to enjoy. Hint Hint to Magic Kingdom!! Lol.
When we took the Ferry back to the other side, we requested an Uber.
Coincidentally, there was one waiting there for someone, lucky us! Now the good
thing is that this Uber driver spoke English. The bad thing was… he was a
talker!! First think out of his mouth was about POLITICS, complaining about the
country and what he felt needed to be done, who needed to be president and what
was inevitable. I didn’t really care to discuss with him and neither did Doryn.
While he continued to jabber on, not allowing me to interject in anything he
said…. He would switch to the Watergate scandal and how the star spangled
banner came about and the flag, the true story… blah blah blah. Lol. Doryn just
looked at me as the driver talked… I knew he didn’t feel comfortable with the
topic. So our driver continues and then talks about all the recent shootings in
Orlando and how the government wants ALL his guns. He admitted to having 19
guns and his wife has 2. He talked about what kinds he had and how he’d fight
the government before they take his right to bear arms. At this point, we were
not interested in anything else he had to say. I kept saying that I didn’t want
to discuss the violence and guns and sure enough he changed the subject asking
about us… I didn’t disclose much information to this crazy man and was happy to
arrive at the hotel. But 30 minutes with this creep….. makes me rethink how
much I don’t like Uber in this town. UBER NEEDS TO DO Background and possibly
psychiatric testing. :-/
Talk about a FUN FILLED day so far right? So we get to the
hotel and rest a little before our dinner date with my old friend Patty from
when I live and grew up in Elmhurst Queens, NY – one of our stops when we left
NYC a few days ago. I hadn’t seen her in over 25 years and I was thrilled to
reconnect! So after our quick nap, we headed to meet Patty and her boyfriend
Chris at Sweet Tomatoes, which is the east coast version of Souplantation. I
was excited that I got a coupon, so I shared it with Patty too. As we walked
through the salad bar I noticed a woman on the other side with a blue scarf
cap, I wanted to meet her for sure. Somewhere during the evening, when we went
to get some soup, I was standing right next to the woman in the blue scarf hat.
I turned to her and asked how she was, she had a bright smile. I asked her if
she was going through cancer treatments and told her I was a survivor too.
There we were at the soup bar, talking about cancer and connecting as new
friends. She had been diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma; that had affected
her speaking. She continued to smile as we talked about life, UCAAN and the
trip, she asked me questions about it all. She told me that she was heading to the Mayo
Clinic in Jacksonville the next day to check out a clinical trial and how she
was making a weekend out of it. We shook hands, her name was Destiny… It really
felt like we had to meet.
As I walked back to the table with my soup in hand I reached
into my purse and grabbed a bracelet, the only Share the Hope one I had in my
bag. I pulled a card and one of our glow bracelets. I walked back to the table
she was sitting at with her friend. I told her about the bracelet and that she
needed to pass it on when she met someone who needed the HOPE more than her.
“Good luck in everything.” I told her as I walked back to my table. I overheard
her friend as I walked away “That was very sweet, wow!” she said. I knew just
as I have experienced before that any way I could help another with cancer, I
would. Even with something as simple as a bracelet and a high five! I continued
my dinner with my friends and Doryn.
When we left the restaurant, I hugged Patty and Chris and
told them “till we see you again!” We could see a Ferris wheel type of
structure from where we were. Patty said if we drove down International Drive
we would reach it and could take some great photos of it. It’s much like the
Linq in Vegas. We drove down in hopes of finding it, but we came across another
amusement spot. We opted to stop there and check it out. It was vibrant with
colorful lights. They had a kids go kart area, one of those large swings you
see at most amusement parks, except it lifted them high in the air. They had an
arcade, a huge adult go kart area with so many areas to drive, even a spiral
road (much like a parking garage style). Biggest attraction there was the Slingshot
that shot people 390 feet in the air!! We sat and watched for a few minutes
before leaving and heading back to the hotel. We had another early morning
ahead of us and so we needed to get our rest prior to driving to Tampa to visit
Moffitt Cancer Center.
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