Bwahahahaha I'd have paid good money to see that!

But you see it's not you. Well, it's not all your cynicism (Disestablishmentarianism), when they treat you right you appreciate it and respond accordingly.

Thanks for the update, even Dorian was afraid to mess with your vacation so it will be cool.

I love your honesty, UT. It's brave of you and refreshing compared to the way so many people in other walks of life communicate.

I am glad you say so! That means the spirit of Sundae lives on. She would tell us anything and everything, and it told us real truths about her and about life. Her amazing ability to share brutal details was part of her gift to us. I sometimes try to approach that.

We feel shame using the dreaded mobility scooters. We did this to ourselves. But I think, after watching everyone over a lifetime, that the number of people damaging themselves, or at least not caring for themselves, is over 50%. They won’t even admit it to themselves. And they don’t even go to Disney, is how it works out, I think. But here we are, this is life, this is what it is.

The solution is not clear yet.

Life is full of precipitates in suspension.

Embrace the corporate beast. Suspend criticism and just enjoy.

Sounds like a very cool trip. Thanks for sharing it.

Maybe a mobility scooter in your future in the real world?

Don't. You are strong for owning that you needed help and getting it. And you -and probably all around you- are having a much better experience for it.

Admitting you need help, asking for it, and accepting it are the hardest things. There is so much strength here.

I don't know if it's common but my life has been a series of, oh shit what have I done, how am I going to fix/cope with this ?

9 times out of 10, I knew I was doing it and didn't much care, or didn't think it would be this bad. Wrong ever time. :o
The only saving grace is I was only hurting myself.

That is some real shit. Embracing reality is not a bad idea.

In retrospect,

It was a terrible idea to wake up at 3:30am to catch the early flight so that we could have a full day 1.

It was also a terrible idea to bear this 104 heat index all day, and then get back and set the thermostat to 68 so we could cool down, and forget about it and leave it there all night. So, no sleep, followed by terrible sleep,...

And then we had to switch to an entirely different lodge, due to the hurricane last-minuting, which threw everything out of whack again.

I spent the fourth day's hot afternoon in the room, watching the football game. Went to the park at night, after things cool down. That was much nicer, and I was able to abandon the scooter for half the time.

And then it was a terrible idea to schedule the first flight out the next morning, because that means you wake up at 4:30am for the outbound.

I'll go to work tomorrow and it will be relaxing.

Sounds like a vacation to me.

One more thing,

We flew Southwest, and even with their low fee Wanna Get Away price schedule, we were able to re-book our tickets around the hurricane TWICE.

All flights into Orlando became Sold Out, yet we got the first flight there from PHL after the storm passed. Southwest has a very good hurricane policy. Somehow they kept spots available on the Thursday flights for people scheduling around the hurricane, or something.

And I noticed Spirit and Frontier were really quick about cancelling flights into Orlando. I bet they can't as easily allow planes and crew to get stuck there.

I wonder if the airlines had enough cancellations because of the storm to give them wiggle room in shuffling people around, people who just cancelled altogether rather than just changing dates. Were the planes packed?

The plane from PHL-MCO was full; the return flight was only half full.

The flight we originally booked was a nonstop Monday morning. As the storm neared, we changed that to Wednesday morning. Then it stalled, and the Orlando airport closed for Tuesday and most of Wednesday. We had to change to Thursday morning and hope for the best.

On the Southwest website, they would list the alternative flights if you wanted to change for hurricane reasons. They have 3 non-stop (morning, afternoon, night) PHL->MCO and about 20 flights through other cities. As the hurricane neared, the flights through other cities all sold out, but SW still allowed us to select the 3 non-stop that matched our original flight if we wanted to change our plans.

I do not know how they did that, especially for a $159 Wanna Get Away ticket.

This.
I can think of some many examples of people I have known and loved who should have done this.

Sent by magick

Was Disney cool with changing your plans? I should think they would be happy you were still coming, there was probably people who only had a small window off from work who totally cancelled.