/ 202 MANIC MANAGED MOM / rachel recommends
BY RACHEL HARRIS , Mangedmoms . com
Lessons Learned From Our Disneyland Vacation Gone Bad !
Planning a family vacation this summer ? Read my tale about how our Disneyland adventure went sour and the lessons learned .
Our Story
To celebrate my girl ’ s straight-A report card , we planned a four-day stay at The Walt Disney Hotel in Anaheim for some Disneyland and California Adventure Theme Park fun . We never made it to either park .
Instead , we spent our first day in an urgent care , followed by a trip to a pharmacy for the antibiotics that were prescribed for the diagnosis of Tonsillitis . The Walt Disney Hotel was full of compassionate employees ; having witnessed her tears at checkin , they gave her a free DVD movie and a Mickey Mouse doll wishing her a speedy recovery .
Sadly , my daughter was so ill that the next morning , I found her lying on the bathroom floor , burning up with fever and unable to speak . She wasn ’ t keeping anything down , so it was time for an emergency room visit . As soon as we arrived at the Orange County Children ’ s Hospital , I knew that we were in good hands . She had a pretty bad virus so was prescribed some painkillers . They even surprised us and paid our cab fare back to the hotel !
Even though we were up again that night , we both felt strong enough to make the journey home the next day . You know your kid is sick when she says that she doesn ’ t want to stay extra days to recover to visit Disneyland ; she just wanted to go home , poor thing . Thankfully , she made a full recovery , but it took almost two weeks since this virus was an especially mean illness .
Lessons Learned
A Buy travel insurance ! If I would have purchased the $ 50 travel insurance package , I would have received all of my Disney money back . Fortunately , I did get our $ 500 three-day park hopper package money refunded because the front desk literally witnessed my girl being rushed to urgent care moments after we checked in . Be aware that a lot of the travel packages are nonrefundable , so always ask that question when you book . I was also able to persuade the hotel to refund our last night ’ s stay since we flew home early , but they repeatedly stressed to me that this was a one time exception .
A If you are going to Disneyland in LA , fly in and out of Orange County . The John Wayne Orange County Airport is only a 20-minute cab ride ( in good traffic ) from Disneyland . The airport is also nice and is not congested . Since my girl was so washed out by the time we went home , that calm environment was what we needed to keep us going .
A Pack a sick kid kit ! The hotel gift shop had children ’ s Advil and a thermometer , but children ’ s Tylenol was nowhere to be found on the property . Fortunately ( after several hours ), the helpful hotel employees did find a delivery service that brought us Tylenol and some Gatorade . Advil can be rough on a sick tummy , so needing to alternate to Tylenol was crucial during one stage of her illness .
A Bring entertainment from home . Our hotel had no in-room movie service . Even healthy kids need some down time from all of the Disney excitement , so pack some movies for your room ’ s DVD player , an iPad or favorite books for some relaxing entertainment .
Here ’ s hoping that you never experience the kind of illness that my child had and at Disneyland , of all places !
Do you have a crazy travel story and if so , what are your best tips ? Talk to me at my blog at managedmoms . com . I ’ m wishing you safe and smooth travels this summer season .
Freelance writer , Rachel Harris , is also known as the Manic Managed Mom on KTVK ’ s “ Your Life A to Z ” morning show . Rachel is also the proud mother of a teenage son and tween daughter plus three cats that were all rescued from local animal shelters . Check out Rachel ’ s website at managedmoms . com for parenting talk , recipes , beauty news , pet pics and more . And see her lifestyle segment every Wednesday at 10 a . m . on 3TV .
58
202 MAGAZINE \ JULY 2013 \ 202magazine . com