Okay! Counting down the days, 11 for us till we arrive at WDW. We're spending the weekend of the 15th and 16th at WDW, heading to the port to board the Dream on the 17th, then back to WDW on the 21st for another weekend. Our basic itinerary is incredibly simple: do Food and Wine while we're on land (weekend crowds be damned) and just mostly relax on the cruise. We have no FastPasses and no ADRs aside from the group one at The Wave, and if we never see the inside of any park other than Epcot or never see the inside of any rides or attractions, it's no problem. We only have one brief shore excursion booked (glass-bottom boat in Nassau) along with brunch at Palo and maybe massages if they have a discount going on our Nassau day. If we do nothing but sit in deck chairs enjoying adult beverages on the cruise, I will be fine.
This has been the summer from hell for us, and fall has not started off any better. Last spring my father, who was 89 years old and had advancing Parkinson's, became so infirm that he required 24-hour care. In mid-June we moved him into the nursing section of a continuing care community near me, about 1-2 hours from other family in the area and from the home he shared with his second wife (Mom died years ago). Stepmother started making plans to move into the independent living section of the same community when a cottage became available mid-September. For about a month and a half I was the one who mostly visited since I was maybe 15-20 minutes' drive away. Then at the end of July Dad had a stroke and everything went all to hell. Out-of-town siblings came, Dad was in terrible shape and frightened, stepmom was freaking out, nobody knew what to do. By the end of August Dad was gone. So now, arrangements and paperwork and confusion, too much stuff to do at a time when none of us was in any shape to do it but we had to so we did. Stepmom is now moving to Wisconsin to be near her daughter. Today and Tuesday her stuff is being boxed up and loaded into a moving van and Wednesday she flies away. Friday hubby and I start driving her car and her cat (of course I volunteered to take care of the cat) to join her in Wisconsin, and then Sunday we fly back home with one of stepsister's cats that will become ours (long story, not gonna get into it now). In the middle of all this, since literally the day my dad died, I have been dealing with dental issues that required two root canals and so far a total of seven visits to various dentists with at least one more to come to get permanent crowns put in. And hubby got gout.
So when I say I actually am not looking forward to this vacation at all, perhaps you will understand. Oh, don't get me wrong, I want to go on the vacation. I just wish it were in November or December so I could have a few weeks between returning home from Wisconsin and heading to Florida to de-stress and get my equilibrium back. I mean, my nerves are shot. But it is when it is, so six days after we get home from Wisconsin we will be on a plane to Florida. And I hope that the five intervening days are enough time for me to de-stress enough to really enjoy this trip. I mean, so many of you will be there, and it's all Disney, so if anything will turn things around for me, it'll be this trip.
I'll be back in late October with the trip report, and hope it will be full of great fun and happy memories. And to those of you coming the the Meet-Up, I'll see you real soon.
I hope Disney will be enough of a distraction to ease your stress and worry xxx
Disney will help! It has too! 
