Our BIG trip was last summer. I came across our pictures from last summer's trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I decided, "garsh, as Goofey would say, that was a huge trip for our family...first flight for the boys...first major flight with diabetes...I should write about it!"
...so...that's what I did.___________________________________
We were sooo excited! Don't let middle C's sleepiness fool you...We awoke at 4 am to catch our flight from LAX. And I doubt any of us slept much the night before. We were going to DisneyWorld!!In preparation for our trip, I had read up on, talked to people about, and had even questioned C's endo about travel and diabetes. I had purchased an expensive "cooling wallet" to keep the insulin cool during our travel. I had packed plenty of pump supplies and prescriptions and dispersed them between mine and Dan's carry-on luggage. I had looked into a second "emergency" pump in case C's went on the blink. (Medtronic assured me that a new pump could be over-nighted to us if need be.) I had even remembered to pack syringes in case of pump failure. Glucose tabs, snacks galore, we were set!
While reading, reading, reading, I came upon this article written by a dad of a type 1. It was great! He gave good tips for dealing with diabetes while going Disney-style. The article is called "Disney with Diabetes" and you can find it over at DLife. I thank Bennet "BadShoe" Dunlap for his candid and helpful hints to make the vacation pleasant (despite that varmit called diabetes!)
Here are just a few of "BadShoe's" tips that we used:
- packed way-lots of diabetes stuff...in two bags...carried on (you never know when a slippery insulin bottle will fall onto a hard tile floor!)
- asked for a sharps container from our hotel's front desk
- ordered groceries delivered to our room from local market (case of water...saved us lots $)
- ate most breakfasts in room (cereal & fruit = easy carb-counting for at least one meal per day)
- carried water, snacks and Crystal Light into parks
- tested blood sugar often
- did lots of homework to plan must-sees in each park
- had a ton of fun!!
It really was a wonderful family vacation for us. And I highly reccommend it. If at all possible, just don't plan it in the most humid part of the summer! The other thing we did that helped was to pay for everything up front...accommodations, meals, park tickets, airfare and on-ground transportation. We made reservations at the more elegant (pricey) restaurants since they were prepaid. That took quite a bit of stress out of the actual vacation time. I had checked pricing out with our local AAA and then actually booked everything myself online through Disney and Priceline.com. I ended up saving nearly $800 by clicking the mouse myself!
So, off we went. And like happens when I think C's numbers will be way out of range, she did pretty well on our week away!...except for the plane ride there...
...positive stress, perhaps?
So many princesses...
...
...so little time!
Animal Kingdom - unexpectedly my favorite park.
The Magic Kingdom
Hollywood Studios...fun, even in the rain!
Where else would I even consider spending $12 on a balloon?
And...we finally found Snow White on our last day. (whew!!)______________________________
So, take that diabetes!! We had an awesome time, despite your tagging along!
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Looks like you guys had a lot of fun in Disney World! Another option to the diabetic meal pack that you took would have been the Medifast Meal Replacement Plan that follows the dietary necessities of a diabetic meal plan. They would have also delivered the meals right to you. But nonetheless, it looks like what you did worked for you and that is really all that matters!
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