Post #37: Fiji Family’s Florida Fling
Updated: Aug 23, 2022
On Saturday, June 12th in Fiji, our family began their long journey to Nana and Papa’s Florida house. On the way to the international airport they stopped at a Covid19 testing site as they were all required to produce official governmental documentation of negative covid tests to board their Fiji Airways flight to Los Angeles. I had been so busy arranging plans for their visit that I had not at all focused on that pre-condition of their flying. And earlier that week our daughter Stacy had informed me that her husband Jason had not been feeling well so she obtained a home testing kit. Furthermore, she had also received info from her son Cooper’s school about a student covid case. Fortunately, Jason tested negative and Cooper felt fine. After months of planning, I could not bear for Covid to upend all our fine-tuned plans (you can read about all the planning in Blog Post #36).
Curiously, just before they left, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had announced: “As of 12:01AM ET on June 12, 2022, CDC will no longer require air passengers traveling from a foreign country to the United States to show a negative COVID-19 viral test.”
However, our family’s Fiji Airways flight departure was scheduled for 9 pm on June 12, which equated to 1 pm US eastern time on June 11, just missing the new directive by 11 hours. So they all still had to take and pass the covid test to board their flight. The good news was that they all tested negative. And the additional good news was that everyone else on their 11-hour flight had to have tested negative, minimizing the risk of catching covid en route.
The next I heard from Stacy was her WhatsApp early Saturday afternoon at LAX: “We landed at L.A. Getting bags. Will call once we are set up in hotel.”
“Welcome to America!! I replied, very glad to know they made it stateside. Later we had a brief FaceTime from their airport hotel where they were recuperating from their lengthy red-eye flight, while Cooper was bouncing on a bed and watching televised kidvid of his choosing.
As Stacy had planned, they took an early non-stop flight from LAX to Fort Lauderdale Airport. Due to the three-hour time zone difference, I had time on Sunday to bake a family favorite cake (apple selected by Cooper) and begin dinner preparations for the anticipated travel weary family: Asian broccoli slaw salad (another family favorite), grilled salmon for pescatarian Stacy, tender steak for Fiji meat-deprived Jason, and plain chicken for Cooper whose food preferences had narrowed considerably like most food-fussy kids.
Later that afternoon, Nana & Papa left our home, bringing the kid car seat appreciatively inherited from our friend Jill, in plenty of time to meet their flight. We excitedly waited to spy them on the escalator descending into the baggage area. I had selected a small toy vehicle from my cache of Cooper gifts for airport presentation, which he proceeded to careen across the floor full of other arriving travelers (so maybe not the best choice for impatiently awaiting luggage arrival). Stacy had encouraged Cooper, and he had agreed, to bring few toys to Florida, assuming that he would be acquiring many more on his trip.
We were delighted to bring them to our new Florida home to be greeted by our English springer spaniel Oliver.
Of course, I showed them where they could be comfortably installed in the guest rooms of their choosing. Stacy determined that all three of them could bunk in the cabana guest house, which had a queen size bed as part of the matching furniture set that I had selected for our master bedroom in 1975, a gift from my parents which we used directly for more than 20 years.
Stacy created a Cooper bed from a pool lounge chair cushion, extra pillows and ocean- themed comforter from her youth.
At home I presented Cooper with another welcome gift that I knew was going to be a big hit: a Jurassic World toy set that included Cooper’s favorite dinosaur wrangler Owen, complete with the almost pet-like velociraptor Blue. Lots more toys were pulled out, many stuffed animals and other collectibles that had survived my childhood, Stacy’s and her brother’s. Each day we added to the toy collection, as Cooper would ask, “ Can I have one more present today?” It was like Hanukkah in June, with more motor vehicles, pool toys, dinosaurs and sea creatures, all amassed since we had brought the last treasure trove to Fiji in December. It sounds indulgent, but we only have one grandchild who we see so infrequently.
Early in their visit we gave almost six year-old Cooper an early birthday gift: a set of remote control boats, as I had recalled this was an unfulfilled request from Christmas. Having researched and ordered on Amazon, and charged and inserted the required batteries close to their arrival, I was hoping the plastic, supposedly kid-friendly, Chinese-manufactured boats would actually work and not create some big toy frustration. And thank goodness, with a little more tweaking from Daddy Jason, they did! Cooper was thrilled and spent plenty of time maneuvering the boats in our pool, racing against his Dad or Papa, while always attempting to handle the fastest race boat.
Our courtyard pool continued to be a great default activity when we had nothing else specifically scheduled. And speaking of the schedule, so it began on Monday morning, with Cooper’s Pfizer Covid19 kids vaccine appointment which I had booked, at Stacy’s request, at a nearby CVS to follow-up on Cooper’s first vaccine received in Australia in March. Kids covid vaccines had yet to be brought to Fiji. Cooper was nervous about the needle but he “survived” the injection with no after effects. Mom Stacy let Cooper choose a toy for being brave, and he picked a small metal (over-priced) vehicle from the prominent CVS display.
Getting the vaccine was easy. Getting official documentation of the vaccine was not so much. Although CVS provided a record of administering the vaccine, Stacy wanted a government document that would be accepted in Fiji to confirm Cooper’s vaccination, as it might eventually be required for school enrollment o other activities. She had already gone through a lot of hassle in Australia to obtain their official government document of Cooper’s first vaccine. Stacy was intent on obtaining something similar in the U.S., no matter how much trouble it might involve. According to the CVS pharmacist, the vaccine details are reported to the Florida Board of Health, so she directed us to the closest Florida Health Department office several miles away in northern Jupiter (yes, that’s the name of the nearby Florida town which confuses people all the time when we give our last name). Off we went, located the office in a complex of bland, low-rise government buildings, waited to present our request, and were pleasantly informed that indeed we should be able to obtain official documentation, but … not at that office. We would have to go in the opposite direction, south to the West Palm Beach office.
“That will take us a half hour to get there, and who knows how long to see someone, etc.,” I told Stacy, “There’s not enough time today, as you and Cooper have hair appointments this afternoon.” Stacy resigned to continue this search another day, but emphasized that this was one of the most important tasks to be accomplished during their U.S. visit
For comic relief at this point, look at this photo I took in the health department: dispenser for free condoms. Learning about our governmental dollars at work.
The hair appointments were with the stylist who had been competently and congenially tending to my hair needs since I had moved to Florida last fall. Stacy got her foils and cut, and Terri did a great kids cut for Cooper, which you can see in the visit photos taken post-haircut like the one from dinner that evening at our community club restaurant (especially in comparison to Cooper’s hair in the vaccine photo).
On Tuesday afternoon we all went to Cooper’s must-see movie: the long-awaited Jurassic World Dominion film, featuring favorite characters Owen and Claire, which had recently opened in theaters. Cooper loved it, and was engaged on the edge of his seat most of the time. Nana loved watching Cooper’s excitement, and also found the film entertaining on the big screen, assuming I would not have seen it that way without a grandson in tow. Papa did not fall asleep, which is usually a good sign that a film kept his interest. And this movie would certainly be the prelude to our Universal Jurassic World adventure in Orlando.
After the movie, we drove along Ocean Drive and got out for a brief walk along Jupiter and Juno beaches as we had yet to show our Pacific Ocean residing guests the nearby Atlantic Ocean shoreline.
Tuesday’s dinner was at Guanabanas, a charming and cheerful, island-inspired, outdoor riverside restaurant.
Wednesday dawned on the long awaited road-trip to the amusement mecca of the world, and the fulfillment of Cooper’s main reason for choosing to visit Nana & Papa in Florida. While I needed the morning to prepare, pack and leave the house for our 3-night Orlando trip, Jesse occupied Cooper by shuttling him in his golf cart to our community playground. Good quality Papa/grandson time.
We left after lunch to arrive by late afternoon hotel check-in time at our Disney World resort. As Jesse began driving, I was shuffling through my trip papers, seeing all the Disney-related documents but couldn’t locate anything about our Universal tickets for the following day. We had just started north on Interstate 95, but I frantically insisted to Jesse, “I’m sorry but we have to get off at the next exit and go back home. I can’t find my Universal paperwork.”
“Right NOW!” I announced, as we were quickly approaching the next I95 exit. I fortunately located Universal details in a family visit file which were inadvertently not transferred into the travel folder. Phew! There had been so much for Nana to organize.
By the time we arrived at Disney’s expansive Caribbean Beach Resort, we were significantly past check-in time, but the Disney “cast member” at the welcome desk had a lot of difficulty checking us in and methodically took way too much time assessing our pre-paid accommodation availability. I was getting pretty annoyed, but in the end, we lucked out. Our two reserved basic guest rooms were upgraded to adjoining pirate-themed rooms which Cooper adored, as each bed was framed as a pirate ship. Admittedly, I was informed about the themed accommodations when I booked the hotel rooms but did not want to spend at least 30% more. Stacy added to the pirate play by purchasing Cooper a toy pirate’s sheathed sword. Aarrrr me buckos!
When we finally got settled in our well-equipped pirate ship rooms, ate some snacks, and imbibed some beer and wine that we had brought along, Stacy took Cooper to the main resort pool designed as an old Spanish fort with waterslides, a child’s delight!
Meanwhile, it was also dinner time, so we put our name on the lengthy waitlist of the poolside Banana Cabana restaurant. The hard part was getting Cooper out of the pool when we finally had a table. It was not divine dining but we ate and drank, Disney theme style.
After dinner was crash time for the grandparents, who had organized and driven the troops. But the night was still young for our visitors. Cooper’s parents took him to the resort’s outdoor animated movie to continue the evening entertainment. And apparently, there was still a big pirate party in their room before Cooper settled down for the night.
Wednesday morning: about 8 am I sent Stacy a WhatsApp, “Good morning Disney party, we are well awake and ready to get going whenever you all are.” Closer to 9 am, they were all ready to get going. We ate a tolerable Disney breakfast at the resort’s convenient, nearby counter-order Spyglass grill before driving to Universal Orlando, where I had booked one-day tickets to Universal’s Islands of Adventure, home of the all-important Jurassic World and other well-known movie themes. With a 25 minute drive to Universal Orlando, funneled into the gigantic parking garage, herded into lengthy people-mover walkways, directed through Universal’s CityWalk lengthy entrance area, we finally arrived at the ticketed entry kiosks, at which point everyone needed to make a restroom pit stop. More importantly, I was relieved that the entrance tickets that I was directed by my Universal paperwork to download into my phone’s wallet actually worked for our admittance. It was about 11 am when we finally entered the day’s destination.
This seems to be a good stopping point for this lengthy post, admittedly keeping you in suspense about how we proceeded through the park visits. Hint: lots of fun was had by all, especially watching nearly six year-old Cooper’s enjoyment, despite the blazing Florida heat and occasional meltdowns (I kept mine in check but admittedly was close at times). There will be lots more Florida family visit adventures to read about in addition to some surprises, so watch out for FinallyNana blog post #38.
Comments