Disney and Diabetes

My daughter turned 3 a couple of weeks ago and my wife and I wanted to take her to Disney for her birthday. She has already been lucky enough to have dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming, breakfast with Ariel and Rapunzel and she said the next thing she wanted to do was eat with Mickey and Minnie. Well, that’s what we were going to do, Chef Mickey’s.

We decided not to do Magic Kingdom because we were only going to be there for 2 full-days and had a lot of activities planned. Plus, we’ve been to Disney resorts plenty of times, we know all the tricks of riding the monorail and seeing the Magic Kingdom fireworks display for free.

Me and Disney work pretty well together.

When I say “me”, I primarily mean my diabetes.

I eat a lot of unhealthy food at Disney. It’s typically high fat and high carb meals. But, my blood sugar seems to always level itself out because of all of the walking that goes on during Disney.

This trip was a bit different.

I Know I am Forgetting to Do Something

This was my first trip to Disney using insulin pens and not using an insulin pump. So, that means I had to stop to take a shot with every meal. If you have ever been to Disney, then you know that getting meals can be quite hectic. For example, we went to visit the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness to do s’mores with Chip and Dale.

We ate dinner at Fort Wilderness.

That means that I ordered the food, then had to carry the food to where we were sitting, get my daughter’s plate and eating situation figured out, run back for more napkins 3 times, get drink refills, try to sit and eat all before a 3 year old was distracted by the next magical Disney thing.

I explained all that to basically say, I forgot to take my shot at almost every meal. So, unfortunately, the insulin was playing even more of a game of trying to catch up than normal. After every meal, my BG would spike up to about 300-350 range. Eventually I would get it back down to about 180 before the next meal, but then the same thing would happen.

Planning for Meals at Disney

We only had 1 meal planned and scheduled and that was Chef Mickey’s. I planned that thing out perfectly!

I was so proud of how I had that planned. My BG was hovering around 80-90 right before our reservation time………BUT…..

There was about an additional 20 minute wait.

The sweats started happening.

Then the shaking started happening.

Then the cloudy thinking started happening.

Dexcom said 62 with a diagonal arrow down.

I quickly went and enjoyed a nice glass of Cherry Coke, which I don’t get to drink much, only when I’m low.

By the time we sat down to eat, my BG was at a more comfortable range. However, it still wasn’t time to eat because the characters were almost at our table, so I couldn’t be up at the buffet table as Mickey and Minnie were making their rounds.

Luckily, my BG didn’t go down again, in fact, I was able to hurry and get some food, but guess what? I forgot to take the shot again!!

When Donald Duck is approaching your table, taking a shot of insulin is the last thing on your mind.

Although this Disney trip was filled with a lot of highs, it could have been worse. All of the walking and carrying a tired child filled up my Apple Watch exercise and activity rings very quickly.

Monorail Security with Diabetes Supplies

When we go to Disney, we utilize the Monorail a lot. We love the Monorail. But, the Monorail comes with security checkpoint which can be a pain. Disney makes it a breeze though.

I carry a regular size backpack with all of my daughter’s items, plus a small pencil case bag that holds all of my diabetes stuff (meter, strips, insulin pen, pen needles and lancing device…. also a lot of used test strips). I opened up the backpack and take out my diabetes bag and zip it open and let them take a quick look at it, then put it back in after they finish searching the main backpack. It’s simple, it’s easy and it doesn’t take a lot of time.

My recommendation for anyone going through Disney security checkpoints with diabetes supplies is, don’t make it difficult on the security officer. Don’t go into it already with an attitude of having to pull out your supplies. Simply take them out, and show them to the security officer. This also ensures that they aren’t going to accidentally break something or spill something.

Soda Refill for Night Time

There is no shortage of sugar and snacks at Disney Resort hotels. By the time bed time comes, I’ve already had my fair share of snacks and candy for the day, so I don’t want to have more at night if my BG goes low. I try to bring some apple juice or orange juice with me to put in the fridge in the room, but sometimes I forget, so what I do is take my refillable Disney mug at night and fill it up with regular soda. I bring that back to the room and if I go low in the middle of the night, I have soda to quickly drink and go back to sleep without waking up the kid.