When Plans Crumble: Disney Turning into Detroit, Part 2
Hello again! If you missed my last post, I started telling the story of how my trip with my sister to Disney crumbled and crashed. We were going to go to Disney to celebrate my 29th birthday, but that did not happen as our flight got cancelled due to bad weather and lack of a flight crew. We got stuck in Detroit, Michigan, so we decided to make the best of it.
We woke up in our Detroit hotel and planned out our day. We spent a few hours on the phone with Disney representatives and Expedia representatives to try to recoup our money. Thankfully, the Disney representative was super nice and refunded our hotel money. She also explained the time limit we had to use our park tickets by. I did not have good luck getting through with Expedia to try to get our flight money back.
I also did some research on my phone on things we could do while in Detroit. My Facebook post about how we were stuck in Detroit yielded some good tips from friends and family; most notably was my Aunt Patty whose son had used to live in Detroit. She provided quite a few ideas on things we could do in the city. My sister secured a rental car, and we got picked up by an Enterprise agent. When we got there, we told the Enterprise agents our story, and they recommended we eat lunch at a local pizza place. I am so glad we listened to them, because the pizza was amazing! Also, the waitress gave us a free dessert since it was my birthday, and we were supposed to be in Disney. I told my sister that we should tell our story to as many people as possible to see how many more free things we could get! Ha!
We then ventured to Belle Isle, which is an island in the Detroit River between the United States and Canada. Oh that reminds me! We did not pack our passports because we were under the impression that we would not need them. We were just going to Florida! Well, if we had known better, we would have brought them with us, and we could have gone to Canada on my birthday! We were so upset about it, but not as upset as we were about not being able to go to Disney!
On Belle Isle, we toured the oldest aquarium in North America: Belle Isle Aquarium. It was quite small and old, but it was historic. The fish were swimming in dark water, and there were not as many fancy fish as the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has. We toured the Conservatory, also known as a greenhouse, and drove around the island to get to the Dossin Great Lakes Museum. The museum was very well done and had great exhibits on what used to be on the island, as well as the information on the Great Lakes and on display was a racing hydroplane.
Suggested by our aunt, we then made our way to Pewabic Pottery, a ceramic studio. We viewed beautiful artwork and the studio spaces to see where the pottery was made. I purchased a small bluish greenish tile, and I believe my sister purchased a magnet. Finally, we ended our day at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where I ate a piece of cake in their café and viewed stunning pieces of art. We then ate dinner and called it a night. I feel as though my sister and I made the best of a bad situation, and I still had a great birthday to celebrate myself turning 29! I was not going to let a bad situation cloud my day! Also, my sister made sure to keep me happy. She had me open up my birthday present when I woke up which was a pair of Minnie Mouse ears and a button to pin to my shirt that said, “Happy Birthday!” (Actually, it was not wrapped because you cannot put wrapped gifts in your carry-on luggage and take through the airport security. This is your travel tip of the day!) I really appreciate all my sister did for me; she is the best sister ever!
