Little Warrior's Wish Come True -- Marenna's Trip Report

[Corrine 1973]

Great TR so far, can't wait to hear more.

 

[Kathiria]

This is my first post to wdwinfo. I do come on alot to read trip reports. I love them. It is like being on vacation with them. We are going on our first ever Disney Vacation in September. So I do come on here alot to read experiences and the dos and don'ts. I just finished reading the pre-trip and found this thread. I am so happy that your daughter is doing well. You all deserve this wonderful trip after going through this fight with her. I am subbing to this thread so I can get the updates. I am looking forward to reading more.

 

[maroo]

This is my first post to wdwinfo. I do come on alot to read trip reports. I love them. It is like being on vacation with them. We are going on our first ever Disney Vacation in September. So I do come on here alot to read experiences and the dos and don'ts. I just finished reading the pre-trip and found this thread. I am so happy that your daughter is doing well. You all deserve this wonderful trip after going through this fight with her. I am subbing to this thread so I can get the updates. I am looking forward to reading more.

to the DIS!!

I am so glad you posted! A first time poster! How cool!!!

I will also be in Disney in Sept! Can't wait!!!

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute

Taking the advice of someone on the Wish Disboards who warned us that the line to see Santa stacks up, we went there, first. Jackson peeked in and said, "They're not ready, Santa is sweeping." Well, no. That was a theatre volunteer who just kinda looks like Santa. The real Santa was inside the theatre. And a Jolly Santa he was! He bounced Lily and Marenna on his lap with, "You get to pick out a present! You get to pick out a present!!!"

​

Lily and Renn picked out Fur Real puppies, Kaziah got a Fur Real baby monkey and Jackson got a handheld video game. It was sooo hard for Marenna to decide!

After that, it was time for Christmas dinner! Back to the Gingerbread House! Turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings for us, and the kids hit the buffet -- chicken strips, spaghetti, mac and cheese, etc. (I snitched one of the chicken strips -- REALLY good! Not your average kids' chicken.)

​

After dinner, we went back outside for more Christmas. Oooh, cookie decorating!

Marenna will have a little cookie with her icing, thankyouverymuch.

The parade is coming! The Christmas parade!

Oooh, it's snowing and OH MY GOD, THE GINGERBREAD MAN IS EATING MARENNA! HELP! HELP!

Oh. He was just hugging her. Phew.

GKTW has a character named "Buttons." All my girls fell completely in love with Buttons. He's like a big teddy bear, come to life. I think they wanted to take him home.

Time for a horse-drawn carriage ride! Definitely take this when you go, because it gives you the opportunity to chat with other Wish families.

Next up ... a trip to the La-ti-da spa for face painting and tattoos!

 

[maroo]

Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful!!!!

Seeing Santa first sounds like a GREAT tip!!!

What did Merenna pick from Santa?

That dinner looks SO GOOD!

I love Merenna's cookie - girl after my own heart!

Gingerbread man eating Merenna!

Buttons... Aw!

Loving your TR!!! Thanks for sharing your trip with us!!

 

[WishMom09]

AWESOME Christmas pictures! (I think the best I have seen!!)
LOVE the pic of the gingerbread man hugging her...too cute!
The food looks yummy! AND so do those COOKIES!! YUMM!!
I just can't wait!! 4 more days!!
And I can't wait for your next update!!! You are doing a great job!!

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

Face painting and tattoos! Marenna and Kaziah wanted face-painting (a LOT of face painting), and Lilyanne wanted a tattoo.

​

They felt so special! And they each got a special GKTW purple My Little Pony for their own.

I didn't get face-painting. I should have.

During all this, the only bad moment of our time at GKTW happened. Jackson was in the main part of the Castle of Miracles, walking around. He was fiddling with the box they use to show you your star (but we didn't know what it was for). Everything else in there is some kind of toy, so he assumed it was. Well, some volunteer came over and fussed at him, enough to put him in tears. He's Mister Hyper-Responsible, so I think this really startled him. So, you might want to point out the tall wooden boxes in the Castle to your kids and let them know they're not toys.

Time to go home and rest up ... tomorrow is Magic Kingdom day!

 

[WishMom09]

LOVE the spa pictures! SO sorry to hear you had a bad experience...about the box! But thanks for the warning!
I love how the tattooing looks like they are getting a real tattoo!!

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

First ... breakfast at the Gingerbread House! Mmm, you can do some major fueling up here. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, tons of fruit, sweet rolls, fabulous waffles, cereal, yogurt and yay, COFFEE!

I had a moment here:

See, the food at Texas Children's Hospital is uniformly awful. It's not even made there -- it's made at St. Luke's hospital the night before, then reheated the next day. Yum! Not!

When she was getting treatment with the first cancer, she was a baby and exclusively breastfeeding, so they brought me trays. The one thing I enjoyed was biscuits and gravy. Then, when we did Cancer Version 2, I'd order biscuits and gravy for her in the morning. She'd eat the biscuits with honey (one of the very few caloric things I could get her to eat) and I'd make me some toast and dip it in the gravy. Did I mention I'm on Weight Watchers now? (But not on our Wish trip.)

So, eating the biscuits and gravy gave me a flashback. It wouldn't be the last time.

After breakfast, we went outside ... Rut Ro, Raggy! It was Scooby and Shaggy! Oh, dang, the autograph books are in the minivan. Oh well, pics at least.

​

And now ... on to Magic Kingdom!

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

Here we come!

Going through parking ... we showed the button and they waved us through. When we got up to the person directing people where to go, we showed the button and asked if there was a specific place we were supposed to park. "Yeah, go here, there, mmmmmbbbb ..." Uh, okay? We followed the directions and wound up ... heading back out! No no no no! There were some security guards, so we stopped and explained the situation. They explained that we were to go back around and this time, follow the blue line (or was it green?) to "Diamond parking." We did. We were upfront and close. Score!

Just in case, took a pic of where we were parked.

​

C'mon Vamonos, Everybody Let's Go ...

The crowds for the monorail looked heavy and Tom had read something about the ferries not taking long. So, let's Ferry!

Then we had our first ooopsie. I had rigged up a mister fan for everyone to hang on their fanny pack. (Not enough room inside.) We were upstairs on the ferry, and Jackson bumped against the railing. Down went the "spinner" face of his fan, rendering it useless. He could see, on the outside of the ferry. Frustrating. Well, no use hauling around a broken fan. Tom tossed the rest of it in the trash. After a couple of minutes, Jackson piped up -- he realized that if he went downstairs, he could reach the fan face. Well ... Tom had already thrown the fan in the trash. Oh well, Jackson! We promise we'll share with you!

Then, our next rough patch ... it was now about 11:00 (where does the time go???) We got into the park, got the stroller, but it was hot, crowded and Marenna was grumpy. I picked her up out of the stroller to take a picture. Bumped her head. Doh!!! Well, she's in a foul mood now. We take Photopass pics anyway, with her hiding her face. I put her back in the stroller. Oooh, look! A parade!

Look, Marenna! Mickey! Woody! Mr. Incredible!

For a response, I got a dirty look.

"We need cold water and we need it now!" I informed Tom. Tom, Jackson and Kaziah went into the Coney place on Main Street and came out with cups of ice water. Ahhh! That helps!

Let's head to Dumbo!

Oh, wait a moment. Time for some explanation.

At Magic Kingdom, with a few happy exceptions, we (and our GAC and Marenna's GKTW pin) were invisible. It was very odd, after all the trip reports we'd read. After chatting with someone at GKTW a couple of days later, we go the 'aha' -- this time of year, the parks are doing all of their hiring for the summer. So you have a whole lot of new folks who have no idea what MAW or GKTW is. Like when we got our stroller -- the girl looked at us like, "Um, so?" when we showed her Renn's pin. So we had to explain. That sort of thing.

So, back to Dumbo. Long line. We walk around, looking for a CM. None on the outside. None we can get to on the inside. We're feeling a little anxious. How do you do this? We see a CM over by Ariel's grotto and go talk to her. Show her the GAC and say, "We don't know what we're supposed to do." She kindly tells us to go to the exit and wait for someone. We do. We have to wait a couple of minutes, but then someone comes over, and I think points us to the handicapped entrance. Finally, we're on Dumbo.

​

We get off that and Tom sees Pooh and Tigger. Pooh was one of the biggies whom Renn wanted to meet, so we head over. We stand over by the edge of the line and a CM sees us and leads us over.

Pooh and Tigger have been quietly informed by the CM that Marenna is a Wish child, so she gets some extra special hugs. That was one thing I was really touched by -- the characters aren't afraid to give full-on love. It was sweet.

 

[WishMom09]

That breakfast looks YUMMY!!
Sorry about your mister situation..that stinks!
Where did you get your lanyards?? I need to get some of those!
I love the Pooh and Tigger pics....so sweet!

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

Where did you get your lanyards?? I need to get some of those!

We bought them at the Walmart by GKTW.

 

[maroo]

woo hoo!!!!!

More updates!

I love your TR!

I am sorry that you guys had issues at MK and am quite disappointed at Jackson getting in "trouble" at GKTW. I hope you shared that with a manager type that could fix that problem.

And more bumps at MK! Bummer!

I am so glad that characters gave you guys some loving!

Can't wait for more. Thank you for sharing your trip with us!!

 

[tinkerbells mum]

all caught up again and some more great updates xx

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

It was hot! I know, nothing like it will be in August. But it was the hottest day we had, or felt like it!

We headed back to Ariel's Grotto -- hadn't met her! There was a CM at the outside who immediately saw our GAC and pin and walked us over to the exit, told us "stay here for just a minute!" and in a minute or so, we were escorted inside. Ariel was so cute in her banter with the kids, especially my son. "Goodbye, Humans!" she called as we left.

Time for a snack! Mickey Head ice creams and ice cream sandwiches. Mmmm, nice and cold.

Glad I packed wet wipes!

After that very refreshing refreshment, we did some more rides in that area. The teacups, of course, and then Winnie the Pooh ... and there, we got our first taste of Disney magic. And it tasted good!

We went over to the Fast Pass area of the Pooh ride. There was an older CM there. He had on a lanyard with lots of pins, so my kids did their first pin trading. They had so much fun! I had ordered some "starters" through mousepinsonline.com. I'm really glad we did this. It added a lot of fun to the trip.

After that, he directed us how to get on the ride. (We either did Fast Pass or handicapped line -- I can't remember.) As we got on the ride, that CM (another older man) told Marenna, "Okay, now there's just one thing ... you're going to have to ride this twice!" I wish I'd taken pictures on the ride, but I was just having too much fun! This was Renn's favorite ride.

Upcoming ... more M A G I C ...

 

[maroo]

I am just loving your updates!! Pooh is one of my favorites!!

And for some reason I am hungry for ice cream!?

Keep em coming! Keep em coming!

 

[DisneyMomLiz]

I'm pretty new on the boards...lurked for awhile reading trip reports. Found your TR and went back and read you PTR and just had to stop and say "hi".

What a beautiful family, congratulations!!

Thrilled for you and your family that SuperFroggyGirl (loved the videos by the way) is NED!

Well, can't wait to read more updates and thanks for sharing your story with us!

 

[mansionterror]

I have been lurking on several Wishkid trip reports and decided it was finally time to post on one. I have to say that your daughter is such a trooper...all these kids fighting every day are. It is amazing what these children endure, way more than they ever should. So glad to read that your DD is NED! That is awesome.

What a wonderful thing GKTW is. The place you stayed looks amazing and beautiful and so fun! I am a big supporter of St. Judes, I lost a cousin to Leukemia when I was 12 and even though that was years ago, it is still fresh in my memory. She was around my age and had gone to St. Judes she was even featured in one of their specials. So St. Judes and childhood cancer causes hold a special place in my heart.

Anyway, one of my goals for this year was to give back and I have been looking for several charities to make donations to. Does GKTW take donations and do they have a website?

I look forward to reading more of your report and seeing more pictures of your beautiful family!

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

Anyway, one of my goals for this year was to give back and I have been looking for several charities to make donations to. Does GKTW take donations and do they have a website?

Yes and yes: http://www.gktw.org/howToHelp.asp?a=3

My three top charities are:
http://www.curesearch.org/
(American Cancer Society gives a shamefully small amount to childhood cancer research -- curesearch is 100% childhood cancer.)

Give Kids the World

Make-a-Wish

 

[littlewarriorsmom]

So, after that, it was time for a late lunch. We headed over to Harbour House, which I'd heard good things about. Marenna fell asleep in the stroller, and it was too crowded to take the stroller in, so I carried her. Ooof! Heavy kid!

We got our food and went upstairs. Found a nice table in the corner. Marenna was completely unconscious. So ... I just laid her down on the (carpeted) floor. Wish I had a picture, but her "pillow" was my fanny pack ... with the camera inside.

After lunch, it was getting towards time for the 3:00 parade. Left HH, went to get our stroller. Stroller? Stroller? Gone. siiigh. No time to go back to the front before the parade. Went up to a CM and asked if there was a particularly good place to sit for the parade. He looked at me as if I were a complete idiot and explained that it was a parade, and I could sit anywhere. Um, okay, thanks for the help. He did, however, hear us talking about the stroller situation, and pointed us toward a shop that would help us.

It was so hot! We got under some shade, and waited for the parade. By this time, Super Froggy Girl had woken up, and hungry, so we got her a pretzel.

Finally ... here comes the parade!

And then ... MAGIC!

First, I have to explain ... Marenna and I both love Mary Poppins. We watched a lot of it in the hospital and one of Renn's favorite songs is, "I Love to Laugh."

On the back of the Aladdin float, there they are, Bert and Mary. Somehow, Bert sees Renn's GKTW pin from on top of his float. He excitedly grabs Mary's arm and we can see him mouthe "Make a Wish." They begin pointing and waving at Marenna like they're her biggest fans! Tom and I have tears pouring at this point!

The rest of the parade was fun -- I think Goofy blew Marenna a kiss -- but that moment with Bert and Mary Poppins was pure magic.

And now ... it's Dole Whip Time! I sat with the girls while Tom and Jackson went to grab them.

I think Kaziah sat in the stroller more than Marenna did.

"So, what is a Dole Whip, Mommy?" You'll see!

Ooooooh. Yummmm.

Dole-Whip-Brain-Freeze!

We do some necessary rides -- Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, then we go on the scariest ride of my life.

The Haunted Mansion.

What? You don't think the Haunted Mansion is scary? Well, let me tell you our story ...