Angel's Make a Wish DREAM Cruise/extended days at wdw 4/13-25 PTR :)

[Lilfoot93]

I hope Angel feels better quickly!

Sorry they sent a letter instead of calling you saying you couldn't do the fantasy. Hopefully they will let you upgrade your cruise.

Jackie

[angel's momma]

Thanks Jackie

[NEmel]

So sorry that the cordinator couldn't get in touch with you in person. It amazes me how different each chapter is, ours won't let us extend. Hope Angel stays healthy and continues to get the swing of school back!

[angel's momma]

Thanks Melissa

I don't understand why it varies so much from chapter to chapter. We received a printed MAW Disney Cruise pamphlet, and our coordinator told us that it was National, but that's not accurate because it says the trip can be extended at our own expense. I'm so sorry that you don't have that option.



Irelandsmom - I finally had a chance to read the trip report - so glad she had a wonderful time Thanks again for sharing the link.



DH called the coordinator yesterday. He didn't mention getting the letter, just said he hadn't heard back from her. She said that she had called the wish granters, and they were supposed to have called us to tell us the Fantasy is not an option. Our initial meeting with the granters made me apprehensive about their lack of organization, and this doesn't help. DH asked the coordinator about us paying the differnce so Angel can go on the Fantasy, but the coordinator has never had a family ask that, so she said she'd call him back yesterday afternoon. As of now, he hasn't heard back from her. I know people get busy, or it may be taking her longer to find out the info, but it's also not the first time that she said she'd call back but never did.

[Lilfoot93]

I don't get why it varies either. We tried to extend but we were told no also. That is great you have the chance to extend if that is something you wanted to do. I hope you guys find out soon if you are able to pay the difference of the the other cruise. Since they are letting you extend I don't see why they wouldn't let you pay the difference of cruises.

Jackie

[blessedmom4]

Originally Posted by angel's momma

Judy, you are welcome to hijack the thread any time The decision to not grant Savannah her wish was one of the first things I read when I found the wish trippers thread. Was so happy that they're getting some help from another source. Thank you always for your support. The Dr. said she could start with half days, but it was complicated with the way her classes are set up, so she really wanted to go back full time. We're hoping it will just take some more time to re-adjust. Haven't heard back from the wish coordinator - her 1 or 2 days has now been 9.
I pray things are going as well as hoped for. Sorry I have ben MIA, I know you know why.
Clinic brought good news, and disappointing news - her hemoglobin & platelets both increased, but her ANC dropped from 2130 to 840. Grateful the new Dr.'s criteria means she's not back on her many restrictions.
I hate when the labs bounce all over the place, super sorry for the poke!
She had been told she could have her blood drawn through her finger, and that is normally correct, but one of her labs requires it be drawn in the arm. She had a lot of pain & bruising, but at least it went better than the IV attempt.

It was hard enough sending her to school knowing her immune system was still low but had improved significantly, but now it's dropped a lot & she doesn't have it checked again for a whole month. Angel came home today & said that 50 kids from her building were either out sick or went home sick today, as well as quite a few teachers. There's only around 200 students in that building. They were waiting for attendance reports from the lower grades, and were discussing possibly shutting down school next week.
Very grateful the school is taking precautions to keep Angel well (like letting her change desks, asking students to stay away from her if they're not feeling well) but I sure would like to just keep her at home.

Homeschooling is a gift! The germs are why Lisa is home.

Originally Posted by angel's momma

Angel has been coughing all day.
Praying she is better soon!
Wish update: Today we got a form letter in the mail from the wish coordinator, with details of the 4 night Dream cruise. She could have at least called DH back, because he had some other questions for her if she said they couldn't grant Angel's specific wish. The form letter says that we can add days at wdw after the cruise at our own expense. DH is going to ask if we could pay the difference from the 4 night Dream to the 7 night Fantasy. It's a significant amount of money though, so I'm not sure how we'll do it, but it means so much to her so we're going to try our best.

Originally Posted by angel's momma

Thanks Melissa

I don't understand why it varies so much from chapter to chapter. We received a printed MAW Disney Cruise pamphlet, and our coordinator told us that it was National, but that's not accurate because it says the trip can be extended at our own expense. I'm so sorry that you don't have that option.



Irelandsmom - I fianlly had a chance to read the trip report - so glad she had a wonderful time Thanks again for sharing the link.



DH called the coordinator yesterday. He didn't mention getting the letter, just said he hadn't heard back from her. She said that she had called the wish granters, and they were supposed to have called us to tell us the Fantasy is not an option. Our initial meeting with the granters made me apprehensive about their lack of organization, and this doesn't help. DH asked the coordinator about us paying the differnce so Angel can go on the Fantasy, but the coordinator has never had a family ask that, so she said she'd call him back yesterday afternoon. As of now, he hasn't heard back from her. I know people get busy, or it may be taking her longer to find out the info, but it's also not the first time that she said she'd call back but never did.

OK, hijacking again....On the MAW front: Just going to say I have said from the beginning of this journey I wish there was some uniformity in how MAW administers things. I have known quite a few folks whose children don't meet the criteria of our chapter, or who can't extend trips, or ______fill in the blank. Some wish granters are spectacular, some gifts are out of this world, some reveal s are amazing (that was the one we got and Lisa loved it), some sendoff parties are phenomenal....but EVERY TRIP is just what it should be in the end...(except for one that I know of and that played out a few months ago on the wishtrippers thread too...absolutely heartbreaking). I WANT Angel to have her wish; however, if the cruise isn't to be on the Fantasy, I KNOW you will make the entire trip special!!!

[OhanaDreams]

Originally Posted by angel's momma

Thanks Melissa

DH called the coordinator yesterday. He didn't mention getting the letter, just said he hadn't heard back from her. She said that she had called the wish granters, and they were supposed to have called us to tell us the Fantasy is not an option. Our initial meeting with the granters made me apprehensive about their lack of organization, and this doesn't help. DH asked the coordinator about us paying the differnce so Angel can go on the Fantasy, but the coordinator has never had a family ask that, so she said she'd call him back yesterday afternoon. As of now, he hasn't heard back from her. I know people get busy, or it may be taking her longer to find out the info, but it's also not the first time that she said she'd call back but never did.

I hope you hear good news soon.

[angel's momma]

Thanks Jackie Sorry you don't have the option of extending.

Thank you Amy.

Judy - I'm always amazed you have time for DIS at all. Thank you always for your prayers & support. After the mess we went through with school last semester, I was definitely considering homeschool, but Angel really wanted to stay in public school, so I hope we made the right decision. I read about the family you are referring to, and it is absolutely heartbreaking. I'm not even expecting a reveal, send off, etc. - at this point I am just hoping that the wish granters take care of what they need to do.


We're not allowed to pay the difference for the Fantasy because "if they allowed us to, they'd have to allow everyone else to also." Even if "everyone" did decide to pay the difference, how would that create a problem for MAW?

A boy we see at clinic just came back from a Disney Cruise, and his mom posted a few things about the trip on his caring bridge. Every MAW cruise trip report we've read here has had a lot of the same details, so we thought we had a pretty good idea of what to expect, like flying in the night before & staying at the Hyatt, and being able to get to port & on the ship pretty early. This family didn't do that though, they had 4 hour trip to the airport, even though there's 3 other airports less than 60 miles from their home, they stayed overnight near the airport, and then flew down the day of the cruise. Like Cassondra, they had lugagge that didn't arrive with them.

Did some pricing on possibly adding on days at wdw, because we haven't been there since 5/2010, and it's highly unlikely we'll be able to afford a trip on our own in the next few years. Wow, prices have gone up a lot. Doesn't help that we're used to going in value season with free dining. Still trying to figure out what we should do, and also waiting to find out if there's criteria for how many days we can add on.

School is getting out earlier than usual this year. With the timing of the school band concert and finals, it's not working out to go in May after all, unless it's the very last week. If we do that, and add wdw days, that puts us into a busier, more expensive week at wdw. Looking into possibly going in April instead.

I wrongly assumed the details of the cruise was all handled by MAW, like booking the excursion, check in, etc. Now that I know that I have to take care of some things, I need to figure out how to do it so I'm ready when the time comes.

[Lilfoot93]

Sorry to hear you can't pay the difference for the cruise. I don't understand the differences between chapters either. Our chapter said kinda the same thing about extending. If they let us do it they would have to let everyone do it. If someone got talking and found out we got to extend and they didn't then it wouldn't be fair to those who could not afford to do it. Not saying we could afford a trip to Disney World ourselves but adding a couple days hotel isn't so bad when everything else has been taken care of!

I too thought some of the planning would be by MAW for Disney also but glad I asked because even though Star Wars Weekend and being a Jedi and fighting Darth Vader was Trev's wish we may have to take care of all that ourselves! Still waiting to hear details on that.

That would be great if you guys could find a way to extend. Hope you get the dates you want!

Jackie

[angel's momma]

Jackie, I hope they're able to help you arrange for Trev to fight Darth Vader.



We spent some time last night looking at the excursions, and Angel would like to do the Sea Lion encounter at Blue Lagoon. It's limited to only 2 sessions of 10 people though, so it may be full.

[angel's momma]

I found the DIS when I was planning our very first wdw trip in 2004, and was amazed by the wealth of info here. I learned so much, and that info enabled us to experience so many special activities over the years, like waking up Tinkerbell, decorating the tree at the Christmas shop, finding the key under the mat at Muppets, etc. We would have never been able to afford all of our trips if I hadn't learned about value season, pin codes, free dining, etc.

I had some medical issues that got worse after our last trip in 2010, and sometime in 2011 I stopped reading the Theme Park forum daily, because I was sad that my health issues prevented us from planning a trip. I continued to read the Budget Board daily though. I continually learn things there, not just budget related.

So much has changed since our last trip, I feel like I'm planning for the very first time again.

It's hard knowing if it's the right decision to spend the money to add on the wdw days, because we haven't had the new house long enough to have a good idea of the utility bills, and we have no idea how long it will be before we can sell the old house. We've decided to use some savings, and hope that it's the right decision. We spent some time today looking over QS menus, deciding if it's worth it for us to buy the QS dining plan. We've been very spoiled because we've had free dining on every trip except the first one, and that one we had the vouchers that were similar to the QS dining, and were even good at Beaches & Cream (yum!) at the time. We loved the free TS dining, but also very much enjoyed the free QS dining. We decided today that we're better off just paying OOP, and even if we do end up spending as much as it would cost us for the QS dining plan, we'd be selecting snacks that we like better than the typical dessert you can get with a meal on the plan.

Last night I drank a Vanilla Coke around 8pm, and I should have known better. I don't drink coffee, and rarely have soda, and the caffeine kept me up for hours. I used some of that time to try to get up to date on a couple of wdw activities Angel has done on all of our trips - character "hunting" and pressed pennies. They've added a lot of new penny designs. It's fun to collect them, but I'm always glad once the added weight of the quarters is gone from my bag.

Right now there are 10 potential characters for Angel to add to her book. She currently has met 167 different characters on our trips.

She's excited about the Agent P missions at Epcot - she really enjoyed the Kim Possible ones, and we did all of those missions.

We always stay at POP, and we were happy to learn that you can walk over to AoA. We enjoy seeing the resorts (and getting the pennies ), but taking a bus to a park to transfer buses to go to another resort can be time consuming. Our first trip we went & explored every resort, and we had a lot of because we barely waited for any of the buses we needed that day, and often were the only people on the bus. It was value season, and the middle of the day, but it was still amazing.

We're finding ourselves getting excited, and right now we have to be careful about that until we actually get cruise dates, approval to add on the days, and then book the discounted package that is currently being offered. There's still a lot that may not work out, and if that happens, the more excited we've become, the more disappointing it will be.

I'm trying to sort through all the various notes I copied & pasted from the Cruise forum. At the time, I really didn't expect that Angel's wish would be granted this year, or I would have tried to keep the info more organized.

I emailed the wish coordinator a list of questions, so for now we'll keep gathering info on the DIS, and wait to see what dates MAW approves.

[angel's momma]

It is just so hard to keep being disappointed.

Angel has been studying over the weekend to take her driving permit test. With her platelets at only 67000, we weren't planning to have her drive anytime soon, but she's supposed to take the test anyway. When she read that the permit is only good for 2 years, I realized we shouldn't pay for the permit until we knew if the Dr. had a cut off for what her platelets should be, because she has to log in 100 hours of driving with the permit.

Last night I had an awful realization – she may not be cleared to ride roller coasters either. I called clinic today, and the nurse said she’d talk to the Dr., but she thought the platelets would need to be 75,000, & was confident Angel could get there in a few months, until I pointed out Angel has hovered where she’s at for months, and we've been told Angel may never get any higher on platelets. The nurse called back, and driving is not a problem, but they don't want her on roller coasters until platelets are 100,000. The nurse thought we should just book & hope for the best, but we can't do that - the trip wouldn't be the same if she couldn't ride the roller coasters.

Not sure what to do now, and it's heartbreaking to see Angel so sad.

[OhanaDreams]

Originally Posted by angel's momma

It is just so hard to keep being disappointed.

Last night I had an awful realization – she may not be cleared to ride roller coasters either. I called clinic today, and the nurse said she’d talk to the Dr., but she thought the platelets would need to be 75,000, & was confident Angel could get there in a few months, until I pointed out Angel has hovered where she’s at for months, and we've been told Angel may never get any higher on platelets. The nurse called back, and driving is not a problem, but they don't want her on roller coasters until platelets are 100,000. The nurse thought we should just book & hope for the best, but we can't do that - the trip wouldn't be the same if she couldn't ride the roller coasters.

Not sure what to do now, and it's heartbreaking to see Angel so sad.

Sending lots of good vibes to you. I totally understand about the restrictions. There are many rides Buglet can't go on either. Hopefully you can find something to take the place of those thrill rides.

[angel's momma]

Thanks Amy Sorry Buglet has restrictions that prevent him from doing many of the rides.

The wish coordinator answered my questions. We are allowed to add on as many wdw days as we'd like.

They'll try to have us fly out of one of the 2 airports an hour away, but most likely it will cost too much & we'll have to use one 3 hours away. I haven't said much about my own health issues, but I have pain issues, and difficulties with long car rides. I've been apprehensive about how I'll handle the wish trip at all, particularly the flight, and having the airport be 4 hours north of the one we've used in the past will mean a longer flight time also. The brochure we received says limo transportation to & from the airport, but the email said they will pay our gas & lodging if we have to drive the 3 hours, so it's sounding like we won't be having a limo after all. Neither DH nor I are comfortable driving in large cities, and have no experience driving where that airport is located.

We won't be able to fly down the night before & stay at the Hyatt. That means we'll be boarding the ship much later than we expected.

Angel can't request a verandah.

I'm sorry for all of the complaining, but the DIS is the only place I have that I can vent & someone will understand what I'm even talking about.

[NEmel]

Christi I am sorry you have gotten some unsetting news. Hoping everything turns around and will work out perfect!