Ava's MAW pre-trip report

[angel's momma]

So sorry the meeting was stressful for Ava. Hope she's feeling better now. Hope you get the dates you'd like.

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Hi,

Our son was granted a wish trip in Nov 2010, since then I have tended to be more of lurker then a poster, but your story has prompted me to post. We are a family of 6 and tend to live life in a rather penny pinching manner. I have no idea what your plans may be for meals during the trip etc.., but we bought 1 set of ice cream treats (for $25!) for our family in the parks and that was it the whole week. We ate at GKTW, stopped at Wal-mart and stocked up on snacks and water, ordered pizza to our villa in the evenings and took it into the parks for lunch the next day etc.. I know you are limited with the amount of food you can eat at GKTW, but even so I would imagine Make A Wish would give you an expense cheque to cover at least some meals in the parks, if you chose to use that money on cheaper food options you may have some leftover cash. After our sons trip we were able to purchase a basketball hoop & fooseball table with the left over money that was allocated to our family for food for our wish trip.

Just a thought as to where some more funds could possibly come to help cover the cost of your whole family going. I know from reading trip reports that each MAW chapter is different, but I do think everyone receives some sort of "expense cheque".

Hope you are able to work out all the details to make this happen for your family!

 

[Kktraylor]

Hi,

Our son was granted a wish trip in Nov 2010, since then I have tended to be more of lurker then a poster, but your story has prompted me to post. We are a family of 6 and tend to live life in a rather penny pinching manner. I have no idea what your plans may be for meals during the trip etc.., but we bought 1 set of ice cream treats (for $25!) for our family in the parks and that was it the whole week. We ate at GKTW, stopped at Wal-mart and stocked up on snacks and water, ordered pizza to our villa in the evenings and took it into the parks for lunch the next day etc.. I know you are limited with the amount of food you can eat at GKTW, but even so I would imagine Make A Wish would give you an expense cheque to cover at least some meals in the parks, if you chose to use that money on cheaper food options you may have some leftover cash. After our sons trip we were able to purchase a basketball hoop & fooseball table with the left over money that was allocated to our family for food for our wish trip.

Just a thought as to where some more funds could possibly come to help cover the cost of your whole family going. I know from reading trip reports that each MAW chapter is different, but I do think everyone receives some sort of "expense cheque".

Hope you are able to work out all the details to make this happen for your family!

Thanks. We have no idea how much our expense check will be, but we definitely plan to try to stretch it. Our only possible splurge is Ava wants to eat at Chef Mickey's. Hopefully I'll be able to find a way to make that happen. But, thankfully we know how to eat cheaply. I'm sure you're big family is the same way, but my kids are fine with sandwiches. They've learned to appreciate how much things cost when you have to multiply it by 7.

I am grateful for any cost cutting advice, so please share any tips!

 

[Kktraylor]

Another huge cost for us is we have to pay for my mom to go with us. Because of my disabilities I will need a wheelchair at times and so will Ava. So, we have to have at least two people to be able to push us.

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Thanks. We have no idea how much our expense check will be, but we definitely plan to try to stretch it. Our only possible splurge is Ava wants to eat at Chef Mickey's. Hopefully I'll be able to find a way to make that happen. But, thankfully we know how to eat cheaply. I'm sure you're big family is the same way, but my kids are fine with sandwiches. They've learned to appreciate how much things cost when you have to multiply it by 7.

I am grateful for any cost cutting advice, so please share any tips!

Is the desire to eat at Chef Mickeys to meet the characters? We have never done a character meal so I don't know what we are missing and others may chime in here and tell me I totally don't know what I am talking about ... but, we met tons of characters - Mickey 4 times!!! and the characters spent extra time with our kids. Ava's GKTW button will get her special attention at the character meets and front of the line access. We are a family that eats out extremely rarely (like maybe once a year) and so the food was not a big deal to us, but meeting the characters was and there was plenty of opportunity for that outside of a character meal. I don't want to discourage filling Ava's dreams, but personally I find the cost of the character meal for our family extremely hard to swallow and your family's cost would be even higher!

Just trying to help pinch pennies

 

[angel's momma]

Does MAW know that you need 2 people to be able to push wheelchairs? I'm pretty sure I've read TRs where MAW did pay for another adult when one was needed to help.

icecreamforbreakfast is right that you may want to reconsider Chef Mickey's. TS meals can easily take 2 hours, plus the time to get to the resort, so you may want to make sure Ava wouldn't rather spend that time in a park. We have been fortunate to have gone to several character meals, thanks to free dining, but would find it very hard to pay that much for a meal. Are your kids good eaters? Will they be so excited about the characters that they end up not eating much, and need to be fed soon after? I hope that you are able to make it happen if it's important to Ava.

 

[Kktraylor]

Does MAW know that you need 2 people to be able to push wheelchairs? I'm pretty sure I've read TRs where MAW did pay for another adult when one was needed to help.

icecreamforbreakfast is right that you may want to reconsider Chef Mickey's. TS meals can easily take 2 hours, plus the time to get to the resort, so you may want to make sure Ava wouldn't rather spend that time in a park. We have been fortunate to have gone to several character meals, thanks to free dining, but would find it very hard to pay that much for a meal. Are your kids good eaters? Will they be so excited about the characters that they end up not eating much, and need to be fed soon after? I hope that you are able to make it happen if it's important to Ava.

They know. But, I don't think they'll do anything about it. They said they will reserve everything for Ava, but they think I'll have to reserve my own chair.

 

[petals]

Another cost cutting tip if you are able to do it instead of the kids buying their sounvenirs in WDW go to the nearby outlets and the Disney store there. They have similar if not the same stuff as what the parks have except cheaper eg: when I was last in WDW there was a purple tinkerbell hoodie for sale for 54 dollars in the outlet the same hoodie was for sale for 24 because it said Disneyland instead of WDW but does that matter? The kookie pens were 1.99 instead of the 6.99 they were in the parks

 

[Kktraylor]

Another cost cutting tip if you are able to do it instead of the kids buying their sounvenirs in WDW go to the nearby outlets and the Disney store there. They have similar if not the same stuff as what the parks have except cheaper eg: when I was last in WDW there was a purple tinkerbell hoodie for sale for 54 dollars in the outlet the same hoodie was for sale for 24 because it said Disneyland instead of WDW but does that matter? The kookie pens were 1.99 instead of the 6.99 they were in the parks

I will definitely have to do that! Thanks.

 

[thomtas]

Hi Kristy! Just wanted to say that I love your family picture . As a momma of a big blended family (total of 7 kiddos) I am so sorry that your wish couldn't include everyone based on a technicality. I pray that you can find a way to make everyone going work for your family! Ava is in my prayers and I hope she has a lot of good days .

 

[Kktraylor]

Hi Kristy! Just wanted to say that I love your family picture . As a momma of a big blended family (total of 7 kiddos) I am so sorry that your wish couldn't include everyone based on a technicality. I pray that you can find a way to make everyone going work for your family! Ava is in my prayers and I hope she has a lot of good days .

Thank you. . I set up an online fundraiser but am not sure how to get the word out. I also plan on doing a bake sale in front of the grocery store. I feel guilty trying to raise the money, but I want to find a way to make Ava's COMPLETE wish come true. How old are your kiddos?

 

[Moodyzblu]

Thank you. . I set up an online fundraiser but am not sure how to get the word out. I also plan on doing a bake sale in front of the grocery store. I feel guilty trying to raise the money, but I want to find a way to make Ava's COMPLETE wish come true. How old are your kiddos?

Joining in !
SO sorry to hear that the other kids aren't included. My cousin had this happen to her as well. The one kid had to stay home because he didn't live with them full time.
I sure hope you can figure it all out ! Do you have a link to the fundraiser ? Maybe if people can share it on FB and such it will attract some attention. I think you are doing what any parent would do .. raising money to include the whole family can go is nothing to feel guilty about at all !!
Good luck .. you have an amazing family and Ava us just beautiful !!

 

[Kktraylor]

Joining in !
SO sorry to hear that the other kids aren't included. My cousin had this happen to her as well. The one kid had to stay home because he didn't live with them full time.
I sure hope you can figure it all out ! Do you have a link to the fundraiser ? Maybe if people can share it on FB and such it will attract some attention. I think you are doing what any parent would do .. raising money to include the whole family can go is nothing to feel guilty about at all !!
Good luck .. you have an amazing family and Ava us just beautiful !!

Not sure if I can share it on here. But, here it is. http://www.youcaring.com/(F(4D-XO_v...OIBk1))/other/Help-Ava-s-Wish-Come-True/43232

 

[Kktraylor]

Joining in !
SO sorry to hear that the other kids aren't included. My cousin had this happen to her as well. The one kid had to stay home because he didn't live with them full time.
I sure hope you can figure it all out ! Do you have a link to the fundraiser ? Maybe if people can share it on FB and such it will attract some attention. I think you are doing what any parent would do .. raising money to include the whole family can go is nothing to feel guilty about at all !!
Good luck .. you have an amazing family and Ava us just beautiful !!

Thanks for the compliments on my family. I think they're pretty awesome. .

 

[angel's momma]

I set up an online fundraiser but am not sure how to get the word out.

Did you link to it on FB, and ask that people share it?

 

[Kktraylor]

Posted this on the other thread, but we made the decision to pull Ava out of school today. She will be home bound for a while until we can get her illness under control.

Kristy

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

What about contacting GTKW and ask them for referrals for places to stay for the other half of the family. They might have ties to another hotel that will give you a discounted rate with the help fo GTKW.

Another cost cutter tip I want to share is. That a great place to get lunch is the Hess gas station just outside the MK enterence. It has a great cafe area inside with lots of tables and chairs. They offer: hotdogs, mexican items, subs, chicken sandwhiches, pizza by the slice or a whole one. We always have at least one lunch here during each trip. They have Dunkin Doughnuts too.

 

[luckylady]

I'm sorry to hear she is sick. I hope she gets the illness under control soon. I think it stinks that the other kids can't join you at GTKTW. Something to think about when you have time might be to get a rental house. I know over on AllEarsnet.com she list several places to rent from. Keeping fingers crossed that something works out so the whole family can be there.

 

[Kktraylor]

Thanks y'all. I did ask GKTW and they suggested Shades of Green. But, it'll be cheaper for them to go somewhere else. I found a Howard Johnson by GKTW for only about $50 a night. I also found a couple of houses and condos in the same area for roughly the same price. Hopefully we'll get dates soon so we can plan a little better.

Kristy

 

[thomtas]

Hi Kristy,
My kiddos that live at home full-time are 11, 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2. DH also has another son that we get every other weekend who is 13. We also added 2 dogs and 4 cats, I live in a zoo . I'm so sorry that Ava had to be made homebound and hope that her illnesses get better soon, she is such a beautiful lil girl . Our Savanna is going to be 9 on May 4th. Maybe they could be pen pals while Ava is at home . We have to deal with behavioral and educational issues with DH's 3 kiddos. Their birth mom used tobacco, meth, marijuana, and alcohol during pregnancies, defiantly presents challenges. I also hope you are feeling well (you've mentioned your a veteran and have had major surgeries). Thank you for your service, one of my lil brothers is in the Army Reserves right now and I admire the strength of service members! Hope you can take the time to take care of yourself (mommas have problems with that!).