noahsketomom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2010
- Messages
- 700
So I’m hoping adrenaline will keep going and I can get this TR started!
This is a trip report for Noah's Make-A-Wish trip to Disney. For Noah’s backstory, please check out our PTR : www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=35183102
Here’s the full cast and a little bit about our likes and dislikes:
Me (Beth) – I love Goofy, all Disney characters mostly, and will usually be suckered into most rides (for better or worse)
DH (Brian) – hardworking, extremely TALL (6’11”) man who loves fast rides!
9yo DS – John – Star wars and lego crazy, does NOT like DARK or scary rides
7yoDD – Abby – Loves Hannah Montana and PREFERS scary, fast, daredevil rides
4yo DS – Noah – (our wish kid) – Will try anything ONCE, loves Star Wars and REALLY wanted to do Jedi Training! Also did not particularly care for Mickey – until this Trip! Does NOT like girl (“goy-l”) characters!
3yoDD – Ella – Is scared of most every ride but loves Princesses, Dora, Elmo and Minnie! Does not like the boy characters unless they are nice to girls!
Pam (aka “Nanni”) – my mom and a HUGE help with the kids; prefers the tamer rides.
Courtney (aka “Auntie) – the best auntie around, our official trip photographer and enjoys most rides!
So I’m going to start this thing off, but I want to warn you that I don’t have Courtney’s photos yet. She took over 600 and saved the day at MK when I realized I left my camera at GKTW!
So stop by again and maybe I’ll add some of hers, but I’m going to start anyhow. My memories are fresh and the adrenaline is still pumping, so here goes!
April 6th was my 35th birthday, but it was spent in full packing mode! By the end of the night I had forgotten it had even been my birthday! Oh, well – we had more important things to do in the coming week! This trip was not just about going to Disney…it was a celebration of where we have come from and Noah’s current state of seizure freedom. By the day we left, he had been seizure free for almost 8 months – a miracle in and of itself. A large part of his treatment is the ketogenic diet, something you’ll hear a lot about if you continue to read this TR – so I won’t bore you with the details. In general, it is a high fat diet and I have to measure everything he eats on a gram scale, accurate to the tenth of a gram. Needless to say, I was nervous about taking this keto show on the road!!!
I’m not even sure I heard the 4am alarm on the day we left – I remember waking up sometime while I was putting on some makeup and packing our toiletries away. We stirred the kids (didn’t take much) and the limo barely made it in our driveway -- it was a 14 passenger Navigator stretch limo! Wow! After packing all our stuff and kiddos in, we were OFF TO DISNEYWORLD!!!!
All of our stuff:
Limo pics:
My mom and sister met us there, as did our wish granters, Ed and Diane!
We curb checked our luggage and next up was my greatest anxiety – SECURITY. I was travelling with liquids, thawed foods, and frozen foods. I was a walking security nightmare. We had prearranged to have a manager meet us and walk us through the procedures. It went really well. They tested a few of the liquids and the only problem they had was with our carton of 40% cream. Since they couldn’t open it to test it, they x-rayed it, then had to search me, swab my hands and my bag for what? I don’t know and I didn’t care. All I cared about was that it all came back clear and we moved on. PHEW!!! Big stressor load off for mom.
We headed to our gate, where Noah and I worked on his breakfast and meds and the others went and got food and….COFFEE!! Yes, it’s still only 5:45am by now. The gate operator saw our MAW shirts and allowed us all to preboard. We were on our way!!!
Our flight was uneventful and even got in 30 min early! Noah CRASHED hard on the flight and slept for most of the second half. He woke up shortly after we got there and met our greeter!
He was super nice and helped us get to our rental car. We had been reserved a minivan and asked if we could have an 8 passenger minivan, so that for the parks we wouldn't have to take two cars. Unfortunately they only had a 7 passenger van -- so that was a bummer. My mom and sister had reserved their own car too, and our greeter helped them get to their rental car too! That went up and beyond in my opinion!
We decided to meet up at Walmart, where I had to get some brand specific foods for Noah. I'm glad Katie warned me that they are renovating this Walmart because it was chaos! But I was still able to get everything for Noah except his fruit2O water, which we use to mix his CitraK crystals. We did eventually get it down the road at Publix. After that, we headed down the road (with grumbling bellies, I might add!!)
We were welcomed immediately and headed right to the house of hearts for checkin.
There was an initial confusion because there were TWO Noah's checking in at the same time! But once we played "who's who", we sat down and did some preliminary check in stuff. They gave each of the kids a tee shirt and a shamu stuffie, and a big Mickey one for Noah. Now, if you asked me before if Noah liked Mickey, I would've probably said he could take him or leave him. Well, Noah took this Mickey and wouldn't let him go! He immediately broke into "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, come inside......" and "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E" clapping Mickey's hands together as he sang.... It was awesome.
Well our bellies must have been grumbling pretty loud by now and since our villa wasn't ready, we happily agreed with the suggestion to go over to Katie's Kitchen for some lunch.
I had packed food for Noah and the ice cream shop next store was able to heat it up. We all ordered and ate right outside, soaking in the Florida sunshine. We all ordered different things (from meatloaf sandwiches, to ceasar salads, to chicken salad sandwiches, to mac and cheese ) and it was all really good!
After lunch our villa was ready and we headed over to our villa! It was in the "fairytale" part of the village and it looked every bit of it's moniker!
I don't have any pics of inside right now, but I hope to add them later! Inside we found GOBS of presents for the kids -- mostly in the Star Wars theme! The favorite was a remote controlled R2D2! Very cool!
All I know was that as soon as the kids saw the loot, they tuned out to everything else our greeter was trying to tell them.
We had a fun time exploring our new digs and it wasn't long before it really did feel like home.
Up next: So what's there to do in this village???
This is a trip report for Noah's Make-A-Wish trip to Disney. For Noah’s backstory, please check out our PTR : www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=35183102
Here’s the full cast and a little bit about our likes and dislikes:
Me (Beth) – I love Goofy, all Disney characters mostly, and will usually be suckered into most rides (for better or worse)
DH (Brian) – hardworking, extremely TALL (6’11”) man who loves fast rides!
9yo DS – John – Star wars and lego crazy, does NOT like DARK or scary rides
7yoDD – Abby – Loves Hannah Montana and PREFERS scary, fast, daredevil rides
4yo DS – Noah – (our wish kid) – Will try anything ONCE, loves Star Wars and REALLY wanted to do Jedi Training! Also did not particularly care for Mickey – until this Trip! Does NOT like girl (“goy-l”) characters!
3yoDD – Ella – Is scared of most every ride but loves Princesses, Dora, Elmo and Minnie! Does not like the boy characters unless they are nice to girls!
Pam (aka “Nanni”) – my mom and a HUGE help with the kids; prefers the tamer rides.
Courtney (aka “Auntie) – the best auntie around, our official trip photographer and enjoys most rides!
So I’m going to start this thing off, but I want to warn you that I don’t have Courtney’s photos yet. She took over 600 and saved the day at MK when I realized I left my camera at GKTW!
So stop by again and maybe I’ll add some of hers, but I’m going to start anyhow. My memories are fresh and the adrenaline is still pumping, so here goes!April 6th was my 35th birthday, but it was spent in full packing mode! By the end of the night I had forgotten it had even been my birthday! Oh, well – we had more important things to do in the coming week! This trip was not just about going to Disney…it was a celebration of where we have come from and Noah’s current state of seizure freedom. By the day we left, he had been seizure free for almost 8 months – a miracle in and of itself. A large part of his treatment is the ketogenic diet, something you’ll hear a lot about if you continue to read this TR – so I won’t bore you with the details. In general, it is a high fat diet and I have to measure everything he eats on a gram scale, accurate to the tenth of a gram. Needless to say, I was nervous about taking this keto show on the road!!!
I’m not even sure I heard the 4am alarm on the day we left – I remember waking up sometime while I was putting on some makeup and packing our toiletries away. We stirred the kids (didn’t take much) and the limo barely made it in our driveway -- it was a 14 passenger Navigator stretch limo! Wow! After packing all our stuff and kiddos in, we were OFF TO DISNEYWORLD!!!!
All of our stuff:
Limo pics:
My mom and sister met us there, as did our wish granters, Ed and Diane!
We curb checked our luggage and next up was my greatest anxiety – SECURITY. I was travelling with liquids, thawed foods, and frozen foods. I was a walking security nightmare. We had prearranged to have a manager meet us and walk us through the procedures. It went really well. They tested a few of the liquids and the only problem they had was with our carton of 40% cream. Since they couldn’t open it to test it, they x-rayed it, then had to search me, swab my hands and my bag for what? I don’t know and I didn’t care. All I cared about was that it all came back clear and we moved on. PHEW!!! Big stressor load off for mom.
We headed to our gate, where Noah and I worked on his breakfast and meds and the others went and got food and….COFFEE!! Yes, it’s still only 5:45am by now. The gate operator saw our MAW shirts and allowed us all to preboard. We were on our way!!!
Our flight was uneventful and even got in 30 min early! Noah CRASHED hard on the flight and slept for most of the second half. He woke up shortly after we got there and met our greeter!
He was super nice and helped us get to our rental car. We had been reserved a minivan and asked if we could have an 8 passenger minivan, so that for the parks we wouldn't have to take two cars. Unfortunately they only had a 7 passenger van -- so that was a bummer. My mom and sister had reserved their own car too, and our greeter helped them get to their rental car too! That went up and beyond in my opinion!
We decided to meet up at Walmart, where I had to get some brand specific foods for Noah. I'm glad Katie warned me that they are renovating this Walmart because it was chaos! But I was still able to get everything for Noah except his fruit2O water, which we use to mix his CitraK crystals. We did eventually get it down the road at Publix. After that, we headed down the road (with grumbling bellies, I might add!!)
We were welcomed immediately and headed right to the house of hearts for checkin.
There was an initial confusion because there were TWO Noah's checking in at the same time! But once we played "who's who", we sat down and did some preliminary check in stuff. They gave each of the kids a tee shirt and a shamu stuffie, and a big Mickey one for Noah. Now, if you asked me before if Noah liked Mickey, I would've probably said he could take him or leave him. Well, Noah took this Mickey and wouldn't let him go! He immediately broke into "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, come inside......" and "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E" clapping Mickey's hands together as he sang.... It was awesome.
Well our bellies must have been grumbling pretty loud by now and since our villa wasn't ready, we happily agreed with the suggestion to go over to Katie's Kitchen for some lunch.
I had packed food for Noah and the ice cream shop next store was able to heat it up. We all ordered and ate right outside, soaking in the Florida sunshine. We all ordered different things (from meatloaf sandwiches, to ceasar salads, to chicken salad sandwiches, to mac and cheese ) and it was all really good!
After lunch our villa was ready and we headed over to our villa!
It was in the "fairytale" part of the village and it looked every bit of it's moniker!
I don't have any pics of inside right now, but I hope to add them later! Inside we found GOBS of presents for the kids -- mostly in the Star Wars theme! The favorite was a remote controlled R2D2! Very cool!
All I know was that as soon as the kids saw the loot, they tuned out to everything else our greeter was trying to tell them.
We had a fun time exploring our new digs and it wasn't long before it really did feel like home.
Up next: So what's there to do in this village???
Bless the person who decovered that diet so kids can go seizure free. Can't wait for more.
here (really), and the coffee isnt that great. It works for caffeine purposes, but thats about it. Somebody had mentioned it somewhere, so we bought some DD coffee at 
(Thank you again, Darla & Karen!) 
