A Wish for Keira, our Pre Trip Report

[billwendy]

We had to cancel our meeting for today, Keira was readmitted to the hospital on Thursday night for some complications from surgery. Fluid around her lung & liver. I'll call our volunteer when we get home & try to get things all set up again.

sending some prayers and pixie dust your way!!!! I hope it all gets cleared up real soon and she feels better!!!

 

[Owensheart]

We had to cancel our meeting for today, Keira was readmitted to the hospital on Thursday night for some complications from surgery. Fluid around her lung & liver. I'll call our volunteer when we get home & try to get things all set up again.

I am so sorry that she is having complications! Your wish granters initial meeting is when she will make her wish! If she is hospitalized for a length of time.. which hopefully she is not.. then they can always come to the hospital to greet her too! I hope she breaks out of there soon!

 

[nesser1981]

Keira is back to 100% finally, she has 3 rounds of chemo left to go, so as long as we have no set backs she'll be finished the week of Christmas.

We met with the Wish Granters yesterday, Keira made her wish to go to Disney World & to Sea World. LOL!

We put a specific date for our first choice, Feb 27-March 5, I'm not sure if that'll play out, but DH & I are both out of college for spring break that week.

We also put May 2012 or October 2012. I grew up in Florida, so there is no way I'm going when its going to be super hot. I'm really hoping we get our first choice.

 

[billwendy]

Keira is back to 100% finally, she has 3 rounds of chemo left to go, so as long as we have no set backs she'll be finished the week of Christmas.

We met with the Wish Granters yesterday, Keira made her wish to go to Disney World & to Sea World. LOL!

We put a specific date for our first choice, Feb 27-March 5, I'm not sure if that'll play out, but DH & I are both out of college for spring break that week.

We also put May 2012 or October 2012. I grew up in Florida, so there is no way I'm going when its going to be super hot. I'm really hoping we get our first choice.

YAY!!! Hope you get your dates!!! I agree, Florida when its hot - ick!! When we went, my nephew was only a few months post chemo - although it was only April, it totally wore him out and he actually missed the last 3 days of the trip! Make sure she has plenty of time to regain all her strength - you need it for an awesome Wish Trip!!

 

[nesser1981]

YAY!!! Hope you get your dates!!! I agree, Florida when its hot - ick!! When we went, my nephew was only a few months post chemo - although it was only April, it totally wore him out and he actually missed the last 3 days of the trip! Make sure she has plenty of time to regain all her strength - you need it for an awesome Wish Trip!!

She is really looking forward to it. I can't wait to hear something.

 

[nesser1981]

Ignore this post, PTR report confusion, the wrong one was deleted. LOL!

 

[nesser1981]

Ok, so I guess when I asked that this trip report be deleted, they deleted my current one instead. I'll update it.

 

[Moodyzblu]

I'm here ! Sorry about your other report.

But glad to see you have a "back up" PTR !!

 

[nesser1981]

So why is Keira getting a Make a Wish Trip?

Well, aside from the fact she has beat cancer twice now.

It's something I'd never, ever considered. As far as I knew MAW for dying children.

And then in July this very nice lady held a benefit dinner for Keira, she'd asked to do one the first time Keira got sick, but I said no. I didn't think we needed something like that.

This nice lady had a son who had also beat cancer, twice, Hodgkins Lymphoma, when he was a teenager. They received a MAW trip, it was an Alaska cruise. She'd knew that before we found out Keira was sick for a second time we were planning on trying to go back to Disney World for a little longer vacation.

So Wendy referred Keira to MAW before she ever told me about it. Just gave me a name and said to call. That was in late July 2011. So I did.

We filled out the paperwork and in September 2011 we found out she was medically approved for MAW.

September was a very busy month for us, Keira started school, and shortly after we found out about her surgery, with less than 4 days to prepare. They did the surgery, we were suppose to meet with the wish granters on October 2nd I think. But Keira was going to still be in the hospital. He was very nice and said just call us when you're ready. Keira spent 5 days in the hospital, about 3 of those in PICU. We were discharged on a Monday, and then by Thursday she had a 102 fever. Back to the hospital for 4 more days.

Finally, October 29th we met the wish granters and filled out the big paperwork. And we waited.

 

[nesser1981]

I'm here ! Sorry about your other report.

But glad to see you have a "back up" PTR !!

Yeah, me too! Thanks for coming back over.

 

[nesser1981]

Getting our dates.

To start with, before Keira got sick again, we were going to try and go to Disney the last week of February/First week of March because that's when my DH & I are both out of college.

He's going for IT and I'm going for photography. Anyhow, so after we filled out her actual wish paperwork, I got an email maybe 2 or 3 weeks later saying they'd received it.

On Keira's last day of chemo, December 29th, I thought, maybe I should call, just to follow-up. Because our first choice days where in February and that was just around the corner really.

I spoke to Keira's wish Coordinator who said she hadn't actually gotten Keira's paperwork yet, but she had been assigned from the looks of things. We chatted for a bit, she asked me out dates and such. I'd told her Keira had just completed treatment and we were just so excited.

And about a week later I got another letter, saying something like her request to Disney has been approved, but could still take 6-12 months. And less than a week later, last Wednesday to be exact, our coordinator called and said she'd asked the travel agent to try and find our flights and she'd call me back with more info. 2 hours later she called!

February 27-March 4 2012! I'm almost positive those are the exact dates I wrote down too. LOL!

I'll get more details about our plans posted later tonight after dinner & kids bath times.

 

[nesser1981]

The Game Plan

So far this is what our week will probably look like.

Day 1, Arrive @ GKTW around 3 pm if I had to guess, our flight gets in @ 2, chill there for the rest of the evening, maybe stop at Walmart.

Day 2- MK day! Character Breakfast @ CP and Lunch @ CRT, Makeover at the Pirate League for both the kiddos, back to GKTW for Dinner

Day 3-HS day! Character Breakfast @ H&V, lunch @ Backlot Express (quick meal), Dinner @ Raglan Irish Pub & Restaurant in DTD, hang around DTD until we're ready to go back to GKTW.

Day 4-Breakfast @ GKTW, meet Mickey & Minnie there, IOA, lunch @ Three Broomsticks, Dinner @ GKTW & Christmas Party there.

Day 5-Breakfast @ GKTW, Sea World, Lunch there, maybe more IOA if we want. Dinner back @ GKTW Pirates & Princess Party is a must @ GKTW.

Day 6-AK & Epcot Day! Character Breakfast @ Tusker House, Lunch @ Flame Tree BBQ (quick meal) Head to Epcot in the afternoon, Dinner @ La Hacienda and hopefully catch the fireworks there

Day 7-Chill @ GKTW, my BFF from home is coming down to spend the morning with us with her kiddos. We'll probably leave around 2pm, our flight leaves @ 4.

 

[nesser1981]

Ok, new question.

I asked in the old thread about GKTW activities.

There was a link to list of what happened each night the week, and I found it in the information booklet that I got the link for w/ my ticket confirmations.

But in that thread it said that Monday nights were no longer double dare, it was now a Halloween Party. Does anyone know if that's the case? I want to say the posts were dated in October 2011 sometime.

The GKTW guide book I have is dated April 2011.

Just want to try and figure out if the kids need costumes for that night. LOL! We are planning on hanging out at GKTW the whole evening after we arrive I think.

 

[nesser1981]

One more question, trading pins for Keira & Cooper? Yes or no?

This is something I'd never noticed in my few trips to Disney. Sounds fun & cute, but man they are expensive. I just looked at the Disney store, they are super cute though.

 

[mommy2mrb]

made it over to your new/old PTR!

trading pins is fun! you can usually get a good price on a lot on Ebay...last time I did it got 20 pins for about $25.00 they will be an assortment, but will get the kids going and its fun to see what they can trade them for! the CM's are really good about trading with the kids!!!

 

[nesser1981]

made it over to your new/old PTR!

trading pins is fun! you can usually get a good price on a lot on Ebay...last time I did it got 20 pins for about $25.00 they will be an assortment, but will get the kids going and its fun to see what they can trade them for! the CM's are really good about trading with the kids!!!

Thank you!

I'm going to look around ebay and see what I can find.

Glad you found me. Its been a mess. LOL!

 

[Corrine 1973]

I am so sorry about your PTR confusion. I am here though so I can't wait to hear what going to happen next.

We did pin trading when we went in May and had a lot of fun. As the previous poster did, we got a lot off of ebay. There were a few we liked enough to keep, but most were good to trade. Don't forget to get a landyard as well so you can display your pins.

 

[nesser1981]

I keep going back & forth, should we take our double stroller?

Will the car they give us be large enough for it to fit in the trunk w/ our 4 big suitcases?

Do the single strollers we can get for free come with somewhere to store stuff?
Like our double stroller has the basket on the bottom. I don't really expect the kids to want to ride in it at all, but I want to have something just in case.

I the idea of having to try and go back & forth between lockers to put away things we've bought through out the day makes my head hurt.

 

[Corrine 1973]

When we went we did bring a double stroller (though at the time the kids were 2,4, and 7) but we got a van from the car rental place. Could you ask the Wish volunteers if you could request a minivan so you have room enough for the stroller and all the vuggage?

We also used the free stroller option at the park since my DS gets tierd quicker than other kids. It does have a mess bag on the back for a small amount of things. FYI- We requested a double stroller instead at the parks and had no problem getting one. The single one was just to small for Liam. I also want to warn you that the seats are hard and uncomfortable.

Also remember that if you get the stamp on your GAC to use the stroller as a Wheel Chair, you can take the stroller up to the ride and leave your stuff there with out having to worry about it because there is a CM right there.

Also to let you know, if you use any kind of stroller at WDW and leave it at stroller parking while on a ride, be prepared to find it somewhere else when you come back. CM's are constantly rearranging strollers as people come and go. It would be a good Idea to wrap a bright colored ribbon around the handle so you can find it easily.

 

[Moodyzblu]

So glad you got your dates !!

Looks like you got a good plan !