A Wish to see Cinderella's Castle--DD's MAW trip

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

I, of course, woke up early because we were going to WDW!!!!! MIL is always up early. That’s 2 down 3 to go. Our shuttle was scheduled to leave the hotel at 5:30. No problem. Got both the girls up and ready. They slept in the clothes that they were going to wear on the plane so it wouldn’t take so long getting ready in the morning. Just had to throw the Make-A-Wish shirt on Koryn. My DH, who is normally up at 4:20 every morning doesn’t get out of bed until 5:10. Ok no biggie, but then tells me he wants to shower. Good, I am glad to you want to be clean, but could you at least have gotten up earlier!!!! Deep breath, we will still make the shuttle even though we have to pack what we have used that night and take a few things to the car that will be staying in the hotel parking lot all week. DH finishes and we get things ready. MIL and I take the girls and the luggage on the cart out to the lobby. Luckily we were only about 5 doors down from the lobby. DH takes the things to the car. Our shuttle driver is waiting for us. We loaded up and headed to the airport!

The shuttle drops us off at the curbside check-in, which is nice so we don’t have to lug our suitcases into the airport. We head inside the airport and to security. No problems there, thank goodness. Now to find something to eat. What does DD spot…McD’s. Oy. We decide to eat there because it is close to our gate. When we are done we go find a spot to sit next to our gate. I take the girls to the bathroom to make sure each one is ready for the flight. I let them run around while we wait. I had taken Karmyn’s car seat in hopes of there being an empty seat and then we could put her in it. No such luck, in fact they had overbooked the flight.

DH and the girls walking to the gate....

DH, the girls and MIL waiting to board the plane....

As we are boarding one of the flight attendants noticed her shirt and asked if this was her special flight. Yes, it is!! Our seats were way in the back of the plane. Take off was not too bad. Koryn is very excited about being on the airplane. Karmyn finally falls asleep after squirming all over the place. She sleeps for about an hour. (3 hour flight) After the FA's have served everyone, they start paying special attention to Koryn. Koryn went back to see their little area where all the food is. They end up giving her trail mix and some Pringles. She is very excited and eats the Pringles with daddy. She wanted to take the empty can back, so I let her….they gave her another can of Pringles! Then they show up with the $5 dollar box of goodies for her to have also!!!! Koryn is loving the attention….imagine that!! When we land, we wait until almost the very end to get off since we are sitting way in the back. One of the FA comes and tells us that they are waiting for us. They??? The pilots!! They have invited Koryn to come in to the cockpit!!!

Koryn gets shy on me all of the sudden. What?!?!? She is never shy!! So mommy goes in with her and sits in the pilots chair.

Then we got a pic with the pilot and the FA that fist noticed her shirt.

We also wanted a pic with all the FA. The ones on immediate sides of Koryn are the ones that paid special attention to her.

We finally deboard and head to find out greeter. I was worried that he/she was going to think we weren’t on the plane because we took so long. But he was there waiting patiently for us!! Tom was his name and we found out that the airport greeting is what he does for GKTW and had been doing it for MANY years.

Koryn gets shy again…….

Then off we went to the car rental. I had specifically requested a van so that we would all fit! We also got a booster seat for Koryn. We found our van, said goodbye to Tom and headed out. My DH does not really care for city driving. (anything 2-3 lanes or more) so I drove so we could all keep our sanity. The directions were very good that they had given us and we drove right to GKTW.

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Great update! I can just feel the excitement of the night before and the flight down to Florida! How cool that you got to sit in the pilots chair on the airplane.

Can't wait for more.

 

[DL55]

I can feel the excitement of the night before the trip right now In fact I feel like packing for my trip now (it's not until April!).
It was nice of the FA to make Koryn's flight so special I don't think to many people get to see the cockpit anymore

 

[patticake3]

Your kids are so cute and I just love both of their names! Thanks for sharing your story about Koryn - so glad she is doing so well! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!
-Patti

 

[Winnielover]

Iluvmickeymouse- What a great start to your TR. I haven't been on the Dis almost all week because I have been busy trying to get our wish trip all together. The packing is almost complete and everything we need is in the house. From reading your TR I can tell we are just going to have a BLAST!! I feel like we should take off right now. I don't think I can wait 3 more days!!!

Hopefully when we return I can start to write up our TR. Although, I must say I'm not that great of a writer -- I think I can pull off writing a TR that may just help others in the future!!!

Thanks so much for sharing your story. Your DD's are both gorgerous and I look forward to reading the rest of your TR when we return!!!

 

[PrincessMomto2]

Sounds like you had a great flight and how lovely the flight staff were too! Hey you look good in the Pilots seat! Seems like you had a smooth flight and now you are on your way! I see that you are also a member of the potty survey! We spend a lot of time in the bathrooms too.

 

[Momof2wCF]

My DH, who is normally up at 4:20 every morning doesn’t get out of bed until 5:10. Ok no biggie, but then tells me he wants to shower. Good, I am glad to you want to be clean, but could you at least have gotten up earlier!!!!

Oh my goodness! That sounds just like MY DH!! He knows just when to sleep in and throw off my schedule!
Great start! I love the pix of Koryn with the FA and in the cockpit! Aren't Wish Trips the best?
More please!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Great update! I can just feel the excitement of the night before and the flight down to Florida! How cool that you got to sit in the pilots chair on the airplane.

Can't wait for more.

I can feel the excitement of the night before the trip right now In fact I feel like packing for my trip now (it's not until April!).
It was nice of the FA to make Koryn's flight so special I don't think to many people get to see the cockpit anymore

I'm glad you could "feel" the excitement! It was very cool to see the cockpit. The pilot said Koryn could push some buttons, but like I said, she was being shy.

Your kids are so cute and I just love both of their names! Thanks for sharing your story about Koryn - so glad she is doing so well! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!
-Patti

I love my girls' names. With Koryn we wanted something different. With Karmyn I was happy that DH and I finally agreed on it!

Iluvmickeymouse- What a great start to your TR. I haven't been on the Dis almost all week because I have been busy trying to get our wish trip all together. The packing is almost complete and everything we need is in the house. From reading your TR I can tell we are just going to have a BLAST!! I feel like we should take off right now. I don't think I can wait 3 more days!!!

Hopefully when we return I can start to write up our TR. Although, I must say I'm not that great of a writer -- I think I can pull off writing a TR that may just help others in the future!!!

Thanks so much for sharing your story. Your DD's are both gorgerous and I look forward to reading the rest of your TR when we return!!!

3 days..woohoo!!! You are going to have so much fun!!

Sounds like you had a great flight and how lovely the flight staff were too! Hey you look good in the Pilots seat! Seems like you had a smooth flight and now you are on your way! I see that you are also a member of the potty survey! We spend a lot of time in the bathrooms too.

ahhh...potty time. I really tried to make sure we didn't have any emergencies. Tried to take care of "it" before it got to that point!

Oh my goodness! That sounds just like MY DH!! He knows just when to sleep in and throw off my schedule!
Great start! I love the pix of Koryn with the FA and in the cockpit! Aren't Wish Trips the best?
More please!

Yes they are!!! OK....here you go.....

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

We all went in to the House of Hearts to check-in. There was a villa ready but they told us to go eat before we did the check-in process. Good idea! (it was around 1:00 I think) So we went to find the ice cream!! Friendly’s (where the ice cream is) also has sandwiches for the lunch hour. We ate lunch and then had our first ice cream!! Ice cream is available from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm every day!! Woohoo! I was very much looking forward to the ice cream!!

House of Hearts

Friendly’s

We went back to the House of Hearts and got checked in. Koryn got a stuffed Mickey Mouse and Karmyn got a whale. They gave us shirts for each girl and Koryn’s GKTW button. We were told that orientation was going to be at 7:45. I, of course, would be attending. The girls and I hopped into the golf cart with the GKTW lady and DH and MIL followed in the van. We were put in villa 280.

I didn’t take pictures when we first got in there like I should have. You know, two little girls can make a mess in quite a hurry!! The villa is quite spacious…..eat-in kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Plus a washer and dryer. Our MAW chapter had arranged for a pack and play and a stroller through kidsinsafetyseats.com. I forgot to see if they were at the front desk when we checked in, so I called and they had someone bring them to the villa. I did remember to ask if there was a cd player we could use. Both my girls listen to music at bedtime, they said they would have to look in storage to see if they did or not. We put up the pack and play and put Karmyn down for a nap. DH and myself also ended up falling asleep. Koryn and MIL stayed awake and played.

MIL, Koryn and myself made a run to the Wal-Mart just down the road after I woke up. We bought just a few things. There was pop and milk in our fridge. We bought water to put in the freezer and take with us every day. We also bought a few snacks and some lanyards to put all our buttons on.

We got back in time to go to the Gingerbread House for supper.

Koryn saw the carousel and immediately wanted to ride. We did after supper. We went in to the GH and were in line when Momto2wCF, Kirsten, comes over and says hi! It was very cool to meet a fellow dis’er there! Koryn can be very picky when it comes to food. After her transplant it was hard to get her to eat different things. It is said that all the chemo and the transplant process changes the taste buds. One of the first flavors that she finally liked was salty…pretzels. Still one of her favorites to this day. Back to supper….Koryn decides to have a lettuce salad….or cheese salads as she calls them. Lettuce and cheese…that’s it! The volunteers were great and very helpful. We talked to Kirsten a little more and agreed to try and meet up Thursday night.

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

ugh....look at the next post....my fingers got carried away and hit post before I was ready!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Out we went and of course hopped right on the carousel. I think we rode a couple of times.

Stock photo of the carousel...

Koryn on the carousel...

We walked around a little and took a few pics…..

Then we headed to the theater because it was Nickelodeon nite. The theater....

Blue’s Clues was the guest of honor tonight. I was hoping that Koryn would enjoy this. She really likes watching the show. We started out sitting in the back of the theater, eventually moved up. However, when it was time to meet Blue, she would not go up on stage.

Blue….

I had to leave for orientation and left the family in the theater. There were three other parents in the orientation with me. Thanks to the Dis Boards and all the other wonderful previous wish trip families, I knew pretty much everything they told us at orientation. We received our 3 day Disney, 2 days US, and 1 day SW tickets. We also received the Disney GAC pass and the US pass. After the orientation I asked the volunteer about giving the US tickets back because I knew we would not be going there on our trip. She suggested I hang on to them until we left and if we hadn’t gone to US, then yes we could give them back. As we were talking about US the father next to me mentioned something about his boy. The volunteer said that there was a great Barney show there. Basically the father said that he would not go to it because he couldn’t stand Barney, but yet his boy LOVED him. What saddened me more is that he then said his son only has a couple weeks to live. If that was the case, why not suck it up and go to the show so that your boy could enjoy it????????

I left orientation and found my family out wondering around with ice cream. WHAT….you had ice cream without me???? That wasn’t nice!! I’ll just go get some of my own! After ice cream we decided to go to the Castle of Miracles and do Koryn’s star and the girls’ pillows. In the castle there are stars on the ceiling for every child that has stayed at GKTW. There were A LOT!!! We wrote Koryn’s name on the star and then put it in the star fairies chest. The star fairy appeared on the screen above the chest, the chest shook and then the star fairy took Koryn’s star so that she could put it on the ceiling that night. Koryn was in awe when she opened the chest and her star was gone!

Koryn with her star...

Star Fairy chest.....

Stock photos of the castle...

We then went over and made their pillows. Koryn helped Karmyn with hers.

We were on our way back to the villa when we came across the train.

Stock photo.......

We hopped on and got a ride back to the villa. The girls loved the train ride! We got back and got ready for bed and the next day. There was a cd player waiting for us outside our door…yay….they found one…nighttime was going to go much smoother now!

Where were we off to tomorrow? Magic Kingdom of course!!!

 

[DL55]

What a wonderful place! I bet the kids loved it
Glad everything is working out well.

 

[Happywife]

Well, it is about time, girl!!! Robert JUST asked if I had heard anything from you about the trip, and I got your email about this thread. I can't WAIT to read more!

Oh - and it is great to see pictures of Karmyn. When in the world did she grow up so fast?

Okay, you better post some more fast. You know I am not good at patience!! (Love ya!)

 

[Eeyore's Mom]

I'm so glad you posted on my report so I could find you here!! Great job, I am loving your report and my wish son just came to see all of your pictures too!! He is VERY excited. Sounds like a really good start.

I am thinking about sending my DH to the orientation since I will know most of the info. The only issue is he doesn't always share some important details. Do you think I'll be fine with the info. I have from here and whatever he deams important to share? I just want him to understand the process and I think if he goes to orientation he will bare some of the responsibility for the week too .

 

[5dwarves]

Oh my goodness. Look at that cute little peanut in that big ole make a wish t-shirt. She, too, is adorable! Almost makes you want to have another baby...ALMOST.

I completely agree with what you said to Leah. Cured is an awesome word to hear... one that sends chills down your back and makes your eyes tear up...even when you are just reading it on a TR!

Looking forward to more more more.

~Elisa

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Great update and pictures! That place looks awesome and I'm sure the kids really enjoy it there.

 

[5dwarves]

I'm so glad you posted on my report so I could find you here!! Great job, I am loving your report and my wish son just came to see all of your pictures too!! He is VERY excited. Sounds like a really good start.

I am thinking about sending my DH to the orientation since I will know most of the info. The only issue is he doesn't always share some important details. Do you think I'll be fine with the info. I have from here and whatever he deams important to share? I just want him to understand the process and I think if he goes to orientation he will bare some of the responsibility for the week too .

Leaving the man in charge? Brave Woman!!!! LOL. Seriously though, I am sure he will be fine. If you have been reading all the TRs from the GKTW wish families, I am sure you are more well informed than anyone else who is attending and maybe even the person who is conducting the orientation. They will give him a large envelope that has smaller envelopes in it that have all your tickets and GACs in them. It also has your "ticket" for your family photo with Mickey and tickets to make your children's pillows and get your wish child's star. They will also give you a bunny book when you check in, before orientation. Anything that you may not have picked up on the TRs is in the bunny book (maps, etc.). It is a good idea to send your DH, that way he will have a chance to catch up with the large amount of knowledged you have already amassed!

~Elisa

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

What a wonderful place! I bet the kids loved it
Glad everything is working out well.

They did love it!

Well, it is about time, girl!!! Robert JUST asked if I had heard anything from you about the trip, and I got your email about this thread. I can't WAIT to read more!

Oh - and it is great to see pictures of Karmyn. When in the world did she grow up so fast?

Okay, you better post some more fast. You know I am not good at patience!! (Love ya!)

I know I know... I'm working on it!! Glad you could join in!!!

I'm so glad you posted on my report so I could find you here!! Great job, I am loving your report and my wish son just came to see all of your pictures too!! He is VERY excited. Sounds like a really good start.

I am thinking about sending my DH to the orientation since I will know most of the info. The only issue is he doesn't always share some important details. Do you think I'll be fine with the info. I have from here and whatever he deams important to share? I just want him to understand the process and I think if he goes to orientation he will bare some of the responsibility for the week too .

I think you will be fine. Like Elisa says below, you'll know more from being on here than most of the other families. I think sending the hubby would be a good thing!

Oh my goodness. Look at that cute little peanut in that big ole make a wish t-shirt. She, too, is adorable! Almost makes you want to have another baby...ALMOST.

I completely agree with what you said to Leah. Cured is an awesome word to hear... one that sends chills down your back and makes your eyes tear up...even when you are just reading it on a TR!

Looking forward to more more more.

~Elisa

She is very adorable. Not that I am prejudiced or anything!!

Great update and pictures! That place looks awesome and I'm sure the kids really enjoy it there.

GKTW is very cool. I can't wait to visit it the next time we are down.

Leaving the man in charge? Brave Woman!!!! LOL. Seriously though, I am sure he will be fine. If you have been reading all the TRs from the GKTW wish families, I am sure you are more well informed than anyone else who is attending and maybe even the person who is conducting the orientation. They will give him a large envelope that has smaller envelopes in it that have all your tickets and GACs in them. It also has your "ticket" for your family photo with Mickey and tickets to make your children's pillows and get your wish child's star. They will also give you a bunny book when you check in, before orientation. Anything that you may not have picked up on the TRs is in the bunny book (maps, etc.). It is a good idea to send your DH, that way he will have a chance to catch up with the large amount of knowledged you have already amassed!

~Elisa

Ohhh...good info Elisa. I agree....send the hubby!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Today we were headed to the Magic Kingdom so that Koryn could see Cinderella’s Castle!!!!

Wednesday morning we were all up around 7. At least I didn’t have to force any one up and get them going!! I guess that is one nice thing about early risers!! We headed to the Gingerbread House at 8:00 for breakfast. GKTW has 3 different options for breakfast, continental delivered to your villa, continental at the GH starting at 7:00, or a hot breakfast starting at 8:00. I wanted to make sure that the girls were full before we headed out. I brought our own snacks to the parks just in case. Breakfast was delicious!!! Pancakes, eggs, bacon/sausage, waffles…lots of wonderful food!! Needless to say, we were all full when we left.

We headed out to the Magic Kingdom. I drove again….I drove all week. We were able to park in the handicapped accessible area with Koryn’s GKTW button. We hopped on the monorail, which the girls loved, and headed to MK. We were at the gates shortly after nine. The decorations they had up for fall were very pretty…..notice Mickey is made out of pumpkins and gourds!!

We got our stroller, free with GKTW button, and headed into the park. DH went to get his hair cut (a MK tradition for him) while we walked around. We saw Pinocchio, Chip & Dale, and Pluto out giving autographs. Now, I am a character lover and love getting autographs …..I worked with Koryn before we left so that she would hopefully get autographs. I made a character book, a small photo album with pictures of the characters and their names. We read through it a lot! She knew many of them by heart before we left. I also made a clipboard and tags for her to get the autographs. She was very excited to see these characters but wanted nothing to do with them. She would not even get out of the stroller. I told her I would go up with her, but no go. We happened to see Mary Poppins and Bert walk by (headed back out front). I thought we would give them a try since they were face characters. We caught up to them out front and they stopped for us. Koryn did want their autograph (I don’t even have Bert!!). However, she would not get out of the stroller. At least she interacted with them a little!!! That was a step in the right direction.

We then went to check on daddy with his haircut…..

While we were waiting for daddy, Daisy came out. She loves Daisy on Mickey’s Clubhouse. But, again, she would not get out of the stroller to go see her. I figured, well that was it, no autographs this year. I was ok with it because this was her trip and if she didn’t like it, we weren’t going to do it. I did have my autograph stuff along but since Koryn didn’t want to do it, I didn’t feel right getting any myself.

We the headed around the corner and down main street. Koryn was in total awe of the Castle. I do not have a pic of here first time seeing it. We did get a photopass pic taken, so when we get those I will post them. I decided that we would toward Fantasyland because Koryn wanted to ride Dumbo. The line was not that long so we hopped in line, Koryn did ok waiting, about as well as a 4 year old can!! She absolutely loved the ride!! She giggled and laughed the entire ride.

DH, MIL and Karmyn waited for us because Karmyn had fallen asleep already.

Then we went to the carousel (imagine that!!) Koryn, MIL and myself rode the carousel.

Koryn on the carousel….

MIL on the carousel….

When we got off I told Koryn that we could go meet Ariel if she wanted. She thought that would be ok. This was the first time we used the GAC. LOVE the GAC!! We showed to the CM and we were escorted up to the exit and waited for our turn. I think we only waited 5 minutes, if that. Koryn was excited to see Ariel, but wanted mommy to go with. Ok, that is fine, at least she wants to see her. Koryn was smiling from ear to ear the entire time we were in with Ariel.

She ran out and had to tell grandma all about it! Karmyn woke up so we headed to Philharmagic. I had explained the 3-D to Koryn so she knew about the glasses. I told her it was ok to not wear the glassed if she didn’t want to. We showed our GAC and were taken in through the fast-pass line and right up to the doors. Here is Karmyn with her glasses on….

We sat at the end of the row just in case Karmyn did not do ok with it then we could take her out. Koryn and MIL loved the show! I even saw MIL reaching out trying to touch things! Karmyn did pretty well so we got to see the whole show. We then headed towards the front of the castle to watch the Dream Along with Mickey show. We got pretty decent seats. Karmyn decided to not sit still, so Daddy took her off to the side and let her run around. Koryn loved the show. Here she is watching the show….

Pic of the show….

She informed me after seeing the show that she was now ready to see the characters, mainly the ones we saw at the beginning of the day. I explained that they may not be there but if she wanted to see characters that I would definitely try and find some for her.

 

[DisneyLaura]

Your TR is great. I am so excited for your DD's. I have read about MAW but never followed a TR for one. Glad I decided to join in on this one. My heart is filled with joy when I see your beatiful little girl smiling. Can't wait for more.