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

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

There was A LOT of traffic when we headed back to the Village. Good thing I was driving, DH would not have had patience for it!!! We got back to GKTW around 5:45. We headed to the Gingerbread House for supper and to the ice cream palace afterwards for ice cream of course!!! We hopped on the carousel for a couple go arounds and then Koryn wanted daddy to ride the train and show him the train set. So, we headed to the Amberville train station. Koryn had to push all the buttons again to show daddy what they did. Then we hopped on the train. There was a family of three there running th train. They said they volunteer once a month at the village. Very nice family. Anyway…so on the train we went. The train however didn’t want to go…at least not too well. It was going very slow…the gentleman that was driving kept saying that there had to be something wrong because it was going so slow….well we made it ¾ of the way around and the train stopped. Yup…stopped. The gentleman’s son came and helped push the train back to the station. Oh what a ride!

That night Mayor Clayton was having a birthday party. So we headed over to the Castle of Miracles to partake in the festivities. Koryn danced with some of the other kids that were there. I did not bring my camera so I do not have any pics. DH, Karmyn and DMIL decided to go back to the villa early so Koryn and I stayed and hung out for awhile. After dancing some more, Koryn decided she wanted to ride the carousel again. Imagine that. Then we waited for the train to come that takes families around the village back to their villa. I think we were all in bed by 9!! What a day!!

Tomorrow…..shopping and MNSSHP!!

 

[Ms. Heimlich]

I just found your TR. I love it!

your kids are such dolls and they photograph really well. So glad your DD was well enough to experience WDW and she is recovering!

It's nice to read about the things I have seen already!

Keep on going!

Ms. H (janis)

 

[patticake3]

I am so enjoying your TR! Your pictures are just fabulous! Can't wait to read more. No pressure though!
-Patti

 

[marenian]

Just found this TR and then to find out you are from Iowa, I had to reply. I'm from the Cedar Rapids area so when I saw UIHC I was even more interested. I'm listening to the Spectro CD as I read this and even though I've only gotten through the first couple posts, there is a lump in my throat and I hope you all had a great trip. Your DDs are precious and I can't even imagine what you have all been through. What a trooper DD is! Off to catch up on the rest...well, after an incredibly boring meeting.

 

[DL55]

Well, another busy day. I haven't gone to the Orlando Seaworld but I do enjoy feeding the animals. Penguins are my favorite birds.

 

[Happywife]

First off - - it was GREAT to see you on Black Friday!! We hope you survived the rest of the day.

Looks like the family had a great time at Sea World. I had to laugh when I read that Carlton got his free beer! Hey, it's a vacation for the whole family, right? Thanks so much for the update!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

I just found your TR. I love it!

your kids are such dolls and they photograph really well. So glad your DD was well enough to experience WDW and she is recovering!

It's nice to read about the things I have seen already!

Keep on going!

Ms. H (janis)

HI Janis and Thanks for popping over and reading! My DD's do photograph well...when they want to. Koryn can come up with some pretty funny faces sometimes.

I am so enjoying your TR! Your pictures are just fabulous! Can't wait to read more. No pressure though!
-Patti

Thanks! No pressure from you guys...I'm putting enough pressure on myself to get this thing finished!!!!

Just found this TR and then to find out you are from Iowa, I had to reply. I'm from the Cedar Rapids area so when I saw UIHC I was even more interested. I'm listening to the Spectro CD as I read this and even though I've only gotten through the first couple posts, there is a lump in my throat and I hope you all had a great trip. Your DDs are precious and I can't even imagine what you have all been through. What a trooper DD is! Off to catch up on the rest...well, after an incredibly boring meeting.

marenian!!! Another Iowan!!!! I take 380 through CR every trip to UIHC! I think they are pretty precious too. Some days it really hits me what Koryn has been through, and I am just in awe of how strong she was back then and still is today. Hope your meeting wasn't too bad!!!

Well, another busy day. I haven't gone to the Orlando Seaworld but I do enjoy feeding the animals. Penguins are my favorite birds.

The penguins were Koryn's favorite too. I'm surprised we didn't have to buy a stuffed penguin to take home!

First off - - it was GREAT to see you on Black Friday!! We hope you survived the rest of the day.

Looks like the family had a great time at Sea World. I had to laugh when I read that Carlton got his free beer! Hey, it's a vacation for the whole family, right? Thanks so much for the update!!

Of course he found the beer, you know my hubby!!!




Workin' on the next update....I got my photopass cd so I want to upload some of those photos to include in the next post...so hang in there!!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

I hate dial-up!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to upload pics the other day and I think it took at least 30 minutes to upload 3 pics!!!! So, I took the cd to my mom's classroom, she has wireless at school. Her laptop would not read the cd. So, now I am back to my slow dial up. I am going to try and upload the pics today, so I can post an update tonight!!!

 

[LeeLee2U]

I understand about the dial up!!! I think that's why when I do finally do anupdate, I do a whole bunch. I get those pics uploaded and then I run with it. I'm trying to upload more now and and I just did a BIG update yesterday!!

I love the clydesdales. They are so pretty!!


I can't wait to see the pics!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

I understand about the dial up!!! I think that's why when I do finally do anupdate, I do a whole bunch. I get those pics uploaded and then I run with it. I'm trying to upload more now and and I just did a BIG update yesterday!!

I love the clydesdales. They are so pretty!!


I can't wait to see the pics!!

we can't afford anything else but dial-up right now oh well..I got a few uploaded so here is my update........

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

After a good night’s sleep, we were up and at the Gingerbread House by 8 for breakfast. We had another filling breakfast and of course had to ride the carousel, again!!!! I wanted to have a relaxing morning because I knew we were going to be up late tonight. So we headed off to Downtown Disney for some shopping. The one thing that I wanted to get for sure was a Christmas stocking for Karmyn with her name on it. When DH and I went to WDW in ’05 we bought Koryn a Minnie Mouse stocking with her name stitched on it. We found a TinkerBell stocking that was adorable!! I actually remembered the font that we stitched Koryn’s in so that is what we had Karmyn’s name in also. I love going in to the Christmas store in DTD. I could easily spend sooooo much money in that store.

We headed to the Toy Store next. I bought a lot of Mr. Potato Head stuff in ’05, so I wanted to pick up the new items they had. Koryn found the My Little Pony dress up area. We ended up getting a box of those also. We went to the World of Disney store and spent a lot of time there. Word to the wise….don’t split up your party unless you have a set meeting time or have cell phones. Oops. Koryn and I shopped around while DH, DMIL and Karmyn went shopping. Yep, we lost them. Looked everywhere for them. Finally decided to stand in one place in hopes that I would spot them. DH finally found us. He was not too happy. We decided to head back to GKTW after we picked up Karmyn’s stocking.

Karmyn fell asleep in the van on the way back to GKTW, so I dropped DH, DMIL, and Koryn off so that they could grab a bite at the ice cream parlor with instructions to bring me back some food (and ice cream!). They listened quite well. My ice cream hadn’t even melted that much on their walk back. I wanted Koryn to have a good nap today since we would be out late. She hadn’t been taking her normal daily naps with us being in the parks all day. She cooperated (for once) and took a nap. I also took one and DH and DMIL did rest. We got up and were ready to head out around 4. I had wanted to be at MK by 4, since that is the time we could get in with our MNSSHP tickets. Oh well, still made it there by 4:45. DMIL had her ticket that we had bought her and we needed to pick up our tickets at Guest Services. MAW had bought us our tickets for MNSSHP. Got to the window, had all our info from MAW and asked for our tickets…..gave them our name…confirmation number….wait….he asks for our address. Ok..gave it to him….does not match. What?!?! Gave him DMIL’s address since we lived there not to long ago…..nope. I asked what the address was. He rattled off some Urbandale address…..oh makes sense now…I explain that MAW bought our tickets and that is probably their address. He finally did give us our tickets. I aksed what the confirmation number was for since we didn’t even need it and had the hastle with the addy. He said you really don’t need it because anyone can have a confirmation number. Oh well. Which reminds me, I need to call our MAW chapter and tell them about that little snafu.

Off we went to MNSSHP!!!!! YAY!! I love these separate ticket events. We headed toward Adventureland first since we missed that the first day. We found King Louie..

We found Captain Hook and Mr Smee.

(have a better photopass picture...will put it up when I get it uploaded )

Koryn and I had talked about a couple things that she could say to certain characters. One of which was to Captain Hook…..to leave Peter Pan alone!! Do you think she told him….nope…mommy had to. He did react accordingly though…it was quite funny.

Koryn liked the Dumbo ride, so I knew she would like the Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride. Koryn and I headed in through the exit and a CM spotted us. He explained that we were to sit in carpet number 5 on the next ride. Ok….when we were seated, another CM comes by and says that we were in lucky carpet number 5 today. The lucky carpet riders got to go on the ride twice! Woohoo. I told them that if she liked it we would. I was never sure what she would like or not like. She LOVED it!!! So we went again. I think she would have gone a third time if they would have let us.

I would have liked to gone on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride since it has been rehabbed, but no go. I didn’t think Koryn would have done that well on it and she did not want daddy and mommy to go on it without her. Another reason to go back….woohoo!!!!!!! We ventured toward Frontierland. We hit the little stand that has McDonald’s French fries for the girls since we had a late supper at the Castle.

We found Cinderella’s coach. Koryn had not wanted to put on her dress up until this point. I am glad she did. How cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We found Eeyore and Pooh dressed up in their costumes.

Then we went on the It’s a Small World ride….Koryn would tell me..mommy take a picture of that. I have a lot of pictures from that ride!!

Koryn on the ride…

Daddy and Karmyn…

One of Koryn’s favorite things she saw…..

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

After the ride, I headed over to the castle to see if DMIL could eat with us. If you remember from the short pre stuff I did, MAW had made the ressies for us and DMIL had not been included. Not that they did not know that she was coming, but eating in the castle is one meal where you have to give your credit card when making the ressies and then that is the card that gets charged for the meal. MAW was not paying for DMIL. I had called WDW Dine before we left but they said they were booked. I asked the CM’s and they said there would be no problem, she could eat with us. Yay!!!!!

We were early for supper so I took Karmyn and Koryn and we went and rode the carousel. DMIL stayed with the strollers because DH had gone to Main Street to pick up the special trading pin for tonight’s MNSSHP and we told him we would meet him in a certain spot. (remember what happened in DTD?) We got back to DMIL right before DH did and we headed in to the castle. Cinderella is right inside the castle and you get your picture taken with her before you go upstairs to eat. Since there were five of us, we got to have 2 poses taken. (4 people=1 pose) I am glad it worked out that way because we got an awesome picture of Koryn and Cinderella…..

And a great one of the family also…….

Then we headed upstairs to the dining room. While we ate, Suzy and Perla came around and then the Fairy Godmother came out and joined them. The three of them put on a show while you ate. We did get a pic with the Fairy Godmother even though I don’t think she normally stops to take pics with families.

Koryn was soooo upset when Suzy and Perla left. She just couldn’t figure out where they had to go. The meal was very good and there was plenty of food. When we left the castle we found one of the dance parties going on. Lo and behold Suzy and Perla were there. I told Koryn…see that is why they had to leave the castle, they had to come dance! She went out and danced her fool little head off. Chip and Dale came out and replaced Suzy and Perla. Every time Chip or Dale would get near Koryn she would run screaming!! However, she did not run to me or daddy…she just went to a different spot so she wasn’t near them so she could keep dancing!! I videotaped her so luckily daddy remembered to take some pics. Here is Koryn dancing….

Karmyn hanging out in the stroller…..

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

I had asked about appearance times for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs earlier in the night so I knew that they would be out soon. We waited around 10 minutes for them.

We found Tigger and Piglet on our way to Toontown……

Koryn was so enthralled that Piglet was a butterfly that she paid attention to him more and did that ever make Tigger jealous!!! She made it up to him by telling him what he was dressed up as and blew him a kiss!

We headed over to ToonTown. I knew the candy trail started there and that the Alice in Wonderland characters were supposed to be there. That line was so backed up that we didn’t even attempt it. I forgot that the princesses are usually there with their princes so we didn’t see them. A CM told us that they were closing ToonTown because the fireworks were going to start soon so they had to clear everyone out. We headed out and found Mickey and Minnie by the ToonTown sign.

I wish we would have gotten Karmyn out of the stroller for this pic. It happened so fast that I didn’t even think about it. It would have been an awesome family pic! We found Alice by the teacups….

Then we headed toward main street to get a spot for the fireworks. Amazingly, the girls are both still awake and doing well! The fireworks were wonderful!! I love the whole theming (is that a word ) of it!! After the fireworks we headed back over towards Adventureland, we were heading to Frontierland to find a spot for the parade. Normally I would have had us watch the first parade, but we were eating in the castle at that time! On our way we found Terk and Tarzan and Baloo in a room. There was also a candy station in there with no line!! Woohoo!

We found a spot to sit and watched the parade. It was awesome!!

Karmyn fell asleep in my lap right before the parade started.....

After the parade we decided to head out and we found Jessie. Just as we were getting up there to take the pic, Woody came out also!! Bonus!

We headed out and got back to GKTW around 12!!!!!!!! What a night!!! So much fun!

Tomorrow….check out of GKTW and MGM!

 

[DL55]

What great pictures! The picture of Koryn and Cinderella's carriage is adorable.
Sorry for the snafu, but I'm impressed how well things have worked out on this trip.

 

[DisneyLaura]

OMG - what nice pictures you guys got with the characters. I love the one with Snow White and the dwarfs. Grumpy is my fav. I'm so excited for your daughters that they got to have such a great time. I can't wait for more.

 

[Happywife]

Oh my goodness. . . the pic of Koryn and Cinderella had me in tears!! And the pic with Koryn by the carriage - priceless. I am so glad that Koryn had such a great time at the castle and at MNSSHP. Keep the report coming - I absolutely LOVE reading about Koryn's trip!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

What great pictures! The picture of Koryn and Cinderella's carriage is adorable.
Sorry for the snafu, but I'm impressed how well things have worked out on this trip.

Things did go quite well, I was surprised too!!

OMG - what nice pictures you guys got with the characters. I love the one with Snow White and the dwarfs. Grumpy is my fav. I'm so excited for your daughters that they got to have such a great time. I can't wait for more.

I was very excited to get the photo of SW and the dwarfs. Grumpy is DH's fav also!! I jokingly call him grumpy while we are on vacation.

Oh my goodness. . . the pic of Koryn and Cinderella had me in tears!! And the pic with Koryn by the carriage - priceless. I am so glad that Koryn had such a great time at the castle and at MNSSHP. Keep the report coming - I absolutely LOVE reading about Koryn's trip!!

MNSSHP was awesome. I know....aren't the pics great!!!!!

Thanks for sticking with me. Even you lurkers out there.....I hope you are still there..

I am working on the next update.....maybe tonight or tomorrow I will have it ready.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[LeeLee2U]

O.k. I was ciecking in for that update and realized though I had read your last 2 I never commented!! Sorry!!!

Adorable Pics!!! I love that one in front of Cinderellas carriage How Sweet!! ALL the pics were great!!!! I wish I would have had enough energy to bring my kiddos to the MNSSHP. We had more than enough spending money. Oh well!! Looking forward to hearing more!!!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

O.k. I was ciecking in for that update and realized though I had read your last 2 I never commented!! Sorry!!!

Adorable Pics!!! I love that one in front of Cinderellas carriage How Sweet!! ALL the pics were great!!!! I wish I would have had enough energy to bring my kiddos to the MNSSHP. We had more than enough spending money. Oh well!! Looking forward to hearing more!!!!

You got ahead of me!!! I had to finish resizing pics, but now I am ready...so here it is!!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Today was check-out day. We had extended our trip by two days so the plan was to check-out and head over to Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR). We had rented points from a DVC (Disney Vacation Club) member for a studio. We had originally wanted a one-bedroom suite, but there were none available for the time that we were there. Oh well!

I was very sad to be leaving GKTW. We had such a great time there and it is such a wonderful place! The people, the atmosphere, everything. We had everything pretty much packed up the night before so it was just the everyday necessities left to pack and then we loaded up in the van and headed over to the House of Hearts. I went to check-out while the rest of the family headed over to the Gingerbread House for breakfast. Check-out is very simple. GKTW gives departing families a “World Pass”. It is a list of places (amusement parks, museums, etc.) that Wish families get in to free for a year after they depart GKTW. Unfortunately there was only one listed for Iowa. There are a few in surrounding states. So hopefully we can hit some of those this summer. We also decided that we would like to try and keep the rented stroller for a couple more days. Otherwise we would have had to return it that morning. I would have gladly rented a stroller at the parks for Karmyn but this one was working out so well. We gave a call to the place that MAW had rented it from and they were fine with it and told me where to return it on Wed. when we flew home.

I headed out to find the family, only to find that they had not made it to the Gingerbread House yet. Koryn wanted to ride the carousel, so they had done that while I was checking out. We headed in to eat our final filling breakfast. Afterward we had to ride the carousel again, and again, and again. Koryn said she wanted to ride it five times, so that is what we did. Then we hopped in the van and headed to SSR. It had started to rain just as we left GKTW. Then it down poured almost all the way over to SSR. When we got to SSR it had stopped raining. I went in to check-in. Our room was not ready yet. I was able to pick out our room out of a few they had available. I picked the room that was close to the walking path to Downtown Disney. Just in case we were to go there again! They loaded our luggage onto a dolly (that is what they are called …isn’t it????? ) anywho…. and they stored it for us until our room was ready. Since it was technically the last day of our Wish, it was also the last day for our van rental. I figured on using Disney transportation for the next couple days anyway. The family decided to walk around while I took the van back to the airport. I headed out and drove through more rain. I was getting kind of bummed with all the rain. I was afraid we weren’t going to be able to head to a park today if it kept raining. I got to the airport and returned the van, no problem. Then I headed to where Disney’s Magical Express loaded. I had called before our trip and arranged for me to ride back on ME to SSR and then we would ride ME on Wed. back to the airport. I had told DH about what time to meet me, I should have told him about an hour later. It took a little longer in line to check-in to ME than I was expecting. Oh well. I made it back to SSR around 1 and found the family watching Finding Nemo in a little lounge. Koryn had made friends with another little girl that was there and they were sharing pretzels and watching the movie together.

Our room was ready so we waited for Bell Services and they loaded up our luggage on their extended golf cart and took us to our room. The room was nice. It would work for two nights, but definitely not any longer than that. There was a queen size bed, for DH and me, a couch, which would work for DMIL (that is normally what she sleeps on anyway!! ) a pack-n-play for Karmyn that we found in the closet and Koryn decided that the ottoman would work for her to sleep on. We slid that up next to our bed so that she wouldn’t end up falling. (it actually worked quite well for her).

We were getting hungry, so we needed to decide what to do. It had pretty much stopped raining so we figured we would head out to MGM. We went down to the bus stop, which wasn’t very far (another reason I selected that room) away and waited about 5-10 minutes for the MGM bus. We were off!!