Help with a DL Wish Trip

[gskywalker]

So we are pretty sure that our daughters back up(original was Disney Cruise, Canada MAW isn't allowing cruises for a couple of years) make a wish trip is going to happen in the new year to Disneyland. No details where we are staying yet. We get 2 day tickets for Disneyland, 1 day for Universal. Beyond that, help, we know very little. Don't know what else we should do. If transportation affects what we should do they are giving the choice of rental van (family of 6) or spending money to cover users. Thanks vets of Disneyland.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

Hopefully someone else can describe what they do for a Make A Wish trip and if there is any special considerations.

I just want to reassure you I think it will be very special.

Number one you need to pick a date. Everything we tell you about entertainment, refurbishment, crowds, special events, etc depends on that first.

Do you get to pick your dates or is it chosen for you? We can start by helping you do that if you tell us your main goals.

 

[shosh1530]

Not sure how many days you'll have to work with, but I'd recommend having a hotel near Universal for two nights, then move over to a place close to Disneyland for the remainder if possible. It can take up to 2 hours to get between two areas with traffic.

If you have choices for hotels, try to get as close to Disneyland as possible. There are many options within a short walking distance.

The rental van might be useful for getting between Universal and Disneyland and of course to the airports. You could price out the difference in cost for that and taking shuttles/taxis plus parking (most Disneyland-area hotels charge for parking).

Are you looking for other activities in the area? Tell us a bit more about travel party (ages, interests).

And hopefully someone with experience with Make A Wish will chime in.

 

[gskywalker]

Hopefully someone else can describe what they do for a Make A Wish trip and if there is any special considerations.

I just want to reassure you I think it will be very special.

Number one you need to pick a date. Everything we tell you about entertainment, refurbishment, crowds, special events, etc depends on that first.

Do you get to pick your dates or is it chosen for you? We can start by helping you do that if you tell us your main goals.

They will give us our dates but asked us for our preferred dates. It will hopefully be mid march, otherwise will for sure be mid Feb-end of March. We are very excited that she will get to have a wish she will love. Originally they weren't going to extend her wish timeframe, so we were going to have to go to WDW(been there 3 times this year), thankfully they extended so we can do DL.

 

[gskywalker]

Not sure how many days you'll have to work with, but I'd recommend having a hotel near Universal for two nights, then move over to a place close to Disneyland for the remainder if possible. It can take up to 2 hours to get between two areas with traffic.

If you have choices for hotels, try to get as close to Disneyland as possible. There are many options within a short walking distance.

The rental van might be useful for getting between Universal and Disneyland and of course to the airports. You could price out the difference in cost for that and taking shuttles/taxis plus parking (most Disneyland-area hotels charge for parking).

Are you looking for other activities in the area? Tell us a bit more about travel party (ages, interests).

And hopefully someone with experience with Make A Wish will chime in.

Universal is up to 2 hours away, I assume that is one way(just looked it up and wow, yeah they are far apart)? I assume they will put us in Paradise Pier(I think that is the name) because generally I have seen that is where wish families end up. I wasn't sure about how people normally go from the airport to DL.

In terms of other activities, yes we only have 2-3 days of the 7 days occupied with DL/Universal, so we are wondering what else we could/should do. We have never been to California. Our kids are all teenagers with our special needs(wish kid) being the oldest at 18, but at a 8 year old level. In terms of interests I honestly don't know what would be of interest. Our family likes to travel, have things to keep busy with(rides, shows, etc). Our wish daughter honestly mostly just cares about fireworks, parades, characters.

 

[shosh1530]

Yes, Universal can be up to 2 hours each way. It took us about hour and 15 minutes on a weekday to go from Universal to Disneyland around 10 in the morning. It will be longer in rush hour traffic.

But it sounds like you may end up at the Paradise Pier the whole trip, in which case the rental van may make a lot of sense.

If you have choices around dates, be sure to look into what the entertainment schedule at Disneyland might be around the time you go. Depending on the time of year, things like fireworks and the Fantasmic nighttime show may only be happening on weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

As far as other activities, you might consider the San Diego Zoo or Sea World as day trips. Both are in San Diego about 2 hours each way. There are also different beach areas near Disneyland (30-45 minutes) if you think that would appeal to your family.

I hope you have a magical trip!

 

[princesslizzy]

I hope you have a fantastic time! We were opposite- our make a wish trip was to Florida, since living just a 6 hour drive from Disneyland we have been there a lot more. It will be very different- MAW Florida vacations have the Give Kids The World village to stay in, and California doesn't have that, so I don't have a whole lot of advice. I will say that having a rental van was the best choice for our family. Our kids were 16, 15, 13, 11 and wish kid was 7. Having our own car was great for picking up what we needed from grocery stores whenever we wanted and late night fast food stops after we were done with the various parks each day.

 

[PatMcDuck]

My then 15 year old daughter had a DL Wish Trip about 14-15 years ago. So maybe things have changed, and some things MAY depend upon your local MAW chapter? They provided us airfare, room, rental car, park tickets to DL, Universal, and Knotts. I think the DL was 2 or 3 day tickets? They put us at Paradise Pier, and upper floor facing the park which was super nice. My daughter was still pretty sick (she is ok now!) So we only went to DL for a few hours each day. She declined a wheelchair until it was obvious she needed one to deal with fatigue. I bought some additional tickets for DL, because of the only touring 3 hours a day thing. We never made it to Knotts, she was too tired. We DID go to Universal, and they gave us the front of the line passes. DL of course gave us FOTL, (back then you had a card and MAW had a special stamp). I think they gave us money for food and stuff but I don't remember the details on that.

Disney said to just ask thru a special phone number, if we wanted any requests and we only did that once.The girls wanted to use the nicer GC pool, so they gave them keycards to access that pool across the street one day. I think you could have asked to meet characters, stuff like that.

My daughter also chose DL because she went to WDW once a year back then (DVC members, live in NJ).

 

[gardenrooms]

My then 15 year old daughter had a DL Wish Trip about 14-15 years ago. So maybe things have changed, and some things MAY depend upon your local MAW chapter? They provided us airfare, room, rental car, park tickets to DL, Universal, and Knotts. I think the DL was 2 or 3 day tickets? They put us at Paradise Pier, and upper floor facing the park which was super nice. My daughter was still pretty sick (she is ok now!) So we only went to DL for a few hours each day. She declined a wheelchair until it was obvious she needed one to deal with fatigue. I bought some additional tickets for DL, because of the only touring 3 hours a day thing. We never made it to Knotts, she was too tired. We DID go to Universal, and they gave us the front of the line passes. DL of course gave us FOTL, (back then you had a card and MAW had a special stamp). I think they gave us money for food and stuff but I don't remember the details on that.

Disney said to just ask thru a special phone number, if we wanted any requests and we only did that once.The girls wanted to use the nicer GC pool, so they gave them keycards to access that pool across the street one day. I think you could have asked to meet characters, stuff like that.

My daughter also chose DL because she went to WDW once a year back then (DVC members, live in NJ).

I am so glad to hear your daughter is ok now!

 

[gskywalker]

My then 15 year old daughter had a DL Wish Trip about 14-15 years ago. So maybe things have changed, and some things MAY depend upon your local MAW chapter? They provided us airfare, room, rental car, park tickets to DL, Universal, and Knotts. I think the DL was 2 or 3 day tickets? They put us at Paradise Pier, and upper floor facing the park which was super nice. My daughter was still pretty sick (she is ok now!) So we only went to DL for a few hours each day. She declined a wheelchair until it was obvious she needed one to deal with fatigue. I bought some additional tickets for DL, because of the only touring 3 hours a day thing. We never made it to Knotts, she was too tired. We DID go to Universal, and they gave us the front of the line passes. DL of course gave us FOTL, (back then you had a card and MAW had a special stamp). I think they gave us money for food and stuff but I don't remember the details on that.

Disney said to just ask thru a special phone number, if we wanted any requests and we only did that once.The girls wanted to use the nicer GC pool, so they gave them keycards to access that pool across the street one day. I think you could have asked to meet characters, stuff like that.

My daughter also chose DL because she went to WDW once a year back then (DVC members, live in NJ).

Its great to hear that your daughter is doing much better. I think, when I was searching for answers, I found your original thread on the Disboards. I read it and it sounds very similar to what you share here. I saw that Disney allowed you to upgrade from 2 day tickets, I know it was a long time ago, and could have changed by now but did they let you upgrade, ie just pay the difference between a 2 and 3 day pass, or did you essentially pay for a 1 day ticket? We figure if we can upgrade we will pay the $50-$60 a day to upgrade to a 4 day but if we have to pay $130 a day(approx) per person for each extra day, we aren't going to do it.