Make a Wish (and other organizations!) - Wish Trippers...UNITE!! Volume 2!

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Here is a web address...
http://www.disneyphotopass.com/

Disney cast members are photographers around the park. They will take pictures with characters, in front of scenic views...in several different locations all over all the parks. You can purchase them at the parks, or online on the website. You can also purchase a CD with all the photos. Once the CM takes your picture they will give you a card with a code on it. You can give that same card to every photographer, or you can get a new one and conglomerate them all on your account on the website or your dvd. Universal has the same thing. They gave one free 5x7 to GKTW kids at each location around the park. Two years ago they did, at least,...not sure about now. You have to get the pics at the park there...no web address.

Do you pay for the photopass now, or do you pay for each picture after your trip?
 


I have a totally weird question, cause I know each chapter is different, but how soon before your trip did your wish granters contact you and come give you the tickets and such?

We have only seen our granters once, and been in contact here and there thru email regarding going to the Red Sox game, but that is it. We are a little more than 2 weeks before our trip and I have not heard from them or our MAW chapter...:confused3

Is this typically the norm?
 
Do you pay for the photopass now, or do you pay for each picture after your trip?

there are all kinds of ways to do it. Macntosh gave you a link to a photopass sharing thread. Someone heads it up and everyone puts their pics on the same photopass. The CD comes to the head person and he/she sends the digital images to the appropriate people. You print where ever you want to. Disney puts out a special on the photopass cd everyso often. I bought my own, because I didn't know about sharing until it was too late. I spent $99. You can purchase individual pictures rather than the whole kabang. You get to go online and add all the extra stuff prior to getting your disc/pictures. Usually if you purchase the disc pre trip there is a discount, but that is always in flux with disney.
 
I have a totally weird question, cause I know each chapter is different, but how soon before your trip did your wish granters contact you and come give you the tickets and such?

We have only seen our granters once, and been in contact here and there thru email regarding going to the Red Sox game, but that is it. We are a little more than 2 weeks before our trip and I have not heard from them or our MAW chapter...:confused3

Is this typically the norm?

Our wish agency was not MAW. We went through Magic Moments. We also drove ourselves so we didn't get airline tickets. We did get gifts (disposable camera, tshirt, etc. plus the expense check.) We left on a Friday and got our check the Friday before, only about a week. Another poster, LeeLee, got her package from her agency IN THE AIRPORT on the way to the flight!!!! Youch! They are all really really different. The package from GKTW giving you information on what to expect comes about 2 weeks before your trip. It has things like directions, airport instructions, local stores. Oh, and if you need special medical supplies/equipment while you are there, GKTW can give you info on local places to get what you need. In LeeLee's case I think there were scheduling problem; the founder of her agency brought them their package. Cool pics on her thread btw. In my case, I think one week is the norm. I have been told by my wish agency that some parents spent the money before they got there, and ended up not going on the trip because they couldn't afford to once the expense money was gone. It was their policy to pay as late as possible to make sure that the gift of the trip to the wish child was fulfilled.
 
Our wish agency was not MAW. We went through Magic Moments. We also drove ourselves so we didn't get airline tickets. We did get gifts (disposable camera, tshirt, etc. plus the expense check.) We left on a Friday and got our check the Friday before, only about a week. Another poster, LeeLee, got her package from her agency IN THE AIRPORT on the way to the flight!!!! Youch! They are all really really different. The package from GKTW giving you information on what to expect comes about 2 weeks before your trip. It has things like directions, airport instructions, local stores. Oh, and if you need special medical supplies/equipment while you are there, GKTW can give you info on local places to get what you need. In LeeLee's case I think there were scheduling problem; the founder of her agency brought them their package. Cool pics on her thread btw. In my case, I think one week is the norm. I have been told by my wish agency that some parents spent the money before they got there, and ended up not going on the trip because they couldn't afford to once the expense money was gone. It was their policy to pay as late as possible to make sure that the gift of the trip to the wish child was fulfilled.



Has your wish granter mentioned a send off party? We are going through MAW and our wish granter planned a send off party for Caleb and she said we get our check and stuff at the party. (which for us is the Thurs before we leave on Sat)
 
Has your wish granter mentioned a send off party? We are going through MAW and our wish granter planned a send off party for Caleb and she said we get our check and stuff at the party. (which for us is the Thurs before we leave on Sat)

That is awesome...our MAW chapter does not do send off parties, but our close friends are throwing him a send off party, so we are really blessed with amazing people...:love:
 
I've been reading some of the posts that I have missed the past week or so ago. Someone asked if transportation was provided both ways. I don't think anyone has answered this. My apologies if this is a repeat... :) When we received our travel packet this Friday, we were specifically told how to find the limo upon our return (where to locate the booth in the airport). If it isn't mentioned when your travel packet is dropped off, I would definitely ask.


Before I type this next thing, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am so appreciative of everything MAW has done for us. We absolutely would not be able to take my daughter on this trip without them. :lovestruc Okay here goes...We received our expense check with the travel packet on Friday and, (again I'm so thankful for what we received), I'm worried things are going to be a bit tight. Times are tough...I very sure they did the best they could do. My question is this...what did you find that you spent the most on and would you do it differently? I'm hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised that the check will go further than I think, since the norm is that you pay for everything on a typical trip. If I find that most people spend the most money on souveniers, then I think that will be a bit of a relief, since I can control that.


Tammy B.
 
Tammy,

I understand what you are saying....I have been worried about how much we will get and how far it will go.

From what I understand your check should cover gas for the rental car, meals you eat away from GKTW (including any character meals), and souvenirs. Also baggage money. I think that is all!

I know on our regular family trips we have gone on I find it better to give your child (depending on the age...I wouldn't do this to a 2 yr old) their souvenir money up front. My kids are way more conservative with what they spend when it is "theirs"! Before they would want EVERYTHING! Now I say you can spend your money on what you want....but when it is gone it is gone! So they look at something they want and are like....WOW they want $10 for THAT??? It is amazing!!

Hope this helps!
 
Has your wish granter mentioned a send off party? We are going through MAW and our wish granter planned a send off party for Caleb and she said we get our check and stuff at the party. (which for us is the Thurs before we leave on Sat)

Our agency didn't do a send off party for us. I am not sure if they do them at all. We are about 2 hours away from our wish agency, so the distance may have played into it, but I think the send off party is a MAW chapter thing. In my town the Junior League takes care of the MAW paperwork and are the "volunteers" that help the wish family. Any send off party would be on their nickel and not MAW, so I think that is why it varies from chapter to chapter.
 
Tammy,

I understand what you are saying....I have been worried about how much we will get and how far it will go.

From what I understand your check should cover gas for the rental car, meals you eat away from GKTW (including any character meals), and souvenirs. Also baggage money. I think that is all!

I know on our regular family trips we have gone on I find it better to give your child (depending on the age...I wouldn't do this to a 2 yr old) their souvenir money up front. My kids are way more conservative with what they spend when it is "theirs"! Before they would want EVERYTHING! Now I say you can spend your money on what you want....but when it is gone it is gone! So they look at something they want and are like....WOW they want $10 for THAT??? It is amazing!!

Hope this helps!

We spent the most money on food for lunch. Drinks and snacks are very expensive in the parks (and the wish agencies know that so they try and allow for it.) There are 7 in my family, and lunch at a counter service place was always knocking on the door of $100. The photos you can buy from Splash Mountain, Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, etc. are also expensive...cheapest is around $15-20. We received a free photo from Tatooine Traders because of GKTW, but I don't know if that was a standard thing for them or just that particular CM. Those are $30 (they photoshop your face into a Star Wars scene)...really cool :darth: :yoda: T-shirts are 25-30, Sweat shirts $50-70...there as a baseball shirt when I was there, that had all the characters on it and said something like WDW 2007 and it was $90. If you are shopping, don't forget about the airline restrictions. (Can't carry on snow globes because of the liquid inside). There is a website, I think it is "thelaughingplace.com" that has a store on it. It sells merchandise from the parks online (there is a mark up) but it can give you a better idea of actual current prices. My non wish son wanted a Jedi Mickey. The small (8 inch size) Mickeys comes in all sorts of outfits (safari, space, indiana jones, jedi, pirate). I believe it was about $10 which I thought was pretty good. My DH got a panama hat for the sun....$30!!!!! Ouch!!!!! Those mister fans cost about $4 at Walmart and $24 at WDW.

There are fun things you can do souvenir wise. There are penny press machines all over and a book to hold them in. I took a mini M&M tube for each kid (different color for each one), and filled it with quarter quarter penny, quarter quarter penny. They pressed their pennies, I wasn't diging for change, and when their M&M tube was empty the penny pressing was over. They decided how badly they wanted each one and the little boys started working together to get as many different ones as possible. The vinyl presentation folder to put them all in was either 6.95 or 8.95. We wasted money on things we forgot (like me and my swimsuit), so make a list and double check it :)

Hope this helps.
 
Also remember you can take food into the parks now. Some stock up at the local Walmart and bring bottled water and snacks in the parks to cut down cost. Allears.net has menus and prices for all the resturaunts and snack stands in the parks AND DTD. I used that and decided before we went where we would go and everyone knew the choices they had when we got there.
Now I do have to say we got our money RIGHT before we walked on the plane. We didn't know the exact amount until the night before!! it ended up being WAYYYYYYy more than enough. My kids were so excited at being there and rushing to the next ride that we didn't really linger in the gift shop areas and they didn't ask for much. In fact we had to MAKE them slow down and pick out souveniers!!:rotfl: Also our package was a little different. We were staying on resort property and our WISH found. had put us on the DDP So our meals were paid for and we used Disney transp. So we only had to use it for souvies. snacks that weren't part of the DDP and cab for for DH to go to Dialysis and we also tipped Mousekeeping and then of course at the Resturaunts.
 
I have a totally weird question, cause I know each chapter is different, but how soon before your trip did your wish granters contact you and come give you the tickets and such?

We have only seen our granters once, and been in contact here and there thru email regarding going to the Red Sox game, but that is it. We are a little more than 2 weeks before our trip and I have not heard from them or our MAW chapter...:confused3

Is this typically the norm?

Yes, that is the norm! I wish they would sort of tell us, though. :) We got our check on Monday night and we were leaving on Friday (I actually left on Thursday).

I've been reading some of the posts that I have missed the past week or so ago. Someone asked if transportation was provided both ways. I don't think anyone has answered this. My apologies if this is a repeat... :) When we received our travel packet this Friday, we were specifically told how to find the limo upon our return (where to locate the booth in the airport). If it isn't mentioned when your travel packet is dropped off, I would definitely ask.


Before I type this next thing, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am so appreciative of everything MAW has done for us. We absolutely would not be able to take my daughter on this trip without them. :lovestruc Okay here goes...We received our expense check with the travel packet on Friday and, (again I'm so thankful for what we received), I'm worried things are going to be a bit tight. Times are tough...I very sure they did the best they could do. My question is this...what did you find that you spent the most on and would you do it differently? I'm hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised that the check will go further than I think, since the norm is that you pay for everything on a typical trip. If I find that most people spend the most money on souveniers, then I think that will be a bit of a relief, since I can control that.


Tammy B.

I agree with everything everyone said. I don't remember your specific plans...honestly...but here are some things I have noticed on these boards...

- Eat at GKTW for all of the meals you can. If you are planning to go back for an afternoon nap, plan to eat at GKTW (they have sandwiches at the Ice Cream place and a new place that serves lunch, too!) Fill up at GKTW so that you spend less on food in the parks.

- Drink lots of water! This keeps you feeling good anyway and keeps you feeling full. The ice water is FREE in the parks. Just go to any counter service restaurant to get some. This will save you on drinks and that gets costly.

- Bring snacks to the parks and the airport! Peanuts, granola bars, gum, etc...that will keep you satisfied till you eat a good meal. Try not to buy food in the airport.

- Give your kids souvie money in advance and "junk money" for food junk or drinks each day, if possible.

- Check your menu before you go out to eat (www.allears.net) and you can plan your budget well.

- Share meals at counter service. The portions are BIG! Order from the kids menu, even as an adult. Split meals.

- Walmart is right down the street if you forgot something. :)


One thing that I had to remind myself was that I did eat at home...so that money could go towards Disney, too.

Hopefully you will have more money than you think...you don't have to pay for breakfast and dinner and even lunch if you will be at GKTW. Snacks there are free, too, if you go to the Ice Cream place or theatre. You don't pay for parking.

Basically your money covers lunch, souvies, snacks, drinks in the parks, gas for driving around Orlando...so a lot of the normal things you pay for are covered.
 
You will be surprised with how much they give you. I know I was.
 
Here are some links :surfweb: that I took complete advantage of when we went on our wish trip...hope it helps provide all of you with some more info:

Penny pressing machine locations:
http://www.presscoins.com/Listings/WDWChecklist.pdf

Character locations:
http://home.att.net/~disneysue/characters/wdw/disneycharacters.html

Showtimes:
http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/

Souvenirs (note that their prices are higher than the parks...we paid $10 for jedi mickey in 2007...they have it for close to $19)
http://www.laughingplacestore.com/default.asp

Ride Vehicle photos (for those with accessibility issues):
http://allears.net/tp/gal_ride.htm

Photopass locations and more detailed info:
http://allears.net/tp/ppass.htm#portloc

Restaurant Menus WITH PRICING!!
http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm
 
Here are some links :surfweb: that I took complete advantage of when we went on our wish trip...hope it helps provide all of you with some more info:

Penny pressing machine locations:
http://www.presscoins.com/Listings/WDWChecklist.pdf

Character locations:
http://home.att.net/~disneysue/characters/wdw/disneycharacters.html

Showtimes:
http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/

Souvenirs (note that their prices are higher than the parks...we paid $10 for jedi mickey in 2007...they have it for close to $19)
http://www.laughingplacestore.com/default.asp

Ride Vehicle photos (for those with accessibility issues):
http://allears.net/tp/gal_ride.htm

Photopass locations and more detailed info:
http://allears.net/tp/ppass.htm#portloc

Restaurant Menus WITH PRICING!!
http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm


These are GREAT!!!!!!

If you don't mind, I will also post these on Page 2 once I can get a chance to copy them, etc...is that ok?

Those are awesome!!! :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2
 
For those of you guys that are new to this thread...I wanted to draw your attention to two of our families that have been having a rough time in the past month...all of our families are having some sort of issue, really...but these two stick out in my mind because they struggled so close to their special trips and are still needing support and prayers.


Becca: Becca is a precious 12-year-old and you can read all about her story in her pre-trip report:

Becca's Wish Trip Pre-Trip Report

Less than 2 weeks after returning from GKTW, she had to have what I believe was an emergency brain surgery. She had a very rough time for several weeks. She is doing MUCH better now, but I want to make sure we continue to follow her and pray for her and her family. Her road to recovery is going to be long.

To follow her story daily you can visit: www.schtabs.com



Another family I want to draw your attention to is Noah's family.

Here is their pre-trip report: Noah's Wish Trip Pre-Trip Report

Noah had a hard time in December and Jan/Feb and none of us were sure he would make it to his special trip. His family is from Canada and with the 4/3 deal and considering this is their one time special trip as a family, they opted to extend their trip at the Pop Century by a week.

Many of you know that Noah got sick during that last week and had to go back to Canada. He made it home (almost did not, evidently) and they are currently on Day 8 in the PICU. He seems to be sort of stable? But things change fast with Noah. I learned to pray for him even when I think he is doing well, because he can get very sick, very fast.

To follow daily updates on Noah you can visit: http://www.noahgrantjohn.blogspot.com/


For those of you that have already been on your trip, you know that coming home is tough. The trip is wonderful - regardless of illness or other circumstance - and getting back to the "real world" is hard.

This is particularly hard for both of these families...who essentially went from the GKTW high to an immediate down...

Anyway...just want to continue to pray with these families as they are struggling. I noticed their threads are not being posted on as often...although I know visit both each day and don't always post...I am hoping to generate some more outward support for both of these families. :)

I love this thread!! You guys inspire me.

Have an awesome day!!!!!!! :)
 
These are GREAT!!!!!!

If you don't mind, I will also post these on Page 2 once I can get a chance to copy them, etc...is that ok?

Those are awesome!!! :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

No problem...I relied heavily on them and on the Dis and Tour Guide Mike. If you want a confession on how OCD I was, I also made folders for each park (color coded of course), and put tabs in them for menus, character locations, and the suggested order of attack on attractions from TGM. I took the maps that were at the Gingerbread house at GKTW and put them in the pocket of the folder. I even made labels for the 3 prong folders that had disney clip art on it...yes, I am seriously troubled ;) . I would tuck the folder in the back pocket of the stroller, and when things got a little crazy with crowds or the weather or the kids, I was able to refer back to my "plan" and make quick decisions about "what to do next." When we were at breakfast at GKTW on the first day, one of the retiree volunteers who had been at GKTW for over 10 years asked me if I needed any info on the park we were going to that day, and I told her I thought I was okay with my folder. I showed it to her and she laughed and said, could I show this to someone...she took it over to all the other volunteers who said they were amazed that I was so ready. I told them about the Dis, and how the Disboards were the reason I was so prepared. They were all very nice, but I think they wanted to tell me there were qualified professionals who could help me with my neurosis :lmao: but I happen to like my neurosis, thank you very much!:thumbsup2.
 
Maroo:

Thank you for the udpates on other families. I know that the people who were going on wish trips the same year we did ocassionally PM me to ask how Adam, and the rest of my family, is doing and I do the same with them. We become invested in each other on this thread. We understand each others struggles and fears and triumphs and victories. I am glad to see that this thread is still actively concerned about the children that inspired it. I will definitely lift up a prayer for little Noah and Becca. We have all done "hard time" in the NICU or PICU or both and we know what their families are going through. Hang in there!

~Elisa
 
Maroo:

Here are some disboard links that I used as well. Some of them are generic (t-shirts) while one is special needs family specific. I also have some autograph pages that I downloaded from a Dissigner's site, but I can't remember who it was. If anyone wants to make their own autograph book, I have several autograph pages that I can send you. Here are the links:


ADHD/Autism Guidebook Ideas for the Parks

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1774902

Make your Own Epcot Passport
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1509917

Swirl Mickey Head T-Shirt Directions
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1490387

Tie Dye Mickey Head T-Shirt Directions
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1210609

And here is a pic of the autograph pages...I will see if I can figure out which designer did this and give you a link to his/her site. You can print out your own pages for autographs on card stock and then be able to mount them in a photo album when you get back.

mickey1.jpg
 
Great advice on costs and strategies to make the most of whatever funds you have available!

Re: Orlando Airport - I discovered that we did not have any of the all important gum for chewing for ears that are feeling the pressure. To my horror, I learned that GUM IS NOT SOLD IN THE ORLANDO AIRPORT!!! Apparently, no one wants to clean up the mess. Perhaps things have changed, but why take a chance?

Alison
 
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