...and we are sooo sad... It has been a fabulous week. I couldn't have asked for things to go better; Sami stayed well; everyone had a blast...we were all this close (-) to bursting into tears as we pulled away from GKTW.
I have missed a lot of posts in the past week or so, but I just wanted to check back in. I plan on sticking around a while to answer any questions that I can, since you 'all have been so great to me. While it is fresh on my mind, here are a few things that I wish I had known before I left:
1. The airport went much smoother than I thought. I was prepared for huge waits, but we slid on through and ended up having too much time to wait for the plane. Having said that, make sure you ask for "wheelchair service" at the boarding gate (assuming you need a wheelchair). Even though it was printed on our reservation confirmation, we didn't have it going down, but we did coming back. It made a huge difference in how fast we got out of the plane.
2. Orientation is much longer than I expected. No biggee, but make sure the kiddos are off playing somewhere and not waiting for you. I think it ended up being close to an hour long. (Maybe our guy just liked to talk.
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3. This has been said, but bears repeating. Make sure you stay and eat breakfast at GKTW. You will have PLENTY of time to ride/see most everything that you want to see. We never were at a park from open to close and still saw/did most everything that we wanted to do. I did mess up my timing on our first day. I did Epcot first and then AK. I would switch those around because Epcot closes later than AK. We ended up missing a couple of things at AK because we went there last. (By the way, if time is a problem, skip
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience,(really bad) but do
Soarin', at all costs. Most of the days we were able to eat dinner at either the Gingerbread House or Katie's Kitchen. The House runs from 6 to 8, but Katie's Kitchen (which is Boston Market food) closes at 10:30 and they deliver if you come back too pooped.
4. Do not miss the dolphin feeding at Sea World. One of my favorite memories is of Sami touching the dolphins. Her face lit up and we have a great picture. I will try and post it in a few days. We also loved Believe (Shamu show).
5. Don't miss Philharmagic at MK. Skip Stitche's Great Escape (awful).
6. Universal was absolutely fabulous to us. It ended up being one of our favorite places. Quite honestly, even though no one was ever rude and did whatever they were asked, most of the Disney staff were fairly blah about the WISH kids. However, at Universal, THEY WILL HUNT YOU DOWN.
seriously...we had some chase us to get us in to meet the characters. But oh I am so glad they did. I just about burst into tears when Sami saw the characters of Madagascar. That moment alone was well worth the work of it all. Speaking of which....
7. NO MATTER WHAT YOU READ ANYWHERE, WISH KIDS DO NOT STAND IN LINE TO MEET CHARACTERS.....EVER... I thought we had to and stood in line to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. The staff at HS apologized up and down for not seeing us standing in line. (It actually worked out fine, because they have little settings through the line area where you can get pictures of the kids in Andy's room, in Sid's room, etc. One of my favorite shots is of Sami in the Prospector's toy box. (The exception to the blah rule (see number 6) was Buzz and Woody. They were literally jumping up and down when they saw Sami. Sami really believes they were very excited to meet her!
8. Most of the food at GKTW is really great. Do not miss the waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. The volunteers were beyond belief. I wanted to put a couple of the oldsters in our pocket and bring them home with us.
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9. If you get a wheelchair van from Wheelchair Gateways, before you pull off, make sure that the tank is full. Also, per the instructions, you are supposed to fill the tank back up at a BP gas station right by Wheelchair Gateways when you return the van. We did that and paid .30 cents more a gallon than if we filled up a few blocks earlier. If we did it over, I would have filled up closer to the Village and just topped off a bit at the BP.
10. Not having to pay for most of your meals makes your money stretch far.
11. Do not worry about "skipping lines". I didn't know if I had it in me to waltz past the line, bumping and "excusing me" all the way. This is so not how it works. For 95% of the rides, you will just use the fast pass lane. You go to the worker in front of the ride, show your GAC and away you go. For the few that don't work that way, never was I made to feel odd. I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of people had no idea what was happening. THe only exception to this was the character greet. However the worker always asked the person in front if it was okay to slip in a WISH kid and never one time, did anybody do anything other to smile and say sure!
Those are the thoughts that are on top of my head. I just can't say enough about the trip, the Village, the parks.... Normally, by the end of vacation, I am ready to return home. This is the first vacation that they had to practically drag me kicking and screaming on to the plane.
Anyway, if you have any questions that I might be able to answer since everything is so "fresh", just let me know.
Tammy B
:cheer2:
THANK YOU 
) so I am happy to be getting this show on the road!
