Make a Wish (and other organizations) ~ Wish Trippers UNITE! Volume FIVE!!

[onceagain1]

Since we arent going until May I am wondering are there an extra expenses I should be saving up for that Make A Wish wont be covering? Kyra is 4 and will need a stroller for the parks. I am not sure what else I should be even thinking of for expenses as of now. I cant wait to go. Everything I have been buying for family members for Christmas has been beneifical of a Disney trip! Hurry up May!

From what I've read, there are strollers available at Disney, and I think they're free if you have a MAW pin/lanyard??? I'm thinking about renting a stroller from Orlando Rentals, simply because I heard the ones available at Disney don't recline, and I'd like a comfortable one to recline for YDD, and I'd like it to be a double for both kids to use.

 

[DelanaAndKyra]

I tend to plan early with everything and Kyra knows this. I have been Christmas shopping already and even have some people finished. When it comes to Kyra's wish (May 2013) she has been asking for a time line of when it will happen. She is matching it with holidays and people birthdays. Since she knows it will take place after Christmas she is now asking about the wish almost daily again since I am preparing for holidays instead. I have a countdown in place but does anyone else have any other ideas on how to help with the wait? She is so excited! I am so excited for her and I love seeing the glow in her eyes when she talks about it

 

[ABBMommy]

My daughter, Ally, is supposed to go on her wish trip in October, but we don't have our dates yet!! (it's so close eek I wish we'd get them already!)

If we get our first choice of dates this is the schedule I'm considering. We get three park hopper passes for Disney, one day at Sea World, and one day at Universal Studios. Our chapter is also providing some spending money for souvenirs, baggage fees, and such but I'm not sure how much.

My kids (DD4, DS7) don't seem very interested in Sea World so I'm not sure we'll even go there. I don't want to be pressured or rushed on this trip. We want this to be nothing but relaxation and happiness!

Anyway, this is what I'm thinking. We have chosen Wednesday as our arrival date each week we sent in as preferred dates:
Wed-Hang out at GKTW
Thu-Magic Kingdom
Fri-Epcot
Sat-Universal Studios
Sun-Relax at GKTW and then Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (we'll be buying the tickets ourselves and we'll get an extra Disney day this way!)
Mon-Hollywood Studios and/or Epcot/Magic Kingdom
Tue-Departure (not sure what time we'll be leaving-can always do Sea World that morning if time permits I suppose)

What do you think? Too much? Okay? We're hoping to do naps each afternoon and have no problem leaving if they're tired and coming back later in the day. Park hoppers allow all day access even if you leave correct?

(sorry for the long post-DD is actually in the hospital with some sort of virus right now and my mind is racing and too much time on my hands lol)

 

[yeti5353]

[. Since she knows it will take place after Christmas she is now asking about the wish almost daily again since I am preparing for holidays instead. I have a countdown in place but does anyone else have any other ideas on how to help with the wait? She is so excited! I am so excited for her and I love seeing the glow in her eyes when she talks about it[/QUOTE]

On Molly's count down calendar we have a "bonus" day every 10-14 days in which each girl gets a gift. Mostly its been stuff they will use on the trip like pins, but also earring etc. for a younger kid the dollar store is full of disney stuff you could use for a suprise day.

we are also making simple costumes for the halloween and pirates and princess party and tye dying t shirts so that stuff has helped too

 

[LindaBabe]

Park hoppers allow all day access even if you leave correct?

(sorry for the long post-DD is actually in the hospital with some sort of virus right now and my mind is racing and too much time on my hands lol)

Hope your daughter is better and you're back home soon!

All the tickets allow you to leave and come back - but you ' ll need to get your hands stamped on the way out the first time.

With your Hallowe'en party tickets, you may be able to get into the park as early as 4 pm.

Your first and last days may be 'really' short - reading the previous postings, there seems to be a trend that wish families arrive late in the day and leave early.

I won't venture to suggest how you might make time pass more quickly - I have a problem with that myself

 

[GavandGraciesMommy]

My daughter, Ally, is supposed to go on her wish trip in October, but we don't have our dates yet!! (it's so close eek I wish we'd get them already!)

If we get our first choice of dates this is the schedule I'm considering. We get three park hopper passes for Disney, one day at Sea World, and one day at Universal Studios. Our chapter is also providing some spending money for souvenirs, baggage fees, and such but I'm not sure how much.

My kids (DD4, DS7) don't seem very interested in Sea World so I'm not sure we'll even go there. I don't want to be pressured or rushed on this trip. We want this to be nothing but relaxation and happiness!

Anyway, this is what I'm thinking. We have chosen Wednesday as our arrival date each week we sent in as preferred dates:
Wed-Hang out at GKTW
Thu-Magic Kingdom
Fri-Epcot
Sat-Universal Studios
Sun-Relax at GKTW and then Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (we'll be buying the tickets ourselves and we'll get an extra Disney day this way!)
Mon-Hollywood Studios and/or Epcot/Magic Kingdom
Tue-Departure (not sure what time we'll be leaving-can always do Sea World that morning if time permits I suppose)

What do you think? Too much? Okay? We're hoping to do naps each afternoon and have no problem leaving if they're tired and coming back later in the day. Park hoppers allow all day access even if you leave correct?

(sorry for the long post-DD is actually in the hospital with some sort of virus right now and my mind is racing and too much time on my hands lol)

I dont know if all chapters are the same... but we were interested in doing MNSSHP and our chapter actually bought us tickets for it as well as Gavin's one extra "special expense." I know for the 4 of us the tickets were close to $250.00 so if this would be a problem financially you might ask

 

[ABBMommy]

I dont know if all chapters are the same... but we were interested in doing MNSSHP and our chapter actually bought us tickets for it as well as Gavin's one extra "special expense." I know for the 4 of us the tickets were close to $250.00 so if this would be a problem financially you might ask

I mentioned it during our last conversation and the lady told us we could use our spending $ they will send before the trip to buy those if we'd like. I have no idea how much money they're sending though!

My husband decided it was worth it even if we had to buy them since this was a once in a lifetime trip!

 

[GavandGraciesMommy]

They are putting ours in spending as well

 

[camidges]

We just found out on Friday that Ryan's wish for Disneyworld was approved by the dr. and the chapter's board! Now we are just waiting to hear if we got our dates - we asked to go around his birthday in January. So excited!~ Hopefully we will hear more and be able to start planning soon.

 

[aym4Him]

Hi fellow Wish Families!!

I can ask our wish granters, but I wanted to check here b/c there's always someone who can answer just about any and every question I can think of here!!

We get the 3 day park hoppers for the Disney parks and then a 2 day park hopper for Universal/IOA and Sea World. I don't know why this is so confusing to me, but does that mean we have 2 days to see the 3 parks? Is IOA a park within Universal or does it require driving to? Can Universal/IOA be done in half a day and Sea World the other half (with an almost 4 year old)? We are just trying to figure out how to maximize our time at GKTW and also make good use of the tickets we are receiving.

We do have a Sea World in San Antonio. Neither of us have been to it but, if worse comes to worse, we can always skip SW this time and go later in San Antonio. Is there anything special about the Wish Kids' experience at Sea World that we wouldn't want to miss?

Oy!! This is all so overwhelming. I know it's supposed to be fun, but I do want to kind of have some semblance of a plan in place so we are able to focus on the fun more than the "What are we supposed to do next??"

 

[newdrama12]

Hi fellow Wish Families!!

We get the 3 day park hoppers for the Disney parks and then a 2 day park hopper for Universal/IOA and Sea World. I don't know why this is so confusing to me, but does that mean we have 2 days to see the 3 parks? Is IOA a park within Universal or does it require driving to? Can Universal/IOA be done in half a day and Sea World the other half (with an almost 4 year old)? We are just trying to figure out how to maximize our time at GKTW and also make good use of the tickets we are receiving.

We do have a Sea World in San Antonio. Neither of us have been to it but, if worse comes to worse, we can always skip SW this time and go later in San Antonio. Is there anything special about the Wish Kids' experience at Sea World that we wouldn't want to miss?

At GKTW, You will receive 3 day park hoppers to Disney, 2 day park hoppers to Universal and 1 day tickets to Sea World.

At SW, Wish Kids receive a free tray of fish to feed the dolphins!!

 

[michiml03]

Hi fellow Wish families we finally got our dates and we are going to WDW on 10/14-10/20 and staying at GKTW . Now mt ? is whar are the events at GKTW and the days? I checked the website and got the events,days and times then I went on the village guide and it gave me different info. Can anyone verify when and what the parties are? TIA

 

[newdrama12]

Hi fellow Wish families we finally got our dates and we are going to WDW on 10/14-10/20 and staying at GKTW . Now mt ? is whar are the events at GKTW and the days? I checked the website and got the events,days and times then I went on the village guide and it gave me different info. Can anyone verify when and what the parties are? TIA

Sunday Night - World's Largest CandyLand Game

Monday - Morning: Mickey and Friends
Evening: Halloween

Tuesday - Nickelodeon Character Photos
Mayor Clayton's Birthday Party

Wednesday - Horseback Riding
Village Idol

Thursday - Mickey and Friends
Winter Wonderland

Friday - Universal Character Photos
Pirates & Princess Party

Saturday - Horseback riding
Big Splash Bash

 

[yeti5353]

Molly had some "wish enhancement" this weekend when she got to be a queen for the day in a smaller town parade. completely and totally awesome and could have been a wish in its self! check our PTR if you want the whole story.

and yes the sneezer was sneezing all day and has me freaked out.

 

[GavandGraciesMommy]

Hi fellow Wish families we finally got our dates and we are going to WDW on 10/14-10/20 and staying at GKTW . Now mt ? is whar are the events at GKTW and the days? I checked the website and got the events,days and times then I went on the village guide and it gave me different info. Can anyone verify when and what the parties are? TIA

YAY We will be there the same days! I am sure that Maroo could tell you what the party days are She helped us out

 

[GavandGraciesMommy]

So speaking of the parties at GKTW... I know if have seen other postings about the parties being kind of slow for the older kids and really are best for those that tire early in the day or younger children. Is this correct? My daughter will be 5 and son will be 8 (cognitively around 16 months). So what are the must go to parties. I know we are going to the Christmas one and would like to make it to the Princess one but not sure we will be back in time. Any other must not miss?

Also has anyone did the Dine with Shamu? I think we are going to purchase tickets and wondered if anyone else had tried it and what they thought of the interaction level

 

[nesser1981]

Yeah, they are. My kids were 6 & 4 when we were there, so they loved them. The biggest thing I didn't like to be honest was, they start a little late for my taste, my kids are usually in bed by 7. And since they're on the Avenue of Angels, there isn't anywhere for the adults to really sit. Its a lot of standing.

That being said, we went to every party except for whatever happens on Wednesday nights & the Candyland game, that was on the day we left. But we never tried to be at the village for the parties, we were just always back early from the parks.

The kids favorite party and ours was The Princess & Pirates party, it was by the pool, so there are chairs, we could sit and watch the kids play and dance instead of hovering the entire time. They enjoyed Halloween, even though it rained, and Christmas was nice, we did the carriage ride, that was a big hit. The cookout by the pool was another fun one, I enjoyed that. I didn't really enjoy Mayor Clayton's Birthday party, it took too long to get started and it didn't seem like there was much going on.

So speaking of the parties at GKTW... I know if have seen other postings about the parties being kind of slow for the older kids and really are best for those that tire early in the day or younger children. Is this correct? My daughter will be 5 and son will be 8 (cognitively around 16 months). So what are the must go to parties. I know we are going to the Christmas one and would like to make it to the Princess one but not sure we will be back in time. Any other must not miss?

Also has anyone did the Dine with Shamu? I think we are going to purchase tickets and wondered if anyone else had tried it and what they thought of the interaction level

 

[LittleEsmom]

camidges
Yay!
We just found out on Friday that Ryan's wish for Disneyworld was approved by the dr. and the chapter's board! Now we are just waiting to hear if we got our dates - we asked to go around his birthday in January. So excited!~ Hopefully we will hear more and be able to start planning soon.

YAY We will be there for Emma's birthday in March. She flipped when I told her. What better way to let them know how really special they are.
The waiting is hard especially for someone SO impatient like me. Can't wait to get to know you and your family!

 

[twinmum]

Thank you for the suggestions, I've been looking over the maps of the parks and distances today. Jeff will go back to get them each night, we'd already figured on that, and we planned to arrive at each park together in the morning. I'm realizing we can't just pull up to the gate to pick them up at the end of the night. Where is the best site or thread to look for maps/buses/transportation between parks? And can we use that with the boys to go from say Epcot to Animal Kingdom given that we'll have two wheelchairs?
I got the PM, thanks so much! My reply will come as soon as I have enough posts!
Thank you,
Jennifer

and re: Maroo's reply:
As far as pulling up the parks...
MK - is a little hard - but they could walk to The Contemporary (about 5 min walk) and you could pick them up from there easily.
AK - pretty close up parking there with a HA tag -
DHS - very close parking with a HA tag
Epcot - I don't think I would attempt this one...It seems like it is really far away?? But maybe I don't remember right

For Epcot, you could have the girls finish up in World Showcase, then they could exit via the International Gateway and walk over to the Beach Club resort and he could pick up there? Although as I remember the HA parking isn't that far away. Better check the map again.

We have become annual WDW visitors since our son's Wish Trip in 2008, and our new favourite resorts are the Beach Club and Yacht Club. In fact, we were lucky enough to meet Maroo at Beaches and Crean (ice cream shop) on our trip a couple of years ago!

Happy planning!

 

[Moodyzblu]

My boys were 7 at the time of our Wish trip and their favorite party at GKTW was Christmas. They got sort of bored at the others that we attended (except for when they played "wands" with their friend and big brother !)

We never left the parks early to go to the parties .. we just happened to come back at the right times to attend them .. but they are great for younger kids or kids with greater restrictions as far as tiring easily or just needing a break.