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

[angel's momma]

Welcome Kristy.. So sorry your daughter has been through so much. According to the MAW site, a parent can refer a child. Here's the info: http://www.wish.org/refer/who_can_refer_a_child

Will be posting an update! We are 19 days away. Planning a surprise send off party the night before. I hope it will be awesome, and people will come. This has been a long time in coming!

Austin turned 5 yesterday!

Check out our PTR update!

Sorry I had somehow missed your PTR, subscribed now. Hope Austin had a wonderful birthday! Angel's birthday was also yersterday.

 

[NEmel]

So now that dates for SWW have beenn announced it is time to start thinking of some dates we would like to go. We have Allie and Kara's preschool graduation which I do not think we should miss and hubby thinks it would be fine to miss... Then Trev has two field trips in May that he REALLY wants to go to and one that he really should go to as all the 2nd graders go to outdoor school for some team building as some of these kids may be in their class next year.

BUT, if we go the last weekend we could be in Disney World for my birthday!! I kinda like that idea The only bad thing about that is Trev would miss out on the last 3 of 4 days of school. That is always a fun week for them! The 2nd weekend of SWW is out as The girls preschool graduation and Trev's outdoor school fall right in that window. SO many decisions! Is it really that much hotter and rainier the beginning of June than the middle of May?

Jackie

We went over Memorial Day 2010 for 10 days and the weather was the same. Pretty warm in the middle of the day and we only had 1 day when it rained for a few hours.

 

[NEmel]

Kristy~ A parent can refer a child through MAW website. My son has a medical condition that with treatments can be managed. To be able to do this he has to indure 8 needles a month, so everyones situation is different. MAW will send a health form to the doctor and the doctor is the one that makes the decision if medically your child qualifies. It is worth a shot!

 

[NEmel]

Happy New Year Wish Families!! Hope 2013 is amazing!​

 

[billwendy]

Thanks everyone! One other question, everything I have read in books and a lot hear say to get to the parks at opening. We are not an early morning family....and jack fatigues a lot just in general so worried about pushing him. I was thinking maybe when we go to MK get there early, but the others not? How late is breakfast served at GTWT?
Also we are looking at April to go, no official dates yet. We live in MN so be nice to go while still cold hear. Lol! But heard October is less busy. Is this true?
Lastly, sounds like we are better using wheelchairs there then bringing Jack's wheelchair from home?
I am sooooooooo excited! If you can't tell!
Nervous about His health and praying we are all healthy!
Thanks everyone!
Victoria

Hi Victoria - I would work around Jack's schedule. We went with my nephew who had alot of fatigue post chemo/radiation, and honestly he missed the last few days of the trip because he was sooooo fatigued all he wanted to do was sleep - such a bummer....I think with your MAW button, you'll be fine! Bring his own wheelchair - the ones there are adult sized and dont have a cushion in the seat or anything....besides, you may want it at GKTW, in the parking lots or any other place you go on your own. Have a GREAT TIME!!

 

[jon03015]

Happy New Year!!!! So excited to be only 18 days away. I have a question for those of you who have participated in the Jedi Training. We plan on going to Animal Kingdom in the morning and to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon but would really like for Austin to participate in the the Jedi Training. We are choosing to go to AK in the morning since we have hear that is when the animals are out and my kids are nuts about animals, plus I don't think that a whole day at HS would give my little guy enough to do that he would be interested in. So what to do about the Jedi Training? I spoke with Disney when I called to set-up reservations for the Pirates League and she said it is first come first serve. We would sign up in the morning then they would tell us when to come back. This is something we really don't want to miss out on. Does anyone have any suggestions????? Would they give special considerations since he is a wish kid? Thanks for your help. This board has truly helped understand the whole process!
Here are some outfits for Emma for the trip. I made the skirts last night. Now I need to work on the Star Wars freezer paper shirts, prince charming shirt for Austin, and a Spider-Man skirt for Emma. So Excited!

 

[jon03015]

Oh one other question I forgot. We have some friends that will be driving down to see us while we are at the village (GKTW). Does anyone know if they can come and see us in the Village? How does that work?

 

[OhanaDreams]

 

[OhanaDreams]

Oh one other question I forgot. We have some friends that will be driving down to see us while we are at the village (GKTW). Does anyone know if they can come and see us in the Village? How does that work?

Guests are allowed We haven't gone yet, but I have read about it in other folks trip reports.

I grabbed this from the Village Guide.

"Please tell your visitors to park along the front parking area or in the rear parking lot.
Visitors may not park in the villa driveway or the roadway.
Visitors must sign in and out at Guest Services.
Visiting hours end at 11:30 p.m."

 

[angel's momma]

Love the outfits jon03015

 

[Lilfoot93]

Happy New Year!!!! So excited to be only 18 days away. I have a question for those of you who have participated in the Jedi Training. We plan on going to Animal Kingdom in the morning and to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon but would really like for Austin to participate in the the Jedi Training. We are choosing to go to AK in the morning since we have hear that is when the animals are out and my kids are nuts about animals, plus I don't think that a whole day at HS would give my little guy enough to do that he would be interested in. So what to do about the Jedi Training? I spoke with Disney when I called to set-up reservations for the Pirates League and she said it is first come first serve. We would sign up in the morning then they would tell us when to come back. This is something we really don't want to miss out on. Does anyone have any suggestions????? Would they give special considerations since he is a wish kid? Thanks for your help. This board has truly helped understand the whole process!
Here are some outfits for Emma for the trip. I made the skirts last night. Now I need to work on the Star Wars freezer paper shirts, prince charming shirt for Austin, and a Spider-Man skirt for Emma. So Excited!

LOVE the outfits!!

Jackie

 

[blessedmom4]

It took me 14 months (proving it is never too late); however, I have FINALLY finished our Trip Report from Lisa's amazing Make a Wish Trip. Life got in the way so many times; yet I kept plugging away at it and I am happy to have an amazing written memory of the journey.

There is a lot of extra talk on our thread; please don't be put off by the length. If you would like to read about the trip start to finish, this will take you to the table of Contents. I took over 3000 pics myself, plus photopass and GKTW CD's, so I think there is a lot of good information to see about the Villas, GKTW and the Wish lounges at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Please feel free to join in, everybody is welcome. I was new like many of you not that long ago, just jump in and start "talking".

It is true that your MAW trip will bring joy and laughter to your lives and help you face the many challenges of a child (or more than one child in our case) who faces life-threatening illness on a daily basis. I have a few more pics and thoughts about wish trips I plan to share; however, I feel happy with the report. It helped me relive many blessings that a MAW trip brings.

Maroo, I PM'd you, please mark our report completed and Thank you again for all you have done for past wish trippers! You are sorely missed!

 

[Nevada Jen]

Blessed, I absolutely love your trip report!
Doing the final packing. Can't believe we leave tomorrow. I am already dragging the let down in our return!

 

[jon03015]

Blessed, I absolutely love your trip report!
Doing the final packing. Can't believe we leave tomorrow. I am already dragging the let down in our return!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[2012bella13]

There are many conditions in which a child can receive a wish. Your child has to be nominated/recommended by a social worker/Dr/nurse first then it goes to Make A Wish for approval. After they approve you for a wish you meet with the wish granters and they take it back to MAW to approve the wish.

MAW is for any child under the age of 18 that has a life threatening illness.
The wish nominated or recommended by our Dr., or by someone that has had a wish granted. I get emails from MAW asking if I know of anyone that qualifies. It is not just for the terminally ill.
There are other wish granting organizations out there for just sick children, you can look it up on the net. I know there is one called Sunshine.

 

[kalimom6]

Good morning all,

I have another question... this time about the disney tickets that GkTW gives.

Here is our situation:

We have leftover days from previous tickets that are not park hoppers. Could we use those tickets and hold on to the ones that GKTW gives us and use those a year of so down the road?

The reason we would want to do this is because we know we will not want to park hop for our Wish Trip. We want to spend most of our time at the GKTW village. And this way, on another trip, we would have the option to park hop.

Does this make sense? Would we be allowed to do this? I'm not trying to cheat... but if I can do this "legally", I will.

Thanks for your replies.

Jean

Our Disney tickets from GKTW expire in 2014. When we were there, I heard quite a few families that were going to save them and go to other places that they probably would never spend money to go.
Oh the Disney tickets, if you use them once, you have 14 days to use the rest of it (2days) from what I have read. We went to Animal Kingdom so now our tickets have expired.

 

[NEmel]

Judy~ I'm so excited to sit down and read the rest of Lisa's trip report. You are such a great author!

NevadaJen~ Hope you have a wonderful and magical trip!!! Enjoy some warm weather for me!

 

[OhanaDreams]

I feel guilty even asking about this since so many of your kids have it so much worse, but does Make a Wish grant for chronically I'll children? My daughter has Familial Mediterranean Fever. It's a rare genetic disorder that causes fevers and inflammation around her joints and organs. She's on medicine which should give her a normal life span, I just hate that she's missed out on a carefree childhood. Even with the medicine she still has frequent fevers, severe stomach pain, and joint pain. Without the medicine it would be life threatening. Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation?

Our kiddo is having his wish granted with the Dream Factory. Dream Factory continues to follow the kids after their wish has been granted. They get invited to outings and parties on a regular basis. Here is a link to see if there is a chapter near you.http://www.dreamfactoryinc.org/AboutUs/FindAChapter/tabid/5331/Default.aspx

 

[Kktraylor]

I called Dream Factory. Unfortunately they only serve 3 parishes, and I'm one parish away. :-(. Do you know of any similar organizations? I'm in Louisiana.

 

[Happy Dreams1]

Hey there Wish families! I've seen a lot of new Wishers coming on board and everyone is so excited! I had my Wish trip in Aug. 2011 and we are returning to the Orlando in just 9 days!

Happy New Year everyone!