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

[chcmama]

Hello! I hope this is where I comment with all things MAW. This thread is huge! My daughter was just recently granted a wish and knowing her (she's 6) she'll want to go to Disney. We are just getting started on this process and I am a planner and organizer so I have TONS of questions! We have been to Disney before, but never as a Wish family so I'm thinking this is all new now! I had a running list in my head last night of all my questions so hopefully I'll remember them all.

1. Do you automatically have to stay at GKTW or do you have the choice to stay on Disney Property?

2. Can we change the tickets around, or purchase extra days? (We probably won't do Sea World, so could we ad an extra Disney day instead?)

3. We would like to extend our trip by a few days... is that possible?

4. Can my daughter wish for specific thing(s) at Disney... like Be a princess for a day, or dance with Prince Charming or meet ariel...like a meet and greet. Can part of her wish be the royal treatment at BBB?

5. What is the process like leading up to the big vacation? Like... did you have reveal parties, do the wish granters do fun things for the wish kid during the months leading up to the trip?

6. Can you include extended family during the trip? My mom lives about an hour from Orlando and it would be nice to have her join in on the trip for a day or two, if possible.

7. How do things go at the airport? I've seen reports of special things happening by the airline and the pilots. Is that standard practice?

8. Front of the Line access.... Do you really get "front of the line" or just fastpass line? Is it hit or miss with characters if you can get to the front?

9. Obviously there are 4 parks and 3 day tickets. What parks do you recommend doing on the same day?

10. Can Universal and IOA be done on the same day?

11. Do you go back to GKTW for meals, or just eat at the parks? Is the amount of money giving by MAW addequet


Well... I think that's all for now but I'm sure I'll have many more questions later!

I will try to answer what I can.
2. You can purchase extra days but it will be like buying brand new tickets, can't add on to what they give you
3. Depends on your chapter, we were able to add on but other people have not been allowed to
5. We had a dinner right before we left with our wish granters and they brought some gifts to that, probably depends on your chapter and wish granters what happens
6. I know people have but at your own expense
7. Probably depends on the airline. We flew Alaska and on the way the my son was able to go in the cockpit for both legs of the flight, one pilot had him make an announcement on the plane, we were given free food and on the longer flight were given the little video players to use for free, at the airport we got to wait in the VIP line to check in and through security. Alaska also let us pre board.
8. The pass is for the fast pass line. We did not do many character greets but he was allowed front of the line access. However I do not think that you are technically supposed to get front of the line access but the CM's almost always bring you to the front of the line.
9. It depends on what your kids like. Animal kingdom could be a short day for some (it closes earlier than the other parks), Epcot could also be a shorter day for some or DHS. We bought a one day pass and did one day at each park
10. It can be depending on what you want to do. we did one day at each park but my son wanted to ride everything, he loves the thrill rides and my oldest daughter wanted to spend a lot of time in the Harry Potter sections.
11. We ate breakfast at GKTW and usually ate dinner there and if we got back late we ordered pizza for GKTW and they delivered it. We did not go back in the middle of the day for lunch. Each MAW chapter is different on the spending money they give, ours was more than adequate. They had a whole spreadsheet outline how they came up with the amount they gave us. So much per person for meals, what meals they were providing and what ones they expected us to eat at GKTW, souvenir money for my son, gas money, a few other things I can't remember it all. We were given a check not a prepaid visa like some other people were given.

 

[chcmama]

Thanks for the replies, redberyl! So I'm wondering....if we stay an extra few days can we use the tickets they give us, and maybe the complimentary Legoland or Bush gardens tickets (cause I hear you can get some complimentary, or switch them out with one of the tickets you won't use...like Sea World)? I'm wondering if we can just focus on Disney during those 5 days, and then the extra days we stay can we use like the Universal tickets and the Legoland ticket?

And I've never seen anyone post about the return trip. What's that like? Do you get return transportation back to your house?

You may be able to. When you stay at GKTW the wish kid gets a button that has the dates of his wish on it, so depending on if they need to see the button for something and the date was an issue you might have some problems. For universal they didn't give us tickets, we went to will call and showed our id I believe so I don't know if you tried to get them after your wish dates if you could, I am pretty sure you could use your second day after but they give you a pass for the lines and they may have dates on it as well. We did not get the legoland ticket so I don't know what it is like.

My pre trip and trip reports are both in my signature, we were there in Jan/feb this year.
Have fun planning your trip!

 

[Madison Maylynn mom]

We leave on the 12th!!! Getting so close and hoping to have mine, the wish child, and my youngest daughters (who's going to my husband's parents for the week) bags packed by Friday!!! Anything that I should definitely have packed or not to forget???

 

[Madison Maylynn mom]

We are of tomorrow to stay in the cities and off Tuesday morning for GKTW! Had our send off party today!

 

[jojuvanlaanen]

Congrats "Madison Maylynn mom"! Hope you have an amazing time! Can't wait to read how it all went!

 

[potsiemom]

our flights have now been purchased our dates changed by one day from what we were told prev. Our new dates are june 26th thru july 2nd at gktw then july 2nd thru july 10th at pop century.

 

[ShannonMarie]

Just got the dates confirmed for our trip! Nov 30-Dec 6. So excited. We want to do MVMCP so we asked our Wish organization about it...not sure if they will include that or we pay on our own.

 

[FaithsWish]

GENERAL QUESTION: Where can I find a list of current pre-trip and trip reports for MAW kids? Is there such a place to find these? The most recent on the first post of this thread are from 2013. If I wanted to make one do I just post it right on the general pre-trip/trip reports pages?

I have my PTR and the TR I am working on listed in my signature.

 

[jojuvanlaanen]

We are meeting with my daughters wish granters on June 8th. We have talked about it a lot, and she has decided her wish will be to be a princess at Disney World! I am so excited to meet the wish granters and ask them 1,000 questions! I know that Disney World is the #1 wish that Make-A-Wish grants, but I wonder if there is a way to make it uniquely special depending on each child's desires? Like....if a kid loves pirates, will they set up some special pirate experience? Or a one-on-one meet and greet with a favorite princess? Or if someone wishes to be IN a parade or a show at Disney, is that even possible?

 

[redberyl]

My

We are meeting with my daughters wish granters on June 8th. We have talked about it a lot, and she has decided her wish will be to be a princess at Disney World! I am so excited to meet the wish granters and ask them 1,000 questions! I know that Disney World is the #1 wish that Make-A-Wish grants, but I wonder if there is a way to make it uniquely special depending on each child's desires? Like....if a kid loves pirates, will they set up some special pirate experience? Or a one-on-one meet and greet with a favorite princess? Or if someone wishes to be IN a parade or a show at Disney, is that even possible?

My daughters wish was to see the floating lights and dance with rapunzel. The wish granters said they could make it happen in florida and go to disney too. They asked her did she want to be in a parade with rapunzel and get tucked into bed by rapunzel. Of course she said yes. When we got to florida they never made the arrangements for the floating lights, no parade, no dancing, no tuck in. Just the standard disney trip, which was very nice but not her wish. If they promise you extras, be careful, because they dont always follow through and you dont want a disappointed child

 

[jojuvanlaanen]

My

My daughters wish was to see the floating lights and dance with rapunzel. The wish granters said they could make it happen in florida and go to disney too. They asked her did she want to be in a parade with rapunzel and get tucked into bed by rapunzel. Of course she said yes. When we got to florida they never made the arrangements for the floating lights, no parade, no dancing, no tuck in. Just the standard disney trip, which was very nice but not her wish. If they promise you extras, be careful, because they dont always follow through and you dont want a disappointed child

Anyone else have any experience with this?

 

[hey_jude]

I have read a trip report where the child was in a parade (because she wished to be famous) and another where the child met Ariel (as per her wish) so it definitely is possible to make the wish uniquely special. It does however seem to depend on your MAW chapter or whatever wish granting organization you are working with. Do they have a website? The chapter in my area does and they often have write ups from wish trip families on the site. In fact, I just looked there and found a story about a little girl wished to meet Belle in her ordinary life and her magical life. She was able to do that and even had a part in the Beauty and the Beast play.

I hope your chapter will be able to make the trip everything your daughter wishes for!

 

[Olesmom]

I've been lurking for some time trying to piece together this whole trip thing. Thankfully with many suggestions from here and also with help from a Disney travel agent I'd like to offer some insight given how our trip went if that's ok? We just got back last Thursday so it's all still fresh.

We had seven people..our four kids and one of my children is autistic so we brought his caregiver (we raised the money for his trip and expenses but he was able to stay with us at GKTW and they also gave him all park tickets because we gave them a note from my sons Dr stating that he needs the caregiver).

I wanted to plan a very aggressive trip and make the most of it. I realize that not everyone will be this way. Our kids are 7, 9 and Wish Child is 11. Our oldest with autism is 17.

We did not check any luggage. This made the airport experience SO MUCH LESS of a hastle!! I packed a very basic bag for everybody...4 shirts, 4 shorts, 7 socks and 7 underwear, a swimsuit and Disney PJs from Walmart (cheap!). The girls were able to carry on their cute Disney overnight suitcases. GKTW has a washer and dryer with Tide provided so we did laundry every other day anyway. We put most all of our souvenirs and gifts from GKTW in a pile at the end of our trip and I shipped them home in a big box.

Daddy's backpack had two misting fans I bought from CVS for like $4..again REALLY expensive if you wait to buy at Disney! Daddy kept the sunscreen in his pack too. I also had Dad carry snacks to include crackers and gummies. My pack had the money, photopass, my itineraries, and stuff.

I made small backpacks (Disney themed from Walmart & Dollar store) for each child. They contained:
Waterbottle (Disney themed from dollar store)
poncho
autograph book with retractable sharpie
lanyard w/pins
Ziploc baggie of quarters and pennies
flip flops

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*FREE wonderful and good tasting ice water at all restaurants at Disney. We took advantage of this and filled up often.
*The poncho was never needed by us for some reason. But should you need one they are very expensive at Disney!!We managed to miss every downpour and it's so dang hot there that getting a bit wet on rides was welcomed! I never once did my hair or makeup! The humidity is oppressive and getting sprayed on several rides, well...don't worry about it right? Nobody cares. I loved not having to worry about how I looked for a few days haha
*I made the autograph books..Get a 4 x 6 Mead spiral notebook and glue these little cards on there for the autograph book. I got so many compliments on them there! I alphabetized the characters for easy access and the characters were pleased to be using a retractable sharpie (that clips nicely inside the spiral). I liked the front of the line access to the characters to save time. There will be dirty looks. But hey, most folks were very understanding. Found the pages to setup and print on cardstock here
http://tinyurl.com/disneypages
*The Disney lanyards for pin trading was so fun!! I found super cheap Disney pins on Amazon. the children need to use their manners and ask Cast Members about their pins and then if they like a pin they'll trade it with them. Some CMs even gave my Wish Child special pins which was cool. Pin trading was great! And they wore their lanyards to school today because they really wanted to show their friends. What fun memories those pin trading things are. *In order to trade they must be Disney pins with the Mickey Mouse rubber ear backs.
*The Ziploc baggy of coins comes in handy when you see those souvenir penny making machines. I made sure that each of my kids had enough quarters and pennies to make 4 a day. They absolutely love those machines. I'm gonna tape them into their autograph books when I recover from this trip! haha
*I saw advice to bring flip flops to avoid soppy shoes and socks feet from rides, but it never became necessary. We changed into them for the River Rapids ride in Animal Kingdom but we probably didn't need to. We rode that twice with flips flops and Splash Mountain about 5 times with shoes and socks!! (Love the Genie Pass!) And didn't get our feet soaked.

I found a Disney certified planner online who agreed to help us develop inter-park intineraries for free because they are affiliated with Make a Wish somehow. And boy am I glad I did! Going into this with a daily plan with inter-park itineraries was so helpful. I did not feel overwhelmed. If someone will tell me the best way to share these spreadsheets I'll be happy to do so.

The Genie Pass does not grant front of the line access at Disney- but does grant Fast Pass line access which is almost as good as being in front and in some cases we were put to the front. My kids are surely ruined for Disney or Universal should we go again in the future! We sat wherever we wanted to for shows which was fun. So my girls got lots of personal waves and kisses blown from princesses and other characters. My son who is autistic did not ride many rides at all. He was content to wait at the (cool) exits and check in with his younger siblings after they got off. We are so thankful that he got to be a part of this trip.

The Golden Ticket at Universal DOES grant you front of line access and it's fun to be taken through the back ways to rides and stuff. They are really great at Universal! Make sure to attend the Animal Actors Show. Let them know you are GKTW and pretty please to have access after the show..we didn't have to ask for this though..so you probably won't have to either. When they escorted us in first they told us to stay seated after the show and they will escort us back out..but they took us to the stage for a private show where they taught my kids some tricks to try with the animals - super cool!

We did have to deviate from my plan and take a break mid week. Instead of doing the second day at Universal (Islands of Adventure) we stayed at GKTW. The day before was really exhausting because we park hopped! Park hopping is brutal! Our feet were all hurting us and we were exhausted and tired. And I made everybody stay for the Illuminations and Wishes – which we are glad that we did, but it was SO rough! And we were just plain lucky that we caught the last monorail back to Epcot. Otherwise we'd have to get a taxi cannot imagine how expensive that would have been. So just take note, should you park hop, of when and how you are going to get back to your car. There were only a few things we liked at Epcot that morning but it was so much walking to change our minds and head back to Magic Kingdom!! And since we were parked at Epcot we had to make the monorail trek back to Epcot after the night shows. So yes, the next day my plans were overridden and I am glad they were J

We slept in and played in the pool at GKTW which is wonderful!! We decided to catch a Midevil Times show that night – AWESOME!!! Loved it!!! It requires a 48 hour notice to get discount tickets from GKTW and the Wish Child gets in free..but we called them ourselves and explained our last minute situation and they still obliged us. So it was considerably less expensive than regular price. It’s right around the corner from GKTW so we are so happy we did it.

Our itinerary was basically –

Fri - Legoland (the day we flew in)

Sat - Magic Kingdom

Sun – Universal Studios

Mon – Epcot, Magic Kingdom

Tues - GKTW, Midevil Times

Wed – Animal Kingdom (Loved the rides here), we had reservations with almost stage seating to the Hoopdy Doo Revue…a couple of notes about this: It’s expensive but worth doing at least one nice sit down at Disney. LOVED seeing a dinner show like this! Very audience interactive, wonderful meal, nice mid afternoon break in the day without leaving Disney altogether. We did have to leave a Park, but we planned Hollywood Studios for later anyway so because we had a nice break it didn’t kill us. It was all within 10 minutes or so from each other. At Hollywood Studios made sure to see Fantasmic with Magical seating right in the middle of the front row. You will get sprayed quite a bit – but it is an awesome show and what a way to end our Disney experience! It’s a 9 at night. Just breathtaking and awesome.

Thursday – Crammed in Seaworld in before heading to the airport straight from Seaworld. Got to see Shamu and the awesome Antarctica ride/attraction!

So that's it. I hope that some of these suggestions help you. What a blessing of an experience to have!

 

[mamaVonna]

I've been lurking for some time trying to piece together this whole trip thing. Thankfully with many suggestions from here and also with help from a Disney travel agent I'd like to offer some insight given how our trip went if that's ok? We just got back last Thursday so it's all still fresh.

We had seven people..our four kids and one of my children is autistic so we brought his caregiver (we raised the money for his trip and expenses but he was able to stay with us at GKTW and they also gave him all park tickets because we gave them a note from my sons Dr stating that he needs the caregiver).

I wanted to plan a very aggressive trip and make the most of it. I realize that not everyone will be this way. Our kids are 7, 9 and Wish Child is 11. Our oldest with autism is 17.

We did not check any luggage. This made the airport experience SO MUCH LESS of a hastle!! I packed a very basic bag for everybody...4 shirts, 4 shorts, 7 socks and 7 underwear, a swimsuit and Disney PJs from Walmart (cheap!). The girls were able to carry on their cute Disney overnight suitcases. GKTW has a washer and dryer with Tide provided so we did laundry every other day anyway. We put most all of our souvenirs and gifts from GKTW in a pile at the end of our trip and I shipped them home in a big box.

Daddy's backpack had two misting fans I bought from CVS for like $4..again REALLY expensive if you wait to buy at Disney! Daddy kept the sunscreen in his pack too. I also had Dad carry snacks to include crackers and gummies. My pack had the money, photopass, my itineraries, and stuff.

I made small backpacks (Disney themed from Walmart & Dollar store) for each child. They contained:
Waterbottle (Disney themed from dollar store)
poncho
autograph book with retractable sharpie
lanyard w/pins
Ziploc baggie of quarters and pennies
flip flops

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]
*FREE wonderful and good tasting ice water at all restaurants at Disney. We took advantage of this and filled up often.
*The poncho was never needed by us for some reason. But should you need one they are very expensive at Disney!!We managed to miss every downpour and it's so dang hot there that getting a bit wet on rides was welcomed! I never once did my hair or makeup! The humidity is oppressive and getting sprayed on several rides, well...don't worry about it right? Nobody cares. I loved not having to worry about how I looked for a few days haha
*I made the autograph books..Get a 4 x 6 Mead spiral notebook and glue these little cards on there for the autograph book. I got so many compliments on them there! I alphabetized the characters for easy access and the characters were pleased to be using a retractable sharpie (that clips nicely inside the spiral). I liked the front of the line access to the characters to save time. There will be dirty looks. But hey, most folks were very understanding. Found the pages to setup and print on cardstock here
http://tinyurl.com/disneypages
*The Disney lanyards for pin trading was so fun!! I found super cheap Disney pins on Amazon. the children need to use their manners and ask Cast Members about their pins and then if they like a pin they'll trade it with them. Some CMs even gave my Wish Child special pins which was cool. Pin trading was great! And they wore their lanyards to school today because they really wanted to show their friends. What fun memories those pin trading things are. *In order to trade they must be Disney pins with the Mickey Mouse rubber ear backs.
*The Ziploc baggy of coins comes in handy when you see those souvenir penny making machines. I made sure that each of my kids had enough quarters and pennies to make 4 a day. They absolutely love those machines. I'm gonna tape them into their autograph books when I recover from this trip! haha
*I saw advice to bring flip flops to avoid soppy shoes and socks feet from rides, but it never became necessary. We changed into them for the River Rapids ride in Animal Kingdom but we probably didn't need to. We rode that twice with flips flops and Splash Mountain about 5 times with shoes and socks!! (Love the Genie Pass!) And didn't get our feet soaked.

I found a Disney certified planner online who agreed to help us develop inter-park intineraries for free because they are affiliated with Make a Wish somehow. And boy am I glad I did! Going into this with a daily plan with inter-park itineraries was so helpful. I did not feel overwhelmed. If someone will tell me the best way to share these spreadsheets I'll be happy to do so.

The Genie Pass does not grant front of the line access at Disney- but does grant Fast Pass line access which is almost as good as being in front and in some cases we were put to the front. My kids are surely ruined for Disney or Universal should we go again in the future! We sat wherever we wanted to for shows which was fun. So my girls got lots of personal waves and kisses blown from princesses and other characters. My son who is autistic did not ride many rides at all. He was content to wait at the (cool) exits and check in with his younger siblings after they got off. We are so thankful that he got to be a part of this trip.

The Golden Ticket at Universal DOES grant you front of line access and it's fun to be taken through the back ways to rides and stuff. They are really great at Universal! Make sure to attend the Animal Actors Show. Let them know you are GKTW and pretty please to have access after the show..we didn't have to ask for this though..so you probably won't have to either. When they escorted us in first they told us to stay seated after the show and they will escort us back out..but they took us to the stage for a private show where they taught my kids some tricks to try with the animals - super cool!

We did have to deviate from my plan and take a break mid week. Instead of doing the second day at Universal (Islands of Adventure) we stayed at GKTW. The day before was really exhausting because we park hopped! Park hopping is brutal! Our feet were all hurting us and we were exhausted and tired. And I made everybody stay for the Illuminations and Wishes – which we are glad that we did, but it was SO rough! And we were just plain lucky that we caught the last monorail back to Epcot. Otherwise we'd have to get a taxi cannot imagine how expensive that would have been. So just take note, should you park hop, of when and how you are going to get back to your car. There were only a few things we liked at Epcot that morning but it was so much walking to change our minds and head back to Magic Kingdom!! And since we were parked at Epcot we had to make the monorail trek back to Epcot after the night shows. So yes, the next day my plans were overridden and I am glad they were J

We slept in and played in the pool at GKTW which is wonderful!! We decided to catch a Midevil Times show that night – AWESOME!!! Loved it!!! It requires a 48 hour notice to get discount tickets from GKTW and the Wish Child gets in free..but we called them ourselves and explained our last minute situation and they still obliged us. So it was considerably less expensive than regular price. It’s right around the corner from GKTW so we are so happy we did it.

Our itinerary was basically –

Fri - Legoland (the day we flew in)

Sat - Magic Kingdom

Sun – Universal Studios

Mon – Epcot, Magic Kingdom

Tues - GKTW, Midevil Times

Wed – Animal Kingdom (Loved the rides here), we had reservations with almost stage seating to the Hoopdy Doo Revue…a couple of notes about this: It’s expensive but worth doing at least one nice sit down at Disney. LOVED seeing a dinner show like this! Very audience interactive, wonderful meal, nice mid afternoon break in the day without leaving Disney altogether. We did have to leave a Park, but we planned Hollywood Studios for later anyway so because we had a nice break it didn’t kill us. It was all within 10 minutes or so from each other. At Hollywood Studios made sure to see Fantasmic with Magical seating right in the middle of the front row. You will get sprayed quite a bit – but it is an awesome show and what a way to end our Disney experience! It’s a 9 at night. Just breathtaking and awesome.

Thursday – Crammed in Seaworld in before heading to the airport straight from Seaworld. Got to see Shamu and the awesome Antarctica ride/attraction!

So that's it. I hope that some of these suggestions help you. What a blessing of an experience to have!

Wow, thanks for so much useful info! Great suggestions, glad you and your family had such a wonderful experience!

 

[mamaVonna]

So I created an account, made a couple posts, and kinda disappeared for awhile! Nothing new to report as we STILL haven't had much contact from MAW. Our DD was approved in February but still awaiting volunteers . In the meantime, I'm keeping myself busy with as much planning as I can possibly cram into my (already) very busy days.
This forum is awesome! You guys have answered so many questions, and been so informative , thanks so much for all your help!
I research and plan and take notes like nobody's business and have had to force myself to stop talking about the trip to my DH because I'm pretty certain he's sick of hearing about it . Katyana gets so excited whenever I pull up YouTube videos to show her all the happenings in WDW. Her little sister (Kaylei, 4) is my super excited sidekick. She's gone so far as screaming out at the top of her lungs at 3:30 a.m. that she can't sleep because she's "so excited and can't wait another day to see all my Disney friends!"....yeah
Of course all my plans are tentative but we're hoping to go sometime in December before Christmas. Has anyone else been around that time and can share any tips or important info?

 

[mamaVonna]

Just remembered I need to post 10x before being able to add pix of my cuties, so....
Part of my prep for the trip will be some sort of countdown. Right now we're at 195 days out from the date I would like. Of course I won't actually make a display until we have our dates but would anyone share some of the ways your family kept track? Also, what how many days did you do? I've seen 10, 30, 100.

 

[potsiemom]

this is the countdown we made when we had 30 days left we are now 22 days to go
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78390849738901937/?fb_ref=314126280167530511:250e8dd4c71e162bfe636a

 

[mamaVonna]

this is the countdown we made when we had 30 days left we are now 22 days to go
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78390849738901937/?fb_ref=314126280167530511:250e8dd4c71e162bfe636a

That's really cute, I especially love the bows on the Minnie links! I like the links but couldn't decide whether to do Princess colors or traditional red/black. Duh, I could just do both huh?! Thanks for sharing

 

[potsiemom]

you have 2 kids so do both then no fighting over who pulls that days link

 

[mamaVonna]

this is the countdown we made when we had 30 days left we are now 22 days to go
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78390849738901937/?fb_ref=314126280167530511:250e8dd4c71e162bfe636a

And wow, only 22 days to go, how exciting!! Are you all finished planning, or are you scrambling to get things done? We have soooo long to go, but it'll be my luck I'll forget something really important and will be running around totally stressed at the last minute.