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

[jen-y]

They just recently changed the CRT experience. The princesses now come to your table and not the Fairy Godmother and mice thing they used to do. I have read quite a bit about this change. So, now they are kinda the same=- but different at the same time- esp price!

Thats cool about the change. We have reservations there during the wish trip, so I am excited to see how it is now.

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello and give an update. We have our flights confirmed and fly out early in the morning of arrival and fly back home on a late flight. And best of all NO LAYOVERS!!!! My nerves are so thankful for that The limo will pick us up at 5am on July 10th and at the airport at 10pm on the 16th. I am working on a surprise for the kids and I will post more as soon as it is all confirmed. Now knowing our flights will help with that.

I feel like our planning is pretty much complete now.

 

[blessedmom4]

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello and give an update. We have our flights confirmed and fly out early in the morning of arrival and fly back home on a late flight. And best of all NO LAYOVERS!!!! My nerves are so thankful for that The limo will pick us up at 5am on July 10th and at the airport at 10pm on the 16th. I am working on a surprise for the kids and I will post more as soon as it is all confirmed. Now knowing our flights will help with that.

I feel like our planning is pretty much complete now.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is awesome, wonderful news! I KNOW you are excited!!! Woo Hoo!

 

[visitingapril09]

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello and give an update. We have our flights confirmed and fly out early in the morning of arrival and fly back home on a late flight. And best of all NO LAYOVERS!!!! My nerves are so thankful for that The limo will pick us up at 5am on July 10th and at the airport at 10pm on the 16th. I am working on a surprise for the kids and I will post more as soon as it is all confirmed. Now knowing our flights will help with that.

I feel like our planning is pretty much complete now.

Hi Tonya! From Alison over on p2p!

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Hi Tonya! From Alison over on p2p!

Hi Allison! How are you doing? How is Andrew feeling? I hope he is doing well. Looks like you are all going back to Disney!

The surprise has been confirmed. I also posted the updated tentative itinerary on my ptr so it's all done. I have a few other things going on before we leave. So I can concentrate on those too but feel like our trip has come together nicely.

The kids are so excited to see everything coming along. The smiles on Ty's face just make this so much more exciting. The wonderful things that the precious people from the Big Give has been such an uplifting thing for Ty. When he comes home from school or after an apt just the smile that he has is just priceless. His smiles don't come easy. But when he does it just makes me and dh smile deep inside. He is a rather "serious" kind of dude. I was afraid in the beginning that Sierra would not feel "included" in all of this but she feels very special and is just as excited as Ty is. And that means alot to us.

I just want to say thank you all for all of your help, your generosity and support. You don't know me from anything but yet you have made this one magical journey along with the Make A Wish Foundation and without them we would not have even began on this journey. You have a special place in our hearts.

 

[jen-y]

Has anyone been on the balloon at Downtown Disney? I wonder how much it is and if its worth it. If you can see all the parks and stuff, then its gotta be pretty cool

 

[daughtersrus]

I posted awhile back about DD's MAW trip. She chose to go to Hawaii.

In exactly 2 months, we should be sitting on the beach!

I'm starting to get a little freaked out. I told to MAW earlier this week. They said that we won't get a budget/plan until about 2 weeks prior to the trip. All that they said was that they will cover the hotel, flight and money for food/souvenirs. I really have no idea how much the "budget" is going to be. I know that everything in Hawaii is expensive. I called the hotel (Hyatt Regency on Waikiki Beach) to see if breakfast was included. I didn't think so but you can always hope. Of course it's not but they did say that they have a buffet in the hotel and it's $26 a person. I just can't imagine spending $125 for breakfast.

Can anyone give me an idea as to how much we should be budgeting of our own money to be spending? We're a family of five.

Thanks!

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

It's 1:30am and I just got an adr for CHEF MICKEYS!! So now I need to decide if I want to keep the Garden Grille.

 

[motherof4greatkids]

hi everyone im counting down we cant wait i think my kids are starting to get excited now that its getting closer

 

[rcq925]

It's 1:30am and I just got an adr for CHEF MICKEYS!! So now I need to decide if I want to keep the Garden Grille.

Woo Hoo!! I would definitely go the Chef Mickeys!! We had breakfast there and really enjoyed it. I have not been to Garden Grille so can't give you and advice there. But the character interaction at Chef Mickeys was great!

I have just made my last ADR for our November Trip. I am trying not to go overboard since I do not know how much the expense check will be, but I do know they are paying for breakfast at the castle. So we are also going to 'Ohana (our favorite) for dinner, T-Rex at Downtown Disney and Sci-Fi Diner at Hollywood studios.

You are getting so close to your trip, you must be so excited

 

[rcq925]

hi everyone im counting down we cant wait i think my kids are starting to get excited now that its getting closer

You must all be gettting so excited

Hope you have a great trip!!

 

[yinyanggirls]

I posted awhile back about DD's MAW trip. She chose to go to Hawaii.

Can anyone give me an idea as to how much we should be budgeting of our own money to be spending? We're a family of five.

Thanks!

I don't know how they would calculate the amount for you unless they plan on you eating at the hotel all the time. WDW meals are a little easier to budget for. I can say that we had plenty to get us through a week of regular meals at WDW. We chose to do some character meals and nicer places, so we supplemented with our own.

I've heard someone say they asked and were told how they figured the budget. I don't think it's unreasonable for you to ask, especially if you really do need to set aside some funds. Just because they don't give people their expense checks until the last minute doesn't mean they can't tell you how they calculate them in advance.

 

[jen-y]

Does BBB require a credit card to make an appointment?
If I don't make an appointment and just take a chance that we can get in when we get there, is it usually booked up? I am thinking about taking my 8 year old daughter, but I am not sure if I want to commit just yet

 

[wishin' on a star]

I'm pretty sure we did not give a credit card to make the BBB appointment. We did it last Wednesday, and they were not taking any walk-ins while we were there. It was pretty busy. My 8-year old did it, and she opted to wear her own clothes and do the Pop Diva hairstyle. She had fun doing the makeover, but I would say the average age was 5 in there.

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Does BBB require a credit card to make an appointment?
If I don't make an appointment and just take a chance that we can get in when we get there, is it usually booked up? I am thinking about taking my 8 year old daughter, but I am not sure if I want to commit just yet

Yes I had to hold it with my CC and they go ahead and charge $1 on it as they said the cc requires them to do that. Also they told us to bring our own combs and brushes

Ok now I have another question

If we have an adr at Chef Mickey's at 5:05pm how easy is it going to be to get from Sea World? I'm now worried it will be rush hour and we will need to leave too early to get there?

 

[jen-y]

I'm pretty sure we did not give a credit card to make the BBB appointment. We did it last Wednesday, and they were not taking any walk-ins while we were there. It was pretty busy. My 8-year old did it, and she opted to wear her own clothes and do the Pop Diva hairstyle. She had fun doing the makeover, but I would say the average age was 5 in there.

I was thinking my 8 year old may be getting too old for BBB. Maybe we should do the pirate makeover instead.

 

[jen-y]

I really need to sit down and make some sort of schedule of where we will be going on each day of the trip. I have some ADR's to take into consideration, and I want to go to Sea World 1 day too. From what I have been reading on here, sounds like MAW could schedule something for us that I would not know about till the last minute that could alter our schedule. So I am not sure if I should make a schedule or not???

 

[maroo]

I really need to sit down and make some sort of schedule of where we will be going on each day of the trip. I have some ADR's to take into consideration, and I want to go to Sea World 1 day too. From what I have been reading on here, sounds like MAW could schedule something for us that I would not know about till the last minute that could alter our schedule. So I am not sure if I should make a schedule or not???

The age old question....

I have read a lot of trip reports and taken several trips since we went on our wish trip...and this is what I think.

Some random thoughts...

I think we should plan - but know the whole time that the plans may change and feel ok with that.

Make multiple ADR's. I know...I will be blasted on the DIS for saying that by someone...but really - this is THE trip. The only Wish Trip - and I think it is perfectly ok to make ADR's for more than you think you will really be able to do...especially since we don't know the budget till right before. I definitely think we should cancel any as soon as we know we won't make it... And if there is a real important one to your wish child - make it twice, just in case. I wish we had done this.

Plan. Planning helps you learn Disney. Learn where the crowds go and when - that way you can avoid them . If you have time - subscribe to Tour Guide Mike or Touringplans.com and get an idea of the crowd levels and good and bad parks. I have started to really like Tour Guide Mike on that info. If you understand why you are planning things for certain days, then when you get there and it is pouring down rain or someone gets sick, you will know which park would be best and you can swap things around. (For example - we like Epcot in the rain because there are so many indoor things we want to do. The MK could work this way, too - if you are interested in the indoor type rides.)

But for the wish trip - honestly, you will have a BLAST even if you NEVER plan a thing. GKTW has a LOT for families to do. Really many families could just go there and be busy and happy for several days.

And if you are staying on Disney property - they have lots to do there, too!

There is way too much to do to do it all - so we no longer even try. We pick a few things we really want to do and do those and the rest is icing on the cake.

Maximize "Wish Only" things if you plan to go back for a future trip to Disney. If you know you are going back in a few years, then try to plan those Wish Trip only things to the max. If we could do it over, we would have done more characters and rides and fewer shows. You get more from the "button" that way.

The magic moments will happen. It may be a special CM, a parade, a character or dancing on Main Street - but it will happen. Happens on every trip that has been reported here. Every. One. And I have not seen the same magic moment twice yet, either.

So...random thoughts from Mary are done for the day.

 

[wishin' on a star]

I was thinking my 8 year old may be getting too old for BBB. Maybe we should do the pirate makeover instead.

I think 8 is kinda that in between age. My son did the pirate's league with my DH while we were at BBB...so I only saw him after the fact. I guess the good thing about BBB is the varied packages. Carmella still had a ball doing it, and I don't think she realized she was older than the general BBB population , but I did. She had no issues at all walking around all made up all day, especially with her regular clothes.

Sorry if I was wrong about the credit card for reservation. DH made that reservation.

 

[wishin' on a star]

I really need to sit down and make some sort of schedule of where we will be going on each day of the trip. I have some ADR's to take into consideration, and I want to go to Sea World 1 day too. From what I have been reading on here, sounds like MAW could schedule something for us that I would not know about till the last minute that could alter our schedule. So I am not sure if I should make a schedule or not???

MAW scheduled a Sleeping Beauty meet and greet, but we were not given any information about it until we arrived at GKTW. We knew it was supposed to happen, but that we wouldn't get the information until we got our check in packet. It was a little annoying, as we did make many ADR's and park plans, and their plan didn't mesh at all with what we had going on. We actually decided to skip the private meet and greet, since we were going to lunch at the castle, and would meet Aurora there. Catherine was fine with this plan, so it worked for us.