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

[jenb1023]

Verdict on Garden Grille (Chip and Dale)
We are keeping the ressies!

When I called and asked about Chef Mickeys this morning I also asked what the menu was for the Garden Grille. They do indeed have turkey and dressing so that was a go for me. Sierra likes that too so no problem there. She did say that they will have different breads and Ty will eat some bread sometimes so if he choses to he will eat if not no biggie. I told her that is all he would eat if anything and she told me to just let the CM at the podium know when we check in.Since my kids are older they would not be on the kids menu.

Chef Mickeys is still a no go but Im ok with that. Since others here have said Garden Grille is more of a laid back place I think that would be better for Ty anyways.

Woo-hoo! I don't think you will be disappointed. If Ty wants something from the kids menu, just ask even though he is 10. Disney restaurants are very accommodating. We had breakfast at the castle one trip and my picky DD didn't like anything they had but the breakfast meats. I asked if they could just make her toast with butter (which was not on the menu) and they said sure no problem. Now I don't think they would let a kid switch their chicken nuggets for filet mignon but I don't see why they wouldn't let a child paying adult prices get items from the kids menu especially on a Wish trip.

 

[Adrismommy]

So I have been a member of the DIS boards for a few years and lurking on the Make A Wish thread for a few months. My daughter, Hayley, is 6 years old and has Cystic Fibrosis and our wish volunteers are coming for the first time tonight.

Her wish is to go to Disney and stay the night in Cinderella's Castle. We went to Disney in 2008 during the year of a million dreams campaign and she remembers all the commercials stating that one lucky family per day won a night in the castle. We have also watched all the Disney specials on the travel channel and one went behind the scenes at Disney and showed inside the suite in Cinderella's castle. She REALLY wants to stay there one night (and the rest at Give Kids the World). I keep telling her that we may not be able to stay in the castle, but we can still have the time of our lives.

Just wondering, has any other wish family been able to stay in the castle?

I have been lurking on here for months and I am addicted to the trip reports, I love reading them!!

Thanks in advance!

Becky, Mom to Nathan, age 9, and Hayley, age 6 (Wish Kid)

While it won't hurt to ask, that was my daughter's wish, too. We are just a few weeks behind you in meeting with wish granters and stuff, and they told us it wasn't open to the public and was not a possibility. Of course, my daughter just turned 3 so she doesn't even know about the suite or anything like that - but her wish was "to go to Cinderella's castle and sleep with her." The wish granters told me that night that it wasn't a possibility and I told them it was fine (because Adri didn't know any different). We were just thrilled she was eligible for MAW and didn't care what came of it. I didn't realize until later that they actually did try to see if they could make that happen for her. They called back later and apologized and made sure she still wanted to do Disney. She still tells people that her wish is "for Cinderella's castle", but if we walk through the castle we'll tell her she went and it will all be the same to her. We did make reservations for BBB and CRT so she'll get to do stuff there.

Obviously your daughter is older and more aware of her specific wish so it will be a different story for you. I don't want to discourage you - I'm realizing that different chapters are able to do different things, so it doesn't hurt to ask. But I wanted to tell you our experience from just last month. We are going to GKTW on July 17-23.

Good luck in your trip planning.

 

[Mtopher4]

Hi,

I am new to this thread. Just a word of introduction and a few questions.

We just got our Wish dates, May 18th - 24th, very quickly. Our daughter has DIPG, a brain tumor considered the worst possible (only google it if you want to be very depressed). While I am immensely grateful for Make A Wish acting so quickly to make sure she is goes so soon (while she can enjoy the parks), I am now realizing that the usual vacation is only 3 days in Disney and the rest Universal and Seaworld. She really won't care for the others nearly as much. My son will have a blast I am sure at Universal, but I am concerned that with only 3 days and 4 Disney parks, she will not get to see everything.

I know that Wish kids in bad condition sometimes get to go to the front of lines, but right now besides her double vision and limp she is doing amazingly well. Her stamina is an issue, but she will be able to use a stroller as a wheelchair, so I don't think she is bad off enough to qualify for front of the line. Given that this is going to be her only trip to Disney I want her experience as much as possible.

So here is my question. Can we do the whole 4 parks in 3 days and if not, what should we skip given that she is a 5 year old girl? I was thinking of skipping Epcot, but I think she would love some of the stuff (e.g. the Turtle Talk thing and doing the Kim Possible hunt with her brother). Any suggestions from those who have already gone? Many thanks.

Welcome

I think if you get park hoppers it is possible.. but you will be exhausted

 

[rcq925]

So I just came out of lurkdom today and I have already started my PTR

Here is the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36386367#post36386367

We just met with our wish grantors tonight and I am so excited already!!

Thanks for all the warm welcomes! I have been reading for about 2 months now, so I feel like I already "know" most of you! I am so hooked on the current trip reports: Piper, James, Gavin, Noah, and Aidan. I can't wait for the next installments on all of your trip reports!

 

[maroo]

What are the dates you are going to be there? We are hoping for December 1-7.

I feel weird doing this but if we wanted to extend the trip by a day or 2 to try to fit in seeing some family, trying to enjoy GKTW (ie. not being on the go every day), and fit in a MVMCP, does MAW have a problem with this? I know other people have extended.. just wanted to know the best way going about this.

Are the park tickets only good for the time you are at GKTW.. meaning if we are at GKTW from 12/1-12/7 can I use a park ticket on the 8th?




WOW by the looks of this post am I officially starting to plan for Juliana's wish trip?

Hello!

Our dates are Nov 19th to the 28th - so we won't be there Dec...BUT, I may be coming that weekend...maybe. Not sure if I can fit that trip in with the rest...but I understand that the first weekend in December may be the big Disney Meets (formerly known as Mouse Fest)...and I may come down for that, even though I have just been in Disney for 10 days. A lot of it depends on how much "me" time I have when I am there...I will be with Lauren's family and may have ZERO "me" time - so I may need a vacation after the vacation!

You CAN use the comp tickets after your official dates are over. They are good for 14 days after their first use. But they can't be upgraded or anything.

They are already park hoppers.

Welcome

I think if you get park hoppers it is possible.. but you will be exhausted

They are already park hoppers. And yes....those Disney days will be exhausting. lol

So I just came out of lurkdom today and I have already started my PTR

Here is the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36386367#post36386367

We just met with our wish grantors tonight and I am so excited already!!

Thanks for all the warm welcomes! I have been reading for about 2 months now, so I feel like I already "know" most of you! I am so hooked on the current trip reports: Piper, James, Gavin, Noah, and Aidan. I can't wait for the next installments on all of your trip reports!

Wow! I gotta check this out! And I will put a link to this report on the first page!

to the wish trippers thread!!

 

[NVDadof3]

Our son Seth just got his wish granted and we have tentative dates of May 19-25. Thanks to all the advice I have found on here the last couple of weeks. We should know by early next week if those dates are going to work or not. I certainly hope so. Our children are already dying of excitement and they don't even know it could be so soon. We keep telling them maybe July or August.

 

[kdzbear]

The Ten Commandments for Parents of Kids with Special Needs

1. Take one day at a time, and take that day positively. You don't have control over the future, but you do have control over today.

2. Never underestimate your child's potential. Allow him, encourage him, expect him to develop to the best of his abilities.

3. Find and allow positive mentors: parents and professionals who can share with you their experience, advice, and support.

4. Provide and be involved with the most appropriate educational and learning environments for your child from infancy on.

5. Keep in mind the feelings and needs of your spouse and your other children. Remind them that this child does not get more of your love just because he gets more of your time.

6. Answer only to your conscience: then you'll be able to answer to your child. You need not justify your actions to your friends or the public.

7. Be honest with your feelings. You can't be a super-parent 24 hours a day. Allow yourself jealousy, anger, pity, frustration, and depression in small amounts whenever necessary.

8. Be kind to yourself. Don't focus continually on what needs to be done. Remember to look at what you have accomplished.

9. Stop and smell the roses. Take advantage of the fact that you have gained a special appreciation for the little miracles in life that others take for granted.

10. Keep and use a sense of humor. Cracking up with laughter can keep you from cracking up from stress.

-Author Unknown

 

[TTomlinson]

Gary-I hope your dates work! We will be there that week too as well as a couple of other families on this thread I think we should all have a meet-up sometime at the Village! I suggested margaritas after kids were in bed but the GKTW rules say no alcoholic bevs in public spots so we may have to hide out in one of the villas and send the kids to the other one At the least I would love for all of us to get to meet maybe at the Christmas party or something.

KDZBear-I love that! I am printing it out to hang on my wall and also posting it to a couple of listservs I participate in for families with special needs kids if you don't mind! So true...

I just got back from Michael's with a bunch of stuff to finish projects (at least I hope to finish some!) for our trip. Got a tie-dye kit and shirts to make one for all of us for our first day at MK. And stuff to finish autograph books and journals for the boys. The DISign board on here has given me WAY too many ideas I wanna do and I don't have much time (or money) left! But I had some great coupons so of course I HAD to use them

 

[noahsketomom]

Hi,

I am new to this thread. Just a word of introduction and a few questions.

We just got our Wish dates, May 18th - 24th, very quickly. Our daughter has DIPG, a brain tumor considered the worst possible (only google it if you want to be very depressed). While I am immensely grateful for Make A Wish acting so quickly to make sure she is goes so soon (while she can enjoy the parks), I am now realizing that the usual vacation is only 3 days in Disney and the rest Universal and Seaworld. She really won't care for the others nearly as much. My son will have a blast I am sure at Universal, but I am concerned that with only 3 days and 4 Disney parks, she will not get to see everything.

I know that Wish kids in bad condition sometimes get to go to the front of lines, but right now besides her double vision and limp she is doing amazingly well. Her stamina is an issue, but she will be able to use a stroller as a wheelchair, so I don't think she is bad off enough to qualify for front of the line. Given that this is going to be her only trip to Disney I want her experience as much as possible.

So here is my question. Can we do the whole 4 parks in 3 days and if not, what should we skip given that she is a 5 year old girl? I was thinking of skipping Epcot, but I think she would love some of the stuff (e.g. the Turtle Talk thing and doing the Kim Possible hunt with her brother). Any suggestions from those who have already gone? Many thanks.

Hi there! Welcome!

DATES -- yay!!

Two things (these may or may not have already been answered ) Forgive me if I'm repeating info!!

1. Your "GAC" (Guest Assistance Card) is given at the GKTW orientation and that will give you Fast Pass and/or Front of the Line access while at Disney. We didn't have to wait more than 10 min for any ride and many we got on right away. Although our son (almost 5) has a totally different diagnosis, stamina is a problem too. He napped every day we were there so make sure you get a stroller she can really rest in.

2. All 4 parks is doable, but you won't be able to do everything. We made lists of what we REALLY wanted to do at every park. In doing so, our "shorter list" parks were AK and Epcot, so we decided to do them on the same day. I think a lot of folks try to "squeeze" in Epcot since traditionally the little guys don't enjoy it as much. However, Epcot is one of the larger parks sizewise, so it is a LOT of walking. We were really bummed that we didn't even get to the World Showcase and we had really wanted to do the Kim Possible thing too. Oh, well! In a nutshell, I would just make a SMALLER list of must dos and just go with the flow -- we had a lot more fun the days we just kind of went with the flow....KWIM?

Can't wait to read about your plans and see pics of your fam!!

 

[owensdad]

Hi folks, quick question if anyone has the answer for me, looking through peoples TR's and the lovely pics i've noticed alot of folks wearing t-shirts with 'xxxx's make a wish trip' on it, do you folks make these yourselves? do MAW do them for you?

 

[casper_jj11]

I think either people have them made or make them themselves. I've been meaning to ask a similar question though. How hard are they to do for someone completely craft inept? I colour coordinate everyone so we have red days, yellow days etc. I would love for us all to have a special shirt for Sydney's trip but have no idea even where to start.

 

[alaskanabbott]

Hi folks, quick question if anyone has the answer for me, looking through peoples TR's and the lovely pics i've noticed alot of folks wearing t-shirts with 'xxxx's make a wish trip' on it, do you folks make these yourselves? do MAW do them for you?

Hi, I went onto a thread here for the design. I just posted that I was looking for a MAW design and had several people post designs right away.

here is the link to the tread
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=105

it was very easy to do, I'm no Martha Stewart either. Basically we boaught plain t-shirts, then bought transfer paper and followed the directions on the transfer paper. I did that for the first few shirts, then ended up calling our local printer and figured out is was cheaper when you consider the cost of the transfer paper and ink, to have them do it. I think I paid about $5 a sheet at the printer. It took my an hour to make 8 shirts. Good Luck, it was sooo fun to have those shirts

 

[cajunfan]

Hi folks, quick question if anyone has the answer for me, looking through peoples TR's and the lovely pics i've noticed alot of folks wearing t-shirts with 'xxxx's make a wish trip' on it, do you folks make these yourselves? do MAW do them for you?

I think either people have them made or make them themselves. I've been meaning to ask a similar question though. How hard are they to do for someone completely craft inept? I colour coordinate everyone so we have red days, yellow days etc. I would love for us all to have a special shirt for Sydney's trip but have no idea even where to start.

Hi folks! Iron ons are very easy to do! I am not sure how far out your trips are, but if you post a request for a DISign on the DISign thread, make sure you mention it it for a WISH TRIP and the dates. THe DISigners there are wonderful and very GENEROUS! But they also get many requests and therefor, sometimes it make take some time for you to get a DISign. I have some Wish Trip DISigns that I can cutomize and email them to you, just pm me with ones that you saw that you liked, and if I can't help, I will see if I can find someone that can.

A few tips...

...get your iron ons from amymickey.com...these are the best I have found and reasonable prices...better than Walmart
...if possible, the place that I have found that has the cheapest and best selection of tees is jiffyshirts.com...keep in mind..get cotton...you want something breathable down there!

Also, the white tshirts with the Make a Wish Logo generally come from your Wish Chapter, the cutomized ones were made by either the Wish Tripper or the Big Give. The ones that Alaskaabbott did were wonderful, and those DISigners have given me permission to customize those...


Lynn

 

[owensdad]

thanks for the advice folks, a lovely person in DISigns has done one for us and we'll be getting them printed soon hopefully.

 

[cajunfan]

thanks for the advice folks, a lovely person in DISigns has done one for us and we'll be getting them printed soon hopefully.

Those DISigns folks are FANTASTIC!!! They are such GENEROUS people!

Lynn

 

[maroo]

Hi guys!

I found a new Wish Trip Pre-Trip report!

NVDadof3 (Seth) Wish Trip MAW/GKTW Dates?

Let's head over there and say hello!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Hello everyone! I haven't posted over here in quite a while. But I just wanted to say that we finally have our dates...sort of We are booked at GKTW for June -23-29. But the date that I really want is June-18-24. So if someone cancels we will take that date. I doubt if anyone cancels though. So as of now we leave on 6-23!!!!

I was thinking about making some shirts or having some made also. I will check out the thread that was posted here and see what I can come up with. I have two months so that is plenty of time to do something special! I would love to have small little surprises for the kids each day..I just haven't figured out what kind of suprises yet, lol. See I have great starts to my ideas!! I just need some motivation!

 

[maroo]

Hello everyone! I haven't posted over here in quite a while. But I just wanted to say that we finally have our dates...sort of We are booked at GKTW for June -23-29. But the date that I really want is June-18-24. So if someone cancels we will take that date. I doubt if anyone cancels though. So as of now we leave on 6-23!!!!

I was thinking about making some shirts or having some made also. I will check out the thread that was posted here and see what I can come up with. I have two months so that is plenty of time to do something special! I would love to have small little surprises for the kids each day..I just haven't figured out what kind of suprises yet, lol. See I have great starts to my ideas!! I just need some motivation!

Woo Hoo for dates!

I added them to the first page of the thread and put your trip in date order with the rest of the trips with dates!

You will have lots of surprises from GKTW each day.

 

[owensdad]

You can add our dates too if you want, we now have confirmation that we will be at GKTW from Dec 6th to Dec 13th !!!!! seriously cant wait, Owen is soooo excited!

 

[casper_jj11]

Yeah for getting dates! It makes it all so much more real!

Maroo - I just had a look at the first page. First time since we had our dates I guess. Sydney's trip isn't actually with MAW. Its with the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada. No biggie, just thought I'd let you know. I've been searching for others that have gone with teh same organization and I"m not finding much so it may be worth changing in case others are in the same boat.