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

[twinmum]

Hello! It's always so wonderful to pop back here and have a visit, relive the memories of our son's Wish Trip. I don't think I ever check in here without a tear coming to my eye...

I had to smile at your post about wanting this to be the "perfect" trip. I was SO like you! What was perfect was spending time together as a family, no appointments, lots of support. The fact that we spent the week at GKTW, WDW, Universal and SeaWorld was icing on the cake! Maroo is right, you have already done planning for all your own "must do's" and that's great. I sat down each night and reviewed them for the next day - my husband teased me about reviewing my battle plan!

But Maroo is right. Somehow, the magic just happens. And it's not always the same for each member of your family. For me, it was the very first morning at GKTW, when a volunteer carried our trays to our table and chatted for a bit. He was from Albany, visiting Orlando on a conference. his options that Sunday morning included visiting the parks, playing golf, relaxing at his hotel. The conference had also organized an opportunity to volunteer at GKTW...and with all those other possibilities, that is what he picked...because he wanted to give back. Never, ever have I felt as supported and touched as I did that week at GKTW.

I definitely recommend visiting the Wish Lounge. It's special and they are very keen to help you with anything.

You are all going to have a marvellous time!

Alison

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Last question (atleast for today)
Can anyone tell me their experience with Sea World? We are trying to decide if we even want to go there or if we would just have more fun staying at Disney or GKTW instead.
How does Sea World treat wish kids? do they get the same attention there as they would at Disney? Short wait times in lines?

Sea World was one our favorite parks because my kids love the animals. We were able to walk up the exits to the rides.I also found it difficult to get from rides to shows. We almost missed the Believe show and I would have been crushed had we missed it. I will have more in my TR

 

[that's nice]

I have had a couple of my wish families extend their stays and it has worked out great. I would talk with a wish co-ordinator in your chapters office. I encouraged the family to work with them in complicated scenarios. My (volunteer) job is to help make the wish a special experience and not to book airfare and car rental. The pros at the office know how to do that and they do a great job at it. Your wish granters will probably understand and they should be encouraging you to contact the office if they can't answer your questions. This is Juliana's one and only wish trip! Your wish granters want it to be special too. Not finding out if your date is available until October does not sound right to me. I have had families confirmed several months in advance.

Thanks for the info!

I've been following this thread (also Wish Trippers Volume 2 and possibly the very end of Volume 1) for a few years. One thing I have seen is every MAW chapter operates differently. Some chapters are very helpful and hands on in the planning, while others don't give you much information at all. It seems we have the 2nd one. That is fine... because unlike many of the families planning Wish trips, we have been blessed to be able to experience WDW already. Maroo, thinks this will be to our advantage, and I agree with her.


With that being said... I'm not sure if I will go past her granters and speak to someone at the MAW office. I already felt weird contacting her granter about this.

 

[jen-y]

Wow maroo that was awesome that post that you wrote to Jen was amazing and helpful to me too!!!!!

oh and Jen !!!!! I love all your questions, Often times a question you have asked has been one thats crossed my mind so pleaseee please keep asking I loveee how that works out so well.

Have you checked out those printable planners yet? I can be very creative with making things like that but with all the choas i have not had time and stumbled acrossed some really creative planners to help with itin's
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2114031&highlight=disney+printable+planner amazing stuff on this site so many talented people not just that link but all over the disboards

Might be helpful

Thanks for the link to the planners. I did not even know it was there. I will use that for sure.
DisBoard cracks me up. I thought I was a fanatic, but I am not even in the league. My sister and my friend just ordered backpacks for the trip that were reccomended on a thread especially for the best backpacks to take on the trip So funny to me, but I am sure now that they will have the best backpacks there.

 

[jen-y]

Ok. I decided to plan the first 3 days we will be there. That's when my family will be there, so I coordinated with them. Then the 2nd 1/2, when we will be there by ourselfs, we will "wing it".

 

[casper_jj11]

With that being said... I'm not sure if I will go past her granters and speak to someone at the MAW office. I already felt weird contacting her granter about this.

I completely understand you not wanting to speak with someone else. I don't think I would have done that. Our coordinator has been so wonderful. I think things are booked through head office for us because for any request, I get forwarded the response from head office. Its possible that if you speak with your coordinator and express your concern, she may offer to see what she can do about it and ask head office herself ... or you could ask if she could do that... that way you're not going above her, its her that's looking for information to help out. I'm pretty sure if they knew it was stressing you, they'd do what they could to help.

 

[yinyanggirls]

Hello everyone...

Welcome to all the 'new' families and a great big HI to all the 'old timers'.

We have been in contact with Juliana's (DD) wish granters and have found out that Connecticut MAW does not allow you to extend your trip. We were thinking of adding on 2 days to try to fit everything in and to visit with family too. I know many of you have extended your trips... so, ummm, how did you do it? Did you ask for 1 way tickets and buy your own for your return trip? Did you have round trip tix and just not show up for your flight home?

Our granters also told us that we will not be finding out if our dates of Dec. 1-7 are even approved until OCTOBER! So I guess I have to plan a trip I hope we are going on? They said GKTW doesn't give them any info till then. I donno..

I know some of you have had MAW chapters that were very helpful in planing, but it looks like we are on our own here.

Hi Tim ! I'm excited to see you here because that must mean you are getting closer to THE Trip! We were told no problem on our extension, thank goodness, but I did have the same problem as you in that it took a long time to get our dates. We found out she was approved very quickly, but then it took months before they approved the second set of dates we requested and after that it took forever to get details like flight times. I also inquired about meeting Blue (not her wish, but something I thought they might have pull with, if we went over to the Nick hotel) and they said they would look into it and then never said another word about it. Whenever I asked the (very very sweet) wish coordinator a question she had to ask the main office so I started to feel like maybe I should just have their number? It is frustrating to try and plan the perfect trip without essential details but many have been there and can commiserate with you. Not that it makes you feel better, Ha!

Last question (atleast for today)
Can anyone tell me their experience with Sea World? We are trying to decide if we even want to go there or if we would just have more fun staying at Disney or GKTW instead.
How does Sea World treat wish kids? do they get the same attention there as they would at Disney? Short wait times in lines?

We did Sea World our first park day and I have lots of info and pics on my TR. (Second post has a Table of Contents so you can find that one fairly quickly). To sum it all up, I chose it because it was a weekend and I thought it would be less crowded than Disney (it wasn't crowded at all). I was planning to do ALL the parks anyway, and we didn't have high expectations. I figured we would go and if we were done two hours later, no big deal. We were there several hours and we had a few memorable experiences. We all enjoyed feeding the dolphins, my younger dare devil enjoyed Atlantis (roller coaster) and picking a pearl from the oyster divers in the tank and three of us enjoyed dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill. (My wish child slept through it, but because of her the manager ushered us in ahead of the waiting list and gave us a front row table next to the tank). I didn't feel like my wish child got a lot of enjoyment out of the park, but that's very individual. I wish we had walked the park a little differently than we did, because we ended up missing Happy Harbor (little kid area) and the Clydesdales entirely which are probably the things she would have enjoyed most, other than the dolphins.

 

[maroo]

What a great site. I can't stop reading.
We are waiting for our dates for WDW. They are shooting for the eand of Aug.

I saw you had a pretrippie started! I will post it on the first post of this thread and go check it out!

I am totally addicted to this site!

Thanks for the info!

I've been following this thread (also Wish Trippers Volume 2 and possibly the very end of Volume 1) for a few years. One thing I have seen is every MAW chapter operates differently. Some chapters are very helpful and hands on in the planning, while others don't give you much information at all. It seems we have the 2nd one. That is fine... because unlike many of the families planning Wish trips, we have been blessed to be able to experience WDW already. Maroo, thinks this will be to our advantage, and I agree with her.


With that being said... I'm not sure if I will go past her granters and speak to someone at the MAW office. I already felt weird contacting her granter about this.

Very true! We always talked directly to the MAW office, though - her wish granters were so sweet and came and met her and such, but as far as detailed information, we always got that from our MAW office.

Thanks for the link to the planners. I did not even know it was there. I will use that for sure.
DisBoard cracks me up. I thought I was a fanatic, but I am not even in the league. My sister and my friend just ordered backpacks for the trip that were reccomended on a thread especially for the best backpacks to take on the trip So funny to me, but I am sure now that they will have the best backpacks there.

I think I may be in the league...

The things I have learned from the DIS include everything from national news events, how to get a discount on shoes and anything I order online, how to get major discounts on resort rooms and an addiction so bad that I have been to Disney 7 times since 2008 (including the wish trip)...so .... yeah...I think I am an official DIS addict!

 

[Mom2mitokids]

My daughter is getting a wish and would love to do a pre trip. How do you set it up? Her wish granter will be here today, so we don't have exact dates yet.

 

[jen-y]

Thanks for the info!

I've been following this thread (also Wish Trippers Volume 2 and possibly the very end of Volume 1) for a few years. One thing I have seen is every MAW chapter operates differently. Some chapters are very helpful and hands on in the planning, while others don't give you much information at all. It seems we have the 2nd one. That is fine... because unlike many of the families planning Wish trips, we have been blessed to be able to experience WDW already. Maroo, thinks this will be to our advantage, and I agree with her.


With that being said... I'm not sure if I will go past her granters and speak to someone at the MAW office. I already felt weird contacting her granter about this. [/QUOTE


If you don't want to contact anyone at the office now, then your chance will be when the office contacts you to make the actual plane reservations.

 

[J'sMum]

Ok I have a question that keeps floating around my brain for those of you who have been to disney/GKTW before.

My kiddos are 14 and 17 but are sorta Very Young emotionally(sheltered a wee bit by this over paranoid mum) Will my kids miss out if we do not do a ADR ? from what I am seeing you have to prepay for those? And they look awefully expensive. We was thinking about each day leaving 1/2 day to go eat lunch at GKTW relax for awhile then go back out to the parks. The night we plan to stay out later (hoping for only 1 late night for fireworks so DS can rest) I figured we could just have a snack and maybe have some food waiting back at the villa from walmart or something if we are too late to eat at GKTW itself. What do you guys think?

 

[maroo]

My daughter is getting a wish and would love to do a pre trip. How do you set it up? Her wish granter will be here today, so we don't have exact dates yet.

to the DIS! and to the wish trippers thread!

I see your user name - I assume your DD has mito? We have another family that did a wish trip for her son (cancer) and has recently found out her youngest daughter has mito - she pops in here from time to time.

To do a pretrip report - see Post 2 on this thread - it is on the first page, but past all of the wish trip links - you will see it. I have hints on there for creating a pre-trip report and posting pics.

Ok I have a question that keeps floating around my brain for those of you who have been to disney/GKTW before.

My kiddos are 14 and 17 but are sorta Very Young emotionally(sheltered a wee bit by this over paranoid mum) Will my kids miss out if we do not do a ADR ? from what I am seeing you have to prepay for those? And they look awefully expensive. We was thinking about each day leaving 1/2 day to go eat lunch at GKTW relax for awhile then go back out to the parks. The night we plan to stay out later (hoping for only 1 late night for fireworks so DS can rest) I figured we could just have a snack and maybe have some food waiting back at the villa from walmart or something if we are too late to eat at GKTW itself. What do you guys think?

I don't know that you will really know the difference as far as missing out on an ADR? Unless you just wanted to eat out?

You have LOTS of options at GKTW to eat including eating Ice Cream (and they have some other snacky foods there, too) anytime from pretty early in the morning until pretty late at night? Till maybe 9:00 PM?

And the Gingerbread House is their cafeteria style place with breakfast, lunch and dinner each day.

Katies Kitchen is Boston Market food and you can pick it up at the little booth there or have it delivered to your room (I think?).

And you can order pizza till pretty late at night - I want to say until 10 PM? Or maybe 11?


It will take some time to transport yourself from GKTW to the parks - for example, to get to the MK you will have to drive to the MK parking lot (which probably takes 25 min?) and then take either a monorail or boat to the actual park - so transportation there and back can take quite a while, especially during rush times.

I love taking a break during the day on my trips, though - it makes it feel like we get two days worth of fun - if that makes any sense.

You can also have Pizza delivered to the pool, I think - so you could hang out and swim for a bit at GKTW and then head back for evening stuff.

Triple check Disney's hours even up to the day you go - because they can change - but usually adding hours, not taking any away.

 

[kctwinmommy]

My daughter is getting a wish and would love to do a pre trip. How do you set it up? Her wish granter will be here today, so we don't have exact dates yet.

Hi Kris! Nice to see you over here!! I didn't realize she hadn't had her MAW yet! Good for you guys!!

 

[Mom2mitokids]

to the DIS! and to the wish trippers thread!

I see your user name - I assume your DD has mito? We have another family that did a wish trip for her son (cancer) and has recently found out her youngest daughter has mito - she pops in here from time to time.

To do a pretrip report - see Post 2 on this thread - it is on the first page, but past all of the wish trip links - you will see it. I have hints on there for creating a pre-trip report and posting pics.



I don't know that you will really know the difference as far as missing out on an ADR? Unless you just wanted to eat out?

You have LOTS of options at GKTW to eat including eating Ice Cream (and they have some other snacky foods there, too) anytime from pretty early in the morning until pretty late at night? Till maybe 9:00 PM?

And the Gingerbread House is their cafeteria style place with breakfast, lunch and dinner each day.

Katies Kitchen is Boston Market food and you can pick it up at the little booth there or have it delivered to your room (I think?).

And you can order pizza till pretty late at night - I want to say until 10 PM? Or maybe 11?


It will take some time to transport yourself from GKTW to the parks - for example, to get to the MK you will have to drive to the MK parking lot (which probably takes 25 min?) and then take either a monorail or boat to the actual park - so transportation there and back can take quite a while, especially during rush times.

I love taking a break during the day on my trips, though - it makes it feel like we get two days worth of fun - if that makes any sense.

You can also have Pizza delivered to the pool, I think - so you could hang out and swim for a bit at GKTW and then head back for evening stuff.

Triple check Disney's hours even up to the day you go - because they can change - but usually adding hours, not taking any away.

Thank you Maroo. I did look, but still confused. I'll go check it out again. My youngest actually went on her MAW trip to Disney World in Nov.08. I just wish I knew about this board back then. She unfortunately has a more complex case of Mito than Korissa.

 

[dlewish]

Did anyone bring extra drinks to the parks? How did you store them? My dd is picky at times and I want to make sure I have a few things she will drink and eat. Can you fit a soft sided cooler in the storage area of the park strollers?

Also, does anyone know if I can take a juice box w/a straw to AK? Will they take it away b/c of the straw?

Thanks.

 

[wishin' on a star]

Did anyone bring extra drinks to the parks? How did you store them? My dd is picky at times and I want to make sure I have a few things she will drink and eat. Can you fit a soft sided cooler in the storage area of the park strollers?

Also, does anyone know if I can take a juice box w/a straw to AK? Will they take it away b/c of the straw?

Thanks.

We didn't bring extra drinks to the park this time, but I know many people do. We took advantage of the free water from any counter service restaurants, and otherwise just bought drinks at meals. I don't think you could get a soft sided cooler in the pouch of the park stroller. I just found a picture of the storage pouch...scroll down on this page: http://www.teaching-tiny-tots.com/toddler-travel-disney.html This is a single stroller, but on the double it's the same, just across the back. We also tried putting things on top of the stroller, but it sagged onto the rider's head. We carried a backpack every day, but hubby left more and more out of it every day to make it lighter. I don't think he would have been happy if I had tried to bring drinks in to carry also!

I'm not sure about juice boxes at Animal Kingdom, but that's a good question.

 

[jen-y]

We didn't bring extra drinks to the park this time, but I know many people do. We took advantage of the free water from any counter service restaurants, and otherwise just bought drinks at meals. I don't think you could get a soft sided cooler in the pouch of the park stroller. I just found a picture of the storage pouch...scroll down on this page: http://www.teaching-tiny-tots.com/toddler-travel-disney.html This is a single stroller, but on the double it's the same, just across the back. We also tried putting things on top of the stroller, but it sagged onto the rider's head. We carried a backpack every day, but hubby left more and more out of it every day to make it lighter. I don't think he would have been happy if I had tried to bring drinks in to carry also!

I'm not sure about juice boxes at Animal Kingdom, but that's a good question.

I may go to Babies R' Us and see if there are some inexpensive accessories I can buy for the stroller. For example, what about the hooks that can hang on the handle and then you can hang bags from the hooks or even a small soft cooler? Also, last time I went I brought a cheap clear plastic shower liner and used to cover the entire stroller when it downpoured.

I hear ya on the backpack thing. We did the same thing. The backpack started to get really heavy and bulky, so we also started seeing what we could do without.

 

[brookerene]

My son's kidney transplant was cancelled this week when we took him in for the transplant and they found he had peritonitis. So now we are having to reschedule amongst all the hectic schedules of ourselves, Drs and school. I sent an email a little while ago to our MAW wish grantor. My question is how flexible were you experiences when having to change your plans? He is so excited about GKTW, that if we change our trip to Sept and the transplant afterwards, that if he didn't get to stay there he would be greatly disappointed. I hope we can change it without too much trouble on everyone's part. We can't go later in the season due to being on a ranch and weather, etc.... so if not this Sept then it would be another whole year before things would work to go. Is MAW usually prepared for these changes? I would assume they would be due to the nature of illness. What are your expereinces? Thanks

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

I am sorry to hear that. huge hugs! I think they would be very understanding. We had to cancell Ty's MAW trip in Feb due to my fil being very ill and were able to reschedule to July with no problem. They took care of everything and were so very nice. I had nothing to worry about on my end. I just gave them the dates that worked for us and they called and reserved our stay at GKTW shortly after. I am sure they will work with you

 

[Mom2mitokids]

Hi Kris! Nice to see you over here!! I didn't realize she hadn't had her MAW yet! Good for you guys!!

Cindy...Kylee got one and now Korissa will be getting hers.