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

[jbrnhrt]

we are going on our WT sometime from middle of sept to end of oct. How much planning did you do for working your way around the parks? i see on other boards people using touringplans.com, but us wish trippers don't have to use FP, we go straight to the front of the lines, so I imagine that means we can get more in? We know our "must sees", is that all the planning we need to do? I don't want to be commando because my son gets tired fast, and he's one who likes to take his time and soak it all in. But I want him to have the best experience possible. I guess I"m answering my own question!

 

[rcq925]

Hi Everyone!
I have already posted on my PTR thread, but wanted to post it here too.....we have been asked to participate in The Big Give!!!!
We are so excited and honored that we will have some wonderful, talented and creative people helping make our trip unforgettable!!

Wow your are so lucky!! The Big Givers do some awesome stuff and I can't wait to see the pictures of your Big Gives! I love all of the custom outfits they do and everything they do to make a wish trip even more special!

 

[Soon2B4]

Hey everyone!

I have been MIA since Aidan's wish in December, I wish I had more time to stay on top of all the wonderful wish trips. With moving and 2 rambunctious kids, I don't have much time to myself! I was talking to a wish family that hasn't gone yet and wanted to make sure I told them correctly about Universal. Disney gives you 3 day with Park Hopper, Sea World gives 1 day with free animal feedings, and Universal gives 2 days with a "hopper". Is that correct? We didn't do Universal so I was a little fuzzy on that one. TIA for refreshing my memory! I have decided that kids drain your memory!

 

[rcq925]

I posted this on my PTR, but wanted to share it here as well!

We have just been invited to be part of the Big Give! I am so excited after seeing all of the wonderful things on past PTR's. I know this is a group of true angels that really dedicate their time and skills to make wish trips even better!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for selecting Hayley and our Family to be part of the Big Give!

We also had other fun news to celebrate. One of Hayley's make A Wish Volunteers, Karen, works for our local minor league baseball team the Tin Caps. She invited us to the game last night and Hayley got to throw out the first pitch of the game She was so excited and had so much fun! They said her name, that she was 6 years old and that she has Cystic Fibrosis. They also said that we were going on a Make A Wish trip to Disney in November and they showed her with her name and the Make A Wish logo on the big Jumbo scoreboard! I will post a picture later tonight or tomorrow. We got home late from the game and I am at work now.

Karen also got us awesome seats for the game right behind home plate! It was a great night, but VERY HOT!!! We may have sweated off a few pound, which my hubby and I could use!

We are almost down to less than three months and getting very excited!

 

[maroo]

Hello Everyone...I recently started a PTR for my daughter's upcoming MAW trip and I wanted to introduce my family. We are getting excited to plan for my daughter Chelsea's wish trip with dates TBD but hopefully sometime in Feb 2011. We have never been to Walt Disneyworld, Universal Studios or Seaworld so I am so happy to have found these boards and look forward to having such a great resource for planning our trip. I think I put a link to our PTR in my signature and I tried to do my best to introduce our family and give some background as to why our little love was given the chance to make a wish. I have enjoyed reading some PTR's and TR's and look forward to learning from them and getting to know everyone.

I have no idea how I missed this yesterday?!?! I will head over there shortly and put a link on page one of this thread!

to the wish trippers thread!!!!

Hi Everyone!
I have already posted on my PTR thread, but wanted to post it here too.....we have been asked to participate in The Big Give!!!!
We are so excited and honored that we will have some wonderful, talented and creative people helping make our trip unforgettable!!

Normally one water park will close at a time, and the first one will close around the end of October. This is necessary as all the pumps have to be torn down and rebuilt because of all the sand that gets in them. The November schedule shows TL Closed for the entire month. It does show the first closed day as October 31.

On the second Sunday in January (the 9th) Typhoon will reopen and the Blizzard will close. On the second or third Sunday in March you will then have both parks open again.

I would expect that Typhoon will always be the first one to close. Blizzard is themed to Christmas, so there would be minimal additional holiday decorations required.

Note that the 2008/2009 winter was an abberation; the floor of TL was badly cracked and they had to completely rebuild the Lagoon. To give you an idea of what was done, it required 26 days just to allow the concrete to cure.

Ah! The expert!! Thanks so much for the info!

we are going on our WT sometime from middle of sept to end of oct. How much planning did you do for working your way around the parks? i see on other boards people using touringplans.com, but us wish trippers don't have to use FP, we go straight to the front of the lines, so I imagine that means we can get more in? We know our "must sees", is that all the planning we need to do? I don't want to be commando because my son gets tired fast, and he's one who likes to take his time and soak it all in. But I want him to have the best experience possible. I guess I"m answering my own question!

Well...I kinda want to address the "straight to the front of the line"...it actually is not a straight FOTL pass for every attraction. Some attractions are FOTL - some you will go through the exit to get to the ride - some you will just use the FP line and you will still wait, but not in the regular line. There are a few rides where you may wait longer than other guests - especially if you require a wheelchair car or are behind other guests that need a wheelchair car.

I don't think you should worry too much about the crowd score...but using a site like Touringplans.com or Tour Guide Mike may help you decide the best parks to do on the best days...that will help avoid crowds in general and is always a good thing. You probably want to avoid DHS on a Fantasmic night, unless you want to see Fantasmic. You also want to avoid EMH nights, for the most part, because GKTW does not count as staying onsite and you might as well avoid those crowds.

Otherwise...yes!...go with the flow.

Generally on a wish trip, you won't make it at rope drop (you may, but there is a lot to do at GKTW in the morning that may "slow" you down). They have good breakfast, characters, a carousel and lots of activities going on at GKTW - so some families end up at the parks by midmorning and just stay until they are tired and come back to GKTW for the night activities. Of course, if you want to see something at a park (late show or fireworks or parade), then some families stay all day and into the night.

One other thing to consider as you plan...what GKTW activities do you want to do? Is the Christmas party important to you? Or the Birthday Party? If so, you will want to make sure you don't have your family going ot Fantasmic that night that you plan to be at the Christmas party...

Other than that...go with the flow. Things will happen on your trip (good and bad) that will take you off the plan - and just go with it. Magic will happen on these trips - always does. There is always a magical moment that families report back.

One more thing...always have your camera ready.

Hey everyone!

I have been MIA since Aidan's wish in December, I wish I had more time to stay on top of all the wonderful wish trips. With moving and 2 rambunctious kids, I don't have much time to myself! I was talking to a wish family that hasn't gone yet and wanted to make sure I told them correctly about Universal. Disney gives you 3 day with Park Hopper, Sea World gives 1 day with free animal feedings, and Universal gives 2 days with a "hopper". Is that correct? We didn't do Universal so I was a little fuzzy on that one. TIA for refreshing my memory! I have decided that kids drain your memory!

Yes! That is correct!

I posted this on my PTR, but wanted to share it here as well!

We have just been invited to be part of the Big Give! I am so excited after seeing all of the wonderful things on past PTR's. I know this is a group of true angels that really dedicate their time and skills to make wish trips even better!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for selecting Hayley and our Family to be part of the Big Give!

We also had other fun news to celebrate. One of Hayley's make A Wish Volunteers, Karen, works for our local minor league baseball team the Tin Caps. She invited us to the game last night and Hayley got to throw out the first pitch of the game She was so excited and had so much fun! They said her name, that she was 6 years old and that she has Cystic Fibrosis. They also said that we were going on a Make A Wish trip to Disney in November and they showed her with her name and the Make A Wish logo on the big Jumbo scoreboard! I will post a picture later tonight or tomorrow. We got home late from the game and I am at work now.

Karen also got us awesome seats for the game right behind home plate! It was a great night, but VERY HOT!!! We may have sweated off a few pound, which my hubby and I could use!

We are almost down to less than three months and getting very excited!

Awesome on the Big Give!

And how cool she got to throw out the first pitch!!! And get some PR for Make a Wish! That is awesome!

 

[J'sMum]

I posted mention of this on our PTR but wanted to mention here as well
We have some very busy bee's on this board I too was notified that we were chosen for the Big Give Thank You so much !!!!

 

[Mom2mitokids]

we are going on our WT sometime from middle of sept to end of oct. How much planning did you do for working your way around the parks? i see on other boards people using touringplans.com, but us wish trippers don't have to use FP, we go straight to the front of the lines, so I imagine that means we can get more in? We know our "must sees", is that all the planning we need to do? I don't want to be commando because my son gets tired fast, and he's one who likes to take his time and soak it all in. But I want him to have the best experience possible. I guess I"m answering my own question!

A lot of people makes plans...I am one of them, but they usually change once there. I agree...take the time to soak everything in. The last time we went to 1 park everyday. We didn't do the jumping from park to park. To me that's more work...maybe not though. We may do Animal Kingdom and Epcot in one day because we didn't go to Epcot the last time and only a few things the kids wants to do at AK.

 

[Mom2mitokids]

I posted this on my PTR, but wanted to share it here as well!

We have just been invited to be part of the Big Give! I am so excited after seeing all of the wonderful things on past PTR's. I know this is a group of true angels that really dedicate their time and skills to make wish trips even better!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for selecting Hayley and our Family to be part of the Big Give!

We also had other fun news to celebrate. One of Hayley's make A Wish Volunteers, Karen, works for our local minor league baseball team the Tin Caps. She invited us to the game last night and Hayley got to throw out the first pitch of the game She was so excited and had so much fun! They said her name, that she was 6 years old and that she has Cystic Fibrosis. They also said that we were going on a Make A Wish trip to Disney in November and they showed her with her name and the Make A Wish logo on the big Jumbo scoreboard! I will post a picture later tonight or tomorrow. We got home late from the game and I am at work now.

Karen also got us awesome seats for the game right behind home plate! It was a great night, but VERY HOT!!! We may have sweated off a few pound, which my hubby and I could use!

We are almost down to less than three months and getting very excited!

I'm so glad Hayley was chosen for the Big Give. They are all awesome in what they do. Can't wait to see all the cool stuff.
How cool that she got the throw out the first pitch. Can't wait to see pictures.

 

[Mom2mitokids]

I posted mention of this on our PTR but wanted to mention here as well
We have some very busy bee's on this board I too was notified that we were chosen for the Big Give Thank You so much !!!!

Yeah for Big Give!!!!!! Can't wait to see all the cool stuff.

 

[Mom2mitokids]

Hey everyone!

I have been MIA since Aidan's wish in December, I wish I had more time to stay on top of all the wonderful wish trips. With moving and 2 rambunctious kids, I don't have much time to myself! I was talking to a wish family that hasn't gone yet and wanted to make sure I told them correctly about Universal. Disney gives you 3 day with Park Hopper, Sea World gives 1 day with free animal feedings, and Universal gives 2 days with a "hopper". Is that correct? We didn't do Universal so I was a little fuzzy on that one. TIA for refreshing my memory! I have decided that kids drain your memory!

I know when we were there in 08..it was 3 WDW passes, 1 day Sea World with fee dolphin feedings, 1 day Universal, and 1 day IOA. I think the Universal and IOA has changed to the hopper passes though...from what I heard on here.

 

[dlewish]

I don't think you should worry too much about the crowd score...but using a site like Touringplans.com or Tour Guide Mike may help you decide the best parks to do on the best days...that will help avoid crowds in general and is always a good thing. You probably want to avoid DHS on a Fantasmic night, unless you want to see Fantasmic. You also want to avoid EMH nights, for the most part, because GKTW does not count as staying onsite and you might as well avoid those crowds.

!

I had a question similar to this. Would you advise to skip a park the has early EMH? We were thinking of AK on Monday of our trip but there are AM EMH. A lot of things I read are to avioid parks that have EMH. Does it make a big difference on a wish trip, esp. at AK?

Also, how hard is it to leave MK after wishes? Should we sit and wait until the mass of people leave? I've just been reading horror stories Maybe it's not that bad all the time

Thanks.

 

[xanphylus]

WoW! That is a whole lot of giving go on with the Big Give!! I can't wait!!! Congrats to everyone who was chosen, esp if I didn't make it to your page to tell you "in person". lol

 

[maroo]

I had a question similar to this. Would you advise to skip a park the has early EMH? We were thinking of AK on Monday of our trip but there are AM EMH. A lot of things I read are to avioid parks that have EMH. Does it make a big difference on a wish trip, esp. at AK?

Also, how hard is it to leave MK after wishes? Should we sit and wait until the mass of people leave? I've just been reading horror stories Maybe it's not that bad all the time

Thanks.

Well...I think this depends on a variety of factors. Do you have dates? If so...I can look at them and tell you which day I would do each park...

There are several things to consider including how crowded it is for that time of year and what things you want to do most...

Usually I would not worry too much about AM EMH...especially if there are PM EMH's at another park and maybe Fantastmic at DHS...It is all about trying to figure out which park will draw the most crowds and avoiding it. But if the only thing "going on" that day is a morning EMH, then I would be more inclined to avoid the park.

Generally...you sorta have to know what your kids want to do...

If their goal is to ride Toy Story a bunch of times, then you would want to go to DHS when they are NOT having Fantasmic and NOT having an EMH.

If you want to go to Epcot and just hang out and take pictures of World Showcase - then go right at 11 AM when it opens on any day and it will be mostly empty...the later it gets the more people show up.

You have the button...so you will be able to break some lines and you won't have to zig zag through the park to pick up fastpasses - so you can just stroll along and ride things as you get to them.

But shows, of course, have set times...

If my goal was to see every show at AK, then I would try to pick a day that had no EMH to draw extra people and go early -

So...I guess it just depends on what you want to accomplish.

I don't guess that helped...PM me your dates and I can tell ya how I would handle it.

 

[xanphylus]

Ok! I just had to come over here to the Wish Thread for my little celebration- it wouldn't do to have it on any other thread- it's my 500th post!!!!

Sorry- I had to! I feel like half my family is on this thread- soI just had to do this post over here, with you guys.... yes, I am a cheese ball & I you all!

 

[rcq925]

Ok! I just had to come over here to the Wish Thread for my little celebration- it wouldn't do to have it on any other thread- it's my 500th post!!!!

Sorry- I had to! I feel like half my family is on this thread- soI just had to do this post over here, with you guys.... yes, I am a cheese ball & I you all!

Woo hoo for your 500th post!!! Thanks for all you do for all the Wish Trippers!!

 

[rcq925]

Ok! I just had to come over here to the Wish Thread for my little celebration- it wouldn't do to have it on any other thread- it's my 500th post!!!!

Sorry- I had to! I feel like half my family is on this thread- soI just had to do this post over here, with you guys.... yes, I am a cheese ball & I you all!

I put pictures of Hayley throwing the first pitch at the baseball game on my PTF if anyone wants to check them out!

 

[Mom2mitokids]

Ok! I just had to come over here to the Wish Thread for my little celebration- it wouldn't do to have it on any other thread- it's my 500th post!!!!

Sorry- I had to! I feel like half my family is on this thread- soI just had to do this post over here, with you guys.... yes, I am a cheese ball & I you all!

Yeah!!!! Congrats!!!!! Can't wait to see you hit 1,000

 

[Mom2mitokids]

I put pictures of Hayley throwing the first pitch at the baseball game on my PTF if anyone wants to check them out!

Going over there now to see them.

 

[Mom2mitokids]

I had a question similar to this. Would you advise to skip a park the has early EMH? We were thinking of AK on Monday of our trip but there are AM EMH. A lot of things I read are to avioid parks that have EMH. Does it make a big difference on a wish trip, esp. at AK?

Also, how hard is it to leave MK after wishes? Should we sit and wait until the mass of people leave? I've just been reading horror stories Maybe it's not that bad all the time

Thanks.

We had no issues when Wishes ended. We were right at the castle. If I'm not mistaken..we went and had ice cream to let some of the crowd go. Totally worth the crowd though.

 

[dlewish]

thanks Maroo. I PM'd you. Our dates are in my little sig

We had no issues when Wishes ended. We were right at the castle. If I'm not mistaken..we went and had ice cream to let some of the crowd go. Totally worth the crowd though.

Thank you. I guess maybe it won't be too bad