Maw Trip Reports

[wendygrace]

I have read all the trip reports already here and saw some people who were going this and last month and was wondering if anyone had a trip report they hadn't put up yet. I love to read them.

Ds may get a disney trip. He's 4 1/2 yrs old and his current wish is to fly with Peter (Pan). Not sure what they will do with that one. Anyone else's kid not wish specifically for Disney World but ended up there anyway because of what they did wish for?

Thanks.

(Ds doesn't really know about Disney. He doesn't really get it and I don't want to influence his wish at all since he really really does want to fly with Peter).

 

[Charleyann]

We went with the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada. His Package included Discovery Cove, Seaworld or Busch Gardens, Universal and 3 days Disney World!

He absolutely loved Disney. His wish there was to meet Princess Jasmine. He did and she rode on the magic carpets of aladdin with him!

He got sick on his trip with Beluga's and needed hospitalization, he returned this past October to do Discovery Cove.....well, the the video equiment broke and they were unable to give us video or picture We were then invited back and are finishing in wish on Christmas Day 2007 when he swims with Dolphins at Discovery Cove!

His wish has been going on three years! Each time we go back to his beloved Disney. This year, we are staying onsite for the first time and going over Christmas. We will spent 18 days at WDW !!!! (health permitting)

Charleyann

 

[SueM in MN]

I have read all the trip reports already here and saw some people who were going this and last month and was wondering if anyone had a trip report they hadn't put up yet. I love to read them.

Ds may get a disney trip. He's 4 1/2 yrs old and his current wish is to fly with Peter (Pan). Not sure what they will do with that one. Anyone else's kid not wish specifically for Disney World but ended up there anyway because of what they did wish for?

Thanks.

(Ds doesn't really know about Disney. He doesn't really get it and I don't want to influence his wish at all since he really really does want to fly with Peter).

Well, one way to fly with Peter would be to go to WDW and fly on Peter Pan's flight. I have seen Peter Pan in MK and my oldest DD had a chance to 'fly' with Captain Hook (she didn't go), so it would not be that hard to make that wish come true.

 

[wendygrace]

Charleyann, thanks for sharing. I hope you have a glorious and healthy 18 days at Disney. That's wonderful. And swimming with Beluga Whales is such a neat wish!

Sue, thank you for your input. I did see they have that ride. I wonder if they will do something special with him and Peter. It is just amazing how he loves Peter Pan. He has never even seen the movie so not even sure how he exactly got this wonderful idea but hey, I'm alright with it.

 

[2kids4us]

We are leaving for WDW in 9 days with Make a Wish!!! I am hoping to be on top of things and do a trip report as soon as we get back. We don't have any information yet.. we are supposed to get a box tomorrow! We don't even know where we are staying!!! It's killing me not to know since I am such a planner! On top of that, we are not allowed to tell our DD (who made the wish) when we are leaving!!! It will be a surprise for her next Friday at school! How magical!

 

[wendygrace]

I'm so excited for you! Please make a report if you have a spare minute. I am so excited. We just spoke with our wish grantors and it looks likely that we will be going to Disney based on ds' wish. We'll no more in about two weeks.

 

[Purple Princess]

Isn't it so exciting planning on such a wonderful and special trip??? We went on DD's Wish trip Nov. 14-20th and loved every minute of it! We stayed at Give Kids The World Village which is so special all on it's own. So many wonderful memories! I pray we can go again one day soon. I want to go back as bad as my children do LOL.

 

[wendygrace]

Ds had his "interview" yesterday but they came prepared for a Disney trip as we mentioned ds' wish when they scheduled. We're looking at going for his fifth birthday in late June (yikes!). They said that currently Peter Pan is not making "meet and greets" so they can't guarantee that he can meet Peter but we shall see. We are hoping to get a meal at Cinderella's Royal Table for ds' bday lunch. (dd is a big Cinderella fan and ds said that he wanted to go to disney so his sister could meet Cinderella and he could fly. it was too cute!). Hopefully the PP status will change with the movie coming out.

I am sooooooooo excited and are already thinking that we will just HAVE to go back for dd's bday in 22 months. LOL

 

[wendygrace]

Well, it looks like we can go for ds' bday however we wouldn't be able to stay at GKTW. So now we are debating whether we should go for his birthday in June and stay at whatever resort they can stick us in the last week in June or we can go a few days after ds' bday but its the weekend prior to Fourth of July and stay at GKTW but that scares me or just reschedule for another time (perhaps Sept?). Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Purple Princess]

Hello!
After staying at GKTW in November I can honestly say that I would prefer to stay there than at a hotel. There is soooo much to do that your whole family would love. Plus you get to have all your meals there, if you wish. You can still have your meals there even if you stay offsite but you'd have to travel back and forth and I personally wouldn't like that. Your son would receive little gifts each day at your Villa and my kids loved that. The atmosphere is incredible and I am just so happy we were blessed to stay there. My daughter was above their age limit but they made an exception in her case. That's how nice they are!!! We chose November after being told the same thing as you, that if we went in June we wouldn't be able to stay at GKTW as they were booked. After talking with our Wish chapter we decided to go in November instead. We hate the high temps that would have been in the 90's in the summer. Plus the hurricane season was about over and all the beautiful Christmas decor was up at all the parks! It was indeed a dream come true! Day temps ranged around the low 70's and eve temps did get chilly for Florida - around low 50's. Perfect for us! Just consider how your son would tolerate high temps due to his condition and meds, and if he would like all that GKTW has to offer. Let us know what you decide. It's so exciting to be planning such a trip isn't it? I so much hope we can go back to WDW again soon. And I certainly would visit GKTW again and see DD's star on the ceiling. It's a beautiful village.

 

[wendygrace]

We are still talking about this. I really need to make a decision or the decision will me made for us. LOL The rest of this year is out after June due to dh's work schedule so that would put us into 2008 and I'm not sure I want to wait that long. That leaves us with June 23-29 at another resort or June 27-July 3 at GKTW. I hear that weekend before the fourth is awfully crowded and ds and dh do not do well in crowds so I am trying to minimize it. I have kinda left it up to my dh but I think we're going to end up June 23-29 at another resort. I am so bummed but I'm also kinda excited that we may end up at a Disney resort. I am excited about planning this trip. The kids have really gotten into Disney recently and they can't wait. I really want to go for Christmas but there is no way we can do that with dh's job. Xmas time is there busiest time of year and they need him. Maybe some day. Anyone else have any thoughts? Anyone else do a MAW trip without staying at GKTW? How did it go? How did you manage the food/money situation?

Thanks!

 

[kayc86]

Hi my sons wish was in oct of 2002 and we stayed at GKTW and we have also gone to disney and stayed on site.Hands down there is no where like GKTW and if I could I waould stay there everytime.The way I see it is you will only get 1 wish so that is the only time you will ever be able to stay at GKTW,but you may be able to go back to disney another time and stay at a hotel there later on.if it was me i would do gktw,you will not be sorry there is just so much there.plus when you go to the parks you will get the GKTW pin and the MAW pin and you will not have to wait on any lines even if the park is busy.good luck and let us know what you do.

 

[jennydep]

Wendygrace, if I were in your position, I would wait till next year if needed to stay at GKTW. There is no other way to stay there except on a wish trip. Theoretically, you can stay onsite any time you go. When we were there in May of last year, there were a couple of families that were staying on Disney property. They felt like they were missing out by not being at the Village. Staying at the Village is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hold out and wait for it - it will be well worth the wait!

If you want to read my report and see some pictures, go to our family website at http://www.deputyfamily.net/mickey/index2.htm and scroll down to April 29.

 

[wendygrace]

Thanks for all the advice. And Jenny, thanks for the website. I will go check it out.

We have chatted with our wish grantor and we decided that we will request to leave a day later then originally requested and we will be guaranteed two days at the village and will be put on a wait list for the beginning of the week. They will reserve a disney hotel room for the first four or so days and we will wait. I don't mind "moving" in the middle of the week since I am not an "unpack on vacation" type of person and I was already planning on spending a good portion of the day light hours going to GKTW on the day we are guaranteed a villa at GKTW so it will work out either way. So it looks like we are leaving June 24, with a return of June 30th. Ds' bday is June 25th (and they are looking at getting us a reservation at the castle for bfast that day!). Guaranteed a room at GKTW June 28th and 29th with check in on the 27th I believe. And waitlisted June 24th through 27th. We are really excited and this gives us a decent compromise. I really think ds would do poorly the weekend before the fourth and I think that would have spoiled things a bit as we would have to stay put due to overstimulation. And it lets us have some ds' bday at MK where he really wants to be. We were so hoping this would be an "all done" with surgeries kinda trip but it looks like a "last fling" before we start an intensive round of surgeries. I hope we can use this trip to bolster his and his sister's spirits during his hospital stays.

Thanks again for all the thoughts. It really did help.

 

[Purple Princess]

Not true with the no waiting in lines! You are put into the wheelchair line, you do not bypass anyone. My daughter is already in a chair so there wasn't anything special done for us. The wheelchair line is shorter than the regular lines but you still have to wait. Our wait at Buzz ride was 30 minutes. Those in the regular line waited an hour. The pins didn't do anything specal for us. I was disappointed because I was told no waiting and so on... it isn't true so don't be upset if it doesn't happen. You'll be put into the wheelchair lines is all.

plus when you go to the parks you will get the GKTW pin and the MAW pin and you will not have to wait on any lines even if the park is busy.good luck and let us know what you do.

 

[jennydep]

Not true with the no waiting in lines! You are put into the wheelchair line, you do not bypass anyone. My daughter is already in a chair so there wasn't anything special done for us. The wheelchair line is shorter than the regular lines but you still have to wait. Our wait at Buzz ride was 30 minutes. Those in the regular line waited an hour. The pins didn't do anything specal for us. I was disappointed because I was told no waiting and so on... it isn't true so don't be upset if it doesn't happen. You'll be put into the wheelchair lines is all.

We were sent in through the exit on most rides. It may be different for people not using a wheelchair. We had no waits at all. Didn't the pin help you when meeting characters? The GAC got us to the front of the lines for rides and the pin from GKTW let us bypass lines for meeting characters.

Jenny

 

[Purple Princess]

Hi Jenny,

No, the pins honestly didn't get us any favors. It was disheartening but we still had a good time. We saw many families from GKTW waiting in line the same as us. They were put into the wheelchair lines as well even though their child walked. I don't understand why they make a difference like that, some bypass lines and others don't. I read how so many were bypassing lines before our trip and when it never happened to us it was a HUGE let down. We didn't see 2/3 of what we had planned due to all the ride waits. I just hope people will not say there are no line waits for the Wish kids because many times there are. It just causes a HUGE let down when it doesn't happen. We did have a good time but it wasn't what so many built it up to be concerning the ride waits and character waits. We actually DID wait.

GKTW is careful to say the pins "may"help bypass lines - not guaranteed. The badge says the child is on a Wish trip and to do what they can to help expedite the wait. Being in a w/chair my DD received no special treatement. But we still love WDW and our dream is to go again someday. Looking doubtful right now. I don't want others going on their trip to think they will bypass all lines because that is not the case, at least not for us and the several other families we knew there. Truth be told Universal were the ones who gave DD the royal treatment. She really did get placed in front of the lines. We got free photos at all the photo points. Truly a wonderful place!

 

[SueM in MN]

That is interesting about the MAW pins because we have been waiting in lines (specifically the Safari at AK, Jungle Cruise at MK and several shows) when the CMs have brought up a child on a MAW trip to the front of the line of people waiting with wheelchairs.

I wonder if there is a difference between kids who are medically stable at the time of the trip (ie, maybe they mostly wait where ever other people with wheelchairs are waiting) and those who are very medically fragile (who we have seen brought in exits of attractions while other people with wheelchair came in a different entrance).

Also - there is not a wheelchair line for Buzz Lightyear. The regular line is wheelchair accessible. So someone in a wheelchair who was sent ot the Fastpass line was being given special treatment compared to others using wheelchairs.

 

[Purple Princess]

Sue,
Yes, we were sent to the fastpass line for Buzz but still had to wait 30minutes. Better than the regular line that waited up to an hour we were told. There were a few chairs in the FP line so maybe they all had fastpass since you say chairs normally use the regular line. My DD is medically fragile, but still no difference in our situation with the other rides.
Not really complaining just wanting those about to go on their trip to realize they may very well not get any more than wheelchair access, which still waits. Many times the CM would see DD's badges and we asked if we were granted quicker access and they always said you have to use the wheelchair line. So being she is in one anyway....

 

[wendygrace]

We have our itinerary!! Well, our preliminary itinerary. We will be leaving bright and early on June 24th and returning in the evening on June 30th! We still don't know where we'll be staying but I'm so excited!! I have been on here since I got the mail just reading and reading. I am soooo excited!! I'll be calling our travel coordinator in the morning to see about character meals. I want a character meal darn-it! (or two!). Well, if they can manage it. But first I have to figure out when we're going where! Ahhhhh! I'm soooo excited!!