Owen's Make A Wish Come True

[Owensheart]

Next up was Kali River Rapids. It was FREEZING at the park on the day we went. Ok. I use the term "freezing" because we live in Arizona and we are used to heat. It was about 65 degrees out. This was Owen's first rapids ride and he LOVED it. Kamryn and I were soaking wet after the first trip down the mountain, but Owen really wanted to go again, so off we went to get soaked a second time! Owen and Daddy stayed dry.

Our next ride was Expedition Everest. It was so. much. fun. Kamryn and Daddy went on it while I fed Owen and took a potty break. Then Daddy took Owen to Dinoland so Kam and I could ride it twice in a row. We had the GAC so we had automatic tickets to all fastpass entrances. Otherwise, the line was long.

In Dinoland we found this crazy little coaster. Daddy and Kam took a turn while I took Owen on the Triceratops (dumboish) ride. Then I took a turn on this one with Kam and I about puked. You spin in circles while going up and down like a coaster. No thanks.

Owen decided that he loved the Triceratops ride and we rode it about four times total.

After Dinoland, we headed to Flame Tree BBQ for counter service. Carson found the best little spot to eat. It was quiet on the water and the kids chowed down on bbq ribs and chicken. The food was pretty great.

We decided to call it a day at around 2pm. Owen was tired, there was a chill in the air and we had Christmas at GKTW in just a few hours.

When we got back to the village, I took a picture of the House of Hearts. This is the lobby for GKTW.

That evening, we changed into our Christmas clothes that we received from the Big Give. Owen wanted to ride on the carousel and we were so surprised to find Santa wanted to join in on the fun. How many kids get to ride a carousel with Santa? It was great! I have some fun video of Owen chatting him up.

Next up, we decided to meet Santa at Julie's Safari theatre. Then went to Santa's closet to pick out a gift.

Kamryn picked out Catch Phrase and Owen got a Bumble Bee Transformer.

After that, we decided it was time to ride the horse drawn carriage ride around the village. We jumped on before there was a line and the cutest little guy was on there with us. He reminded me of Forrest Gump as a child with his accent (without the stutter).. such a sweet boy.

Then we headed to the Gingerbread House for Christmas Dinner. We saw Mrs. Clause, The Gingerbread man and had a great turkey dinner.

Before we knew it, we were back to the House of Hearts for cookie decorating, the parade and dancing with more characters. Owen loved these little Village activities so much.. I'm glad we made it a priority to get back to GKTW so he could enjoy them.

Loved Rudolph and Frosty.. they were so great to spend time with each kid.

Kamryn was chilling with Daddy and enjoying the craft tables. She wasn't as excited to dance and hug on characters.

Then there was snow. Oh.. the snow! Owen has never seen snow before and you would have thought it was gold blowing out of the machine. He went crazy and it was really just bubbles.

Sidenote.. we have plans to visit a cabin next month to sled and enjoy some powdery white stuff!

On our way back to the villa after our long day. After the kids took another long bubble bath in the jet tub, they crashed hard.


This is one of my favorite photos from the trip!! Owen's wish was to go to Disney and see the characters. He just adored them all so much!!!

 

[SandalwoodMomof3]

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip!! Owen's wish was to go to Disney and see the characters. He just adored them all so much!!!

This is one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. You are such a beautiful family and I am enjoying your trip!

 

[Moodyzblu]

Such wonderful pictures !! It makes me so happy to see Owen enjoying himself SO much.
You got some great shots during the safari ! My favorite part of AK.

Wonderful trip report so far !

 

[hey_jude]

Judy.. the bag was perfect!! I used it every single day and got a bunch of comments. Loved it!! Thank you!

You are very welcome! I've had that basic design in mind for a while, just waiting for the right Mickey-loving family to give it to. I do have to give credit to Heather for the design of the Mickey gloves, though. They really do make the bag!

Judy

 

[dianemom2]

Looks like you had another awesome day full of great fun! I love the picture of Owen kissing Goofy's nose. I can't ride the spinning roller coaster at AK either. It totally makes me sick I love the safari ride. I totally forget that I am in Florida. It really feels like you are in Africa. Disney did an amazing job with that ride!

 

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

Enjoying all your photos and your trip report!

 

[Owensheart]

We woke up to a beautiful morning on Friday. We had to get up and on the road in order to make our 9am reservations at Confisco's. We were excited to eat breakfast with The Grinch, the Who's and the Cat in the Hat! The first Who that came around was a familiar face from our first day at IOA. He was the manager that arranged Owen's super cool meeting with the superheros. He totally remembered us and was showing Owen some magic tricks.

This was Kamryn's plate.. eggs, waffles, and a rice krispy treat Grinch mountain. Yum.

The Cat in the Hat is a big hit at our house. Owen watches him every morning on PBS kids.

There were a few Whos around the restaurant and I have no idea how they get their noses to look so realistic. Way cool!

Speaking of make-up.. introducing the Grinch!! He was HILARIOUS, a little disgusting and totally had us cracking up!!

He jumped in Daddy's lap and was calling him "Besties". Then said our shirts were "SOOOO Unoriginal". I love how he stayed in character the entire time!! This was such a fun breakfast!!

We had a quick family shot with the Grinch before he turned around and made the photographer get a photo of his buns.

My kids loved the Grinch and later we were back to watch the Merry Grinchmas musical in Dr Suess Land. It was so great!!

After breakfast, we decided to head over to Universal Studios to check it out.

We started with the Shrek 4D show... then had a quick meeting with Shrek and Donkey. They were as silly as always.

It started getting warm and we had to change out of our jeans and put on shorts. I had to take a picture of Kamryn in her jeans first. We had no less than 5 people stop us and ask where we bought them!

We headed over to the ET ride, but Owen was not a fan of the alien being captured. The woody woodpecker rollercoaster saved the day and we rode it three times in a row. Then we found this bunch that we had the pleasure of seeing at GKTW a few nights prior.

Next up was the Simpson's ride.. ugh.. none of us were digging that motion ride. It was CRAZY!!! We needed a real thrill ride so we headed to the Rockin Rollercoaster when this nice man stopped us. He wanted to give Owen a guitar pick necklace, just because. He made him a necklace right there at his shop and wished us a good day! So sweet.

Here is Daddy and Kamryn getting strapped into the Rollercoaster. It was seriously SO fun!! You can pick your own music and it then goes straight up 90 degrees before dropping you into a serious of corkscrews. My kind of fun!

Kamryn went on three times in a row before we were done. They didn't make us wait at all. Universal was amazing!!!

It was getting hot and humid so we decided to leave Universal and head back to Islands of Adventure. Then we found Tim!! Owen loves Despicable Me and even had a Minion party last year and was a Minion for Halloween. He was SO excited to see the little yellow tatertot, as we call them.

Oh Tim.. you were an unexpected surprise that made Owen a very happy boy!!

Cat in the Hat was the first on Owen's list when we got back to IOA. Owen LOVED this ride and they let us go a couple times in a row.

We then very cute and silly Suess inspired carousel ride. It passed the time until we could get into the next Merry Grinchmas show. After the show, we rode on the fish ride from Day 1 and I got soaked again. Good times.

We stopped for a few souvenirs on our way out of Universal and decided to head back to the village.

 

[Owensheart]

Daddy had blisters so we headed to the House of Hearts for bandaids. When we got there, we found out there was a package waiting for us.. more Mickey Mail!! I'll leave it a surprise until tomorrow.

Owen rode on this boat forever and then went inside to play with the touch screen computers. He could have been happy at the village the entire week!!

Before dinner, we headed to the Star Castle to find Owen's star. It's on the upper left corner of the circle in the new star tower, by the bumble bee. Tough to see, but we know it's there forever!!

Daddy was exhausted and called it an early evening after dinner. The kids and I were ready for the Princess and Pirates party by the pool!! Each kid got a bandana and Owen got a beard. We danced and danced for at least an hour. SO fun!!

As we were leaving, we found pirate Shamu!

It was a great day and our last night at Give Kids the World Village. We had to check out the next morning. We were sad to say goodbye. The kids took a long bath in the Jet tub and it overflowed with bubbles. Then I did a final villa clean up before bed.

 

[Owensheart]

I woke up early this morning and finished up any last loads of laundry. It was packing day as we had to move out of Give Kids the World. We were all sad that our stay at the village was over. We took our last walk past Old Elmer.. the snoring tree. Then we had our last meal at the Gingerbread House. Owen got to ride the carousel one last time and we headed back to the villa to load up.

We got to the House of Hearts about fifteen minutes after check out time. They gave us a CD full of our village pictures and Owen's village idol video. Then we got a passport to the world which will allow us to visit many themeparks in the nation for free over the next year. On our list is Six Flags, Magic Mountain, and Legoland California. It was very generous of them!!

I can't explain how sad we were to leave GKTW, but we will be back to visit in the future!! In a few years, I would love to bring the kids back. We can never stay at the village again, but we can visit anytime and enjoy the amenities.

We made arrangements with our rental car company to switch out the credit card on file to extend our van for the remainder of our stay. There is a car center at Disneyworld which made the transfer convienient.

We had the option to extend our Make A Wish trip, out of pocket, up to seven days. We took full advantage of this opportunity, which allowed us more down time during our trip. I booked a Disney package at Port Orleans French Quarter and the promo rate was a Free Disney Dining package for the entire family.

Our new hotel was so adorable. It was themed after New Orleans and Mardi Gras. There was a very animated man at the front door that would hand out coin tokens each day and they were always handing out Mardi Gras beads. It was so fun!!

We got checked in and they were so kind to upgrade us to a riverview room on the first floor of building 5. Building 5 is the closest to the lobby, restaurant and all the action. We had the best room in the entire hotel. There were cobblestone walkways, a man made river and a ferry that passed by every 20 minutes taking guests to the Port Orleans Riverside resort and Downtown Disney.

We got our oxygen tanks, luggage was brought down by the bellhop and we got settled into our room.

After a long rest, we headed to the Ferry dock to get a sunset ride to Downtown Disney.

This was our hotel on our way down the river.

The boat ride was long and relaxing.. Downtown Disney was not. It was a madhouse!! We were letting the kids buy their souvineers for the trip and we planned to grab some dinner.

The Lego Store did not disappoint. Owen is starting to get interested in Legos and so we had fun looking around at all the creations.

This giant dragon was made of Legos.. how cool is that??

After a stop at the World of Disney, we headed to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. It was so yummy and we experienced our first free meal. Here is my attempt of getting a photo of Downtown Disney District on our way back to the hotel.

I was so glad to have a slower day like today. The theme parks are all fun, but it was so nice to have a few days to just relax.

 

[Owensheart]

We slept in Sunday morning and made our way to the restaurant at our hotel. They had great counter service options for breakfast. Why does free food always taste so much better? Anyway... after we finished eating, we decided to explore the hotel a bit.

We loved the alligator marching band statues between the playground and the pool. I didn't get a photo of the pool, but it was a giant dragon with a huge waterslide for the tongue.

This is the ferry dock outside our hotel room. You can see the ferry in the background that we rode the evening before on our way to Downtown Disney.

Our hotel room is on the bottom left hand corner, first floor. I loved opening all the blinds to see my river while we were relaxing in our room.

It was around noon before we finally loaded up and headed to Epcot!!

Kamryn was totally excited to visit Epcot and the countries. We started out by stopping at Guest Services so I could get a renewed "stroller as wheelchair" tag for Owen. While there, the manager saw our expired GKTW GAC and renewed for for me! She changed the end date of our trip and put her extension on there in case we were given any trouble. The GKTW GAC allowed us front of the line access to all character greetings and automatic Fastpass entrance to all the rides. It was very generous of her to extend it for us!!

We started out with the Finding Nemo ride and it was way too slow for us. We headed to Soarin next and the kids LOVED it!! Owen had never been on it due to the height requirement, but this trip, we went on it twice in a row.

We decided to head to Germany to see if we could get into Le Cellier for lunch, but that didn't happen. I called WDW dining and made reservations in Norway for a character lunch at 3. It gave us plenty of time to head to the big Epcot ball for a ride through the history of technology. It was very cool! I remember this ride from our last trip to Epcot when I was 10. That was a long time ago!

Towards the end of the ride, the computer asks you a series of questions about your future. Apparently Kamryn and Daddy were scuba divers? Owen and I took a space ship while we traveled the world.

We jumped off the ride and decided a snack was in order. Owen asked for popcorn kernels, not the popcorn, but the kernels. He is strange like that. The cast member said that is one request she had never heard before, so she gave Owen his own cup of kernels. Kamryn had some strawberry slush that was super yummy.

If you look really carefully, you can see the giant Epcot ball in the background.

We took a ride on Test Track and it was fantastic!! Rumor has it that Test Track inspired the new Lightening McQueen ride at Cars Land in California Adventure. I sure hope so.. it was so fun!!

Next up, was Mission Space. I skipped this one and sent Daddy and Kamryn on their way.

It was time to start heading to Norway for our lunch, but first, stopped to take a picture of the World Showcase. It's a bad photo, but you can see some of the countries in the background.

On our way to Norway, we had to explore Mexico and look who we found. We hadn't found Donald in any parks yet, so this was a special treat.

 

[Owensheart]

We notified the restaurant that we had arrived and it took only five minutes before we heard "The Royal Simmons Family.. your table is ready!"

Akshersus was really yummy! The princess interactions were way cool, if your kids are into princesses. Owen liked Cinderella, but she is blond, and he has a soft spot for blonds.

He even let Cindy kiss his forehead and leave him a lipstick souvenir.

Kamryn was a little cool for the princesses, but she had a good time anyway.

The kids got the glowing straw cups with Buzz and Tinkerbell. Owen thought that was pretty great!

Kamryn's favorite princess has always been Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty!

Ariel was sweet, but my kids were ready to eat and not pose for pictures.

Snow White got dissed. She was so sweet and had the softest voice and Owen wanted nothing to do with her. He doesn't know this princess and was totally not interested. I'm sure she recovered just fine as there were a bunch of little girls dressed up as princesses so excited! Kamryn was that age once.. what happened? Ha.

Our waitress brought out a desert sampler and there were chocolate sticks on the chocolate mouse. Owen loved it so much and asked the waitress for one more. She then brought Owen an entire to go box full of chocolate sticks!! This was what was left at the end of the night.. Owen ate them all! I need to find these at a store somewhere.

When we left the restaurant and walked into the pouring rain. The kids had their ponchos in the stroller and Carson ran to buy some for us. Kamryn really wanted to visit France and see the Eiffel Tower. It turns out it's just a prop on top of a building and you can't really see it.. bummer. We did find Marie though!! My kids LOVE Marie!!

Here is Kam's photo in France. We'll make it to the real Paris one day!

Our day at Epcot was cut short when the thunder started. We were tired and couldn't wait to get back to our hotel, dry off, and watch some movies. I ran down to the hotel restaurant to use up some of our snack credits on Beignets, salad and pizza and brought it back to the room. We watched The Grinch on tv and everyone fell asleep early!

 

[reelmom]

Too funny about the popcorn kernels! Publix sells a wonderful chocolate ganache cake that has those chocolate sticks on it. Maybe you can ask them to just sell you the sticks.

 

[dancer4one]

I have enjoyed looking at your Disney pictures! You have a very sweet family!

 

[jessica52877]

Kamryn could be Sleeping Beauty! She is so pretty and favors her.

 

[Owensheart]

We slept in until 9am on Monday and planned to kick around all morning. Remember the Mickey Mail we received at GKTW? We received Tye Dye Mickey shirts, in Christmas colors of course!! I was so excited that we had another Magic Kingdom day planned!

We started our morning with a big breakfast at our hotel. I loved the festive Mardi Gras masks all over the ceiling.

After breakfast, we headed to the hotel gift shop to grab some souvenirs. I tried to get Owen to buy the Santa Mickey ears.. but he wasn't having it.

I loved this festive tree in our hotel lobby.

We had reservations for lunch at Crystal Palace, so we had a lot of relaxing time before heading to Magic Kingdom.

The entrance to Magic Kingdom...

I know I've said it before, but there is just nothing as perfect as Disney at Christmastime.

Their was rain all morning, but it was starting to clear up by the time we got to the park.

We had round 2 at Crystal Palace and this time we got to see Tiger!! My kids LOVE Tiger.. but who doesn't?

Eyeore was there again too, of course!

Oh.. and our favorite little Piglet!! We missed her the other morning as well.

The lunch buffet at Crystal Palace was pretty delicious!! The deserts were Owen's favorite and I found chocolate shavings on the chocolate mouse to put on top of his ice cream.

Kamryn liked the Hazelnut cannolis.. yum!

Owen was chillin out with Daddy feeling his scratchy beard. I love this photo!!

After a very filling lunch, we headed to Tinkerbell's Forrest to find Vidia. She was Sassy and totally in character!!

Tinkerbell was so sweet and Owen thought she was cute.

Kamryn has always loved Tinkerbell and the fairies. She read the entire series of Fairies books when she was little.

When we left the magical Forrest, we headed right into the Tiki Room. I know this can be kinda lame, but we love the Tiki room. I was bummed that we were just way too full for the Pineapple Dole Whip.. one of our favorite traditions.

Owen was being crazy from all the ice cream he ate at lunch. Can you say Sugar High?

 

[Owensheart]

We decided to skip pirates as it was just not as cool as the POTC is at Disneyland. We wanted to try and get Owen on Splash Mountain since he missed it the week prior. Sure enough.. he was 40" and we went on the ride twice in a row!! He LOVED Splash Mountain and was telling me the entire story of the Fox trying to catch the Rabbit.

We then went over to Big Thunder Railroad and road that twice in a row. My kids are so fun on rollercoasters!

I heard that the Haunted Mansion was very cool at Magic Kingdom and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed the graveyard and the ride was super spooky. Loved it.

It was already getting dark at this point, so we headed to Fantasyland. After a ride on Dumbo and Teacups, look who we found. There was an hour wait to see Rapunzel! They let us go right in and I was so bummed to realize I had my camera settings wrong. We had been looking the entire trip for a stuffed Pascal for my niece and couldn't find one anywhere. Rapunzel was cute and said.. he does like to play hide and seek!

Our next stop was the Astroblasters in Tomorrowland. They have the cool ones where you take the elevator up and ride in the sky. They did away with those at Disneyland, so I was excited that my kids got to experience the real rockets that I remember when I was little!

Daddy and Kam wanted to ride Space Mountain again, so Owen and I played around.

Owen's last pick was Buzz's Astroblasters and it was as fun as always.

I tried to take a picture with the castle and I could not get my camera to get a nice shot.

Then we found a photopass photographer to take our picture. As you can see, Owen was exhausted. We all were, but Owen was ready to crash.

Daddy took Owen straight back to our hotel room to crash, while Kamryn and I went to the restaurant for some water bottles and snacks.

This is our hotel lobby..

I love my girl!! She adds so much joy to our family!!

Look what we found in our bathroom when we got back. I have no idea what it is, but it's cute.

We were all sound asleep by 9pm. I was a little sad that we missed the Wishes firework show at Magic Kingdom, but we just couldn't keep going. I told Owen we only had two more nights in our hotel and he said "I want to stay on my Make A Wish trip forever!!" Me too buddy. Me too.

 

[dianemom2]

Your trip report is coming along great! Each day looks like so much fun! The picture of you all in the tie dye shirts is great! My girls really liked the Princess meal at Akershus too. I liked it better than Cinderella's Royal Table which we ate at when they were little.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Loving your report and pictures !! I plan on extending our stay so we can have some down time too and be able to enjoy GKTW and not feel SO rushed.
How cool that they extended your GAC !

What a great trip !! Thanks for sharing.

 

[mommyof2princesses]

Am loving your trip report! I cannot wait till we are back at POFQ! 33 days till we are there!

 

[reelmom]

What a great family picture in front of the train station.

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas.