Ramona's Make-A-Wish trip to WDW!

[4pmama]

Tink! I made a matching bow for this one. It later came unglued but I will secure it once again.

Minnie! This one is much better.

 

[momminnie]

Love the dresses!

 

[taliasmom]

Wow, you guys are about as cute as it gets! Love the dress! Toy Story was my son's favorite as a little guy, good choice! Lots to work with! Enjoy the process! It's a lot of fun!

 

[4pmama]

On my phone so I can't add cool DIS smilies

Got the Absent Parent form in the mail today. Scared me at first thinking it would delay the process unnecessarily, but it seems straight-forward and just a legal hoop to protect MAW. Whew!

I have a basic itinerary, assuming we get our dates (Mon Nov. 11- Sun Nov. 17):

M: travel day, probably arrive late, explore villa, eat, Walmart, sleep! Possibly participate in Halloween festivities if we get there in time.

T: character pics, orientation, play at village, afternoon/evening at MK.

W: morning activities at GKTW, then off to HS, lunch at Pizza Planet (!!), back to village for rest, evening at MK including MSEP and fireworks!

Th: character pics, then off to IOA! All of the adults are big HP fans so after some Seuss time, we really want to explore WWHP and eat at the Three Broomsticks! Any tips on reservations there, or wait times? Evening at GKTW for the Christmas festivities. We freaking love Christmas in this family. We play Christmas music from November 1st until March! Ha!

F: can't remember morning activities that day, then AK, maybe Epcot if we have energy, otherwise back to village for rest and play, then last evening at MK and MVMCP!!!!!!!

S: beach day

Su: departure day. I hope we get a late enough flight to enjoy it!

We plan to eat most meals at GKTW, and splurge just for Three Broomsticks and one dinner at MK. We are skipping SW and one US day probably, because we want more time at the village and the kids love the beach, but we only know cold PNW beaches, so a nice Florida beach will be a really special treat!

 

[katiee37]

Just started reading and I wanted to say that you have such a beautiful family! I hope Ramona has an absolutely magical make-a-wish trip!

 

[jw50]

, then off to IOA! All of the adults are big HP fans so after some Seuss time, we really want to explore WWHP and eat at the Three Broomsticks! Any tips on reservations there, or wait times?

The Seuss area is really cute, make sure you do the little train ride.

Three Broomsticks is a counter service restaurant so no reservations.

WWoHP does not have Express Pass so the wait times can be significant. We were there in the middle of August two years ago and the posted wait time stayed pretty much at 60-70 minutes. We were able to do it twice as pretty much a walk-on by going one evening during a heavy rainstorm that cleared out the park and the next morning in the hour before the park opened to the general public (i.e., those not staying at one of the Lowes hotels). When you get your dates you should post in the Universal forum and I am sure that people that are familiar with being there at the time of year you will be there can give you a better idea of the expected wait times.

If you are thinking about going to Ollivander's for the wand show the wait for it can be very long. The show lasts about 5 mins or so and with the time to get people in before it starts and get them out after it ends (the exit is into the wand shop but you can go in the wand shop without going through the show) it is probably about 10-12 minutes per group of 25. The queue is outside and most of it is in direct sun, I don't think they make any accommodation for people in wheelchairs as there were a few in the line every time we passed by. It is a cute show (we also did it before the general park opening) but I really don't think it is worth the wait unless you are a die-hard HP fan.

Again, when you get your dates post your questions about IOA in the Universal forum so that you get more current info from the Universal/IOA experts.

 

[kjpotter]

Since you are going as a MAW trip, you should not have any problems with lines for rides. Not sure, but you might bypass the Ollivander's line also. Ask the person working outside the door.

 

[beachphotog]

So cute! Reading along! That Ramona has a great fashion sense!

 

[Jessicalynne]

You have such a cute family! I am following along with you on your story. The dresses you made are super cute! We will be going to DW in October! It is so exciting that things are progressing so well for you!

 

[Redwavess]

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great fourth! This year was the first Ramona stayed up late enough to catch the big show in a nearby little town. We try to keep her very well-rested because of seizures, but she seemed really okay this year to stay up, and we got a late nap in her. It was awesome She kept laughing during the fireworks and saying hilarious things like: "Noise! Noise! Ah! Uh-oh, here comes the sky!"

All ready


Waiting for the fireworks


Anyway, our wish volunteers called yesterday afternoon and are coming to the house tomorrow! YAY! We are so excited! They are a husband and wife who live about 20 minutes from us. They're farmers so we might have to have Ramona go out and show them the chickens

Sorry I haven't had time to update more. But the ball is really rolling now, and I will post more after the meeting tomorrow when Ramona officially makes her wish

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Hi,

Popping in to follow you and your lovely family as you plan your Make A Wish!!

I love these pictures from 4th of July!! Too Cute!!

We had such a magical time on our trip and I'm sure you will too!! Give Kids the World is such an amazing place I know you all will love it!!!

The Universal Parks did an awesome job when it comes to treating Make A Wish families special. We never waited in any lines. In fact, in most cases we were escorted right on the ride by someone who works there. This is even true if the Wish Kid is not riding the ride. So you should not have to worry about wait times. My son is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and we were all super impressed at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!! It was all very magical!!

Your trip plans look great!! I know you said no Sea World, but I thought I would share an idea with you just in case!! When my son was little and learning about the ocean in Preschool I took him to the beach (We live in Southern California) and then I took him to an aquarium to see the animals that live in the ocean. I thought I would share that idea in case you are at the beach and start to think you have been there long enough you could always pop by Sea World for a few hours. I have a table of contents on my trip report in the 1st post so if you would like to see what another family did at a particular park that might be helpful.

Oh and great job on the dresses!!

Let me know if you have any questions I would be happy to help in any way I can!!

Happy Planning!! I'm excited to read more!!

Madeline

 

[4pmama]

Thank you ladies for all the sweet comments!! Things ate moving along! We have budget approval and as soon as they process the family medical travel summary form, we will have full wish approval! Yahooooo!

Aside from a slight uptick in seizures the past few days, we are all having a lovely summer. Not looking forward to school starting. Ramona's always super sick for weeks. Considering homeschooling but overwhelmed for now. Still thinking!

Thanks for all the tips! Maybe I need two itineraries? A main and an alternate?

 

[Redwavess]

Thank you ladies for all the sweet comments!! Things ate moving along! We have budget approval and as soon as they process the family medical travel summary form, we will have full wish approval! Yahooooo!

Aside from a slight uptick in seizures the past few days, we are all having a lovely summer. Not looking forward to school starting. Ramona's always super sick for weeks. Considering homeschooling but overwhelmed for now. Still thinking!

Thanks for all the tips! Maybe I need two itineraries? A main and an alternate?

Woohoo for full wish approval, I bet you can't wait to hear back from Make A Wish.

LOL out loud at two itineraries. Most of us are such planners here at the DIS that makes perfect sense!!! Actually, I feel blessed that I did so much planning because I think that it helped us make sure Mallory didn't miss anything special (for example Ms. Merry coming to tuck her in at night). If I hadn't read about how great some of these things were from other wish families I might of skipped it and missed out!! So I'm happy with my OCD planning style!!

Have a nice day,

Madeline

 

[4pmama]

Haha! I'm such a planner and all the unknowns of this trip are totally stressing me out: how much will the kids be able to handle in be day? Naps? Six days of tickets in five days? What if Ramona gets sick or has bad seizures? How much extra money to save? Will my mom and MIL be able to stay with us? Will we have terrible flight times?

Obviously some of these issues are more serious than others! But ugh!

I am in a weird limbo...I want to go Disney crazy right now but I don't think I can maintain crafty theme-y for 14 weeks...I just want it to get closer to our (anticipated) dates so we can really start building up some momentum. I did make a countdown calendar! We will start using it in October. Other ideas for pretrip fun?

 

[Redwavess]

Haha! I'm such a planner and all the unknowns of this trip are totally stressing me out: how much will the kids be able to handle in be day? Naps? Six days of tickets in five days? What if Ramona gets sick or has bad seizures? How much extra money to save? Will my mom and MIL be able to stay with us? Will we have terrible flight times?

Obviously some of these issues are more serious than others! But ugh!

I am in a weird limbo...I want to go Disney crazy right now but I don't think I can maintain crafty theme-y for 14 weeks...I just want it to get closer to our (anticipated) dates so we can really start building up some momentum. I did make a countdown calendar! We will start using it in October. Other ideas for pretrip fun?

I can relate. It was so crazy when we were planning to have to leave such major trip plans to someone else, like airline information. As far as money goes, I know every chapter does things differently, but in our case we didn't need any extra money the generous spending money from Make-A-Wish was plenty. We did eat breakfast and dinner at Give Kids the World so that helped cut down the spending.

What I did to build excitement for our trip was had Disney movie nights. I got the idea from the Dis boards. I went to the craft store and picked out crafts that matched a Disney movie. We made a craft and then watched a Disney movie. It was fun!!

To save money I went to a thrift store and purchased the Disney movies on VHS that we did not own yet. Then when we went to Disney World Mallory could relate to all the characters. It was magical!!

I'm hoping that you get answers to your pressing questions soon.

See you soon,

Madeline

 

[4pmama]

I can relate. It was so crazy when we were planning to have to leave such major trip plans to someone else, like airline information. As far as money goes, I know every chapter does things differently, but in our case we didn't need any extra money the generous spending money from Make-A-Wish was plenty. We did eat breakfast and dinner at Give Kids the World so that helped cut down the spending.

What I did to build excitement for our trip was had Disney movie nights. I got the idea from the Dis boards. I went to the craft store and picked out crafts that matched a Disney movie. We made a craft and then watched a Disney movie. It was fun!!

To save money I went to a thrift store and purchased the Disney movies on VHS that we did not own yet. Then when we went to Disney World Mallory could relate to all the characters. It was magical!!

I'm hoping that you get answers to your pressing questions soon.

See you soon,

Madeline

I love the movie night idea! I think we will do that. I don't want to overwhelm her and she is a routine girl, loving to watch the same movies/shows over and over, but one a week for the last 6 weeks should be okay. As long as we can watch the one an unlimited amount of times that week-ha!

We made the calendar, which I need to snap a pic of! She is so excited about Pizza Planet and Woody and Buzz and whenever she is in a bad mood, we can get her out of it by running around the house yelling, "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD! WE'RE GONNA MEET BUZZ AND WOODY! AND SEE THE BIG CASTLE! AND GO TO PIZZA PLANET!" I should really film it, totally hysterical

I emailed the wish granters about two weeks ago asking about MVMCP. I gave them the date we'd prefer, Friday, so we don't miss Thursdays Christmas festivities at GKTW! WG Joel told me to email him any time I think of anything that would make Ramona's wish special, so I wet for it! I hope they can arrange the party in her wish, but if not, we will just use our spending money and eat on the cheap.

My mom and MIL decided to just reserve a room nearby and found a great two-bedroom place. It has a weird name, but I will ask and post the info in case others with extended family tagging along are interested. At first, I wanted my mom and MIL to stay at the villa with us, but now I'm kind of relieved we just gave up on that idea. I know there will be some emotional times on the trip, and I can foresee wanting to draw in some days/nights with just our special little family.

AND NOW SOME BIG NEWS!
I mentioned in my first post, or near the first, that Ramona, my wish kiddo, is not my husband's biological daughter. Well, we petitioned for a stepparent adoption and it was granted! She is officially and legally everything that has always been in our hearts, Jeremy's daughter! We had a little celebration, here's a peek of our "Love makes a family"


Now I have to change her name with MAW once her new birth certificate comes, which I'm assured will be simple...Sure hope so! We could just wait, but it would be pretty special if there was only one last name on the little sign outside our villa

Some more recent pics:




Other than the usual day-t-day, I've been canning like crazy-peaches, green beans, blackberry jam...and next week I've got 100 pounds of apples to deal with! Ramona has had a cold and some hard seizure days but no hospitalizations. School starts in under two weeks so I'm bracing myself for the germ/illness onslaught but she is VERY ready to go back. Ezra has been happy as ever, and getting really into CARS, which is perfect for our upcoming trip.

 

[4pmama]

After I posted my update, I got Ezra down for a nap and went out to check the mail, only to find our flight itinerary!!!!!!

I expected a phone call or something before, plus our granters said MAW wouldn't schedule our flights without consulting us on times first, but OH WELL!
Good news: It's obvious! WE ARE GOING TO WDW!

Bad news: We depart Orlando at 7:00AM on our last day

Anyway, I guess we got our dates! Now I will have to follow up on the MVMCP. The enclosed note said we will get a detailed plan later. Oh! We also got the liability forms for GKTW

GIDDY!

Love that everything always has a TS stamp, and the itinerary has TS characters, so thoughtful about everything! (Except the departure date-lol! I'm sure it's the 11th)

 

[Redwavess]

I love the movie night idea! I think we will do that. I don't want to overwhelm her and she is a routine girl, loving to watch the same movies/shows over and over, but one a week for the last 6 weeks should be okay. As long as we can watch the one an unlimited amount of times that week-ha!

We made the calendar, which I need to snap a pic of! She is so excited about Pizza Planet and Woody and Buzz and whenever she is in a bad mood, we can get her out of it by running around the house yelling, "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD! WE'RE GONNA MEET BUZZ AND WOODY! AND SEE THE BIG CASTLE! AND GO TO PIZZA PLANET!" I should really film it, totally hysterical

I emailed the wish granters about two weeks ago asking about MVMCP. I gave them the date we'd prefer, Friday, so we don't miss Thursdays Christmas festivities at GKTW! WG Joel told me to email him any time I think of anything that would make Ramona's wish special, so I wet for it! I hope they can arrange the party in her wish, but if not, we will just use our spending money and eat on the cheap.

My mom and MIL decided to just reserve a room nearby and found a great two-bedroom place. It has a weird name, but I will ask and post the info in case others with extended family tagging along are interested. At first, I wanted my mom and MIL to stay at the villa with us, but now I'm kind of relieved we just gave up on that idea. I know there will be some emotional times on the trip, and I can foresee wanting to draw in some days/nights with just our special little family.

AND NOW SOME BIG NEWS!
I mentioned in my first post, or near the first, that Ramona, my wish kiddo, is not my husband's biological daughter. Well, we petitioned for a stepparent adoption and it was granted! She is officially and legally everything that has always been in our hearts, Jeremy's daughter! We had a little celebration, here's a peek of our "Love makes a family"


Now I have to change her name with MAW once her new birth certificate comes, which I'm assured will be simple...Sure hope so! We could just wait, but it would be pretty special if there was only one last name on the little sign outside our villa

Some more recent pics:




Other than the usual day-t-day, I've been canning like crazy-peaches, green beans, blackberry jam...and next week I've got 100 pounds of apples to deal with! Ramona has had a cold and some hard seizure days but no hospitalizations. School starts in under two weeks so I'm bracing myself for the germ/illness onslaught but she is VERY ready to go back. Ezra has been happy as ever, and getting really into CARS, which is perfect for our upcoming trip.

Hmm how have I missed your updates!!! I was so glad to see you in the wish trippers thread and then here I see you your updates here too hooray!!! :

Thanks for the kind things you said about my trip report!!! That made my day!

You have lots of good news lately!!! Most importantly your adoption!!!! Congratulations!!! . I love the idea of the love makes a family party and the pictures are awesome!!!!

I can just see you running around the house celebrating the wish trip to help make Ramona smile!!! We're Going to Disney World was a common phrase heard around our house too!!!!

Prayers and good thought plus fingers crossed for the dates you want for MVMCP, the name change and for a healthy happy school year!!!

Can't wait to see your countdown calendar and hear more of your plans!!!!

Happy Sunday,

Madeline

 

[Redwavess]

After I posted my update, I got Ezra down for a nap and went out to check the mail, only to find our flight itinerary!!!!!!

I expected a phone call or something before, plus our granters said MAW wouldn't schedule our flights without consulting us on times first, but OH WELL!
Good news: It's obvious! WE ARE GOING TO WDW!

Bad news: We depart Orlando at 7:00AM on our last day

Anyway, I guess we got our dates! Now I will have to follow up on the MVMCP. The enclosed note said we will get a detailed plan later. Oh! We also got the liability forms for GKTW

GIDDY!

Love that everything always has a TS stamp, and the itinerary has TS characters, so thoughtful about everything! (Except the departure date-lol! I'm sure it's the 11th)

Hooray for flight info!!!! Hooray for Toy Story!!! Magic here you come!!!

Hugs,

Madeline

 

[4pmama]

Finally feel I can really start planning now. MAW approved MVMCP after I inquired about it, and because I was unaware of "wish enhancements" Ramona gets to meet Woody and attend the party! I didn't mean to ask too much, it's just Ramona's volunteers told me to start with them if I had any questions or ideas, so I did, and the local chapter kind of jumped the gun buying tickets. Not complaining! We are so grateful.

Kids got fanny packs, and they are totally adorable. I don't care what anyone else thinks, they are gonna be super handy!

I ordered the gray classic Mickey shirts from the Disney store, they are great though the sizes are wonky so lots of exchanging, but anyway, I am going to design an iron on for the backs that says "Ramona's Make-A-Wish Trip 2013" or something like that. Of course, when complete, I will post a pic

Updated itinerary:

MONDAY:
arrive at MCO 7:26 PM
meet greeter
rental car
arrive GKTW around 9?
find our villa
eat
sleep

TUESDAY:
up early!
breakfast at GKTW
Nickelodeon photos
send moms (who are staying at nearby hotel) on WM run for snacks and essentials
Jeremy attends orientation
We play and explore
Carpool to MK and go on as many rides as we can handle. No plan there yet.
Lunch at MK
Evening at GKTW for Mayor Clayton's party and fishing
Dinner at GKTW

WEDNESDAY:
breakfast at GKTW
horseback riding
meet moms at villa
carpool to DHS
Pixar Place, Pizza Planet, TS Mania, CARS
Break, then MK? Or AK? Or back to village? Not sure how long DHS will take, ie, how many times Ramona will want to ride TS Mania Also not sure if MK will be so amazingly awesome that we will want to spend 90% of our WDW time there...kind of expecting that

THURSDAY:
breakfast at GKTW
Disney character pictures
Meet moms
Off to IOA
WWoHP
Seussland
Eat at IOA, Three Broomsticks?
Evening at GKTW for Christmas party
Dinner at GKTW

FRIDAY:
Breakfast at GKTW
Morning at AK, or IOA or GKTW, depending on how kids are feeling and what we are wanting to do/see at that point
lunch wherever we are that time of day
late afternoon naps
MK by 6:00 pm for MVMCP!!!
Late night, dinner at MK

SATURDAY:
breakfast at GKTW
Cocoa Beach for the day, reflect, relax, take cute pics of the kids on the pier enjoy a warm beach, hopefully
Evening at GKTW for pool party
PACK

SUDNAY:
Wake up at 5:00
Leave by 5:30
Depart

 

[Jessicalynne]

Sounds like you guys are all ready to go! How exciting to have your plans so laid out! I need to write up a list like this for us, we go in 3 weeks. I think the shirts sound really fun! Hopefully you can get the sizes all worked out! I hope you guys have a great time on your trip!