Tips on a Make A Wish Trip?

[bamababe]

Does anyone have any ideas for making the best of our time in a trip to WDW through Make a Wish. We will be there for 5 days. We will be staying in the Give The Kids The World Village, and I am wondering how long is travel time between the village and WDW.

 

[Marion]

I don't have the answers to your questions but I can suggest trying over on the DISabilities forum http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20 great people there and probably a greater chance at finding folks who are in the know

 

[tinkercrazy]

We Stayed At Gktw In 2001. Travel Time All Depends On If Your Doing The Mears Shuttle Or Renting A Vehicle. Shuttle Service Picks Up(if I'm Remembering Correctly!) Around 10am And Then You
Call Them When Your Ready To Leave. Travel With The Shuttles Normally Range About 20 Minutes! It's Better To Rent A Car
Bcause You Get Free Tickets To Other Area Attractions And Wally World Is Just Right Down The Street! I Hope This Helps!

 

[cafeolemom]

I was wondering when you will be going on your trip. My daughter was also granted a wish. We will be going April 21st-27th. GKTW was completely booked, so we will be staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I would love to hear any hints about fitting everything in. My kids are super excited!

 

[a1tinkfans]

Just passing along some pixie dust for you and your families!
Have a wonderful time!

 

[nbodyhome]

I volunteer at GKTW - it isn't far from Disney, it depends on traffic on 192 (and also where you plan to go on property).

A lot of kids want to spend more time at the village. There is mini-golf, and free ice cream, movies, pools, the carousel, a lot to do! The villas are lovely, and there is always something going on in the evenings (like Thursday is Christmas).

It really is a great place for kids.

 

[jennydep]

We went on my daughter's wish trip a year ago this month. You should be provided with a rental car. Use it! The people from GKTW give you very good, detailed directions to each of the parks. Parking is free at all parks with your GKTW button. Travel time is only about 15-20 minutes. From what I've read on the disAbilities board, it appears Wish kids now have to wait in lines. I'm not sure about that, but when we went we never waited in a line to see a character or to go on a ride. The best experiences for us for meeting characters was in Mickey's ToonTown and Epcot Character Connection. At Mickey's ToonTown, we got to go down a back hallway to get into the different rooms. So we waited a total of maybe 30 minutes to see all the characters. If we had waited in all the lines, it would have been over 3 hours!

For the family staying at GKTW, I suggest you eat breakfast there before you leave each day. They serve breakfast and supper at the Gingerbread House. They have a light lunch of sandwiches available at the Ice Cream Palace if you are there at lunch time. Try to spend at least part of a day just enjoying the Village. It's a wonderful place.

For the family staying at AKL, you can do everything at the Village except sleep there. So you could go there for meals, movies, mini-golf, etc. Try to get there for part of a day to enjoy the atmosphere and the wonderful people who work and volunteer there.

If you would like to read our trip report and see some pictures, I have it on our family website at http://www.deputyfamily.net/mickey/index2.htm. Scroll down to April 29 for our first day.

Have fantastic trips! It truly is a magical time and a once-in-a-lifetime experience!!

 

[nbodyhome]

For the family staying at AKL, you can do everything at the Village except sleep there. So you could go there for meals, movies, mini-golf, etc. Try to get there for part of a day to enjoy the atmosphere and the wonderful people who work and volunteer there.

I agree - the village is a major part of the experience, and you don't want to miss out on that.

 

[suzybeezy]

My son did a Make-A-Wish Disney trip in 2004 and we stayed at the GKTW. The villas were nice, but we had a little issue with some bugs and bees. But each time we just called the front desk and they took care of it. They have 2 nice pool areas and one little area with cool sprinklers. They have an ice cream shop, carosel, game room, mini golf course.

My son absolutely loved the free ice cream - anytime of day. Each morning he went for an ice cream cone for Breakfast. While the breakfast was really good, we found that we didnt' really eat there for dinner very much. He wanted to stay at the parks and have fun and sometimes due to traffic, the drive back and forth can get long. Since you're staying at the AK lodge, it might be nice for you guys to go to GKTW in the morning for breakfast - it will save on your money and your child can experience some of the fun things there. Like often they have he Disney characters come down for meet and greets. My son got to ride the carosel with Belle.

They also have special events planned for each evening - here's a list http://www.gktw.org/pre/Village/schedule.asp My son absolutely loved Christmas in the villge where they went on horse drawn carriage rides and got to visit with Santa and Mrs Claus (and even got a present).

One thing I believe you'll have to attend an orientation at the GKTW to get your park tickets, its about an hour and a half long. Also they have extra tickets available for say an extra day at Universal or Sea World. And they even have a limited amount of tickets for like the Dinner Theatres available. Things may have changed since 2004 - but I'm guessin' if you ask they still have them.

And what's nice is once you're a GKTW kid - you can come back and visit -which we will be doing in a few weeks here. My son got to put a star with his name up in this special place they have and he's excited to go back and see it.

You'll have a wonderful time!

 

[walkena]

 

[SharBear4]

We stayed at GKTV Village in 1992. It was a wonderful place then and even more so now!! Because of orientation and some extras thrown in, if I were you I would try to extend the trip two days. I knew of a couple who did that and paid for the two days. There is so much to do onsite at GKTW as well as WDW that it will really help if you can afford it. There was no way for us to afford it back then, but I would have at least tried it if possible. Even if you need to stay onsite at WDW for two days and pay for that component.

 

[jennydep]

We stayed at GKTV Village in 1992. It was a wonderful place then and even more so now!! Because of orientation and some extras thrown in, if I were you I would try to extend the trip two days. I knew of a couple who did that and paid for the two days. There is so much to do onsite at GKTW as well as WDW that it will really help if you can afford it. There was no way for us to afford it back then, but I would have at least tried it if possible. Even if you need to stay onsite at WDW for two days and pay for that component.

We extended our trip by 4 days. We went down to St. Pete Beach for two nights and then back to Disney and stayed at Pop Century for two nights. It was so worth it!

 

[cafeolemom]

Do you think it is too late to extend our stay? Our trip is this Saturday. I would love to stay at least one more day. Who did you contact about this? Your Wish people, or the hotel, or what?

 

[Kimmumum]

From what I've read on the disAbilities board, it appears Wish kids now have to wait in lines. I'm not sure about that, but when we went we never waited in a line to see a character or to go on a ride.

We were at the parks at in January and I saw the Make a Wish kids going through the exit to bypass the lines. For some reason this was the only trip that I remember ever seeing the MAW kids. I don't know much about how it works but I was glad to see that they didn't have to wait in any lines

 

[jennydep]

We were at the parks at in January and I saw the Make a Wish kids going through the exit to bypass the lines. For some reason this was the only trip that I remember ever seeing the MAW kids. I don't know much about how it works but I was glad to see that they didn't have to wait in any lines

I'm glad to hear that they were still going in through the exits. That's how we did it last year.

 

[jennydep]

Do you think it is too late to extend our stay? Our trip is this Saturday. I would love to stay at least one more day. Who did you contact about this? Your Wish people, or the hotel, or what?

If you are driving, I think you could do it as long as you can get another night at a hotel. If you are flying, I think it would be too late. Plus realize the extra time would be your financial responsibility and the perks of the wish trip end with the last day of your "official" trip.

Jenny

 

[bamababe]

I was wondering when you will be going on your trip. My daughter was also granted a wish. We will be going April 21st-27th. GKTW was completely booked, so we will be staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I would love to hear any hints about fitting everything in. My kids are super excited!

We will be going June 12th -18th. My kids are also excited about going. I have been trying to come up with a gameplan on doing everything, but have not yet. If you get any good ideas let me know please.

 

[cafeolemom]

If you haven't made your own reservations at a character meal, do it now. That is my advice. I didn't realize until too late that we have to make our own reservations on these kind of things. We finally got a reservation at Epcot, but it definitely was not my first choice.

 

[bamababe]

If you haven't made your own reservations at a character meal, do it now. That is my advice. I didn't realize until too late that we have to make our own reservations on these kind of things. We finally got a reservation at Epcot, but it definitely was not my first choice.

How do you go about making this reservation, I have never done anything like this? I really do appreciate your advice. I would like to have a meal with the charaters for my kids.

 

[bamababe]

I volunteer at GKTW - it isn't far from Disney, it depends on traffic on 192 (and also where you plan to go on property).

A lot of kids want to spend more time at the village. There is mini-golf, and free ice cream, movies, pools, the carousel, a lot to do! The villas are lovely, and there is always something going on in the evenings (like Thursday is Christmas).

It really is a great place for kids.

Do we need to take an iron or do they have one in the rooms? What about a hairdryer as well?