To dance or not to dance .... that is the question

[HeatherSP]

This is our trip report for my daughter's Make A Wish Trip to dance with princess Tiana.

For our story you can check out our PTR
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38899349


4:30 am comes VERY early.
But that didn’t matter too much because everyone was too excited to sleep anyway. We sent the kids to bed at 7 as planned but still had a lot of last minute packing to do. Even though we made sure the little ones skipped their naps the kids wouldn’t go to sleep. Steve and I finally went to bed around 9 and like the kids I was too excited to sleep. I finally fell asleep around 10:30 only to wake at 11:30, 12:45 and again at 2:40 when I decided I may as well go get in the shower. Lhea heard me up and decided to “hang out” with me in the bathroom until everyone got up. But no one made it until the alarm went off at 3. Everyone heard me and Lhea up and decided it was in fact DISNEY DAY. We have been counting down to this day since November.
We were adding all of the last minute items to our bags when we saw lights coming down the road. It was our ride. And Make A Wish rides in style!

We thoroughly enjoyed our limo. The kids had so much fun in their “banana seat” as they called it.

Lhea was still a little sleepy and wanted to sit with mommy.

We arrived at the airport and got our boarding passes and checked our bags. We had heard that Air Tran waved baggage fees for Make A Wish but found out that they did not. We got through security much easier than expected. I told them that we were traveling with needles and they just said that is fine and never asked for our doctors notes or prescriptions. They did pull Steve aside for a random scan but he walked right on and out. The most difficult part of security was getting shoes back on all of the little ones. We were ready to leave 45 minutes before boarding so the kids played and Steve and I grabbed a biscuit. The kids had already had poptarts at home and weren’t hungry. Lucky them the food was awful!

We finally boarded the plane and found our seats. We were basically all together. Lhea and I were seated in the first 2 seats.

Bri, Alex and Gracie were right beside us across the aisle.

Steve and Ciera were right behind the kids.

We had a short flight (less than 2 hours) but the early morning started to get to Lhea. It wasn’t long before she pushed her toys aside and dozed off.

Orlando’s airport is HUGE! We had to ride a moving sidewalk and a tram before we made it to baggage claim. Just before baggage claim we ran into a special someone.

This is our Give Kids The World greeter. Unfortunately I forgot her name but she was great. She helped us get our baggage and took us to get our rental car.
We had about a 20 minute drive before we arrived at Give Kids The World.

We went to the House of Hearts to get checked in. The kids waited so patiently.
Unfortunately our villa was not ready yet. They told us to give them ½ hour. So what do we do????

Head on over to Ice Cream Palace. Did I mention that the ice cream is FREE! Along with all of our meals at Give Kids The World.
After we finished our ice cream we went back to the House of Hearts to check into our villa.
We were told it still wasn’t ready and it would be another 45 minutes. We were a little frustrated but decided we would just go explore the village some more.
We head over to the Amberville Train Station. We stopped outside for the little ones to ride the rides. Which of course were FREE!

And once inside Alex was amazed with the toy train set.

The kids had fun steering the boats.

And of course more games

And one last stop at Dino Putt! This was a lot of fun. It had a lot of surprises.

Afterwards we head back over to get checked into our villa. By now It is very hot outside and Lhea is exhausted and getting fussy. This time when we are told that our villa is still not ready we were very frustrated. We had been there 3 hours and the adults were as cranky as the kids. We were offered tickets to gatorland to help us pass the time but we knew that there was no way the kids would have enjoyed that especially in the heat. So another lady came over and told us to hang on a minute and she would see what she could do. We waited another 25 minutes but the kids played inside where it was cool.

Finally a lady came over to us and said she had a villa for us. The kids got excited and we loaded into a golf cart to ride over. Steve followed us in the van.
We found our villa!

The kids loved the castle look of it!

Lhea let us all in.

Inside we found our kitchen

Living room

Kid’s bedroom

With a huge bathroom. The shower was large and perfect to roll into with a wheel chair.

And a jetted tub that quickly became my and Lhea’s favorite!

The master bedroom

I took these pictures on our last day so it was a bit cleaner and the beds were made when we got there.
Just outside the master bedroom was a closet with a washer and dryer and a regular sized full bathroom.
Since we were all hot tired and hungry we decided to order in some lunch. We called Katie’s Kitchen and ordered sandwiches. It was Boston Market food and they were delicious!
We rested a little while then we were off ……………

Where did we go?

 

[tinytreasures]

WooHoo you started!!!!!!!
Bummer that your villa wasn't ready but glad you got a "castle" to sleep in

 

[HeatherSP]

We head out to downtown Disney to do some shopping. We look through several stores. We wanted to get some special souvenirs from our trip. We wandered for a while and stopped for some pictures.

The kids loved looking through the toys shops

We finally came to a Christmas shop. We got a Princess Tiana ornament and had them write Lhea’s wish trip 2011 on it. We also got a Disney ornament with the year on it. They were super cute. The girls wanted a Disney T shirt. We saw several but none of them seemed just right. So we found a create your own T shirt store.

Inside we made T shirts for the 3 younger girls that said wishes do come true. Each one was personalized for each girl. We love them.

And Lhea made new friends.

Steve and Bri found new sunglasses at the rain forest café store. But we decided not to eat there to make sure we had time to do orientation at Give Kids The World.
We headed back to Give Kids The World (which I will call GKTW for now on) for dinner at the gingerbread house. Tonight they were serving ribs. YUM!

Right outside the Gingerbread House was a carousel. Lhea called this the “miracle ride” I have no idea why she called it that. I’m not sure if when the other kids said merry go round she thought they said miracle ride or if she just liked miracle ride better. But I am sure I like miracle ride better. It is so fitting for a place like GKTW. This was our first ride of many on the miracle ride!

Then we headed inside the Castle of Miracles to the La Ti Da Royal Spa. Lhea and Ciera decided to get their nails painted.

The older 3 kids wanted air brushed tattoos.

Once outside we were greeted by some very enthusiastic pirates and a princess.

They invited us to the pirated and princess party. The boys got bandana’s and the girls got tiaras and make up.

Having 3 kids with ADHD this was a lot of fun …. Until they had done everything. So we decided to head out early. On our way out we ran into some very special “people”. It was the mayor of GKTW and his wife Mary. Who would have thought the mayor would have been a 6 foot rabbit!

Steve was at orientation while I was entertaining the kids so we decided to walk back to the villa and get a shower. But we got sidetracked when we passed Mathews Boundless Playground. It is a huge playground completely handicap accessible and decorated like a giant candy land game.
Lhea loved the slides

Gracie liked posing with the decorations.

And Ciera …. Well she was running all over the place

Finally we were all exhausted enough to head back to our villa and call it a night!

 

[reelmom]

I just went back and read your PTR. What an amazing story! I think that God chose the right parents for those precious babies. All 5 of you kids are adorable and I look forward to reading about your magical vacation, especially if Lhea gets to dance with Tiana. BTW, I love how you chose the girls names.

 

[maroo]

awesome start!!

I am putting a link on the Wish Trippers thread!!

Keep up the awesome job! Can't wait to see if she got to dance with Tiana!

 

[fulseasmama]

Great Start...having fun reading your TR. Looks like you all had a great first day!

 

[blessedmom4]

I am so excited...You have STARTED!!!!! I LOVED the pictures and your Villa looks AWESOME, in spite of the wait! The excitement on everyone's face is so evident and it is nice to see You and Steve with huge smiles as well!!!

 

[HeatherSP]

Everyone was up by 7 and excited about our first day in the parks. We all got dressed and headed to the Gingerbread house for breakfast.

They had lots of good food. Everything from a hot meal of bacon, eggs and hash browns to a simple donut or bagel. The kids were excited about so many choices.

After breakfast we just HAD to have one more spin on the “miracle ride”. And our trip wouldn’t have been complete if we hadn’t ridden on the chickens.

We headed over to Universal Islands of Adventure. The first character we came to was Woody Woodpecker. I am sure that Lhea had no idea who he was but she was just tickled with him.

Woody saw Lhea walking toward him and stopped to give her a hug. Lhea hugged on him for literally about 5 minutes! I have no idea why she liked him so much. But Woody seemed to like Lhea just as much. He (well I think he may have actually been a she) was really enjoying the attention he was getting from her. The worker who was with him told us that whenever we saw a character just to let them see Lhea’s GKTW button and she will go to the front of the line.
From there we went over to the Hulk roller coaster. Lhea didn’t want to ride but the employees told us that since this was a wish trip that whoever wanted to ride could just show the Guest Assistance Pass that we were given at GKTW and our group could go in the fast pass line. This was great because the older kids could ride something quickly and we wouldn’t have to sit and wait.
Next we found what we had been looking for SUESS LANDING!!! And what were we looking for???
Well we couldn’t find them right away so we went to try a ride. By the time we got off an employee had let them know we were looking for them. We walked up and you would have thought the whole world had stopped. The line quit moving and they came to us! Who was it?

Thing 2 and thing 1 of course!
We enjoyed our time with them and started to walk away when we found out there were someTHINGS looking for us.

A whole bunch of things actually. They were on a scavenger hunt and were looking for other THINGS. They needed a picture of all of the THINGS they could find in order. And of course we wanted a picture too!
The girls insisted that we ride EVERY ride in Seuss Landing. SO of course we did. Including the carousel. Yes this one was a carousel and not a miracle ride …. But just as much fun.

By the time we were done everyone was hungry. So we stopped and grabbed some lunch. All of the kids wanted pizza!

I’m not a big fan of Harry Potter but the kids had heard they had fun rides. They even had a kids coaster.

All of this fun wore Lhea out. Fortunately Lhea's GKTW button also got us a free stroller rental.

This was the perfect opportunity for the bigger kids to ride some rides.
Lhea woke up just in time to get some ice cream.

Well she sort of woke up …. And sort of sleep ate (is that a word?).
We finished our way through the park. Lhea surprisingly really liked the Spiderman ride. She now has a new found love for Spiderman. We enjoyed showing all of the kids the “old” cartoon characters there.
It was getting late so we decided to head back to GKTW. When we got there we realized that the “gift fairy” had been there. There were little stuffed “mayor claytons” and a book for each child. We soon found out that the gift fairy visited EVERY day while we were out.

We had just missed dinner at the gingerbread house so we called Katie’s Kitchen and ordered meatloaf AND chicken. Dinner for 7 was huge. We wound up eating this for evening snacks for the next 3 days.
It was after dinner that I discovered the joy of a nice hot bath at the end of a long day. Fortunately the kids fell right to sleep and Mommy got to rest.

 

[petals]

Yay you started your trip report. Luvin it. Luv luv luv the pics. Bummer that your villa wasn't ready but how cool getting to sleep in a castle and I love the gift fairy idea!

 

[ellenbenny]

I am loving all the photos, looks like you were all having such a good time!! Can't wait to read more.

 

[tinytreasures]

I was wondering about the "things" picture, I didn't think you had that many people going. That is so cute, I bet they loved meeting a wish family
The picture of Lhea out like a light in the stroller is priceless

 

[Mom2mitokids]

Yeah on starting yor TR...even though I saw the pictures on FB..I loved reading the story with pictures...did that make since?...lol. I'm so jealous you saw Thing 1 and 2. The only characters out when we went was Cat in the Hat and Grinch. We did want to see them, but the older girls had their Thing shirts on and wanted pictures with them.

 

[HeatherSP]

I woke up especially early this morning. I laid in the bed from about 5:30 – 6:45 when I gave up on sleeping and decided to head for the shower. After gathering some clothes and towels I heard the pitter patter of little feet behind me. It was Lhea, she was up and ready to go ride more rides. I certainly didn’t want to wake up everyone else in the house and have 5 grumpy kids today. So I decided I would let Lhea play in the “hot tub bath” as she called it while I took a shower in the other shower beside her.

Lhea quickly realized that turning the jets back on after she rinsed her hair made BUBBLES!!! And boy did she like that! This was the first of many early morning bubble baths Lhea enjoyed.
After I was done with my shower I rinsed Lhea. I noticed her face looked very red. I checked her over and noticed that her arms and legs were broke out too. It was then that I realized that the “kids” sunblock that I put on her arms, legs and face yesterday really wasn’t the same as the “baby” sunblock that I usually use of the same brand. Lhea’s skin is very sensitive and she breaks out to many things, soaps, laundry detergent, hand sanitizer, baby wipes …. And the list goes on and on. I was careful to use all of the same things that we use at home …. Except the kids (instead of baby) sunblock. This rash hung around for several days and I felt so bad. Fortunately, it doesn’t look too bad in her pictures.
Soon everyone was up and dressed and we were off to the Gingerbread house for breakfast. After filling her belly Lhea decided she might still be a little sleepy.

But there was no time for a nap. We are at Give Kids the World after all.

So what should we do?

Go in here?
Where does this door lead?
The most magical place in the whole world!
The castle of miracles!

Look up at the ceiling and you will see a sky full of stars. But these aren’t just any stars ….. each star represents one of God’s little angels. Every wish child makes a star with their name on it.
I helped Lhea make hers.

Her star is just perfect!

Then she placed it in the magic box

And when she closed it something special happened

The fairy comes and takes her star and while she is sleeping that night they place it on the ceiling where it will remain forever!
Then she was off to the wishing well…. Where she made a wish and threw her penny in.

I know that I have mentioned before that everything at GKTW is free ….. but really EVERYTHING there is free. They even supply the pennies for the wishing well.
Then she found the magic mirror.

When you look in it a crown and robe magically appear on you. It’s really neat.
Finally Lhea made her way to the magic tree. The tree made pillows! Lhea and the magic tree made pillows for all of the kids!

The kids ran through the castle and played on a little slide they had, colored pictures and even played with Mr. Potato head. They had so much fun it took them a little while to realize that we were supposed to be going to the parks today.
The night before we had debated on where to go today… Hollywood studios? Epcot? Yes those sound perfect ….. but what happened after we left the castle of miracles? Where did we go?

 

[HeatherSP]

WooHoo you started!!!!!!!
Bummer that your villa wasn't ready but glad you got a "castle" to sleep in

The kids LOVED the castle!

I just went back and read your PTR. What an amazing story! I think that God chose the right parents for those precious babies. All 5 of you kids are adorable and I look forward to reading about your magical vacation, especially if Lhea gets to dance with Tiana. BTW, I love how you chose the girls names.

Thanks we have been very blessed!

awesome start!!

I am putting a link on the Wish Trippers thread!!

Keep up the awesome job! Can't wait to see if she got to dance with Tiana!

Thank you!

Great Start...having fun reading your TR. Looks like you all had a great first day!

We had so much fun!

I am so excited...You have STARTED!!!!! I LOVED the pictures and your Villa looks AWESOME, in spite of the wait! The excitement on everyone's face is so evident and it is nice to see You and Steve with huge smiles as well!!!

Our villa really was awesome! Everyone was thrilled with it once we got in.

Yay you started your trip report. Luvin it. Luv luv luv the pics. Bummer that your villa wasn't ready but how cool getting to sleep in a castle and I love the gift fairy idea!

It was incredible!

I am loving all the photos, looks like you were all having such a good time!! Can't wait to read more.

I took over 1200 photos! I'm really trying hard not to post too many

I was wondering about the "things" picture, I didn't think you had that many people going. That is so cute, I bet they loved meeting a wish family
The picture of Lhea out like a light in the stroller is priceless

I was amazed with all of the "things". It was so fun. I'm glad we got the picture. You may not have noticed but I had a twin ... there was another thing 6

Yeah on starting yor TR...even though I saw the pictures on FB..I loved reading the story with pictures...did that make since?...lol. I'm so jealous you saw Thing 1 and 2. The only characters out when we went was Cat in the Hat and Grinch. We did want to see them, but the older girls had their Thing shirts on and wanted pictures with them.

I HAD to start with pictures on facebook. My mom was begging to see them. I am actually just copying and pasting what I write on the disboards onto a blog so my family can follow it. The pictures make more sense with the story

 

[brookerene]

GReat photos so far... GKTW is great!!!!! It was nice to meet you quickly on the day you left!!!!

 

[jessica52877]

Oh no! A cliffhanger already! Your family is just precious and a what a wonderful start to the vacation! Sounds like fun so far.

 

[mommy2girlswv]

I love your TR..I can't wait for nap time to check if you post more!!!.. Kaitlyn and I loving all the pictures.. My fave so far is the picture of all them things!!! Can't wait to read more...

 

[katoot]

Sounds like an amazing time so far...I'm in!

 

[HeatherSP]

Once we left the castle of miracles we decided with Lhea’s rash we should make today a short day and not try to do Hollywood Studios and Epcot. SO we let the kids pick just one park for today. What would they pick?

It was unanimous, Universal Studios. The kids had seen the park the day before and were really looking forward to it.
Before we got inside Alex found something very exciting!

His favorite race car! The kids enjoyed checking out all of the race cars.
Once inside we found something even more exciting …. Characters! And as usual we were ushered to the front of the lines.

Daddy was happy to see Scooby Doo!
Next we found one of the girls’ favorites

But you won’t believe what we found next

It was Lhea’s new favorite character …. And there was a GIRL one too!!! Lhea was thrilled! She actually saw them walking to their spot but they stopped in the middle of the street to see her.
Next we went to see Shrek 4D. And here we met another wish family. We were all escorted to the front to be first for the next show. While we were waiting Lhea decided she wanted to make a pressed penny.

We all really enjoyed the show. And when we came out, Shrek, Fiona and Donkey were outside. And again we were treated like royalty. We went right up and visited with them. Donkey was talking and he was so funny. He had all of us laughing ….. Even Bri who thought she was too big for Shrek.

We went to see twister which was a walk through type show. I was a little concerned Lhea might be scared but she wasn’t. Daddy carried her through and she did great. On the way out Alex surveyed the damage.

Next The little girls and I took a little break to get out of the sun and the bigger kids and Daddy rode some of the bigger roller coasters.
When they came back we saw Beatlejuice Graveyard revue. I was really surprised how good this show was. We were seated near the front and Lhea stood and danced along most of the time.

After the show we decided to grab a bite to eat. On the way we saw some guys drawing caricatures. When we asked about it he told us that he would draw Lhea for free!
She wasn’t sure what to think of it. She wouldn’t sit by herself so I sat with her. The guy was great and totally understood when she wouldn’t look at him and when she didn’t smile on request. Daddy tried to help by standing behind the guy and taking pictures. Lhea loved daddy taking her picture so she would look up and smile when he did that. The caricature turned out fabulous!

After her picture we finally got some lunch. We stopped by a little hamburger place and everyone got hamburgers. They were huge ….. But not so tasty. My suggestion for anyone considering going to Universal … Go! You will have a great time, but skip the burgers.

Next we went to Jaws. It was a boat ride. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be scary or funny. But it was definitely funny. The whole family enjoyed it.
There was just one problem …. Jaws ate Lhea!!!

Fortunately Bri and I were able to capture him and pry her out of his mouth.
Somewhere in the day we fit in Woody woodpeckers roller coaster, ET and the Simpsons ride and near the end of the day we found Curious George goes to town.

And we just had to play on the playground.

We finished up early and headed out of the park by 5:30. We ate dinner at GKTW Gingerbread house. We decided we wanted to head over to the pool. I forgot my camera so I borrowed a couple of pictures.

The kids had a ball playing in the pool. They also loved the water garden.

It started getting cold and the pool was about to close so we decided to head back to the villa for a good night’s rest. And of course mommy’s time to soak in the tub.

 

[HeatherSP]

GReat photos so far... GKTW is great!!!!! It was nice to meet you quickly on the day you left!!!!

Thanks! I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture of us all together!

Oh no! A cliffhanger already! Your family is just precious and a what a wonderful start to the vacation! Sounds like fun so far.

Thanks!

I love your TR..I can't wait for nap time to check if you post more!!!.. Kaitlyn and I loving all the pictures.. My fave so far is the picture of all them things!!! Can't wait to read more...

I LOVE the "things" pic too! I am so glad we got it.

Sounds like an amazing time so far...I'm in!

Thanks!