Wish Trippers...Unite!! Volume One

[mistymouse5001]

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride isn't there anymore, it was turned into a cute Winnie the Pooh ride. Sorry!

 

[bex271]

SueM,
Thank you for the link and the FAQ thread. The particular PECs that is up there was a lot more advanced they where jonah is right now, but I got the idea. He can do up to 4 choices right now, his therapist thinks eventually he'll get up to eight or higher he just isn't ready to do that right now.
What we are looking at doing is basically 3x5 cards that have one phrase or question on it that he can hand to the character or cm and we are looking at putting clip art from board maker and what we can find on the internet.

becca

 

[alylee777]

Hi,
A quick question for experienced folks. I ran into a lady who works at Disneylands Health Service Dept. today at the market and asked her if she had any advice for our MAW trip. She mentioned the Wish lounge and said I should call and make a reservation as that will be the only way to get in. This sounded weird as it seems to defeat the purpose of the lounge. How will I know when my son will need the lounge? I don't know when or if he will get tired and need it or what time he might. Anyone know anything about reservations for the wish lounge?

Thanks,
A

 

[Queenie122]

Hi,
A quick question for experienced folks. I ran into a lady who works at Disneylands Health Service Dept. today at the market and asked her if she had any advice for our MAW trip. She mentioned the Wish lounge and said I should call and make a reservation as that will be the only way to get in. This sounded weird as it seems to defeat the purpose of the lounge. How will I know when my son will need the lounge? I don't know when or if he will get tired and need it or what time he might. Anyone know anything about reservations for the wish lounge?

Thanks,
A

You definitely don't need a reservation to get in. You just go to the door! We knocked and the CM answered. He was really really great. They offered us water and soda and we did a lot of talking and resting. I think the hours were 9am - 7pm or 11am-7pm, something like that. There will be 1-2 CMs there at all times during that time.

We were feeling guilty using our GAC for rides that our daughter couldn't get on - the big people rides. She was only 35 inches and we just felt that if she couldn't get on the ride we shouldn't use the pass (like using a handicap pass to park when the person isn't with you). We had been trying to negotiate the fastpasses for us while getting in all the stuff for her. We were having a hard time though and needed the rest and we were talking amongst ourselves about missing some of the big three rides in MK and he overheard. He wrote us out three mega cut whatever line you want fastpasses there on the spot. Very cool.

On that note - a couple of days later we got "yelled at" - Disney style- for not using our GAC for the rides we wanted to so too. We were told it our trip too so should use it! They check the GAC but they don't ever say "Where is the person" or anything like that, as soon as they see the green super duper VIP stamp they let you right in.

Knowing and understanding this the first two days would have saved us a lot of heartache!! So don't feel bad to use the pass for you too!

It makes it much easier to just do the park from one side to the other, getting on all the big and little people rides in a row - saves time, energy and your poor feet!

 

[mistymouse5001]

Hi there! not much to say today just wanted to drop in and askfor you to keep posting so I have happiness to read nightly. And remember that I love you guys and hope you are being blessed daily. When you go to bed tonight
make sure you're smiling!

 

[bex271]

Jonah went to ot yesterday and he supported his weight on one arm for 4 seconds with no help i can't believe he was able to do it since his arms are so weak (or so we thought) He was holding his head up and everything. We're on right now. I can't wait for pt today.

becca

 

[mistymouse5001]

YAY JONAH

 

[GoofyDoo]

We don't plan to do any character dining on our trip for lack of time. I feel that this will be OK given the characters we'll meet at GKTW and the fact that we'll be able to move to the front of the lines at the tents (correct? tents?) at the parks. CJ's twin sister is such a caretaker for him 24/7 and is so deserving that I would love to make the trip special for her, too. I want her to get to meet some Disney princesses. Will this be possible without doing character meals? Where, exactly, can this be done? When I took my two older kids back in 1999, we only met met Mickey Mouse in his house. We never saw princesses. I found Ariel's Grotto, but what about the other princesses? What other info can you share about where characters are located? Any info about princesses, in particular?

Thanks so much for any advice~
Amy

p.s. YAY FOR JONAH!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

We don't plan to do any character dining on our trip for lack of time. I feel that this will be OK given the characters we'll meet at GKTW and the fact that we'll be able to move to the front of the lines at the tents (correct? tents?) at the parks. CJ's twin sister is such a caretaker for him 24/7 and is so deserving that I would love to make the trip special for her, too. I want her to get to meet some Disney princesses. Will this be possible without doing character meals? Where, exactly, can this be done? When I took my two older kids back in 1999, we only met met Mickey Mouse in his house. We never saw princesses. I found Ariel's Grotto, but what about the other princesses? What other info can you share about where characters are located? Any info about princesses, in particular?

Thanks so much for any advice~
Amy

p.s. YAY FOR JONAH!!

Here is a link to a great site that will tell you where she found all the different characters.

http://home.att.net/~disneysue/characters/wdw/disneycharacters.html

The princesses can be found in the Toontown Hall of Fame tent....not actually a tent but the store...go in the doors and then go to the right...there are three seperate lines to see different characaters. Talk to the CM standing there...they should take you around a back way so that you get to the characters quicker!

Each guidemap will have a little mickey hand that shows you where you can meet characters...and the times guide that you get will tell you what time and who will be there. If there is some character in particular that you are looking for....you can have any CM call the "character hotline" and they can find out if, where and when that character is out.

Many of the characters just come out in the open....no "tents". They will have one-two cm's with them. If there is not a cm at the end of the line...we made our way to the front of the line...just by coming up along side, or by going through the exit area...and then talked to the cm...we never had a problem.

Give me a minute and I will see if I can find the other sites that I have found before that tell where characters are....I'm a character autograph lover and so is DD now!!!!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Character FAQ....
http://allears.net/tp/fur.htm

Character find list...
http://www.themouseforless.com/downloads/CharacterFind.shtml

Article...
http://www.mouseplanet.com/mike/ms050318.htm

more character info...
http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/characters.html

Hope that helps a little!

 

[twinmum]

First...YAY FOR JONAH!!!

Isn't it wonderful when you are eager to head off to therapy to share a new development? I haven't had a chance to fully introduce my family and our wish child, but I promise to soon. Suffice to say that our twins were born at 26 weeks, and our Wish child has cerebral palsy,with some other medical issues. He's doing wonderfully...and we can remember all the wonderful breakthrough moments along the way. Enjoy the moment!!!

And now onto my question...

For anyone who extended their trip, and stayed on Disney property after:

Question #1 (for tonight!)
Our wish organization (from Canada) is renting us a van for our GKTW stay and we are welcome to keep it after, but we might just use Disney tranportation and get an airport service. Has anyone been able to drop off a rental car any place closer to wdw...not the airport?

Question #2:
OK, this is just because I'm a curious, compulsive planner who can't given up control easily. Our Wish Granter asked where we are staying after GKTW because GKTW wanted to know. I'm sure there's nothing sinister here because it's such a lovely place...but does anyone have any idea why they would want to know this? I'm happy to share it, but...?

That's it for tonight!

Thank you!
Alison

 

[SueM in MN]

SueM,
Thank you for the link and the FAQ thread. The particular PECs that is up there was a lot more advanced they where jonah is right now, but I got the idea. He can do up to 4 choices right now, his therapist thinks eventually he'll get up to eight or higher he just isn't ready to do that right now.
What we are looking at doing is basically 3x5 cards that have one phrase or question on it that he can hand to the character or cm and we are looking at putting clip art from board maker and what we can find on the internet.

becca

Hopefully, the links will give you some ideas, even if he's not up to that complexity yet.

I don't know if you use velcro to stick PECs anywhere, but I saw something the other day that was pretty cool. It's velcro paper that can be printed on an inkjet printer! (do a google search to find other places that sell it and you may find a better price).

I also hope that you will be able to share what you came up with for your child and let us know how it worked. I might be just what someone else is looking for!

 

[SueM in MN]

First...YAY FOR JONAH!!!

Question #1 (for tonight!)
Our wish organization (from Canada) is renting us a van for our GKTW stay and we are welcome to keep it after, but we might just use Disney tranportation and get an airport service. Has anyone been able to drop off a rental car any place closer to wdw...not the airport?

It depends on the company.
When we were at WDW in April, my DH dropped off a rental van at Grosvenor Resort, in the Downtown Disney area. He walked from there the short distance to Downtown Disney and then took a bus from there to our resort.

I believe that some of the resorts that are used frequently for conventions might be drop off sites for some car companies.

 

[GoofyDoo]

iluvmickeymouse!~
THANK YOU so much for the awesome info on finding characters at WDW!!! The links have been keeping me busy tonight!! You are great~

 

[bex271]

Thank you for all the replies about jonah, i'll tell him when he wakes up.
Here are some rough drafts of what we're doing for him. His speech therapist used board maker (i think) but we are changing the clip art. We are going to cut and laminate them.

this is what was made a while back with board maker and we are going to take these too

this is a web site i found a lot of disney clip art, the only one i've found that they don't have that we wanted was mary poppins
http://clipart.disneysites.com/index.php
becca

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

First...YAY FOR JONAH!!!

Isn't it wonderful when you are eager to head off to therapy to share a new development? I haven't had a chance to fully introduce my family and our wish child, but I promise to soon. Suffice to say that our twins were born at 26 weeks, and our Wish child has cerebral palsy,with some other medical issues. He's doing wonderfully...and we can remember all the wonderful breakthrough moments along the way. Enjoy the moment!!!

And now onto my question...

For anyone who extended their trip, and stayed on Disney property after:

Question #1 (for tonight!)
Our wish organization (from Canada) is renting us a van for our GKTW stay and we are welcome to keep it after, but we might just use Disney tranportation and get an airport service. Has anyone been able to drop off a rental car any place closer to wdw...not the airport?

Question #2:
OK, this is just because I'm a curious, compulsive planner who can't given up control easily. Our Wish Granter asked where we are staying after GKTW because GKTW wanted to know. I'm sure there's nothing sinister here because it's such a lovely place...but does anyone have any idea why they would want to know this? I'm happy to share it, but...?

That's it for tonight!

Thank you!
Alison

We stayed a couple days at Saratoga Springs after GKTW. We had to return our van to the airport. I think there is a car return at the Swan or Dolphin....but it depends on what company GKTW is renting from. What we did.....I took the family to Saratoga Springs, our room wasn't ready so they wandered around while I drove back to the airport to return the car. I had talked to Disney's Magical Express and had made reservations for me to then ride back to Saratoga Springs. We then used Disney transpo to go to the parks for the next couple days. Then we hopped on DME for our ride back to the airport.

If you are returning the vehicle to the airport and then taking DME to your resort...allow for a couple hours. This is why I dropped them off at the hotel...they (DH & DMIL) could keep the kids happy there instead of me dealing with two cranky kids and one ornery hubby!!!

I honestly don't remember if our MAW org asked where we were staying or not. Maybe they're just asking out of curiosity???

iluvmickeymouse!~
THANK YOU so much for the awesome info on finding characters at WDW!!! The links have been keeping me busy tonight!! You are great~

Your welcome! I love the charcaters, so I am happy to help!!!!!!


And oh yeah....yay for Jonah!!!!! I love the cards!! I think the characters will love them too! I can't wait to hear about how they react! If you need more ideas for cards....I would be happy to help....as I am sure others here would be too!!!!!!!!!

I have a couple clip art sites bookmarked on my desktop (i'm on my laptop right now), if I get on there later today, I will try and post the links to those sites.

Have a great day everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bex271]

while he's still sleeping, I don't know if i every told y'all his story. He was born full term with treacher collins, which is a cranial facial disorder. He was born w/out outer ears, cleft lip, and a very very small jaw. We live in a small town so no one knew what he had or had ever heard of treacher collins (my husband has a mild case so we knew what it was).
Long story short. He had a respiratory arrest on christmas eve at 1 month old. He wasn't given at good chance of survival at the time. He was barely moved expect to react to pain. We were told at 2 weeks in to the ordeal not to expect much from and that he wouldn't be able to live off the vent and that he wouldn't be able make it long at all. Well, after several scans and many up and downs he finally decided to "wake up" and show what a fighter he could be. They brought him back for a MRI and with in 30 mins took himself off the vent and went a few days w/out it. This went on for about week. Then we realized he was going to make and just had to come up with a plan.
He was given a trach to keep his air way open (he is going to have to have that for life more then likely) and a g-tube so he could get what he need nutrition wise. He is still extremely delayed in all areas, but is making a slow and steady progress. He's 4 1/2 now. The hardest thing is letting people know that he understands a lot more then he can tell us. When he can choose between red and blue crayons or pick out which animal says moo but he can't hold himself up it's hard for people to understand.
He is considered deaf/blind because he is legally blind and deaf, but he had his bilateral BAHA surgery back in march and since has tested showing just a very mild hearing loss and we know he can see better then the doc says he can with and w/out his glasses. Well that his story, i'll get pictures up later. I've gotta go wake him up and get ready for the day.
Sorry it's so long i know i left a lot out.

becca

 

[Queenie122]

Jonah went to ot yesterday and he supported his weight on one arm for 4 seconds with no help i can't believe he was able to do it since his arms are so weak (or so we thought) He was holding his head up and everything. We're on right now. I can't wait for pt today.

becca

Awesome news!!!! What a great victory!

while he's still sleeping, I don't know if i every told y'all his story. He was born full term with treacher collins, which is a cranial facial disorder. He was born w/out outer ears, cleft lip, and a very very small jaw. We live in a small town so no one knew what he had or had ever heard of treacher collins (my husband has a mild case so we knew what it was).
Long story short. He had a respiratory arrest on christmas eve at 1 month old. He wasn't given at good chance of survival at the time. He was barely moved expect to react to pain. We were told at 2 weeks in to the ordeal not to expect much from and that he wouldn't be able to live off the vent and that he wouldn't be able make it long at all. Well, after several scans and many up and downs he finally decided to "wake up" and show what a fighter he could be. They brought him back for a MRI and with in 30 mins took himself off the vent and went a few days w/out it. This went on for about week. Then we realized he was going to make and just had to come up with a plan.
He was given a trach to keep his air way open (he is going to have to have that for life more then likely) and a g-tube so he could get what he need nutrition wise. He is still extremely delayed in all areas, but is making a slow and steady progress. He's 4 1/2 now. The hardest thing is letting people know that he understands a lot more then he can tell us. When he can choose between red and blue crayons or pick out which animal says moo but he can't hold himself up it's hard for people to understand.
He is considered deaf/blind because he is legally blind and deaf, but he had his bilateral BAHA surgery back in march and since has tested showing just a very mild hearing loss and we know he can see better then the doc says he can with and w/out his glasses. Well that his story, i'll get pictures up later. I've gotta go wake him up and get ready for the day.
Sorry it's so long i know i left a lot out.

becca

And thank you for sharing his story, it means a lot that you would do it

About the Princesses... My daughter's wish was to dance with the Princesses so we had a lot of Princesses planning to do. We did a lot of meals but BY FAR the best thing we did for her all trip was take her to the Judges Tent in Toontown. Iluvmickeymouse described pretty well how it works - we bypassed the 90 minute line twice! I haven't done this in my trip report yet but I will give a brief report here.

The first time we went, we ran over and didn't have a lot of time before we had to be back at CP for dinner. They were about to close (there are hours, makes sure to check the schedule!) and one CM sent us away but another saw the button and "scolded" the first CM, saying we were Wish Trip and we were to go straight back. All the way around (it's a long walk) they brought us - when we got back there we could see all the people waiting on the line. There is a hallway and then doors which we went in.

A couple of kids were inside the room, along with Cinderella and Belle. We had met Belle twice - once at Norway breakfast were she spent a lot of time with her (and taught her to courtesy! and also backstage at the Beauty and the Beast show). My daughter was so excited and we watched as each child met with their princess and got a couple of minutes for autographs and pictures. Then it was our turn for Cinderella.

My daughter was SO in heaven. She was just... awed. We were all wrapped up in the conversation Cindy was having with my Bella.

Suddenly it was very quiet in the room and we looked - the other children had filtered out and they had shut the doors behind us, we were the only ones in here! The CM said to the Princesses, "She's all yours!" and they spent the next 20 minutes, yes, you heard that right, 20 minutes with my daughter! They danced with her, ring around the rosie and my hubby and I even got to join in.

I was crying and trying so hard to keep it together, everything the whole trip was about was in that moment. It was very overwhelming and special.

When we were done we asked if Ariel was ever here - her grotto is closed for renovations. He told us we should come back later during the P&PP and we would have a surprise. So of course we did.

We got to do two rooms this time - Princess Minnie and Daisy and also Snow White! The next room we got Aurora, Cindy again (probably my daughter's favorite) and... Ariel with her human legs!!! Same deal, we got them alone for about 20 minutes. Some of the CM's were crying watching my daughter interact with them. They were so very sweet to her and to this day she talks about it.

I recommend to everyone, whether they want to see Princesses or not, that they go to the Judges tent. You can see Mickey and his friends and sometimes Pooh I think (although we got him outside) and there are rumors of a Tinkerbell room in the future (have no idea is this is true). It was the best experience!

Some pictures:

Hope I didn't spam you with too many pictures!!

 

[alylee777]

Queenie,
That is the most beautiful story!! You made me cry before breakfast! What lovely photos and a special little girl. If we even have one moment close to that next week it will so be worth it. I wish I knew what that would be for a teenage boy so I could search it out. I think alone in a room with 3 pricesses might be exciting in a DIFFERENT sort of way....
Alyson

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Queenie....all I can say is....awwwwwwww That is sooooo wonderful!! Those were some pretty nice cm's!! We were able to do the picture of the three princesses with DD but to have them all to yourself I love all the pics!!!!

Queenie,
That is the most beautiful story!! You made me cry before breakfast! What lovely photos and a special little girl. If we even have one moment close to that next week it will so be worth it. I wish I knew what that would be for a teenage boy so I could search it out. I think alone in a room with 3 pricesses might be exciting in a DIFFERENT sort of way....
Alyson

Good one!! Yeah, that might not be a good thing.

Is he into the Pirates of the Carribean? You could try and meet Jack Sparrow. Are you doing US/IOA, you could try spiderman there. Sorry, not much help...I don't know what teenage boys like!