A Make A Wish Trip - Final Update!! Pg. 33

[wendygrace]

Alright. So where did I leave off. Oh yes. Wednesday Night. I did forget to mention that before we crash, I take Michael and we get his star. See, in the welcome package at GKTW, every Wish kids gets a star. You (or the child) writes the wish child's name on the star and the star fairy puts it up at the Castle of Miracles where all the other wish kids' stars are and then the wish fairy gives you coordinates to find it. Its awesome to behold. Anyways, Michael and I take a moment and put his name on the star. We take it to a special box at the Castle of Miracles. A screen turns on and the Star Fairy appears and thanks Michael for his star and that she will put the star up overnight. The box shakes and jiggles and makes noises and when you open it back up, the star is gone. Poof! The look on Michael's face. He spent the next three days opening and closing that box and watching the little screen. It is way too cute. Anyways, they get a "passport" that gives the coordinates and also gives you a barcode that you can scan to see pictures of the family during the activities at GKTW. It is too cute!




Ok. So Thursday morning. We get up. We need to be at MK at 9:55 am. Going by the Soares website, 10am is Peter Pan and Wendy's usual Meet and Greet. I do not have my hopes up that this will be anything special but that's ok. We will still go as Michael will love seeing Peter Pan and we had planned to go another day to MK anyway. Thank goodness we had seen Spectromagic already or else I would be having issues. LOL

One problem though. We can't leave early as we have "reservations" for a family portrait with Mickey at the theater at

8:00 AM!!

Yikes!

We also need to eat breakfast.

Fun!

We also require a "costume change" for the kids. Are we having fun yet?!

So we are up and out the door by 745am. Off we go. We decide to drive to the front for a fast escape. We get there and we are second in line! Yeah!
We wait a few minutes (note to those parents who may be "pooh sized", these seats aren't). We actually get our picture taken third as a family in a wheelchair is let in in front of us. I'm not panicing. I'm not panicing. Nope, not me!

Finally. Our turn. "Mommy, I don't want to take a picture with Mickey". Too bad.
Can you guess who gave me the above line? LOL

We go outside and a few Disney characters are out there, including my favourite, Belle! Mick runs out to the car. Apparently I pack the camera next to the cooler so the lens fogs up. Oops!

Now breakfast. Off to the Gingerbread House. Yum Yum Breakfast! Eggs, toast, waffles, sausage. Its a fast breakfast and we are out the door by about 915am or so. We still need to get to MK and all the way through to POTC. We have 40 minutes! Yikes! Panic, panic! We give Michael a costume change before he gets in the car and opt to change Danae when we get there.

We get there around 935 or so. Danae gets her costume change.

And we miss the first tram. Panic!! Yikes.

And another one pulls up behind it. Deep breathes Wendy. Deep Breathes!

Now we need a monorail. Let's go. Let's go!!
We, of course, need to stand in line. But we decide to try for the front of the monorail again. There's noone at the front! Yeah!

Now our routine. Stroller, Guest Services, Bathrooms.
In the bathrooms, I dress Danae in her gloves and her princess crown she got on Tuesday. She catches her reflection in the mirror and she won't move.

Finally I drag her out of the bathroom and we look for the wheelchair ramp. Where's the wheelchair ramp? It takes us quite awhile to find it. Its on the side of City Hall. Off to the side. We get up to the top and the conductor has us carry the kids onto the train and he folds us our wheelchair. I think the ramp on the train may have been broken. I dunno.

 

[wendygrace]

Alright, we get to the train and we hurry over to the POTC area. We ask around. Noone knows anything. We ask at the store. We're supposed to ask for the "manager". We do but noone knows nothin'. *sigh* But we do verify that PP and Wendy will be out any second now. We sit and wait. They do come out and its a different PP then before. It is the same "handler" or "manager". I approach her and tell her that we are here with MAW and that we are supposed to be here for a special "Meet and Greet". She knows nothing about it. Since we have already seen PP on two occasions, we decide not to push it. I could have called a number on our paper but decide that we're ok. Michael gets in the regular cue (someone Mick was chatting up lets us go in front of them) and the kids see PP. I videotape. I did not get any pictures but I do have video for Michael to watch (which he does). The PP and Wendy are very nice and do a good job. Michael and Danae are happy and we now have video and three meets under our belt. All is good. As a side note here, I think this was very disorganized. Neither the characters or their handlers knew what was going on and I don't know if there was anything special that was supposed to happen or what. We are a bit disappointed in this one little thing. Michael's wish was to "Fly with Peter". He was very specific. I would have thought that Disney would have arranged to have Michael and PP do the PP ride together to make that happen or some other flying type ride. Although we had a wonderful trip, Michael does mention that his wish to fly with PP didn't happen. He's ok with it, as we are. But it is the only real down point. The Monday we had made up for it though!

Now what?

We decide to head back to Fantasyland and we repeat Monday's rides! LOL

Cinderella's Fountain - It wasn't working.

Peter Pan ride

Its a Small World

My monkeys

Carroussel

She says to me "I'm waving to my people"

Dumbo

I believe we also did Winnie the Pooh and Snow White's Scary Adventures which didn't scare my kids, amazingly enough. (we had viewed it on Youtube beforehand so that might have helped).

And finally back to the Wish Lounge for a nap. We can't eat here so while I put the kids down, Mick went to get something to eat for himself at Casey's. When he got back, I ran off to get a salad somewhere in Liberty Square, I believe. We both enjoyed our lunches.

Finally, the kids were up, we thanked our nice guest service concierege people (Alexis again and Doro) and off we go. I believe the kids ate from the cooler in their magical carriage.

We then head off and do Jungle Cruise (where Michael and Danae got to drive the boat!) and the Aladdin's ride (the entrance for us was at the exit) and then I must grab some Pineapple Ice Cream! Yum! Mick takes the kids to find a spot for the Dreams Come True show. Danae makes a friend and the three of them play and dance before the show. I videotape this show and the kids love to watch this. I do end up missing part of it on video as I have to switch DVDs. Note here: when in doubt, put in a new DVD! You get as many as you want. Apparently, someone went home with over 15 so don't be shy! LOL Michael still goes around saying "Dreams Come True!". Its too funny!

Then we just move a touch to get into position for the 3pm parade. I love this parade and I love this song. "Just believe and if you imagine, just believe and your dreams will come true". I can't wait until it comes out on CD! PP sees Michael again and gives him a touch of special attention (he turns back after he has passed us and points at Michael again!) and Danae gets to see her Cinderella.

After the parade, we decide to do Toontown before heading back to the villa. We head in that direction.

Michael does the roller coaster over and over with Mick while I take Danae to get video of her with her princesses in her princess dress. I have photopass pics of this and I'm waiting for them to come in. Sorry! They are the cutest pics though!

A good time is had by all and it is now time to head on our of there. Back to the train to the main entrance. Potty. Stroller return. Monorail.
I take these on our way off the monorail. Aren't they pretty?

Tram. Car. Exhaustion. Now we have the Christmas Party. It is 715pm and we have missed the start of the Christmas party. We have missed the parade! But we hurry to get there in time for the other festivities.

 

[wendygrace]

We head straight for the Castle of Miracles for pictures with Santa.

The teddy bears they are holding are from a volunteer organization that was handing them out. They are nice bears! They also chose a gift from the gift table. Hasbro I believe donates gifts for the kids for "Christmas" which is held once a week at GKTW, usually Thursday. Michael chose a travel Lite Bright (oh joy!) and Danae a Weeble Wobble set.

They have volunteers everywhere. Mick takes Michael back to the villa to put away the presents. Apparently they never leave but order a pizza in.
Danae and I stay out for the fun. Danae gets her face and hands painted. She eats snow cones and cotton candy and we finally take a ride on the Carriage around the resort. It is soooo nice! The festivities finally end and Danae and I take the little train bus thing back to our villa and eat pizza, shower and they crash. I do laundry, of course. We are tired. It is now well past 10pm. The kids are not used to this little sleep. We have planned to take tomorrow easy. When we get up, we get up. When we leave for Universal, we leave for Universal. When we get back, we get back. Easy, easy day.

Stay tuned for "Shrek from Hell"...

 

[wendygrace]

I do forget to mention that throughout this we take a ton of photopass pictures. We stop whenever we see them. If all goes well, you'll get to see some. I hightly recommend the Rose Garden for the place to take great pictures with the castle in the background. Oh, we also pay for a couple of pictures for them to manually insert Tinkerbell in our pics as they say that TB isn't showing up when people get back home. But when I get my pics up on Photopass, TB has magically showed up. Grrrr! Oh, and Michael takes a flying leap while we are at the photopass shop and scrapes his nose. Poor kid!

 

[wendygrace]

Oh yes, One more thing. We get to see Michael's star!

 

[Who'syourMickey]

Wendy, what a Merry Christmas and a lovely star. LoL someday the pic by the empty cindy fountain will be famous like the pics of the castle with the crane by it...I think there is a thread around here for pics like that. "Disney construction...caught in the act" or some such title.

 

[wendygrace]

So I fell asleep thinking of the photopass. We did it and liked. Not enough to pay $125 for it but enough to go in with a couple other people. To get the most out of this, I recommend telling them that you are buying the CD. When we didn't, the photographers only took one or two pictures. But when we did, we would get a dozen of candid and posed pictures at each location. There is, somewhere, a list of all the photographers locations. I recommend looking at that. We did not see it before our trip and missed out on a couple of opportunities but I did happen to see a photographer in the Rose Garden (I think that's what it's called). Some photographer's picture qualities were better than others, btw. I, of course, cannot locate the list right now. I just happened to bump into it sometime this week.

Who'syourMickey, that is too funny. I was so sad to see the fountain no working and I love the pic of Danae with her hands on her chin looking at it. LOL

 

[5dwarves]

Wendy:

The smile on Michael's face with Santa and the teddy is absolutely precious! I love the picture of Danae staring at her reflection in the bathroom too! The fact that she was mesmerized by herself is so sweet! You can see that they are experiencing the magic by the sparkle in their eyes.

Sorry about the Peter Pan fiasco. I am sooo glad that you had the character meet of a lifetime your first day there. AWESOME! Also sorry to hear about the tink photo thing. The last thing you want to do is spend money you don't have to spend... I appreciate the photo pass tips...we are planning on buying the CD. Glad to see you in some of the pics this time!

Elisa

 

[Poohbear67]

Bravo and another Great report and how wonderful is that the children got to see Santa Clause of course!! Wow!

Michael got his own Star now you can't beat that. I bet he was just beaming from one end to the other.

You have been so open with us as to share these wonderful days. I hope all is well with your family.

 

[mikep_97]

Dear Wendy,

I was inspired to write this poem by your thread and that of WhoseyourMickey. Tell me if this sounds familiar .

Disney Whirled

Parking lot
Playful spot
Inspection hassle
Magic Castle
Rope Drop
Child Swap
See Winnie the Pooh
Whatever you do

Dumbo
Walk slow
Main Street
Character greet
Peter Pan
Touring Plan
Hair stylin’
Tom Sawyer Island

Breakfast
Fast Pass
Ariel
Liberty Bell
Snow White
Grab a bite
Jungle Cruise
Long-line blues

Toon Town
Princess gown
Mickey Mouse
Minnie’s house
Pirate’s curse
Empty purse
Parade Times
Count your dimes

Aladdin’s lamp
Hand stamp
Gifts shops
Potty stops
A President
Our money’s spent
Haunted Mansion
Hidden stanchion

Fireworks
Rude jerks
Small World
Flags unfurled
Splash Mountain
Thunder Mountain
Space Mountain
Costs mountin’

Tired feet
We’re all beat
Monorail
Please don’t fail
Find our car
It can’t be far
Its really late
We’re out the gate


Bill

Thank you for the beautiful poem!! Loving this thread!!

 

[wendygrace]

The spending money wasn't too bad, really. We still had money left at the end of our trip to spend on future WDW presents that weren't available when we went (a PP ornament for Michael which is d/c until closer to Christmas).

Poohbear67, thank you very much. He does love his star and we get a "reminder star" at the end of the trip. Hopefully I'll remember to tell you guys more about that later.

 

[cherokeemamma]

I just wanted to say, "Wonderful, wonderful update".

I am sorry that Michael did not get to actually fly with PP.

I agree with an earlier poster that the pics with Santa are just too cute!

I am looking forward to more.
Have a blessed day!

 

[heatherlynn444]

thanks for the update! so sorry that michael did not get to fly with peter pan. that makes me so sad! luckily he got that special attention the first day! the christma sparty sounds like so much fun, too! and danae looks so cute in her dress!

 

[LeeLee2U]

WOW,WOW, and WOW again!!! I'm sorry that Michael didn't get to fky with PP. I thought when you said they called about a special meet-n-greet that YES he was getting to ride with PP! That just makes those CMs and PP from the first day just that much more special!!!!
I love those pics!! The ones of Danae looking in the empty fountain and staring at her reflection are PRICELESS! I can just see those used on an ad somewhere. Of course then the fountain would be magically working!!!!!
You are doing a GREAT job. Keep it coming!!!

 

[Who'syourMickey]

I loved the poem too, Bill!

I agree, the meet and greet snafu makes the meeting with pp created by the CM's and the chance meeting with pp after the meet and greet all the more wonderful.

I would recommend for anyone on a wish trip or any trip to make sure to have the ressie or plan for seeing the character your child wants to see on your own planning. We have two trips to WDW before, and one was a do over trip because when we waited in line for two hours to see Mickey, and our dd said "NOT THAT MICKEY, I meant the LADY MICKEY!!!!" By that time the park was closing and we left for the 24 drive back home w/o seeing Minnie. What I learned from this is that if your child is young, make sure that the name of the character they tell you is actually who they are talking about, using pictures, and some kind of confirmation. Schedule a meal with the character or study where their favorite characters are going to be in the parks so that if one meeting is brief or rushed, you have options to create opprotunities for another meeting.

 

[SingingMom]

Dear Wendy,

I was inspired to write this poem by your thread and that of WhoseyourMickey. Tell me if this sounds familiar .

Disney Whirled

Bill

FANTASTIC poem, Bill!!

Wendy, what a Merry Christmas and a lovely star. LoL someday the pic by the empty cindy fountain will be famous like the pics of the castle with the crane by it...I think there is a thread around here for pics like that. "Disney construction...caught in the act" or some such title.

Ooooo... I have a few of those "Castle With Crane" pictures!! I'll have to dig them out and scan them for you! Scaffolding galore, also!

So I fell asleep thinking of the photopass. We did it and liked. Not enough to pay $125 for it but enough to go in with a couple other people. To get the most out of this, I recommend telling them that you are buying the CD. When we didn't, the photographers only took one or two pictures. But when we did, we would get a dozen of candid and posed pictures at each location. There is, somewhere, a list of all the photographers locations. I recommend looking at that. We did not see it before our trip and missed out on a couple of opportunities but I did happen to see a photographer in the Rose Garden (I think that's what it's called). Some photographer's picture qualities were better than others, btw. I, of course, cannot locate the list right now. I just happened to bump into it sometime this week.

Who'syourMickey, that is too funny. I was so sad to see the fountain no working and I love the pic of Danae with her hands on her chin looking at it. LOL

I was very disappointed with the Photopass photographers. I will have to find that list of locations the next time we go. Not many photos to choose from, and the one that was really important to me, the day we spent with my sister's family, the ears from my niece's Minnie headband were directly blocking my sister's face, in both photos! You would have thought the photographer would notice that! Oh well!

I LOVE the family picture at the Christmas Party, Wendy! You should use that as your Christmas card this year!

Thanks for your wonderful report!!!
Renée

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Hello! Though I would pop in over here. You are doing so well with your trip report. It is really helping us who are going to GKTW in the future. I love the pics of your kids! They are adorable! Keep up the good work and I can't wait to read more!!!

 

[Who'syourMickey]

What is the significance of having a photopass?

 

[5dwarves]

oops...hit submit too soon...

 

[5dwarves]

What is the significance of having a photopass?

This is a new thing to me (new since I was at DL 3 years ago.) There are photographers at the character meets and wandering the parks that will take your picture (good way to get everyone in there at once.) They give you a plastic card like a credit card and it has a bar code on it. When you see another photographer somewhere else (even on a different day) you give the card to them, they scan it in and then your next picture shows up on that "account" as well. YOu can view the pics while at Disney and online. You can purchase them individually, or purchase a CD with all the printing rights for $129. Some threads have talked about receiving a $20 coupon on their cards...some have said they didn't receive the coupon. Anyway, if you want LOTS of pictures, it would be cheaper to have the CD and print it at your local Wal-mart or drugstore. There is a thread out there somewhere that shows these pictures. Sometimes they "add" things, like stitch popping from around your shoulder or inside a hat...and Tink sitting in your cupped hands...I think there is one with Simba too....I'll see if I can find the thread links for you.