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

[castawaymam]

enjoyed the updates of your TR WendyGrace.

 

[wendygrace]

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.

I agree that Monday was just too special. Disney is a huge organization and the trickle down factor must be so difficult. That they give their front line people the authority to do what they did for us is fantastic and really says something about there commitment to their guests.

I also agree. Make meeting your child's favourite character a day one goal. Someone mentioned their child wanting to meet the princesses (Bill?). Toontown is the BEST place for this. Apparently, Cindy, Aurora and Belle in her yellow dress are most often there. Ariel is usually at her Grotto (fantasyland). Belle in the blue dress has her own storytime (near the castle btw Toontown and Tommorrowland, I believe). And of course at DMGM, she's at her show and Ariel at hers. Mulan is usually at Epcot and Pocahontas at AK. Look up the Steve Soares site. Its got all the info you need for where to be for Meet and Greets!

FANTASTIC poem, Bill!!



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!


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

Renee, I agree. I am so glad they took lots of pics. The more pics they took, the higher the chance that one would come out. LOL

enjoyed the updates of your TR WendyGrace.

Thanks.

Ok. I'm gonna try and do Friday. I know some people are leaving here soon and would like to finish for them.

 

[Disneyolic]

I do feel bad about Michael not being able to get the "flying with Peter Pan" done. Was that the specific reason you had them dress up? I am so glad that he did get to meet Peter a couple of times though and in such special ways!

The Christmas party at GTKW seems great!

Looking forward to the next update...

 

[KathyRN137]

Whew! No wonder the kids crashed so easily in the MAW Lounge! I was exhausted just reading about your day! It was a peaceful one, though, and I'm glad you were planning to sleep in the next morning.....

Thank you again for sharing your amazing trip with us.....

Kathy

 

[shannon47142]

Your pictures are great!! The picture in the bathroom with your darling girl all dressed up was precious Thanks for sharing!!

 

[wendygrace]

Friday is Universal Morning at GKTW. My kids are a bit past Barney, which is who is usually there. So we take our time but do want to make sure we are up for a hot breakfast. Kids, of course, are up by 7am. Wheeeee!! Again we find that Michael has pushed the chairs to the doors. Thank goodness for those locks! GKTW usually leaves a small gift for the wish child each day. Yesterday Michael received slippers with wolf heads on them. The kids won't stop wearing them. We agree to let him wear them around the villa. Ok. Mick agrees. I was already out the door with Danae as Danae has agreed to go see who is at the Castle of Miracles today.

It is Baby Bop and BJ!!

Michael arrives and decides to play shy. Note the shoes.

And we finally get him close to BJ!

Barney is at the carousel but as we arrive, Barney is going back inside as it is too hot! We ride the carousel a few times and I get some video on it!

We then ate breakfast. Yum! Waffles, eggs, sausage, cereal. Its all good. They refuse to allow us to clean up after ourselves.

We are heading to Universal so I have the kids in their swimming suits. Why you ask? Because Universal has a kids water play area and you are supposed to get soaked. So I put on their swimsuits (UV protection swimwear. Love this stuff. From Lands End) and toss on the Give Kids the World Tees over them and off we go!

 

[wendygrace]

Univeral is a little father than Disney but not obscenely so. And its in another direction. Side note: You get a "Bunny book" at orientation. Make sure you read it and then promptly place it in your car. It has all the info you need such as directions and which parks require what. For example, you need special parking passes for Universal that you don't need for SeaWorld or WDW. However, at Universal, that is the only thing that the GKTW button doesn't get you. The pin does it all. Including the stroller as a wheelchair! However, I didn't know this quite yet.

Universal parking is also in a dark garage. Be aware! It is also a LONG walk. And when I say long, I mean L O N G !

We arrive.

Note the scab on Michael's nose from meeting the rug at Disney the day before. LOL

We get on a moving walkway. Then another. Then another. Then we see a sign for wheelchair and stroller rental. They only rent wheelchairs. You have to go inside the park for strollers. So we get on another moving walkway. And another. Then we walk and walk and walk.

I had originally planned to do IOA first so we could do Seuss Landing, which is mostly dry and then head towards Universal for the Shrek show and then Woody Woodpecker area. Mick convinces me that we should do Universal first and start with the Shrek show. See the kids don't like shows to terribly much but they love Shrek! We head to Universal.

Universal also has a sorta Photopass thing. Wish kids get some free photos here. They get one free photo per "stand". That means one at "Shrek", one at "Barney" I believe, one somewhere else and one that is one of the following the Universal Ball, the main street and a few "traveling" character meet and greets (dora, curious george, scooby doo, madagascar, woody woodpecker, etc). We do not learn this until after we pass the ball so if you want a free pic of your family in front of the ball, get one on your way in. It takes at least 1/2 hour for those "free standing" pics to make it back to the kiosks. The photographers are like the ones at Disney. Not professionals so ask them to take a few pics so you have choices.

 

[wendygrace]

Alright, so we come in and we head for guest services on the right since we do not know that we don't need a stroller as a wheelchair sticker yet. There is a huge line.
Michael becomes fascinated with the foutain out front so I of course need to take pics.

See the line over his left shoulder?

I see someone walking out of the building and ask them. This lovely person tells us that all we need is our GKTW pin and our GAP (provided by GKTW) and that's it. She points us in the direction of the strollers and off we go. There is no line and we get a double stroller that looks like a "car". Kids are so excited and away we go to find Shrek.

Shrek is right there so we park our stroller and go talk to the ride attendant. He lets us right in. We are the last ones in. The door shuts behind us. The kids start screaming. The pre-show moving doesn't bode well. We calm the children as, well, the kids love Shrek. How bad can this be? Don't do Shrek with young children! No matter how much they loved the movies! It is dark (and I don't mean just the theater) and it is scary. The seats move, things are thrown at you. Kids did not last more than thirty seconds. We are out of there! Michael still talks about "that scary Shrek movie".

Ok. Not a good start. We decide to head out to the Woody Woodpecker area. We walk. And walk. Thank goodness for the strollers! We get to the Woody Woodpecker area. Danae decides to do Barney. Michael wants to do the roller coaster he has somehow spotted from a mile away. We will touch basis after the show. Danae and I go in and I videotape parts of it. Oh, at this point I am wearing Michael's GKTW pin as he has poked holes into all his shirts with it since he likes to pull on it while he is wearing it. I had forgotten I had it. Thank goodness we are wearing GKTW tees and Mick has the all important GAP! Danae gets a special one on one meet with Barney at the end of the show! It was so sweet since she is not the Wish kid, they didn't have to do that. She does not get a free pic but that's ok. The play area behind attached to this is awesome! I took video of it and Michael is so jealous! Danae is so cute and at one point gets on the "horn" on the train and says "All aboard!". Too cute.

Outside the show there is a scary Barney statue. there is a plaque on it that states that all change in the fountain is donated to GKTW. So throw your pennies in please!!

We get out of the show finally and call Mick. We find them here.

Michael is having a blast trying to avoid getting all wet. Danae, OTOH, jumps right in and gets sopping wet!

Danae fixes a flat tire.

The End

After getting very wet here, we do a few more rounds on the roller coaster (and I get video) and we head off to eat.

We eat right there in that area and find the perfect little table with a breeze going. Food was good and it was so nice to sit down. We see another Wish family there and we discuss our plans. They are about to head out to go to IOA. We expect to see them there.

We then see a show that is happening there where there will then be a Meet and Greet with Curious George, one of Michael's favourite characters. Note that it is now well passed nap time with no nap.

We see the show (I loved it!). Totally 80's, btw. It has Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat, Shaggy and Scooby, Woody and his g-friend. We decide we only really want to see Curious George. They line up and we touch basis with the handlers. We get first pics however Michael was having none of it.
Note: if you think your kid is going to be weary of characters, let the handler know you'd like a few people to go ahead of you to give your child time to warm up to the character first. I wish we had. Things might have gone more smoothly like that.
We did not get a good picture here. We picked it as the free pic but only because Danae and Curious George look so cute. I just haven't scanned it in yet.
Madagascar was happening nearby but we decided that we really needed to head on out soon.

 

[wendygrace]

So we head towards Shrek, the character meet that is. We walk. and walk. and walk. Ok, its not that long but boy are we tired. We find Shrek and touch basis with one of the peoples. John Anthony helped us out here and he was awesome! First we got a family portrait of us with Shrek and Donkey. Again, Michael was freaked so it wasn't a great picture. However, during the picture, donkey talks. Michael is holding his hands over his ears saying its too loud. They overhear him and Donkey starts to whisper! Isn't that awesome!!?
Although it looks like typically people get their picture seperately with these two characters, we got them together and it is so cute. I then head off with John Anthony to get our free picture. As he walks back, Danae is nearby and talking with Mick about not seeing Fiona. John Anthony overhears the conversation. As we are leaving, he tells Mick to hold off a few minutes. They shut Donkey off and about a minute later, Fiona (in her green dress) shows up! Danae gets her picture taken with Fiona!

We also get a copy of the picture they took as well! How cool is that?!

As we are leaving, one of the workers points us in the direction of Dora, who is taking pictures down the block. Yeah! Mick actually takes the camera for this one! Michael is still freaking so mommy tries to get some help here. We again get first dibs on Dora.

And a kiss!

As we are heading out, we see they are taking pictures near the front. We decide to take a family picture. Then we find out it will take 1/2 hour. Mick and I talk and we decide we really are tired. We decide not to go to IOA but we will go back to Woody Woodpecker area to ride the coaster and do what we missed and come back for photos.

We go to the Fivel play area.

I'm so glad we did. I got some good video. The kids had a blast. And Mick got to talking with a couple who were there who happened to be living in St.Louis...and the wife is working for St. Louis Children's Hospital (and we run into her, by complete chance, a couple of weeks later when we are up there for a doctor's appointment!). Everyone with me "It's a Small World After All"...

On our way back, we meet up with Zorro and what's her name (someone help me out here)... Mick really wants a picture so we stop.

Mick then proceeds to start a "fight" between them.

It goes something like this.
Mick: "I wish I had an accent like his. Then I could say "Women, get me some eggs" and it would sound sexy.
Zorro (a couple minutes later): We must go now so my women can get me some eggs.
"Women": takes offense here and gets "angry"
The continue this "angry" and "fighting" act all the way back to the offstage area.

It is hysterical!

We then return to the photo kiosk and discover what I told you about the free pics. We decide to just get the Curious George one.
When we leave, we have the photo guy take this pic of us with our camera. LOL

We return the stroller. Later we realize that we didn't have to return it until the end of all the walkways but if we had the stroller, we wouldn't have been able to use the walkways. Oh, and you can use the one stroller at both parks. You don't have to turn one in and get another at the other park.

Anyways, so we leave and head back to the resort. Tonight is fishing night. What do we do?

 

[wendygrace]

So we head back to the village and what do we do. Well, its blurry. I'm sure we had dinner at some point. Mick and the kids probably fished and well, there's always this.

I believe at one point Mick took the kids and I videotaped the resort for family.

We also made the kids "special pillows" from the special pillow making machine at the castle. They are cute pillows and I would recommend getting them either at the beginning to help the transition to the resort or at the end to help the transition out. We decided to do it at the end and it is their happy GKTW memory pillow!

Oh yes, we also visited Mayor Clayton's home.

It was a fine time and then we went to bed.

We leave tomorrow and we haven't decided how we are going to spend the day. I end up packing a ton of stuff that night so we don't have to do it in the morning. Check out is at 11am. Our flight is at 6pm. The front desk says its ok to be there around 4pm. We want to go to DTD to do some shopping. We'll figure it out in the morning.

 

[wendygrace]

If all goes well, in the next couple of days you'll get your installment of ...

"The airport is WHAT?!?!?!"

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

I love your cliff hangers! Thanks for the report on Universal. We are thinking we will do at least one of those parks. My DD would love to see Dora!! Can't wait to read about your last day!!!

 

[5dwarves]

Wendy...

You were a VERY busy lady last night. Thanks for all the updates! Danae, as usually, is just adorbable. I love the smile on her face with Baby Bop. My kids are past barney too...we may have a mutiny if I make them take pics with Barney. I would like to though and send it to my little neices, who are NOT past Barney..."look...your Aunt knows important purple people." It would have to make me their favorite! My son Jake was just looking over my shoulder and saw the Baby Bop pictures and said..."ooo...I think we are going to miss that." He is so grown up now at 7.

I absolutley LOVE Micheal's wolf slippers. My sister had some similar ones that were elephants and she too wore them every where, even in public. She named them even..."effie"...she was a junior in high school though...Glad to see Mick let him wear them....

Thanks for all the great Universal Tips. When I made our ADR there, they warned me that it was a long walk in. They also said that sometimes those moving walkways are not working...fingers crossed here.

That character with Zorro's name is loosely translated from Spanish as "the woman Kirk Douglas was dang lucky to get to marry him" or something like that.

Have a great day...

Elisa

 

[5dwarves]

Wendy:

What a precious picture of Michael and Danae walking by the Universal Globe where Michael has his arm around his little sister. You can tell he is a little tired, but he just looks so satisfied and peaceful...like he has just had great day and he is enjoying the moment. Awesome stuff!

 

[heatherlynn444]

wendy thanks for the update! it looks like your kids had a blast at universal!!! I'm sorry they found the shrek part so scary, but glad they got to take pictures with them!

 

[Goofyluver]

Good day at Universal...we didn't do it this trip...but hopefully will next! And...waiting for that airport post...it seems like everyone who I have seen has had airplane issues!!!

 

[Maggimus]

Wow your last 2 installments have been great. The kids look like they literally have had the time of their lives. I hate that you only have one day left though-- cant wait to see how it goes

 

[hrsmom]

I love reading your TR. Can't wait to find out about the airport?!

 

[Lil'DisneyMom]

Great update Wendy!! How cute are they with Dora!!! Was Diego there?

 

[Who'syourMickey]

I really love that last pic of your family in front of the ball at universal Wendy. That picture looks like you all have had so much fun for an entire week and have left all your cares behind you. Man...I want that look.