WISH trip tips??

[2Pirates2Princesses]

The daughter of one of my coworkers was granted a WISH trip to do Disney and Universal and my coworker has asked me for tips because she knows I’ve been to WDW with my family several times. I’m so excited for her and her family. This little girl is so awesome and and so deserving of this. This mom is so hardworking, she is pretty much the primary source of income for her family (her, her daughter, and husband) as her DH has difficulty maintaining employment and she is working on her masters degree and juggles her daughters numerous appointments and treatments on top of working full time. This will be her nine year old daughter’s very first Disney trip. They are staying at GKTW. She has asked me for any tips I can offer her like what I think the must do things are, what parks they should do or skip. She said her daughter specifically requested to meet and have a meal with Cinderella and from the way she explained it to me it seems like Make a Wish has already arranged this for her and their dining?? She also said they will bring the characters to GKTW for meet and greets. I did help her find and order some things online from the Disney store such as a tween Cinderella tutu skirt with matching shirt and a tiara and also matching family shirts for the three of them (she didn’t know there was a Disney store website being that there aren’t anymore Disney stores here). They will have a three day park hopper for Disney and I know they don’t have to worry about fastpasses because of the pass they get through Make a Wish so I’m not sure what specific planning tips I should give them. I did suggest getting familiar with the maps of the parks and showing her daughter some you tube videos of the rides/attractions she thinks she would be most interested in (I also gave her my WDW planning DVD from last year). I showed her the Disboards and she said she thought it was overwhelming. I haven’t been to Universal since the 90’s so I can’t offer advice on that . Has anyone here done a WISH trip and have any tips? Their trip is for the last week of February.

 

[powellrj]

Have her check out The DisAbilities board. Many people there have been on WISH trips and can offer many tips.

 

[katyjeka]

Suess Landing is fantastic, so well themed. We did see a little boy on a WISH trip while there and the Grinch was awesome with him. The young people working the high in the sky trolley were so sweet and he seemed to really enjoy the entire area. Do they have an autograph book? Not sure of the disability but would she be able to take her own pictures.(She might enjoy remembering her trip from her point of view) Maybe a view disposable cameras or a little inexpensive one. I know our 9 year old loved when she was able to take her own. I agree check out the Disabilities board so much useful info. Hope they have a magical trip.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Have her check out The DisAbilities board. Many people there have been on WISH trips and can offer many tips.

I did show the mom the Disboards including that forum and she said it was overwhelming to her. Since I’m used to knowing how to navigate the forums and posts on here I think I will try to get some tips from there for her.

Suess Landing is fantastic, so well themed. We did see a little boy on a WISH trip while there and the Grinch was awesome with him. The young people working the high in the sky trolley were so sweet and he seemed to really enjoy the entire area. Do they have an autograph book? Not sure of the disability but would she be able to take her own pictures.(She might enjoy remembering her trip from her point of view) Maybe a view disposable cameras or a little inexpensive one. I know our 9 year old loved when she was able to take her own. I agree check out the Disabilities board so much useful info. Hope they have a magical trip.

I will have to find out if they have an autograph book. Based on what she explained (if I understood correctly) they are going to have a lot of the Disney characters there at GKTW for the children to meet.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

The daughter of one of my coworkers was granted a WISH trip to do Disney and Universal and my coworker has asked me for tips because she knows I’ve been to WDW with my family several times. I’m so excited for her and her family. This little girl is so awesome and and so deserving of this. This mom is so hardworking, she is pretty much the primary source of income for her family (her, her daughter, and husband) as her DH has difficulty maintaining employment and she is working on her masters degree and juggles her daughters numerous appointments and treatments on top of working full time. This will be her nine year old daughter’s very first Disney trip. They are staying at GKTW. She has asked me for any tips I can offer her like what I think the must do things are, what parks they should do or skip. She said her daughter specifically requested to meet and have a meal with Cinderella and from the way she explained it to me it seems like Make a Wish has already arranged this for her and their dining?? She also said they will bring the characters to GKTW for meet and greets. I did help her find and order some things online from the Disney store such as a tween Cinderella tutu skirt with matching shirt and a tiara and also matching family shirts for the three of them (she didn’t know there was a Disney store website being that there aren’t anymore Disney stores here). They will have a three day park hopper for Disney and I know they don’t have to worry about fastpasses because of the pass they get through Make a Wish so I’m not sure what specific planning tips I should give them. I did suggest getting familiar with the maps of the parks and showing her daughter some you tube videos of the rides/attractions she thinks she would be most interested in (I also gave her my WDW planning DVD from last year). I showed her the Disboards and she said she thought it was overwhelming. I haven’t been to Universal since the 90’s so I can’t offer advice on that . Has anyone here done a WISH trip and have any tips? Their trip is for the last week of February.

having been to GKTW make sure she checks the schedule there for their special activities esp Halloween and Christmas that happen every week. have her be sure that MAW did schedule the Castle meal as some do things like that and some do not. since it is a MAW trip I assume she is getting the "genie pass" if so she will not need FP+s. she will also have a similar pass from Universal and Sea World. if she is still into Cat In the Hat make sure she gets a ride on I forget the name but sky train in that area. know my grandsons got spending money but we ate breakfast and then did characters of the day at the Village before we hit the parks. did lunch in the parks and usually ate dinner at the Village. all food including ice cream are free at the village. any pictures at they want taken at Village activities there will be "angels" who will take so whole family will be in them. the biggest piece of advice is to make sure they bring an empty suitcase to bring all the extras from the Village home. when we were there every day we would find a surprise on table each day when we returned from parks. we had more than just the wish child and there would a larger surprise for Wish Child but always something for other kids also. at least one morning make sure they do ice cream for breakfast. planning is totally different for wish trips than a family trip. I know it sounds weird but there is enough to do at the Village that you could spend your week there. ask me anything else and maybe I or Rusty, he is a dis regular will know answer

 

[nesser1981]

I did show the mom the Disboards including that forum and she said it was overwhelming to her. Since I’m used to knowing how to navigate the forums and posts on here I think I will try to get some tips from there for her.




I will have to find out if they have an autograph book. Based on what she explained (if I understood correctly) they are going to have a lot of the Disney characters there at GKTW for the children to meet.

Looks like you checked in on the Wish Trippers thread. Most the trip reports are outdated now, but you could take a look through ours. We went in 2012 on my daughter's wish trip. We did meet Mickey, Belle, Goofy, and Pluto at GKTW. I know some of the universal characters come out too.

GKTW is amazing, we're planning a visit when we get back next month. We never waited more than 10-15 minutes for rides or to meet characters. My daughter was 6 and son was 4.

As for the itinerary, we did MK, HS, Sea World, IOA and AK/EPCOT on the same day. If I had it to do over, I would probably take a whole day for Epcot and did HS/AK on the same day.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Thank you all for the replies. When I see her again I am going to try to find out what her daughter is most interested in in order to recommend what a good park itinerary would be. I think either one full day for MK, full day for AK and hop between HS and Epcot on the third day; or full day MK, hop between Epcot and MK on day two, and hop between AK and HS on day three. The mom is very grateful and excited for her daughter to have this experience but also a bit overwhelmed which I can understand. It’s a six night trip and they have three day park hoppers for Disney as well as Universal and Sea World tickets; and it seems like GKTW Village is full of a lot of neat stuff to see and do as well. I know her MAW counselors are handling her daughter’s specific requests; but knowing this mom and her family I’m hoping it isn’t too much running around for a first time, six day trip. I will definitely recommend her taking an extra suitcase and autograph book.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Thank you all for the replies. When I see her again I am going to try to find out what her daughter is most interested in in order to recommend what a good park itinerary would be. I think either one full day for MK, full day for AK and hop between HS and Epcot on the third day; or full day MK, hop between Epcot and MK on day two, and hop between AK and HS on day three. The mom is very grateful and excited for her daughter to have this experience but also a bit overwhelmed which I can understand. It’s a six night trip and they have three day park hoppers for Disney as well as Universal and Sea World tickets; and it seems like GKTW Village is full of a lot of neat stuff to see and do as well. I know her MAW counselors are handling her daughter’s specific requests; but knowing this mom and her family I’m hoping it isn’t too much running around for a first time, six day trip. I will definitely recommend her taking an extra suitcase and autograph book.[/QUOTE make sure they take the extra suitcase and that is not counting anything they would buy in any park. yes my grandsons got that much. been awhile since their trips but there were a lot of extras at Sea World. I remember a few people at GKTW saying they were having to go to Walmart to get another suitcase to get everything home.