Caleb's Make A Wish DisneyWorld/Universal trip 1/29-2/7/15

[chcmama]

This was my son's Make A Wish trip and we had a blast! We have been to WDW one other time but it was about 7 years ago and my son was only 2 so he really didn't remember it.
First here is a link to my pre-trip report http://www.disboards.com/threads/calebs-maw-ptr-1-29-15.3365048/

Now, here the cast of characters:
First, Caleb, he is 9 and the star of this show. He has Cystic Fibrosis and he wanted to go to Universal and Disney World because he loves riding rides and he wanted to meet the superheroes at Universal. He is a comedian and wants to ride the wildest rides he can.


My 17yo dd, she also has CF and was granted a wish in 2009 to go on a cruise. In June of 2014 she had a double lung transplant and has been doing amazing! We waited on her to be healthy before we nominated Caleb for his wish. She is not quite the daredevil when it comes to rides (although she used to be), she is scared of heights and that has prevented her from riding some rides. She loves Harry Potter and was super excited to go to Universal


Here is my 14yo dd, she also loves riding the big rides and ice cream.


Also on the trip are myself and dh, I love Disney and would love to take more trips to WDW. I would especially love to take a trip with just DH and myself, he is willing but we will probably have to put that off until the kids are out of the house Here is a pic of the whole family


A little more background to our trip planning, we were given the dates for our trip in December so I only had a month and a half to plan I was sweating it since we only had 7 days (2 of which were travel days) with MAW, so we decided to extend our trip and added on 3 more days, still seemed like we were really going to be cramming it all in but we managed to go to both Universal Parks, Sea World, and all 4 Disney parks (and we didn't even feel too exhausted) The week before we were supposed to leave Caleb ended up in the hospital on IV antibiotics and we were stressing that we were not going to get to go on the trip. They let us leave the day before our trip and Caleb had to do IV antibiotics on the trip but we were so happy we didn't have to reschedule. Now on to the trip!

 

[chcmama]

I will save this post for a table of contents…who knows maybe there will be enough comments that it will be necessary

 

[potsiemom]

cant wait to read it .We will be having our wish trip soon.

 

[chcmama]

Day 1: travel day also known as - I know what holiday that is…turducken!

We had an early flight so MAW put us in a hotel by the airport. I think our alarm went off at 4:30 or something crazy like that but luckily everyone was excited to go so i had no trouble getting them all up and out the door. After a quick shuttle ride we were at the airport. Our flight was on Alaska Airlines and I have to say they were amazing! We got lots of pixie dust from them and they were so friendly and helpful. We got to check in through the VIP line, so basically no line. The lady at the counter gave Caleb a bag with all kinds of fun goodies in it, a puzzle, a bracelet, an inflatable plane hat, coloring, glowsticks, I actually can't even remember what all was in it.

The lady at the counter then walked us over to security to a quicker line and we breezed through. This is I count as a miracle, I have never flown with medical supplies and not had them check our bag and take extra long with it. We even had Caleb's IV meds with an ice pack and they didn't even open the bag. We found a quick breakfast at Starbucks and then headed to our gate. The gate agents were asking Caleb where he was going and told us we would be able to pre board. As soon as they were ready they took us on the plane and let Caleb go in the cockpit and meet the pilot.


He thought that was pretty cool. During the flight the flight attendant gave Caleb one of the kids snack packs for free, she asked us if we wanted anything but none of us really realized she was offering it to us complimentary and we turned her down. We had a quick flight from Portland to San Diego. Once in San Diego we got the same treatment and got to pre board again. This time we were in our seats and the captain came and gave Caleb cards that showed the different Alaska Airlines planes that are painted with Disney characters. He told Caleb he tried to get him the one with Mickey Mouse and the gang but he wasn't able to. Then he asked Caleb to come up to the cockpit with him, put his captains hat on Caleb and let him sit in the seat, he had him pose and even took his own photo.

He had me go sit down and told me he was going to let Caleb make an announcement. I have a video of it and if I get it figured out I will share it. The captain told everyone that Caleb was on his Make A Wish and Caleb said "welcome aboard" and everyone cheered and clapped for him and high fixed him as he came back to his seat. I almost got a little teary eyed. This was our long flight to Orlando and they gave us all complimentary video devices and food again.
We got to Orlando about 5:30 (day goes fast when you lose hours ) We headed towards baggage and were greeted by our Give Kids the World greeter.

He helped us get our luggage, gave us directions to GKTW and took us to our rental car and we were on our way. By the time we got to GKTW after all of that it was about 7:20 and we really wanted to make 7:45 orientation at it was Winter Wonderland night with Santa. The gentleman that checked us in took us to our villa quickly gave us a quick look around and then drove us back to the gingerbread house for dinner, he told us that we could be 15 min late to orientation and still be fine, so we ate and dh went to orientation and I took the kids to find Santa.

All the kids got to pick a present, Caleb picked a transformer, 17yo dd picked a game, and 14yo dd picked a One Direction doll to give to a friend at home. We left Santa and went to the party going on in the Street of Dreams, dh met up with us pretty quickly. Caleb was playing one of the games and the girls wanted to go back to the villa because it was getting chilly. They were going to grab jackets and come back and get ice cream. After Caleb was done with the dance game that was going on it started to "snow" I didn't get any good picture because it was dark and I only had my phone.

It was pretty fun though. The rest of the family came back and we went to get ice cream.

Caleb is eating rainbow sherbet, I had to look at the picture a 2nd time because it looked like he had grated cheese on his ice cream
The girls wanted to go to the teen club so we walked over there, as we were walking we saw a wall that had a mural on it with different holidays and animals. Near the end of the wall there were some ducks, Caleb said "I know what holiday the ducks are for" I asked him what and he replied "Turducken!" Not sure that is a holiday and interesting to know he has even heard of it… We got the the building the teen club was in and hung around playing video games until someone came over for that. It got a late start and there was only 1 other person besides my dd's but they had fun. Once we dropped them off we walked back to the villa to get things unpacked and ready for our first park day On the table was a bag of goodies and a toy that GKTW left for Caleb and us. He was a little bent out of shape because the toy left for him was an Alice in Wonderland Vinylmation and he felt it was definitely a girl toy.

In the bag of goodies was sunscreen, crackers and peanut butter, a little stuffed robin hood, pencil, Lizzie McGuire DVD, One Direction toy, wooden plane and some sort of super hero thing (I can't remember what it was) DH drove back to pick up the girls and we tried to go to bed but we were still on our west coast time and it took a while for all of us to wind down and go to bed. But we were headed to Disney Hollywood Studios tomorrow so we needed our rest.

 

[blondieboo]

Subbin in. Thanks for clarifying the ice cream. I thought it was shredded cheddar haha

 

[FaithsWish]

LOL at the Vinylmation! We got one too but ours was from Nightmare Before Christmas. It was a Mickey "Jack" with an ax in its head. Subbing in.

 

[PJ]

Yikes - sounds like they goofed a little on the Vinylmations for both Caleb and Faith Sorry I didn't find Caleb's PTR till after your trip was done - I was volunteering at GKTW the night you were doing the halloween party and I would have enjoyed meeting you! Looking forward to the rest of your trip report.

 

[chcmama]

cant wait to read it .We will be having our wish trip soon.

Glad you are joining in! Hope it helps you with your planning

 

[chcmama]

Subbin in. Thanks for clarifying the ice cream. I thought it was shredded cheddar haha

Yay, glad you are joining, I know right? I looked at that picture and his ice cream and was trying to think what he had that it looked like cheese on his ice cream

 

[chcmama]

LOL at the Vinylmation! We got one too but ours was from Nightmare Before Christmas. It was a Mickey "Jack" with an ax in its head. Subbing in.

Caleb would have liked that one probably

 

[chcmama]

Yikes - sounds like they goofed a little on the Vinylmations for both Caleb and Faith Sorry I didn't find Caleb's PTR till after your trip was done - I was volunteering at GKTW the night you were doing the halloween party and I would have enjoyed meeting you! Looking forward to the rest of your trip report.

That is too bad, Caleb loved the Halloween party, especially the science experiments, it would have been fun to meet you

 

[chcmama]

Day 2: Disney Hollywood Studios

We were all excited for our first day in the park so we were up at ready to go first thing…actually not at all, we were excited but I was the only one up and no one else wanted to get up because they were wiped out from traveling and staying up too late. I decided before we went on this trip that I was not going to fight with my family and try to get them to the park at rope drop because I would lose and it would make me crazy. So, I let them sleep later than I would have liked but eventually everyone was up and ready to go find breakfast. But, before we move on with the rest of the day I have to tell you what Caleb told me when he got up. When we checked in at GKTW they gave Caleb a stuffed Mickey Mouse. He was sleeping with it that night and in the morning he said to me "Papa woke me up in the night to readjust Mickey, I have no idea why but he didn't like the way I was holding him or something" ummm…what? What is he talking about? So I asked dh why he woke Caleb up to readjust Mickey, he started laughing and said Caleb had slid down and wasn't on the pillows and he happened to be up and noticed and was pulling him back up on the pillow. Caleb for some reason thought DH was adjusting Mickey Mouse because he wasn't holding him right
We headed over to the Gingerbread House for breakfast seems like we had eggs, potatoes, bacon, fruit and coffee, finished up went back to the villa and got our stuff and headed out the door. Since it was dark when we got in I didn't get any pictures of our villa until the morning. Here is our home for the week villa 129.

It was so exciting when we finally saw this!

We got to DHS about 11 and with our super duper Genie pass that we were given at orientation we got free parking and got to park up close to the gate in medical overflow parking (which was an awesome perk) We headed into the park and the lines to get our bags checked went quickly and it wasn't long before we got our first photo taken.


We headed straight to Rocking Roller Coaster but did stop for a few more photos (why not we wanted as many as we could)


We used our awesome genie pass and got in the fast pass line…right behind a big group of teenage girls from Brazil, so the line took a little longer than usual but Caleb was so excited to ride his first big roller coaster we were fine with it. It did not disappoint, he loved this ride, really really loved it.
We didn't get the picture from the first ride because we didn't really get how the genie photo pass card worked. All the other cards you could just scan your band or whatever and your picture was automatically added, but with the genie photo card you have to go to the photo counter and have them manually add it to the card. Just thought I would let any future wish families know. I did however get this picture because Caleb is a goofball

Next we headed to Tower of Terror, short wait through the FP line and we were on.

We went back to RR (now we had the photo thing figured out)

and then back to TT

Caleb wanted to keep riding these two but there were other things to see in the park and we were getting hungry. We bought a couple turkey legs and a couple pretzels and shared them, then we stopped at Starring Rolls, I had read about their amazing cupcakes so we decided to try them out.
We got the red velvet with cream cheese frosting and toffee pieces

the chocolate peanut butter

and this last one was chocolate with banana buttercream and a caramel drizzle, dh wanted to try this one, none of the rest of us were interested in banana frosting.

After this gluttonous affair we headed to the Great Movie Ride, I found it fun but Caleb said it was boring and didn't want to do anymore rides like it, I was a little worried that we started with RR and TT because there are no other rides quite that wild left in the park so i hoped he would get over that and enjoy the other rides too. Next up was Toy Story Midway Mania, this ride was not here last time we came and we loved it! We thought it was one of the most fun rides there. We ran into this guy outside

We had to take a few minute pause here to do Caleb's IV antibiotics so we looked at the map and made a plan for the rest of the afternoon. We headed over to Star Tours and it was revealed to my family that I was a rebel spy (hehehe…this is a new thing since we have been there but my family got a kick out of them picking me as the rebel spy and dh joked about it the rest of the day) We wanted to make it over to the stunt show for the next showing and time was tight, so once we left the ride we wanted to head right over but exiting into the gift shop with Star Wars stuff proved to make this a difficult task. We promised Caleb we would come back but we had to get to the stunt show now if we wanted to see it. My family loves the stunt show so that was very much enjoyed. Once that was done we headed back to the Star Wars store and we got out of there with only 3 build your own droids (if we bought 2 we got the 3rd for free, so each kid made one) We headed back to TSMM because we had to beat our scores from last time, then we headed back to get one last ride on RR and TT. 14yo dd convinced dh to give her a piggy back ride part of the way. I love this picture, makes her still seem like a little kid in a way, even though she is almost grown up.

We fit in the last rides



Then we made it in at the last minute to Fantasmic (really glad we had the genie pass)

After Fantasmic we headed out of the park and back to GKTW, we decided since it was late to try out the pizza and it was fantastic and it was nice to just relax in our villa too. Caleb was excited to get back and see what was left in the villa for him and he asked me on the way back "do you think they know I am a boy now?" (he had not forgotten about the alice in wonderland toy) He was thrilled to find a bag of super hero stuff and a letter from Mayor Clayton. There was something for the girls too, I think they left them each a small fingernail polish and there was a bottle of body wash and a body of nice lotion. After the pizza we went to get ice cream and the girls went to teen night and we managed to get to bed a little bit earlier. We had a full day planned for Epcot in the morning.

 

[potsiemom]

tower of terror and rock n roller coaster look like so much fun.To bad I am a huge chicken.I am sure the kids will love them tho.

 

[WendyLou]

Lovin it!!! great report and pics, makes me so excited for our trip!

 

[RDawn]

I was a Make-a-Wish volunteer for 5 years (gave it up when I had my own kids) and have always LOVED hearing how well the Wish families are taken care of. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

 

[chcmama]

tower of terror and rock n roller coaster look like so much fun.To bad I am a huge chicken.I am sure the kids will love them tho.

We love the big rides, just wait until I get to our days at Universal

 

[chcmama]

Lovin it!!! great report and pics, makes me so excited for our trip!

thanks

 

[chcmama]

I was a Make-a-Wish volunteer for 5 years (gave it up when I had my own kids) and have always LOVED hearing how well the Wish families are taken care of. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

That is great! Ever since my oldest was granted her wish I have wanted to volunteer but I feel like I am too busy until my kids are older

 

[RDawn]

I hope you will have time to volunteer someday. You will have such a great perspective since your children have received wishes, and such a deep understanding for the Wish families. I will pray for Caleb.

 

[chcmama]

I hope you will have time to volunteer someday. You will have such a great perspective since your children have received wishes, and such a deep understanding for the Wish families. I will pray for Caleb.

I really hope to, I think it would be a lot of fun!