Make a Wish trip Day 7 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot

Really kicking myself for taking so long to finish blogging this trip. I am currently 32 weeks pregnant and getting prepared for baby #2 as well as Avery starting preschool has kept me busy. 

My most vivid memory of this day honestly was how bad my feet were hurting. I had three blisters on the bottom from walking so much and my body was telling me to be DONE. But how can you do that in Disneyworld?? :) 

This was the day we had to checkout of our blue house at Give Kids the World. We took the train to the Gingerbread house to eat breakfast for the last time and the sweet volunteer driving the train found a towel to tuck around Avery's legs because she was cold. After breakfast we went and packed up our stuff and went to the House of Hearts to officially check out. At first I was really embarrassed because I couldn't stop crying but the receptionist told me that lots of parents cry when checking out! 

After officially leaving GKTW we headed to Magic Kingdom. My parents wanted to see Avery meet the princesses and I'm really glad we went back a second time. Avery was so much more excited this time and the princesses spent so much time with her. We waiting in line to meet Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella and Rapunzel. Snow White started off with a big lipstick kiss on Avery's forehead so all of the other princesses kissed her on the cheeks and all over her face! She loved it! 

Next we headed over to meet Ariel for the second time and ride that ride. Ariel's Grotto was pretty new when we went and every single time we went on it we ended up getting stuck! The ride would stop for several minutes before starting up again and Avery would get super restless! 

After that we headed over to the Dumbo ride which Avery could've rode all day long! I think we went on it three or four times before we made her go do something else. I really wanted to meet all the characters we could since it was our last chance to use our Genie pass and so next we went to this big circus tent where you could meet Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy. 

After lunch Avery was pretty beat and Thomas walked around with her in the stroller while my parents and I went on some of the other rides. We met Peter Pan and Wendy on the way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (my favorite ride) then we did Haunted Mansion and when heading back to meet up with Thomas and Avery I found out where we could meet Tiana. We were so lucky because we got there right at the very end of Tiana's meeting time. I thought she was going to leave before she saw us but the amazing worker made sure she knew we were there and she stayed passed the time we was supposed to leave to meet Avery.

We decided to head to Epcot because I knew Avery would want to meet Anna and Elsa. While walking back to the park entrance there was a parade going on with all kinds of characters dancing in the street! Watching my dad dance around was one of the best parts of the day. :) 

Once at Epcot we headed straight to the Norway Pavillion where Anna and Elsa were. All we had to do was follow the line of little girls in Elsa dresses! :) I quickly found the worker in the blue shirt and explained our situation and showed her our genie pass. She escorted us past a FOUR HOUR wait. I felt terrible at first and had to keep telling myself that I would much rather trade waiting in line to a year of what Avery had to go through. Once again the worker there was especially sweet. Once he saw that Avery was a wish child he made sure to give me a Cinderella pin he had to add to her pin collection. 

After meeting Anna and Elsa we stopped at a restaurant in Mexico to have dinner. I had picked pretty much every single place we went to eat before we left on the trip and decided to let Thomas take a turn deciding where to eat :) 

Once we'd eaten we decided to take a trip over to France and on the way over there we saw Alice from Alice in Wonderland! We were escorted again to the front of the line and while walking the worker told us that the Genie pass is really the ONLY thing that will get you to the front of character lines. Other disabilities will get you in front of rides but they aren't allowed to with character lines unless you had that pass. I was so glad we had taken advantage in as many places as we could! Alice was very cute with Avery. She taught Avery how to curtsey and told her to say "Yes, your MAJESTY!" I don't really think Avery knew what she was talking about but she was excited to meet her anyway. 

When we got to France we of COURSE had to order as many pastries/treats as we could! I think we ended up with six different desserts to try and they were delicious! It started getting dark and we were all pretty tired. My dad, Thomas and I went for one last ride on the Test Track and had a lot of fun designing our own cars. 

We headed right to our hotel to check in and crash for the night. 

Make a Wish Trip Day 6 - Universal Studios

We spent our 6th day at Universal Studios! My parents had flown in the night before and they met us at Give Kids the World so we could head to the park together. 

We spent a little bit of time hanging around Give Kids the World so they could see it and had breakfast at the Gingerbread House before we left. 

We headed to Universal Studios and I had mapped out pretty much our whole day. Universal Orlando is broken up into two different parks - Universal Island of Adventure and Universal Studios. We went to Island of Adventure first because my parents were wanting to see Harry Potter world and I had heard that section of the park gets crowded really fast. On the way in there is Suess Land which is perfect for Avery so we stopped there first to ride the Cat and the Hat ride. She absolutely loved it! We must have gone four or five times in a row before we decided we needed a break! She definitely could've kept going. 

After that my parents and I headed up to Harry Potter World. Avery didn't like the look of the castle and immediately started to freak out a little when we got near it so Thomas took her back down to Suess land while we explored the park a little bit. We stopped in HoneyDukes to look at the candy, we went on Flight of the Hippogriff (which is about as roller coaster as I get! :)) and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. That last ride I got so sick on the first time, but I knew my parents wouldn't go unless I did so I sucked it up and went again! This ride is really intense but it's definitely a "must go" while you are there and the second time I could keep my eyes open a little bit longer. :) 

Ave had gotten really used to sleeping in her stroller so we met up with Thomas after she'd woken up from her nap to go down to the Jurassic Park ride and eat lunch. Avery wasn't tall enough to go on the ride so we stayed behind to play some games. I have never been very good at carnival type games but I ended up winning two stuffed animals for her! She was pretty impressed with me and I got to be the "cool parent" until Thomas got off the ride :). While walking around I noticed there was another child ride I had missed while planning called Pteranodon Fliers. The ride had over a two hour wait but once we had shown them our Gold Fast Pass they escorted us right up to the front of the line where Avery got to ride it twice! It was super short and I can't imagine waiting two hours to go on it but we had fun anyway! 

After that we decided to head over to Universal Studios. There wasn't much for Avery to do at this park but there was a Curious George (who she loves) ball park so I knew we had to go there. On our way in we stopped at the Dispicable Me 3D ride because I knew Ave would enjoy it. While we were in line we saw another family wearing Make a Wish attire. We smiled at them and waved since we obviously had something in common and kept standing in line. The dad was right in front of us and was wearing a bracelet that said something like LCH awareness. My mom stopped him to tell him that Avery and his child had the same diagnosis!!! This is REALLY amazing because LCH is so rare that most people have never even heard of it. After the ride was over we met up with the mom and dad so we could talk a little. I can't really describe how it feels to know that someone else is going through the same thing that you are. It's comforting and awful at the same time to see another family affected by this disease. They were so sweet and we talked as long as our kids would allow before heading off on our way. 

Next we headed to the Curious George Ball Park where there were a few other children's rides. We ended up on the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster and must've done that one four times before moving on. :) After the ball park Avery had pretty much had it. Going to theme parks five days in a row can really take a toll on a two year old so we headed back to Give Kids the World to relax for the rest of the night. 

Make a Wish trip Day 5 - Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom

Get ready for picture overload! This was my FAVORITE day of our wish trip. Before our trip started I spent days... literally, days planning our trip. I had seven different travel guides checked out from the library, all the maps of the different parks printed out, a daily itinerary of what we would be doing each day at the parks and Give Kids the World AND reservations for two restaurants that I FOUGHT for. 

We started out the day at Animal Kingdom which was just awesome! We wore our Make a Wish attire and you wouldn't believe how people treated us. Like royalty I'm telling you! We walked to the front of every line and the characters spent about three times the amount they would've with other kids. It was amazing. We started out going to see Mickey and Minnie in their cute safari attire. After I knew Pocahontas was close from our map but it took us a while to find her! Once we found her she sat and talked to Avery for about 10 full minutes it felt like. Watching Ave interact with the characters was one of my favorite things. She would automatically get a little shy and use her hands a lot when she talked but she would have a smile on her face the whole time. 

We were headed to Kilimanjaro Safari's when Ave decided she NEEDED pizza. It was 10:30 so we had a heck of a time trying to find the one pizza place in the Animal Kingdom! The whole staff there was so sweet when they found Avery was a wish kid! They brought out an adult personal pizza and a cupcake for free! Her cupcake even had Mickey shaped sprinkles on it! 

After eating we headed to Kilimanjaro Safari's. You get in this big open bus and start traveling straight through the animal habitats! There are no fences or anything between you and the animals so we got up close and personal with a few of them! 

I had read in a travel guide that Animal Kingdom wasn't the "best" park for toddlers because there weren't a lot of rides for them. They have Expedition Everest which Ave wasn't tall enough for and Thomas really wanted to try out the adult rides for himself. So we headed to Dinoland which is specifically geared towards smaller children while he went by himself. Avery LOVED Dinoland! They had a similar ride to Dumbo where you ride in dinosaurs and she could've done that one all day. While we were there we met Goofy and Pluto and Flik and his friends from a Bug's Life came out to have a dance party! 

We hurried and headed over to see Donald Duck, Balloo (who Avery was terrified of) and Pooh and Tigger! 

This was the only day I could get reservations for the Be Our Guest restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. I had read about it in all of our travel guides and knew I had to see it! The only way you can see inside is to actually eat there and I'm pretty sure it's the only place you can see the Beast. We had reservations at 4:30 so we left Animal Kingdom and drove to Magic Kingdom. We were cutting it SO CLOSE because when I had planned out our days I didn't actually know that in the middle of the day they don't run the trains to the Magic Kingdom so we had to take the ferry. It would have been fun if I weren't so worried about missing our reservations! Be Our Guest is at the very back of the Magic Kingdom park so Thomas stood right at the back of the boat so he could RUN there before us to check in for our reservations. We docked at 4:22 (I think I was going to have a heart attack) and we speed walked to the back of the park. I actually ended up with three huge blisters from this day - and when we actually got there Thomas told us they wouldn't check us in until our whole party was there! Lol. Sorry Thomas! 

When they check you in at Be Our Guest they give you a beeper and a candlestick to hold. When your beeper goes off you carry your candlestick while one of the waiters escorts you to your table. In Be Our Guest there are three rooms, the main ballroom (where we sat), the West Wing, or the Rose Room. As long as you're eating there you can walk around inside each of the rooms and take pictures. The In the main ballroom they have the painted ceiling like in the movie and windows that make it look like you are sitting on top of a mountain in the middle of winter! After we were finished with our food our waiter wheeled in The Dessert Cart! Of course we had to get "The grey stuff"! Ave thought it was pretty delicious. :) 

 Halfway through our meal the Beast showed up! Avery pretty much automatically crawled under our table while Valerie and I went to stand in line to see him. It was so nice having someone else there who wanted to see the characters!

After dinner we went on a few more rides and ended up on the Buzz Lightyear ride. This was around the time when everyone was starting to go line up for the parade and since we had already seen it we stayed and road a few more rides! Thomas and I (for the first time ever) went on Space Mountain and met Avery back by the Buzz Lightyear that she wanted to ride about 15 more times. She could've stayed on that one all night! 

 We headed out just in time to catch the fire work show. Really there isn't a bad place to watch them in the entire park and since we were already by Tomorrowland, Tinkerbell went RIGHT over our heads! It was pretty late and so we headed out and Ave fell asleep right in the stroller. 

Make a Wish Trip Day 4 - Sea World

On day 4 our plan was to get up and eat breakfast and then meet in Julie's Safari Theater to meet the Disney Characters that were visiting that day. Ave started out her morning with leftover pizza while the rest of us ate breakfast food from the Gingerbread House. After we were done we headed over to meet Mickey.

Meeting Mickey at Give Kids the World was a really special experience for me. Of course meeting Mickey is always special, but it is so different there. Right in front of us there was a family with a little boy - he must have been around 10 and he was blind. I remember him walking up to Mickey with a huge smile on his face. He asked Mickey if he could touch his face and his hands and feet and you could see the little boy kind of making a picture of what Mickey Mouse is supposed to look like in his mind. Once he had knocked on Mickey's large black shoes he stood up and gave Mickey a HUGE hug! It was so special to watch and I don't think anyone who was there wasn't crying. 

After that I was so excited to get Ave up there who of course was instantly terrified of him! I went up without her at first to get him to sign our stuffed Mickey on the foot (they won't do that at the parks) and to get a picture. We had pretty much given up on her coming any closer after several attempts when Mickey came all the way off the stage to meet her. He spent SO much time making sure Ave was comfortable and gave her high fives and kisses until she would actually pose for a picture. I can't believe that Disney does so much for these Wish kids and I wish I could've really thanked the Mickey inside the costume to tell them what the experience meant to us.

After meeting Mickey we went to the Castle of Miracles to meet Goofy and Pluto. Both of them were so sweet sitting down on the ground so they wouldn't seem so daunting to Ave. She was still pretty afraid but did better then with Mickey! 

After we headed to Sea World! This was much less crowded then the Disney parks which was nice. We played a few games and won a little turtle for Ave and after went to the Dolphin feeding. Each Wish child at Sea World gets to feed the dolphins for free. As soon as the worker saw my button she told us to go to a special waiting area where we would wait to go in before all the people who had actually paid and waited in line! Talk about royal treatment. :) 

Ave and I were too scared to touch the dead fish but Thomas fed this cute dolphins TWELVE fish! This guy wasn't going anywhere once he figured out we had fish! After he flipped his tail up so he was laying on his side and we all got to pet him. 

After we saw a few more animals, Thomas wanted to do the "adult rides". He went off with our special pass to do Atlantis and a Manta Ray ride which both looked only like insane people would go on them (to me anyway! :) ) I took Avery in the Arctic section and it looked like you were walking through huge glaciers! I took her on this special interactive penguin ride and she ended up crying for her daddy the whole time!

Afterwords we met back up in the "Happy Harbor" where there are rides that are specifically geared towards little kids. Perfect for Avery and this was probably her favorite part. 

She was pretty exhausted when we left. :)

We headed back to GKTW and Ave and Thomas went swimming in their HUGE pool. It was way too cold for me to get in the water but she loved it! 

After baths and getting dressed we headed to the Gingerbread house for dinner. Each night GKTW has activities going on for all of the families. That night was Halloween and we got to take Ave trick or treating down the Avenue of Angels and they had fun crafts and games at a few different tables. GKTW also offers one "tuck in" per family by Miss Merry or Mayor Clayton. When I scheduled it they asked who I preferred and made sure I knew Mayor Clayton has a reputation of riling up the kids and jumping on beds! I thought that might scare Avery so I requested Miss Merry and I was so glad! Avery just ADORED Miss Merry and still talks about her four months later!