Make A Wish Trip - Days 6 and 7

After our long day yesterday (Day 5), we all slept in a bit and took it somewhat easier on Monday, Day 6. This was to be our last full day at Give Kids The World, so we hung out there a bit before heading anywhere.

Goofy and Pluto came over from Disney World to meet up with the kids - here is P with Pluto, her new favorite character (he was also the first character we met on Day 2, I think maybe that had something to do with it). 

We then went over to the carousel where P rode the unicorn.

Families are encouraged to let their kids have ice cream for breakfast at least once during their stay at Give Kids the World. Today was the day - chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. 

And then off to the pool for a few hours of swimming. There are two pools at Give Kids the World, Paige liked the one close our villa, it was round and 3 feet deep at the edge and a little over 4 feet deep in  the middle (a few inches over her head). The second pool was much bigger with a 'zero entry' so that kids in wheelchairs could enjoy it as well. 

As we didn't spend too much time at the village we didn't meet too many folks. On this day we met a very nice family from Miami whose 4 year old daughter had a brain tumor. 

I think Paige liked the pool closer to us because you could turn on a fountain that would rain down on everyone in the pool. 

After swimming, we stopped by the Enchanted Castle of Miracles at Give Kids the World. As each child arrives at the Village they are given a gold star, which they take to the castle, write their name on the star and make a special wish. They deposit the star into the Star Fairy's wooden chest, who will then place the star in the Castle sky that very night.  Today Paige was going to make her wish and leave her star for the Star Fairy.

Here are Jim and Paige standing outside the Castle. 

But first, a stop inside the Castle to sit on the throne. 

Here is one photograph taken on the inside of the castle. You'll see that practically the entire ceiling is covered with stars (I understand there are over 300,000). I had to sit down, take a breath and also take a moment to think about each child whose stars were looking down on me.  

Shortly after this photo was taken, Paige made a wish and left her star on the Star Fairy's wooden chest. 

Back for more ice cream! Both Paige and I were in love with this wonderful rocking horse. 

Jim and Paige headed to the Islands of Adventure (at Universal Studios) for the afternoon (I stayed behind for a nap). Paige loves roller coasters and she also loves swimming. The perfect combination is a water ride that leaves you soaking wet. Here she is after riding one such ride at Islands of Adventure. 

I think this was another roller coaster at Islands of Adventure.

And onto Day 7. After packing up our car with all of our luggage, we stopped by the train station at Give Kids the World - inside the station is the largest model train set up I've ever seen (not that I've seen a lot of model trains but this was pretty impressive). 

And Paige took a quick ride on a neat helicopter rocking-thing for a few minutes. 

We then returned to the Castle of Miracles to see where Paige's star was. Here, a volunteer is showing Paige, with a souped up IPad, where the star is located. We went into the Star Tower, a recent expansion of the Castle (which is running out of room) to find her star.

Paige's star is in the upper L hand corner of this photo. 

All the families who stay at Give Kids the World are invited back anytime they are in town (not for an overnight stay, but are welcome at the village all day, every day). Most visitors' first stops is to this Castle to find their child's star. 

Wiped away a few tears and headed off to Sea World. 

Here are Paige and I in front of the flamingos. 

We then headed for the stingrays, and bought some 'stingray food' to feed to them (try finding that at your local Petco). Here is Jim with Paige and a hungry stingray. 

After one runs of out of stingray food you get a few minutes of stingrays continuing to cruise by hoping you have some more. 

We then headed off to the Manatee Rescue exhibit. The Manatees were all hanging out on the surface but there were plenty of neat fish to watch. 

I'm not quite sure what this fellow is. 

We then went to feed some dolphins where we learned that they liked to be scratched under their chins (like most Golden Retrievers I suppose) but they don't like to be patted on their heads (we were told this ahead of time so we made sure to do the chin scratching and no head petting).

All that work for one little fish. 

After the dolphin feeding, Paige and Jim went on the Journey to Atlantis water ride. This photo was taken after they had gone down a steep fall and made a big splash into the water, when most people would think the splashing was all over. 

Not so fast. As each boat rounded this corner, a large spray of water shot down onto them. Since I had been standing there for about 10 minutes (and had seen it happen to every other boat) I stood ready with the camera to capture their expressions when this delightful moment happened. 

Before leaving Sea World, we tried our luck with a game where we tried to throw wiffle balls into cups. Here Paige and I have each tossed our balls towards the cups, hoping to score that big penguin sitting on the ground. 

Although we didn't win the crazy big penguin, we did win the medium sized one, which Paige is proudly displaying here. 

Jim managed to fit this penguin in his suitcase for the flight home. We still made a trip to the post office and sent a very large box (full of all the toys, games and stuffed animals Paige had been given while on the trip) home. 

After leaving Give Kids the World, we had 3 more nights in FL where we relaxed at a hotel by the pool. Here is Paige, with a glazed over/exhausted look that Jim and I had developed several days earlier. 

That night the hotel played "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" on a large screen at the pool. Jim and P were relaxing watching the movie. 

Thursday we made a quick trip to Downtown Disney to find some last minute Disney t shirts. Here Paige is posing with a character from the Pirates of the Caribbean. 

She then asked to have her picture drawn by a character artist. She posed like this (hand on her hip) the entire time, and towards the end asked if she could move it (as her arm was tired).

And here is the finished product. 

Back to the hotel, where we enjoyed the pool and water slide for 2 more days before we headed home. 

I'm not sure we could ever return to Disney, as any return trip we'd make would pale in comparison to this one (would sort of be like watching the movie after you've read the book). We'll see.

Make A Wish Trip - Day Five

Day five. We're all pretty tired from the heat, the non stop activities and excitement since the beginning of this amazing trip. This is also the day where we had 3 separate activities planned at three different Disney parks. Note to self: if you ever feel the need to schedule more than one activity on the fifth day of your Disney trip, do everyone a favor and stay in one park. Or at least pack a cooler full of Red Bulls and hire yourself a limousine.

While at Disney, Paige's two wishes were to get made up at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and also to be in a parade. Today we did both.

We began at the boutique where Paige chose a Princess Ariel dress, magic wand and tiara and pink sequined shoes (somehow Disney ran out of Ariel shoes, Paige didn't care). She then sat down in the boutique where the hair and makeup magic was to begin.

Allison, the 'fairy godmother in training' who took care of Paige, gave her several options for her hair. Paige chose an up-do complete with pink hair extensions. 

Half a tube of hair gel later, we are ready to put on the pink hair.

For those of you who have never had the Bibbidi Bobbidi experience, it is jam packed with little girls all getting done up like their favorite princesses. After the pink hair went on alternating layers of glitter and hairspray were applied. Paige was loving every moment of this. We left a trail of glitter everywhere we went for the rest of the day. 

We left the boutique and met up with the Fairy Godmother. 

And then Mary Poppins. Who showed Paige how to curtsey.

Right around the corner from the boutique were Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, characters from the latest Disney movie, Tangled. As I had mentioned earlier, people were waiting in long lines to take photos with various characters, but this was probably the longest line we saw. Paige got to meet both characters in less than 3 minutes (and we were provided with a shady spot for those few minutes, something the people in the long line didn't have). 

Curtsey for you, Flynn Rider and Rapunzel.

We then met up with Ariel and Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid. Look at the matching dresses. Paige and Ariel spun several times together to see how their matching dresses flowed. 

Paige's hypoplastic left heart affects her ability to regulate her temperature (she has a tougher time cooling off on hot days, and a tougher time warming up on cold days). Because of this Jim and I were both concerned about her wearing the princess dress (that had several layers of fabric) for more than a few hours on this hot day (we were both sweating in our shorts and T shirts).

One of the neat things Disney does for the Make A Wish kids is provide them with a special, private resting area near the first aid station. The three of us took a break here and were very happy to relax in the quiet air-conditioned room where we played some dominoes and had some cold water. We had the entire place to ourselves. And we changed Paige into a light sun dress that was going to be a bit cooler than the princess dress. 

Before we headed off to the Animal Kingdom for activity #2, we did a quick tour of the princesses for some photos. Here is Paige with Sleeping Beauty.

Who was conveniently located about 15 feet from Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.

And then Cinderella, sitting next to Belle. 

And last but not least, Minnie and Mickey Mouse met us for some photographs. Mickey also did a little dance with Paige.

The second of Paige's two wishes was to ride on a float in a parade. The only parade in Walt Disney World that permits guests to ride on floats is the Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade at Animal Kingdom, and we were scheduled to be in the 3:45 parade.

So we left the Magic Kingdom and drove to the Animal Kingdom and made it just in time to meet with the cast members where we got to go behind the scenes, don safari themed vests and hats (Paige got to skip the hat given the tiara was pretty much glued to her head) and get onto the float. 

We sat on the float, behind some gates, in the "cast members only" area for about 20 minutes before the parade began. The only rule was that we weren't allowed to take any photos of the 'behind the scenes' area. I noticed many bike racks with lots of bikes, it appears the employees ride bikes throughout the park to get around since things are so spread out. There were also several posters hung up near the gates reminding he employees about basic rules (one said something along the lines of "respect every guest, including children" which I found funny). 

We were also given earplugs to wear since there were speakers on our float located right behind us. I was glad I put them in, wow was the music loud (we all had them in). 

I wasn't able to get any photos of the float itself (Disney photographers took our photos but we won't have access to those for another week), but it was sort of a rickshaw, driven by an employee dressed as a toucan (I think) riding a tiger. Jim, Paige and I were passengers on the rickshaw. 

Here is the view from our rickshaw.

The parade was about 45 minutes long. Before it began we told one cast member about Paige's problem with the heat, and told them if she got too hot we'd motion to them, they'd stop the parade and we'd hop off. That was before we saw the rickshaw which had a shade over the entire seat (so we never were in the sun during the entire parade). 

Jim and I were very impressed, several times during the parade several different Disney employees asked how Paige was doing. 

Here is Paige doing the two handed princess wave. 

Here is the view directly behind our float. Two cast members danced around the entire time, there was also Timon (a meerkat from the movie Lion King) and some black/brown monkey or gorilla character I'm unfamiliar with (he's next to Timon in this photo, if anyone knows who it is please let me know). 

By the time the parade ended, we didn't have much time to spare before we had to head to Epcot for dinner reservations, but we took a quick ride on the Expedition Everest roller coaster before heading out. This was a great roller coaster, we would have ridden it again if we had the time. 

A quick ride in the car brought us to Epcot, and Paige made a quick visit with Tinkerbell on our walk to dinner. 

On Day Three you may recall we did the first of two "character dinners". Today was the second of two such dinners, this one was at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall where we enjoyed some Norwegian food. 

Words can't describe how tired and sweaty we were by the time we got here. I was incredibly relieved to learn the menu included a wide variety of Martinis. We had several (well, not Paige, she had orange juice).  The food was very good, but like the first character dinner a princess wandered around every 5 to 7 minutes and stopped by each table to chat and take photos. Here is Paige with princess Ariel.

Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White also stopped by, and towards the end of dinner all the kids were invited to parade around the restaurant with the princesses. Ariel came to get Paige, who as you can see in the following photo was proudly leading Ariel around with one hand and clearing the way with her magic wand in the other. 

Following dinner we wandered around the different countries at the 'World Showcase'. 

A big thank you to Mike Brown for telling us about the Grand Marnier Slushie in France. Tasty.

We watched the beautiful fireworks display before heading out. Jim and I were exhausted, but it seemed Paige could have continued on for several more hours.