Make A Wish Trip - Day Two

While in FL, Make A Wish gave us three days at Disney, two days at Universal Studios and one day at Sea World. We thought we would begin our trip with a day at Disney World - specifically, the Magic Kingdom. 

The Make A Wish families are also given special passes while at those parks which let the park employees know that they are "Wish Kids" and to give them special treatment. Part of that special treatment is that we don't wait in line for pretty much anything.

We were still not too clear on how this worked yesterday when we got to the park. After wandering around for a few minutes we saw that Pluto was taking photos with kids and families, and there was a short line to wait for turns with Pluto. Anytime a character is doing a 'meet and greet' they also have a Disney employee with them as the characters don't speak. About 15 minutes later we were near the front of the line when Pluto began pointing at Paige and then tapping his chest, trying to get the employee's attention. 

Turns out Pluto saw Paige's Make A Wish button (pinned onto her shirt on her chest) and knew she was not supposed to be waiting in line to see him. The Disney employee (they are all called 'cast members') came got us out of line and brought us up to Pluto for some photos, giving Paige several hugs and high fives in the process. 

Daisy, another character, was doing a similar meet and greet several feet away (with a long line of families waiting to see her). We were taken over to her for some photos, and Daisy spent several minutes with Paige dancing around and excitedly pointing to Paige's shoes (which had little pink flowers on them). 

As we headed towards the castle, we stopped in one of many stores to check out all the fun things for sale.

One of the many things I forgot in the "Day One" blog was the overwhelming generosity of everyone at Lincolnshire Riverwoods Fire Protection District and Lincolnshire Riverwoods Fire Fighters Union who gave Paige money and gift cards to buy fun stuff while at Disney. I'm talking lots of money and gift cards. So thanks to their generosity Paige has been spending some quality time in the Disney stores picking out fun things. So far she has a neat Princess pink baseball hat (we made her choose a hat to keep from getting a sunburn), several packages of Disney pins and a Pluto stuffed animal (that she has not put down).

We then made it to Cinderella's Castle in time for one of their shows. Paige was wide eyed watching the princes and princesses sing and dance around to music. Jim and I were trying to figure out how hot these   actors had to be in their heavy costumes and how they could look so happy dancing around in the sun on a 90 degree day. 

We wandered off and went on the Alladin ride. Several minutes later Paige got to meet Jamine and Alladin who were about to go on a break (leaving several people in line who had to wait until they got back) but happily met with Paige before they left. As with all the Disney characters, they spent several minutes with Paige talking to her and posing for photos.

I probably shouldn't admit this but I'm a fan of Saturday Night Live. As Paige was chatting away with Jasmine and Alladin I couldn't help but think about a funny Alladin skit on SNL.

Last week at Paige's stress test, Mr. Mike (P's exercise physiologist aka super Disney fan) told us that we could buy Disney pins and Paige could approach any Disney employee and ask to trade for one of theirs.    So we bought her a Tinkerbell lanyard and a few pins (thank you, local 4224) and every now and then she'd ask an employee to trade.

We were about to go into the Pirates of the Caribbean ride when we saw three employees talking, so Paige approached them and asked to trade. They immediately stopped what they were doing and all began talking to her. They were actually each trying to outdo the next and have her trade with them instead of the other employee - here they are in the photo showing her all of the pins they had on their lanyards.

The employee in the blue shirt (you can only see part of his shirt and shoe in this photo) asked me how our day was going, and if we were having a nice trip, and I told him we were.

After he left, the guy in the green checkered shirt turned to me and confided the 'blue shirt' guy is a Disney VP and was walking around checking things out, and seemed very relieved to see the big cheese keep walking. Who knew. 

Our next stop was the Jungle Cruise (and like every ride we were zipped in with no wait), and we were seated at the front of the boat. As we entered the dark cave, the guide asked Paige if she'd like to drive the boat, which she happily did with a big smile on her face. 

We were walking through Frontierland when we saw Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. Another long line that we didn't have to wait in. Paige would not let go of Woody's hand.

One great thing that Make A Wish did was rent Paige a stroller for our stay. With the hot sun and warm temperatures, she spent more than half the day in the stroller which saved quite a bit of energy (hers, not ours). I have never seen so many strollers in my entire life than I have at DisneyWorld. 

Next it was onto Thunder Mountain Railroad, a fun roller coaster. For those of you that don't know Paige well, she loves roller coasters. The faster the better. Jim was riding in the car ahead of us and spent the better part of the ride facing backwards taking our picture. Somehow her Make A Wish pin came off during the ride (here it is still on her lanyard), we never did find it. Not a big deal, the Disney employees always ask to see our special pass before letting us go into the rides the back way (and not the pin, it is only for more decoration).

Paige loves carousels almost as much as she loves roller coasters. Here she had just gotten off the carousel, which sits right in the shadow of the castle. As a 'horse person' I have a bad habit of scrutinizing carousel horses as oftentimes they totally get all the tack wrong (that would be saddles and bridles for you non-horsey people). Not with these horses - as with everything else Disney, they were right on the money. 

Can't leave the park without getting a token photo in front of the castle.

I haven't gone into too much detail about where we are staying, Give Kids the World Village (GKTW), mostly because we haven't spent too much time there (yet), other than sleeping, but will tell you all about this amazing place within the next few days. 

Every Thursday night is Christmas at GKTW. Santa comes to give presents to all the kids, a snow machines blows in snow and there are horse drawn carriage rides and a big party. Or, should I say 'par-tay'.

So just in case Paige didn't already have an amazing enough day at Disney World, she got to hang with Santa last night where she presented him with a picture she colored herself and he gave her a present. 

She then went outside where she hung out with one of Santa's reindeer, danced around, played in the snow and enjoyed some cotton candy. Before she went swimming (and finally to bed). 

To give you an idea of how amazing this place is, we have our own 2 bedroom, 2 bath villa (with a kitchen, living room, washer and dryer and a front porch with rocking chairs) all to ourselves. Each day a fairy leaves a present for Paige while we are gone. There is a ice cream parlor open all day (and families are encouraged to let the kids have ice cream for breakfast at least once during their stay) and a carousel that runs all day long. Plus two pools, pony rides twice a week, putt putt golf, a movie theatre and an amazing playground. Plus activities and parties every day.