The Happiest Place on Earth.........well.......

Sorry it's taken me some time to post,
it's been a whirlwind around here as usual LOL...
Here is our trip report from Hayden's Wish Trip to Walt Disney World....

Monday Oct 8, 2007

Well I loved the trip as a whole, but hated some elements of it, of course the kids had a blast.....
The day we left, Mark had us at the airport really too early, but he's just very firm about these kind of things, drives me nuts sometimes. A really nice lady with the airlines gave the kids some golden wings pins, since it was their first time flying. Well our plane was almost 2 hours late from Atlanta to take us to Orlando, so by the time it arrived, Hayden's dvd player was dead and the kids were cranky. So when we got into Orlando, our greeter from GKTW was not there. I was a nervous wreck, I hate flying!!! There I said it LOL. When we arrived in Orlando, it dawned on me the greeter would not be there either, because we were so late, then I remembered I had a phone number to call in case this happened. She met us in the luggage claim area with a really nice sign from the village to welcome Hayden, I wished I would have taken her picture, but I was so stressed out from the flight, it just slipped my mind. She was very nice and said her and her husband retired to Florida and that both of them volunteer at the village.
Front entrance to Give Kids The World Village

House of Hearts Welcome Center

House of Hearts Welcome Center Front Desk

The village is fantastic, very clean and we had a very nice villa. When we arrived they gave each of the kids 2 t-shirts, a stuffed Shamu and Madison a big stuffed Micky Mouse, which she carried all over the parks in the next few days. The first day there we just chilled out and took the kids to the part of the village where there are activities for them. In our villa was a very nice gift basket with goodies inside.


This is the first photo of the kids at Give Kids the World Village....on our way to our first dinner at the Gingerbread House.

Kids in front of "Ole Elmer" the tree that snores!

Gingerbread House

Inside Gingerbread House

Trevor, Robert, Madison at their first dinner at the Gingerbread House

Of course Hayden had a meltdown and Mark took him back to the villa for his supper.
Here is a picture of our rental van and our villa....

Villa and Rental Van
Hayden at the villa

After supper, we took the kids to the Castle of Miracles Carousel ride....

Castle of Miracles Carousel
Hayden
Robert

Trevor and Madison

I had to go to our orientation to get our park tickets and the other information we would be needing for our week-long stay. Mark took the kids to Julie's Safari Theater for the Safari Double Dare....
Julie's Safari Theater
Inside the theater
Robert at the Double Dare..
After the meeting, we had very little time to do much, but took the kids to Amberville for a little fun, on the way, we noticed these pavers and they have names on them, this is the avenue of Angels, the round stone in the picture of Hayden laying down, has these tiny little lights that are different colors, looks really magical at night...for $200.00 you can get a paver and have up to 3 lines on it, we plan on doing this in the spring, all the money goes to GKTW....


The kids loved Amberville Train Station, there is a interactive train yard the size of a good size room. a waterway with remote control boats, a video arcade, etc.
Amberville
Interactive Model Train set
Game Room
JJ Express Train

Hayden in the engine of JJ Express on his first train ride..

It was so late by the time I got out of our meeting, the kids couldn't play at Amberville for very long, they close at 9:00pm. We needed to run to Wal-Mart for some things for the villa, it's very nice as they are less then a mile from the village. After returning, the kids were dying for a bath in the whirlpool tub, which was lots of fun.

Robert and Trevor
Hayden and Madison

Tuesday Oct 9, 2007

Magic Kingdom

With the help of some wonderful gals on the Disney Board, I made some t-shirts for each day at the parks, for Magic Kingdom we wore these shirts....

I was shocked and upset at how crowded it was, the reason we chose this time of year was the parks were NOT supposed to be that bad and it was hot as hell and humid. We had trouble getting down main street because of the crowd! The kids loved it, Hayden of course was being his usual stimmy self and upset on/off all day. I also was shocked at all the "shops" in the park, but Mark tells me I'm crazy not to think this was the way it is. I guess I was hoping for more of a park and less of a giant store! The rides are great and with our badge from GKTW we didn't have to wait long at all at the rides, here is a list of the rides and who rode them at Magic Kingdom....


Adventureland
Pirates of the Caribbean, we all rode this and it was great!

Liberty Square
The Haunted Mansion, we all rode this and it was fantastic, great effects, Hayden got a little antsy waiting for things to happen but all and all he did fine.

Woody & Friends at the Diamond Horseshoe , another magical moment for sure, this is where Hayden got to meet Woody and Jesse from Toy Story, he was sooo shocked to see them life size...

Fantasyland
Snow Whites Scary Adventure, we all rode this and it was very cute.
We picked up some fries at the Village Fry Shoppe which helped to calm Hayden down.
Mickey's Toontown Fair
Minnies Country Home, we all tried to walk through this, it was soooo crowded, Hayden started having a meltdown, so I exited it early with him, but Mark and the rest of the kids were able to walk through it, it's very cute, from what little I saw of it.

The kids on Minnie's couch

Toontown Hall of Fame Tent,this is where you meet some of the Disney Princesses, so I took Robert and Trevor and of course Madison with me and Hayden and Daddy walked around a bit while we were in there. I didn't know we could have gone to the head of the line for this character meet and greet and I think we must have stood in line about 40 minutes before we got to meet the cm and she said with that button you didn't have to stand in line and wait, and I'm like well there is NO ONE outside telling us this!!!!It was almost magical, and I almost cried when Madison went up to Cinderella, she was just in awe of her, of course the boys thought it was corny, but met with her and Belle and Sleeping Beauty. I just felt bad for Mark and Hayden having to walk around and wait for us when they really didn't have to.

Here is a few pictures of the kids with the princesses....

Madison with Cinderella
Robert with Belle and Cinderella

Trevor with Sleeping Beauty

The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre,we all rode this crazy kiddie coaster, just about all the roller coaster I need LOL, but everyone had fun on it.

Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, we all rode/drove in the cars it was lots of fun.
Space Mountain, Trevor and Robert rode this and it was their first "real" coaster and they had a blast!
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, we all rode it and it was tons of fun, Hayden even liked it.
Here are some pictures from that ride....

Stich's Great Escape, we all started to ride this, but Hayden got really upset with the wait, so I "escaped" out the side door and waited on the others, they tell me it was fun!


As much as I hate to say it, we were done in by 4:30pm and headed back to the villa, I know what a bunch of wimps, but it was sooooo hot and humid that day. I would have loved to stay until the park closed and watched the fireworks. As we were leaving, the kids saw a gal selling balloons and of course they just had to have one, they were nice with a Micky Head inside a huge clear ballon. So I got these for each of the boys and Madison wanted the Princess one and when she told me $42.00, I just about died right there. Talk about a huge ripe-off, but I paid and smiled and thanked her, and thought, well that's the last time that happens, remember-self, ask the price first LOL.
When we got back to the village, there was some nice gifts in our villa from the staff at GKTW. Little did we know that each and every day when we returned from the parks there would be a nice gift waiting for the kids.

The pool at GKTW Village is heated and very big and nice, it sure was nice to be able to swim and relax after each day at the parks....

Robert, Madison, Trevor at the pool, with Hayden in the background





Hayden

Wednesday Oct 10, 2007

After a much needed night of good rest, we got up about 7:30 and I took the kids over to the Gingerbread House for breakfast, while Mark stayed with Hayden and fixed him his waffles....
After breakfast, they had Horse & Pony rides at Keaton's Korral, which was right in front of our villa....

Hayden

Trevor

Robert

Madison


They all loved riding the horse, Hayden didn't care for the helmet and tried to remove it before his ride was over and that freaked out the helpers some, but it was a very fun thing to do. After hourseback riding we headed out to Animal Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom

Here are the t-shirts I made for Animal Kingdom....

We had no sooner gotten into the park, when we spied Chip and Dale, Hayden didn't care to meet them, but Madison, Robert and Trevor thought they were cute...

After that we came upon a really cool "pond" that has a glass side with some fish in it and I got this really nice picture of the family in front of it....


Of course it was hot and humid this day too!! ARGH, why oh why can't it be 70 degrees with no humity LOL, guess I'm just a wimp! Well the next set of characters we run into, are Lilo & Stich, and Madison is scared to see them, but Robert & Trevor thought they were way cool!.....

After that we went on the Kilimanjaro Safaris, which was awesome! The kids thought all the animals were really neat...

This family of elephants with the baby was only about 20 feet from us!

After that ride the boys-Trevor & Robert wanted to go on the Expedition Everest-Legend of the Forbidden Mountain coaster.....Here they are standing at the pre-boarding area...

They are the two in the back, check out the look on Robert's face LOL.

After this ride, we went to Dinoland and rode the TriceraTop Spin, Hayden didn't want to ride this one, so Daddy stayed with him and got us on video-film, after that we went to this little place for some much needed McDonalds fries lol...

We left Animal Kingdom about 4:30pm and headed back to the village. So the kids could enjoy some of the fun it had to offer. We headed over to the Castle of Miracles so the kids could check it out and use the Magic Pillow making machine...

Castle of Miracles

Kids at the Magic Pillow Making Machine

Hayden sitting on the Throne

At GKTW Village, each wish child gets a golden glass star that they put their name on and then you place it in the little wooden chest above, and a "star" fairy will place it on the ceiling for all eternity...

The Wishing Well and Robert, Trevor, Hayden, Robert has his pillow in his hand...

They have this "magic" mirror, and if you put your face in the round frame, a crown and robe will appear on you. Hayden just loved this, it was so cool watching him do this.

After spending about an hour at the Castle of Miracles it was time to go to dinner and we ran into Mayor Clayton as we were leaving...Madison had to give him a big hug....

After supper the kids wanted to go to Marc's Dinoputt Mini Golf...

The kids really had fun doing this, even Hayden got into it, their are lots of special effects with a dinosaur theme....

You can make arrangements to have Mayor Clayton tuck in your kids, the kids had no idea I was planning on doing this, you should have seen their faces, when a he knocked on the door at 9:00pm in his pj's to tuck them in....

Thurday Oct. 11, 2007
After a much needed good night of sleep, the village was having Disney Character Photos in the Safari Theater. Mickey and Minny Mouse and some of their friends were there.....

I thought it turned out pretty good. Because of Hayden's autism, it's very hard if not impossible to get him to pose for a photo.

After we left the theater, Goofy and Pluto were at the Castle of Miracles merry-go-round...

MGM Studios

Here is the t-shirt we all wore to MGM Studios.....

It was kind of funny, I had a lady stop us and she took a picture of our shirts...

After that we headed out for MGM Studios, I snapped this picture of the kids on the tram from the parking lot....

Of course I didn't realize till we got home and I uploaded the pictures, that the only person who got a copy of "us" in front of the hat was the photo-pass guy LOL. And I will be darned if I will pay $120.00 for the cd with only a few pictures on it, but I did get a picture of it!
Animation Courtyard
The first thing we did was go to the Playhouse Disney-Live on Stage, Hayden just loves Bear in the Big Blue house.....

Hayden just loved seeing this show, Mark got most of it on video tape, the down side is that they don't have a meet and greet with Bear, this would have been fantastic!!

After that show, I took Madison, Robert and Trevor to see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which is a fantastic show, Hayden will not sit still for something like this...
Sunset Boulevard

After that I took them to see Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage

This is a fantastic show, wonderful costumes.

Robert and Trevor, being the roller coaster "experts" by now, were dying to ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster-Starring Aerosmith....
So while they were on the ride, I snapped this photo of Daddy, Madison, and Hayden.


After that ride, they felt they were ready for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror!

I took this great picture of Robert and Trevor in front of this taxi, Hayden would not pose with them....

After that, we lined up to watch the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade...

This is a great attraction, the kids really loved seeing all the characters and their cars...

This is the back of Madison's head as she is waving to Buzz Lightyear and Woody, Hayden was smiling the whole time these guys were going by.

Robert here with Daddy, was amazed at the "real" green army men from Toy Story.

Here is a great photo of Mark with Darth Vader...

As we were watching the parade, the Evil Queen from Snow White was walking by and came right up to Madison and just glared at her, I just about crapped, I was so stunned all I could do was take her picture LOL. The characters do that, but can't stop and pose for pictures with the crowd, I would have loved to have gotten Madison reaction to this...

Next came the Power Rangers and Trevor and Robert were so thrilled, they came up to the boys and shook their hands...again I was so stunned they did this and it happened so quick, by the time I got the camera around to them, they were moving on LOL.

After the parade we went to the Streets of America, this is really a cool area, the streets look like streets from San Francisco,

and New York.
Our next adventure was the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure

This is a great playground, the kids really enjoyed playing on the extra large things there...
Madison and Trevor on an ant...
Madison sliding down the can of film..
Trevor getting ready to slide down...
Robert on a leaf slide...
Hayden didn't want to get out of the buggy to play, he was tired out, and it was getting late in the evening so we headed back to the village for christmas party they had planned.

At the village on Thursday night, you can meet Santa and his elfs in the Castle of Miracles and they let the kids choose a really nice present. Robert and Trevor got a transformer robot and Madison got a little lepard that moves and meows. Hayden picked a Mr.Potato Head, one of his favorite toys. They decorate the Avenue of Angels out for Christmas and even have a fake snow machine making snow,

The kids in front of some of the decorations....after the Winter Wonderland Parade, we went to the IceCream Palace for some great treats...

The IceCream Palace is open from 7:30am till 9:30pm everyday, can we say moooooo LOL. They have the best butter pecan!!

Everyone having some great and yummy icecream.

Friday Oct. 12th, 2007

After breakfast, we head over to the Castle of Miracles for a meet and greet with Barney & Friends, the kids all thought this was cool....
After that we headed out to ...

Universal Studios


Now I have to say, this was probably my most favorite part of our trip!, this place is way cool!!



Just outside of the park are lots of places to eat and shop, and Mark was thrilled to see this Nascar place with Rusty Wallace's car out front, of course we had to get a picture of the kids in front of it!
In front of Mel's Diner was this cool hot rod that the kids thought was way cool!

Production Central

We all got to do the Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, even Hayden had a blast on this ride..

NEW YORK

The boys wanted to ride Revenge of the Mummy, so I took a picture of the outside of the building....

They loved this ride!

As we were walking round after the ride, this guy came walking up to the kids, he was dressed as an egyptian, but he was on stilts and must have been 15 feet tall!.. After that we came upon a meet and greet with Scooby Doo and Shaggy, the kids just loved this, of course Hayden could care less about them and stayed in the buggy...

When they were done with this, they wanted to do the Twister ride, which really isn't a ride at all but more of an experience. I didn't go the first time, but when they wanted to do it again later in the day I did, and I'm sooo glad I did, it is unreal. You get to see a "real" 5 story tall tornado, that is man made. Robert who is our very own weather "freak" thought this was the coolest thing ever, but didn't want to do it again LOL.

Mark took this photo of Robert while I was on the ride with Madison and Trevor...

SAN FRANCISCO

We came upon the JAWS ride next of course the kids didn't really know what that meant, since they have never seen the movie LOL, it really scared Robert, he was almost in tears thinking it was a real shark...

The next ride we took was the Earthquake ride, now this was something else, Daddy stayed with Hayden above ground, as we didn't think he would sit still for this one.
You load up in a subway car and it "takes" you backwards "down" into a subway tunel, then an "earthquake" happens and it has some really cool special effects. Again, Robert almost was in tears for fear this was real.

WORLD EXPO

The boys wanted to ride the MIB...

They both really enjoyed this ride.

Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone

Of course we had to all ride the Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster, again about all the roller coaster this old mom can handle, everyone, even Hayden liked this ride.

After this ride, Madison, Robert and Trevor and I went on the E.T. Adventure..

Once again, it was a million questions from the kids about this ride, as they have never seen the movie LOL. I tried my best to give them a converted verison of the movie as the ride went along. We have the movie at home in a vhs tape and I need to get it out, so they can see it.

After that we just walked around and did a couple of meet and greets, the first was with Shrek and the Donkey..

I will have to say Universal treats their "wish" families great. You get 1 photo free at any meet & greet where they take pictures, I wish WDW would do this, the photos from the rides are so $$$. I paid $18.00 for just 1 photo of Robert & Trevor on a ride at Animal Kingdom. Another place, wanted $32.00 for just 1 photo! This was a great meet and greet. The Donkey sounded just like Eddy Murphy, not sure how they do that? But he was talking to Madison and joking around with her.

The next one was SpongeBob Squarepants..of course I wasn't in the photo, because I was taking a picture, not knowing we would get one free!!...

After this we were ready to head back to the village for some much needed down time. We went swimming with the kids. After taking the kids up to the Gingerbread House for supper, I went and picked up some Japanese Steakhouse carry-out for me and Mark, it was really good. Just about a mile down the road from the village is the Wal-mart, and it's on a main road with just about any kind of store/restaurant/hotel you could need and your only about 30 minutes from any of the parks.

Saturday Oct 13, 2007

I think we all woke up feeling a little sad that day, knowing this would be our last day/night there. The village has been so kind and the kids had such a wonderful time there. After breakfast we headed out to SeaWorld..

SeaWorld
This is a beautiful park with lots to see.

Took this one of Mark and the kids, on one of the beautiful walk ways.

The first thing we did was the Penguin Encounter, which was way cool, you ride on a conveyor walk way through a glassed in area with about 200 penguins playing all around you...

After that there was a beautiful mural on the wall and I had Mark take a picture of me and the kids in front of it....

After that we went to the Pacific Point Preserve to see the sea lions and harbor seals, this was great. We got some fish to feed them, of course non of the kids would do this, so they watched me
feed them....

This one swam over to me and looked up at me as if to say, take my picture lady please LOL.

After seeing these great animals, we went to see the sharks under ground. You walk under the tank and the fish/sharks are swimming above your head, it's really neat to see..

Next we went to the Manatee Rescue lagoon, these are the most gentle animals on earth I think, they are so graceful...

After seeing them, Mark took this great photo of me and the kids by a model of one...

After this we went to the Key West at SeaWorld

which is way cool, they have sting-rays you can pet, and feed. Of course the kids would not touch them, so once again ole' mom had to do the dirty deed and feed them the fish. What you do is place a large size minnow type fish between your fingers and let it float above you hand, so they can come across your hand and "suck" the fish off you hand, freaked me out, it feels just like a vaccum sweeper LOL....

After that we walked around some waiting for the Shamu Show to start and took a few more pictures....

Anheuser Bush owns SeaWorld, so they have a stable there with the horses, so we took a walk through that and snapped this photo in front of a statue of one.

Another great photo of me and the kids.

After walking for a while the kids wanted to ride Shamu Express, it's a very nice family fun roller coaster and everyone had fun on it.

Now it was time to see the Shamu Show...called Shamu Believe

We still have about 45 minutes for the show to start, but if you don't get in there early it's very hard to get a good seat. This waiting was very hard on Hayden, but I still think he did great, Daddy took him for a couple of walks while we waited and the folks around us were very kind about his behavior, sometimes you get great people in your space who understand and sometimes you don't.

This is a most amazing show, we were up high enough to not get wet though LOL..

Of course Trevor wants to be a whale trainer now. I'm soo glad my children got to see these beautiful animals!

After the show the boys wanted to ride The Kraken, which is a monster of a roller coaster!

Now I have to say this was a ride that never happened!! LOL, what happened was Robert was too short to ride it and by the time Trevor and I got to the top for him to ride it, he chickened out! I was soooo glad, because I really, really didn't want to ride this monster LOL...

As we were getting ready to leave, we remembered we want to try one last ride, Journey to Atlantis

Which is a water/boat ride, so we all went on it....we had to put our things in a locker, as you will get wet on this ride...

The drop doesn't look that bad in this picture, but OMG, I thought I was going to die LOL, after that scare, you think your done, but nooooo, it takes you back around again, and your riding something like a roller coaster LOL. The kids thought it was great!!

After we got back to the village and after supper, we went up to Amberville for one last time to let the kids play...

One last ride on the Castle of Miracles Carousel...

One last photo of Daddy and Hayden...

Inside Ole' Elmer for one last photo.....

We had to get up early on Sunday for our 11:30 am flight to Atlanta, then from there to Indianapolis. Everything went smooth, I was soo glad, we were on time returning the van and our flight was on time. We had a lot of turbulance on the flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis, I was sooo glad when we landed.

Did I happen to mention I had never flown before this trip? LOL, and it had been almost 20 years for Mark.

Well as our luck would have it, when we got to the van in the long term parking, we had a flat!! So we had to call for a toll truck to fix it. This guy, god love him, must have been 75 years old and was sooooo slow, but he only charged $15.00 to put air in the tire.

This has been a trip dreams are made of and of course were going back!! They tell me Universal will have the Harry Potter Hollows done in 2009, so that is our goal, but next time we will drive instead of flying and we plan on staying for 2 weeks!