Give Kids The World Village

This could be a very long post. The Make-A-Wish trip we were afforded last month was amazing and it was only in part due to the cool experiences the kids got at the theme parks. Our lodging was at Give Kids The World Village, and to say it was awesome just isn't enough. (Though Eli said that about 200 times!)

To start with, here is some background. When you take a Disney trip through Make-A-Wish, you don't stay on Disney property, but rather this amazing village, just down the street. Give Kids The World Village is a 79-acre, nonprofit resort (coolest, most kid-friendly resort ever!) that provides weeklong, cost-free vacations to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. And when they say cost-free, they mean it. There is nothing you will pay for while at the village: food, entertainment, lodging...nothing.

The first night we drove in to see the above sign and this building. A volunteer came out to our car and directed us to follow her golf cart to our villa. (The villa was huge: two bedrooms, a kitchen, sitting room with TV, washer/dryer, and two bathrooms. The 'master' bath was in the kids' room and had a walk-in shower, two sinks and a jacuzzi tub!)

She let us in, showed us around, gave us dinner (it was 9:30PM but they knew we'd been flying during dinner time) and then sat down with me for a 30 minute 'orientation' while Lehr and the kids got settled in. At this time she gave me all of our tickets and buttons for the parks (along with verbal and written instructions), she gave me the rundown of the village amenities, maps, and answered any questions I might have not thought to ask. Plus we got a guidebook covering anything she said that I may forget (there was a LOT to remember!), and told me to call the desk when I needed a verbal reminder.

The next morning we got to try out some of the services available to us. We rode on a carousel (as many times as we wanted with no line), called for a ride to breakfast (golf-cart style, but extra long), walked into a free breakfast buffet (complete with volunteers standing around waiting for you to arrive so they can walk beside you, carrying your tray as you choose your food), and beautiful grounds to walk around in.

When we returned from Sea World that afternoon, we ate a free dinner (same set up as breakfast), played in a game room with interactive train sets, arcade games, pool and ping pong and 4 gaming systems and plenty of games, rode on more carnival type rides including a train that travels through part of the property, and we ended up at the Castle of Miracles. Every Wish Child that visits the Village gets to decorate their own star and go through the process of sending it to a star fairy who will place it in the Castle to remain forever. The next day, we were able to go back and visit Ruby's star, as the location was given to us (along with a souvenir star to take home). Ruby's star is in the blue room pictured below.

 In the Castle of Miracles there is also a spa where the kids could get airbrush tattoos, face painting, make-up or manicures. During our trip, Maddux got everything done at one time or another, and Ruby got one airbrushed tattoo.

Oh, and we finished the night up with ice cream. Because there is an ice cream parlor in the center of the Village that serves ice cream from 7:30AM (what?) until 9:30PM. We hit that thing at least once each day, and yes, we did have ice cream with breakfast one day.

The two other areas that I need to mention are the incredible playground and the pool. The playground is Candy Land themed and so so fun. Everything is bright and colorful and covered from direct sunlight. The big kids loved running around in there as much as Ruby did.

And the pool. The pool area was SO cool. Pictures don't do it justice. It is a zero entry heated pool that I think topped out at 4 feet. Several side areas so it never felt crowded. Beautiful landscape all around to make you feel very relaxed and 'tropical'. There are towels and refreshments available to you, courtesy of the volunteers, of course. And then right next to the pool is a HUGE splash pad that Ruby ran around in for close to an hour during her first visit. So many fun interactive parts to that. Just behind the splash pad is a really cool pirate ship that we're told is for shows/stages. I assume it is used during the Pool Party (we missed it while we were at Epcot).

 

Other things we got to take advantage of include movies in the theater (Maddux and I went to see Toy Story),

Horseback riding,

the incredible weekly Halloween Party,

Character Meeting,

and Village Idol.

The grounds are beautiful, and we missed out on a few things: fishing, mini-golf, the tuck-in service by the Village mayor (a bunny character comes to your villa and reads you a bedtime story), some of the cool night events...but the things we got to do will remain in the kids' memory forever. (And if not, there are photographers at all of the 'main' things taking photos for you that they put on a disc before you leave.) This village is amazing.

There are no details left out; every surface, every experience, is designed to bring joy. The Village sneaks gifts into your villa every day for the kids, like a secret Santa. They knew we went to Sea World, so one day the girls got 'Barbie Doll' Animal Trainers with a Killer Whale. Another day they got legos and a Candyland game. There are volunteers tripping over themselves to serve you at every corner. And everything is wheelchair accessible and kid-friendly. The tables are low, the chairs are small, the doorways are wide, the rides have lifts...it's amazing.

And because they are aiming to 'give kids the world', they make the village so fun, so full of entertainment that even if the child's condition is one that prevents going to the parks, you could stay just in the Village all day and be totally happy. (We were sad we couldn't have spent more time there!) Here are a few (not even all!) of the events that happen every week  at the Village:

• Life-Sized Family Candy Land game
• Animal Encounters
• Halloween Party (they let you trick-or treat, they had a balloon manipulator, crafts, music, games!)
• Mayor Clayton's Birthday Party
• Winter Wonderland (complete with a visit from Santa and gifts...that was the night we left :(
• Village Party on the Pirate Ship
• Teen Activity Nights
• Family Game Show
• Storytime
• Pool Party

The list goes on...seriously. And in addition to this there is a breakfast/coffee cart driving around each morning, a cookie/milk cart at night, food delivery to your villa if you don't wan tot eat in the main dining hall, random puppets or art displays or people with telescopes or ANYTHING you can think of placed around property for you to find as you wander around. When the kids get a little older, I was to apply to volunteer there. Every day they log 1700 volunteer hours. All for the love of these families.

Make A Wish Trip

Where do I begin? There is no way I can sufficiently describe the amazing awesomeness that was Ruby's Make-A-Wish trip to Disney. The red carpet treatment extended beyond any boundaries I could have imagined when she was given the trip towards the end of her treatment last year. (During Ruby's hospitalization we were asked to apply for a Wish for Ruby, and shortly after she finished treatment, we were given the green light that she was approved for a Disney trip. We chose to wait until this week because of school schedules and our schedules and to allow Ruby to be as recovered from the chemo as possible.)

We flew to Florida on Friday night, where we were greeted by a Make A Wish volunteer escort. She walked us directly to the baggage claim and then straight out to the rental car lot where our car (and car seat) were waiting for us. This already felt like star treatment. We then drove about 40 minutes to the Give Kids The World Village (I will dedicate a whole blog post to that place later!) where we were again greeted by someone waiting specifically for us. There was a to-go dinner in our 'villa', and a volunteer walked me through a brief orientation to give me all of the details we would need for the week.

At our disposal, we had several days of tickets for the Disney parks, Sea World, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, and many other 'smaller' Orlando attractions. In addition, we had free parking, free photo services, and some perks at each park. The best perk? The mack-daddy of all fast passes at each park. At Sea World it meant getting preferential seating at shows if we wanted, trays of fish to feed the sea lions and sharks, and first dibs in line for any rides. At Universal/Islands of Adventure it gave us first dibs in most lines, and special parking. And at the Disney parks it was a Genie Pass which gave us preferential treatment for photos around the park (including the photo files), fast pass lines for any rides at ALL times, and front of the line privileges to meet the characters.

For reals.

Our first day we hit Sea World, where the big kids rode their first 'real' roller coaster. They didn't mess around either; they rode one that dangled their feet and turned them every which way, AND they rode it twice! We saw several shows, fed several animals, and even got rained on a little. Eli and Maddux loved the sea lion show most. That night we made it back for dinner and having fun around the village.

Lehr and I agree that the character benefits were by far the best, especially for Ruby. Not only did she get to meet way more princesses and characters than she even had a working knowledge of, but many of them gave her lots of one-on-one attention. Our first encounter was at Epcot with Jasmine. We waited in line for a minute, unsure of how to use our pass (we hadn't done that yet), and then Lehr decided to find someone to ask. That cast member not only brought us to another entrance, but she raced us around the back way to intercept Jasmine walking to her post so that Ruby could meet her in the alley and walk with her. Unbelievable.

And when it came time to meet Elsa and Anna? We were ushered into a back room to find Anna hiding from Ruby, so Ruby got to 'hide and snow seek' with her for a minute. The look on her face when she saw Anna was perfect. (This had such a lasting impression that Ruby looked behind the curtain a few days later when she met Rapunzel.) Needless to say, Ruby absolutely loved meeting these two, as they are the only two Disney characters she really knew about before this trip. The Frozen ride was a big hit with Ruby too, as she had the opportunity to sing along to Let It Go and see her favorite characters while she rode in a boat through the scenes. It was very dark in there, but I grabbed some video anyway to get her audio reactions. We stayed well after dinner, but not late for the fireworks. It was such a good day that we didn't want to push our luck.

The big kids definitely appreciated the benefits of having this crazy fast pass access too. Time after time we walked up and boarded a ride within 10 minutes of arriving, even though the lines for everyone else were estimated to be 50-90 minutes. This allowed us to cover a lot of ground at all of the parks.

The following day we opted to split up, leaving Lehr and Ruby at the village to swim and play while I took Eli and Maddux to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The two parks are right next to each other (they share an entrance and parking deck), and they each have a Harry Potter section. We'd decided to focus on that park of the parks, likely not doing many of the other rides or attractions. It's a good thing too because we got three rougher rides/coasters in a row that messed with my equilibrium so much that I ended up sitting down for about an hour afterward to regain my balance. The kids loved the HP stuff, but around 3 they both agreed we should head home to play with Daddy and Ruby. We even managed to go in the pool before dinner because it was so warm out that day! Oh, and the village had an awesome Halloween party that night that we were able to participate in.

We followed that day up with the Magic Kingdom. Another day full of sprinting around the park, hitting many rides. We counted 15 rides, lots of character meetings, two sit down meals, one parade and the fireworks. Pretty impressive...totally a perk of having that pass! Eli and Maddux and I didn't get to Space Mountain until after the fireworks, but they agreed that it was worth the wait. They LOVED it and it was a great ride to end the day on.

Our last full day was full of rain, so rather than slop through another park, we opted to stay back at the village. Unfortunately we didn't get to golf because of the rain, and we only found one hour of non-rain to swim, but there were plenty of games to play, ice cream cones to eat, and naps to take to pass the time. Oh, and the kids got to ride on horses...Ruby LOVED that! After dinner we participated in a Village Idol show and then watched Toy Story in the theater next door. (Did I mention how cool the Village was?!?) Village Idol is where any/all kids that want to perform an 'act' get up on stage and then get feedback from judges (all positive). We saw everything from jokes to light saber skills. Eli, Maddux and Ruby got up and danced to "Bad Blood" - totally impressed that the big kids would volunteer to do that.

Our flight wasn't until after lunch the next day, so we opted to get out early and hit Epcot for a few hours before heading to the airport. After all, we'll never have the access with that pass again! We saw Elsa and Anna again, rode the frozen ride, and hit Test Track...a great end to a great trip!

Maddux

Still on our trip. Today the kids got to ride on horses, one of them with pink hair. This is the conversation Eli and Maddux had:

Eli: Pink horse. So weird...never seen that before. I wonder if it poops pink?
Maddux: (without missing a beat) Nope, it poops white. I saw it this morning