And it doesn’t have a back-up camera! When we checked in with National, they asked us if anybody from Give Kids The World (GKTW) greeted us. We told them no so they got on the phone. I was told a couple of weeks ago that we would not have a greeter since we weren’t flying in that morning. Well, they told us wrong! So then we waited for our greeter. She met us down at the car rental counter and gave Peyton his sign. She made sure we knew where we were going and sent us on our way. We got to the Village around 9:45AM.
We unloaded all the kids and headed inside to check in. They proceeded to give Peyton a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal and Mason and Tanner got Shamu stuffed animals.
The kids looked around while Montana and I signed paperwork and reviewed a few things.
Then we were told that they didn’t have a villa ready for us yet. And that Orientation (where you get your park tickets) wasn’t until 7:45 tonight. I was a little stressed cause we were planning on going to Disney World today! We asked about getting tickets so that we could go today and she said she would take to the manager. And, of course, they gave us the tickets for today. We wandered outside for a minute and the lady came back out and said that a villa was ready if we wanted it.
We said we did and she loaded Mason, Peyton, Tanner, and me in a golf cart to take us to the villa while Montana followed in the van.
When we walked into the villa, there was some stuff on the kitchen table for us! The lady told us that every day, while we are gone, somebody would leave us something on the table!
We are definitely gonna need another bag before we travel home! Then she showed us around the villa, made sure we were set, took our picture by our bunny sign and went on her way.
We got all unpacked – We even emptied our suitcases and put everything in drawers. We will be here for 6 nights/7 days so we might as well feel at home. The villa is awesome! We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family room, a kitchen, and laundry! It’s so nice to feel like we are actually ‘living’ here instead of just staying for a little while. We got our bags packed for Disney World, ate lunch, and headed towards Disney. We were so excited when we started seeing the signs. We followed every sign to Magic Kingdom and parked the car. Then we had to get on a tram thing and ride it to the entrance….kinda. The place that we got off the tram was only a boat dock/monorail pick up place.
You can see the castle in the background but you have to somehow get across the lake. The boys wanted to take the ferry so we did. We crossed the lake, had our bags checked, passed through the entrance and away we went.
We were given a Photo Pass which is awesome! They have photographers throughout the parks that will take your picture and then scan your card.
Then all the pictures get uploaded online and we can view them and order a complimentary CD…thanks to GKTW! So we promptly had our picture taken at the entrance to the park and then again in front of the castle…a few different times!
Therefore, I don’t have many pictures of our adventures in the park since somebody else was always taking them. When we went through the entrance, Daisy Duck and Pluto were signing autographs. So we hopped in line to have them sign the boys’ books. We were standing in line and a Disney employee came up to us and told us we were in the wrong line. We needed to be in the exit line so that we could get our picture taken without waiting. Peyton wears a GKTW button and a Make A Wish button in all of the parks. We also have a Guest Assistance Pass. We get to bypass all the character lines and go straight to the front. And we also get to use the FastPass line without having to get a return time for later! It is pretty amazing!
We wore our shirts that we made so everybody knew the boys’ names and called them by name. And we definitely got star treatment. We were only at Magic Kingdom for about 4 hours but we got to do quite a bit!
We got autographs from Daisy Duck, Pluto, Pooh, Tigger, Chip and Dale, Pirate Goofy and Stitch and we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride (twice – the boys LOVE it!), Space Mountain, The Speedway, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and the Teacups. We got our pictures taken a bazillion times since I want all those memories.
We were quite tired so we decided to head back to the village….also cause it was Christmas tonight at the village.
We got back and headed to dinner. We had a Thanksgiving type dinner that was delicious! Then we went to sit on Santa’s lap. If the kids sat on his lap, then they could pick out a present. Tanner threw a fit and cried the whole time! But we got a few pictures and carried on.
When it came time to pick presents, Peyton had a hard time deciding. Mason immediately wanted a Transformer and we picked an animal car thing for Tanner. I had to count to 5 to speed up Peyton’s picking process. He finally decided on a Steelers Nerf Football thing.
They were so excited with their presents. Then they hurried and decorated a cookie and we headed back to the villa for bed. Montana put the kids to bed while I ran to Orientation. And now I’m sitting here, typing this, waiting for laundry to get done and packing bags for another fun filled day tomorrow at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. The village is amazing, the volunteers and staff are amazing, the families are amazing…it’s just AMAZING! And we are so grateful for this opportunity!
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