John's Trip To Florida!!!

The trip was fantastic. John was treated like a king for the whole week!  The trip was provided by Give Kids The World

We got to ride in a stretch limousine to the airport byJohn's request.  The flight down would  be Dianne, John, Rebekah, and David's very first plane ride ... and my first plane ride in almost 20 years. So with that in mind here is how the flights went.

Our first plane was grounded even before we got to board.  There we were at the airport, the special wish foundation had already left, and the women in charge was on her way to work so she couldn't help us. We were on our own, so I told the woman rerouting flights that we were the wish family and where we were going. She started checking flights and came up with a flight into Atlanta which left in 2.5 hours.  (We had already been there for 2 hours!) She also told me we would be flying first class because of our delay, but we would have to lay over in Atlanta for another 4 hours.  ***UGH***  So we took our flight.  As we boarded, the Captain of the plane let the kids sit in the cockpit and took their pictures!

When we landed in Atlanta, the first thing I did was go to the counter and talk to the stewardess to tell her our situation.  She checked her flights and said there was a flight leaving gate A21 in fifteen minutes. We were at T03. It was an extremely long way to A21, but we made it.  I checked in at the counter and asked her if we would get on this flight.  She said, "Don't worry about that. You will make the flight." Twenty minutes later we were on the plane but scattered. When people noticed, they started changing seats with us until we were all in same row.

After the flight was over and we were waiting to get off I spoke with one of the passengers that had switched with us. I had noticed that he had a suitcase full of kids books.  I asked him "Do you sell kids books"?  He replied, "No, I write kids books."  He asked if we would like to have one.  Of course, we said "yes"!  He said, "I have a little extra time. I will write John a poem."  This is John's poem:

He looked so nice,
He looked so sweet,
But then he smiled
And took my seat
Brod Bagert ~ 5-3-2003

The title of the book is Giant Children  and is quite a cute book.

So now there we were in Orlando but where was our luggage? ... and where were the people who were supposed to meet us? It took a little time but Delta finally found the number for Give Kids The World so we gave them a call. They told us the van was downstairs and that we would get to stay at the Give Kids The World resort because they had a cancellation by the time we landed in Orlando. (We were going to stay at the Polynesian resort at Disney World.) 

So three hours later after waiting for our van, then getting quite lost, we finally get to the resort.  Our luggage, by the way, showed up at 4:30 am ... after we were fast asleep.

The next day we had orientation. We were given our tickets and John was issued a badge to wear the whole time he was there.  It told who he was and the organization he was with. With that badge, he had a permanent fast pass for any and all rides (A fast pass is a pass you get at or near the ride. It gives you a set time to return to the ride to get on ahead of the regular riders.) This made getting through the parks a whole lot faster AND this meant that John got to ride most of the rides at all four Disney parks, both Universal studios parks, and all the rides at Sea World. Also this entitled John to free fish to feed the sharks, dolphins and sea lions, which he and the other kids enjoyed. Of course, John's badge also allowed the rest of us to ride with him.

John argued before we left that he did NOT want a wheel chair while we were at the parks, but after the first day he changed his mind when he found out just how much walking there was going to be. The resort provided the wheel chair but we could have also got one for free at the parks. We also got a free stroller at the parks for David .

The whole trip was just incredible! The weather was perfect, the resort we stayed at was just marvelous and the people of the resort and the people working at the parks were just great.

So, in a nut shell the whole trip was just (to borrow a phrase) ... MAGICAL.