Trip Report Wishes Do Come True

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, sometime poster. Decided to do a TR partly for everyone but mostly for my own memory.

Quick(ish) backstory - Our 3yo son was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in May 2018. He was hospitalized in the children's hospital for about 2 weeks and started his treatments. During that time his port got infected with MRSA and my wife gave birth to our daughter in the hospital next door. Fast forward to July: After the first month of intense chemo & steroids plus antibiotics for the MRSA, he was in remission and the MRSA was gone. Fast forward some more to now and he's 80% of the time he's back to his normal self. We still have our bad days during the months, but it's nothing like last fall and winter when he was grumpy and lethargic most of the time.

Anyways, during our stay in the hospital the social worker assigned to us informed us Logan, our son, was eligible for Make A Wish. This was amongst the Mt Everest size pile of information we were inundated with and I filed it away in the back of my mind. I was more concerned with getting him healthy enough to go home and then keeping it that way. Sometime around September 2018 I got a call from the local chapter, Make A Wish of Central New York. They took our basic info and were going to assign us Wish Granters that would come meet with us soon thereafter. At this point, we told Logan about it and told him to star thinking about something he'd want to do or someplace he'd want to go. First thing he said to us was "Can we go to Mickey's house". Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was the first TV show we let him watch and he's been carrying around a talking Mickey doll since he became mobile. Mickey is in just about all the pictures we have of his stay in the hospital.

My knowledge of Make a Wish was minimal. I didn't know if there were 'tiers' of wishes based on how severe a child's condition was. We just told him if that's what he wanted to do then he just had to tell Karen and Megan (his Wish Granters) when they came to visit him. During this time, he was on and off steroids regularly and we knew when his good and bad weeks were going to be so we coordinated with Karen & Megan so that they came to meet Logan during a good week to save them having to see him at his 'worst'. When they arrived at our house, Logan opened the door and his first words to them were "Can I go to Mickey's house?". And that was that. The wheels were set in motion for a trip to Disney World. Karen and Megan told us there'd be about a year wait. Logan's sense of time passage isn't there yet so he didn't really knew what that meant but he was still super excited and it made the next couple rounds of treatments a little better.

Jumping ahead to mid March of 2019. A couple of days after Logan's 4th birthday my wife got a text from Megan asking for both of us to call her when we had a chance. That night we called and Meg told us they had a couple of cancelations. We could go to WDW either the first or second week of May! Both of us had a "holy moly" moment and said we'd get back to her after talking to Logan's doctor and making sure both of our bosses would approve the time off. Nobody had any qualms so we were booked to leave for Orlando on May 16th.

We had taken Logan to WDW once before in November of 2016 when he was ~20 months old. This trip was going to be very different. Not just because he was older and we now have 2 kids. We learned we'd be staying at Give Kids The World Village and we'd have a rental car. Neither my wife nor I had ever been to the World while not staying in a WDW resort nor had either of us ever had a rental car while there.

What came next was the most fruitful trips either of us had been on. There were stressful moments, sure, but when Logan saw Mickey for the first time on this trip, I was a blubbering mess.

Stay tuned for more...

@wdwmagic & @The Mom I hope you don't mind me pointing people to Give Kids The World's website to learn more about what they do and to learn how they can help out their cause if interested. If inappropriate to do so, let me know and I'll remove.

 

[BuckyMom]

Following along for Logan's adventures. So happy you all got to go and that he is better.

 

[Matt]

To Disney Springs!

After having a quick snack at the hotel we loaded back up into the van and headed over to Springs. Having never stayed off-property it was very weird driving through strip malls and motels to get to something Disney related. There's something to be said to staying in the 'bubble' when you're on property. Oh, and traffic. Waze FTW. I don't think we went the most direct routes to places but I have a feeling it routed us around some jams.

We parked in the Orange garage the first day. We would've been better off parking in Lime, but me being dumb just typed 'Disney Springs' into my phone without specifying where I wanted to park. I don't know if it was the garage, the day, or the time of day but it was empty. We parked on the 2nd floor right next to the portal to DS. Absolutely love the green lights indicating open spots and wish it was implemented in the garages around here. 1st world problems. At this point some of you may be asking why we decided to go to DS on Day 0 instead of a park. Well, as part of our Wish package, we were given 3 day hoppers to WDW, 2 day hoppers to Uni and 1 day at SeaWorld. We didn't want to burn one of the WDW hopper days for a partial day somewhere. Plus we had gotten up at 3am and figured we wouldn't last long if we were running around a park.

We had a 2pm reservation at Terralina. Hindsight being what it is, we should've gone to Rainforest or TRex for Logan and Liv to be able to see all the stuff. When we were crash-planning stuff I was just trying to get ADRs anywhere I could 3 weeks in advance and completely forgot about both of those places. I was more focused on going somewhere Logan and my wife would eat as they both have very limited palates. I saw Terralina has gnocchi, my wife's favorite, so I just picked that and moved on. Logan was happy to get his spaghetti with butter and cheese and Erica was very happy with her gnocchi with olive oil and garlic. I landed on a margherita pizza. Pretty good. Liv was happy to have some of the grilled chicken from Erica's gnocchi and the spaghetti that Logan didn't eat.

2019 Logan's Wish - 21 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 28 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 34 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 36 by Matt C, on Flickr

First stop after lunch was the Lego store. Had to stop and get a picture with Darth

2019 Logan's Wish - 45 by Matt C, on Flickr

Logan ran right to a build table and spent probably half an hour putting this and that together. He was in his element. We knew we were going to be heading to LegloLand on Sunday so we didn't let him buy anything today. Just wandered around and saw all the cool sets and whatnot and let him run out some energy. Erica headed over to Uniqlo while Logan and I wandered around in the Lego Store but she came back shortly thereafter. She wasn't as impressed with their stuff as she was the first time we visited back in 2016. So we decided to move on to World of Disney.

2019 Logan's Wish - 39 by Matt C, on Flickr

Love the new layout inside. Such an improvement over the segmented rooms. We happened upon ears first...

2019 Logan's Wish - 47 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 51 by Matt C, on Flickr

Wandered around in here for a while looking at this and that. So much stuff to buy but so little money . My mom gave both kids WDW gift cards for Easter so we let Logan pick out what he wanted to spend his card on. We nixed the 'dumb' stuff that we knew he'd never play with but just wanted because they looked cool. He settled on a Buzz Lightyear. Good choice, IMO. Sidenote: I build a RetroPie last spring right before he got sick. After he was released to come home in June, the steroids + chemo resulted in him not being able to walk. They just zapped his leg muscles and he was immobile for all of June and part of July. So we spent the month of June playing Toy Story 2 on the Playstation emulator on the RetroPie. He absolutely loved it and it re-cemented his love of the Toy Story franchise. So when he settled on Buzz I couldn't help but get a little misty.

We then meandered to the Kitchen and housewares section. I could spend all of my money and then some on the kitchen stuff. I don't know what it is but I just like almost all of it. Logan picked out a set of 3 pancake molds. We talked him out of it as we already have a Mickey ears mold that I use for pancakes every weekend. Erica showed him an ears silicone muffin pan and he approved. Oh, and we got Liv a Minnie. She immediately put it in her mouth, a sure sign of affection but then soon became more entertained by the tag

2019 Logan's Wish - 57 by Matt C, on Flickr

While Erica was checking out (she was the master of coin this trip) I took Logan outside to see the big Stitch. He got a kick out of it

2019 Logan's Wish - 62 by Matt C, on Flickr

No trip is complete for us without new Christmas ornaments so we walked over there and spent some time looking at just about everything. Had to get one for us, let Logan pick one out and I had to get one for my Mom. Erica's cousin is graduating from HS in a couple weeks so she picked up one to commemorate that as well.

Liv was getting ornery so we went outside over to the little fountain by the old bus loop and gave her a bottle. Logan ran around in the splash fountain with a couple of other kids. It was nice seeing him so outgoing and having so much fun.

2019 Logan's Wish - 77 by Matt C, on Flickr

Time for a trip down memory lane.... Before Logan got sick the plan had been for Erica to take the normal 12 weeks maternity leave. I was going to take 2 weeks to get through the first couple of weeks when Liv and her came home. After those 2 weeks, Logan was going to go back to his sitters so he could keep interacting with other kids. The leukemia obviously threw that out the window. She works in the Federal Judiciary and is therefore unable to take Short Term Disability. They do have a leave donation system where any other employee in the Judiciary can donate their PTO to her. After talking to the Clerk of her court, he immediately signed the papers to solicit for donations and she got everything she had requested and more within an hour. As such, she was able to take almost 7 months off from work to stay home with both kids, which was also the worst of Logan's treatments. As I mentioned before he wasn't able to walk for about a month. He also turned into a complete grumpster. Again, thank you steroids. He was on them twice a day for a month straight. It took almost 2 months for them to completely get out of his system and him to return to 'normal'. Even then, he didn't want to play with other kids anymore. When he did go back to the babysitter in November it was terrible. Separation anxiety to the max. It's been slow progress but by around Feb of this year we finally got to the point where dropping him off in the morning wasn't a screaming and tear filled experience.

Not wanting to leave the post on a downer, we trekked back to the Orange garage, loaded in and headed back to GKTW. It was still early and he was hungry so we parked at our bungalow and walked over to the food building. GKTW has ice cream available from morning to night. Not wanting to miss that, we eschewed dinner and decided to get ice cream. Or should I say Logan got sprinkles with some ice cream

2019 Logan's Wish - 83 by Matt C, on Flickr

While we were there we heard other families saying it was Christmas night at GKTW (every night has a different theme). Santa and Mrs Claus were in the building! We walked over to the Winter Wonderland and waited in line to meet the big guy. Logan has never been keen on meeting Santa. He loves the idea of meeting him but when the time comes to do it he shys away. Which is fine. We weren't expecting anything different tonight, but he kept saying he wanted to go see Santa so we did. Much to our surprise he didn't change his mind when it was his turn. I don't know if it was that we were at GKTW and not at some mall or if it was all the sugar he was running on, but he ran up to and sat on his lap for a picture.

2019 Logan's Wish - 95 by Matt C, on Flickr

And that's a wrap for our travel day. Up next: breakfast at Chef Mickey's and a day at MK.

 

[Spash007]

Definitely following along. That's great that Logan is doing better. With kids being spaced out about the same as yours (our youngest in now 2 months), I couldn't even imagine going through what you did.

 

[Matt]

Trying to power through this as it's a slow day at work and I want to get everything down before it escapes my memory...

Day 1: Chef Mickey's and MK!

Step one: Pack up the car and drive to MK. Waze took us north on 192 to 535/Vineland Dr to World Center/EPCOT Center DR to World Dr. Traffic was surprisingly light. Logan's booster was on the left side of the van so he got a nice view of SSE when we drove by EPCOT. We also got a first person view driving under one of the Welcome arches for the first time. Had only ever seen it from one of the MDE buses. Would've taken a pictures but there was too much lovebug guts on the windshield. Same with the Magic Kingdom parking entry sign. Oh well.

We knew the Genie Pass got us complimentary parking but we didn't realize what "follow the blue line" meant when the parking attendant told us to do so. It just kept getting closer and closer to TTC and then poof we're in accessible parking. Wowza. It was early as we had 8:45 ADRs at CM's so we got pretty darn close to the tram underpass. Unpacked the strollers, loaded them up with bags, and off we went.

2019 Logan's Wish - 97 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 100 by Matt C, on Flickr

Gotta love the construction walls . Gave the walk to the security checks a certain corralled cattle feel. Security was security. Someday we'll go to the parks sans-bags and get to experience the feeling of going through the bag-free area. Until then, the wait continues. Logan got a handful of the Timon and Pumba cards, though. Since we were going to the Contemporary, we hopped on the resort line and settled in for the ride. If memory serves, we were on Monorail Peach. Despite the face, Logan loves the monorail. He doesn't love picture-happy dad trying to take his picture all the time though.

2019 Logan's Wish - 102 by Matt C, on Flickr

When did they remove the Mickey statue from the picture spot at Chef Mickey's? I was looking forward to having an updated family picture with it but twas gone . Hungry Logan = grumpy Logan and therefore we ended up with this. I have a sneaking suspicion if the Mickey was still there we would've gotten a better picture. Also, hats off to TouringPlan's ADR finder for getting us in here this early. We had originally been able to book a 11:50 for Monday which really would've thrown a wrench into our day.

2019 Logan's Wish - 108 by Matt C, on Flickr

We were the first people sat in the section and the Genie Pass resulted in us getting 4 cool Chef Mickey placemats to take home. Liv was very excited for breakfast and loves doing "How big is Olivia?"

2019 Logan's Wish - 110 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 116 by Matt C, on Flickr

Logan and Erica went up to the buffet first. He came back with 2 Mickey waffles, half a dozen bacons, and a cinnamon roll. He ate every last bite Still had time before the characters started coming over so I went and got my food.

2019 Logan's Wish - 118 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 117 by Matt C, on Flickr

Goofy was up first! I think I hid it well, I was holding back tears. Logan had just finished giving Goof a bear hug and I think I saw tears welling up in his eyes, too.

2019 Logan's Wish - 123 by Matt C, on Flickr

Donald was next. When we asked him in the car on the way over, he said he couldn't wait to see Donald. Unbeknownst to me, and I was in a rush to take pictures, I somehow set the ISO on my camera to 12800. Oops. Headdesk facepalm to infinity. Erica was busy holding Liv so she didn't take any pictures. You obviously can't tell, but Logan was on the verge of tears here

2019 Logan's Wish - 134 by Matt C, on Flickr

Fixed the camera settings in time for Mickey, though. Logan didn't want to let him leave.

2019 Logan's Wish - 154 by Matt C, on Flickr

Liv played peek-a-boo with Minnie

2019 Logan's Wish - 162 by Matt C, on Flickr

I never really paid attention to food prices before as we always had a dining plan, but holy wow that was an expensive breakfast. But, as with everything here, the kid's expressions and experiences make it worthwhile.

Quick stop at the restrooms and the Fantasia gift shop and we were off to MK.

2019 Logan's Wish - 167 by Matt C, on Flickr

We decided to walk to a) save time and b) burn off some calories. Despite the heat, it was a nice walk. Nobody waiting in line at the security checkpoint was nice, too. Didn't feel rushed getting both kid's bags out and then back under the strollers.

Can't get enough of this view

2019 Logan's Wish - 176 by Matt C, on Flickr

More after lunch!

 

[Swissmiss]

I love Logan’s monster sandals - very cute.

And I know what you mean about the Chef Mickey statue - we’ve gone every two years since my DD was about 3 and a half and I would measure her growth against it but it was definitely gone when we were there in January 2018. So now I just measure her growth in how much taller than me she is when we are in pictures together ...

 

[Matt]

Day 1, part 2:

First step after getting into MK was to get Logan a Mickey balloon. He wanted the one with the balloon inside the clear sphere, same as he got last time. We got Liv one with Mickey on one side and Minnie on the other. She absolutely loved it and would try to eat it every time it blew down into her face.

2019 Logan's Wish - 181 by Matt C, on Flickr

As we were buying the balloons, we were being ushered on to the sidewalk for a coming parade. None of us have ever been big parade people but figured we're here so why not. No idea what it's called but they were signing the Everybody Get Your Ears On song. Caught Logan screaming to the characters out of the corner of my eye



After everything quieted down we asked Logan what he wanted to do first. He said Buzz so we headed over to Tomorrowland. Liv was asleep (and slept through the parade!). I waited under some shade provided by the Peoplemover. He came out beaming

2019 Logan's Wish - 186 by Matt C, on Flickr

The Speedway was still down and he didn't want to ride Space Mountain. I talked him into trying 7DMT. If he didn't like it, so be it but I wanted him to at least try a family/kid oriented coaster. We parked Erica in the shade with the strollers and made our way through the queue. He was nervous, kept asking me how fast it goes, are there big drops, etc but he didn't back out when I gave him the opportunity. We were near the back, probably better than the first car. He held onto my arm and screamed the whole time we were outside, but let go and loved the scene inside the mine, then back to holding my arm and screaming. It wasn't completely being scared, there was a little bit of a laugh in there with it. That being said, when we got to the closing scene with Snow dancing, he calmly but firmly told me "Daddy, I'm not going to ride anymore roller coasters during our family vacation". I said ok, we got off and he said the same thing to Erica when we got back to her. Sadly, we didn't have magic bands so no ride photo

Erica was hot and Liv was awake so we decided to to Pooh since it was right there. Uh oh, Pooh was down. So, we went around the 7DMT 'mountain' and headed for Mermaid. Had to do a little talking to Logan to get him to go on it. He thought a) it was a roller coaster (this was a recurring theme for the rest of the day) and b) he kept saying it was a ride for girls because of Ariel. Squashed the latter real quick but had to revisit when we did Frozen at EPCOT, and assured him it was a slow ride with no drops. He insisted that both Erica and I ride with him, so he sat between us with Liv on Erica's lap. We got stuck momentarily during Under the Sea, not a bad thing. Liv was dancing on Erica's lap and I found myself whistling it the rest of the day.

We decided to do IASW next. We came upon Philarmagic on the way and decided that since Liv was awake we'd hit that first. We sat near the back in case she didn't care for it so we could make a quick escape. Thankfully, she did like it and Logan laughed his head off the entire time.

Moved on to IASW. Had our longest wait of our trip in the FP+ line here, as expected. Both kids got antsy, but once Logan realized Liv was getting ornery, he started goofing off to entertain her and next thing we knew we were boarding the boat, in the front row no less. This would also be a recurring theme Liv absolutely loved it, Logan got a little bored by the end but overall enjoyed it.

Onward to HM. Oh wait, HM was down. Onward to Liberty Square Market for a snack! Pretzels all around

2019 Logan's Wish - 216 by Matt C, on Flickr

During the snack break I tried to describe Splash Mountain to Logan. Water? OK. Ride in a log? OK. Small drops? Tentative OK. Big drop at the end? No-go. We walked over there anyways so he could at least see it. Seeing it confirmed the no-go. I took him over to TM so he could see that too even though I knew we weren't going to be riding. Maybe next time, kiddo. We turned around and headed for POTC. Liv got a little nervous when it was pitch black before and during the drop into the bombardment scene but she calmed down once it got brighter. Erica and her were on the right side of the boat and got nailed by one of the splashes from a canon blast. Liv thought it was hilarious

Logan said he wanted to ride Pooh so we trekked across the Hub back to Fantasyland. Liv fell asleep so Erica took her in to the gift shop and Logan and I rode. I'd never done it before. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounceeeee. Logan was a little creeped out when Pooh was dreaming and his body seemingly "turned into a ghost", Logan's words. He loved the little play area at the front of the queue, though

2019 Logan's Wish - 225 by Matt C, on Flickr

Dumbo was his favorite ride on his first trip and I'm pretty sure it still holds the top spot. We walked over there next and he rode first with Erica and then with me. Liv spent her time checking out a stuffed Dumbo

2019 Logan's Wish - 231 by Matt C, on Flickr

Since we were all the way over here, we went to meet Pluto, Goof and Daisy. The way we understood it, the Genie pass was only good for rides. Not for meet-n-greets. This turned out to be a false understanding. We were waiting in line to meet Daisy when a cast member spotted the pass hanging around my neck and motioned us to the front of the line. I'm not one to try to take advantage of things so I was never going to try to jump the line for these but if they're going to tell me to do it I'm not going to say no. Felt a little wave of guilt each time we got to jump ahead of everyone, especially when the queues were outside in the sun, i.e. Buzz in TL and Woody and Jessie in TSL.

Anyways, onto character pics:

2019 Logan's Wish - 239 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 275 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 283 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 304 by Matt C, on Flickr

And that was a wrap on Day 1!

Parting shot of the Castle

2019 Logan's Wish - 319 by Matt C, on Flickr

We boated back to TTC and headed back to the hotel for an ice cream dinner.

Oh, forgot. We stopped by the Wish Lounge for a bottle for Liv after Liberty Square Market. This is a wonderful place they provide for Wish families. Access to hot and cold water, couches to veg on. Toys for kids. And just a quiet, cool place to unwind for a few.

 

[Darstarr]

I love Logan’s monster sandals - very cute.

And I know what you mean about the Chef Mickey statue - we’ve gone every two years since my DD was about 3 and a half and I would measure her growth against it but it was definitely gone when we were there in January 2018. So now I just measure her growth in how much taller than me she is when we are in pictures together ...

Mmmm....Mickey waffles!!!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Following along! I love love love GKTW, and I'm so excited to read about the rest of your trip. Sounds like it got off to a great start. Your kiddos are absolutely adorable.

Hope Logan is doing well now!

 

[WDisneyW]

Following!

 

[DisneyGigi]

I love Logan’s monster sandals - very cute.

And I know what you mean about the Chef Mickey statue - we’ve gone every two years since my DD was about 3 and a half and I would measure her growth against it but it was definitely gone when we were there in January 2018. So now I just measure her growth in how much taller than me she is when we are in pictures together ...

I noticed these too. I think, they are sharks? If they are the same ones that my grandson has. At least he calls them his shark sandals. Lol Carters- they light up too. I bought 3 pair just in case they wear out he loves them so much.

 

[DisneyGigi]

The character photos are precious!

 

[Matt]

Day 3: LegoLand!

Logan woke us up at 6:30 to let us know he woke up and then he decided to talk to Liv, who was sleeping, till she woke up. Thanks bud!

Since it was so early and Legoland didn't open until 10 we had plenty of time to head over for breakfast. First time through the line Logan got pancakes, a hash brown patty, a Cinnabon roll and bacon. He wanted strawberries but much like Chef Mickey's there were none to be found. Is the lack of strawberries a Florida thing? They're a year-round staple up here it seems.

2019 Logan's Wish - 326 by Matt C, on Flickr

"I'm still hungry". Back to the buffet we went but this time to the Waffle bar. He wanted Mickey waffles. No such luck, but this was a good solution. Yes, those are chocolate sprinkles.

2019 Logan's Wish - 331 by Matt C, on Flickr

Back to our place, packed up the van and off we went. Waze took us on "back roads" instead of I-4. Was a nice drive, not a lot of traffic and we made pretty good time, arriving shortly after 10. But this is where the fun began. It took us 45 minutes to get from the road to a parking spot. It then took us another 50 minutes to get through the security line so our planned 8ish hours in the park all of a sudden is down to 6. I'm sure people gripe out Disney security checkpoints but I've never ever waited that long to get into any Disney park. Bright side of the waiting in line is we had plenty of time to get the kids covered in sunscreen Once we got through security it was clear sailing into the park. First stop was Duplo Land. We rode on a tractor ride. It was kiddy but too kiddy for Logan. Liv decided she was hungry so we found the Baby Care center on the map and discovered it's inside a barn housing a play area. Perfect. Erica fed Liv and I supervised Logan on the play stuff. We then headed over to Lego Movie Land

2019 Logan's Wish - 335 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 340 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 348 by Matt C, on Flickr

Where we found yet another climb-through play thing. We parked ourselves in some shade and let Logan climb around. After about 15 minutes we got him out and Erica took him on The Battle For Brickdom. From what I gathered from her description it was kind of like Soarin'. Logan loved the fact that you got to sit on a triple decker couch. Meanwhile, I pushed Liv around and took some pics before we both got hot and decided to wait inside a gift shop where she took a liking to an Emmet doll

2019 Logan's Wish - 366 by Matt C, on Flickr

Next was Medieval world(?). Logan rode on and loved a jousting ride. So much so they let him ride it twice in a row without getting off.

2019 Logan's Wish - 373 by Matt C, on Flickr

We saw Ninjago on the map and Logan really wanted to go there so we started making our way in that direction. We got distracted by the Lego display area. Current me is very mad at past me for thinking he was too hot to be bothered to take any pictures of the scenes. That felt like our hottest day, but still who knows when we'll be back. Anyways, we then got distracted by another ride. Some sort of Egyptian pyramid themed ride where you go through the tombs and shoot at stuff, a la Buzz Lightyear. Logan rode that twice too, once with me and once with Erica. One more pit stop for popcorn and blue drink, and we made it to Ninjago. He ran around another play area before we headed to the ride which was very much like TSMM but instead of having a shooter you just wave your hand over some sensors in a frisbee throwing motion and that gets translated to throwing stars, rocks, etc. Fun but took some getting used to. Logan legit beat me.

Next up was food at a chicken place in the Lego City area. Good chicken and lots of different sauces to dip in. Then on to the junior version of the ride on lego vehicles. Here was our first meltdown of the trip and our first oh carp moment. Logan wanted a blue vehicle but was too slow and didn't get it. He came running to me screaming and tripped and cut his knee. My first thought was we do not want that to get infected. He's healthy but his white cell counts won't be back to where a normal person's would be until he's completely done with treatments in 2.5 years. If he gets a fever of 100.4 or higher he's in the hospital for antibiotics and bloodwork and if his neutrophils aren't high enough, he's stuck in the hospital until they are high enough. Needless to say, didn't want that to happen. I hotfooted it to the bathroom for some paper towels. We wiped it off and sprayed with antiseptic spray and put on a couple of bandaids. Once that was done we had to have a conversation about behavior. He calmed down and we tried again and this time he ended up with a blue vehicle.

2019 Logan's Wish - 379 by Matt C, on Flickr

Liv got hungry for another bottle so we went back to the baby care center in the play barn. This time I fed and Erica supervised. We had seen everything we wanted to see and were wiped so we made our way to the big store, spent some money and headed for the car. Pit stop at Starbucks for what would be my only coffee of the trip and we headed back to GKTW, this time via I-4. Both kids were asleep when we got back to Kissimmee so we stopped at the WalMart at the top of the road GKTW is at for some more formula for Liv and pouches for both kids.

Back at the hotel, it was still early and Logan wanted to go to the pool. So it was. Erica stayed back with Liv to give her dinner and we walked the short distance over to the pool. It's a great pool. Nice zero entry area and the deepest spot is only 4 feet. Perfect for a kid who doesn't know how to swim. There were noodles and beach balls aplenty. Logan grabbed a noodle and was pretending he was Mario and I was Luigi and some unseen entity was Bowser and we were attacking him with the noodles. Very vivid imagination.

2019 Logan's Wish - 400 by Matt C, on Flickr





We ended up waterlogged after about an hour and headed back to the room for some snacks before bed. Erica and I were hungry hungry so I went tot he Chick Fil A down the road and we made some popcorn for Logan.

That's a wrap for today. Next post: Both parts of Uni in one day

 

[Matt]

I noticed these too. I think, they are sharks? If they are the same ones that my grandson has. At least he calls them his shark sandals. Lol Carters- they light up too. I bought 3 pair just in case they wear out he loves them so much.

Carters FTW. They replaced his pair from 2 years ago that were blue.

The character photos are precious!

Making our Christmas Cards this year just got a lot easier

 

[LAKid53]

He wanted strawberries but much like Chef Mickey's there were none to be found. Is the lack of strawberries a Florida thing?

You're 70 miles east of the strawberry capital of Florida...Plant City. Publix has strawberries year round. Right now, on sale. Can't say why the place you stayed at didn't have any. There's a fresh strawberry pie sitting in my fridge. Oooo, I need a piece.

Bye!

 

[Rista1313]

I'm in, My brothers best friends son got diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia in May of 2018, and just finally got to go back to school a few weeks ago, his immune system was gone after treatments, and a bone marrow transplant, so he had to stay out of the public for quite awhile. They are also on the make a wish list, and should be coming up to their turn on the list soon I think.

 

[Loco_driver]

Following along. You have a beautiful family!

 

[Matt]

I'm in, My brothers best friends son got diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia in May of 2018, and just finally got to go back to school a few weeks ago, his immune system was gone after treatments, and a bone marrow transplant, so he had to stay out of the public for quite awhile. They are also on the make a wish list, and should be coming up to their turn on the list soon I think.

Glad to hear he's got some semblance of normalcy back! We'll keep him in our thoughts

Following along. You have a beautiful family!

The kids must've gotten it from my wife

 

[FlaggNL]

A more than great start! Count me in! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Matt]

It's amazing how little time/energy one has to do stuff like write TRs when your wife has back surgery (she's doing well. Going back to work part-time on Monday) and one of your kids decides she doesn't want to sleep at night anymore...

Where were we?

Oh yes, Uni day. Since we had the front of the line pass, literal not the one that puts you in a shorter line, we decided to do both halves of Uni in one day.

Knowing Logan as we do and since he's only 4, he really wouldn't enjoy too much of IoA so we decided to hit that side first. I forgot how long the walk from the Uni garages is to get to the parks. Wow. I was sweating before we got there. This may have been the hottest day thus far, as well. Remember yesterday when Logan fell and cut his knee at LegoLand? That triggered something in me and I was now paranoid that that cut a) got infected and b) he's gonna end up in the emergency room somewhere with a fever. I spent most of today trying to casually feel his forehead, starting when we got to the security check. He was cool as a cucumber but my head was still in panic mode. Trying to put those thoughts in the back of my head we made our way towards IoA, got our tickets from will-call, took a right and headed to Seuss Landing.

2019 Logan's Wish - 429 by Matt C, on Flickr

Liv was too small to go on The Cat In The Hat ride and I knew it was one ride Erica could go on so I let her ride with Logan. Liv and I headed into the gift shop to stay cool and looked at all the Cat stuff and I let her play with one of the cats to keep her calm. Logan loved the ride, which helped settle my mind a bit. We wanted to get Liv out of the stroller so the Seuss Carousel was next. He doesn't look thrilled

2019 Logan's Wish - 444 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 447 by Matt C, on Flickr

While we were on the carousel, Logan saw the Sky Trolley going around overhead so that was next on his list of wants. Liv wasn't big enough and it was my turn so Erica took her off to find some shade. The Trolley was slower than I remembered, but that was probably just me. Logan was meh on it but I think he liked being up in the air. We tracked down the girls and found them seeing Things 1 and 2. Liv thought they were awesome but we couldn't get Logan to take a picture with them.

2019 Logan's Wish - 554 by Matt C, on Flickr

Liv was getting hungry so we set out to find a baby care station. Welp, that's what we get for assuming. We were told by multiple workers that no such thing exists. One suggested we head for a First Aid station since they would have a microwave. Glad we found that person because they were right and the first aid folks were nice enough to let Erica warm up some water for the bottle. Logan climbed up on me and was acting super weird, for him, and that once again triggered the panic in my brain. His head felt cool, yet again, and we got him to drink some water and he perked up. Gotta stay hydrated, kids!

We headed for Hogsmeade next. Logan has never seen the movies and has no knowledge of HP at all. That combined with him not being big enough for FJ led to us basically walking through without stopping and made our way to Jurassic Park. Logan saw the popcorn stand right past the gate and really wanted some so we got in line. Erica went to take pictures of the guest tour vehicle with Liv. When she got back we were still in line and she pointed out to me Logan was asleep. Alarms start going off again in my head. He never ever falls asleep this early for a nap (it was 11:30ish). I got the popcorn and a drink for him when he woke up and we walked up the hill to the Visitor Center. We found an empty table in the back of the dining area and sat down to plan out the rest of our day while both kids slept, all the while with me obsessively feeling Logan's head and it consistently being cool. Sweaty, but cool.

We decided that walking the rest of the way around IoA wasn't worth it for Logan since there wasn't much he'd want to do. The plan became to turn around and head back to Hogsmeade to hop on the train to go over to Diagon Alley and the rest of the Studios.

Both kids woke up on the way to the train and Logan started eating popcorn like nobody's business. My paranoid brain never stopped to consider that 3 days of morning to night on the go might've wiped him out to the point that he needed an early morning nap.

2019 Logan's Wish - 471 by Matt C, on Flickr

After getting off train we took a left to head towards MiB. Logan didn't know what that was about but we told him it was like Buzz Lightyear but with aliens. Sold. Sold so much he rode it two times in a row, once with me and once with Erica. Needless to say, he was fine.

On to Simpsons! He rode that twice in a row, too. I let Erica go first as I've never been a huge Simpsons fan *ducks* but he loved it so much he wanted to go again so I went the second time. We tried to get him to pose with various things throughout the land but that didn't happen. Kid really doesn't like to get his picture taken unless he's in the mood.

2019 Logan's Wish - 492 by Matt C, on Flickr

We continued making our way clockwise around the lagoon and headed to E.T. On the way we saw the Fivel play area. We let Logan run around in there for a bit. He ran around and went down a few slides. Remember when I said earlier it was hot? It was even hotter now with zero clouds in the sky (a nice change from the recent Syracuse weather, for sure) so we didn't let him run around for too long before heading to the Spongebob store. We don't let him watch Spongebob but he's seen it at the sitter's and knows the basics. He got a kick out of some of the stuff and got excited when the starfish character walked by.



I went on E.T. with him and he was very apprehensive at first but once we got to the part where the bikes jump down onto the cop cars before flying off to E.T.'s homeworld he was totally into it. Added that to the "watch when you're a little bit older" movie list.

We walked by Transformers and almost got in line to meet someone, I think it was Optimus Prime, but he went back in the garage right as we got there so we kept moving to Shrek. Parked the stroller and we were probably halfway through the pre-show when Logan decided he had to go potty. We got someone to let us back out the front doors and he and Erica ran across the courtyard to the pottys. The same guy was at the door when they got back and he let us in halfway through the next group's pre-show so we got to see most of it twice. Logan liked the show, Liv not so much. She got a little whiny towards the end but it was also getting later in the day. Loved the stuff in the gift show, though.

2019 Logan's Wish - 529 by Matt C, on Flickr

You can almost hear her saying "OOOOOOOOOH!!!"

Despicable Me is across the street so that was next. Surprised and pleased to find they have a 'non-motion' section. Erica got in that line with Liv while Logan and I got in the normal line. Logan loved the ride but he, like Liv at Shrek, liked the gift shop more I think. He almost talked us into getting a fart gun.

2019 Logan's Wish - 542 by Matt C, on Flickr

We were getting close to done after that, but we decided to walk over and get a popcorn and blue drink refill in front of Jimmy Fallon. Logan asked what the ride was so we explained. He said he wanted to go so Erica and I did rock paper scissors since neither of us cared one way or the other. I won The golden ticket "entrance" for this ride was the most unique of all of them at Uni. We had to wait for a page, then we were escorted through a maze of rooms and hallways, at one point past one of the main control rooms (which had its door open. Would've loved to sneak in there). Anyways, we got our goggles and hopped on. Logan loved it. Would've ridden it again if he wasn't complaining about being hungry.

And that wraps up our day at Uni. One more pic in front of the main gate (with Mickey balloons for good measure) and we headed back towards the City Walk.

2019 Logan's Wish - 561 by Matt C, on Flickr

Nothing thrilled us food-wise so we kept going back to the car. One thing that I liked better about Uni was the garages. Love them at the Springs and love them here too, for no reason other than they kept the van cool. Dis doesn't even have to build a garage at MK, EPCOT and MGM. Just erect big solar car-port like things over the lots. Boom, problem solved.

After some debate, we decided to drive to the Springs to find some dinner. I don't know why, let's blame the heat, but it never dawned on me to look in the Disney app to see what had reservations until we showed up at the Springs and parked. Real face-palm moment on my part. We walked up to Rainforest in the hope they'd see my Genie pass/Make a Wish stuff and find us a table. Nope. 90 minute wait. So now I hopped in the app to find something that had an opening sooner than that. Turf Club had an opening in 30 minutes. We debated between going to get a boat or walking. Since we're nuts, we decided to walk. When we stayed at SSR back in 2013 they hadn't opened the bridge/path between the Springs and SSR yet so we figured what the heck.

It ended up being not that bad of a walk. A breeze had picked up and both kids dozed on the way over which we figured would make for a more enjoyable dinner since they'd both be rested. We were right

2019 Logan's Wish - 567 by Matt C, on Flickr

2019 Logan's Wish - 571 by Matt C, on Flickr

I got the strip. It was very good. Better than the last time we had eaten there. Logan got pasta with butter and Erica got their best recreation of Turf Club pasta which used to be on the menu but no longer is.

2019 Logan's Wish - 573 by Matt C, on Flickr

After dinner we took a boat back to DS, arriving just as the sun went down and made our way back to the hotel.

2019 Logan's Wish - 579 by Matt C, on Flickr

Up next (hopefully sooner rather than later) AK and EPCOT in one day