Walt Disney World Trip Planning
Topic: Make a Wish trip

#	Author	Message
1	momof4boys Sat 3/15/2008 7:09p	My son has been referred for a MAW trip ( for those who are familiar with us- Nathan's heart is still stable right now. Just having a life threatening illness qualifies him). We are very early in the process- our doctor just sent in the verification papers- but our understanding is we need to have 3 possible dates for them. His first choice of wishes is a Disney Cruise- but I have heard some states won't do cruises anymore. If he can't do a cruise, he wants to go to either DL or WDW. Our 3 possible dates are May 25-30 ( the 26th being Memorial Day), Thanksgiving week ( starting the weekend before Thanksgiving) or Christmas break. I know, none of those times are great as far as crowds but how would you rank them from lowest to highest crowds.
2	wahooskipper Sat 3/15/2008 7:47p	I would stay away from May because of the heat/rain. Thanksgiving week will be busy but the weather is far better and the Christmas decorations go up. I love the holidays at Disney. If you can go sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, avoiding those two dates specifically, those tend to be pretty good times to go. Will you be staying at Give Kids the World? That place is remarkable.
3	momof4boys Sat 3/15/2008 8:05p	Ugh- is Florida already hot in May? Nathan doesn't do too well with heat. I wish we could pick a less busy time. Nathan will be in 4th grade and could miss school no problem. But my other kids are older ( will be in 7th, 8th and 11th grades) and it stresses them to miss too much school. Plus I am a contract employee to several small schools. I don't have paid time off- if I take off during the school year, I don't get paid for those days. Bummer. If he chooses WDW, I am pretty sure we will stay at GKTW. Nathan isn't too crazy about it- he says it looks too young for him. But everyone says it is wonderful. I hope it has as much for older kids.
4	dsnykid Sun 3/16/2008 8:08a	Talk with your employer and school board because I know that in my district exceptions have been made for employees and their families who are receiving make a wish trips, ie; paid time off, students given excused absences, even in higher grades. I'm glad to hear Nathan is stable :)
5	momof4boys Mon 4/28/2008 8:11p	Now we are thinking about the 3rd week of March. What are the crowds like then? Is it everybody's spring break?
6	fan-o-fun Tue 4/29/2008 7:37a	Christmas Break could be good, if you go the week before and get out before Christmas Eve.
7	Mrs ElderP Tue 4/29/2008 9:22a	I don't think the 3rd week of March will be the deadest time ever at DL, but Easter is in Mid April, so that should help give you a moderately busy time instead of slammed. I've only been to WDW once, but I know that www.touringplans.com does extensive research (school calanders for the 100 largest districts in the country, lots of past history) and they post crowd predictions day by day. They update and adjust frequently. Viewing the near future is free. To view up to a year you need to pay a minimal subscription fee. I highly reccomend it! (I would also add that you can't really know about March of '09 until the districts release their 08-09 school calanders, you'd know better than I would about when district release calanders.)

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