Before we left on our trip, we talked with a few families who had taken the trip already, and all of them had different favorite parts and different tips, but they all said the same thing about Give Kids The World (GKTW) – it was AMAZING. Now I’ll be painfully honest, I was a little bummed when I found out that wish trips didn’t stay on Disney property…but I had also never heard of GKTW, and the more I heard about it, I quickly realized that THIS was a huge part of the Wish trip experience, and it was. Our kids LOVED LOVED LOVED GKTW. It was such a magical place, every one that works there and volunteers there is INCREDIBLE. We met some people who have been volunteering for decades! There is no way our trip would have been as special as it was, without GKTW.
Every family gets their own villa (basically a condo set-up)…and then everything is included – rides, games, arcade, food, ice cream (literally all you can eat, the kids’ favorite part), pool, splash pad, parties, putt-putt, spa, etc. You name it, they pretty much had it, and we didn’t even get to everything while we were there! When we first arrived, we were escorted to our Villa and had a little orientation where they gave us all of the info we needed for the parks and such. My parents were able to stay with us too, which was such a treat! They’ve been such a HUGE support during this journey, and having them included in this part of the trip was really special.
After orientation, we explored. 🙂 The kids had the best time on the rides (they were small, but perfect for our kids), loved exploring the arcade, and of course, nothing beat the free ice cream! Pretty sure that after her first ice cream cone, Brynna ended up choosing a chocolate milk-shake every.single.time. I also think we rode the carousel 108 times!
Every evening, GKTW throws massive parties (Christmas, Halloween, etc.)…we actually never made it to a party (we had so much fun at the parks), but we DID make it to a tea party with Brynna on one of our last mornings there…and she was absolutely delighted! If you know Brynna, you know that we have many, many tea parties around here, so it was SO much fun to have a real tea party to attend!
They also do character meet and greets, so the morning we left, we got to sneak in one last thing, meeting Mickey, Pluto, and Mary Poppins. We also spent another entire morning on their “Candyland Playground” and a couple evenings at their pool.
One of the most touching, tear inducing parts of GKTW, was their castle. When you walk in, your eyes immediately take in the thousands of little stars covering every square inch of the ceiling. They seem to go on forever.
Each star represents a Wish kid that has stayed at GKTW. And like I said, there were thousands. Brynna was given a gold star of her own, and “signed” the star with her name, and then the “star fairy” took the star and hung it up (this process delighted her). At the end of the week, they did a reveal for us, to show us where Brynna’s star was hung, and it will forever be there. Brynna is forever a part of GKTW. It’s hard to explain the emotions that went into this…the reasons for the flowing tears as they showed us her star, hung on the wall…but all of us were incredibly moved by it, and just so touched by this incredible place that provides so much HOPE and JOY for these wish kids (and their siblings!) who have been through some of the most horrific trials. Seeing Brynna’s star hanging up was a reminder of all she has overcome, all God has done in her life, and what a miracle she is. How many stars hang there, that represent kids who have won their battle, not in this life? How many stars represent families with gigantic holes in their hearts? We will never know, but the whole process for us, was amazing. (You can see a snippet of this on the princess video my dad made).
Staying at GKTW is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. As an alumni wish family, we can go back to visit and play, but we can’t ever stay there again, which makes our stay there, that much more special. I wouldn’t trade our days there, for anything!
