Day 1 - Leave for Orlando!

DAY 1 - Travel to Give Kids the World Village

We woke up bright and early in the morning and a limo picked us up to take us to the 100^th Bomb Group restaurant. It’s this really cool old war/airplane restaurant next to the airport. Ethan got a kick out of all the pictures of the old fighter planes and seeing the real planes across the street! While there we had a little breakfast with about 40 people who were donators/potential donators to Make-a-Wish. It was a really great experience! We walked in on a red carpet with Disney music playing in the background. We sat at a table with our pilot and copilot as well as one of the leaders in the Make-a-Wish program. They did Disney trivia and whenever a table got the correct answer they would bring over presents for Callie and Ethan. It was a great start to the day! After getting showered with gifts (from airplane lunchbags, tshirts, Mickey Mouse stuffed animals, coloring/activity books for the plane ride, a Radio Disney camcorder, and more!) we went to take pictures with the pilots and head to the airport!

The limo took us to the airport where we went through security so easily (thanks to our magical Make-a-Wish buttons) and they took us in a cart to the United Club. We had our own little room to wait in with more free breakfast to munch on while we waited for the plane.

Here's John and the kids playing in the United Club before the flight

We met with the pilot about a half hour before leaving and the kids were able to go in the cockpit of the plane and play up there. They loved that! They each got metal flight wings as the pilot awarded them as co-captains for the flight. :) I remember getting the little plastic ones as a kid...these were definitely better!

   Ethan in the cockpit

     Callie in the cockpit

The flight was awesome and we had the best pilot ever! He announced our family (especially Ethan) over the PA system about 5 times during the flight. Everyone on the plane clapped for Ethan and he loved it! The pilot also sent the flight attendants back about 5 times during the flight to give the kids presents. I couldn’t believe it! They got a tshirt, first-class snacks and warm cookies, Mickey Ears hat, stuffed animals, a United ball, and Ethan got an entire United airplane/bus/trucks kit. He LOVED that! Needless to say that was a pretty impressive flight!

     Kids eating their snacks on the plane

When we arrived in Orlando we got a rental car and drove to Give Kids the World Village.

       Kids at the entrance sign to the Village (you have to look hard to spot them in the picture lol)

I can’t even express how great of a place that is! We arrived and signed in then we were led to our Villa #111. It was a great little house and we had everything we could need for the trip!

Video tour of the villa
Click on the play button on the left image to watch the video. The quality isn't the best since I had to change the formatting and to upload onto the blog, but it'll do the job. :)

We were a bit hungry by that point so we ordered lunch from Katie’s Kitchen (Boston Market in the village). All the food at the village is free so that was pretty awesome! After eating lunch we went to play Dino Putt-Putt. It was another fun thing to do in the village.

  Kids by a dinosaur at the Dino Putt-Putt in the village

After putt-putt we went to have our daily ice cream! After checking out the village and playing for a while we went back to the villa to order a pizza. They have a pizzeria called Mama Merry’s Pizza Kitchen. They delivered our pizzas and drinks. While the family ate I went to orientation to get our tickets for the parks, all the information for what we needed to know while we were there, and picked up a camcorder to use for the week. When I got back to the villa we all headed out to go to Amberville Train Station (a building that had a HUGE model train set, arcade games, pool table, and ping pong). We hung out there for a while and Ethan absolutely adored that giant model train set. I can’t blame him...it was impressive to say the least!

            Ethan by the train at Amberville Train Station at the village - my pic would never do this thing justice! The lighting all changes, storms come, and buttons control all the different features (trains running, circus pieces moving around, trollies going, helicopters flying, etc). It was amazing.

After that everyone was pretty tired so we headed back to the villa. The kids took a bath in their jacuzzi tub and we tucked in to sleep for the night. When we had returned to the villa we saw that the “Gift Patrol” had left a bag with snacks, bracelets, two stuffed bunnies (Mayor Clayton dolls) and a bedtime book. Very cute!

Needless to say we had an amazing trip there and had a great time checking out the village! The weather was in the low 70s when we arrived and you certainly can’t complain about that coming from Cleveland! Lol!