What I’m reading sounds like a lot of poor planning on the aunts part. I’m not sure how it works with the Make a Wish foundation, but everyone has to have reservations for everything. It should have all been booked in advance. Especially the wheelchair portion. I can’t find fault in Disney for her showing up the day of and expecting a wheelchair. And as far as lightening lanes go, you get the reservation time and you just have to wait. I’m seeing a lot of blame placed on Disney when it seems no research wad done on this woman’s part. And her nephew suffered for it.
A Genie pass is better. It allows you to enter a lightning lane line without needing a return time. A disability pass requires a return time before you can enter lightning lane.
What they wanted and were expecting was front of the line access and Disney doesn’t do that.
You got a free Disney holiday. Stop thinking your so Special and Expecting everything on a silver platter. There’s plenty of kids with diseases that don’t get a free trip to Disney World.
Exactly what I was thinking! You got an all expense paid trip and are still thinking you deserved front of line, individual time with characters and the royal treatment. Lots of sick kids to accommodate and all this aunt can do is complain! Disney does not HAVE to participate but they do for thousands every year. Looks like they are fishing for another trip to me!
They didn’t want to pay I guess. They could have also brought their own wheelchair if they wanted a certain type. Could have also made some posters if they wanted child to be recognized out of a crowd of 100’s in the park.
150,000 Make a Wish Disneyworld diivided into 40 years, even for just one day visits comes out to 10 a day. Of course it’s better funded now, so more than in prior decades, so it’s more people, longer trips. Each child of course is special, but if it’s that large, so many, each and every day, I could see how hard for Disney staff characters to make a special grouping per child. Due to school vacations, etc, there will be weeks where there might be 1 family will be there while other weeks there could be 100. How would Thwy still function for the rest of the kids there, they want to see the characters too. It’s disappointing you don’t get the ultimate fantasy, but it’s still a vacation where a family of 4 could easily spend 10 grand on the stay, passes, meals, merch. Again, not saying they’re wrong to feel disappointed, but I can see how Disney staff could get underwhelmed.
I wish I saw the other comment before I made a comment but they don’t let you see comments anymore before you comment or wouldn’t have said what said. Now I want to know what she did
Agree totally. I am appalled that disney vacation planners for make a wish didn’t do better than this. I would be devastated if I was promised so much and got so little
Remember there’s 2 sides to every story. The aunt said she identified herself and nephew as MAW family. I have seen quite a few whish families at Disney. The whole family wears Blue MAW t-shirts so they are easily identified. This whole story sounds weird to me.
How? Not letting them just walk in to a restaurant that was booked? Just because he is MAW doesn’t give him special treatment to eat at a place that is booked. How would you like it if you showed up for a reservation and they told you, “SOrry, we cancelled your reservation because we have a MAW wish kid. We don’t have any more reservations available. Oh, and by the way, since it’s cancelled last minute you have pay the late cancellation fee.” No. This family should have made the reservations ahead of time like everyone else. That’s not a MAW responsibility. Either is the wheelchair. They pay for the trip but they don’t do all the work. This aunt is entitled. And then to say “We waited 45 minutes in the lightning lane”…yeah, you are going to wait. We wait also when we use lightning lane because you don’t just get on the ride. You by-pass the line and then merge into it closer to the front and if the line is long, then you will be waiting. This family (or at least aunt) expected to much. And then she said “It’s obvious he had kidney disease.” No it’s not lady. You can’t tell if someoen had a disease. I had a heat stroke and you can’t tell. You can’t tell someone has kidney disease by looking at them. This aunt is entitled and needs to be brought down a notch.
I’m not saying Disney is a perfect company. But if nearly everything did not go as “promised” there exists the possibility that MAW dropped the ball in whatever coordinating it does.
That sucks, but is it really DISNEY’s dault? Seems more like Make-a-Wish messed up this time. Also, you weren’t “kicked out”, you weren’t allowed in because you didn’t have a ticket and that’s fair.
3rd world problem! While I’m sad the child had a rough time, I don’t like to see any child suffer, there are children all over the world who don’t get to make any whishes, but only get to experience suffering day in and day out.
It’s the entitlement for me!!!! Just be happy he was able to go to disney land and California adventure. It seems like she wanted to be catered to the entire time she was there!!!! She needs to learn how when u go to disney you have to do everything yourself
Did they reserve a wheel chair in advance? If he needed one all the time, why wouldn’t they have brought one for him? It sounds like this event was poorly coordinated because I knew a family that did a Make a Wish at a Disney park and they said everything went great. I wish he could hear from the other side. Sometimes we are not given the full story and what each party was responsible to do and had agreed to do. The bad thing is for the child it was intended. His enjoyment was the upmost important, not the rest of the family.
They did reserve a wheelchair but they reserved a toddler sized wheelchair. Now whether the family messed up the reservation or Disney did, we’ll never know.
It sounds like a Make-A-Wish problem, not a Disney problem. Make-A-Wish seems to have made promises that Disney is not obligated to fulfill. Make-A-Wish is not an organization I support. I don’t trust them
Any organization that would let a kid go out to kill a bear, doesn’t get my support. Especially, when, after he didn’t kill one, they let him go out again.
What Disney did to your nephew is horrible beyond words.
I grew up in California so both a Disneyland fan and years ago, as child, a member of Make -A – Wish.
Disney should be hoffified of how you, your nephew were treated, and in fact on how they treat all families these days!
Shame on you Disney, you ARE NOT THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!
Best wishes to your nephew, may he be blessed with a wonderful new kidney, and live manybyears of happiness. (Avoiding Disney)
I contacted Make a wish greater l.a when My Child a most Died On a wish , My Son Was Granted On 02/06/2023 At Give Kids the World.. A Bed Fell off the Wall Breaking Bones In My Daughter’s spine And Her Right Foot She suffered Brain Damage and all Make a wish tells Us Is To Call “Give kids The World ” we’re they sent us .. 😔
Gave up on Disney years ago. When Bob Iger took over it became $$$$$$ with little or know respect for the principles Walt created and nurtured for years.
Not Iger. Look at the woke destruction Iger created and backed. When Disney’s Board is replaced and new management is allowed to work hard to return Disney to Walt’s vision, then it’ll be great to return. A massive cultural shift MUST occur. It can’t with this current Board.
That is so sad Disney couldn’t prepare ahead of time to make this trip more fun and comfortable for this lil guy. I mean, isn’t he suffering enough with his everyday pain and struggles with his condition?
It’s not a Disney problem. It’s a MAW wish problem. If they were to make all the reservatios then that’s on them, not Disney. Disney is not responsible for making sure they have dining reservations and then when they walk up and expect to get in because of the boy, that’s wrong. If they don’t have reservations, sorry. But MAW is the one that planned this, not Disney.
I contacted Make a wish greater l.a when My Child all most Died On a wish , My Son Was Granted On 02/06/2023 At Give Kids the World.. A Bed Fell off the Wall Breaking Bones In My Daughter’s spine And Her Right Foot She suffered Brain Damage and all Make a wish tells Us Is To Call “Give kids The World ” we’re they sent us ..
There was a time, seems so very long ago, that Disney was the happiest place on earth. The magic was everything Disney. Architecture, rides,characters, and memories. It was a time when Cast Members believed the words and values taught in traditions classes. The chance to make Walt’s dreams come true. There was a time when “back stage” was where the “real world” stayed. You step “on stage ” and you become an essential part of the imagination and magic of the Disney experience.
It seems to me, from frequently read these posts, that the real world has leaked “on stage” and it is systematically KILLING the magic. When cast members fail a guest in such a major way, not once but multiple times, Walt weeps.
Wow! That is so wrong! Disney should refund Make-A-Wish Foundation so that they can grant him another wish! My heart really goes out to that poor boy. I had donated to Make-A-Wish for many years in the past, however, due to personal finances I had to stop. I still get mail from them. I plan to start donating in the future on a regular basis again once our finances improve.
Idk how Walt Disney World treats their Make-A-Wish children. I know they used to make a big fuss over them because my family and I have seen it a few times whenever we went.
Wow this is horrible!! It sounds like something went horribly wrong with this Make a Wish trip!! Obviously lack of communication. I feel so awful for all of you! Disney needs to make this up and right away!! I hope they read your experience and make it up in spades and wishes!! I wish you good luck on everything and prayers to you!!
My daughter is a Make A Wish kid and her wish was Disney world (we’re originally from California and had been to Disneyland so many times that she really wanted to go to Disney World). They really went above and beyond to make everything special. 3 day park hoppers to all the Disney Parks, 2 day park hopper to Universal Orlando, 1 day tickets to Legoland, Sea World and more. Plus all wish families stay at GIVE KIDS THE WORLD (go look it up- it’s INSANE! It’s a really AMAZING resort/wonderland for wish kids and their families to stay at who are visiting the Orlando theme parks. We’re talking ice cream shoppe that encourages the kids to have huge cones for breakfast, pizza delivery to your own little condo, several on-site restaurants, tons of resort style pools and play areas, rides and activities, a giant sized candy land game, bowling alley, miniature golf with giant moving dinosaurs, a train, characters from the park that come to spend time with the kids, I could keep going. They even have a gift fairy each day that brings each child including the wish kid siblings a new present every day, and one of the days is Christmas each week, where it’s fully decked out and Santa comes with a full sized toy store for the kids to pick what they want. This is all at no cost to the families!). Make A Wish warns all their wish families that they will provide your family with spending money for each day to get food in the park or souvenirs but it’s not enough to really eat at the character dining restaurants in the parks unless you’re okay with spending most of it for that one meal. Also they do not make reservations for any character dining restaurants in the park. They inform you that if your child wants to experience that, you need to do your own reservations (which fill up months beforehand), the Genie Pass that all wish families get allow you to go through the Fast Pass lane on all rides but that doesn’t mean no waiting. They also inform you that you do not get to skip any lines for meeting characters. Of course the Disney cast members still allowed us to skip them when meeting characters but technically they aren’t supposed to. The wheelchair they provided my daughter was from an outside company since the ones at Disney tend to be snatched up right away so MAW rented us a wheelchair for the duration of our trip, plus rented my husband who has end stage COPD an electric wheelchair for the entire trip. They even rented my husband portable oxygen concentrator and they rented us a large minivan As wonderful as Disney was to us- the park that absolutely blew our minds with how awesome they treat Make A Wish kids and their families is Universal Orlando. OHMIGOSH. There are no words. Every single employee literally went so above and beyond to make her feel like the most special person they had ever met. Every. Single. Employee. When they learned Shrek was her favorite character they had this huge presentation with the characters from the movie and some of the employees who presented her with Shrek gifts from the gift store and a letter from Lord Farquad plus the character spent forever with her. Same with all the other characters. They would just grab her wheelchair and find a place to sit with her for as long as she wanted. It was extremely magical. No lines AT ALL. NOT EVEN FAST PASS TYPE LINES. BTW I called Disney when we got home because they give you the photo pass for free from your visit and I had a question about our pics. The lady on the phone found out we were MAW and asked who all her favorite characters were. When I told her she said to keep an eye out on the mail. A few days later an expedited package arrived full of full size professional prints of all her pics that the photographers at Disney took of her with different characters and the person had made sure each print was signed by all the different characters. What a beautiful and magical end to the perfect trip.
What a horrible thing to do to this young boy. Living on the edge of possibly dieing soon. No wonder why that Walt Disney is being taken out of the park. His dream has died. No conscience or care. They’ve open the park to let these Make a Wish kids enjoy there life and the ripped the rug right under them. They should be ashamed but they don’t really care. The should make things right.
I would suggest make-a-wish children have an escort throughout the park the whole day, like a celebrity would do if they came to Disneyland. That is something not everyone gets the privilege to experience and would definitely make them feel special.
It’s a make a wish kid. You shouldn’t have to qualify at the end of this story. You move mountains for make a wish kids end of story. Could some very ignorant people abuse this sure. Does that mean we don’t do it anyway nope. I’m an adult I could die tomorrow and you know what I had an OK run. Not stellar but I would have few regrets. We are talking about a kid. If an organization dedicated to kids can’t make a make a wish kid feel special every day. If they drop the ball even one tenth of a percent of the time then they should be called out for it. And yes I have paid for disney for a family I know what it costs. You want everyone to feel special. My kids can come back next time. That is to say there is a next time for them. These kids that isn’t always the case. Epic fail disney. Do better.
This is absolutely laughable. This family was expecting way too much and did absolutely zero research before visiting the parks. They expected everything to be handed to them without any reservations. Everything at Disney requires a reservation and a wait. And this is coming from the parent a Make-A-Wish recipient and a frequent Disney guest.
If I were part of the Make a Wish Foundation, I’d remove the Disney parks from sponsors. If they can’t do a bang up job for a sick child’s last wish, drop them. This was a terrible experience for this sick young man and totally unacceptable. Bless the two who did cater to him but shame on the park as a whole!! There should have been a rep to greet them msje sue he had a wheelchair and someone to escort them around!!
First off so sorry that happened to you! I’m with make a wish foundation 110% god bless their souls! But when people promise something,be realistic,it’s not like in movies or what you see on t.v this is reality,first off things happen,be prepared for the worst but wish for the best,you should if brought your own wheelchair”! And everyone knows if your handicap they give you sometjing that shows and they oytamatically send you to the exit! 2. Your not the only one with a handicap there thousands on the sane day as you and do not expect special treatment! This uscreality! Not a commercial honestly! I’m being serious I’m sorry this happened but just being at Disneyland shoukd of been enough🤷♀️🥰❤️dnt take it the wrong way things happen itscreal life it’s not a fairy tale! I pray he gets better and better treatment but dntvexpect first class on anything nowadays! This is real life! Not t.v God bless your soul! Dnt be a karen these people are trying just by being open! We’re all equal! Stay safe and God bless😁🥰🤗💓✌️🙏
Extremely sad the experience this make a wish guest had. With all of the Money that Disney has, it takes very little to make an impact in the life of someone else. Unfortunately, greed and Selfishness Have become a priority.
I understand aunt’s frustration, but did she have to pay for anything? How about thanking the people who suppoet Make-a-Wish for making the trip possible. You can’t fault the park for not being prepared if arrangements weren’t made ahead of time. Knowing that her nephew is sick, and she obviously had expectations, the sunt should have done her homework to make sure these things would be in place as expected.
very disappointed to hear this. At least having more wheel chairs available would be a start. How do you run out of wheel chairs at a park this globally popular?
Kicking out is not pcorrect ,with Special things going on , always need additional ticket, all visitors without ticket, have to leave the park. She wasn’t happy with all the free perks she was given, it wasn’t her Wish’ it was for a child
You could have brought your own wheel chair. As far as being “kicked out” it was for an extra ticket deal. Make a wish didn’t pay for it. Maybe you could have looked into what was going on at the time.
How could this happen??. Well it’s Disney. Gone down the tubes. Money is the king. No wheelchair. Go out and buy one if you truly are the company you project to be. So sorry for this child as if he doesn’t have enough to deal with. Why do people support Disney??
What is wrong with you all? You are not the Disneyland I grew up loving. Instead of giving this child the special treatment he was promised and deserves, you gave him the worst experience possible. Congratulations, you just gave a child a terrible memory. Nothing you do now will ever make up for what your park did. The damage is done.
I’m not fully convinced this treatment happened. Yes, I believe the child is ill but these two corporations work extremely well and have for years to make thing special.
Sounds like nothing made them happy. If I was in this kids or family shoes I would just be happy I even got to go to Disney world. They family acted like self entitled jerks.
Sounds like Disney likes the P.R. of being associated with the Make A Wish Foundation, without actually following through with their promises to that Foundation.
Sad. We drove from Ohio in the 60s twice when I was a child. Walt was still alive …nothing was too expensive and the lines…well they were no where near what they are now…we went in 1974 for our honeymoon…brought our leftover paper tickets and got a discount on entry.. But in 2006 and 2016..very very different. Not the same magical place at all….yes things change…but Walt wouldn’t have let it change like this🙁💔
This is such a sad and depressing story. I guess Disney is just too busy putting Minnie in a pant suit than fulfilling the special wishes/needs of a critically ill child! I’m so sorry this happened and you can bet this young man isn’t the first and won’t be the last Make a Wish Child treated like this!
We had a similar experience with our Disneyland Make A Wish experience and even wrote to Disney about it but got nothing in response. Paradise Peer was horrible. The 1st day going to the park we got to the elevators at Paradise Peer early so we could get into the park early. We waited 45min for an elevator. Finally with 2 kids and a packed stroller we made the decision to lug everything down 20 flights of stairs. The second day we get a call from the the hotel because apparently we had a water leak in our bathroom leaking into the room below and they needed to get in to do maintenance. No problem we rushed to get ready and get to the park so they could have the room. Maybe 2 hours later we get a call that they can’t fix it and we need to switch rooms. We had to go back to our room and pack EVERYTHING and move to a new room. The maintenance manager kept reassuring my daughter that Disney would do something for us for the inconvenience. Nothing was ever done or said we just lost out on most of that whole day at Disney. We also unfortunately had some really bad interactions from the staff and didn’t get any character pictures. Overall Make A Wish was great however Disney was not and we wished we had a better experience for our daughter.
If there are a lot of make-a-wish people going to Disney land or Disney World, maybe once or twice a year, close the park for just make-a-wish. They do it for other events.
This isn’t a Disney problem, it’s a Make-a-Wish problem. Make-a-Wish is using their budget to set up and fund experiences. They should be purchasing the experience they are advertising (which would be a VIP tour, at about $5k). It’s not Disney’s fault that Make-a-Wish is just buying them a regular park ticket and Genie+. Disney doesn’t owe anything to an outside organization that is promoting their own foundation that allocates only 80% of donations to the kids.
My experience with DLR and wheelchairs goes back at least 10 years and spans about 2 years at the time.
At the time they did not take reservations for wheelchairs. You either got there early or you didn’t get a chair. Being a Passholder held no sway and exposed you to repeated disappointment.
We learned that you had to bring your own chair. DLR did not tweak the management of the number of wheelchairs based on experience. Sounds like the magic continues, sadly.
Kinda sad. My brother was a wish kid when we were young. He had cancer. We went to Disney world and had a fabulous time. They actually scolded my parents when we waited in the first line. They told us we have to go up to the exits. They made sure we had access to the characters. If my brother wanted to eat at a reservation only location, they got us a reservation. It’s sad that they didn’t do that for this little boy.
Do you even know the family? No maybe the mother could not go for some reason so she sent her sister his aunt so before condeming someone find out the facts. But knowing how CA is becoming it does surprise me
Simply don’t believe most of it. They didn’t get “kicked out of a park”, they were asked to leave because they didn’t have a ticket for a special event.
as wish family,everyone gets different experence.Maw does not guarentee front of the line,just lightening lane lines.character lines are up to cms if get to skip,Agree its hard to wait even short time but its just quick lightening lane pass.Hopefully waits would have been shorter.We missed walk arounds aas well.So sorry it was a negative experience.Wheelchair should not have been issue,did not use disney chairs as walks are long used rentals from supply company , again very sorry this was families experience.Can’t speack to Dl as we did Dw.Yes everone gets kicked out party days, but very happy you had few wonderful cms.
Disney as a whole needs to shut down for good. It is not the magical place it once was. Walt Disney would be so disappointed in what it is now. How heart wrenching for the boy and his family. So many adventure parks would have gave him a much better experience.
I went to Disney many times years ago. However, I would not go again nor take my children nor grandchildren for it is Not the Happiest place any longer.
I think the family of this Make A Wish child should have made sure (ahead of time), that Make A Wish and Disney were on the same page with all that was promised. Leave nothing this important in the hands of anyone else… especially the wheel chair. That chair makes a big difference in Disney Parks because staff can not ignore the chair or incorrctly assume the guest isn’t disabled enough for special backdoor treatment.
What happened to Disneyland & the people that make it special???
I used to want to take my grandkids there (I have 12),but as I’ve heard the squabbling in the news,the way Disneyland/Disney world has changed-no way am I taking my Grandkids there..A nice water park will do!
Shame on you Disneyland!!!
Walt Disney himself is sad.
But thanks to those 2 that were great!
I need to start by saying I’m sorry this family had this experience, now I’m going to say she expected unrealistic treatment. My mom was a peds oncology nurse, and traveled 2x on make a wish trips, I went too. The special treatment she expected is reserved for terminal kids. Make a wish paid hotel, airfare(possibly), transportation, food, tickets, and it seems they did this for an extended family. It isn’t make a wish or Disney that’s the wrong party, it is this woman. Also why didn’t they bring his own wheelchair?
It’s very sad. What’s happening to Disney these days… oh, Walt is flipping in his grave I’m sure. His lifetime dream was to have a place for families to go to that they could afford and have a great time and now people with illnesses or handicaps can’t even count on this place. Very very sad.
I am so sorry 😞 your experience with Disney was cruel. They claim to be the happiest place on Earth 🌎 and they know make-a-wish kids may be dying they should have treated you like ROYALTY.
I’ve planned, organized & taken people w/disabilities, & had several severe physical disabilities myself the last time. We planned every little detail, called, found out all we could & made back up plans for back up plans. Make a wish does a lot, but things like a wheelchair, can be planned early, & checked into before there’s any issue. Unfortunately people fake things like make a wish or disabilities in general to get things & pushed multi times a day. Maybe Disney & make a wish can make a special pass so employees know, & do a bit of checking to advocate for the child. Planning a head can make things go much better regardless of others
Communication people! When a Make a Wish person sets up a stay : then everyone needs to be on point. Wheelchair needed? Have it in the room before they get there because you knew this when it was booked. Your staff members know that they will be there because you know the dates they will be coming. This Make a Wish person should have a tee shirt or something on so everybody in the park knows and the characters will know to make over them and any other person who works there! There is a reason for them being with the Make a Wish group and they are sick enough or at end of life so they shouldn’t and can’t stand and wait in line. Wait until it happens to you and see how you treat people then!
WOW …. So Very Very SAD !
I’m 75 years old and I can remember my first visit at Disneyland. We, my Family was taking us there, my baby sister was 3-4 years old. The Teacups were great as Everything was FUN!! “DISNEY PEOPLE” , Walt must be in TEARS, to put IT Simple !!! How did those “No HEART” get Hired!!!??? Go Beyond FUN, ask those who are in KIDS… This child might have this ugliest experience for the rest of his life!!! YOU can wipe it away… Go Do Your Job. Get ‘Rosie O’Donnell on the phone… NOW!!!! Make 💫💫WALT DISNEY PROUD 🥰🥳❤️❤️❤️❤️🌠💫💫
As a mom of a wish kid I felt the same way at Disney World. This is supposed to be a once in a lifetime wish for a child they may not survive into adulthood. I feel like Disney isn’t the best wish anymore because they see so many wish kids now it’s like an everyday thing. Nothing special anymore.
When I went to DisneyWorld, I had to reserve a mobility scooter w a third party company which provided scooters and wheelchairs. They were not provided by Disney. This whole story sounds like massive miscommunication.
In my opinion Disney should give this child club 33 VIP treatment for 5 days they can grant that for guests. Also the cinderella 🏰 room should be theirs for the whole day. Finally they should allow this child to be on any disney float and apart of any celebrations . please do this Disney for them by Christmas.
Wow. Just wow. Sounds like the Make a Wish Foundation did something nice for the deserving young boy, but that this aunt ruined the experience for him with totally unrealistic expectations. Half of this sounds fabricated and the other half reads like, yeah so what. I feel really bad for the boy in that his aunt spoiled what could’ve been a wonderful fine.
My opinion and having known a Make A Wish patient, is that Make A Wish experiences should be limited to patient, Mom Dad, and immediate brothers and sisters. Not grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. By the time it’s all said and done, many times there are 15-25 guests who are just there for the free trip and attention. They barely know the child at all. I know I sound hateful but I’ve been in these lines and seen first hand how entitled and difficult these people are to the point that the sick child couldn’t even enjoy their day and the parents were humiliated.
Knowing that the theme park is huge and requires transport or a lot of walking, why did they choose it as where they wanted to go? They can’t expect the rides to halt while the child attends to nature, so maybe a less demanding destination would have been better. And bringing their own wheelchair would have been smart.
Obviously, they hated every minute of the entire experience. It was awful. Horrible. Every single thing was terrible. They didn’t like anything about it. They need to demand their money back. Oh! it was free!
It sounds like a miscommunication between Make-A-Wish and Disney. I would think they would have some sort of Make-A-Wish representative to coordinate.
I support MAW, and wish this boy’s experience was better. I’m almost positive Make-A-Wish would make it better. I wouldn’t really complain about a free trip online, no one did anything on purpose. I don’t think bashing both organizations was necessarily. Both companies would make it right, going through the proper channels. Don’t make it worse.
Ridiculous how she spent so much time complaining instead of enjoying a completely paid for vacation. She was asked to leave as she failed to pay attention to party times-100% her fault. She’s giving Make-a-Wish a bad name with her unjust entitlement. I’m also a Make-a-Wish mom and Disney did not roll out a red carpet, but we still had an absolutely amazing time!
You seem to know quite a bit ….either way a MAW child was disappointed, why don’t you focus on that???? Not having the wheelchair is a pretty huge deal in itself.
Have this person ever heard of reservations? How is this kid any more special than any other “Make a Wish” kid? I believe this aunt is ungrateful and entitled. She ruined it for the kid.
So very sorry this happened to you! We just returned from 3 days in Disneyland, the entire thing was a nightmare. Didn’t even get to do CA because of that boogie oogie BS..how greed ridden is disney! I had read all of the things but thought how bad can it be? Oh it’s the worst, you couldn’t pay me to go back there. Go ANYWHERE else!
Wow. Just wow. Sounds like the Make a Wish Foundation did something nice for the deserving young boy, but that this aunt ruined the experience for him with totally unrealistic expectations. Half of this sounds fabricated and the other half reads like, yeah so what. I feel really bad for the boy in that his aunt spoiled what could’ve been a wonderful fine.
They didn’t get kicked out. They failed to do any planning at all. Obvs they can’t stay for the ticketed event. We asked MAW to get us tickets for the Halloween event at WDW and they did, no issue at all.
Most of you people must be nuts!! Has anyone of you scrolled up to the first comment where a Rep from MAW says the op had 10 people on the trip!! 10!! She did NOT set up any reservations for anything!! She wanted everything handed to her on a silver platter. So it’s not Disney fault and it’s MAW fault it’s the Aunts fault for ruining her nephew’s trip.
My Family Got Hurt 02/07/2023 On A Make a Wish Trip To Florida, we were granted a wish to Go To Disneyland and We Stayed at @Givekidstgeworldflorida. And there a Murphy bed Fell off the wall Crushing my Daughter breaking bones in her Back aso in her spine and Right Foot and all Make a Wish Los Angeles tells us is to call Them My Family is hurt Having Nightmare Still Healing and All they Make a Wish Dod Was Pay For out Extra Day’s Because my Daughter wasn’t able to Travel back home for three Days 💔
Comments for Make-A-Wish Family “Kicked Out” of Disney Park
Questions
Looks like I have to comment now to read comments? I was going to say I think there is more to this story than just the one side.
Rachael
What I’m reading sounds like a lot of poor planning on the aunts part. I’m not sure how it works with the Make a Wish foundation, but everyone has to have reservations for everything. It should have all been booked in advance. Especially the wheelchair portion. I can’t find fault in Disney for her showing up the day of and expecting a wheelchair. And as far as lightening lanes go, you get the reservation time and you just have to wait. I’m seeing a lot of blame placed on Disney when it seems no research wad done on this woman’s part. And her nephew suffered for it.
Grace
Yes, and the child needed a disability pass. Not Genie.
Chipndaleare the best
A Genie pass is better. It allows you to enter a lightning lane line without needing a return time. A disability pass requires a return time before you can enter lightning lane.
What they wanted and were expecting was front of the line access and Disney doesn’t do that.
Emma
You got a free Disney holiday. Stop thinking your so Special and Expecting everything on a silver platter. There’s plenty of kids with diseases that don’t get a free trip to Disney World.
jdh
Exactly what I was thinking! You got an all expense paid trip and are still thinking you deserved front of line, individual time with characters and the royal treatment. Lots of sick kids to accommodate and all this aunt can do is complain! Disney does not HAVE to participate but they do for thousands every year. Looks like they are fishing for another trip to me!
Kamm
There is a wheelchair/ECV rental directly across from DL. All they had to do is call, the company delivers.
jdh
They didn’t want to pay I guess. They could have also brought their own wheelchair if they wanted a certain type. Could have also made some posters if they wanted child to be recognized out of a crowd of 100’s in the park.
Joey
150,000 Make a Wish Disneyworld diivided into 40 years, even for just one day visits comes out to 10 a day. Of course it’s better funded now, so more than in prior decades, so it’s more people, longer trips. Each child of course is special, but if it’s that large, so many, each and every day, I could see how hard for Disney staff characters to make a special grouping per child. Due to school vacations, etc, there will be weeks where there might be 1 family will be there while other weeks there could be 100. How would Thwy still function for the rest of the kids there, they want to see the characters too. It’s disappointing you don’t get the ultimate fantasy, but it’s still a vacation where a family of 4 could easily spend 10 grand on the stay, passes, meals, merch. Again, not saying they’re wrong to feel disappointed, but I can see how Disney staff could get underwhelmed.
Christine
I think what Disney did to this child sucks and they should give him another trip and do it wright this time.
Christine
I wish I saw the other comment before I made a comment but they don’t let you see comments anymore before you comment or wouldn’t have said what said. Now I want to know what she did
Teresa McKenzie
Exactly
Elizabeth hall
Agree totally. I am appalled that disney vacation planners for make a wish didn’t do better than this. I would be devastated if I was promised so much and got so little
Ann
Remember there’s 2 sides to every story. The aunt said she identified herself and nephew as MAW family. I have seen quite a few whish families at Disney. The whole family wears Blue MAW t-shirts so they are easily identified. This whole story sounds weird to me.
Ryan
How? Not letting them just walk in to a restaurant that was booked? Just because he is MAW doesn’t give him special treatment to eat at a place that is booked. How would you like it if you showed up for a reservation and they told you, “SOrry, we cancelled your reservation because we have a MAW wish kid. We don’t have any more reservations available. Oh, and by the way, since it’s cancelled last minute you have pay the late cancellation fee.” No. This family should have made the reservations ahead of time like everyone else. That’s not a MAW responsibility. Either is the wheelchair. They pay for the trip but they don’t do all the work. This aunt is entitled. And then to say “We waited 45 minutes in the lightning lane”…yeah, you are going to wait. We wait also when we use lightning lane because you don’t just get on the ride. You by-pass the line and then merge into it closer to the front and if the line is long, then you will be waiting. This family (or at least aunt) expected to much. And then she said “It’s obvious he had kidney disease.” No it’s not lady. You can’t tell if someoen had a disease. I had a heat stroke and you can’t tell. You can’t tell someone has kidney disease by looking at them. This aunt is entitled and needs to be brought down a notch.
RickTR
Right not wright
B
I’m not saying Disney is a perfect company. But if nearly everything did not go as “promised” there exists the possibility that MAW dropped the ball in whatever coordinating it does.
Elle
That sucks, but is it really DISNEY’s dault? Seems more like Make-a-Wish messed up this time. Also, you weren’t “kicked out”, you weren’t allowed in because you didn’t have a ticket and that’s fair.
Grace
The child should have been advised to get a disability pass, not Genie.
Grace
It sounds like this family is unfamiliar with Disney reservations and procedures.
Teresa McKenzie
Make a wish was supposed to arrange everything
Darko
3rd world problem! While I’m sad the child had a rough time, I don’t like to see any child suffer, there are children all over the world who don’t get to make any whishes, but only get to experience suffering day in and day out.
Dj
It’s the entitlement for me!!!! Just be happy he was able to go to disney land and California adventure. It seems like she wanted to be catered to the entire time she was there!!!! She needs to learn how when u go to disney you have to do everything yourself
Al
Did they reserve a wheel chair in advance? If he needed one all the time, why wouldn’t they have brought one for him? It sounds like this event was poorly coordinated because I knew a family that did a Make a Wish at a Disney park and they said everything went great. I wish he could hear from the other side. Sometimes we are not given the full story and what each party was responsible to do and had agreed to do. The bad thing is for the child it was intended. His enjoyment was the upmost important, not the rest of the family.
Jen
They did reserve a wheelchair but they reserved a toddler sized wheelchair. Now whether the family messed up the reservation or Disney did, we’ll never know.
Lian
Wow
Phil klein
There is something not right here. Where was the green light pass?
Carol
It sounds like a Make-A-Wish problem, not a Disney problem. Make-A-Wish seems to have made promises that Disney is not obligated to fulfill. Make-A-Wish is not an organization I support. I don’t trust them
Any organization that would let a kid go out to kill a bear, doesn’t get my support. Especially, when, after he didn’t kill one, they let him go out again.
Ziva G
They also changed their rules after this controversy, to discontinue wishes that involved firearms, other forms of weapons and hunting.
Karen Barry
This trip was free correct? Sounds like a poorly planned trip but that’s the organization and the family. If he needed a wheelchair why not bring one?
Katie Testa
What Disney did to your nephew is horrible beyond words.
I grew up in California so both a Disneyland fan and years ago, as child, a member of Make -A – Wish.
Disney should be hoffified of how you, your nephew were treated, and in fact on how they treat all families these days!
Shame on you Disney, you ARE NOT THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!
Best wishes to your nephew, may he be blessed with a wonderful new kidney, and live manybyears of happiness. (Avoiding Disney)
Stephanie Lewis
This is sad however I think her beef needs to be with Make A Wish and the package they were bought
Chris
Imagine complaining about being given a 8k dollar trip
Cathy
I’m an adult with a terminal illness and a free trip to a Disney park sounds pretty good to me!
Jen
So who made these promises? Disney or Make-a-wish because it sounds like Make-a-wish over promised on the perks.
Teresa McKenzie
This poor child could loose his life. I know Disney and Make a wish could do better than that. How sad.
Angela
They got a free trip to Disney.. they should have contacted Make a Wish when they couldnt get the wheelchair
Staci Daniels
I contacted Make a wish greater l.a when My Child a most Died On a wish , My Son Was Granted On 02/06/2023 At Give Kids the World.. A Bed Fell off the Wall Breaking Bones In My Daughter’s spine And Her Right Foot She suffered Brain Damage and all Make a wish tells Us Is To Call “Give kids The World ” we’re they sent us .. 😔
Thumper
This does not sound like the Disney we know!
Mark Generales
Gave up on Disney years ago. When Bob Iger took over it became $$$$$$ with little or know respect for the principles Walt created and nurtured for years.
Not Iger. Look at the woke destruction Iger created and backed. When Disney’s Board is replaced and new management is allowed to work hard to return Disney to Walt’s vision, then it’ll be great to return. A massive cultural shift MUST occur. It can’t with this current Board.
Darlene
That is so sad Disney couldn’t prepare ahead of time to make this trip more fun and comfortable for this lil guy. I mean, isn’t he suffering enough with his everyday pain and struggles with his condition?
Ryan
It’s not a Disney problem. It’s a MAW wish problem. If they were to make all the reservatios then that’s on them, not Disney. Disney is not responsible for making sure they have dining reservations and then when they walk up and expect to get in because of the boy, that’s wrong. If they don’t have reservations, sorry. But MAW is the one that planned this, not Disney.
Staci Daniels
I contacted Make a wish greater l.a when My Child all most Died On a wish , My Son Was Granted On 02/06/2023 At Give Kids the World.. A Bed Fell off the Wall Breaking Bones In My Daughter’s spine And Her Right Foot She suffered Brain Damage and all Make a wish tells Us Is To Call “Give kids The World ” we’re they sent us ..
Darlene
Wish they could try to make this happen again for this boy. He’s suffering enough with his condition!
Kath
So sad
John
That’s horrible but it sounds like make a wish or whomever was responsible for planning the visit also dropped the ball.
Mary
There was a time, seems so very long ago, that Disney was the happiest place on earth. The magic was everything Disney. Architecture, rides,characters, and memories. It was a time when Cast Members believed the words and values taught in traditions classes. The chance to make Walt’s dreams come true. There was a time when “back stage” was where the “real world” stayed. You step “on stage ” and you become an essential part of the imagination and magic of the Disney experience.
It seems to me, from frequently read these posts, that the real world has leaked “on stage” and it is systematically KILLING the magic. When cast members fail a guest in such a major way, not once but multiple times, Walt weeps.
Corrine
Wow! That is so wrong! Disney should refund Make-A-Wish Foundation so that they can grant him another wish! My heart really goes out to that poor boy. I had donated to Make-A-Wish for many years in the past, however, due to personal finances I had to stop. I still get mail from them. I plan to start donating in the future on a regular basis again once our finances improve.
Idk how Walt Disney World treats their Make-A-Wish children. I know they used to make a big fuss over them because my family and I have seen it a few times whenever we went.
Jennifer
Wow this is horrible!! It sounds like something went horribly wrong with this Make a Wish trip!! Obviously lack of communication. I feel so awful for all of you! Disney needs to make this up and right away!! I hope they read your experience and make it up in spades and wishes!! I wish you good luck on everything and prayers to you!!
Tay
My daughter is a Make A Wish kid and her wish was Disney world (we’re originally from California and had been to Disneyland so many times that she really wanted to go to Disney World). They really went above and beyond to make everything special. 3 day park hoppers to all the Disney Parks, 2 day park hopper to Universal Orlando, 1 day tickets to Legoland, Sea World and more. Plus all wish families stay at GIVE KIDS THE WORLD (go look it up- it’s INSANE! It’s a really AMAZING resort/wonderland for wish kids and their families to stay at who are visiting the Orlando theme parks. We’re talking ice cream shoppe that encourages the kids to have huge cones for breakfast, pizza delivery to your own little condo, several on-site restaurants, tons of resort style pools and play areas, rides and activities, a giant sized candy land game, bowling alley, miniature golf with giant moving dinosaurs, a train, characters from the park that come to spend time with the kids, I could keep going. They even have a gift fairy each day that brings each child including the wish kid siblings a new present every day, and one of the days is Christmas each week, where it’s fully decked out and Santa comes with a full sized toy store for the kids to pick what they want. This is all at no cost to the families!). Make A Wish warns all their wish families that they will provide your family with spending money for each day to get food in the park or souvenirs but it’s not enough to really eat at the character dining restaurants in the parks unless you’re okay with spending most of it for that one meal. Also they do not make reservations for any character dining restaurants in the park. They inform you that if your child wants to experience that, you need to do your own reservations (which fill up months beforehand), the Genie Pass that all wish families get allow you to go through the Fast Pass lane on all rides but that doesn’t mean no waiting. They also inform you that you do not get to skip any lines for meeting characters. Of course the Disney cast members still allowed us to skip them when meeting characters but technically they aren’t supposed to. The wheelchair they provided my daughter was from an outside company since the ones at Disney tend to be snatched up right away so MAW rented us a wheelchair for the duration of our trip, plus rented my husband who has end stage COPD an electric wheelchair for the entire trip. They even rented my husband portable oxygen concentrator and they rented us a large minivan As wonderful as Disney was to us- the park that absolutely blew our minds with how awesome they treat Make A Wish kids and their families is Universal Orlando. OHMIGOSH. There are no words. Every single employee literally went so above and beyond to make her feel like the most special person they had ever met. Every. Single. Employee. When they learned Shrek was her favorite character they had this huge presentation with the characters from the movie and some of the employees who presented her with Shrek gifts from the gift store and a letter from Lord Farquad plus the character spent forever with her. Same with all the other characters. They would just grab her wheelchair and find a place to sit with her for as long as she wanted. It was extremely magical. No lines AT ALL. NOT EVEN FAST PASS TYPE LINES. BTW I called Disney when we got home because they give you the photo pass for free from your visit and I had a question about our pics. The lady on the phone found out we were MAW and asked who all her favorite characters were. When I told her she said to keep an eye out on the mail. A few days later an expedited package arrived full of full size professional prints of all her pics that the photographers at Disney took of her with different characters and the person had made sure each print was signed by all the different characters. What a beautiful and magical end to the perfect trip.
Howard
What a horrible thing to do to this young boy. Living on the edge of possibly dieing soon. No wonder why that Walt Disney is being taken out of the park. His dream has died. No conscience or care. They’ve open the park to let these Make a Wish kids enjoy there life and the ripped the rug right under them. They should be ashamed but they don’t really care. The should make things right.
Kaly
I would suggest make-a-wish children have an escort throughout the park the whole day, like a celebrity would do if they came to Disneyland. That is something not everyone gets the privilege to experience and would definitely make them feel special.
Chris Milliser
It’s a make a wish kid. You shouldn’t have to qualify at the end of this story. You move mountains for make a wish kids end of story. Could some very ignorant people abuse this sure. Does that mean we don’t do it anyway nope. I’m an adult I could die tomorrow and you know what I had an OK run. Not stellar but I would have few regrets. We are talking about a kid. If an organization dedicated to kids can’t make a make a wish kid feel special every day. If they drop the ball even one tenth of a percent of the time then they should be called out for it. And yes I have paid for disney for a family I know what it costs. You want everyone to feel special. My kids can come back next time. That is to say there is a next time for them. These kids that isn’t always the case. Epic fail disney. Do better.
Jennifer
This is absolutely laughable. This family was expecting way too much and did absolutely zero research before visiting the parks. They expected everything to be handed to them without any reservations. Everything at Disney requires a reservation and a wait. And this is coming from the parent a Make-A-Wish recipient and a frequent Disney guest.
Jen
Curious when they visited. The Paradise Pier hotel has been closed for remodel for a while while they turn it into the Pixar hotel.
KD
So sad…
Tori
She got into the park and got a hotel stay for free and still wasn’t happy. Entitled much?
Sugar8
If I were part of the Make a Wish Foundation, I’d remove the Disney parks from sponsors. If they can’t do a bang up job for a sick child’s last wish, drop them. This was a terrible experience for this sick young man and totally unacceptable. Bless the two who did cater to him but shame on the park as a whole!! There should have been a rep to greet them msje sue he had a wheelchair and someone to escort them around!!
Lisa J
It seems like Make-A-Wish and Disney need to do a better job coordinating experiences for the MAW children. I feel sad for this little boy.
S
Nnb
Evee
Poor kid
Cira
First off so sorry that happened to you! I’m with make a wish foundation 110% god bless their souls! But when people promise something,be realistic,it’s not like in movies or what you see on t.v this is reality,first off things happen,be prepared for the worst but wish for the best,you should if brought your own wheelchair”! And everyone knows if your handicap they give you sometjing that shows and they oytamatically send you to the exit! 2. Your not the only one with a handicap there thousands on the sane day as you and do not expect special treatment! This uscreality! Not a commercial honestly! I’m being serious I’m sorry this happened but just being at Disneyland shoukd of been enough🤷♀️🥰❤️dnt take it the wrong way things happen itscreal life it’s not a fairy tale! I pray he gets better and better treatment but dntvexpect first class on anything nowadays! This is real life! Not t.v God bless your soul! Dnt be a karen these people are trying just by being open! We’re all equal! Stay safe and God bless😁🥰🤗💓✌️🙏
Juan
Me pica el bicho
Nope
No comments
Sue
Why can’t I see the comment section?
Eileen McEwen
Its a free trip. Millions of children will never experience.
Jamie
Extremely sad the experience this make a wish guest had. With all of the Money that Disney has, it takes very little to make an impact in the life of someone else. Unfortunately, greed and Selfishness Have become a priority.
Karen
I understand aunt’s frustration, but did she have to pay for anything? How about thanking the people who suppoet Make-a-Wish for making the trip possible. You can’t fault the park for not being prepared if arrangements weren’t made ahead of time. Knowing that her nephew is sick, and she obviously had expectations, the sunt should have done her homework to make sure these things would be in place as expected.
Karen
That should say aunt, not sunt…sorry
Tony
very disappointed to hear this. At least having more wheel chairs available would be a start. How do you run out of wheel chairs at a park this globally popular?
Joe
Oh my
Jor
Oh my
erica
they didn’t get kicked out . the park closed for regular guest.
Sherry
Kicking out is not pcorrect ,with Special things going on , always need additional ticket, all visitors without ticket, have to leave the park. She wasn’t happy with all the free perks she was given, it wasn’t her Wish’ it was for a child
Leslie Brown
You could have brought your own wheel chair. As far as being “kicked out” it was for an extra ticket deal. Make a wish didn’t pay for it. Maybe you could have looked into what was going on at the time.
Lorraine
How could this happen??. Well it’s Disney. Gone down the tubes. Money is the king. No wheelchair. Go out and buy one if you truly are the company you project to be. So sorry for this child as if he doesn’t have enough to deal with. Why do people support Disney??
Skewtch
Here for the comments
DC
If Walt Disney were alive he would be saddened by this.
Jack
Is Disney World not an option? Everyone knows Disney Land is subpar. Very unfortunate.
Amanda
Disney has been falling short since covid 🤷🏾♀🤷🏾♀
Susan
What is wrong with you all? You are not the Disneyland I grew up loving. Instead of giving this child the special treatment he was promised and deserves, you gave him the worst experience possible. Congratulations, you just gave a child a terrible memory. Nothing you do now will ever make up for what your park did. The damage is done.
Amy
I’m not fully convinced this treatment happened. Yes, I believe the child is ill but these two corporations work extremely well and have for years to make thing special.
Jen
Sounds like nothing made them happy. If I was in this kids or family shoes I would just be happy I even got to go to Disney world. They family acted like self entitled jerks.
Barbara
Sounds like Disney likes the P.R. of being associated with the Make A Wish Foundation, without actually following through with their promises to that Foundation.
Cheryl Belay
Sad. We drove from Ohio in the 60s twice when I was a child. Walt was still alive …nothing was too expensive and the lines…well they were no where near what they are now…we went in 1974 for our honeymoon…brought our leftover paper tickets and got a discount on entry.. But in 2006 and 2016..very very different. Not the same magical place at all….yes things change…but Walt wouldn’t have let it change like this🙁💔
GMA B
This is such a sad and depressing story. I guess Disney is just too busy putting Minnie in a pant suit than fulfilling the special wishes/needs of a critically ill child! I’m so sorry this happened and you can bet this young man isn’t the first and won’t be the last Make a Wish Child treated like this!
Sarah G
We had a similar experience with our Disneyland Make A Wish experience and even wrote to Disney about it but got nothing in response. Paradise Peer was horrible. The 1st day going to the park we got to the elevators at Paradise Peer early so we could get into the park early. We waited 45min for an elevator. Finally with 2 kids and a packed stroller we made the decision to lug everything down 20 flights of stairs. The second day we get a call from the the hotel because apparently we had a water leak in our bathroom leaking into the room below and they needed to get in to do maintenance. No problem we rushed to get ready and get to the park so they could have the room. Maybe 2 hours later we get a call that they can’t fix it and we need to switch rooms. We had to go back to our room and pack EVERYTHING and move to a new room. The maintenance manager kept reassuring my daughter that Disney would do something for us for the inconvenience. Nothing was ever done or said we just lost out on most of that whole day at Disney. We also unfortunately had some really bad interactions from the staff and didn’t get any character pictures. Overall Make A Wish was great however Disney was not and we wished we had a better experience for our daughter.
Moe
This makes me incredibly sad. The Almighty American dollar wins out again.
Marisol
So what is Make A Wish response to this? They make the arrangements. Who dropped the ball and how is a do over being arranged some place else.
Beth
If there are a lot of make-a-wish people going to Disney land or Disney World, maybe once or twice a year, close the park for just make-a-wish. They do it for other events.
Brandon G.
This isn’t a Disney problem, it’s a Make-a-Wish problem. Make-a-Wish is using their budget to set up and fund experiences. They should be purchasing the experience they are advertising (which would be a VIP tour, at about $5k). It’s not Disney’s fault that Make-a-Wish is just buying them a regular park ticket and Genie+. Disney doesn’t owe anything to an outside organization that is promoting their own foundation that allocates only 80% of donations to the kids.
Amanda
.
Brenda Lindsey
It’s such a shame it takes nothing to be nice, but Disney is only there to make money!
Chris
My experience with DLR and wheelchairs goes back at least 10 years and spans about 2 years at the time.
At the time they did not take reservations for wheelchairs. You either got there early or you didn’t get a chair. Being a Passholder held no sway and exposed you to repeated disappointment.
We learned that you had to bring your own chair. DLR did not tweak the management of the number of wheelchairs based on experience. Sounds like the magic continues, sadly.
Sarah
You got a free trip…How ungrateful and entitled…
Kathy
I think there is more to this story.
Bekah
Kinda sad. My brother was a wish kid when we were young. He had cancer. We went to Disney world and had a fabulous time. They actually scolded my parents when we waited in the first line. They told us we have to go up to the exits. They made sure we had access to the characters. If my brother wanted to eat at a reservation only location, they got us a reservation. It’s sad that they didn’t do that for this little boy.
Chimene
Do you even know the family? No maybe the mother could not go for some reason so she sent her sister his aunt so before condeming someone find out the facts. But knowing how CA is becoming it does surprise me
T
Simply don’t believe most of it. They didn’t get “kicked out of a park”, they were asked to leave because they didn’t have a ticket for a special event.
Autumn
I was so happy to see your comment, she didn’t want a make a wish trip, she wanted to be a Kardashian.
walt
as wish family,everyone gets different experence.Maw does not guarentee front of the line,just lightening lane lines.character lines are up to cms if get to skip,Agree its hard to wait even short time but its just quick lightening lane pass.Hopefully waits would have been shorter.We missed walk arounds aas well.So sorry it was a negative experience.Wheelchair should not have been issue,did not use disney chairs as walks are long used rentals from supply company , again very sorry this was families experience.Can’t speack to Dl as we did Dw.Yes everone gets kicked out party days, but very happy you had few wonderful cms.
M
Disney as a whole needs to shut down for good. It is not the magical place it once was. Walt Disney would be so disappointed in what it is now. How heart wrenching for the boy and his family. So many adventure parks would have gave him a much better experience.
I went to Disney many times years ago. However, I would not go again nor take my children nor grandchildren for it is Not the Happiest place any longer.
DADesigns59
I think the family of this Make A Wish child should have made sure (ahead of time), that Make A Wish and Disney were on the same page with all that was promised. Leave nothing this important in the hands of anyone else… especially the wheel chair. That chair makes a big difference in Disney Parks because staff can not ignore the chair or incorrctly assume the guest isn’t disabled enough for special backdoor treatment.
Julia
What happened to Disneyland & the people that make it special???
I used to want to take my grandkids there (I have 12),but as I’ve heard the squabbling in the news,the way Disneyland/Disney world has changed-no way am I taking my Grandkids there..A nice water park will do!
Shame on you Disneyland!!!
Walt Disney himself is sad.
But thanks to those 2 that were great!
Autumn
I need to start by saying I’m sorry this family had this experience, now I’m going to say she expected unrealistic treatment. My mom was a peds oncology nurse, and traveled 2x on make a wish trips, I went too. The special treatment she expected is reserved for terminal kids. Make a wish paid hotel, airfare(possibly), transportation, food, tickets, and it seems they did this for an extended family. It isn’t make a wish or Disney that’s the wrong party, it is this woman. Also why didn’t they bring his own wheelchair?
PD
It’s very sad. What’s happening to Disney these days… oh, Walt is flipping in his grave I’m sure. His lifetime dream was to have a place for families to go to that they could afford and have a great time and now people with illnesses or handicaps can’t even count on this place. Very very sad.
Lynn
Do they make any attempt to verify any of this or get the theme park’s side before posting a story like this?
Roxanne Miller
I am so sorry 😞 your experience with Disney was cruel. They claim to be the happiest place on Earth 🌎 and they know make-a-wish kids may be dying they should have treated you like ROYALTY.
Brandi
I’ve planned, organized & taken people w/disabilities, & had several severe physical disabilities myself the last time. We planned every little detail, called, found out all we could & made back up plans for back up plans. Make a wish does a lot, but things like a wheelchair, can be planned early, & checked into before there’s any issue. Unfortunately people fake things like make a wish or disabilities in general to get things & pushed multi times a day. Maybe Disney & make a wish can make a special pass so employees know, & do a bit of checking to advocate for the child. Planning a head can make things go much better regardless of others
Sherri Wallace
Communication people! When a Make a Wish person sets up a stay : then everyone needs to be on point. Wheelchair needed? Have it in the room before they get there because you knew this when it was booked. Your staff members know that they will be there because you know the dates they will be coming. This Make a Wish person should have a tee shirt or something on so everybody in the park knows and the characters will know to make over them and any other person who works there! There is a reason for them being with the Make a Wish group and they are sick enough or at end of life so they shouldn’t and can’t stand and wait in line. Wait until it happens to you and see how you treat people then!
Sharon little
She should still be gratefull for free trip theresxalotcof terminal ill children that gets nothing and are more gratfullnthen this Karen
Patty
WOW …. So Very Very SAD !
I’m 75 years old and I can remember my first visit at Disneyland. We, my Family was taking us there, my baby sister was 3-4 years old. The Teacups were great as Everything was FUN!! “DISNEY PEOPLE” , Walt must be in TEARS, to put IT Simple !!! How did those “No HEART” get Hired!!!??? Go Beyond FUN, ask those who are in KIDS… This child might have this ugliest experience for the rest of his life!!! YOU can wipe it away… Go Do Your Job. Get ‘Rosie O’Donnell on the phone… NOW!!!! Make 💫💫WALT DISNEY PROUD 🥰🥳❤️❤️❤️❤️🌠💫💫
B
As a mom of a wish kid I felt the same way at Disney World. This is supposed to be a once in a lifetime wish for a child they may not survive into adulthood. I feel like Disney isn’t the best wish anymore because they see so many wish kids now it’s like an everyday thing. Nothing special anymore.
p
ohh
Lisa
When I went to DisneyWorld, I had to reserve a mobility scooter w a third party company which provided scooters and wheelchairs. They were not provided by Disney. This whole story sounds like massive miscommunication.
Karwn
This is HORRIBLE !
Sandra Parsons
In my opinion Disney should give this child club 33 VIP treatment for 5 days they can grant that for guests. Also the cinderella 🏰 room should be theirs for the whole day. Finally they should allow this child to be on any disney float and apart of any celebrations . please do this Disney for them by Christmas.
EMM
Wow. Just wow. Sounds like the Make a Wish Foundation did something nice for the deserving young boy, but that this aunt ruined the experience for him with totally unrealistic expectations. Half of this sounds fabricated and the other half reads like, yeah so what. I feel really bad for the boy in that his aunt spoiled what could’ve been a wonderful fine.
Amie
Sounds like Make a Wish dropped the ball or at the very least didn’t communicate properly to the family the need for reservations.
Carol
Wow
Marion
That sad
Teigan Doane
My opinion and having known a Make A Wish patient, is that Make A Wish experiences should be limited to patient, Mom Dad, and immediate brothers and sisters. Not grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. By the time it’s all said and done, many times there are 15-25 guests who are just there for the free trip and attention. They barely know the child at all. I know I sound hateful but I’ve been in these lines and seen first hand how entitled and difficult these people are to the point that the sick child couldn’t even enjoy their day and the parents were humiliated.
Linda Camacho
Knowing that the theme park is huge and requires transport or a lot of walking, why did they choose it as where they wanted to go? They can’t expect the rides to halt while the child attends to nature, so maybe a less demanding destination would have been better. And bringing their own wheelchair would have been smart.
Linda Camacho
Obviously, they hated every minute of the entire experience. It was awful. Horrible. Every single thing was terrible. They didn’t like anything about it. They need to demand their money back. Oh! it was free!
Paisley
Exactly.
Paisley
It sounds like a miscommunication between Make-A-Wish and Disney. I would think they would have some sort of Make-A-Wish representative to coordinate.
I support MAW, and wish this boy’s experience was better. I’m almost positive Make-A-Wish would make it better. I wouldn’t really complain about a free trip online, no one did anything on purpose. I don’t think bashing both organizations was necessarily. Both companies would make it right, going through the proper channels. Don’t make it worse.
Alan
That’s messed up
Bri
Ridiculous how she spent so much time complaining instead of enjoying a completely paid for vacation. She was asked to leave as she failed to pay attention to party times-100% her fault. She’s giving Make-a-Wish a bad name with her unjust entitlement. I’m also a Make-a-Wish mom and Disney did not roll out a red carpet, but we still had an absolutely amazing time!
Phil2230
That’s crazy
Bob
Ok
CLR
Sad, just sad
Rou
You seem to know quite a bit ….either way a MAW child was disappointed, why don’t you focus on that???? Not having the wheelchair is a pretty huge deal in itself.
Phillip
Correct!!!!
don
As a parent, I was always leary of what was promised to my child. Double checking everything triple others.
Elizabeth
Have this person ever heard of reservations? How is this kid any more special than any other “Make a Wish” kid? I believe this aunt is ungrateful and entitled. She ruined it for the kid.
Glenda Smith
So very sorry this happened to you! We just returned from 3 days in Disneyland, the entire thing was a nightmare. Didn’t even get to do CA because of that boogie oogie BS..how greed ridden is disney! I had read all of the things but thought how bad can it be? Oh it’s the worst, you couldn’t pay me to go back there. Go ANYWHERE else!
EMM
Wow. Just wow. Sounds like the Make a Wish Foundation did something nice for the deserving young boy, but that this aunt ruined the experience for him with totally unrealistic expectations. Half of this sounds fabricated and the other half reads like, yeah so what. I feel really bad for the boy in that his aunt spoiled what could’ve been a wonderful fine.
Sarah
They didn’t get kicked out. They failed to do any planning at all. Obvs they can’t stay for the ticketed event. We asked MAW to get us tickets for the Halloween event at WDW and they did, no issue at all.
Christine
Most of you people must be nuts!! Has anyone of you scrolled up to the first comment where a Rep from MAW says the op had 10 people on the trip!! 10!! She did NOT set up any reservations for anything!! She wanted everything handed to her on a silver platter. So it’s not Disney fault and it’s MAW fault it’s the Aunts fault for ruining her nephew’s trip.
Staci Daniels
My Family Got Hurt 02/07/2023 On A Make a Wish Trip To Florida, we were granted a wish to Go To Disneyland and We Stayed at @Givekidstgeworldflorida. And there a Murphy bed Fell off the wall Crushing my Daughter breaking bones in her Back aso in her spine and Right Foot and all Make a Wish Los Angeles tells us is to call Them My Family is hurt Having Nightmare Still Healing and All they Make a Wish Dod Was Pay For out Extra Day’s Because my Daughter wasn’t able to Travel back home for three Days 💔
RickTR
At least she got some polka dot ears.
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