The Beginning

We just got back from our Make-A-Wish cruise and I want to tell you the whole story about our trip!
Make-A-Wish is such an amazing organization and I want to start at the beginning.
Zachy's wish process actually started two years ago.
A friend told me we should apply for a wish for Zach. We were skeptical because we were under the impression that you had to have a life threatening illness to be considered for a wish. As it turns out, we were told that at some point you had to have a life threatening illness. Not necessarily right now.
I'm not really sure whether it was just having TAPVR or also being paced that qualified Zachy. I'm also not sure if Nannie will ever get a wish granted. Time will tell.
So anyway, the volunteers came to our home and talked with us and with Zachy about what he wished for. He isn't a very talkative kid, so it was really hard to get anything out of him. He really wanted to be Ben 10, but since he is a human, and not a cartoon, that is kind of impossible. He then stated that he wanted to live on a ship like Zack and Cody. The volunteers got the idea that he wanted to meet the actors from The Suite Life. So, we went with that.
When they first started to look into it, the show was in hiatus. So we waited to see if it was going to continue. By the time we got word that it was, indeed, going to run another season, Zachy was over wanting that. He still wanted to live on the ship though. So the natural direction to go was for a cruise.
We were advised through MAW to choose Royal Caribbean. MAW only works with Disney Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean. They told us that Royal Caribbean treated their wish kids amazingly. We chose the cruise line, then started looking at the ships. We got to choose the cruise we wanted, and they did the rest.
The time came near for us to depart and we had a going away party with the MAW volunteers. They took us to Chuck E Cheese where Zachy was treated like the guest of honor. They brought him some goodies for the trip, and we just had a great time.







We then got ready to leave.



We flew Air Tran to get to Florida. When we arrived in Florida and claimed our luggage we saw a piece come around that was all taped up. Naturally, you hope it isn't your bag when you see that. However, it was ours. Matt took it to the baggage area and the next thing I knew, he was transferring our stuff to a brand new London Fog suitcase. SCORE!


We took a shuttle to the Marriott. We were supposed to have two rooms with queen beds. The wonderful people at Marriott upgraded us to a king suite with three rooms. Even with everyone having their own beds, they still ended up with us!


The next morning we got a bus to head down to Cape Canaveral. When we pulled up to the port we were greeted with a ginormous ship, and we knew right away it was going to be a week to remember.



We just didn't realize how memorable it would be!