This blog post is dedicated to the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation. The foundation was started by Kelli Ritschel Boehle in memory of her son Nikolas, passed away from cancer. In 2019, I came across their website while looking at information for my diagnosis. Young adults 18+ are not able to receive wishes from most of the well known foundations. Nikolas Ritschel made sure young adults were able to get a wish too. I sent a message to the foundation explaining my story. February 2020 I got a phone call from Kelli Ritschel Boehle. She introduced herself and told me that the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation was going to send me on a wish trip to Disney World! It was a complete shock! I was elated and so thankful. I called my mom right after and told them the good news. We started the planning the next day. Our trip was originally going to be in May 2020. Unfortunately, like many other things, our trip was postponed due to Covid. But, the foundation was kind enough to send us this year, May 2021! My family and I are so appreciative of everything the foundation has done for us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
May 16th 2021, 2 years to the day that I was admitted to the hospital and then later diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, my parents, sister and I left for Disney World. My morning started out a little rough. I literally turned off my 5 alarms in my sleep. Then, I heard "EM! Are you up?!" I shot out of bed confused and panicked, half asleep asking what time it was. Of course, it was 5:35am and I had to be ready to walk out of the door at 6am. I ran out of the house around 6:10 trying to put my shoes on while the limo was waiting outside our house. Would you expect anything less? Once I got in the nice stretch limo I could relax! I turned on the music and right away my mom told me to turn it down. I had to remind her we were on vacation now ;) LOL. We arrived at the airport and we were off to Florida.
The excitement was building as we were walking through the Orlando airport. As we drove up Buena Vista drive, The Art of Animation Disney Resort emerged. the time was2pm and we were ready to get going. The resort was adorable! Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid, Cars, and Lion King drawings were all over along with bright colors. The Disney staff had smiles on their faces waiting to greet every guest at check in. We were helped by an amazing employee named Sam. We were informed that our room was going to be a Cars Family Suite! Sam was so kind he even gave us a little extra Disney spending money! We waited for our room to be ready at "The Drop Off", a poolside bar with great drinks!
After freshening up in the room, we hopped on the gondolas and were off to Epcot. With little time before our dinner reservation, we quickly stopped in France for a glass of wine. We walked to Italy and enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner! Dinner was filling and it took a second to regroup, but we were back up and ready to go. As we walked out of the restaurant we heard live music that brought us right to America. We grabbed a delicious fruity drink and listened to the 80's inspired band.
There are no extra magic hours at Disney right now so we knew we had to hurry up if we wanted to get on some rides. Test track and Soarin were calling my name so those were the next stops. Even though we were only able to enjoy a half day at Epcot I loved every second of it!
May 17th was Hollywood Studios day. We all had our alarms set for 6:45am to try and join a boarding group for the new ride, Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. Those 15 minutes lasted forever! When 7am hit, we tried to get a spot on the ride, but we didn't get it. We only had one more chance to join a boarding group at 1pm. Around 8am, we packed up and left for the park. Instead of starting in the front, we ran straight to Star Wars Land and let me tell you...my dad was living his best life! The park was his childhood dream. We walked around and waited in line for the rides in
the Land of Batu. Everywhere we liked there were people walking around with a blue drink. We had to try it. It was called Bantha milk or blue milk, which was a sweet frozen drink that was actually pretty good! We couldn't leave without checking out the stores. My dad took a few pics for the memories and then we grabbed a bite to eat. A few classics were next on our to do list; Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster. 1pm came while we were in line. Everyone around us was staring at their phones, we were all trying to get a spot on the new Star Wars ride. My parents, sister and I stood in a circle and waited for the clock to strike 1pm. As soon as it did, everyone was clicking join! All of a sudden, you heard half the crowd boo and half cheer. We were on the cheering side. After a few more rides, it was time for us to go back to Star Wars. The ride was great! The best part was how real the experience was. I was impressed. That night we made our way over to Disney Springs for dinner. We ate at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, which was also delicious. The bruschetta was mind blowing. Another great but exhausting day in the books!
May 18th we went to the magical and spectacular Magic Kingdom! The day started off with a greeting from some well known Disney characters. I am glad we were at least able to see them since we couldn't take pictures with them. Mickey and Minnie passed by in a small parade while we were looking in the shops on Main Street. The wait for Space Mountain was not too bad so we went for a ride. Afterwards, everyone needed a break. My dad found his new favorite snack, cinnamon covered almonds! And my mom found the drink
that kept her going... it was called a Game Changer from Jeoffrey's coffee shop. Maddie and I jumped into the air conditioning every once in a while to take some selfies with merchandise. It was time to move on and the Tea cups were right by the store we were standing in. I am not sure how, but we ended up in line. Haha. First we tried to fit my sister, my mom, me and then my dad into a tea cup. I guess we thought it was 2003 again.
Dad had to sit in his own tea cup, lol! Next, we slowed it down and went to The little mermaid, which had us dancing and singing. Then, I
ran out of Peter Pan thinking I could fly. After riding The Haunted Mansion, we walked to The Contemporary Resort for an incredible meal. I will now be learning how to cook Potato Gratin and my mom will be trying to create a spicy poblano margarita. After dinner we headed back to the park to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, and we had a few more purchases to make (one including
cinnamon covered almonds for my dad). We made it to everything we wanted just in time! Unfortunately, the shows and fireworks display are still cancelled. We were able to get a few good pictures of the new castle though. On our way out Mickey and his friends were waving goodbye! It is always sad to leave the most magical place on earth.
When we got back to the resort, the pool bar was still open so we went to have a drink by the pool. One of the resort custodians' was walking by us and stopped to chat. He started asking how we were and then broke out in imitations. He did the best impersonations of Chewbacca, Goofy, Gaston etc! He had hilarious jokes. He was joyful, caring and entertaining. Ryan or as he called himself "Crunchy", the brother of Chewy, made everything a bit more magical. I think he stood there for 30 min making us laugh! It is people like this that make Disney the wonderful place it is. Ryan, like many others employed at Disney, was displaced from his entertainment position and is now working as a custodian because of the pandemic. I hope Ryan and all the other workers affected by COVID 19 get their jobs back soon! He was the highlight of our trip.
May 19th we were up and at em early for Disney's Animal Kingdom. We got to the park and went straight to Avatar Flight of Passage. We didn't get there long after the park had opened and the line was already 100 min. It went by fast and trust me when I say the wait is worth it!
The sun was blazing as we walked over to the Everest ride. My dad started telling me about people who climbed the real Everest and it had my full attention. After Everest, we walked over to my mom's favorite place in the Animal Kingdom and watched the apes. They were hiding at first and then they came out and started swinging around. We were laughing, calling them by their names, George and Verruca. Kilimanjaro River Rapids sounded like the most logical next step with how hot it was. Surprise Surprise, a full wave of water was dumped on my sister Maddie and me.
Can someone explain to me why when you are standing in line and the people who just got off the water ride don't look wet? BUT, when we get off the water ride, we look like we just got caught in a tsunami. We dried off in line for the safari and then headed out to spend the rest of the day by the pool. On our way out Pocahontas and her raccoon friend were floating by on the river. It was so cool how they incorporated the characters throughout the park.
The rest of our day was spent laying out by the pool, swimming and having some drinks at The Drop Off! My favorite bar :) Blue Ocean's (a drink) are the way to go! That night we got dressed up and went to a nice dinner at Paddlefish in Disney Springs. It was a great way to end our trip. And I think my sister can say she was pretty happy with her crab legs!
May 20th was departure day. Never a good feeling when leaving a vacation. We gathered our things, grabbed some breakfast and headed to the airport. We finally made it home and a nice chauffeur waiting to bring us to the limo that would bring us back to Mechanicsburg.
We had an amazing time in Disney and again we want to thank Kelli Ritschel Boehle and the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation for giving us this experience. It was a trip for the books!!