GKTW reopening in January

Give Kids The World Village has a plan to reopen, and they made a video about it...

Hope is not a strategy. But this is nice to see.

Either of you make it out to see their 'Night of a Million Lights' event? I managed to check it out last week and it was pretty awesome to see. From what I've heard they have sold out every night so that is good.

Unfortunately I haven't. But several friends have and the pictures are fantastic! I am so glad they have been able to have the event

BrettV said:
Hope is not a strategy. But this is nice to see.

Hope may not be a strategy, but it is in many ways what GKTW runs on. They're all about inspiring hope, and getting their operation running again is a good way to do that. Hope isn't how they do it; it's what results from the doing.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I haven't been out yet, didn't even think about limited availability. But same, friends have been, would like to still see it.

If you can get tickets I highly recommend it. They are not sure if it will happen next year so this might be your only chance to see all the lights.

Glad to hear this and it reminds me that I'm due to make a donation. I'll be up in Kissimmee next week so if the event is still going on I may see if tickets are still available.

I made it there tonight, and it looks amazing. I mean, it's sad that families that would benefit from the place can't be here, but it is lively with all the folks here. Like an ultimate open house.

Unfortunately I never made it. Maitland to Kissimmee is only a few inches on a map. But making that drive is just never appealing.

Bummer. They start taking it all down tomorrow and storing it away for (fingers crossed) next year.

If they're fully operating, I don't see how they could do it again. It would be very disruptive and potentially dangerous to the families staying there.

Were the light displays the same as the Osbourne light displays from Studios back in the (still pretty recent) day?

There was no "show" (except for the villa for iTEC), but it was definitely at that scale. The coverage on the core buildings, like Town Hall and the Star Tower, were impressive. They also covered many of the large trees in the older sections.

Were the lights they used any more disruptive to put up than what other parks do? Thinking specifically of Dollywood as I have been to that park for the lights.

They're in the lawns and have displays from the various partners, including stuff in windows. But more to the point, those are actual streets that the wish families drive down and then park in front of the villas. You can't have people walking around in there.

And that is basically why it likely won't happen next year. I know it was discussed on how it might be accomplished but its a small chance. If anything they might decorate some of the town square area for the guests of GKTW but not actually open it to the public like this year.

BrettV said:

Were the light displays the same as the Osbourne light displays from Studios back in the (still pretty recent) day?

So much so that they were the left over lights from Osbourne! But yes as Jeff said there wasn't any programming for the lights to dance. They wanted to make sure everyone could enjoy them. But kinda cool and nice to see the lights from Osbourne didn't go to waste.