Walt Disney World marked World Princess Week with a Disney Princess celebration at Give Kids The World Village, bringing wish kids and their families a day built around some of Disney’s most beloved characters. Give Kids The World is a nonprofit resort in Central Florida that hosts weeklong wish vacations at no cost to families, and this year’s celebration leaned fully into its “Once a Princess, Always a Princess” theme.
A Day Built Around Disney Princess Stories – Rapunzel invited kids to decorate paper lanterns inspired by Tangled, and those same lanterns lit up the Village that evening as families returned from their day out across Central Florida. Belle hosted a story time centered on bravery, kindness, and believing in yourself, while Moana led a jewelry-making activity inspired by the Heart of Te Fiti. Princess Tiana and Louis closed things out with a second line parade through the Village, with wish kids and their families joining in with instruments and dancing of their own.
Meeting Tiana – One of the day’s standout moments belonged to Ny’lah, an Orlando wish kid whose wish was to meet Princess Tiana. The two swapped stories about Mama Odie and the bayou, and Ny’lah said the visit gave her a break from the hospital to just be a kid, adding that she and Tiana bonded over how much they both love “music, dancing, and beignets.”
40 Years of Wishes in Central Florida – Walt Disney World has been a founding partner of Give Kids The World for four decades, supporting the nonprofit’s mission of free wish vacations for families of children facing critical illnesses. Disney has also partnered with Make-A-Wish for years as part of that same effort, and the company says it is the world’s largest wish granter for children facing critical illnesses.
Princess Magic Beyond Central Florida – World Princess Week reached beyond Give Kids The World this year. Mikayla, who became Disney and Make-A-Wish’s 150,000th wish kid back in 2023, returned in 2026 to perform alongside Broadway’s Susan Egan at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event. Six-year-old Emelie’s wish began with a surprise Elsa costume delivery from Disney Store, followed by an in-flight celebration from Southwest Airlines crew and fellow passengers on her trip to Disney World. Make-A-Wish families at Disneyland enjoyed a VIP dessert party and front row seats at Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration, now streaming on Disney+ and YouTube, and Disneyland Paris is preparing to welcome 50 Make-A-Wish families from across Europe for a royal-themed weekend of its own.
What Doesn’t Always Make the Headlines – We have been to Give Kids The World ourselves, and it is one of those places that hits even harder in person than it does on a page. Most of the attention naturally goes to the kids, and it should, but what gets talked about far less is what that week does for the parents. Caring for a child through a critical illness is relentless, and a week at the Village gives a family a real reprieve from that daily struggle, a chance to just be a family together instead of a family in survival mode. Add in everything Disney brings to that same week, from a full Princess Week celebration down to the smaller moments that never end up in a headline, and it stops feeling like a nice gesture and starts feeling like exactly the right thing to do. Princess Week is making news right now, but Disney and Give Kids The World work together like this all year, whether it comes directly through GKTW or through Make-A-Wish, and it is a partnership we will always be glad to cover.
To learn more about Give Kids The World, visit gktw.org, and to learn more about Disney’s partnership with Make-A-Wish, visit wish.org/Disney.
