Honest answers....how many of you

[wcw57]

have worn BD or Anniversary or whatever buttons with the rationale that "i will be celebrating my birthday next month sooooo its pretty close".

No Disney police will be sent to your door.

 

[jennylyn_b]

have worn BD or Anniversary or whatever buttons with the rationale that "i will be celebrating my birthday next month sooooo its pretty close".

No Disney police will be sent to your door.

Of course we have! You can't always get to WDW on the actual date. That doesn't mean you are celebrating it.


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[mousermerf]

have worn BD or Anniversary or whatever buttons with the rationale that "i will be celebrating my birthday next month sooooo its pretty close".

No Disney police will be sent to your door.

I had a friend when I lived in California who had a permanent collection of buttons. She made a point of getting the free bag of tortillas every time she walked past the Tortilla Factory Tour at DCA.

At first this bothered me.. but then after seeing just how forced and disingenuous most interaction from CM's are in regards to these buttons and such.. I really didn't feel bad. It's contrived pseudo "magic" - feel free to exploit it.

There's real "magic" when a CM actually interacts with guest and accomplishes something or goes the extra mile, these buttons do nothing to help that along.

 

[Mom2Luci]

I'll be wearing an anniversary button 2 weeks after the fact it's still the same month. DH said he's going to wear his birthday button the whole week, but we will be there on his birthday.

 

[Kemack]

When I went with my family last November, we got pins for a family reunion. My parents got pins for their anniversary in December and my sister got a pin for her birthday that month. No one would wear their pins so I had on the family reunion pin, an anniversary pin, and the birthday pin. They gave me an extra pin that said I'm celebrating EVERYTHING. They obviously knew it wasn't my 25th anniversary, but I still got "Happy Anniversary" wishes.

 

[Magpie]

Last year we visited Disney the week following our son's 14th birthday. Disney CMs encouraged us to make a birthday trip of it, so after some consultation with the boy we decided to go ahead and do it.

There was nothing that felt "forced" or "disingenuous" about our interactions with the cast. They were marvelous!

If our son walked to his resort room without wearing his button, he got a wave and a smile from any CM he passed. If he walked there with the button he got a, "Happy Birthday, buddy!"

The buttons provided an opening for CMs in the shops to talk to him and ask him how he was enjoying the trip. The bellringer at Magic Kingdom actually waved us over, from across the street, so he could do a whole "Hear Ye! Hear Ye!" Birthday performance, embarrassing my son hugely and delighting the rest of us. And we got a nice card and a birthday cupcake when we dined at the Crystal Palace.

I think, if you ARE celebrating something like an anniversary or birthday, the buttons make things easier for the Disney staff. It's an easy way for them to make your trip a little extra special.

We ran into several older couples with Anniversary buttons who were celebrating anniversaries that had long passed. In one case it took them time to save for the trip, in the other case the husband had a major medical crisis on their 25th anniversary, so they had to wait a couple years until they could make it to Disney to celebrate it properly. It didn't matter they'd been married 27 years and it was nowhere near the proper date - they were still celebrating their 25th anniversary. I think that's awesome!

 

[Cherinva]

What ever button I get, I wear it for the entire trip !!!!

 

[autismgoesdisney]

This trip is in part for my daughter's Communion. I'm thinking of getting a pin, but I know they don't have pins for communions LOL!

FYI -- we do Disney every year, but we are staying longer as a gift for her.

 

[albertagirl]

We have worn our anniversary buttons even though it wasn't our exact anniversary. We got married in May but wanted to do F&W festival. Our anniversary gift was to go during that time. We were celebrating our anniversary we just had to wait for the gift

We have only done the birthday buttons if it is the actual birthday though.

 

[Magpie]

This trip is in part for my daughter's Communion. I'm thinking of getting a pin, but I know they don't have pins for communions LOL!

FYI -- we do Disney every year, but we are staying longer as a gift for her.

You could always make up t-shirts, if your family will wear them! Or create a button of your own.

I've noticed that CMs often pay attention to visitors' t-shirts. When my son wore a Michael Jackson t-shirt, a CM actually ran out of a parade, shouted, "All right, Michael!" and gave him a hi-five. And when he wore a t-shirt covered with movie spoilers a CM in Disney Studios covered his eyes and said, "No! I can't look!"

 

[Orreed]

I'm not sure if this counts, but when I got my first visit button at Disneyland, I wore it almost the whole trip, but sometimes I would put it on my bag. The only time although someone saw it was a guest who was waiting for the monorail with me, LOL.

 

[darkwingeeyore]

When we went in December 2009, my husband told the CM when he booked that it was an anniversary trip. We got married in July. We wore our anniversary buttons though. The only time it got a little weird was when we were sitting down in Epcot and a family near us said something about coming during the Summer, and how December was such a better time, and my husband says, "Yeah, we came in July on our honeymoon and swore we'd never go during that time of the year again!" The other family didn't mention the fact that we were wearing anniversary buttons in December. So nice of them.

We're going down this year a week after my daughter's birthday, so I'll probably put a birthday button on her, as well as a first visit button, but I personally would feel weird going to celebrate my birthday if it wasn't on my actual birthday (though I'd wear the button during the whole trip!)

 

[CalSea12]

Well we are going Oct 28-Nov 5, our anniversary is Oct 15 where as my birthday is Nov 15. Yes I will be celebrating both during our trip.

 

[aladams2]

My DD's wore their 1st visit pin in '08 and DH and I celebrated our Anniv. a month early this year. I haven't done a bday one yet, b/c I find it unfair to the other DD whose bday that we aren't celebrating. DH and I recieved lots of Happy Anniv. wishes, but no freebies. We weren't really looking for any. We have just never really taken a trip for our anniv. and if we do, we take the kids.

 

[DebbieB]

I have 2 friends who are big Disney fans. They each turned 50 a year or two before me. My birthday is in January and I really didn't want to go in January, I wanted to enjoy the Christmas decorations. So when mine came, we went in December to celebrate. I wore the button on a couple of days.

 

[herb102211]

We do! Our anniversary is in October but we usually go for our fall trip in November. Still wear the buttons though

 

[Magpie]

When we went in December 2009, my husband told the CM when he booked that it was an anniversary trip. We got married in July. We wore our anniversary buttons though. The only time it got a little weird was when we were sitting down in Epcot and a family near us said something about coming during the Summer, and how December was such a better time, and my husband says, "Yeah, we came in July on our honeymoon and swore we'd never go during that time of the year again!" The other family didn't mention the fact that we were wearing anniversary buttons in December. So nice of them.

We're going down this year a week after my daughter's birthday, so I'll probably put a birthday button on her, as well as a first visit button, but I personally would feel weird going to celebrate my birthday if it wasn't on my actual birthday (though I'd wear the button during the whole trip!)

I would LOVE to celebrate our anniversary on our December trip, as it'll be our first non-business related trip without the kids, just my husband and I. As far as I'm concerned, we're celebrating our marriage! But we got married in March, so my husband says no way. He can be stubborn about things like that.

 

[Cyrano]

We celebrate our wedding anniversary during our summer trips. However nothing would get my wife to wear the badge and I was under threat of bodily harm if I wore mine ,so hopefully someone else got the benefit of us passing it on

 

[ShortStuff]

Went to Disneyland's 50th, which coincides with my birthday, so I wore a birthday button. Wore first visit buttons to WDW, and got 'welcomed home' numerous times, we usually go for my grandsons birthday, in Sept., although he is an end of August birthday, so he will occasionally wear a button, as it is to celebrate his birthday.

It's not the day that counts, it's the event. (Per a CM who had my daughter wear a birthday button, when we were two weeks past her birthday one April). In fact they had the button waiting for her without her asking. (Maybe it was the huge $200 Tinkerbelle cake I had waiting for her at check in. A surprise.)

 

[waynesgirl]

As an adult, if I go at bday time I wear a bday button, my DH wears a bday button, and then we wear anniversary buttons. We get a lot of stares and disbelief until we pull out our licenses and then it isn't so unbelievable-2 days apart with a marriage in between. But we don't do it unless it is our bday/anniversary time- but you bet your bippy we wear them all week. It makes for a fun conversation starter in the longer lines we deal with during the spring break season...it has lead to a lot of conversations with CMs and regular guests that were educational and fun! I like to talk-a lot- so I make sure to wear them proudly.

Our DS6 and our DD18 have bdays about 3 weeks apart but we always go on little bit's bday so they both wore buttons. It's about them anyway and they love people saying Happy Bday to them- it isn't about the potential to get stuff free. However, our DD15 has never had WDW bday as her bday falls on Father's Day weekend (she was born on Father's Day- yeah, I know I'm awesome to give such a great gift!!!) because her dad doesn't go to Disney like my DH and I so this year, in November, we are going to let her have a day all to herself at Disney to celebrate her bday, including a cake (that we buy), flowers, tiara, and all. I think it is a good lesson for kids as well- it teaches them to acknowledge and say thank you for the generosity and attention that is given to them.

So long as you don't abuse it thinking you are entitled to free stuff and that you deserve the acknowledgement, then I say rock it. But, to a PP's comment, there might be a lot of CMs that seem so blah about bdays because people do it to scam free treats. CMs are wary when they first talk to my DH and I when we have on our buttons because it does seem a little far-fetched to be wearing buttons for bdays and an anniversary at the same time-they all soften up when they realize it is true.

I remember when my DS was 3 and we went to the Villans store to get him a rice cereal treat and he was so excited- the young CM noticed his button and sang Happy Bday to him and gave him a marshmallow straw and it was insane- it became crazy. 2 people in the store shouted "It's his bday. Give him one!" (one of the parents pointed at their teenaged son and I promise he looked like he wanted the floor to open up for him) and 2 other people walking by heard this and came in and said the same thing- THAT is uncalled for and rude. The CM stood her ground and said- "Sorry. Nobody's wearing a button. It's a button night tonight!" I hated she got put in that situation and that grown people were ruining the magic of WDW for little kids and the overall magic of Disney for us adults, too. (Not saying that anyone is doing that but I highly doubt any of you reading this are standing in a Disney store demanding free things either.