How I Survived 11 Days at WDW with a Disney-Resistant Husband **2/20 THE END **

[cdotla]

Even at 47 I still grab the 3 D objects in Mickey's Philharmagic!!!

 

[cdotla]

Birthday Breakfast at the Cape May Cafe

As the daughter of an accountant, growing up I did not see much of my father during the Spring tax season. In February, he started coming home late from work each night, and in March, our weekends with him became scarce. By the time April rolled around, apart from a brief dinner at home with us most evenings, he otherwise lived at the office. But as a family we always suffered through, because we knew that eventually tax season would end, and as soon as it did, we would be on a plane headed to Florida for a much-needed family holiday.

From the age of 4 onwards, our family spent the first week or two of May in Florida just about every year. It was our post-tax season celebration. We visited Walt Disney World during many of those trips, and apart from that, we lived at Clearwater, St. Pete's and Maderia Beaches.

Even after I moved out of my parents' house, the tradition of always taking off the first of May for Florida was a hard habit to break. So in my own household, I have tried to continue with this tradition as much as possible. Afterall, Florida in May is wonderful. The weather is gorgeous - lots of sun, but not too hot, low crowds, and great shopping. And one of the bonuses for me to traveling in early May was being able to spend my Birthday in Florida. Growing up with my parents, I had been fortunate to spend just about every Birthday between the ages of 4 and 20 in Florida...there is nothing better than that!!!

Once again this year, I was happy to be spending my Birthday in Florida. Even better...at Walt Disney World!!!

As it was my Birthday, I figured that gave me full right to choose the Park we would be touring. Of course, I chose Epcot, my favorite Park. I was also hoping that since it was my Birthday, the rest of the family would have a little more tolerance and goodwill to make the day enjoyable.

I have to be honest: As much as I was thoroughly enjoying the trip, and happy to be spending this vacation with my family, the continuing struggle I faced to spend more than an hour or two in the Parks each day was wearing me down. Today I was hoping we would spend the morning touring Future World, and at least some of the afternoon touring WorldShowcase. I was also hoping to make it to my first-ever DisMeet in Mexico at Noon. We had dinner reservations that night at Jiko. And I had already announced to the family that I finally wanted to watch Illuminations that night while enjoying a latte and cloudberry horn from the Kringla Bakery in Norway - my absolute favorite thing to do in all of WDW.

To start the day, we had an early reservation at the Cape May Cafe for Breakfast. Can I stress early....people were still a bit sleepy downstairs in the lobby at 7:45am.

Cape May was a hit! Great character interactions....and a little different from usual due to the tropical beach attire.

Unfortunately, we only got a visit from Goofy and Minnie on this visit. While we could have waited for Mickey, he was no where to be seen when we were finished our meals and ready to go. Plus, we were anxious to get into the Park for rope drop.


Once again...can you guess the owner of the healthy plate? Yep, you guessed it...Chris!

He was loving these breakfast buffets for the good variety of healthy fare.


I didn't get a photo of my plate from Cape May, but here was Katie's plate:

And Declan's:

While it was my Birthday, I am not a Birthday-button kinda gal. I have never been too keen drawing attention to myself in the restaurants or parks. However, the fact that it was my birthday was announced to our server by both of my kids before she could even pour our coffee. Of course, I promptly informed our server that she did not need to do anything special, and did not have to bring the Birthday Cupcake that I had seen delivered to other Birthday diners over the years. Unfortunately, she told me that she *had* to, which was kind of surprising. I informed her that I wouldn't be eating it, and that it would just be a waste of food, but again, she said that once she knew it was my Birthday, she was required to deliver the cupcake. At least she promised she wouldn't sing!

I believe the kids ended up each having a bite or two of the cupcake, although most of it went to waste. Then, after that, we quickly gathered up our things, paid our bill, and set out toward Crescent Lake and our 5 minute walk to the International Gateway into Epcot.

UP NEXT: Someone takes their First Flight on Soarin'

 

[PrincessInOz]

Trish! Happy Belated Birthday. I don't think I knew it was your birthday at the DisMeet......

Your shots of the food at Cape May are beautiful. And that cupcake looks divine in that photo.
I'm hoping that this day goes as close to your wished for day as possible....

 

[Tinker_Tam]

I am really hoping that you were able to have your dream birthday and family cooperated with what you wanted!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thank you for pictures of my very favorite walk in the world. Nothing beats those 5 minutes over to Epcot!

Cape May does look fun. Believe it or not I still have yet to dine there. at the picture of Chris half asleep in the lobby with the pink backpack.

I love hearing good things about an early May trip as I am now planning one for next year!

Hope that the rest of your day was zero struggle and lots of fun with some cloudberry horn goodness!

 

[dismagiclover]

Great update. The characters look so cute in their swimsuits Love the pictures of the walk to Epcot. That is the best thing about the Beach Club (closely followed by SAB)

 

[hill6]

As an accountant my family understands the pain of not seeing me for basically the first 3 months of the year. We start Saturdays the first week of the New Year and Sundays start in April (or late March) and the rest of the time it is pretty much 10 hour days (at a minimum).

We started May vacations two years ago and what a great refresher that is.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Sounds like a great start to a birthday to me! Cape May is fun, isn't it? However, Mickey is NOT there...so you didn't even miss him. I'm not sure the reason why they don't have Mickey, but they don't - looks like you did miss Donald though. It's Donald, Minnie and Goofy.

The pic of Katie skipping made me grin! Was she attempting to click her heels? Or just dancing along?

And the picture of the beach and the BW...

 

[DrMomof3]

We enjoyed the Cape May breakfast, too. Happy Birthday! I would LOVE to spend my birthday in Disney. The kids are in school so it's not an easy time to go but it is F&W. Maybe my 40th!

Amanda

 

[TyRy]

That sounds like a good plan for your birthday! At least you kept it to one day, I declared the whole last trip my birthday trip so I picked everything.

Fingers crossed you get to do everything you want.

 

[BippityBoo]

Wow, that is an early ADR!! Seems really yummy, though Can't wait to see who rides on Soarin for the first time! We absolutely love that ride!!

PS: Didn't you run the Disney Princess Marathon? I want to run it in 2012 and am just gathering info at this point. I cant do it in 2011 b/c it is too close to our last vacation time. Any info/suggestions would be great!

 

[eandesmom]

I'm impressed you could get them to breakfast that early! It would have been a major battle with my gang, even if I could have gotten them there, they wouldn't have been awake enough to eat much.

But your birthday, whatever YOU want. Or at least I sure hope it's how the entire day went. Heavens knows you deserve it, you've been a saint!

We really enjoyed the Cape May buffet and thought it was great character interaction as well. It does take a while to get the full circle of characters though. It was also one of our favorite CM's of the trip, she alone would make me want to go back!

 

[cdotla]

Trish! Happy Belated Birthday. I don't think I knew it was your birthday at the DisMeet......

Your shots of the food at Cape May are beautiful. And that cupcake looks divine in that photo.
I'm hoping that this day goes as close to your wished for day as possible....

It was definitely a good birthday! Always is in WDW!

I am really hoping that you were able to have your dream birthday and family cooperated with what you wanted!

While I had a great birthday, as usual, not everything went exactly as planned!

Thank you for pictures of my very favorite walk in the world. Nothing beats those 5 minutes over to Epcot!

Cape May does look fun. Believe it or not I still have yet to dine there. at the picture of Chris half asleep in the lobby with the pink backpack.

I love hearing good things about an early May trip as I am now planning one for next year!

Hope that the rest of your day was zero struggle and lots of fun with some cloudberry horn goodness!

Phew! I thought you might be a bit miffed that I was getting good use of "your" private entrance!

You will LOVE May Christine. It's almost as good as October. But sadly, no F&W! I don't know about you, but Flowers don't compete with food OR wine in my books.

Sadly....I completely missed out on my favorite treat in all of WDW this trip! So watching Illuminations with my latte and cloudberry horn is high on the list of priorities for my next trip!

Great update. The characters look so cute in their swimsuits Love the pictures of the walk to Epcot. That is the best thing about the Beach Club (closely followed by SAB)

I agree....can't beat the BC's awesome location!!! Or the pool!

As an accountant my family understands the pain of not seeing me for basically the first 3 months of the year. We start Saturdays the first week of the New Year and Sundays start in April (or late March) and the rest of the time it is pretty much 10 hour days (at a minimum).

We started May vacations two years ago and what a great refresher that is.

As far as I am concerned, any accountant who doesn't vacation in May should seriously consider it!

Sounds like a great start to a birthday to me! Cape May is fun, isn't it? However, Mickey is NOT there...so you didn't even miss him. I'm not sure the reason why they don't have Mickey, but they don't - looks like you did miss Donald though. It's Donald, Minnie and Goofy.

The pic of Katie skipping made me grin! Was she attempting to click her heels? Or just dancing along?

And the picture of the beach and the BW...

Oh, that makes me feel better that we didn't miss Mickey! Although I would have liked to see Donald. He wasn't anywhere to be seen either.

And that Katie was definitely trying to click her heels together. She was pushing her brother and continued doing it up until the sidewalk started sloping up on the walk over to Epcot. Then she almost fell and lost control of the stroller. Chris took over pretty quickly.

 

[cdotla]

We enjoyed the Cape May breakfast, too. Happy Birthday! I would LOVE to spend my birthday in Disney. The kids are in school so it's not an easy time to go but it is F&W. Maybe my 40th!

Birthdays in WDW are the best! You should try it! Leave the kiddos at home and enjoy F&W!

That sounds like a good plan for your birthday! At least you kept it to one day, I declared the whole last trip my birthday trip so I picked everything.

Fingers crossed you get to do everything you want.

Katie and I both kinda celebrated our birthdays on the trip as we are exactly 1 week apart. Well....29 years and 51 weeks to be exact!

I will always remember how I celebrated my 30th birthday....at home as a 1st time parent with a 7 day old newborn, trying to adjust to breastfeeding and lack of sleep. I can't even guarantee I got a shower that day!

I've put everyone on advance notice: my 40th is going to be A LOT different!

Wow, that is an early ADR!! Seems really yummy, though Can't wait to see who rides on Soarin for the first time! We absolutely love that ride!!

PS: Didn't you run the Disney Princess Marathon? I want to run it in 2012 and am just gathering info at this point. I cant do it in 2011 b/c it is too close to our last vacation time. Any info/suggestions would be great!

Declan had so many firsts this trip after reaching the milestone 40 inches. He had listened to the Soarin' soundtrack so many times, and Katie and I had talked to him so much about this attraction, we were all so thrilled to have him finally experience it for himself!

As for the marathon....no, I haven't done any. I have only done the Minnie5k in May 2008 (which no longer exists), and the Expedition Everest Challenge in September 2008 (which also no longer exists). However, I hope to do the Food & Wine Half Marathon in October 2011. Just need to actually start running!

I'm impressed you could get them to breakfast that early! It would have been a major battle with my gang, even if I could have gotten them there, they wouldn't have been awake enough to eat much.

But your birthday, whatever YOU want. Or at least I sure hope it's how the entire day went. Heavens knows you deserve it, you've been a saint!

We really enjoyed the Cape May buffet and thought it was great character interaction as well. It does take a while to get the full circle of characters though. It was also one of our favorite CM's of the trip, she alone would make me want to go back!

The early mornings are nothing for my family. We are early birds. The kids generally got up each day before us between 6-6:30am, as they do everyday, weekends and holidays included.

While we were all still a little tired, we were far more hungry! But we wouldn't let the kids eat in the room as we wanted them to save room for the buffet. Thankfully we were called to our table within 2-3 minutes of checking in.

 

[Spartangirl]

Awww...sounds like your birthday morning started off fantastically! Here's to hoping that the rest of your day went as planned...

Cape May looks nice...glad to hear that your family had a nice breakfast and start to the day!

Ohhhhh....I hope your were able to get that cloudberry horn...so good!

 

[ashleighbass06]

You have me excited for my next trip, hopefully in May!!!

I love this pic! She looks like she's having a lot of fun!

 

[hill6]

As far as I am concerned, any accountant who doesn't vacation in May should seriously consider it!

DD is 22 now so we have been going when she finishes college for the semester.

It is a lot less crowded at Disney and on a cruise ship at that time too.

Next cruise is booked the day after she graduates college next year.
Pretty good graduation present.

 

[Native NYer]

What a great birthday breakfast!
I definitely want to try Cape May next trip.

 

[klacey1]

Awww, what a nice birthday morning! Love Chris rocking the pink Minnie backpack in that first pic, lol.
Definitely did NOT think servers "had" to bring you a cupcake for your birthday-- pretty sure she made that up!

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

Ah Epcot, my favorite place on earth! I make it a habit to ride Soarin' 2-3 times per visit. I am looking forward to eating at the Japanese Hibachi restaurant when I go in December. Best Japanese food I've had!