A Planning Guide to Goofy's Great Birthday Bash!

[jaycns]

Day 2 sounds fantastic!! And what a sneaky little thing you are, pretending to have zero interest in a cruise on the Breathless. I'm not sure if you'll be able to top this day, but I'm looking forward to hearing what else you have up your sleeve!

It's so hard to pretend you have no interest in something you SO want to do!

Day 2 sounds lovely! First off - Captain's Grille - I have heard this mentioned alot recently, it does look yummy. And we have something in common - I have a surprise Illuminations cruise planned too! Except it's not on the Breathless, just one of the pontoon boats (At least I think so, I never really asked which boat we booked). I'm thinking of calling private dining for some special desserts, have you thought of doing that? Or maybe you are holding out on some surprises for the trip report? I'm sure you and Goofy will enjoy it! I remember reading how much you all enjoyed the cruise on the Grand One last year, and when you add fireworks, how can you go wrong?!!

How exciting! What a fun surprise lays in store for your family!! You are going to have so much fun picking out a special snack to go along with your cruise!

On the Breathless we are not allowed anything besides chocolate covered strawberries/champange. I figure we will be full from dinner so I am skipping the strawberries. There is a lot less room on the Breathless so they have rules about what can/cannot be brought aboard food wise.

I am hoping for a wonderful night. I am also looking forward to the front and center Illuminations viewing!

Everything sounds amazing!! I want to stay at BW one of these days... Your Mommy and me trips really make me want to do it with my kids too... But their Dad loves Disney World just as much as I do, so I think he might have something to say about that!

Ha ha ha. Maybe it's the one good thing about having a dh who doesn't love WDW, the ability to do mom and me trips.

Ok Jay. Day 2 beats Day 1. I see you are just going to outdo yourself each and every day. Goof will love the Breathless. Not only will he feel so special (because he is) he will be doing it with you. I love the way your boys look at you when you take their pictures. Their love just beams from their eyes. As your when you are looking at them. Congratulations on another fine day at the World.

Ginny

Ha ha ha, not everyday, then it would stop being a surprise. Oh Ginny, you just made me tear up by commenting on how they look at the camera. I love my little guys so much (and my big guy too).

Oh my, that breathless cruise sounds wonderful!! I'm sure you will all enjoy it!

I am very excited to experience it for the first time!

I am sooooo jealous! I can't WAIT to read all about this meal and see the food porn!!

KOUZZINA! I KNOW!! I am drooling already!

The past few days I read your CR/Poly TR, your AKL / GF TR, Re-Read your WL TR and the Stitch TR...and realized I am addicted your TR's so I thought I'd hop over and read about Goofy's birthday trip! I feel excited like its my own trip! I have to tell you my honeymoon was suppose to be just visiting the world but you inspired going on a cruise and some downtime days if DF gets mad can i blame you? But I love your TRs and I am interested to read this pre TR and your actual TR to see your perspective of an Epcot resort.

Out of curiousity has your family ever considered the Beach Club or Yacht club? I could just see your boys enjoying Storm a Long bay is all And I agree with your CR seems like such a magical hotel.. to me its the most disney even though the decor isn't overly disney..I guess its just one of those landmarks

You will LOVE the cruise!! Make time to pamper yourselves at the spa and don't forget to take romantic moonlight strolls on the decks late at night. Pure bliss!

Downtime days are amazing! There is so much more than parks to the Walt Disney World Resort. I just sort of overlooked all the rest there was to offer until I enjoyed a few downtime days and now I am addicted to them!

I am very interested in the Yacht Club personally. It's very much on our short list for future trips!

If you want to see a GREAT DCL trip report, click the link in Goldeelox9's trip report (she posted right under your last post). She got married on the cruise and then honeymooned for the rest of it/then at WDW. She had an amazing trip!

Oh Jay, your plans sound so good so far. I can not wait until your trip!

**PIXIEDUSTANDEEYORE: This is the Goldeelox9 that I am speaking of. Check out her trip report!*

Are you getting close to your own WDW trip now? Thanks for continuing to read along!

Ms. Jay -

Day two sounds fab - Goofy is your artist, right? Does he like to take pics? It might be fun to do a photo scavenger hunt as a way to "get to know" the Epcot resorts...

Can't wait for more!

Mrs. Spratt

GREAT IDEA!!!!!!! In fact, that post has inspired me! Day three's surprise was just made much cooler because of your idea! THANK YOU! I will post it soon.

Hi Jay,

Just wanted to pop in and say how much fun I am having reading your report. I also started Stitch's TR last night (so very sorry about your dad).

It is so much fun to read about all of your surprises. I would love to take a special trip with each of my boys someday (they are just 7 and 4 so I little young yet), but my DH loves to go too, so we may just have to plan to "split up" and have single kid time on our next trip (and by next I mean the one after the one coming up since we'll be bringing DS's friend on this next one).

Thanks for sharing all of your plans with us. If they are half as fun for you as they are for us to read, Goofy is going to have the birthday of a lifetime!

I think your family of four is perfect for some one on one time. Throw in two "mom/dad and me days" on your next (after the friend vacation) trip and you would each get a full day alone with each son and still get the fun of a family trip too! You could take one son one day while dh has the other and then the next time swap. What fun that would be! What a neat thing to be able to do!

Thank you so much for your ideas on how to surprise my niece. We haven't told her we are going yet...Her birthday is in October and I am trying to hold off and surprise her then (good luck with that!!) I don't know how you keep your trips such a surprise! The minute I do some planning, I have to tell all involved in the trip!

I have seen threads here on the DIS where people have templates for printing out dinner invitations from various characters or just themed to where you would be eating. The ones I saw were posted with permission for you to tweak them and use them. I wish I had the link to that. That would be great for her too I bet!

 

[jaycns]

i just read thru your 17 day vacation and stitch's vacation. i must say, wow! i am very impressed. and reading this pre-trip report has been really fun too. this isn't meant to sound rude at all (in fact i'm just toooottally jealous of your vacations) but, man! i wish i had your kind of money! some of the things you have been able to do are wonderful but unfortunately with our lack of funds i don't think we'll be able to do many of those things.

i applaud your parenting as well. it seems like you have some really nice boys who really appreciate all you do for them. i have a 6 week old son right now and i hope to raise him to be a sweet boy

There is SO much to do at Disney by way of surprises that is low cost to no cost. They have adorable little Mickey Head single serving cakes at the Boardwalk Bakery that are on the DDP as snack credits (I think that's still true) and are priced at $3.99 each. SO cute but would make a great surprise to hide and then leave out in your room as a surprise. You could wait and have your son's first haircut at the Magic Kingdom barber shop. It's under $20 (I think $14?) and your son would get free Mickey ears that say "My First Haircut" and a certificate and you would get an envelope with a lock of his hair. Also there appears to be loads of pixie dust (glitter) and stickers usually involved. Another idea is to get a CS meal at one of the monorail resorts and then take it out to the beach area as a picnic and watch the fireworks go off as you munch (or enjoy a beautiful afternoon doing the same thing). Dinner and/or park invitations can be found here on the DIS and printed out at home and used to surprise people with the day's plans. A $20 bill and the ability to spend it on anything they want can make a child's day! Stroll along the Boardwalk and take in the free night time entertainment. Make a scavenger hunt of your own for whatever resort you are staying at and have a sack of goodies you have snuck from home waiting as the big prize back in your room. Eat dinner at Chef Mickey's and then take a monorail ride/watch the fireworks from the Contempoary's observation deck. Set out little surprises each morning (coloring books/crayons, stickers, a new t-shirt to wear that day, dollar store trinkets, pennies/quarters for pressed pennies in the parks, a plastic sword/tiara/pirate patch...whatever someone would love) and sprinkle a little sparkly confetti around and tell them that Tinkerbell or Peter Pan or whatever other character they love paid them a night time visit. There are SO MANY things you can do to make a trip special...your budget never has to limit that!

And thank you, but I don't think it's our parenting as much as we were blessed with great kids.

My son is going to wish that he belonged to you! Again, what a great mom you are. I love how in tune you are with what each of your boys will like and dislike and fine tuning this trip to be ALL ABOUT Goofy. That's wonderful. I respect you for that.

Ha ha ha. I am having the time of my life thinking of just what each of them would love. It's so much fun to try and guess/plan without having to balance everyone else into the equation. I feel so lucky to be able to do it!

Yeaaaa..another Jay pre-trippee! I cannot wait to see what you have up your sleeve on this one again! It will be so magical for Goofy!
And guess what, from one Greek to another, Kali Orexi at Kouzzina. Our family cannot wait to try it in a couple of weeks, too! Although, DH claims why would he want to eat Greek food in WDW, we have it all the time But, *DH* it is CatCora a chef from our fav Food Network...I do have him sold! YIASOU!

P.S. I am preparing for DD Sweet16 over the holidays and will PM you for a couple of suggestions. Don't want to be too specific here cause' she surfs around DIS...and my posts lol!

Oh and P.S.S. ....we joined DVC Fall 08' and WISH we had done so much earlier! It is AWESOME and so worth it! PM me for an AWESOME DVC guide. Right now if you join, I have special cards to pass out and you can get a Free Cruise for four on the Magic/Wonder. Extra charges apply for additional members of the family which is not bad at all!!! Expires next week and you need to sail by Dec 2010!!!! EXCELLENT DEAL.

Ha ha, your daughter reading over your shoulder! Too cute. And you must have raised her right for her to be here at the DIS!

Dh is such a DVC meanie. Ha ha. I assume he thinks by buying it he will be giving in to the fact that he will have a LOT of WDW vacations in his future. The sad fact is, his family is going to drag him there anyway so he should just go ahead and jump in.

Awww, Jay! The Breathless sounds wonderful! I hope you two have a great cruise around the Epcot area. Illuminations is my favorite!
Will you have any snacks on board? I know you won't be doing the big dessert that you did on your MK cruise (which was soooo amazing!!) but are you planning anything?

Nope, no snacks. We will be full from the Flying Fish dinner right beforeand the Breathless only accomadates champange and strawberries due to size constraints.

Subing , but I'm a little late in the game....page 6 already.

Okay, I am caught up now. So far everything sounds great.

Welcome. You aren't late! You are right on time!

Hi Jay
Just went through all your trip reports. Thanks for writing them!! I have got so many new ideas for upcoming trips from you! I have a question about Buzz's stroller .lol I have the same one and we are leaving next thursday. How did it do in WDW any complaints? Thanks!

If you are used to it (the hooking the straps so it doesn't unfold) you will be great! It was a GREAT park stroller. The UV shade came in so handy as did the rain shield (we were there in September and had our fair share of both). We have cup holders installed on ours and I wouldn't have enjoyed it without those. The stroller really was great because of it's quick fold, smallish frame once folded (at least for a full feature stroller) and offered so much to keep him comfy and out of the sun with the sunshade/wicking pad on the seat.

The only things mildly annoying was the straps to hook it, we weren't used to hooking it cause we had only rolled him around in our neighborhood so we hadn't used the strap yet (we bought it shortly before our trip) so I felt a bit fumble fingered trying to do that quickly to get on a tram or something. And I found that we did better when we popped the front wheel off and held it rather than try to squish on the tram with it still attached.

If you are already used to doing it or just practice a few times before it's late at night and you are tired, balancing a tired little one and a day full of park stuff while you try to figure it out...you could eliminate that. I should have just figured it out before the trip instead of in the middle of it. I guess you live and learn. So, YES, it was great, just make sure you are familiar with the folding lock straps, how to attach the rain cover/uv cover and you will be great!

 

[jess98ac]

My son is going to wish that he belonged to you! Again, what a great mom you are. I love how in tune you are with what each of your boys will like and dislike and fine tuning this trip to be ALL ABOUT Goofy. That's wonderful. I respect you for that.

I wish I belonged to her!!!!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I wish I belonged to her!!!!

Yeah, me too!!!

 

[daisylove]

Thanks for the info. I am practicing with the stroller now. :0)

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Ha ha ha, not everyday, then it would stop being a surprise. Oh Ginny, you just made me tear up by commenting on how they look at the camera. I love my little guys so much (and my big guy too).

I only commented on the obvious. I just updated again on Friday. You might want to check.

Your time is getting closer. That is so exciting.

 

[jaycns]

I wish I belonged to her!!!!

The more the merrier!

Yeah, me too!!!

Welcome to the family!

Thanks for the info. I am practicing with the stroller now. :0)

Enjoy your trip! I hope your family likes the stroller at WDW as much as we did.

I only commented on the obvious. I just updated again on Friday. You might want to check.

Your time is getting closer. That is so exciting.

Thanks, Ginny.

 

[jaycns]

Day 3...It's All About the FUN!

I am guessing we will start our morning off with a pre park opening breakfast in the club lounge. After fortifying ourselves, we will head out to Goofy's favorite park. And, I am planning to use a cab to get us there!

We will be heading to the Magic Kingdom and hoping to be there just a bit before rope drop. This day will be all about following Goofy's whims and fancies. If he is up for riding Splash Mountain all day, we will do that. If he would rather explore the stores, ride all of Fantasyland and then snack our way throughout the park, we will do that. Whatever floats his boat is what will be on my agenda for the day. I am excited to see just what his perfect park day looks like.

In keeping with my 'just go with his flow' theme of the day, I haven't made a single dining reservation. Goofy is a fan of a few CS places at MK and I will let him lead me to whichever one he might happen to want. I didn't want this day to be about keeping to a schedule. I don't even want to have to look at my watch. All of that said, lunch will be eaten in a burst of multiple snacks or a CS meal whenever Goofy directs us.

Mrs. Spratt's comment about a scavenger hunt was something that was already flying around in my surprise loving little mind...but the suggestion to make it a photo scavenger hunt tugged at my crazy surprise loving self and has formed into a loose plan. Thanks MRS. SPRATT for the wonderful suggestion! I am going to work that into our evening. Thanks to a wonderful DISer on the BWI thread I even have a few ideas to work with. If any of you know of any hidden Mickey's or landmarks at the BWI I would very much appreciate you posting them or PMing them to me!

I plan on setting up a ten to twelve item hunt for him and going out and having a great time letting him capture the items on the list with his own little budding artist/photographer's eye. Another chance for me to glimpse the world the way he sees it! I am going to have the last item to check off on his be to get a picture of a club level CM. I will have previously passed them a birthday card to give him (with some Disney dollars in it) when he comes to them to complete his hunt. We will then head back to our room and there he will find a Boardwalk themed birthday surprise waiting for him...

After talking with an amazing chef at the Boardwalk Bakery and giving them the most general input (I told them something that was "totally Boardwalk Inn themed that a ten year old boy who loves midway games, rides and carnival animals would love"). The chef I spoke with told me she would get back to me after she had a chance to work up a few ideas. Her first suggestion was perfect. A cake carousel! Goofy loves the merry-go-round! It's perfect for him! And instead of horses, the carousel will have elephants, lions and monkeys on it. I cannot wait for him to see it. She didn't even have to tell me any of her other ideas, I heard that one and knew it was a great fit for him.

You may have noticed that I still haven't mentioned dinner. I am planning on us relaxing in our room after our park day and scavenger hunt early evening. We will crack open the menus and test out the room service this evening.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Now that will be a fun day for Goofy. He will feel so special as all your boys do. The cake sounds like it will be really cute. I know he will have a totally great day. Good job again Jay.

 

[jmamom]

That sounds like the most wonderful day. That's the beauty of being with only one child at a time - no weighing everyone's opinions - just saying "yes " all day long! I can't wait to see a picture of that cake! I've read the most wonderful things about the Boardwalk bakery on these boards, I'll bet its going to be like something you'd see on Food Network's Challenge! And room service to top it off- perfect ending to a perfect day.

 

[disneydusted]

Hi Jay! I was thinking about your Boardwalk Inn hidden mickey search and I thought of the Allears.net site. One of the bloggers is the Hidden Micky guy, Steve Barrett. You might be able to check his posts or even write him directly to find out some fun locations.

 

[hhockman]

Every day gets better and better! How in the world are you ever going to get Goofy to come home?

 

[Goldeelox9]

Jay day 3 sounds so wonderful! I can not wait for our trip, reading your PTR is getting me so excited! We get to WDW on October 30th and I have a few surprises up my sleeve for my DH and My DS and DBIL. It should be great!

I can't wait to see what Goofy picks to do with his days!

 

[lilpapsgirl]

I've been lurking around your past Trip reports and this Pre-trip and finally popped in to say Hello and I really enjoy your reports!! Can't wait for the Post-trip report.

 

[marsa1969]

Oh, I can't wait to see the cake. You always get great custom cakes.

 

[mdrob214]

I love the idea of a photo scavenger hunt. Check out the Hidden Mickey book--I bet there are tons of ideas there. Some of my greatest treasures are the pictures that my kids took on our last trip--it's great to see things from their point of view. Wish I had done it wen they were younger.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I can't wait to see pics of that cake. It sounds so lovely.

I can only imagine you're having as much fun cooking up these plans as you will have with Goofy on the actual trip! This is the perfect thing for a "planner"! Goofy will love it!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Love, love love the idea of a photo scavenger hunt! And, the cake sounds amazing - can't wait to see it.

 

[LexisAuntieLala]

Hi Jay--

Day 3 sounds like another great one. I am sure Goofy is going to sooo appreciate what you have planned (or not planned) for him. I am sure the two of you will have an awesome time in MK. How can you not?!? And the scavenger hunt is a really cool idea I will definitely use once my niece gets a bit older. But definitely going to use your idea about a present from different characters under her pillow!

I too am a big fan of the cakes you pick out and fun cakes in general (think Food Network Challenge and Collette Peters)....I was even trying to think of a way to get a cool one for our pre-Christmas trip over at the Poly. I know for GR you have to be a guest or eat there, have to investigate what they will do there....My niece loves the taste of cake and I love the look of fun cakes (ok, the taste too)!!

 

[Nicole786]

Sounds like a perfect third day!