Adding extra special touches - birthdays too

[BurnsideMommy]

I've learned SO much about WDW on this board. We've only been to DL. We have a chance to take ONE day at WDW after our cruise so we're making the most of it. Last minute planning had been good to us though thus far.

I need some criticing and advice on our super short trip.

We'll take advantage of celebrating our 3 kids birthdays while we're there. Austin will have turned 6 a week before we get there, and Hunter will turn 4 only 5 days after we leave, and Kiara turns 2 a week after we leave.

We're going to order Hunter a Mickey cake, Kiara a Minnie head cake, and unknown (hopefully Buzz?!) cake for Austin. Either to our room at GF, or possibly after our Dinner at Chef Mickeys.

We get off our cruise ship May 4 - and will be trying hard to get off in the first group between 7 - 7:30am. Taking a shuttle directly to GF to check in, dump luggage with bag check folks, and head straight into MK. We've been told we *could* be in the park as early at 10am possibly a bit later since we have 3 young kids and who knows what can happen LOL.

We'll spend the day in MK on Sunday May 4 - they have the extra late hours that night which might be neat if we can get the kids to nap LOL.

Dinner that night at Chef Mickeys at 5pm, then back to the park. We've notified on our ADR that we'll be celebrating birthdays.

Next morning May 5, we have 9am breakfast at 1900 Park Fare.

Then we're not sure what to do. DTD in Disneyland never interested us much other than World of Disney. We might wander WDW DTD just for fun. I'd like to get the boys on that pirate adventure thing at the GF but haven't called yet to see if there's a shot in hell for that.

Will they hold our bags once we've checked our, and let us use the pool?

We fly out of MCO at 5:45pm. I'm guessing they'll (they being the Magic shuttle express) will have us leaving the GF at 2:45pm. So after breakfast we have over 4 hours to wander outside the parks.

Since we're doing this so short, and for the kids birthdays I'm trying to make it super special. Aside from the cakes, I've got folks custom making Mickey & Minnie outfits for them. They've already got their 'ears' hats with names on them ready to go. I'd like to pick up a Pal Mickey in the parks. We've got custom made scrapbooked autograph albums ready to go.

What else can we do that's a fun extra? Would they put balloons or signed pictures in our room for us? What about if we had a pillow case & fabric pens to leave at the front desk - would they be able to get characters signatures on them in the short 24 hours we're there?

Where can I order stuff to deliver to the room?

Oh, and my Mom (aged 50) will be with us, but likely not going into the park. What can we offer for her to do? It's her 50th bday on April 17th, so I thought about getting her a spa gift certificate for on the cruise - should I maybe get it for the GF spa instead? Couple hours of pampering sounds nice. I want to do something special for her - she had a stroke early Feb and is now living with us until further notice - so she's coming on vacation with us too.

There's so much info on these boards - our next WDW trip will definately be planned out WAY further in advance with a longer stay LOL - I can't stop reading and keep learning new stuff.

 

[newtodis]

Wow it already sounds like you have a lot of ideas! There's also a "tea" with Alice in Wonderland characters-I found the info for that here on the dis boards so I'm sure someone can chime in on that. My limited knowledge of it is that you can drop the kids off for an hour and they get to have lunch and make cupcakes with the gang from Alice. That might be fun too. You could also do the photo option at the GF (rumor has it possibly at the Poly in the near future). If you're doing the photopass (I don't know if you can do that on the cruise and add the park day to that) you can add the GF photos to that for a small additional fee. A good chance to get a nice family photo or grandma with the kids.

As for birthday "treats" I'd love to hear more ideas on that too! We're celebrating DH and DS's while we're there in September. You're only going to be there for a short time, but try and stop in guest relations or at the hotel, to get the birthday buttons for a few extra "happy birthdays!"

HTH a little bit...

 

[JerseyMamaBear]

Becareful with planning around such an early debarking time from the ship. We have been on a bunch of cruises and we have not once cleared customs until 10am, sometimes later. Then they escort you off in order of deck you stayed on. Its a real pain. We did my sons 10th suprise b-day at Chef Mickeys and they make a big deal out of it for you usually when they bring out a cake you ordered. Have fun and enjoy your cruise