We just got back from our daughter's birthday weekend celebration. She turned 4 and we were there from Saturday through Monday. I read all the suggestions on the boards and pretty much tried to include them all!
We were staying onsite so I used Vacation Planning to arrange the birthday basket in our room upon arrival and asked that all our priority seatings be noted for a birthday celebration. Also at check in, they had an autographed photo waiting for her, her birthday button, and some stickers.
On Saturday night we ate at Tortilla Jo's and had a great server (thanks, Alfonso!). The mariacchi band came around to our table and sang Happy Birthday in both English and Spanish, then also sang "it's a small world". We then headed over to Build-a-Bear where I had scheduled a birthday party for her and her cousins. We don't have a Build-a-Bear in the town where we live but we've been to one. Our daughter was actually hoping to have a Build-a-Bear party before we thought to go to
Disneyland for her birthday so this was great we could also incorporate this into her Disneyland birthday weekend. The store, of course, was incredibly busy so while I thought the party leader was rushing us through the party, the girls still had a fantastic time choosing their bears and getting them dressed. At the very end of the party our daughter came downstairs, rang a bell, and the whole store sang happy birthday to her. She was beaming!
On Sunday we scheduled the Happiest Birthday Celebration at the Plaza Inn at 2:00. We had 22 people in our party (lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grammy, and grandpa)! While I was focused on trying to get pictures of everyone in the party decorating their cakes I wasn't paying attention to Pat E. Cake, but afterwards my husband had said he wasn't impressed with his performance and actually thought some of his comments were inappropriate for little kids! I'll have to re-listen to the video because I wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying! They didn't do any other special games or anything, it was just pretty much the cake decorating contest. I was somewhat disappointed that the cast members didn't do a better job at controlling who was entering the private party area. As we waited to get our daughter's picture with Minnie and Mickey, one gentleman and his daughter were asked to leave because they hadn't paid and it was a private party. He just stood there and the cast member didn't do anything else to try and get them to leave. Then there was the group of 4 who came in through the gate that leads to the bathrooms. They sat down and were served everything we had despite not having the hand stamp indicating they had paid. It certainly didn't interfere with our party, but it still just didn't seem right that people were getting the same treatment that I paid $10 each for!
Later that evening we went to Storyteller's Cafe for dinner with our party of 22. I had several conversations with management at this restaurant because our party size was so big, but everything turned out great! Some ordered off the buffet and some off the menu. The kids all ordered the make your own pizzas which were really cute. I also arranged for a cake to be delivered to our table and they sang happy birthday. Not only was it my daughter's birthday, but both of my brother-in-laws, my mom, and a family friend. So the birthday cake here was to celebrate all the April birthdays.
On Monday, our last day, we went to City Hall and had our daughter pick up the special "birthay message" phone. She loved it and was grinning from ear to ear. The very last thing we did before having to leave the parks was dinner over at Ariel's Grotto. I arranged for the birthday bucket here, which they delivered at the end of our meal. In hindsight, I wish we would have gone by the Princess Fantasy Faire and had her hair all made up before heading over to Ariel's. I didn't realize they had the pictures with Ariel before they seat you at your table, much like they do at Cinderella's Royal Table at Disney World. It would have been nice to have her hair all pretty for the pictures!
Anyways, she loved all the attention she got at all the restaurants, and when she wore the pin she got lots of "happy birthday" greetings from the cast members. The characters we saw would say happy birthday, but they didn't leave any special "happy birthday" messages in her autograph book. All in all I think there were lots of wonderful birthday memories made!
I hope your daughter has a great time!
would be appreciated. Thanks!
Thanks again and let me know if you think of anything else.
