Hi,
We celebrated our son's 11th bday with a combination of our own ideas and tips from this board - decorated our room, birthday badge.
We made him a bday tshirt with photos of him throughout his life his favorite things - Donald Duck, basketball, etc. He wore the shirt (it took a little convincing at his advanced age) all day and everywhere he went someone stopped him, wished him a happy bday, broke out in song, bugs buzzed at him in Animal Kingdom and all of them gave him a small wrapped gift. All the gifts were part of a monopoly game and it took him all day to figure it out.
During the day one of us ran ahead of our group and asked different CMs and characters and the band at Caribbean Beach to give him the gifts. It was so much fun watching his face. Breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosauros - Donald slipped him the first gift - a Donald pin.
He really loved that shirt!!
Our daughter turned 9 the following year and since Pooh is her favorite we took her to Wilderness Lodge. She also had a bday shirt and a matching one for her best friend doll. The characters were awesome - her doll's shirt was wrapped and Pooh helped her open it and dress her doll. You should have seen her face - she was in heaven.
We brought a Pooh flag and a sharpie marker and Pooh and friends all wrote Happy Birthday messages on her flag.
My best advice - have it at least a little planned before you go so you're not disappointed. Some people have such great bday stories and others sometimes feel slighted. If you do something to make it happen anything else that does happen is extra special :