The entertainment for our luncheon:
Okay, forgive me for having been too sick to share before now. Earlier this week,
I had the most exciting call with both a lady from their convention planning services group (that's who even small groups have to book through) and a wonderfully creative man from their entertainment group. WOW
I am so outclassed!!
Disney doesn't claim to be a magical place for nothing!! It is the cast members with their endless creativity that make it come to life.
Here is a rundown of our discussion:
First, the chef is now "in holding" on our menu waiting to hear back what our theme will be. After he has the theme of our luncheon, he will then create a personalized menu. Even if it's just to bend the names of things to fit the theme, he will make sure that the food, the menu, the service, all of it works flawlessly within the theme (OH MY GOODNESS...how cool is that!?
). So still no news on the food front, but for a really fun reason.
Second, they asked me what theme I wanted to run with. I was a bit speechless as my only thought was a relaxed bbq. I sputtered something about maybe having a pirate hunt at the end, having magician or caricature artist or ??? or maybe just a character coming to visit. Well, they stopped me and said that was possible...but let's aim higher
. They told me to stop and tell them a bit about our group. Likes, dislikes, wants, favorite things, etc....
What follows are the four ideas they created for me within minutes while on the phone call (and they said if those themes didn't fit us,they would go back to the drawing board).
I will list them in reverse order of my current favorites (I am keeping back my final choices until I see prices on these things):
1. Lakeside carnival with a twist. For that idea they suggested theming the lunch part to a carnival picnic. We would have booths set up for the kids to play games and a paint splatter art project to work on. He said no more then three booths...but the reason I list this as our last choice is that it still seems way busy to me...but the upside is that at a carnival, elephant ears and funnel cake could definitely make the menu!
Toward the end of the luncheon a carnival barker would have them play one last game and then award them a prize which was a treasure map....the treasure map would lead them to the Grand 1 and then off we would go on our cruise...with a fun themed dessert. **NOTE THAT EVEN MY LEAST FAVORITE OF THEIR IDEAS STILL TOTALLY ROCKS AND WOULD BE ENDLESS FUN!!**
2.Pirate Picnic. For that idea they suggested a pirate streetmosphere actor who would interact with our party at various times throughout the entire luncheon. At the end, he would start the kids on a treasure hunt by telling one last story...the story would end with the legend of something buried on the beach near our location and he would encourage them to look for it. They would find a buried clue hunt which would lead them to the Grand 1 and then off we would go on our cruise...with a treasure themed/pirate themed dessert.
3.Street Fair. Sort of a middle Eastern themed ta-do. It would be like having a picnic in Aagraba (spelling?). We would have carnival type booths themed more to Aladdin's time period. The kids would enjoy those at their leisure during our meal time and then at the very end, Aladdin would appear. He would do as private meet and greet with the kids and then set them off on an adventure. Again, that would lead to the Grand one and then off we would go on our cruise...with a treasure/genie in a bottle themed dessert.
4.All American Picnic BBQ Luncheon with a twist. Basically what it says. A relaxed luncheon with the sort of very laid back feel of a lakeside bbq/picnic with friends (exactly what it is). During the luncheon the kids would get to work on that same paint splatter art project but other then that, they would just be playing together in the sand and hanging out as would the adults. It would be kept very low key. Toward the end of the luncheon a huge shift would take place. As we are wrapping up our time there, a streetmosphere actor themed as an adventurer would appear. He would be being chased by the "bad guys" and he would be in need of our help. After the kids saw him being chased across the sand on the beach nearby, he would double back and give them a satchel or ??? (or maybe something else instead) and tell them he needed their help in completing an important quest/keeping the satchel or ??? (insert other object) safe from the "bad guys". At this point the kids would solve a series of riddles/challenges to get us to the yacht. Each child would have at least one item to find, act to complete or puzzle to figure out. This would lead us to the Grand 1 and off we would go on our cruise...with an adventure themed dessert.
You might notice that a character meet and greet is missing for 3 of the 4 ideas...each of the above ideas has a special meet and greet with a character as an option at the dock once they complete the treasure hunt adventure type activity. For the carnival idea, it would be a Mickey Mouse greeting at the dock. For the pirate idea it would be Pirate Mickey Mouse or Peter Pan meeting us at the dock. For the Aladdin idea it would be Abu meeting us at the dock. For the adventurer idea it would be Sailor Mickey meeting us at the dock (doesn't fit in the theme, but it sounded great for a yacht side meet and greet). All of the character meet and greets are options only at this point due to the cost of incorporating them within the other ideas. Also, I got to thinking, what would the kids like more, a grand adventure or 20 minutes with a character? I came to the sad conclusion that all of the kids would enjoy the adventure more.
Sniff, sniff, I myself would have voted character all the way.
There really is no accounting for taste.
How amazing are all of those ideas?! I cannot wait to get pricing back on them to have some real choices to get down to making. What magical minds Disney does employ!
In discussing our event, they told me about other events that had been planned, pirates "kidnapping" a dad and then the family had to go on a hunt to find him...Haunted Mansion themed parties complete with pumpkins and ghoulish servers. Basically, if you could dream it, it's possible and honestly, they came up with twenty million times more creative ideas then I could have even had I thought for days of nothing else (oh wait...
I did do that!
).
You missed out on 4 WDW TRIPS??? FOUR of them??? How did that happen....4???? You know what that means to all your loyal fans, don't ya Jay???? OMG IT MEANS "WE ALL" MISSED OUT ON 4 ADDITIONAL TR's!!!!! Sad but it's okay because you have that beautiful new son of yours and like you said, it was WELL WORTH IT!!!!
I kinda like the idea of a Dad being "kidnapped", but then he would miss seeing the kids have all that fun.
Why didn't I get more "sneaky" ability?
There is a country song about that very thing, and although I can't remember the name, it talks about those who come through for us in dark times. My best friend, Sharon, lives in Pittsburgh and she was the greatest support for me when I was giong through treatment. She somehow knew exactly what to say, when to make me laugh and when to cry with me. I felt blessed to have discovered "her" after more than 30 years of friendship. I could not have gotten through without her. 
I love all the ideas and just know that your family would enjoy any of them. The huge "shift" at the end in option #4 would be a blast. Soooo much fun!!!! (Someone needs to videotape that....I vote for your DH...hahaha)
