We are leaving aug. 30th for WDW. This is also my sons 13th birthday. We are planning to go to the Luau on sept 1 and plan on celebrating his birthday there. Has anyone ever celebrated a birthday party at the world? If so please give me some advice on how to plan it. Thanks!

Max had his 5th Birthday at WDW. We had dinner at Coral Reef that night and I arranged for the diver to come down in the tank to our table with a special birthday banner for him. It was very cool and he was thrilled with the special attention.

Most importantly, get him a birthday button!

Yes - I was going to mention the pin also. Go to Guest Services in any of the parks and ask them for it. :) Cast Members are sure to make a fuss when they see it. My Uncle was there during his 50th birthday and a bunch of CMs approached him about it....even let him on certain rides right away....he was so happy!

We are leaving on the 30th and will be at the Luau on the 1st as well! My birthday is the 3rd, so my official birthday dinner will be Narcoossee's! YUM!

At any rate, here is the key to a fab birthday trip:

Stretch it out a little. For my birthday, which I have celebrated in both DLR and WDW, I allowed myself one day at EACH PARK to celebrate my birthday. Simply put, each park will have unique ways of celebrating you, and you don't want to miss out on experiencing that. So at each park, ONCE, I asked for a birthday button at the gate. At the time, they had differnet styles of buttons for each park, but I hear they are all the same now...so you can just ask for one once, and wear it in the different parks.

Anyway, wear your button. Enjoy the fun that ensues. For instance, at my birthday day at AK, the entire staff at Pizzafari sang me Happy Birthday, and brought my mini-pizza out with a candle in it and a Magical Moments certificate signed by all of them! SO above and beyond! That is one of my favorite memories. And they all were smiling and obviously loving the opportunity to make me so thrilled with the surprise! :)

On any reservation you make--hotel or special dinner--tell them you are celebrating a birthday. For instance, when we checked in to our hotel, they had balloons and a Magic Moments certificate waiting for me at the desk! That was unexpected (so don't expect it, but telling them about the celebration is the only way to have a chance!). At my birthday dinner, I got a free dessert. It was so very sweet.

Ultimately, just take every opportunity to make it known you are celebrating a birthday, so to up your chances of magical things happening! But don't EXPECT things--that is the surest way to be let down.

Just to add, you can also get the birthday buttons at any of the resort hotels. You should be able to get them when you check in, and if it's on your reservation, you MAY not even have to ask!

make sure to mention it to the CM at check in, you will likely receive a birthday card from Mickey and friends, heck you might even get some balloons.

Actual birthday cakes are also available for birthdays at most of the TS. I don't know about the Luau, but you can call and ask. They range from simple round cakes with sugar Mickeys for about $10.00 up to "custom shape" cakes for about $25.00. We celebrated DS 5th birthday at Crystal Palace, and got one of the round cakes. Pooh and the gang brought it to thetable, a CM lit the candles, and pretty much everybody sang Happy Birthday. He got a card from Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet, lots of extra hugs and kisses, and our waiter gave him a pin from his Lanyard for his birthday. What I realy liked best was the table was covered in streamers, and everyone really went out of their way to wish him Happy Birthday. (he did have his birthday button on.) DS was just floored, and he made our waiter sit down and have a piece of cake with us, and also left cake for Pooh and friends. It really was a great night, and the only "extra" cost was the cake...the rest was on the DDP.:D

Thanks for all your wonderful advice!

hello everyone

Is it okey to make ADR's on different days and mention that someone in that party is having a bithday??? my daughter is turning 6 during our next vacation and i want to make it a week long celebration by making ADRs to character dinners and celebrate her birthday at each of the parks. I also wanted to know if she can wear the pin all week long???

yes and yes

Oh yeah! We were just there for my roommate's 23rd. The CM's could tell that she was a little embarrassed that they were making a fuss over her so they made an even bigger fuss! Further, they insisted that she wear her birthday button all week. I knew about it in advance so I had it noted on all our dinner reservations too! Lots of the sit-down places will give you a cupcake with a candle in it, and some of the counter service places will give you a cookie! Everybody loves to make a big deal over the birthday boy or girl. Even security guards got in on the act, singing to her as they were searching bags on our entrance into the park! And another family with a birthday boy in it sang to her on a bus! There are all sorts of special surprises they can do for you, just have fun with it and keep wearing that button! We made her wear it everywhere except our nice dinners at Victoria & Albert's and The California Grill, but those places are nice enough to be completely on top of their games. They know full well who's sitting at the table and who's birthday it is before a waiter even approaches (although a casual mention to a maitre'd never hurts)! She also got a card signed by Jack Sparrow at the Coral Reef and a cards signed by various characters at check-in at our resort (Port Orleans Riverside, but it doesn't matter, they can do it anywhere) as well as character dining at Crystal Palace . Beyond all that, I think you can still take a little one to City Hall for a birthday call from the big MM himself. Have a great time, I'm sure they'll make it truly special for you!:D

Edited to add: my answer is just the long version of BradK's! :)

thank you so much for your replies, is there anything special done at the resorts????

Simple but nice. Since everybody has covered the other stuff I was going to talk about with my birthday experience I will tell you one unique thing that happened. We happened to have some post it's with us and in the morning my husband wrote out happy birthday on each of the post its and put them on the mirror while I was in the shower. Not only was it a nice surprise from him but when we returned to our hotel room after a long day at the parks there was a towel boquet of roses from our mousekeepers with a happy birthday note and candy :) It's so fun when they leave there talented towel configurations, and this one was extra nice to come back to!

When the Future President of Disneyland turned 3, we were at WDW, staying at the Polynesian. We received a surprise of a balloon bouquet and cake in our room one day, and that was very lovely.

The Luau had all the birthday people in the audience come on stage and dance a little hula. My daughter thought that was really fun and made her feel special.

My parents were with us on that trip, and we were also celebrating my dad's 80th birthday. We did the cruise on the lagoon to watch fireworks and had a birthday cake on that cruise. It was nice!

My friend and I celebrated our 24th birthdays in WDW. We wore our buttons the entire time we were there and mentioned it at most of our meals. When we checked in we told them when our birthdays were and both recieved balloons and a card signed by Mickey and friends.

If you go to the city hall in the Magic Kingdom tell them it's your birthday and would like to talk to Goofy. My friend actually was able to do this from first aid when I hurt my toe, so maybe they can do this other places too.

SO, wear your button the entire time, tell everyone you see, and enjoy! Also, we made an effort to say "Happy Birthday" to other button wearers. You will find strangers wishing you a happy day, so do the same for them!

If you go to the city hall in the Magic Kingdom tell them it's your birthday and would like to talk to Goofy. My friend actually was able to do this from first aid when I hurt my toe, so maybe they can do this other places too.

SO, wear your button the entire time, tell everyone you see, and enjoy! Also, we made an effort to say "Happy Birthday" to other button wearers. You will find strangers wishing you a happy day, so do the same for them!

My sister got a call at the Sports shop in DTD, so I think they can do it from anywhere within the Disney phone system.

We would say Happy Birthday to random people all the time - I think it makes WDW seem a little more like a small town when random strangers do things like that for/to each other!

Do you ask for the call??

Do you ask for the call??

In my sisters case, she didn't. We were buying a shirt for our 6 month old nephew ("I watch ESPN with my Daddy" - totally adorable shirt!) and she had her pin on and the guy helping us told her he had a 'cousin' that wanted to talk to her.

I'd say, if you haven't been in a place where it was convinent for you to be offered the call by the end of her birthday, descreetly ask at the concierge desk in your hotel and then 'convinently walk her by there' or something like that. For an adult, I would just wait for the magic, but I think with a 6 year old it'd be ok for the parent to help with the sprinkling of the pixie dust.

Just had my birthday there in Sep. Tracy made me wear that damn button, but it was kinda cool having everybody wish you a Happy Birthday. And at one point a cast member asked me, "Where are you from?"
"San Francisco."
"Keith from San Francisco, yep, you're the one!"
He then brought me to a phone, dialed a number, and handed it to me. It was Mickey wishing me a happy bday. It was kinda cute. :p

hello everyone

Is it okey to make ADR's on different days and mention that someone in that party is having a bithday??? my daughter is turning 6 during our next vacation and i want to make it a week long celebration by making ADRs to character dinners and celebrate her birthday at each of the parks.

There was a thread about this a year or so back, and it turned into an interesting discussion. The thing I'd most worry about is that you're basically telling your child to lie. Sure, it's a little thing, and no harm is done, and Disney is happy to make a big fuss over birthday kids. But is it asking too much of a 6 year old to say, day after day for 7 days, that it's my birthday today? I would suggest that you tell your daughter that you're celebrating her birthday all week long, but that she doesn't need to say that today's my birthday, every day of the week. I think it's ok to spread out the celebration, as long as you remain honest about it.

I wasn't implying that she say her birthday was on each day we were there, what i was asking was should i mention that someone in the party is at WDW in part to celebrate a birthday ( a birthday trip), a week long celebration. I mean i know is not uncommon to have people go to disney and celebrate a birthday that has already passed or is going to come sometime down the road and they just can't make it on their actual birthday, does that make them liars???? I don't think so , for some people is not possible ( for a multitude of reasons) to go on that day, so should they not feel special when they go to celebrate their birthday (whenever or for as long as they wish)???? besides my child will be turning 6 yrs she is not going to make the reservations and speak to the mc's about her birhtday arrangements, that'll be me and im sure if she is asked she will be able to say my birthday already passed but i will be celebrating as long as im in disney.

...im sure if she is asked she will be able to say my birthday already passed but i will be celebrating as long as im in disney.

I didn't mean to offend, but I feel strongly that some kids are indeed asked to lie about their birthday. As long as she's just saying that she's celebrating all week, I think that's just fine. Have fun!

Thank you Danyoung, i didnt think people would ask their children to lie about their birthday, i always assumed that if someone ( adult or child) is wearing the button or gets the restaurants to celebrate their birthday was because they were truly celebrating. what's the point of lying???it doesn't make it special and in my case i would feel guilty for pretending. I have read your reports they are really great and I guess i did feel a little offended:mad:, but maybe i didn't explain myself right in my other posts. I'm glad i was able to clear things up and thank for all the great advice:D.

Thank you Danyoung, i didnt think people would ask their children to lie about their birthday, i always assumed that if someone ( adult or child) is wearing the button or gets the restaurants to celebrate their birthday was because they were truly celebrating. what's the point of lying???it doesn't make it special and in my case i would feel guilty for pretending. I have read your reports they are really great and I guess i did feel a little offended:mad:, but maybe i didn't explain myself right in my other posts. I'm glad i was able to clear things up and thank for all the great advice in your other posts and threads:D.

Hope you can give me some specific advice on christmas week vacation.thank you