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KarenW2
09-04-2002, 11:40 PM
I seem to recall in one of the many discussions about spending your birthday at the DLR, that someone mentioned getting not just a birthday STICKER from City Hall or whatever, but that they had gotten a birthday BUTTON from the GCH or some other place. Does anyone know about this? Can you tell me what it is and where you got it? Is it only available at the GCH?

Also, is there any kind of birthday thing done at Disneyland or DCA for grown-ups? I've read all the info on the birthday celebrations that you can buy in the resort now, but they sound geared toward young children, with character interactions.

The reason I ask is, my birthday is next month, and my wonderful hubby is taking me to DLR, spending 2 nights on the concierge level of the DLH (we found concierge at the GCH for our 23rd anniversary very disappointing and want to try DLH's this time, hoping for a better result). We will do both parks and MouseAdventure for the third time, so I'm looking forward to it, since we've had such a good time at the other MA's. We'll also have dinner at the resort while there obviously, so I was wondering what I could look forward to.

I've never been one for character interactions, even when I was much younger, so that's why I was asking if there was anything for birthdays for grown-ups, since I'm well past my childhood. I know I'm dating myself here, but I've never been crazy about characters, ever since the Indian in the village grabbed my ponytail, when I was very young and told me he wanted it for his scalp belt!! Talk about a frightening experience!!

Any ideas of fun things to do while there to make my birthday special?

Thanks in advance for any info you can give me on this and the birthday BUTTON!!

Tigertail777
09-05-2002, 03:48 AM
Well here's a couple things: first is something special that can be done anytime, but a birthday would be even better.... Go on the Mark twain, try to get on as far ahead of everyone else you can, and go to the very top deck, ask the pilot in the cabin when you see him, if you can help pilot the boat. Even if he says not at that time, ask if you can get a pilots certificate (don't forget to tell him its your birthday). They don't always let people in the wheelhouse to pilot these days, but a b-day may be the exception... but even if they don't, if you ask nicely they will give you this beautiful framable pilots license with your name. (you may want to write your name and birthday on a slip of paper to hand to him it is hard to hear over all teh Twain's noise).

Secondly, if you eat at the Blue Bayou restaurant, (try to make reservations in advance which you can do by calling their dine # I think it is 1-800-481-DINE but am unsure, look on Mouseplanet here to make sure) tell them you will be willing to wait a little longer for a table by the water, usually they try to accomidate this and it is so worth it! Also tell them its your birthday, I beleive they have a special dessert just for birthdays that you get free (pretty sure on this).

OK I don't know too much about the park, but these are my recomendations. I hope you have a fabulous birthday, and may all your wishes come true.;)

mousey_girl
09-05-2002, 07:18 AM
The Boy has gotten birthday buttons from DLH and PPH. All I do is ask upon check in. I tell the registration clerk that we are down there to celebrate his b-day and they write his name on a button. He wears the button during the entire 3-4 days we are there!!

Berry Princess
09-05-2002, 06:45 PM
Just to add about the Blue Bayou. If you call ahead of time enough you should be up near the top of the list or at the top. Which means the closer you are to the top the more of a chance you have of sitting by the water. I called a bout 3 days ahead and was able to sit by the water for the first time. It was nice. I'm not sure what the do birthday wise thou.

KarenW2
09-05-2002, 10:29 PM
Thanks so much for the ideas so far! I'll be printing them out and giving them to my hubby, so he can read them. It may sound silly, but I'm really looking forward to this, cos I've never had a chance to spend my birthday at Disneyland and will finally get the chance!

roberts1398
09-06-2002, 09:25 AM
Doesn't sound silly at all to me, Karen! It sounds totally understandable. I've never been at DLR on my b-day, either, and I'd love to be. Our upcoming trip is just my son and I, to celebrate our two b-days. We're going to get b-day stickers (his one day, mine another) and pretend it's our b-day that day, even tho his is today (3 weeks pre-trip) and mine is about 3 weeks after the trip. But since it's in place of our b-day presents, I think it's only fair!!!

Betcha you'll be eating at Storytellers!!!

When are you going, again?

Diane

Pooh
09-06-2002, 09:36 PM
I've spent my last 3 birthdays in a row at the park, maybe even 4. The birthday sticker is key. All day, people said "Happy birthday." For my 31st, I decided to go on Maliboomer for the first time. The CM announced that it was a birthday special and then sang "Happy Birthday." I think the dessert at Blue Bayou was a chocolate pudding.
This summer, for my 32nd birthday, I had the pleasure of qualifying for Millionaire and actually getting past the 32,000 point mark.
Who cares what birthday you're celebrating?! Have a great time! My grandmother celebrated her 90th a few years back by riding Splash Mountain (her favorite) followed by Indiana Jones!

Allysen1Derland
09-07-2002, 04:49 AM
Originally posted by Pooh
Who cares what birthday you're celebrating?! Have a great time! My grandmother celebrated her 90th a few years back by riding Splash Mountain (her favorite) followed by Indiana Jones!

I love hearing that!! :) I so hope at 90 I'm still having a blast @ Disneyland! (Ooh! I wonder what DL will be like when I'm 90!!)

A Birthday celebrated at DL sounds like so much fun!

*the wheels in my head are spinning....*

I'll be celebrating the BIG "30" in January! :( :) I'm goin' all out for 30- I'm thinkin' 30 days of celebrating!! Which means one of those days needs to be the "Ally BIG 3-0 Birthday meet!"

Clear your calendars for January, Kiddies! Heehee! :D

saturday97
09-08-2002, 09:03 AM
I wish I could have a tea party with Alice for my 30th (next month)!!

Berry Princess
09-08-2002, 01:47 PM
I wish I could have a tea party with Alice for my 30th (next month)!!

That would be so cool! A tea party like the cartoon had. Can you imagine how fun that would be and how crazy!! LOL I have a couple more years to go before I am 30 but I'm more Strawberry Shortcake crazy so I can hope that if I was to have a party that it be a total 80s party. LOL But I would love to be able to spend a birthday at Disneyland. The last time I spent it close to that day I forgot to get my birthday sticker. :( And I did take my oldest son last year and got him one. I will do it with our baby too when he has his first birthday in March.

saturday97
09-08-2002, 04:21 PM
I'm with you on the 80's party-- Strawberry Shortcake is too cool!

But really, you'd think Disney could offer some kind of birthday deal for adults, even a package deal for Blue Bayou dinner and Fantasmic dessert buffet with a B-day keepsake of some sorts.

Maybe that would be a good idea for DCA-- since they serve alcohol-- margaritas with Mickey!! ;)

Bill Catherall
09-08-2002, 09:01 PM
Originally posted by saturday97
...margaritas with Mickey!! ;)
Or (for the guys) hors d'oeuvres with Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora. :D Dinner with the princesses! :cool:

And for the ladies...dinner with the princes.

Berry Princess
09-09-2002, 06:44 AM
I like the whole dinner or whatever with the princesses or princes. That would be kind of cool!

Krispe
09-09-2002, 05:13 PM
KarenW2, What is MouseAdventure?

Morrigoon
09-09-2002, 05:15 PM
I really like the Cinderella restaurant in DLP, that had a very grown-up approach to the whole princess fantasy thing going. I was a civilized, sit-down restaurant, with Cinderella stuff on the walls and wait staff dressed up like 18th century servants. Very nice :)

KarenW2
09-09-2002, 10:38 PM
Funny you guys should mention a tea party with Alice, as she's my all-time favorite Disney character and I collect her things. Funny too, that she's my favorite, as that ride used to give me nightmares when I was a kid! That was before they made it tamer and added a happier ending. Just last week, I finished reading both books - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. It's amazing to see how different the Disney film is from either of the REAL books! They took a little bit of both and added a lot of other things not in them.

Anyway, I think she'd be a great one to have as hostess for a tea party. Kinda like Mary Poppins, being that they're both English and all. My girlfriend Nancy's sister Elaine was Alice, when we were in high school and she worked at DL. She made a great Alice, with her very own long, blond hair!

Krispe, MouseAdventure is the trivia/scavenger hunt thing that MousePlanet runs twice a year. If you look at the home page here, there should be a link to the info. I'm not a computer expert, so I don't know how to make a link here for it, sorry! It's a lot of fun and hard work, running around DL all day, trying to find answers to puzzles, photos and questions. This will be our third one and we're hoping to do better than the last 2 tries. The couple we had on our first team wasn't as good as the one we had last time and are playing with again this time, so even if we don't score better this time, we'll still have a lot of fun.

Morrigoon, the Cinderella dinner you described sounds like something I'd love to do!

Thanks again for the ideas and info and please keep it coming!!

Tigertail777
09-09-2002, 10:50 PM
I cannot remember for the life of me how Alice used to be and what they changed (though I KNOW stuff was changed it was definately diffferent when I went compared to 10 years ago). Can you describe in detail what used to be there? I just cannot remember.

Sophie832
09-10-2002, 12:54 AM
Has anyone had "Happy Birthday" sung to them by Goofy?

I was at D-land this past year for my b-day, and a nice CM at the Gallery asked me that question...when I said no, she dialed a number on the phone, and then put Goofy on speakerphone singing "Happy Birthday"!

That, plus all the CMs that said Happy Birthday, really made the day special.

It started right at the gate when they scanned my AP...it actually says Happy Birthday on the screen in front of the CM. I thought that was very cool.

Definitely get at least a sticker, though. Ya gotta wear something so all the CMs know it's your b-day. Who knows what will happen.

saturday97
09-10-2002, 10:33 AM
Karen W2--
I read both of the Alice books in elementary school and memorized Jabberwocky! I'm slightly obsessed!:)

Alice would make a great tea hostess, and I think some little girls would be glad to know that they don't have to be a princess to be a special girl!!

KarenW2
09-10-2002, 10:48 AM
I agree with you, Saturday97!! You always see all the "princess" things all over the place, but very seldom do you see anything with Alice! I also noticed that Alice is the only one NOT rescued by a Prince!! She doesn't even have a "love interest"!! A bit young I'd think, but she was still able to make it thru her adventures/challenges unaided.

She's more of an independent girl's role model and I think she deserves better treatment! :D

Tigertail777, the ride was much scarier if you ask me, before the re-do in 1984 or 1986. Not sure if they've made other changes after that first major one. They used to have much louder music, things seemed to pop out at you much more often, they used to have the upside-down room that's not there anymore, they didn't have the "un-birthday party" happier ending, etc. The whole ride was much more "intense", from an emotional standpoint. Maybe some others can add other changes if they know of any, that's all I can think of, off-hand.

mandi2728
09-10-2002, 01:21 PM
:)

TaraRebeka
09-11-2002, 01:59 PM
Hi Karen,

My husband and I just got back last night from celebrating my 30th in the park. Although we didn't stay at on of the resort hotels this trip, he still went out of his way to make it spectacular.
We arrived Saturday night for our Fantasmic! reservations (don't forget to call a month ahead of time if you want the terrace, we always manage to get on the dock). We went to City Hall to ask about our tickets for the show and had the misfortune of running into someone who didn't know what she was talking about. She told us we didn't need tickets for the show (and she totally understood we had reserved seating). This struck us as odd, but we went to the dock anyway to check in. Sure enough, they told us we most definitely needed tickets, but luckily my husband had his trip 'cheat sheet' with the confirmation number. So, we spent about 5 minutes chit-chatting with some CMs while they looked up our number. They had asked for it again and I offered to read it from the paper, but my husband wouldn't let me have it because it had birthday info on it. The CM must have noted this, because what followed was a surprise to both of us.
After we were seated and served, a CM came and asked my husband to follow her because there was one more thing she needed to confirm us. That's when she milked him for info.
So, about 5 minutes prior to showtime, Bora, the aforementioned CM, makes an announcement about someone celebrating a birthday. I assumed it was someone else, as mine wasn't until the next day. But sure enough, she meant me. They threw silver star confetti, brought me this scrumptious mini chocolate cake with candle, slapped on an 'Honorary Citizen' sticker and had a large portion of the audience sing to me.
That was extremely cool.
We couldn't figure out how they knew it was my birthday until the next day when I remembered having said something.
On Sunday we had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen and my husband had called ahead and ordered a special cake for me (GK was one of the few places they could do that). On the phone he had mentioned that it was just the 2 of us, and they said the cake serves 4-6, he said 'that's ok, we're both fat'. :D
I got a birthday bag of tricks there and a birthday pin, balloons, etc. However, we had never been to Storyteller's before, and I think that's what we'll do for his birthday (we've had our fill of character dining for the year).
Of course, I had the City Hall sticker for the day, and over at Star Trader I got my birthday call. And to top it all off, we also managed to run into Maynard at the Tiki Room.
So, sorry to be so long winded, but hopefully that will give your husband some ideas. Don't forget to mention that my husband let me pick everything we got to do and offered to buy me the moon and stars (well, not quite, but you get the idea).

;)

KarenW2
09-11-2002, 04:58 PM
Sounds like you had a very happy birthday indeed!! As I was reading your birthday report, I thought you were going to say they escorted you up to the Disney Gallery seating for Fantasmic, instead of the dock seating, because it was your birthday. What a nice surprise for you at the dock tho!!

Definitely do go to Storyteller's Cafe!! It's the best deal for the meals, service and price in all of the DLR, in our humble opinion. We've never had a bad meal there yet!!

I'll be printing your reply and the others our and "sharing" them with my husband.

Thanks again all!

saturday97
09-11-2002, 06:30 PM
Have a great time, Karen!!

Ace
09-11-2002, 08:23 PM
Originally posted by Pooh
My grandmother celebrated her 90th a few years back by riding Splash Mountain (her favorite) followed by Indiana Jones!

1) You have cool relatives.
2) Please, please, please, please, please, please, please let me be like that at 90! That's all I ask!