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CAST: Me, DH, DD - Deanna (turned 5), DD - Jessica (2) and DD's friend on Friday
WHEN: Friday November 8, Saturday November 9 - 11
For our DD's 5th birthday we decided to allow her to bring one friend with her to her DL birthday party. This was to be a special treat not only for DD, but also for DD's friend who had lost her mother when she was a baby. As chance would have it, Friday was the first day this year when it rained/drizzled all day. We picked the girls up after school and headed for DL in spite of the rain.
The DL B-Day party which is normally held in the outside dining area of Plaza Inn was moved in-doors due to the rain. It was as much fun as we thought it would be, I'd HIGHLY recommend it. The event costs $10.00 per guest over 3, and is an hour long although guests can stay as long as they like if there isn't another B-Day party scheduled for the day. The host was funny and kept all the
guest laughing throughout the party. Each guest was given a cake with colored icing and sprinkles to decorate, and had punch in a souvenir Birthday cup in addition to being offered hot chocolate. A party hat was given to each guest and the birthday guest was given a birthday name tag sticker. Mickey and Minnie visited each table and wished everyone happy birthday. Before the end of the party, everyone had a chance to take a picture with Mickey and Minnie and given balloons. Since we were the last to leave, and since there wasn't another party scheduled for the day, the CMs decided to give us the rest of the balloons, all 16 of them!!! The kids loved the balloons, but we looked like balloon salesmen and the balloons were not easy to handle in the wind and rain. We ended up giving all the balloons away except for one.
The children went on three rides before we decided that we didn't want to chance them catching a cold. Although we were all wearing ponchos and had umbrellas, there was no way around sitting on cold, wet seats of the outdoor rides. We ended up leaving at 5 p.m. and headed to Chuck-E-Cheese where it was dry to finish the night.
Saturday we had the birthday party for Deanna at Chuck-E-Cheese for family/friends at noon and afterwards I drove towards DL telling Dh and Dds that I needed to pick up something. Well, I did. I went to the Jolly Roger's Inn and picked up our room keys :-) My original plan was to stay at one of the DL resorts, but by the time I cooked up the idea a few weeks ago, the only rooms left were concierge at the DL Hotel and I just couldn't justify paying close to $300 per night to stay less than 20 min. from our house. So instead, I got on Priceline and got the two night stay at Jolly Rogers for $40 per night. Dh and Dds were really surprised by the stay and though the room was small and not Disney, it was clean, comfortable and the staff were friendly. They also had free shuttle service to DL which we didn't utilize.
Sunday, the actual date of DD's B-day, turned out to be a wonderfully beautiful day. We had PS at Goofy's Kitchen at 9:15 a.m. and we were seated about 5 min. after we arrived. This was one of the locations for the AP dining pin, so we got a Beauty LE pin when we showed our AP for discounts. The table was decorated with balloons and birthday hats were given to each of us. Dd was given a Goofy's Kitchen Birthday pin and a bag with a mini maraca, a foam puzzle and a Goofy pen (all included in the Goofy's Birthday Bag). The food was great as usual, and more brunch than breakfast with more than 1/2 of the buffet what I would consider lunch/dinner menu. Jasmine, Goofy, Pluto, Alice and Mad Hatter visited our table and Mad Hatter presented DD with her Birthday Bucket then sang her the SHORT B-day song ("This is your birthday song it isn't very long" and that was it). Dd thoroughly enjoyed the attention and food.
Note: This is our third visit to Goofy's Kitchen and we've now experienced it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. IMHO, as far as Character interaction goes, it is the best (out of Goofy's/Avalon/Chip & Dale - we haven't tried Minnie's or Pooh) and the best time of the day to visit would be a late lunch. We saw more characters than we could remember during our lunch at Goofy's, perhaps due to the overlap of character work schedules. It was great.
After breakfast we roamed around DL hotel looking at all the sceneries and Christmas decorations for a while (with the girls constantly asking "are we lost? I think we're lost") then headed to DTD to see Santa Clause II. We all enjoyed the movie and thought it was cute. We love going to DTD to see movies because it is the only movie theater around that provides theater booster seats for the little ones. After the movie we stopped at the Rainforest Café for lunch before hopping on the monorail into DL. We were seated immediately at RC, gotta love that Safari Card :-) We weren't expecting anything special, but I guess the birthday pin on DD was a huge clue. a birthday sundae was brought to DD at the end of the meal and she was in heaven with birthday celebrations and congratulations left and right throughout the weekend.
When we finally got into DL we noticed how crowded it was. Seems everyone decided to visit DL this day since it was raining the last couple of days. There were people everywhere and all the lines were long. We got FP for Small World, roamed Toon Town and saw the Minnie's Christmas Party show. Although we didn't go on many rides, it didn't feel like we were missing out on anything. Just roaming around DL on such a beautiful day is tons of fun in itself. Because it is rare that we get to DL so early and stay so long, by 7 p.m., the kiddies were exhausted. We went back to the hotel room for a nap after dinner, and didn't make it out again till the next morning.
Monday came and it was time to check out and go home. Although we live so close and go to DL so often, staying at a hotel made it seem different somehow. It felt like we were on a mini-vacation and both girls begged for us to stay longer. With sadness in our hearts and a promise to the girls that we will repeat our experience again in January for Jessica's birthday, we bid adieu to our little stay - Until next time...
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