Disney Quickie Part 4 - Shane’s Birthday with Mickey and “hey, it’s Regis and Kelly!” About This Page:

[TiggGrrrl]

Date: Thursday, December 6, 2001

Adventurers: Me - TiggGrrrl AKA Jeannie
DH - Joseph
DS - Shane

Resort: All Star Movies

Celebration: Our 5th Anniversary 12/3 and DS's First Birthday 12/6!

No wake up call today since we figured we’d be up late for MVMCP and didn’t want to get up too early. Got up, dressed, ready and out by 10:30 and headed over to the Magic Kingdom to get Shane his “Today is my Birthday” pin from City Hall – very cute! The CM presented him with his pin and some stickers, then played him a message from Goofy on her speakerphone, it was really sweet and fun. I put his pin on and was delighted that he decided to wear it and not try to pull it off – okay, I admit it, at this age it was more important to Mommy than it was to him…but it was so cute! Every CM that saw it wished him happy birthday and some gave him stickers.

As we came out of City Hall we saw Regis and Kelly right in front of the Christmas tree! It turns out they were filming the show you will be seeing on Christmas morning with the Very Merry Christmas Parade. People lined Main Street for the parade and we decided to stop and watch it at a spot outside Casey’s Corner. As always, a wonderful parade – the wooden soldiers kill me they’re so cute! There is a bakeshop float that comes by and you can actually smell gingerbread! A few of the CM’s in the parade saw Shane’s birthday pin and wished him happy birthday, including Mrs. Claus! He was so excited by the parade, jumping up and down and squealing – pure magic. Nothing like seeing Disney through the eyes of a child, it’s a whole new world and everything is brand new. We were teary eyed many times during this trip…

After the parade we made a quick stop at the Baby Center, which is located behind Casey’s, near the Crystal Palace. There is one of these in each of the parks and they are lovely. A nice cool, quiet spot to give baby (and Mommy & Daddy) a break. There are high chairs and a private nursing room, as well as plenty of comfy changing tables and a bathroom. If you’ve forgotten anything for baby, you can most likely get it here. It seems they have remembered everything, from pacifiers to sunscreen and everything in between. Naturally, things are a little expensive – a package of 10 Huggies is $9 and a pack of 12 wipes $2, but it is convenient.

Next, it was off to ride Buzz again, followed by another trip on Space Mountain for Mom & Dad. We wanted to check out the new Magic Carpets of Aladdin so it was off to Adventureland. I got to ride with Shane while Dad videoed the trip – lucky me! What a fun ride this is - similar to Dumbo, but different in theme and really great! We got to ride in the front of our carpet so we controlled the up and down – which most of the time was up since Shane wouldn’t let go of the control…after all, it was his birthday so if up was where he wanted to be, so be it [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Before we did anything else, I had to have a Dole Whip Smoothie – it was pretty hot that day and boy, does that ever hit the spot! Next, we trekked on over to Frontierland for a ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (we had gotten our Fastpasses earlier). No babyswap needed on this one, the Fastpass line was non-existant so Joseph rode first and then I was off on my journey. This is another of our favorites, more so at night than during the day even. Each time I ride it I try to pay some attention to the landscape –the mining equipment, the goats and buildings, etc. – so much stuff to look at that flys by so fast! I really wanted to see the Share a Dream Come True parade so we settled into a spot in Frontierland to wait for it to start. This parade is so amazing! The snowglobes are the neatest thing I have ever seen and the romance float with Disney’s famous couples – my favorite being Beauty and the Beast – was spectacular. Disney has really outdone itself with this parade. I can’t say if my Magical Moments pin went off during it because I had Shane in my lap jumping up and down and squealing with joy the whole time! Several of the CM’s in the parade wished him a happy birthday (I’m amazed they took the moment to see the pin on my sweet baby boy – gotta love ‘em!).

After the parade, we took a scary tour through the Haunted Mansion. I am mildly (sometimes more than mildly) claustrophobic so as long as those doombuggies keep moving, I’m a happy camper. However, it never fails that when I ride that ride, the mischievous ghosts decide to hold up our trip (I realize it’s usually a handicapped guest boarding, but my mind still panics L ) and this time it was just as we got out of the loading area so there wasn’t even that much for me to look at. Fortunately, Joseph and Shane provided distraction and after what seemed like an hour – but was actually probably only about 2 minutes – we were off on our tour of Master Gracey’s mansion. Don’t you just love that mangy graveyard doggie howling his heart out?!

By the time we got off the Haunted Mansion, it was time to start heading over to the Contemporary for Shane’s birthday dinner at Chef Mickeys. We wanted to wander through the Grand Floridian since we spent our honeymoon there and love to go back whenever we can, so we took the resort monorail there. After enjoying the lovely Christmas decorations in the lobby, we set off on the path to the Polynesian so we could stop by the Wedding Pavilion and see our wedding brick before boarding the monorail at the Poly. It was so wonderful to be back at the Wedding Pavilion, remembering our special day. There was another couple getting married so we didn’t get to go inside but it we did get to wish them well while we were looking for our brick. Over to the Poly, we got on the monorail and went to the Contemporary to check in at Chef Mickeys. Once we checked in, they sent us to take a family Christmas picture (which we ended up buying later during dinner – a set of 2 5x7’s and 2 key rings for $26.50) and then we waited about 5 minutes before we were seated. We enjoyed the buffet (really good food – prime rib, turkey, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and mac & cheese, pizza for kids) as Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale came to our table and played with Shane and posed for pictures. I was so happy that he wasn’t afraid of them – he especially loved Minnie who kept kissing him and wiggling her nose at him J The waiter brought him a cupcake covered in whipped cream with a candle in it and surrounded by candy confetti (which Shane promptly began to eat), lit the candle and made him a hat out of his napkin that made him look like Robin Hood – LOL! The whole section of the restaurant that we were in sang happy birthday to him and waved their napkins in the air in salute, while Chip danced in front of him! It was so great and he was just thrilled! After we blew out the candle, Dale came back to wish him a happy birthday, followed by Minnie and Mickey and they each wrote a special birthday message to him in his autograph book. Another moment full of pure Disney magic.

After dinner it was just about time to head over to MVMCP so we hopped on the monorail (packed to the gills of course). They had plenty of security guards for bag check so there was no delay there and in we went. Seeing Main Street with the snow coming down never gets old – I just love that they do this. We stood in the middle of Main Street and just took it all in for a few minutes. We began heading down Main Street and I decided to go down one of the side streets to take in the decorations as well as check out the buildings and lo and behold who should we see? Belle in her beautiful Christmas dress from Belle’s Enchanted Christmas – YAY! I took Shane out of his stroller and brought him over to her and she asked what his name was. I told her and she said “Happy Birthday Prince Shane” – I just about died right there! What a kick! She wrote him a sweet happy birthday message in his autograph book and posed for a picture with us. Next, Joseph wanted his “holiday treats” and I wanted to get our picture done so we headed off to do both. We hit the holiday treat stop in Tomorrowland and followed by the family photo stop right after – very nice and convenient. While in Tomorrowland, we of course babyswapped our way through Space Mountain and then battled the Evil Emperer Zurg on Buzz Lightyear (where, as usual, Joseph kicked my butt). We rode BTMRR again, then over to Peter Pan’s flight – another favorite that I could ride over and over again – and then Snow White’s Scary Adventure. By this time I was really starting to run out of steam and wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hang in for much longer. We had been going full force since 6am Monday morning when we left home and it was catching up with me – and with Shane as well, who was getting pretty cranky (from a kid who rarely cries, you know he was exhausted!). We decided to head out right after the fireworks since we had seen the special performance of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parade earlier that day. We took the monorail back to the TTC, hopped the tram to our parking lot (Dopey) and headed back to the All Star Movies, where we crashed for what we hoped would be the night (depending upon whether or not the Clampetts were going to make a repeat performance of last night). Joseph said they came in around 11 and began the clamor again but I never heard it – considering that I’m a really light sleeper I must have been totally unconscious at this point. Fortunately for him, the din stopped only about a half hour later and he was able to go back to sleep.

Next: A quick spin on a Triceratops and we’re headed home [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[maggy_1]

Wow!
What a bithday treatment Shane receive all this day [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Seams he's not scary about characters at all and really enjoy the presence of these
[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Chantal [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[wdwlovers]

Wow, what a special day! Lots of magical moments! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]