You are all just going to have to live with the onslaught of Disney related posts. Having just gotten back, I still have Mickey on the brain…

We went to Disney World to celebrate Margaret’s 30th birthday. Let me tell you, Disney really knows how to make your birthday feel special. And the best part is the price: free!

As you enter each of the parks, stop by Guest Services and tell them it is your birthday. They should give you a pin to put on letting everyone know that it is your birthday. Keep in mind that each of the parks (except MGM) has their own unique button, so make sure to collect them all. We were even told that Downtown Disney has their own button, but our feet hurt to much to find out where to get it from.

So now that you have this button on, what does it get you? Each Cast Member is supposed to greet you with a Happy Birthday! And sometimes you even get special treatment (we got put in the first car for Test Track at Epcot and we also got to ride with the driver on the monorail…). Our experience was that Epcot Cast Members were the most observant, as that is where Margaret got the most birthday greetings. At the other end, the Magic Kingdom was the worst where it seemed that nobody noticed her pin. Margaret thinks it was because it was hard to see on her shirt, but I think it is because the Magic Kingdom Cast Members were more frazzled than the Epcot ones.

Also, make sure that you talk to Goofy on your birthday! 8-224-2144 from any resort phone or just ask at Guest Services for them to connect you. Or for a surprise, tell the front desk at your resort and Goofy will call your room!

This one isn’t free, but the overall cost is pretty cheap. Get an autograph book and have all the characters sign it. Margaret collected 40 signatures and many birthday wishes. The only cost was to purchase the book and pen and you get a lifelong keepsake to remind you of the trip.

We utilized all the above tips on our recent trip to WDW and it made for a birthday that Margaret will never forget.

Birthday Tips gotten from wdwinfo.com

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So Disney was pushing this really cool toy to all their visitors: Pal Mickey. The basic premise is that he is a stuffed Mickey Doll, with a computer of some sort on the inside. He does the basic speaking doll thing: You squeeze him and he says stuff. But he can also do some more advanced things like play a game with you, give you some trivia, or my favorite, give you up-to-date park information.

While it is really designed for kids, I could see it being useful for adults as well. For example, I would have loved to have Pal Mickey with me on my recent trip. He could have told me when different characters are showing up for signings (so my wife could collect more autographs) and could have also told me when the wait on rides are low. Not to mention playing games with him while I’m waiting in line for 25 minutes for Space Mountain (our longest wait of the trip…).

I stopped at one of the stores on Main Street and picked him and played with him for about 30 seconds. My impressions from that 30 seconds of exposure:

• He is really hard. Not something that you would really want to snuggle up with.
• He can speak Spanish. Surprised me to squeeze him and hear a Hispanic Mickey telling me something.
  

The drawbacks to Pal Mickey: it really is designed for kids, especially in its “doll” packaging. While I think I could have gotten over carrying a Mickey Mouse doll all over Disney World, I’m not sure that all of the adults out there would agree. And he is a bit pricey (about $60). Maybe there is some way they could make the packaging (and some of the content) more suitable for adults, and also cut down the price. At $30, I would have had one, even if the packaging was nothing more than just a pager to wear on my belt.

The attached link is a detailed report from AllEars.Com on Pal Mickey. The best highlight: He surprised us when we got off of the front row of Tower of Terror by saying it was scary and asking if we could sit in the back row the next time.

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We pushed our Disney photos out to the website last night. We were able to get these done so quickly this time because we took Margaret’s iBook with us on the trip. Every night Margaret would pull the day’s photos into iPhoto and go through them, keeping good ones, cropping them to make them look better, etc. Finally, she would have a slide show prepared for me that would show me the day’s photos.

So last night we did scanned in some photos and also imported the last days worth of photos. I then used iPhotoToGallery to export the Disney pictures out to the website. It worked like a charm!

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Margaret and I made it back from Disney without a hitch. Everything was wonderful, and they did an excellent job making Margaret feel special on her 30th birthday.

I’m not going to write much here about the trip, as we hope to have a trip report (much like our France one) up in a few days. I would also expect our photos to go on-line within a day or two (check back here for an announcement!). I also saw some cool applications of technology at Disney, but I should have enough to say about those to give them all their own entry.

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