[ilvminnie]

This was the BIG DAY!!!! My baby girl turns 18! Wow...hard to believe how fast it went. Started out by giving her a birthstone Marie from Aristocats. (We had actually done gifts before we left, but I wanted her to wake up to something.) She put her birthday pins on (yep, one from MK & one from EPCOT) and we were off to Early Entry for MGM. We took a nice boat ride to the park & the whole time I was thinking about the boat trip planned for that night that she had no clue about. Of course CMs & guests alike were wishing her Happy Birthday from the get go! She was eating it up. The first thing we did at MGM was pick up Pal Mickey. We had a voucher for a free rental & thought that would be the most appropriate day to try him out. Next we got FP for RnR & went & got in line for ToT. The ToT line was really quick & the ride itself was nice & long. A real nice series of drops. From there we went & did Backlot Tour. Guess what...it's never happened to us before but we wound up at the front of the queue for the next show & when they asked for volunteers of course we pointed out the birthday girl. Next thing I know it's DD & me & my sister & a little girl from Scotland getting ready to get soaked! DD was very aprehensive at first, but she got over it & once it was all done was very glad she did it.

Next we got on RnR (great as always), did Great Movie ride & Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In there somewhere we grabbed a bite at the "food court" by ToT. Sister & BIL decided they needed to go do some birthday shopping since they were waiting to see if DD wanted anything she saw in the parks. (They got her a really cool Pirates shirt!) So we went with the rest of the group & saw Beauty & the Beast then tried to get on Star Tours. The line was just way too long so we went ahead & headed over to the Contemporary for the birthday dinner at Chef Mickey's. Although I thought the food was only mediocre (except for the dessert bar!) they really played up to our birthday girl. That was worth it right there. The first time they tried to do the birthday celebration DD was standing in the food line. Our waiter came out with the cupcake, saw she wasn't at the table & then headed right back into the kitchen. He was finally successful toward the end of our meal & Mickey & Minnie & Goofy & Chip & Dale were all very attentive. Well, now I know we have some time to kill before the Illuminations cruise. And I still have to go actually pay for it, too. My BIL did a good job of taking the long way over to the Beach Club. Then a few folks decided they needed to freshen up in our room. OK...still have some time. So we casually started walking around the boardwalk. We get to the marina & I thought the gig was up. They had balloons all over the boat & a Happy Birthday banner hanging on the side. I walked over & officially paid & found out we STILL had half an hour to kill!!! So we walked around some more, then one of her aunts developed a "headache" so we started walking back. Once we got back it was finally time to board. She was floored! Turns out that she had seen all kinds of balloons in the hotel for DVC Member Day & thought that the balloons had something to do with that!!! I can't believe she didn't pick up on it. Well, we had a wonderful cruise, they had a beautifully decorated & delicious birthday cake for her, & we had the best seats in the house for Illuminations. She's still talking about it. And on top of everything else, my sister & BIL knew the folks in the boat not right next to us but the one next to that one!! Small world, huh? Well, once the cruise was over we were all exhausted & went home. DD got to take her balloons & the rest of the cake home & was just beaming all the way. I was kind of expecting some acknowledgement from the hotel in the room when we got back, but there wasn't anything. Oh well, great day anyway.