Disneyland Trip Planning
Topic: Spoiling My Nieces...suggestions

#	Author	Message
1	crazycroc Tue 6/16/2009 7:06a	They are 2 and 4 years old. What are the XTRA Special rich person things can you do? What are the different deals like meals and fantasmic that you can pay extra for, look down your nose at the rest of the public, and get all smarmy and holier than thou if you get to do them while the unwashed masses cannot? What needs reservations? How can I ruin them, so that they make their husbands later in life, totally unable to ever live up to 3 days with me at Disneyland?
2	piperlynne Tue 6/16/2009 8:28a	Ah brings back fond memories of taking my nieces and nephew for 5 days when they were 8, 8 and 10. They are now 20, 20, and 22 - yikes. You staying on property? If you are. . make sure they get woken up by Mickey in the morning. (maybe 2 wakeup calls so each can answer) Also, I know you can order gift baskets for the room to be there when you arrive etc. But really, what "spoiled" the kids when I took them was a "its all about you" attitude. I got them autograph books and made that part into a game for them (granted they were a little older, so it was a bit different) At 2 and 4, I'd let them sorta take charge. Go at a slow pace and not overwhelm or you may have serious meltdowns LOL. I also made them all "fanny pack kits" with their own water bottles, and snacks and some disney dollars etc inside so they felt "big". If carnation cafe still has the artist pallet pb&j, that was a big hit for lunches. Is there still the Fantasmic dessert thing that you need reservations for? That might be fun (if they'll be up that late) Oh, and how can I forget Character Meal, Character Meal, Character Meal!!!! What's your plan of attack and trip particulars?
3	TXDISNEYNERD Tue 6/16/2009 9:21a	If you are staying on property, take advantage of that. I talked to Brad in vacation planning before our trip and when we checked into the Disneyland Hotel, my 18 month old had an autographed picture of Minnie Mouse there for her as well as the First Time button. Then, when we came back from the park each day, there were suprises in our room. I think her favorites were the Mickey marshmallow treats and the little Mickey plush. She loved the character breakfast, but at that age was a little scared of the characters, but she loved them from afar. If you have a Disney Visa, the exclusive meet and great was great as it is just your party meeting with the characters. We had Mickey and Goofy at our meet and great and had them completely to ourselves for 5-10 minutes as opposed to standing in line for a quick pic. The characters do change so you can't count on a particular character, but I think you can do this once a day. My little one also loved the Toontown morning thing. I don't think you can buy that, but if you book your package thru Disney, you get it or sometimes you can ask and people on LP might have some tickets that they didn't use.
4	TXDISNEYNERD Tue 6/16/2009 9:22a	All the character meals and Blue Bayou would need reservations.
5	TXDISNEYNERD Tue 6/16/2009 9:24a	I also know people who go to the Dollar store and get little Disney items and then leave those out for the kids to find when they wake up each morning.
6	Ursula Tue 6/16/2009 9:25a	Do all of the above, plus, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. And get the top tier package. Take them to the candy shop and tell them the sky is the limit. Emporium shopping. At the back (or front, depending on which direction you are walking) there is the jewelry section with both real and pretend baubles.
7	Dalia3001 Tue 6/16/2009 9:45a	My niece, age 3.5 LOVED the princesses, so Ariel's Grotto, the Fantasy Fair, and the Pixie Hollow were a huge hit. I would really recommend Ariel's; the princess were great, and they spent a lot of time with my niece. The adults in our group enjoyed the food, and it was a great way to spend time with the princesses without waiting in a huge line. We were there for the first lunch seating. I had printed out stickers that had my niece's name on them, very big ones from: http://imtooexcitedtosleep.shu...fly.com/ They were great for interactions at all the character meet and greets, because they all called her by name. Aurora remembered her from one day to another because of her sticker... "Oh Princess Olivia, I met you yesterday at Ariel's Grotto!" It was great. If I were to do it again, I would make "Princess Olivia" stickers. I bought her princess ears, a denim jacket with the princesses on it, and three sundresses from the outlet store near our house before we went so that she had special outfits to wear to meet the princesses. I would have done the actual princess costume dresses, but they are itchy and she doesn't like to wear them for very long. The "real" clothes from the Disney Store are nicer in quality in my opinion, and still very sweet. We let our niece pick the order of our rides, and evidently she loved the Rocket Rod's, I rode them with her eight times in a row one morning during the first hour after opening, lol. I also printed out personalized autograph books from mousesavers.com, but between the laminating and the binding I don't think I saved much. It was nice to put her name and info on the front page, and I wanted to have them before we arrived. I would probably order them from the LP store if I were to do it over. I made welcome gift bags for our group from stuff I bought from our local outlet and various stores. If I were to do it again, I would have sent these items, nicely packaged, to the hotel and asked them to have them waiting in our room. They did that for us at Hojo's (although I dropped off the package rather than sending it) and it seemed more special arriving that way than me just handing them stuff. I should have wrapped it better. If you are staying onsite, call for sure and ask about the autographed photos. I have been given them before when I said that I was there to celebrate something specific; I think they give them to you if you are celebrating a birthday, wedding or something with a name maybe. I just said we were celebrating a reunion of sorts, as we were all together for the first time, and I didn't think ask for any balloons. My niece would have loved one. If price is no object, I love staying onsite and getting concierge level service. We always feel special staying there, and find the breakfast, drinks all day, place to chill away from crowds and firework viewing desserts really nice. Have a wonderful time!!
8	SleepingBeauty82 Tue 6/16/2009 9:57a	I have two nieces (4.5 and 1.5 years old) and I've thought about this. They've never been to Disneyland but here's a couple things I plan to do with them one day to spoil them rotten: -Fantasy Faire (not the BBB since you don't actually get the meet the princesses there). -Pixie Hollow -Character breakfast -Suprise them with princess dresses to wear (older one gets Cinderella, younger doesn't really have a favorite so I'd probably get her Tink since she looks like a little pixie). -Girly face painting. -Autograph books. -Basically letting them decide everything they do (with an exception of food because you don't want them getting sick from overload). You can suggest things they might not know about but really let them tell you what they want to do. We're waiting before scheduling a big Disney trip with the nieces and their older brother since their parents don't have a lot of money right now (neither do we) and the magic would be a little lost on the youngest. Best to wait until they're all old enough to remember.
9	crazycroc Tue 6/16/2009 10:07a	Can you still get special fantasmic seating? Is there special fireworks seating. Which character breakfast is best for this age group? We leave in a week, is it too late for these reservations? I want to give them so much that they cry from the pain of having more to live for because all of their wishes and even those they didn't know they had, came true.
10	Dalia3001 Tue 6/16/2009 10:16a	"I want to give them so much that they cry from the pain of having more to live for because all of their wishes and even those they didn't know they had, came true." .... LOL If they like princesses, I would say Ariel's for breakfast. You should be able to make reservations if you call now, but it will depend on the size of your party and how flexible you are with times. I also like the Storytellers breakfast. How many days are you there? If you are there for more than one day, I would schedule one special meal a day, and plan your touring around that schedule. Any more than that would have been overkill with my 3.5 year old niece. Also my niece was not able to stay up late enough to watch the fireworks or Fantasmic. She got up very early in order to enjoy early entry and relaxed touring the first hour in the park, and went to bed early as well. I don't think she even realized the park was open at night, hee hee. I think you can get Fantasmic seating again now that the show is back on, there was no special Fireworks seating available when I went in April. We got "VIP" seating for the Aladdin show when we were there because I had tried to reserve the Fantasmic seating but it was unavailable because the show was on hiatus. It was given to us out of the goodness of the Vacation Planners heart, and was really nice. I'm not sure how to score that without luck, but it is a beautiful show.

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