By Diva Viva
Disney is famously known for their attention to detail and customer service, so that means that when you are celebrating something special in your life, no one is going to help you feel special like Disney!
People love to flaunt it when they are celebrating at Disney parks, and who wouldn’t? Why not brag about being happy at the happiest place on earth. Disney offers specialty celebration buttons for events like First Trip to Disney, Honeymoon, Anniversary, and Birthday, but even beyond the buttons you can show off with special hats (like the always popular Bride and Groom Mickey Ears), t-shirts, and sashes. My favorite version of this is when I see large groups of people all wearing the same t-shirt celebrating a special birthday or a family reunion. I haven’t gotten my family to do this yet, but some day I will get them to, gosh darn it!
The joy and happiness that celebrating gives you should be enough to get you to show off your special event, but there is the amazing added bonus that when you are celebrating – and Disney knows you are celebrating – anything can happen!!
During our honeymoon, my husband and I always wore our Just Married buttons, and at some special times we also wore our Bride and Groom Ears. I never would have guessed all the wonderful things that people did for us to help make our Honeymoon a little bit more magical.
- Restaurant dinning is extra special. Every meal we had came with something extra – a bonus wine tasting, confetti and decorations, a free dessert decorate for us, or a Champagne toast. Additionally, because our servers knew we were Honeymooners, they made sure to give us VIP treatment. TIP: When you book your dining reservations, make sure you note that you are celebrating.
- Surprise ride and show bonuses. Especially if we had our Bride and Groom Ears on, we got random surprise special treatment at rides including being put in the fastpass line even when we didn’t have fastpasses, given bonus fastpasses (this was when they were still paper tickets), and special seating (front row on Splash Mountain! My favorite!). Once I tried to get a fastpass for a ride with over an hour long wait just as the fastpass machine gave out the last pass for the day, and seeing my Bride Ears, a cast member told me that if I came back with my husband in his matching Groom Ears, she would let us cut the line and get right on, and she did! A very special moment was when we were waiting to see the Voices of Liberty in USA in Epcot, and a cast member came up to us and asked us to follow him into a side office for a moment. There, he dialed a phone and handed us the receiver so we could listen to a special message from Mickey and Minnie wishing us a happy honeymoon. Then, he gave us a special certificate to commemorate the moment, and brought us to the upper level to the balcony to watch the concert from premium viewing seats.
- Free presents! When we went to get our Bride and Groom Ears monogrammed with our names, the cast member at the hat shop surprised us by doing the monogramming for free and giving us a special certificate to commemorate the bonus. She said that they were allowed to surprise a certain number of guests a day, and it was one of the best parts of her job. At the midway games on the Boardwalk, my husband lost miserably at the basketball hoop toss, so the cast member said that because it was our honeymoon, I could take a bonus shot. I got it in and one a princess basketball! Not only was it a surprise bonus, but it was also an awesome competitive win against my husband that we could tease each other about the rest of the trip. Another time, I went to buy drinks while we were waiting for a parade to start, and the family in front of me was particularly rude to the cast member serving and took much longer than they should have to order. The cast member apologized to me when it was my turn, and I told them to please not apologize since it had obviously been the family that had caused the delay. The cast member then congratulated me on my honeymoon (I don’t even think I had remembered I was wearing my button!) and gave me cotton candy and popcorn to enjoy while waiting for the parade.Lots of love! Often, we would be lost in our own little world while walking around and forget that we were sporting buttons and hats, only to be reminded with huge smiles and shouts of congratulations from other guests. Everyone was celebrating with us! It is not just the cast members who make you feel special. There were always wonderful people to talk to as we waited in long lines, ready to congratulate us and ask about our wedding.
Don’t be embarrassed to celebrate! Flaunt it! Let everyone else celebrate with you! Share your joy! You never know what surprises may be in store.
~ Diva Viva
