Thursday, February 15

Cynthia's Surprise Birthday Celebration

We woke up early again today and for the first time, we actually were OUT THE DOOR at 8:30am! I could not believe it. So, Andrea and I had planned a special surprise for Cynthia's birthday behind her back. We had to be at the MK at 9:15, but we just pretended that we WANTED to be at the MK by 9:15.

We arrived around 8:50 and Cynthia immediately asked if she could get a cinnamon roll and coffee at the bakery. After a quick sidelong glance at Andrea, I told her, "sure...but let's hurry up, there's probably a long line". She was like "this early?". I reminded her that it was an EMH day and the park had been open since 8am. Sure enough there was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG line at the bakery. Andrea started looking nervous, but I reassured her that we had enough time. We hung out in the glass shop for about 10 minutes, then I took leave and headed back to Town Square on my secret mission.

At 9:15, I called Andrea's cell phone and told her "you guys need to get over here...now". Seconds later, I saw them walking towards me. Cynthia looked totally confused. As they approached me, I took my hands from behind my back and said "Surprise...Happy Birthday!!!" and handed Cynthia a nametag, birthday button (okay, so it wasn't her birthday until the next day, but we were celebrating it TODAY), and a special "Backstage pass". Yes, we were going on the Keys to the Kingdom tour!!!

Andrea and I decided to book this tour and pay for Cynthia as a birthday gift. We had all been to WDW countless times, but had never taken a tour, so we thought it would be fun, and a bit different from our normal routine. After Cynthia and Andrea chose their lunch options, our tour guide came out and got us all set up with headsets and we were on our way right at 9:30.

I am not going to go into details of this tour, but I will say that this is probably THE BEST 5 hours I have ever spent in the Magic Kingdom! This tour was so eye opening, interesting, and magical. Our tour guide, Rae, was the epitome of Cast Member Excellence (she even won the coveted "Partners in Excellence" Award). She was funny, VERY well informed, and told us so many personal experience stories which really were wonderful to hear. We were lucky enough to be able to sit with her at lunch, so we got to speak to her one-on-one for a bit. She really did a wonderful job on the tour and if any of you ever have her as a tourguide in the future (she also does Backstage Magic), you are really in for a treat!

The tour ended around 2:45, and we all had very tired feet, but were SO glad we did it. Cynthia had honestly seemed a bit skeptical when the tour started but by the end, she had really gotten into it, asking questions, giving answers to "trivia", etc. She was really surprised that these tours even existed...she had no idea, and then she spent a good bit of time asking me what other tours were available. We all agreed that if we ever go together again, we are DEFINITELY doing the Backstage Magic tour.

After the tour, we stopped in at the bakery and Cynthia got a brownie. It was very cloudy and had gotten suddenly COLD, so Andrea and I held off on a snack until we could find something warm. We decided to head over to Tomorrowland. We did the Carousel of Progress (Cynthia's request...today is HER day, after all) and enjoyed it, although we did laugh a bit at how "outdated" the last scene already is. They need to replace that girl's ski boots, especially, and they really should replace the VR video game with a Nintendo Wii.

After CoP, we rode the TTA, then hopped on Space Mountain. We got FP for Buzz, then went over to get some hot chocolate. We drank it inside Star Traders because it was warm in there. We rode Buzz and I FINALLY hit that 100,000 point target in the first room. My final score was over 300,000...the first time I actually scored anywhere near that high.

After Buzz, Cynthia and I rode the teacups and we spun it so fast that I got blisters. Andrea took a little video clip of us spinning and it's pretty funny how much faster we are going than everyone else.

After that, we had to head back to the hotel. We had 6:10 ADR at California Grill, so we needed to go freshen up and get "dressed up" for dinner.

We returned to the hotel rather quickly (for the first time) and got changed and ready by 5:30.

(to be continued)