Last year, Dapper Day happened to fall on Mickey’s birthday, which led to my friend Polly making me a custom Sorcerer Mickey dress to wear to the parks. Inspiration struck a few days before Dapper Day, and I already knew what we would be doing for Mickey’s 90th Birthday, when it came around this year; heading to all four parks to meet Mickey in the same day.
I have done the Four Park challenge exactly once, in May 2015 with my mom, and I swore I’d never do it again, because we were so exhausted. Jay had never been to more than three in a single day. I was willing to make an exception for Mickey’s big day, however.
I have a Baby Mickey Mouse that I’ve had quite literally since before I was born. By my logic, if it’s Mickey’s birthday, it must be his birthday too, so we tucked him inside my backpack as we headed to Animal Kingdom. Baby Mickey doesn’t get to go to the parks very often, but he did go with me when I started my college program, and I didn’t have friends to go with.
I forgot to do our Fastpasses at exactly thirty days out, so the earliest Town Square Theater Fastpass I could get was at 8:40 pm at Magic Kingdom. Since I could only make Fastpasses for one park, Magic Kingdom seemed the best choice. I knew Magic Kingdom and Epcot would have the worst lines.
Jay and I debated whether we wanted to drive between the parks, or leave our car at the Ticket and Transportation Center and take the free Disney transportation. We elected to sleep in a little later and drive, so we arrived at Animal Kingdom right around 11:00 am. I figured we’d get to Hollywood Studios around 1:00 pm, and Epcot probably close to 3:00, then we had plenty of time until our 8:40 Fastpass for Mickey at Magic Kingdom.
At the front of the park, they were handing out yellow “Happy Birthday, Mickey” buttons, so we picked those up and headed straight for Adventures Outpost where Mickey and Minnie like to hang out. It was posting a sixty-minute wait, which was about what I expected. We hopped in line, and I was happy to see the Pokéstop closest to us already had a lure on it. So, we spent our wait catching as many Pokémon as we could.
When we got to the room where Mickey and Minnie were, I was a little disappointed to see they were in their Christmas outfits. I was looking forward to Safari Mickey and Minnie! Jay was mad at me.
“Why aren’t we wearing Christmas stuff? We should be wearing Christmas stuff!”
“We’ll come back and do Christmas photos!”
We took a group photo, and then Jay took a photo of just Mickey and Minnie with Baby Mickey, because the Photopass Photographer said they couldn’t for some reason.
We headed out of the park and back to our car towards Hollywood Studios. This was our first time getting to use the new entrance, and I’m certain there was probably a shorter way to get there than the way we went, but it still didn’t take that long. We just drove in a big circle.
I don’t know if Hollywood Studios had run out of buttons, or if we just missed the Cast Members handing them out, but we didn’t see anyone handing out the birthday buttons. Phasma and her Stormtroopers were marching out right when we got there, so that might have cleared them out for the moment. We headed up towards the Chinese Theater, so we could get across the street ahead of them, and ducked down the little side alley that leads to their meet and greet spot.
The wait time once again said sixty-minutes, and we jumped on in. We immediately noticed two familiar faces. Two gentlemen wearing special homemade (or Etsy made, I’m not sure) 90th Birthday shirts were ahead of us in line, and they had been ahead of us at Animal Kingdom too!
The Hollywood Studios line moved the quickest of all the lines we were in all day, because it’s the only place that doesn’t have a Fastpass option for Mickey and Minnie.
Minnie’s meet and greet was up first, and she was wonderful and loved Baby Mickey, but the Photopass Photographer was so busy talking to the Character Attendant, he missed most of the cuteness. We just got a few photos at the end, and then Jay took a photo of her holding Baby Mickey.
Hollywood Studios is actually my favorite place to meet Mickey, because he’s in his Sorcerer’s outfit with the hat, and it’s my favorite outfit of his.
Mickey was so excited about Baby Mickey he almost forgot to hug me!
We stopped in a gift shop on our way out to pick up some caffeine, and then jumped in the car to head to Epcot.
The Epcot Character Spot was posting a forty-minute wait when we got there, and Jay suggested we try the Disney Visa Meet and Greet instead. It felt like cheating, but I said okay. When we got there however, it was the longest line I’ve ever seen for the Disney Visa Spot! It was almost out the door, and I shook my head. It’s a very narrow hallway, and I didn’t want to sit there for that long with that many people, especially when we had no way of knowing if we’d get Mickey or not.
So, we went back to the Character Spot to see the line had jumped to a seventy-minute wait, and the Fastpass line was out the door. Jay and I shrugged at each other, and got in line anyway. Then we realized the guys from Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios were in line ahead of us once again! We laughed and one of them did that head nod thing people do when they say hi without actually talking.
So, we sat down to wait, and wait, and wait some more. We’d stand up to scoot forward when the line moved, then sit right back down. It wound up being closer to ninety-minutes than seventy-minutes, but that’s okay. I knew we’d have one really bad line to deal with, and at least it was air conditioned! Plus, I made friends with the family in front of us. They were annual passholders that had driven in to celebrate Mickey’s birthday, and one of their birthdays! She even had a card for Mickey! I wish I’d thought of that.
The Epcot Character Spot is nice in that you get to meet three characters at once. (I do think they should move Mickey to the end, as I think it would solve the bottle-necking issue they get on regular days.)
Mickey loved his birthday card, and I am so happy I got to see him open it. He took a picture with us, and then posed for Jay with Baby Mickey.
Goofy was next and we could tell he hadn’t been getting a lot of attention. Jay told him that he was his favorite, and he perked right up.
Minnie was super excited to see us, and she adored Baby Mickey. She probably had the cutest photos we’d had all day!
The sun had gone down while we were in line, but we had one more stop to make before we could leave Epcot. We headed over to the Land Pavillion to Sunshine Seasons. There were tons of specialty food items for Mickey’s Birthday, but only one I wanted that wasn’t at a table service restaurant. It was the cookies and cream cheesecake, and it was only available at Sunshine Seasons.
I was a little underwhelmed, and I didn’t care for the icing at all, but I’m still glad we got it. Last year they ran out of the dessert I wanted before I could get one.
So, we headed back to the car to head to our fourth and final park, Magic Kingdom. A short monorail ride later, and we were there.
In addition to our Mickey Mouse Fastpass, I had set up Fastpasses for two of our favorite rides, because not using them seemed like a waste. We had a little time to kill before it was time for our Mickey Fastpass anyway, so we headed for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
We then headed to Tomorrowland to check out the special Mickey dance party. There were no characters at all, instead just Mickey dancing on the screen. Mickey dances really well, but for some reason, I thought it was a character dance party. I didn’t expect Mickey, since he was so busy on his birthday, but I thought we’d get some other members of the Fab Five.
We used our Space Mountain Fastpass and got to see the new exit for the ride. They did take out the speed ramps, but it’s not nearly as steep now so I think it works out.
Mickey’s Birthday Rice Krispie Cake.
We still had some time to kill, so we wandered over to Storybook Circus for snacks, and stopped on Mainstreet for some photos with the castle. Then it was finally time to see Mickey for the fourth time!
Mickey does such a good job getting between the parks to be there when it’s time to see him! That’s probably why his line is so long!
Even with the Fastpass, we probably waited twenty minutes, which was perfectly fine. Soon enough it was our turn to see Mickey, and they pulled us into the room with probably five families ahead of us.
Mickey’s Birthday card from Goofy.
There was one older lady by herself, and she had made a photobook for Mickey of all the times she had met him over the years, in all his different outfits. Mickey was so excited and he kept fanning his face like he was trying not to cry. She’d also brought him one of the Limited Edition 90th Anniversary plush, and Mickey was hopping up and down, he was so excited.
I teared up watching him as he found out he got to keep it.
Jay looked at me, “Keep it together. You can’t cry in front of Mickey.”
Well. That didn’t work. I got to Mickey, and I completely fell apart.
I just love Mickey and without him, and Baby Mickey, and my Mom’s love for Mickey, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be in Florida, I wouldn’t be living my dream living at Disney World, I wouldn’t be writing this blog, and there’s just many other things I would have missed without Mickey.
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Now I’m tearing up again writing this. STOP IT, CHELSEA!
Mickey kept telling me to stop crying, which of course only made me cry harder.
This actually isn’t the first time this has happened. Back in June, Mickey had to deal with both me and my mother dissolving into a blubbering mess at Hollywood Studios.
Jay was in too much of a hurry to get me out of there, to get just a picture of Mickey and Baby Mickey, but that’s okay. Our mission had been successful. We had met Mickey in all four Walt Disney World parks for his birthday, and had a fantastic time doing it.
Maybe for his 100th Anniversary we’ll try all six United States Parks!
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