Agreed. You get slightly better odds of recognition if you stay club level, but current Disney is not the same as it used to be. Odds are, even if you stay club level these days, they will not do much
1. Except when you walk in the room the television will be on and might display a 'Welcome Smith Family, Happy Anniversary' message.
2. One thing you might get if you ask to have the anniversary on your reservation, is when you look at your ride photos, they will send you a prerecorded message as one of your Disney photos in MDE. It is a little 'voice message', and easy to miss. (perhaps linked w/riding Buzz.)
3. I think you can also still request a wake-up call when staying at a WDW hotel, and that includes a message for a happy anniversary. It will be a recording of a Disney character. Universal hotels, I think, also does the television screen and maybe a wake-up call- not 100% sure though.
4. If you go by the concierge desk, or GS in the park, and ask, they will still give you a free button. CM's who see the button will congratulate you verbally.
5. If you have it noted specifically on one of your ADR's, you might get a tiny dessert, especially if you opt to dine at a Signature dining location, and your odds go up if you are not using dining credits when you eat there. If you are looking for a nice dinner, Topolino's around sunset is nice, but anticipate the meal will take up a good chunk of your evening. Neat view of the Epcot fireworks though! Our most recent meal there was pretty good. Not as good as a year ago. It was a bit $$$ IMO for what we got. My entree was 3sea scallops for $50 with a few smears of orange vegetable, some carrot peels, and a few sprigs of lettuce. Pretty peels, but carrot peels! A bit scant for the price.
6. If you want a special custom cake, and go through WDW, it can be done, but it will cost quite a bit, and there are limits. They will sell you a generic cake as part of making an ADR. Getting a more custom cake requires a call to - I think- the Grand Floridian bakery. I did it a few years back, and was underwhelmed, especially given the price we paid. In all seriousness, my local grocery store makes better looking and better tasting cakes that cost far less.
If you want a special cake, you would do better to go to an offsite cake maker, and have the cake delivered. To do that though, you have to meet up the cake delivery person in-person. I used a private company called Magical Vacation Services (former CM) that delivered groceries, and that could probably include a cake, esp if it came from like Publix. They also do some gift baskets, but nothing jumped out to me. There are other businesses started by former CM's who specialize in cakes, but I don't have any specific names. WDW will still deliver flowers and other Disney gift packages, but again, through Disney they are $$$.
We did receive a birthday card when we stayed at the Dolphin for a birthday, but that was (shortly) before the pandemic.
I think you can still buy items like customized Christmas ornaments at the Christmas Shoppe, and also try the Art Corner in Disney Springs. If they are up for it, you can have a private photo session via WDW photographer, and/or you can have a small silhouette cutout made in MK. We did one a long time ago, and it was a really neat keepsake. the price was pretty reasonable. - I think still on Main Street, Liberty Square, maybe France in Epcot. and maybe Disney Springs.
