OMG I lost my camera! With my new 1GB memory card in it!
Now, it was only THAT day's worth of pictures on it, because I had been uploading the pix to the 'puter each evening, but still.
I was flipping out. Ran back to Dumbo and searched all around, while DH had a family searching the Hat store. They were SO nice. Just as frantic as I was, only a bit calmer in the way they were searching.
They kept telling me to check with the CMs, but I kept insisting that there had been NO time for someone to turn it in. Just no time.
They insisted over and over, and finally to placate them, I jumped to the head of the line and asked about a camera.
"What kind of camera?"
me, stunned that this was the question instead of just being told NO "um, an Olympus, digital camera."
"I'll be right back!"
And he brought it out, along with the map and entertainment guide I had left, somewhere, with the camera.
DH had me check on the memory card, and it was there along with the batteries and everything. I must have just set it down while grabbing the hats to show Robert, and someone must have come by right then, "found" it, and turned it in. Wild.
I nearly fainted at that point.
Felt so good, after recovering from near fainting, that I bought my hat (silly little "trendy" tinkerbell hat...but then DH wanted me to buy the PINK-with-tiara COWGIRL hat, so the hat I bought was less "out there" than what I could have gotten, LOL) AND we bought Eamon a "replacement" for his hat, the Mickey ears with the red pirate bandana. Put his name on it instantly.
Ah, shade for my eyes...
There's a big blank spot in my notes for what happened next, but I know that I had some issue with my AP. I went to get FPs for something, and noticed that mine said that my AP hadn't been used that morning, so I couldn't get a FP. Hmm. Odd.
I went to the info desk near the castle to find out where I could go to get this taken care of, and had one of those bad customer service experiences that would have NEVER been cleared up outside of Disney.
The info guy wasn't understanding me, and I wasn't understanding him, and we were going around and around about it...he actually mumbled something about my having missed the whole first part of his reply...d'oh! I assured him that I had not, but there was something I wasn't getting, and we needed to figure it out.
I finally figured out that he was telling me to go to City Hall to pick up a ticket for that day, to be used in the FP machines. He was using the phrase "Fast Pass Ticket". To me, that meant a "Fast Pass". I thought he was sending me to City Hall to get one FP for the one ride I wanted it for, which sounded awfully useless to me!
Once we figured that out, we both apologized, I told him that that was the difference between Disney customer service vs other places (that they would stick it through with you to get it worked out), and he gave me a "get on any ride for the day, up to 5 people" pass, so I didn't HAVE TO go to city hall that minute. NICE! Later I did put in a compliment for him at City Hall. And hopefully he won't use that phrase to other guests who might not get it!
On my way back to FL, I saw Mary Poppins and Burt. Never really got into that movie, but I love swingy skirts like that, so I watched for a few minutes.
I don't know what might have been between that and the next stuff I remember, but we ultimately ended up on the monorail (which had been down each time/day we checked before), to go back to the hotel.
We got to the car, moved to HoJo, checked in. DS went to sleep, and I assume DH did too.
I was still sooo cranky, and not tired, so I went back to the park (the walk from HoJo is SO much shorter and more straight forward!) for some alone-time. Should have gone swimming in the HoJo pool (our patio overlooked it), but I didn't.
I had decided I wanted my own lanyard by that time, so I went searching for the "perfect" one. Bought it in NOS, then got some vegetarian gumbo (my absolute favorite food at
Disneyland), and just sat. And sat and sat and sat.
Then the guys called, and it was approaching the time that one *could* think of snagging spots for Fantasmic (shh, to those of you in the know, shh), so we started thinking casually about doing just that.
The guys went off to get food for themselves (DH wanted to eat what was left of the breadbowl from my gumbo), and a young woman sitting nearby started talking to me.
And very kindly let me know that Fantasmic wasn't that night, but that the fireworks would be, and let me know where to go for them. I was SO glad she told me. There were other people obviously getting spots for it, so I wasn't alone, but because she told me, I found out earlier rather than later, and I cannot thank her enough for that! She said she's a SeaWorld employee, someone who wears a blue shirt and whose job it is to answer questions and make guests' visits extra-special, so if she's a Dis'er as well as a SeaWorld employee, THANK YOU!
We got over to IASW just as they were starting to set up the poles and ropes (approx one hour before fireworks), and we got to see some bad behaviour by the guests, and to see how saintly the experienced CMs have to be.
While the CMs were stringing rope up (a process that took many tries, b/c for some reason it seemed to be more complicated and less labeled than perhaps it should have been), people were lifting the ropes and going by, in whatever direction they felt like going. Since there's nowhere to go but to TT in one direction, and TT was already closed, we got to see them come back through.
I cannot believe how NASTY some people are about IASW being closed before the fireworks! It's astonishing. I mean, I'm a fan of the ride, but if it's closed I don't have a steaming hissy fit, you know?
Robert offered his services as an unpaid CM, and until he got WAY too frustrated, he "helped" fellow guests figure out that they were doing wrong, and what way they needed to go. But then he was getting too stern, and I was picturing a newspaper headline about one guest getting into a fight with another, and I asked him to stop helping them. He wasn't happy with me, but I think eventually he saw my point.
Then we started chatting with the CMs as they did their best to stop people from ducking under the ropes.
Because of the nap, Eamon was a changed boy.
Yay! He was chatty and lovely, and required less "translation" than usual (3-year-old to English is the translation I mean). By that time we had told him about his hat, and that bad, non-Disney, pirates had taken his first hat. He wasn't happy with that, and wanted to "find them, and fight them, and find them!" So that is what he talked about with the CMs, one after another.
We talked about our experience with Rudy at DCA, and how great he was at watching over the little kids in the water area, and talked about how the hat stores were sympathetic, but nothing else, about the stolen hat.
An older CM, his name tag said *something* Leo, asked if I had spoken with a lead, b/c they should have helped me. I hadn't, and I felt foolish for not escalating to a lead. He told me that if a lead heard about it, they would do something about it.
All of a sudden, two other CMs descended on our little group all at once. One, JJ, said he had something for Eamon, and he pulled out an Honorary Citizen badge. DS was sweet and didn't say " oh I have one already", he was just pleased as punch to receive it and the high 5 that JJ gave him, for being such a nice little kid waiting for the fireworks.
Then Jenny O spoke, and she said how bad she felt that (non-Disney) pirates had taken DS's hat, and that she wanted to make up for it, and that she was writing out a Pinocchio ticket to replace it.
(I took a picture of that paper and want to post it, but suddenly am not sure that I should. I think I won't, but I have the picture to look at and feel warm and fuzzy.)
I started crying! Just a little bit, but still, there were tears. "____ Leo" nudged me and said "see, I told you a lead would take care of it".
So after all that was done (DS folded up the ticket and put it in his buttoned shorts pocket) and we thanked her profusely, "___ Leo" was left.
And then HE told Eamon how good he had been, how fun he had been, and that he had something for him! E was almost on "tilt" with all the gifts he was being given. He couldn't believe it! __ Leo gave him a Tinkerbell pin, the kind CMs have to give (usually with the "one to give" matching one). Eamon loved it.
And then a few minutes later, he came back and handed two more pins (the full "one to keep and one to give" card) to me and Robert, because we had been so fun and helpful to them. Wow!
And we hadn't even seen the fireworks yet!!!!!!
)
Sounds like God was watching over those ticks. 
I hope that the rest of the trip is full of Disneys wonderful moments. 
