The alarm went off at 7:00 am this morning. Cruella and Kylie had no trouble getting up this morning. I groaned inwardly,just wishing they had been so eager to get up early every day.I didn't get it,but it didn't matter to me anyway anymore.I was happy to be going home for the most part.I had reached a place somewhere within where I was just happy that I had been able to the things I did do on this trip. I did most of my favorites,and while we missed alot of adr's,most of those had been the places dd and I had been to before.I missed Whispering Canyon,but I knew this was a place I could get to on our next trip,because dh would probaly like that one. I still got to soak in Disney for almost 10 full days,and really,I couldn't complain about that.Some people never get to Disney at all.
I called disney dining,and learned that most everything was full.I had told Kaitlyn what I had done yesterday morning,and so now she asks if we could just go to the Main st Bakery and have breakfast there instead. She wanted one last look at the castle and to say goodbye.That is sort of a tradition with me and my dd's on our family trips. We always need to have the one last look before we leave. On our last trip,Kaitlyn even started to cry because she didn't want to go home.
She only expressed all of our tears though. We had had a wonderful trip in January 07. So I was glad Kaitlyn wanted to do our traditionnow. And I was excited that we would have a morning alone again. It seemed a perfect way to end our trip!
So of course Kaitlyn and I are ready first,and we finish packing up the last of our things. The envelope Magical Express had given us said we needed to be checked in by 9 am,as that was 3 hours before our bus would come pick us up.Cruella and Kylie spent all this time getting ready,and still had thier last minute packing to do.They kept saying they would finish it when they got back,and were trying to hurry out the door to get to Epcot.I kept telling her,no we need to check in by 9 am. Well,she really couldn't have cared any less what that damn paper said was her reply.
It was going on 8:15 when I decided that it was cutting close to the 9 am time. We didn't want to wait until the last minute to check in,so we would have plenty of time to get to the MK,have breakfast,and gaze at the castle one last time. I got tired of waiting and told Cruella and Kylie that I would check us in for the airport on the way to get a bus.So Kaitlyn and I leave to do the check in,and I learn that I am only able to check her and I in,since Cruella needs her id.
So I tell Kaity to call Kylie and tell her mom that she needs to come down and bring her id. Well,she tells me Cruella is mad.They are trying to get ready so they can leave to make it to Epcot. I just say to Kaitlyn,well,she knew we had to have this done by 9 am.Maybe if she would stop farting around all the time. So I am standing there,taking care of things for Kaitlyn and I and was just talking to the cast member,arranging for the luggage to be brought down.
She said they needed someone in the room when they came for the luggage,but that she could send someone now.I ask Kaitlyn to please go to the room and wait for them to pick up our luggage,while I finish there.She agreed and went back to the room.
Meanwhile,Cruella and Kylie comes now,and she is trying to hurry so they can catch the bus to Epcot. She steps right up to the desk,throws her drivers license very rudely on the desk,while the woman is still talking to me,and she tells the cast member that she needs to hurry this up.She begins to complain that she doesn't see why they need to check out so early when it is clear that check out time is 11 am. I try to explain that we aren't made to leave the room until 11am,but they want to get our luggage ready at least. She then yells at me that she isn't finished packing yet,and she won't be until she gets back.The cast member trys to explain to Cruella that they need her luggage there earlier. Cruella just begins to speak very loudly and obnoxiously,treating this poor woman like she is not worthy of her respect. I then ask Cruella why she doesn't just go and quickly finish her packing before leaving for Epcot,because I had already arranged for it to be picked up. I told her Kaitlyn and I would wait to leave so they could go on over to Epcot then.
She gets this very arrogant attitude,and tells me,and and the cast member that she is going to Epcot first,and she will finish her packing when she got back and then they could come get her luggage! She then orders me to call up my daughter,and tell her to not let the bellman take hers and Kylies things. With that,she promptly turns and walks away from us,calling for Kylie,who had been sitting in a seat,trying to pretend she did not know that woman.
I was so embarrassed for the poor cast member,and for myself too. I apologized to her for Cruella's rudeness. Then I called up Kaitlyn and told her that Cruella says not to let the bellman take thier luggage. She says,Mom,they just left.I am on my back to meet you now.
So I am spouting some rather unpleasant things over the phone,telling Kaitlyn what just happened. Kaitlyn says she will call Kylie and let her know what happened. So she calls her and Kylie is relaying messages back and forth between Kaitlyn and her mother. Cruella is furious ,yelling doesn't Disney hire anyone with a brain? and telling Kaitlyn to stop him. Kaitlyn is hearing all this thru Kylies phone. She tells Kylie she doesn't know where the luggage guy is now,he left on a cart. So Kylie tells her mom this,when all of a sudden,Cruella grabs the phone out of her daughters hand,and starts screaming at Kaitlyn. She says "You get your dumb *** off the phone and go look for him! You tell him YOUR mother screwed up and he wasn't suppossed to take our luggage and you tell him to put it back in the room now! She then hangs up the phone on her.
Meanwhile,I am not aware that any of this is going on,and I am waiting for Kaitlyn to meet me up front.I had already spoken to this very nice cast member and told her that they had taken Cruellas luggage and she wasn"t finished packing,and again,I was apologizing for all of this. It was excruciatingly embarrassing for me,who doesn't like scenes of any kind. The cast member was so kind,and understanding. She says she will call the luggage room and have them take it back. So I thanked her many times over,and then leave to go outside and wait for Kaitlyn. She was taking a long time to get there. I called her up,and texted her several times,not knowing what to do,as we had arranged to meet outside the store at a bench. I wasn't sure if I should stay and wait or go look for her. Finally it dawns on me that she probaly had to stay in the room,so I head back to the room.As I am walking back,I meet her walking up to meet me.And my poor baby girl is crying her eyes out,her face is all red and splotchy,and she looks all sweaty. I couldn't get her to talk right away, and so I take her to the foodcourt and get her a water,and finally she tells me what is wrong.She was hot and sweaty because she was looking all over the place for the luggage guy with the cart,trying to find him so she could tell him to bring back Cruella's and Kylies luggage. Finally she saw him at our room ,and went to tell him,and he already knew,and wasn't very happy. I asked her did he say anything,and he said something about making sure we finish packing before we call them now.Then she tells me what Cruella had said to her.That was what had her so upset. She didn't understand anything that was going on. All she was doing was what I had asked her to do.
Well...that was it. My patience limit had been reached,all the internalizing my frustrations all week had finally boiled over and the mother bear inside of me was roaring to get out and tear someone to peices just then. I was so incredibly p***** off,that I had it. I call Kylies cell,since all along,I had never had Cruella's number,and I tell Kylie to put Cruella on the phone.
Kylie tells me she is sorry for her mother,that she doesn't realize how she can be because that is how she was raised.
I told Kylie,I was sorry too,but there was no excuse. I was raised very strictly too,but I didn't go around demeaning people like she did. I wanted to talk to her mother.
Well, apparentlyCruella tells her to say that her mother was still too upset with me to talk to me!!!!!
So I passed a message onto her through Kylie.Tell your mother she can talk to me now,or she will talk to me when she gets back to the resort! I hear Cruella come on the phone,and she immediately starts to tell me how I was suppossed to be the Disney expert,and I should have known how this airline check in should work. I say whoa lady...how am I suppossed to know that? This was my first time ever using Magical Express. My family drives down normally,and when we did fly,they didn"t have this then. I tell her that still,all it takes to understand it is to read what was on the paper in the envelope that was on the door. I told her to read it.I read it.I knew what it said,and I told her what it said....what else could I have done. Maybe if she hadn't been sleeping all day,she could have taken the two minutes it takes,and read the imformation for herself. She knew everything I knew, because I had told her.Just like I had told her alot of things about this trip that she seemed oblivious too.But right now,none of that was my problem I told her.How dare she be too upset to talk to me! .She had absolutely no right to be too upset with me!
I told her that I was the one who was very upset right now,because she had no right to talk to my daughter the way she did. Kaitlyn didn't know about her last minute packing and she thought she was trying to help, as did I.
I said if her luggage was so d*** important to her,perhaps she should have stayed back and finished taking care of it instead of going to Epcot. But because of her lack of consideration for anyone else on this trip,Kaity and I had to miss doing what we planned to do this morning,not that it mattered to you though,because I bet you will get your picture after all this.!
I was on a roll there for awhile,and probaly would have gone on to say alot more,but my eye caught my dd,who had walked away from me,and she looked so sad. I could see she still had a few tears as well.She was walking around the store,and didn't even see the one cast member who had become friendly with her looking at her.He was watching her,and I think he knew something was going on,because he had such a look of concern on his face,that it touched me. I realized what I was doing. A stranger had seen my daughters tears before I had,and I felt so bad then.I had lost it,because Cruella made her sad,but now I was as well.
This of course all happened in a matter of a few seconds. Cruella was still defending herself,but I can't really say I heard what she was saying. I just told her I had my say,but it was over,because right now my daughter was upset due to all of this,and I bet if she looked at Kylie,her daughter wasn't very happy either just now.So for thier sake,I was going to hang up the phone now. And I did.
I walked over to Kaitlyn,and told her I was sorry.I just had lost it,but it was over now. I hugged her and said we don't have time now to go to the Magic Kingdom,why don't we go get us some Mickey waffles one last time before we leave. So we had our breakfast in the food court again. Then we went back to the store,because Kaity forgot to get some of the chocolate covered pretzels for her sister,plus we still had some time to kill. While we were in there,their friend the castmember,came over and was talking to her.He asked where Kylie was,and said he was sad to see them go home,and he would miss thier visits while he was working.Then he gave her a bunch of different colored bead necklaces.He just kept slipping one after another ,all of them on her neck. Enough for all four of us to have one of each color. She began to laugh,and he seemed happy to see that he had accomplished his goal. How sweet is that? I mean,this wasn't a young boy,who might have had an interest in her either. This was a man who was probaly a father to some younger children of his own.He just had the Disney spirit in him. I watched Kaitlyn's videos when we got home,and he was in quite a number of them,always pretending to give them a hard time,and joking with them,once he was throwing coins at them so they could make wishes and throw them in the fountain. He was so nice and sweet and funny. I hope to go back to the FQ and stay there just to see him again. What a nice man! I guess though maybe I am biased because he was so nice to my dd? But really,he didn't have to pay special attention to the girls. He went way above and beyond the role of his job.
So we thank him and then we leave the store to sit in the lobby.We see Cruella and Kylie pass through,and they headed back to the room to get thier luggage packed.Kaitlyn began to get bored,and she asked to take some pictures around the resort with my camera.I thought that was a good idea,and so off she went to do that.I sat and tried to read,but I was easily distracted because I kept seeing all these happy people coming in with thier luggage to check in.I got a bit envious of them too,and tried to tell myself that I was the one walking in 10 days ago,while someone else was leaving,and that next week,these people probaly would be leaving too.I was evil,because I thought, haha
Finally Kaitlyn came back,and Kylie was with her. They went into the arcade to use the free game time they had while we waited.Cruella was no where around yet. Eventually she comes too,and niether of us were talking.
Finally it is time to go out to claim our carry on luggage and wait for Magical Express. As we are waiting,Kaitlyn begins to play with my camera again,taking pictures of herself. She didn't like one of them,and decided to delete it,but instead,she pressed format and ended up deleting all of the pictures on the camera somehow.I had a 4 gb sd card,so after the first 3 days,I didn't even bother uploading them to my laptop,so all the pictures I had left from this trip were taken the first 3 days.I can't tell you how horrible I felt. I kept thinking of all these pictures I had taken,and how I wanted them,and didn't have them. Kaitlyn was upset,and so was I . I even yelled at her because of it,although later I did tell her I was sorry.I knew she didn't do it on purpose,but that didn't make me feel any better really. We got on the bus when it pulled up,and the girls went to the back to sit together. I sat by myself,and Cruella sat across from me. I couldn't help it,but I cried nonstop on that bus on the way to the airport.The tears just kept flowing and wouldn't stop.
Then Cruella says to me, Lisa,you look like how I felt yesterday.
She didn't explain what she meant by that,but I have tried to figure it out. I think I am beginning to see that Cruella probaly felt slighted by me going off alone the day before. I really don't know,but perhaps?
Cruella also apologized to me then,and to Kaitlyn,and offered to make copies for me of all her pictures.Which to this day,I still haven't gotten.
We get to the airport,and go through security. A funny thing happened here.Kaitlyn had kept getting free monster drinks with credits from Disney's dining plan. She wasn't able to drink them all,and decided to take them with her,unknown to my knowledge. Had she told me,I would have told her to pack it in the checked luggage,but instead she put it in her carry one. She thought you just weren't allowed to have opened drinks when you went thru security. She was only 4 years old the last time we had flown,so she didn't understand all the rules. So all of a sudden,they are going thru Kailyn's bag,and they take out 4 cans of Monster drinks!
And then took them from her. Poor Kaitlyn was so outraged over this waste of her favorite drink! We all were laughing.So she asks if her and Kylie can each have one and go back to the other side and drink them. And the people said yes. Cruella and I were thru security,sitting there waiting for our dd's to gulp down thier Monsters. People who had been around them when all this was happening,were laughing at them,and saying they would do the same thing,or making commments to us that we better be sure they visit the rest room before we got on our flight. The girls always make thier presence known,that is for sure!
Once we were through security,we all went to Wendy's for lunch and sat eating our lunch on some furniture in the lobby. Then we walked to our gate,and it wasn't long until we were on the first leg of our journey. And yes,I did give in and allow Kylie and Kaitlyn to sit together agan. I had accepted Cruela's simple apology about yelling at my daughter,and so had Kaitlyn.We decided to let it all go. We were going home now,and things would get back to normal. I would see her here and there,for our dd's functions,and we would never be the good friends I had first hoped we could become,but we needed to get along for the girls.That was alright with me,as long as our dd's could be friends.
I read my book for the most part on the way home.I did get thrilled to finally be at a window seat for a take off and to look outside and see the world below.That was awesome.The first time I had flown,I didn't get a window seat either way.
We made our connection in Dulles airport,and it went pretty much the same.It wasn't long until we knew we were close to home,as the girls began to see landmarks of our area from the sky. We say a giant hospital,and thier high school and the Allentown Fair.That was pretty cool.Soon we landed and Kaitlyn and I found our family waiting for us. My dh gave me the biggest hug and kiss,and that felt so nice to be in his arms again. We all walked to collect our luggage,and to our sirprise and dissapointment,we found out our luggage wasn't there with us! So we go to and tell the airline workers,and they look it up to find out where it is. It was still in Dulles!!! Not only that,but we had to wait until the next flight from Dulles landed,and that would be 2 pm the next day. Well,all my souveniers were in my luggage,so I was so dissapointed in not being able to give my family what I had bought for them,but at least I understood these things can happen sometimes. Not Cruella. She was at it again,standing at the desk and complaining and asking what they intended to do to make this all up to us. The poor guy is explaining that they will deliver it around 4 the next day,right to our house. But that isn't enough for Cruella. She wanted something more.
I spoke up then and told the poor man,I didn't need anything other then my luggage returned to me all intact and that would make me happy. I told him that my husband and I would be back at the airport around 2 when the flight got in and we would pick it up ourselves. He kept asking was I sure? I said yes.(More due to the fact that we would be out school shopping the next day and I didn't want to plan my schedule around them.It would be just as easy for us to pick it up.)
But Cruella looks at me and she just says " You are way too docile! You just let people take advantage of you all the time!"
I smile at her and I say, No,I am just a nice person. Then I walk away,and join my family.
Later that night,I did have one last crying spout. I was ust feeling dissapointed that I had no pictures to share,and no souveniers to hand out.
It had been a very long and hard day. My dh felt bad for me,and so we began to look up online how to recover lost pictures on a digital camera. We were ale to find a program online for 50.00 and bought it,downloaded it,and right away,I had my pictures back again!!!! A miracle to me! I was so happy then,just to get those pictures back! And then the next day,we picked up our luggage,and everything was just as it was suppossed to be.I was able to give my presents to my family.Finally,I was able to sit back and just relax,and enjoy being at home.I love Disney World,but I realized that to really enjoy being there,you really need to be with the people you really know,love and enjoy being with,just to share in all of it's magic!
To update you all on the Cruella situation. I looked overour photopass,and decided I wasn't going to buy it.Most of the pictures were Cruellas and Kylies from thir mother /daughter day,or of Cruella and I,which I really didn't want any of those either! However I did give Cruella the card and told here it expired in 30 days. Well,she looked at them once,and never ordered any. Then last week,she goes online to order the cd,and it is expired,naturally. So she calls me,and tells me this,and I tell her yes,after 30 days,they do expire. She gets very angry,and says she is going to call Disney the next day. She is very dissapoited in them. Apparently,she left another hat in our room when she finally was ready to leave that day,and she called Disney then too,and they of course,couldn't find it,along with her other hat,and a bag of souveniers she had left on a bus the day we were at Boma. That was Disney's fault apprently because they forced them all to change buses when they got to Epcot.!
Yeah well.....now she is writting Disney World a letter to complain about everything that went wrong on her trip. Her motivation for this????
She hopes to get a free trip out of it to make up for her bad one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can you believe that??????
I would laugh,if my name wasn't associated with hers on our last trip. I am so afraid that next time I book a trip,somehow some castmember somewhere will have a flashing red warning sign or something there.....
All I could think when she told me all this was you can't be serious!!!!!!!
Why would she even want to go back anyway????? And does she really think they will give her a free trip???? It is so hard for me to believe that she actually thinks like this!!! But she does. She brags that alot of times she gets upgrades and free things,ect,just for complaining and holding these companies up to a certain level.She actually believes they want people to do this. Yes,maybe they do if it is something significant...not for something you yourself are at fault for...like leaving a bag of souveniers behind on the bus.Does she have any shame!!!???
So now I am just waiting to see how this all turns out. I bet she will be even more dissapointed with Disney World then. But that is really good news for all you out there! You could be spared from running into her on one of your trips!!!
I am posting this without pictures.If anyone wants to see the ones Kaitlyn took around the resort,I will post them tomorrow. Those are the only ones that were taken from the last day.
Thank you all so much for reading my first trip report. Thank you for being patient,and for all the support and understanding and I am so glad to have met you all! I look forward to reading any trip reports you have in the future,so if you have any,please pm me the link,and I will be sure to read them!
. You are so patient I couldn't take all the things Cruella did. Can't wait to hear how it ends up.
For them to copy you is just wrong (fair enough if a stranger has it but it's almost like stealing - just think she could have planned something herself and had her own unique memoeries but she left it all up to you and then had the nerve to comlpain 
