Ch. 44: Aunt Rae Relents and the Snotty Security Guard Resurfaces!
When I left off, Ed and I were ready for our dinner at
Artist Point and Aunt Rae was having a hard time coping with the fact that the kids would be going to the
Cub’s Den without her. I felt deeply empathetic, yet at the same time I had made up my mind that our plan was in the best interest of all parties. I sat her down, took a deep breath, and began…
Aunt Rae, ordinarily we would be fine with leaving the kids with you, but this is not an ordinary situation. We’ve all had a very long week and you know that it’s been very hard on you physically. 
We’ve been going non-stop for days and it’s really beginning to take its toll.
I think that we all just need a to take a little break from each other, and I mean that in a good way. Ed and I need a break from the kids, the kids need a break from the adults, and Aunt Rae, you may not want to admit this, but even you need to take a little break from us! 
Here she began to shake her head in disagreement and said, “Oh no, that could never be true…” but I cut her off before she had a chance to argue any further.
Yes, it is true. You are used to living alone and I know that you enjoy being here with us, but come on! We’ve all been together 24 hours a day under very tiring circumstances. Trust me, we all need a little break; it’s healthy to just relax and have a little time alone.
She continued to protest that she had “too much time alone” normally and that she “wanted to be with the children,” but I put my foot down (gently).
Aunt Rae, I need you to do this for me. Yes, for me. I need to know that you are getting some rest. Turn on the classic movie channel and watch an old movie! Take a long hot shower! Read a magazine! Write out some postcards! Whatever you do, just put your feet up and enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet. The kids will be back soon enough and you’ll have all the activity, noise and commotion that you can possibly handle!
She ventured a little laugh. I continued…
We’re all going to sleep in tomorrow; I’ve got absolutely nothing planned for us until dinner. We’ve had a great week, 
but it’s time to wind things down now. So please, just take a little quiet time for yourself and rest. If you’re feeling up to it, perhaps you, Tricia and I can go to Downtown Disney tomorrow and do some shopping.
At this suggestion she brightened a little
and sat down to take off her shoes. She promised that she would try to rest.
I sighed a sigh of relief.
Hallelujah! 
Meanwhile, Ed, who cannot stand to be late, had gathered up the kids and was giving Tricia her marching orders.
Watch out for your brother. Don’t leave him alone. Call us if there’s any problem, etc. Once he was done he cleared his throat, tapped the face of his watch with his finger, looked at me and mouthed the words,
Hurry up!
“Give your aunt a kiss goodnight,” he commanded them and they obeyed, Billy with a great big chuckle and Tricia with a wry smile. “Whew,” she said as the four of us quick-walked down the hall. “Good job, Mom! I’m glad you convinced her not to come with us, it would have been so
embarrassing!”
Ah, if only I were blessed with the natural egocentrism of youth…I wouldn’t have been feeling as guilty as I did then! Nevertheless, we were on our way.
I should tell you that when I called to make the
Cub’s Den reservation, I naturally asked if the staff was familiar with children on the autism spectrum. Specifically, I wanted to know if they had any staff members working that night who had experience with
autistic children. The CM assured me that they had a great deal of experience with autistic children and then asked a bit about Billy’s specific needs. I have to admit that I was relieved, but also saddened that the incidence of autism had risen to the point that it was becoming “very common” for autistic children to participate in the childcare club.
While I am on the subject, I might as well add that, given Billy’s limited verbal skills, I probably would not have felt comfortable leaving him at the
Cub’s Den had it not been for the fact that his older sister would be there, too. I also knew that with the pager we were given, considering the location of the restaurant, we would literally be steps away from the kids while at dinner. The staff advised us of the rules and regs, and after they had been given a few last reminders to behave, the kids went inside to check the place out.
I may as well divulge
one more sin: I did not bring the camera with me to
Artist Point, so I have absolutely no pix of the restaurant (or of the Cub’s Den) to share. I had decided that I would not be "Kathy the Tourist" that night, so I left the camera in my room along with the lime green
Crocs and
baggallini! I did bring my trip journal to take notes, but a fat lot of good that does me, because I probably won’t find that stupid notebook until 2012!
Anyway, we said goodbye to the kiddos and started to walk toward the restaurant. Ed was still irritated by the incident that had occurred earlier in
Roaring Forks and he continued to vent about it. That is when I had the bright idea
to suggest that he find a lead CM in the security department so that he could report the incident and get it off his chest.
Ed thought it was a great idea, a
really great idea. “You go check us in, I’m going over to the desk and see if I can find someone that can help me,” he said. And with that, he was off!
Well,
for Heaven’s sake, I hadn’t meant for him to do it right then and there!
Ah well, it’s just as well that he take care of it right then. If he didn’t, he’d be talking about nothing but that nasty security guard all through dinner instead of gazing lovingly into my baby blues. I checked in and received our buzzer. Now I had a large, light-up buzzer for the restaurant, a pager for the childcare club, and a little evening bag that was only big enough to hold my cell phone and a tube of lipstick!
Might as well get one more thing to hold! I wandered from the podium to the nearby
Territory Lounge and ordered a glass of wine.
The
Territory Lounge is what Disney must imagine a very upscale Pacific Northwestern saloon would have looked like. Only, I’m quite sure that the loggers and railroad men never drank their whiskey in a place as nice as this!
I settled into a cushiony club chair, sipped my wine slowly, and began to wait…..
**********************************************
Ed’s Story:
I approached the main Lodge desk and spoke to a CM who politely and promptly addressed my concern and agreed to contact a supervisor from security. A couple of minutes passed and the same security officer with whom I had the encounter earlier came out from one of the doors behind the desk and approached me at the counter. I asked her, “Are you the supervisor?” All she said was, “What’s the problem?” I suggested to her that we move away from the line where other guests were present, but she refused and then continued to put me in my place again by telling me, “You’re not On the Job, here!” “We know what we’re doing.” And “Management was there and they told me to get rid of you.”
I had not raised my voice or said anything to provoke her abusive demeanor. When I renewed my request to speak to a security supervisor, she said, “Fine! But Management was there!” (She must have been referring to the Snack Shop manager, who had come to talk with the food service CM who had the seizure.) Then she stormed off.
The desk personnel made a couple of calls and then advised me that a supervisor was dealing with an emergency at Fort Wilderness and requested that I stop by later when he would be available. I left my cell phone number with them so the supervisor could call me. Then I went to Artist Point to join my wife.
***********************************************
If Ed sounds calm, cool, and collected it’s because the details of the above events were lifted from a copy of the e-mail he sent to Disney Management. When he initially came striding across the lobby toward the lounge, it was a bit of a different story…
Let me put it this way: when I first caught sight of him I instinctively looked down to make sure I wasn’t wearing a
red blouse. That’s because he looked just like an angry bull trotting down that hall headed right in my direction. I’d swear he was snorting and everything. He was
livid!
He stopped in front of me, pawing the ground. He began to tell me what had just transpired, but I needed to interrupt him. You see, we had been called for our table fifteen minutes earlier and I had gone to the hostess and explained that my husband was attending to some business at the front desk and asked if she would please hold our reservation. Ed swears we were only fifteen minutes late! But for me, sitting alone amongst all those laughing couples and groups of diners waiting in the bar, just sip-sip-sipping that little glass of wine, it seemed like much longer.
*I can have one glass of wine before dinner and one more during; any more and I’m smashed. I say again,
it’s tough to get old.
We went back to the podium and I recalled that
jcc0621 had told me her mom was a CM and worked at
Artist Point as a greeter or a seater or something of that sort. I knew her name then, but I’ve forgotten it now. (Sorry, jcc!)
Anyway, I did ask if she was working that night, but she was not. It was too bad; I would like to have introduced myself as one of her daughter's crazy Dis-er friends!
We were seated promptly and Rebecca
was our server. She was very pleasant and could see that something was bothering Ed. He wanted to vent, but I wanted to order, so I gave her the
Reader’s Digest version and tried to direct Ed’s attention to the menu. She asked if he would like to order a drink and he ordered a Coke!
“Um, honey, this is our grown-up dinner, you can order something stronger than a Coke!” I teased. But he was serious.
“I don’t want to talk to that security manager with alcohol on my breath,” he said curtly.
I sighed.
And I ordered a Coke, too.
Now it’s certainly not unusual for us to eat out and order non-alcoholic beverages, especially if the kids are with us. I’ve nothing against drinking… I enjoy a nice glass of wine now and then. But, if
one of us is driving, then that one isn’t drinking. And since it’s not much fun for
the other to drink alone, we usually end up with
neither of us drinking.
Yup, we’re just two wild and crazy kids.
When Rebecca returned with our sodas, Ed began talking about the security guard again. Instead of relaxing, he was getting more and more upset. So, even though I had already told her about the problem, Ed went on and on even more. I suppose she was just the closest thing to a sympathetic Disney ear that he could get at the time. I nudged him under the table a couple of times and finally just said, “Hon, you need to let her take our orders; she’s got other tables to attend to!” He was slightly perturbed, but at least he stuck his nose back in the menu where it needed to be!
The signature dish here is the
Cedar Plank Roasted Salmon. I was tempted, but truthfully, I’m not much of a fish eater. Rebecca recommended the
Grilled Pork Chop and, since I don’t make pork chops that often at home (for whatever reason), I decided to give it a try. I honestly cannot remember what Ed ordered and neither can he! (“Whatever it was, it was really good!”)
Thanks, honey, that helps a lot! I’m thinking it was the beef. We both chose the salad for an appetizer.
Finally, our poor waitress was able to escape!
All right, it’s
confession time again. (I swear, I think I do more of that on this board than I do in church!) Without proper notes, I was forced to cheat
by looking up the menus on line so that I could talk just a little about the food. Well, without any pix, I figured it was the very least I could do!
Appetizers: Mixed Green Salad with roasted pear and champagne vinaigrette, Black Diamond cheddar and candied hazelnuts.
Yum!
Entrees: (Kathy) Grilled Pork Chop with smoked red curry squash mash, broccolini, and huckleberry jus. This really was quite excellent, I’m glad I ordered it!
(Ed – I think!) Grilled Beef Striploin with braised root vegetables, and red wine butter. He ate every bit.
It really was a wonderful meal.
The atmosphere was lovely and the service was attentive. The only thing that detracted from the dinner was Ed’s mood. It was not exactly the romantic candlelit meal I had envisioned.
At some point, the restaurant Guest Services Manager,
Curtis, came to our table and told us that he had heard about the incident and offered his sincere apologies. He listened as Ed (again) told the tale... by now I was getting a bit weary of it...
and he told us that he would tell the Security Supervisor to wait and not bother us while we were at dinner. He was really very kind. He wanted to buy us drinks, but Ed was anxious to meet with that supervisor, so he declined.
I, on the other hand,
did not! I decided that I was in the mood for a second glass of wine, so I accepted!
We split a dessert…darn my slowly shrinking gray matter, I cannot recall what we had… and were just finishing it when Curtis and Rebecca came to our table once more. The manager said he felt bad that Ed couldn’t accept his offer of a drink, so he wanted to send us back to our room with a bottle of wine! He produced what I suppose was a very good bottle and tried his best to get Ed to accept it. It was a very nice gesture, and much appreciated, but it was not what my husband was looking for.
He thanked Curtis, but told him that he “wasn’t looking for free bottles of wine, park tickets, or autographed pictures of characters…all he wanted was a response from the security supervisor.” Curtis indicated that, in the absence of the security manager (due to that emergency?) he was simply trying to express his regret that a guest had endured a bad experience.
Really, I thought it was quite good of him to make the effort, but it was getting to be too much.
I told Curtis that I had reached my limit and joked that he should really save the bottle for another couple that would actually be able to finish it! We thanked them and were just paying the check when the pager from the
Cub’s Den suddenly began to ring.
Ed flipped open his cell phone and called the number. After a brief exchange, he closed it. “We have to leave now,” he said sharply.
“There’s a problem with Billy.”
Kathy
It IS tough to get old...and to keep your sense of self, which for a lot of people, involves BEING needed. 
I feel so bad for all of you! Aunt Rae trying to be helpful, Ed for stressing over the incident at Roaring Forks, Tricia for being the one to break the news abut AR, and you for the decision it sounds like you have to make ... 
.
I think you have inspired me to perhaps finish my own trip report!
