What is YOUR "horrible moment turned wonderful"?

[almcg]

What a wonderful thread! I also think it should be required reading for anyone who says "You're going back to WDW AGAIN?". This thread just proves why I love Disney so much. Thank you everyone

 

[Sleepyhappyandgrumpy]

We are going for the first time in Oct. After reading several threads about the Norwalk virus and rude people this was much needed!

Thanks for taking the time to share!!

 

[Michelle67]

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's stories. It is so nice to know that there are still honest people out there, and that Disney puts such focus on hiring genuinely nice people and training them to go the extra mile for their guests. I posted this story elsewhere also, but since it fits...

For my oldest daughter's fifth birthday, we decided to splurge (for us at the time, young and poor, this was a huge splurge) and take her to Disneyland for the first time. She had a lot of health problems when she was little, and in one of those Murphy's Law things, got very sick the day before we were supposed to leave. When we told her we'd have to cancel the trip, she was heartbroken and insisted she wanted to go. We talked it over and decided that since her illness wasn't anything contagious, why not? If you're going to feel awful either way, it's still more fun to feel awful at Disneyland than at home. And since the trip was non-refundable, there was no way we could afford to go when she was feeling better instead. So away we went, and just let how she felt from day to day be the deciding factor on the activity level and time spent at the park. First thing in the day with her medications fresh she'd feel pretty good, but within a few hours she'd crash and we'd head back to the hotel and spend the rest of the day watching movies while she dozed in and out on the bed.

One of the days we had made it over to Toon Town when she took a nose dive. She didn't want to leave, but she felt awful and had no energy at all. We ended up hanging out in a tiny little playground that was there, letting her play (very halfheartedly) and drink water while we waited to see if she'd catch a second wind or if we'd have to insist on going back to the hotel. For whatever reason (maybe there was a parade right then?) Toon Town was practically deserted, but Chip and Dale were there. They noticed our daughter looking miserable in the playground, and came over to join her. They played peek a boo and follow-the-leader with her, at a gentle pace, for a good 15 minutes one-on-one, until some other kids came along and joined in for another few minutes before activity started picking up in the area again and they went off to greet other visitors. I was really touched that they took the time to come over and play with her in a slow and gentle way that she was able to enjoy even as awful as she felt, and it was the highlight of her visit. Who gets 15 minutes of one-on-one time with the characters? She felt so special, and still remembers it fondly now that she is an adult.

 

[wdhinn89]

Bump!!

 

[GrowingUpDisney]

Subbing...this is great!

 

[tzolkin]

We surprised our kids with a second trip in May 2009. That was the start of the crazy, record rains. It basically never stopped pouring the whole 12 days we were there and we lived in our ponchos. Two days into the trip after watching the weather forecast I actually sat on the bathroom floor at the resort and cried because I was convinced our trip was ruined. But we tried to make the best of it and did wind up enjoying ourselves.

We had not been able to see Wishes our first trip and so on our last night we sat for over an hour in the rain while they first delayed and ultimately cancelled the show. I would have thought it would be completely disappointing, but DH seemed so happy and even the kids agreed it was the best part of the entire trip.


These little faces peeking out of their ponchos basically sum up the trip for me.

 

[mello]

I'll share a magical moment that happened after we returned home a few days ago from a lovely stay at BCV. Saturday there was a box on our porch. Nobody had ordered anything since before the trip, so we were mystified. Brought it inside and the return address said "Disney's Yacht & Beach Club". Guess what was inside? Our DD's pink scalloped blankie - you know, the ratty old lovie thing that each child carries around long past it's usefulness and said child panics whenever you wash it?

DD is 8, and hardly ever uses the pink scalloped blankie anymore, but she took it on the trip, and it was a good thing because she was sick two days during our stay and you know how comforting blankies are at a time like that, even for someone at the ripe old age of 8. She had mentioned to me during unpacking that she couldn't find her blankie, but I figured it was in the laundry somewhere, and didn't worry too much about it. We didn't even realize we had left it behind at BCV, but somebody there found it, guessed it's importance to an unknown child, and took the time and effort to mail it back to us! Tears of joy flowed from DD, and DH said again, "That is why I like to vacation at Disney".

I'm going to write a letter to BCV to thank them for going the extra mile to bring happiness, but I also wanted to pay tribute here to the extraordinary customer service that Disney excels at like no other place I know of.

Thanks to the caring of the BCV cast members, we still have a very important keepsake, and now it has a great story attached to it, which we'll treasure all the more!

 

[jeff p]

bump

 

[mom2maggie]

I found this thread and cried so much! Thanks for all your stories!

 

[JKMJ441724]

I'm having one of those days where I need some "warm-fuzzies". I'm giving this thread a bump. It always makes me feel good.

 

[SilverSynchro919]

Bumping this thread for more beautiful stories...brings a tear to my eye and I just love hearing how even terrible things can turn wonderful!

 

[Kara315]

I remember a time when I was 9, and I had an autograph book with tons of autographs in it from that day, I had it in a bag with some other things, but of course the most important was that book! lol.
Somehow I ended up leaving it somewhere, and didn't realize until too late, we went back and looked as much as we could with nothing. So I lost a cute little plastic bag, which isn't much but it was disney, and of course the autograph book and pen, can't remember what else was in there, not much though. But being nine, I was upset. I can't remember if it was right as we got inside our hotel or a little after, but because I put my name in the autograph book, someone found it and returned it, not sure how, unless I put the resort in as well......this was back in 99 so I'm not too good at remembering lol. But it was a HUGE shock to see it at the resort desk and I was so excited. It's so nice to know people will find your things and bring them to a CM or lost and found, or maybe a CM found them, but it made a sad ending happy again.

 

[jeff p]

Bump

 

[jeff p]

Bump

 

[JKMJ441724]

Surely someone has a good story to put on here

 

[Cap'nJack'sMum]

We went to WDW over Spring Break this year. My daughter brought $50 of her own money to buy something special for herself. At Epcot, she bought 2 books in Japan and a music box in Germany. She listened to the music box 3-4x to make sure it was ok, but it was loud in the store, being so busy. The girl at the register wrapped it really nicely for travel and my daughter brought it back to the room and immediately packed it in her backpack so she wouldn't forget it and it would stay "professionally" wrapped.

When we got home later in the week, DD was excited to play her music box! She took it out of the wrap and it was still perfect looking, but when she played it, the tune was *horribly* off. We're not sure what happened, if she listened to one and put it down and picked up a different one or what, but the tune was almost painful. She was *so sad*. The books and the music box were all that she'd bought. The music box was $20, which is a lot of money for her to spend on one thing.

I told her that I would write to WDW and see if we could exchange it for a working music box. I wrote to customer relations, explained the situation, and asked them if I sent the broken music box back, would they replace it for my DD. I received an email back stating that the CM found the kind of music box that my DD had purchased and was sending it to her. I wrote and asked for an address for returns and the CM wrote back again saying that she wanted DD to have a magical memory of Germany and that returning the broken item wasn't necessary. We have not yet received the music box, the CM said it would take a couple of weeks, but my daughter is thrilled that she will have a working music box to remember her Spring Break trip by.

*That* is Disney customer service! They really go the extra mile to make things right.

 

[waitomo]

We had promised our 3 children, ages 3,5 and 7, that when we returned after living in Japan for two years that we would go to disneyworld. So, we arrived near Easter week and went to mk as fast as we could, which was around noon. Needless to say, it was a zoo.

My DS5 had taught himself to read from a Disney tour book (adult commemorative souvenir), and had spent over a year of reading and rereading the description of Splash Mountain. We stood looking at Splash Mountain with its two hour standby line and fast pass return after 10 pm, and he broke down sobbing "then why did we even come to Disney? when I explained we couldn't ride it today. A CM in a suit overheard this, stopped, turned around and asked what was wrong. Daniel choked out he had been dreaming of riding this since we "came from living in Japan ." The man was so kind listening to him and said, "I can help." He took us up the back way to splash mt and gave us FP for big thunder mt too! It was so very memorable and wonderful.

 

[Sleepyhappyandgrumpy]

More stories?

 

[jeff p]

Bump

 

[jeff p]

Bump