26 May

Day 2 – D23

 

I must say, I did not take any pictures today! I knew I couldn’t use my camera inside the conference so I left it in the room! I took a few phone pics, but that’s it!

We woke up pretty early so we could get breakfast downstairs. I rolled over to see what the message said about my suitcase, and what do you know – no message!

I called and they had no idea where it was. They had searched everywhere according to them.

It dawned on me that while it’s rare there’s a problem with Magical Express, this is the problem with the system. At this point no one could tell me definitively if the bag ever made it to Orlando! So there was no way for me to know if it was the fault of Southwest or DME!

I had called Southwest multiple times the night before and they insisted they did not have the bag. They said bags only show up in their lost system if a bag shows up where it shouldn’t and it’s scanned in.

That seems like a horrible system to me.

But really, who should I yell at? Disney or Southwest? I needed to know! Lol

Disney did tell me they were putting a $250 credit on my room to help me get by until it was found. That was super nice since I’m sure they didn’t even know if it was their fault.

I was starting to lose hope at this point. My suitcase felt gone. How could there be a legitimate reason for it to be missing this long?

My mind started going through everything that was in there. Nothing irreplaceable, but tons of things that would be a pain in the neck to replace! I was leaving for a 7-night cruise the next day and I had no clothes!! Was I supposed to buy Mickey underwear? What would I do formal and semi-formal night?

I had a new swimsuit in there that I loved! And my favorite black heels that took me three years to break in!!  They’re the perfect black heels now!  I can wear them for hours!

The list was so so long.

Thank goodness I bought a shirt at the store the day before. I put on my super cute D23 T-shirt, my super cute D23 hat and the same jeans as the day before and we were off. I didn’t even have makeup!

Oh my word I looked scary. I tried to leave vanity at the door, not think about it and enjoy the day.

See? I looked goooooood.

Oh hmm. No hat. That must have been pre-hat?

The view from our front door:

First, sustenance!

Then Kris and I walked through the stores to see if there was anything I needed right away. I saw some cute pj’s, some t-shirts, and a few possibilities but I wasn’t ready to start spending willy-nilly at this point. I was going to have to be strategic about my needs for the week.

No luck on makeup. There were all kinds of villain eye shadows and what not, but not what I was dying for – mascara! Or even eyeliner! Ah well.

It was time for our first session! The line was ginormous but it moved pretty quickly. The room was huge and full of familiar faces. Deb Wills, Lou Mongello, etc.

I’m not sure why I took this!

As the first session was ending, one whole row in front of us apparently had somewhere to be and got up and left about 10 minutes early. Really? You can’t wait 10 minutes? Then at our second session later that day they did the exact same thing.

Seriously! You are not that much more important than the rest of us that you need to be rude and walk out early disrupting everyone. And if you do need to be somewhere early (at every session apparently) then at least have the courtesy to sit on the back row. I recognized 2 of them from Disney social media sites but I’ll leave their names out of it (it was not either of the two names I already mentioned). Let me just say – tacky. And incredibly arrogant.

Okay, off my soap box.

We had two hours for lunch. We figured the Contempo Café would be pretty packed and didn’t feel like we had time to go to Magic Kingdom, so we decided to monorail over to the Poly. I also realized my best odds of finding a swimsuit were at the Poly.

We stopped by the room. No suitcase. No message.

I called and Disney basically said they washed their hands of it and I needed to direct any claims to Southwest. They had talked to Southwest and Southwest also had no idea where it was, but they would do what they could if I needed a go between.

So that was it. My suitcase and all of my cruise clothes were gone. Shoooooooooot!!!!!!!

I started texting my sister and asking her to get me some things at a drugstore sometime on their drive.

We walked down to the monorail and got in line. When it pulled up, my phone rang and it was the same person at Disney that I had talked to literally five minutes before.

The conversation went something like this –

Her – “Mrs. Whiting!!! They found your suitcase!!!!!”

Me – “Whaaaaa? You just said it was gone?”

Her – “Southwest just called and said they found it!!!”

Me – “Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!! Where was it?!!”

Her – “They didn’t say, but they have it and they are getting it to us.”

Me – “THANK YOU!!!!!!!”

Yes, there were that many exclamation marks happening. Insert all the dancing banana emoticons here. All of them.

On with the day!! 🙂

We boarded the monorail and I sat down and started texting people that it was found! I’m sorry, Kris, I feel like I was on my phone too much as I’m reliving this!!

So while we are sitting there with my face buried in my phone, me very happy but still feeling rather self-conscious about the way I look, I hear something I dreaded hearing while I looked like this. (I tried leaving vanity at the door and a lot of it was there, but I admit it, some was following me).

I heard, “Tammy?”

Oh my word.

I slowly looked up, and didn’t recognize the person at all! Lol!!

It was Amanda who I knew from the internet! Once she said who she was I was so excited to meet someone new from the message boards! Hi Amanda!! 🙂

We only got to talk for a second before the other people in the car kind of took over the conversation asking us questions, so I felt bad we didn’t get to talk longer.

We were at the Poly before we knew it and Kris and I said goodbye!

We decided to walk through the store at the Poly just because and I did find some swimsuits that I would have been okay with. Not as cute as the new one I had in my suitcase of course, but not too bad!

Lunch for us was at Captain Cooks! I love their pork sandwich!

I was so excited to see the Dole Whip floats!

To me, that’s what a Dole Whip should be. I don’t care too much about just the ice cream, the float is where it’s at. So the old set up at the Poly did nothing for me. Yay floats!

I was too full for one at this point though. We made it back for our session in plenty of time.

At some point we walked around and took phone pictures of the displays.

Mr. Toads –

Tower of the Four Winds:

Small World Doll from the World Fair:

Snow White:

Skyway:

And then the sessions started again. I have to say, I’m not always up to date on Disney history so I enjoyed today so much!

It was amazing to sit in a room with people who said things like, “Well when I was talking to Walt…” I mean they were talking to Walt. Disney. Him. That’s amazing.

The preview for Tomorrowland was awesome as well.

I wasn’t sad to be going on a cruise, but I was sad I was missing tomorrow’s conference!

We went back up to the room and guess what was there?!!!!

Hello, old friend.

I put on some eyeliner and mascara (see vanity following me) and we were off to the Magic Kingdom!

We had Mine Train Fastpasses so that was our first goal. I love Mine Train!

Then we met up with Jess and her friend Rachel, a cast member.

We were hungry so we went to Gaston’s for some pork shanks. My word I love those pork shanks.

Castle!

We talked to Jess and Rachel for quite a while and then got Dole Whips! Dole Whip floats, natch.

Sorry, still didn’t bring the real camera!

Next, we decided to all go meet up with Heather at Wilderness Lodge. We met in the lounge and sat and talked for about an hour.

Then we said goodbye to everyone, and we were off to bed!

 

 

 

It’s a Very Merry Thanksgiving Indeed! – November 20-30, 2014
Day 1 – Luggage Problems Galore
Day 2 – D23 
Day 3 – Cruise Day! 
Day 4 – Key West For the First Time!
Day 5 – Sea Day and Formal Night 
Day 6 – Stingray City 
Day 7 – Thanksgiving in Cozumel 
Day 8 – Palo Brunch Day 
Day 9 – Castaway, Baby!