Setting the Bar

On our first day at Disneyland, someone stole our brand new stroller.

Actually, that statement isn’t exactly accurate. Let me try again.

Before we even left the hotel for our first day at Disneyland, someone stole our brand new stroller.

Here’s how it all went down:

Because the four of us overslept a bit, we didn’t make it down to the breakfast buffet at the PCH Grill until after eleven AM. The restaurant, located in the lobby of the Disney-owned Paradise Pier Hotel, was remarkable only for the fact that the place was literally teeming with Disney characters such as Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Lilo & Stitch. Once we were seated around the table, a waiter took Emma’s stroller and told us that we could retrieve it out front when we had finished our meal.

Well, we ate our Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes, snapped a few somewhat inappropriate (on her part) photos of Minnie Mouse and me, paid an outrageously exorbitant amount for three adult breakfasts, and exited the eatery in order to make our way to the Magic Kingdom. Everything was as cool as the other side of the pillow until we came to the slow realization that our stroller was nowhere to be found, despite the fact that we were the last four turistas in the restaurant.

Fehmeen told the woeful tale of our absconded baby-transport to three different people: the breakfast supervisor, a uniformed security guard, and the restaurant manager. She spared no detail as she vividly described all the unique features of our $50 stroller that was purchased from Target exclusively for this trip. In the end, the best that Tracy, the manager, could do for us was to provide us with a voucher for a free stroller rental once we were inside Disneyland proper. We thanked her and headed off to the park.

During August, the Happiest Place on Earth is also the Hottest and Most Crowded Place on Earth as well. After about two hours of getting our Walt on, we were all ready to go back to the hotel. We returned the rented stroller and started the ten/fifteen minute walk through Downtown Disney to Paradise Pier.

Exhausted and overheated from carrying Emma, Fehmeen decided to vent her frustrations at hotel management. Just as she was about to get into it, the manager, Tracy, appeared and told her that she had a solution to our problem. She then presented Fehmeen with the exact same stroller that was stolen only hours earlier. Apparently, Tracy had her people go to Target and purchase our stroller and then, while we were gone, had them assemble it as well.

So, how cool is that? I’ll bet you didn’t see that end coming, didja?

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