This picture is very special. Out of 64 trips spanning 39 years, it is the only one of its kind in my collection. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Jenn, it’s The World of Disney store at night. Big Deal.” Ahhhh but that is not so…well not completely so.
Mornings. Let’s say we have a love-hate relationship. I hate them and they love coming every day.
A few things happened prior to our December 2008 WDW trip:
March 23, our second daughter Ally was born.
November, I received an email about a special sale at World of Disney for annual passholders.
The sale was a one day only event just for annual passholders. The sale began at 6 am. Let me repeat – BEGAN at 6 AM. I still cringe at that sentence! Every half hour until 9 am the store would have another “deal” begin and there would be discounts galore for just that morning.
My in laws often accompany us on trips and my Mother In Law is a die hard shopper. She got the email too and was REALLY excited to attend this event. While I appreciate a good deal, I have that loathing for morning. . . especially that time of day I call “dark thirty.”
My ONLY thought on this was that Ally was a dark thirty feeder at this time. I was trudging over to get her around 5 every morning to fill her tummy and then we’d go back to sleep until the sun was up at least. Mother In Law and I set up the plan. She set her alarm for 5 in bedroom 1 of our Beach Club Villa and would text me in bedroom 2 of Beach Club Villa if Ally had indeed awakened and needed food.
Sure enough, Ally was up and by 5:30 I found myself riding shotgun with my Mother In Law to Downtown Disney.
We joined the CROWD that had formed in front of the doors. I honestly cannot recall which doors are in the photo. I am surprised I was awake enough to think to take a photo! I did notice there were some people who had special bracelets on. They must have arrived much earlier and maybe were able to get some kind of goodie for being early, but I don’t know for sure. I didn’t get a bracelet, but I got to be at the sale.
When the doors opened, the throngs of us entered and my Mother In Law and I split up to grab bargains. Remember – it was early so my specific recollections are a bit fuzzy. Every half hour I would see another cast member with a cart full of brown boxes that would be opened with merchandise being offered at 70-80% off regular price.
It was crazy too. Imagine World of Disney at any regular time. Go ahead – take a moment – yeah..it’s always full of people and so full of merchandise that you bump into displays and people at every turn. So consider all those people, PLUS extra merchandise being carted around.
At one point I happened to be at a half hour mark where two sets of merchandise were being opened. There was a large circle of shoppers surrounding one poor cast member with a box cutter. The boxes were of golden glitter ear ornaments and these oddly squishy character plush dolls of mickey and the gang.
If we had been anywhere else, I think people’s bad sides would have shown through and we’d be pushing and shoving and pulling and being naughty about getting our hands on these items. But there must have been some Pixie Dust in the air because we all started helping each other out with making full collections of the gang for each other. You’d hear a little voice call out, “I need a Donald.” and someone close to the boxes would grab one and pass it back. Eventually, the passing became tossing….so you’d hear someone call out a character and then see them flying over the tops of heads. They were soft so no casualties were recorded.
Soon, the boxes were empty and everyone got what they needed and the crowd moved on to other items.
What’s the worst part of shopping? Check out lines. And they were bad on this shopping occasion. Mother In Law and I made the most of it. We each took a line to see who would get out first. And we met other people in line with us.
The women behind me were sisters from New Jersey who drove down JUST for the sale. They do it every year and had their arms full of all kinds of goodies.
At the end of it all, I can say I enjoyed this experience – early day and all. Would I do it again? I don’t know… we shall see when the sale is in 2012 and whether it matches our November trip dates!