dolphingirl47
In Search of the Tag Fairy
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2007
When we got to Kidani Village, somebody called my name. It was somebody I know from the UK. I knew that she was at Walt Disney World, but thought she was staying at Bay Lake Tower. She was actually staying at Kidani Village for this part of the trip and we spent a short while catching up as we had not seen each other in a while. She then headed off to meet somebody and we went inside. We stopped by the front desk to get our transportation notice printed off. When I had spoken to Disney’s Magical Express a few weeks before the trip, I was advised that I would need to do so as this would not be automatically generated as this was a separate reservation from the one on which we arrived on and we were only staying at Kidani Village for one night. The cast member who assisted us could not really understand why this would be necessary, but printed it off for us anyway. Of course, when we woke up the next morning another transportation notice had been delivered and was hanging from our door.
We then headed up to our room. This time I had my requests met. I had requested high floor and Sunset Savannah and this is precisely what we got. Our luggage had not arrived so I did what I had been advised to do at All Star Music and contacted Bell Services. My luggage had not arrived and they placed me on hold while they checked if it had accidentally been delivered to Jambo House. It was not there either and I was asked to call back in an hour. It was early days yet so I was happy with this. I took some photos of our room and then made some coffee. We sat down on the balcony and drank our coffee. Initially we were just looking at an empty savannah, but soon some animals turned up right in front of us.
We enjoyed the view for a while and then I called Bell Services again. They still were none the wiser what had happened to our luggage, but the person I spoke to promised that she would make some phone calls and then get back to me. An hour later, I still had not heard back and I was promised another call-back. By this time, I was getting quite annoyed. Needless to say, the call-back never happened and our luggage had still not arrived. By then we had to make tracks. We had arranged to meet some people at the Victoria Falls Lounge at Jambo House and the time we had arranged to meet them was creeping closer. We set off. As we were leaving Kidani Village, I saw a van with luggage pull up. So I asked Graham to go ahead and I would catch up. This appeared to be the luggage from Disney’s Magical Express. I decided to go an speak to the person who was at the Bell Services desk outside to let her know that we were still waiting for a call-back and that we were now going to be out for the evening. She asked me to wait and 5 minutes later, she came back with a manager. In less than 5 minutes, he managed to achieve what others had failed to do in hours. He had established that All Star Music never sent our luggage. It was still sitting there. He advised that we would send over somebody from Kidani Village to go and collect it. He asked where we were going for dinner. I advised that we were just going to have drinks and some snacks at Victoria Falls Lounge. He asked if we had Magic Bands with charging privileges, which I confirmed. He advised that he would add $50 to our account and to go and enjoy ourselves. I had not expected this and it was most certainly not necessary. I just wanted to know where our luggage was.
I headed off and met up with Graham who had waited for me about halfway between Kidani and Jambo House. I told him what had transpired and he was impressed as well. We arrived at Jambo House a little behind schedule. We were supposed to meet a number of people, but only Susan and Simon had arrived. We explained what had happened and then we settled down. We ordered some drinks. Graham had a beer and I had a Margarita. We also had not eaten anything since our early lunch. Unfortunately the menu was somewhat limited as the kitchen was closed for refurbishment. Graham went with the artisanal cheeses - valdeon blue cheese, petit agour cheese, cabot clothbound cheddar cheese, marcona almonds, honeycomb, Egyptian flowers and wild strawberry gastrique. I had the breads and spreads, which consisted of oak-grilled poppadum, South African sea salt crisps, wheat pitas, house-made lavosh, lentil spinach spread, Kalamata olive hummus, sun-dried tomato hummus and mango chutney. The portion was huge and even though Graham did help me, I did not manage to finish it. We chatted about our respective trips and at some stage Paula, Amber and Andy arrived. We were also joined by my friend Michelle, who had picked up a Haunted Mansion Dooney and Bourke Pouchette for me and we had not managed to meet up before this evening so that she could give this to me. We had a lovely evening just chatting and relaxing in good company. The only drawback was that at one stage we were disturbed by persistent drumming in the lobby.
Eventually the time came to say goodbye. We walked back to Kidani Village. As we got there, the manager I spoke to earlier was standing outside the hotel. He asked if we had a good evening and confirmed that our luggage had arrived. He arranged for this to be delivered to our room. He was as good as his word. We only had enough time to get to the room and for me to put my stuff down before the luggage arrived. I did our online check in as we were now within 24 hours of departure. We got boarding passes, but we're not sitting together. This was strange as not that many seats were taken. I managed to change our seats. Then it was time to get ready to bed for the last time this holiday.
We then headed up to our room. This time I had my requests met. I had requested high floor and Sunset Savannah and this is precisely what we got. Our luggage had not arrived so I did what I had been advised to do at All Star Music and contacted Bell Services. My luggage had not arrived and they placed me on hold while they checked if it had accidentally been delivered to Jambo House. It was not there either and I was asked to call back in an hour. It was early days yet so I was happy with this. I took some photos of our room and then made some coffee. We sat down on the balcony and drank our coffee. Initially we were just looking at an empty savannah, but soon some animals turned up right in front of us.
We enjoyed the view for a while and then I called Bell Services again. They still were none the wiser what had happened to our luggage, but the person I spoke to promised that she would make some phone calls and then get back to me. An hour later, I still had not heard back and I was promised another call-back. By this time, I was getting quite annoyed. Needless to say, the call-back never happened and our luggage had still not arrived. By then we had to make tracks. We had arranged to meet some people at the Victoria Falls Lounge at Jambo House and the time we had arranged to meet them was creeping closer. We set off. As we were leaving Kidani Village, I saw a van with luggage pull up. So I asked Graham to go ahead and I would catch up. This appeared to be the luggage from Disney’s Magical Express. I decided to go an speak to the person who was at the Bell Services desk outside to let her know that we were still waiting for a call-back and that we were now going to be out for the evening. She asked me to wait and 5 minutes later, she came back with a manager. In less than 5 minutes, he managed to achieve what others had failed to do in hours. He had established that All Star Music never sent our luggage. It was still sitting there. He advised that we would send over somebody from Kidani Village to go and collect it. He asked where we were going for dinner. I advised that we were just going to have drinks and some snacks at Victoria Falls Lounge. He asked if we had Magic Bands with charging privileges, which I confirmed. He advised that he would add $50 to our account and to go and enjoy ourselves. I had not expected this and it was most certainly not necessary. I just wanted to know where our luggage was.
I headed off and met up with Graham who had waited for me about halfway between Kidani and Jambo House. I told him what had transpired and he was impressed as well. We arrived at Jambo House a little behind schedule. We were supposed to meet a number of people, but only Susan and Simon had arrived. We explained what had happened and then we settled down. We ordered some drinks. Graham had a beer and I had a Margarita. We also had not eaten anything since our early lunch. Unfortunately the menu was somewhat limited as the kitchen was closed for refurbishment. Graham went with the artisanal cheeses - valdeon blue cheese, petit agour cheese, cabot clothbound cheddar cheese, marcona almonds, honeycomb, Egyptian flowers and wild strawberry gastrique. I had the breads and spreads, which consisted of oak-grilled poppadum, South African sea salt crisps, wheat pitas, house-made lavosh, lentil spinach spread, Kalamata olive hummus, sun-dried tomato hummus and mango chutney. The portion was huge and even though Graham did help me, I did not manage to finish it. We chatted about our respective trips and at some stage Paula, Amber and Andy arrived. We were also joined by my friend Michelle, who had picked up a Haunted Mansion Dooney and Bourke Pouchette for me and we had not managed to meet up before this evening so that she could give this to me. We had a lovely evening just chatting and relaxing in good company. The only drawback was that at one stage we were disturbed by persistent drumming in the lobby.
Eventually the time came to say goodbye. We walked back to Kidani Village. As we got there, the manager I spoke to earlier was standing outside the hotel. He asked if we had a good evening and confirmed that our luggage had arrived. He arranged for this to be delivered to our room. He was as good as his word. We only had enough time to get to the room and for me to put my stuff down before the luggage arrived. I did our online check in as we were now within 24 hours of departure. We got boarding passes, but we're not sitting together. This was strange as not that many seats were taken. I managed to change our seats. Then it was time to get ready to bed for the last time this holiday.