I would be remiss if I didn't take a minute to talk about Disney's customer service. I mentioned in the Anniversary blog about the Disney employee who gave us the pin when checking into the Grand Floridian Hotel. I had already been told by the customer service rep when booking the vacation online that I should take one of the pins and wear it, so I happily explained it was our Anniversary.
What I wasn't prepared for was the level of customer service the employees would show us by wearing the pin. Such a simple thing that made a typical vacation into something really special.
Everyone who greeted us from the hotel staff, to the theme park staff to all the transportation employees in between would congratulate us on our milestone Anniversary and ask us if we were having a good experience. Wearing the pin also came with perks.....who knew?
During our meals, the waiter would surprise us with a dessert or glass of champagne. There was one special event that I really wanted to share.
One night, we ate dinner at the California Grill (top floor of the Contemporary Hotel) around 5 PM. We went back to our hotel to change and hit some of the rides at the Magic Kingdom at night. We only had a couple of hours before the fireworks show at 10 PM. The restaurant had invited us back to see the fireworks from the rooftop facing the Magic Kingdom. This is something special that they do if you eat dinner at their restaurant, and we didn't want to miss it!
Wouldn't you know that we got stuck in the fast pass line for Space Mountain. It took an incredible 45 minutes to get through the line and then the ride. When we stepped out of the building and into Tomorrow Land we could see all the guests lining up in front of the castle to see the 10 PM show. We had 15 minutes to run through the park, get on the monorail to the Contempoary Hotel, make our way to the 2nd floor to access the elevator to the top floor. They have an elevator that shoots you straight up to the 15th floor where the restaurant is located.
This would be our one and only chance to see the fireworks show and I didn't want to miss it. Have you ever gone the wrong way when all the other people are trying to get to something? It takes a lot of bobbing and weaving to avoid the traffic, not to mention the strollers. As we made our way through the crowds in the dark, I could hear the employees say, "Happy Anniversary". We started to laugh that even when we were running past the employees, they would still remark on our pins.
When we finally got from the monorail to the hotel, my heart sank because it was 9:59 PM and I knew that there would no way for us to make the final stretch of the run in 1 minute. As we made our way around the corner from the escalator to the elevator my breath was taken away by what I saw waiting for us. It was our hostess in the elevator holding the door open as she said, "I knew you would make it back, I've been waiting for you." She whisked us up to the 15th floor, escorted us outside the restaurant on the rooftop to an unbelievable view of the fireworks show. It was if Disney was waiting for us to arrive and then queued the music. The restaurant has speakers located outside so we could hear the narrator and music. Here's one of the photos we took that night.
Leave it to Disney to continue to raise the bar on what makes excellent customer service really outstanding.
Happy Travels!
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