A Day At Disney…Plus! A Bed Update

So this past Saturday, Todd offered me a free Main Gate at Disney, and of course, I couldn’t pass it up. I’m not a big Mouse guy, but I LOVE spending a day every now and then park-hopping.

Kara’s friend Dan came in town from Melbourne and the two of them spent the day at Universal. It was just one of those “let’s spend a day apart” days. After a stop at Chik-Fil-A, Todd, Josh and I headed to Magic Kingdom to meet with their friends Ben and Lauren. Ben, being the kind soul that he is, got me my Parkhopper for the day by means of his seasonal Disney employment; I thank him very much for this opportunity, too.

After navigating our way through Main Street during the 3pm parade (not recommended…plan accordingly), we eventually made it back to Future (past?) Land and got a quick ride on Space Mountain. Now, as I said, I’m not a huge Disney person, but knowing Space was down for a year-long rehab, I was expecting an enormous overhaul of the entire attraction…I soon found out, due to budget cuts, the only thing that got overhauled was the ceiling in the loading bay. What a waste.

I also learned that one of the planned renovations was a separate loading bay for slower loads and wheelchairs that would cut back on ride E-stops when they didn’t hit their obnoxiously quick interval goals. A longer than expected dispatch, coupled with a kid who tried to climb out on the lifthill because he was terrified, ended up causing our 5 minute wait to quickly turn into about 20 minutes.

After our ho-hum, just like old times, ride on Space, we fought our way through the park all the way over to Splash Mountain, where we got to enjoy a ridiculously long 5 minute wait. Splash is so much fun, so well themed, and is probably my third favorite Disney ride behind Toy Story Mania and Expedition Everest. After passing on Thunder Mountain, we decided to leave the park and headed over to Hollywood Studios, where we spent about two hours hanging out and catching a couple of rides.

After a ride through the Hollywood Tower Hotel, we were joined by Erin who took us up on rides on Rock’n Roller Coaster and then the best ride in the world, Toy Story. Toy Story, seriously, is an amazing ride. It’s absolutely exhausting, in that the motion used for shooting your gun is extremely tiring, but the ride is so rewarded that you don’t even notice how worn out you truly are until you’re off and walking around.

At this time, Hollywood Studios was past closing time, so we hit the road one more time and headed off to Epcot for a night cap. Epcot didn’t provide too much in the form of entertainment, as the only ride I rode was Soarin’ (which trips me out everytime…I hate heights, still) and the rest of the time was spent walking around. We left around the time Illuminations was beginning (sad) and our shortened day of park-hopping was complete.

I like Disney every now and then, but it’s just not that magical to me. I love being able to parkhop, ride the good rides at each place, and just hang out…But I’d much rather spend any day at SeaWorld or Universal. I am, however, very happy to have spent that day with those people, it was a great time!

Now, switching gears for a minute, when I last discussed our bedding situation, Belk had put a set on hold for us that they promised was without discoloration. Kara drove 20 or more miles out of her way to go pick it up, and lo and behold….Same problem.

Same discoloration behind the placard.

At this time, by her account, the gloves came off. Not only did they make her go out of her way, told her it was the correct set without issues, and then, informed her the only way we could get a good one was by shipping a new one to us….And then would charge her for shipping.

Nuh-uh!!!

After a few minutes, Belk finally caved and contacted corporate to send us a new set with no shipping costs. Now, for the final straw? It has now been 10 days since this happened, and not only have we NOT received the new set in the mail, but the employees are telling her that they have no way of tracking the shipping. They don’t even know if it HAS been shipped. Tomorrow, they will be contacted and a solution will be found, and if that solution is not a free, working set and our money back, we will once again hit the roads in search of our new favorite comforter set.

Fingers are crossed…

The Saga Continues

“Hopefully the bed saga is over now!”

This is the sentence that Kara enthusiastically proclaimed as we walked out of Belk tonight, proud owners of a new comforter and sheet set. The saga, as it was, extended from the time we decided months ago that we wanted to a new bed, to, well…Who knows, now?

The bed process itself was a pain, but finding a comforter and sheet set has turned out to be just as big of a headache, if not more-so. After scouring the city for something we could agree one, we settled on a bed-in-a-bag that was ordered online. This turned out to be an idea that wasn’t the best either of us has ever had. After a week of waiting, it arrived in the mail yesterday only to disappoint both of us.

We ordered from Egyptian Peddler after seeing nothing but positive reviews regarding the quality of their products, as well as shipping times. We received the 12-piece set in great time, but unfortunately, neither of us were happy with the product. The colors, to start, weren’t exactly as flattering as they looked online, and the quality of the set, comforter in particular, was far below par. The ruffles were sloppy-looking, and there were loose threads abound; luckily, we both agreed that it was better off sent back, which was a far better ending than had one of us fallen in love with it and the other hadn’t.

So today after work, we headed to find our set once again. Starting the day off at Ross, we quickly dismissed this place as an establishment to find something of high quality. Moving down the outside mall, we hit up Target next, and did find a set we both liked but decided we wanted to check out one more place, just to be sure. Thankfully, that idea worked out for us. After a thorough exploration of our local Belk, we found the perfect set and made the final decision to go with this arrangement. We matched sheets, and as we left…

“Hopefully the bed saga is over now!”

Not so fast, my friend!

We got home, unpacked the set, put it on the bed, fell in love and then…Found a huge area of discoloration.

At the foot of the comforter, where the placard had been stationed, was a 6x18in rectangle of darker brown that definitely didn’t match the rest of the top. Sooo, the saga continued, until Kara managed to find another Belk, about 30 miles away, that has the same set. Kara had them put it on hold for us, and when she goes to pick it up tomorrow, HOPEFULLY it will not only a)be the correct set, but b)not have any unwelcome discoloration.

We can only hope! But if it doesn’t work out in our favor, I guess the saga will continue.