2002 – but it really started in 2000.
I met several Internet girlfriends in WDW in November 2000. We came together from all over for a very long weekend. We had two boats reserved for a MK fireworks cruise after our dinner at 'Ohana, and I got the fun boat. (OK, the fun boat got me.) The cruise was incredible. It was hilarious with a pile of fireworks on top. One of my friends got flirty with the 21-year-old captain, another of my friends did her coconut dance; I did my impersonation of my husband doing his impersonation of me as Peter Pan. Some of us may have been drinking. I don’t remember. It was an incredible cruise. And at the end, we asked the captain to drop us off at the MK so we could watch the late MSEP.
My friend and roommate Krisi was dancing in the front of the boat, ready to disembark first, because she’s Krisi, and Toby, our shy and adorable 21-year-old captain said, “This was the best cruise EVER,” and we all laughed and agreed yes, this was the best cruise EVER – while were gathering our things and standing up, getting ready to leave – and then Toby ran the boat into the boat dock. In front of, I don’t know, thousands of people who were leaving the MK after the fireworks. And you know pontoon boats, right? So the left side pontoon hits the dock with this loud, unmistakable, “BONNNNNNNG!!!” and tiny Krisi goes flying through the air like a rose being tossed at a matador, and the rest of us went stumbling about, so it looked and sounded Very Dramatic, but really, it was just a tap on the dock, and we were all fine. Especially Krisi. She lands on her feet like a cat. Honest.
But this jerk of a manager imperiously strode up to the boat and started yelling at Adorable Captain Toby, “WHAT IS YOUR NAME? WHERE IS YOUR HOME DOCK? WHO IS YOUR SUPERVISOR?” and writing on a scrap of paper. I mean – he was mean!!! And poor Adorable Captain Toby, who had just had the best cruise of his long DCP career, turned bright red and started stammering.
Thank goodness, one of our group had grown up going to DL every other month, and she yelled at the manager, “WHAT IS YOUR NAME? WHERE IS YOUR NAME BADGE??? You are not supposed to interact with guests without a badge!!!” And those of us who were going to the MK ran to Guest Services in Town Square and filled out official complaint forms about the manager and how he ruined our evening, and they had better not discipline Adorable Captain Toby because it was our fault he hit the dock and no one was hurt. The pontoon was barely dented, for heaven’s sake. Hmph. Next day, several of us went to the WL marina to make sure Toby was OK. He was.*
That was 2000.
When we met up again in 2002, the group was smaller – only one boat was needed for the Illuminations cruise – and much more close. One morning we were in the queue for RnRC and we struck up a conversation with a CM and told her the story of Adorable Captain Toby and our badly behaved Best Cruise Ever hitting the boat dock. She was a very good audience, laughing and gasping and ooo’ing and ahhh’ing on cue. Nice girl, had a good time, got on the coaster and rode. Loved it. You know. Normal Disney stuff.
And when we got to the disembarking point, there stood the CM we had chatted with in line 20 minutes earlier, smiling broadly, and she said, “Hello, ladies! Follow me, please!”
And we were all backdoored back onto the RnRC and we had a second ride without waiting at all!!!
There! That’s the pixie dust moment to which this long story led. Very magical! Wish I had pictures!!! CM’s are the best!!!
*One of the women on the 2000 cruise was still at WDW a week after the rest of us went home, and she actually went back to the WL marina to quietly check up on Toby again. He really was in good shape. No word on if the obnoxious manager was ever re-trained.
), so I asked the concierge if she could find the bag for me. It hadn’t even been dropped off yet and wasn’t expected until around 7pm. I was bummed since we were about to go meet our first characters. She very kindly directed me to the giftshop with a note saying we could pick out 3 autograph books and pens. It was so so sweet of her. My kids never even knew about the hiccup. And when we finally got the gift bag, I took the extra books and pens back to concierge and asked them to pay it forward. So hopefully it was 2 pixie dusts for the price of 1! 
). We booked a standard view room for cash, and requested to be in the wing that is immediately adjacent to the bus stop. We had wound up in a room down there once before and loved the “secret” entrance and the fact that we could see a bus from our room and still make it on. We requested a room in that wing on this cash stay and mentioned that we loved the proximity. We got the room across the hall so we were upgraded to a pool view, but still had the benefit of being so close to the buses. And from that area the Mara was still not far away either. It was a fantastic room.