Technology problems with a happy ending

When I got to the Art of Animation mid-morning on Friday, I realize that I had not packed the power supply for my laptop. A quick call to my husband, and he promised to send it asap. It took from Friday until Wednesday to get it. Note to self: don’t forget anything that requires mailing.

On Sunday, as I exited the 3 Caballeros ride in Epcot, my nearly new cell phone jumped ship (the belt clip apparently failed) and it ended up in the bottom of the water ride. I freaked out, and the staff was reassuring, but firm. They could not even LOOK for the phone until the ride closed at 9:30. Cell phone, water, and at least 12 hours before retrieval. I figured all was lost. I bought a burner phone at walmart (thanks to my daughter who set me up with a very nice Uber driver) and we carried on.

I filed a lost report with guest relations, and the next morning called lost and found to see if it had come in. Nope. Tuesday, still no phone. Wednesday we decided to go to AK again to ride FOP (by the way, in a clear win for Touring Plans, by going on the first bus and getting in line really early, we were on the ride before the park officially opened (at 7:50) on Saturday, and were in a 20 minute wait line on Wednesday – that ride ROCKS. Back on topic. Anyway, after riding FOP and having a light breakfast, I got on hold at Lost and Found on my burner phone. When I asked about my phone (fully expecting to be told nothing had been found), a very nice man said that they thought they had my phone. It was the right model (Samsung S8 in an Otterbox shell), but the battery had expired, and they didn’t have the right kind of charger. He asked if I could bring him a charger so that they could verify ownership. He gave me directions to get to the Lost and Found, and I took off for the place.

The line at LandF wasn’t very long, but everyone was in a state of panic that was there. Cameras, purses, cell phones – everyone had something important that was lost. We plugged in the phone, and miracle of miracles, it booted right up. It WAS my phone so the background was as I had described to them on Monday, and my passcode worked on it.

Where else would an expensive phone have made it to lost and found? Kudos to everyone involved in getting my lost property back. Thank you to all who work to reunite people with their stuff. It was amazing.

Also, a good word to Samsung and Otterbox. The phone appears (a week later) to have suffered no damage. The microphone wasn’t working at first (it has the only access to the outside – everything else was covered), but in a couple of hours it had dried out sufficiently to work properly. The Otterbox cover did exactly as it was supposed to do. It protected the phone from physical damage.

I have learned a couple of lessons here, though. I’ll not trust the belt clip without a second check to be sure it is locked in again. And I’ll never mail anything to a Disney Resort (all packages go to central sorting and it adds at least a day to delivery).

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