While on vacation at Walt Disney World, Paul and Karen (well actually just Paul) accidentally threw out their “engagement, wedding and five-year-anniversary rings.” The hotel staff told them it would be virtually impossible to reclaim them, but after the family left, the staff realized the trash hadn’t been compacted yet—so they dug through “bag after bag” of trash until they found the rings.
Back at the Wilderness Lodge resort, executive housekeeper Drew Weaver realized that trash from the Campanales’ villa hadn’t reached the industrial-size compactor yet. He and seven other volunteers donned protective clothing, emptied a parking lot bin and waded through bag after bag of rubbish to find the rings. And they did.
“That’s not the first time we’ve gone through trash — oh, no,” Weaver said. “We don’t always find things. Many times we come up empty. But we didn’t this time.”
“Disney Workers Recover Wedding Rings Mistakenly Thrown Away” [Fox News]
(Thanks to Robert!)
(Photo: Savannah Grandfather)
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Count me in on the Disney bandwagon. We go yearly, because every trip something extraordinary happens. One memorable occasion, my then 2 1/2 year old son decided to puke all over me in front of a castmember in a gift shop. The staff was great – they helped me clean him up, and then insisted I pick out any shirt in the store to replace my yucked up one. Free of charge!
@k8supergrover: 2 DOLLARS???
for 2 dollars I would have grabbed it back, ran, and thrown it in a fire.
I drank the “Disney Kool-aid” years ago. This is just one of the many reasons that I’m such a fan.
@dakotad555: That wasn’t a toy fishing rig from China, was it?
@Crazytree: Explain to me how it’s the guest’s fault that some dumb techie didn’t turn off a ride properly.
I can only imagine what would be an appropriate tip in this situation.
Condom, condom, tissue, newspaper, condom, tissue, condom, diaper, half sandwich, condom, beer can, tissue…………….tissue, cond….ahhhhhhh! HEY BOSS RINGS!
What a great story! Rings are just “stuff”, but it can be pretty emotional to even think of losing a wedding band. Kudos to those hard-working WDW people! Even if they did it just for the job, they made a difference to someone.
@joemono: No – not all women expect that. It wouldn’t hurt to do something special, though.
Took the famliy to WDW last year for the first time. I have grown so accustomed to crappy customer service everywhere I go that I could not get over how polite and helpful every single employee was.
example: We sat down for a snack and the guy that was cleaning up the trash started smiling and waving at my then 1.5 year old, no biggie. He started a conversation with us about our stay (where you from, how you like it, etc.) and the next thing we knew he was running off to get us some of those Fast Pass tickets that were good on ANY ride and didn’t expire. It was a small gesture (I can only assume that each employee or department is allocated a certain amount for goodwill gestures such as this), but we really appreciated it since it was totally out of the blue. He did it just to be nice.
We are really looking forward to our next trip.
How hard is that for companies to understand? Even good customer service will guarantee repeat business.
@PeanutButter: I hate that. I don’t wanna have a magical day.
This story makes me a little teary-eyed! I’m such a sap.
@Crazytree:
is it the dumb tourist’s fault that the ride was not properly shut down? ummmmm…i think not.
@Buran: Yes and no. The place tries so hard to be Disneyland, and at the same time they try not to be DL. They approach employees with the same premise: We have sh*tty wages, but you get a chance to be a part of something magical. Disney delivers on the magical, KBF doesn’t. It got so bad, that employees created a web bulletin board where they could post their gripes. Guess what? The (mis)management went on a witch hunt trying to find out who owned the website, and forbade all employees from visiting and posting on the website. How they could regulate what you do on your own time, I don’t know, but they tried. Even the most ardent “Knott-zi” can become a jaded employee in that environment very quickly.
Disney does have amazing customer service. They bust their butts to make sure every guest is happy.
We lost our rental car keys at Epcot last year and I was practically in tears. I called a friend who helped us plan our trip and she said to go to guest services because they might have them. Sure enough, they did! And they acted like it was no big deal. It saved us a ton of grief.
Only at Disney can you lose your car keys on a huge multi-acre property and expect to find them waiting for you at customer service!
Disney rocks.
Five year anniversary ring?
How many more ways can the jewelry industry convince you to buy superficial unnecessary things?
Why not get a ring for every day that you know each other. A 5 year two month three day ring etc. etc. until you have so many rings that every finger and toe is covered in rings.
Isn’t it enough to waste thousands of hard earned dollars on one dumb rock that society has deemed to be more valuable than other rocks? Now we need anniversary rings too?
Nice story though.
@joemono: If not a ring, then something. I gave my spouse a necklace from the same designer as her ring. Only a couple hundred bucks, nowhere near what the ring/rock cost. Was a total surprise.
Know what she got me? Nothin’, although repayment was received in full later
Me, FTW!
I used to work at EPCOT and Animal Kindgom. While many Disney employees are union, many others are college students on an internship. If they’re old enough to be in college, good bet they’re in the college program. They pay you $6/hour and take your rent for an overcrowded apartment out of your paycheck so that you have very little to spend afterwards. The international college students are crammed four to a bedroom in their apartments.
When I was there each cast member got three slips from a notepad that had Pinochio (sp?) on it called “no strings attached”. We would use those to comp things to guests. Once I saw a kid running around with no shoes on (big no no in the parks) and I asked him to put them on, his mother told me that his socks had gotten wet and they were giving him blisters. I took him to the medical services area and asked him what his favorite animal was. While he was getting his blisters bandaged, I went and got him a pair of socks with the animal on it. No strings attached can be used for just about anything except Winnie the Pooh merchandise. We would give them out to any guest that complained or just take them into the shop and get what they wanted. Hint: If you actually ask for a no strings attached, you wont get one. You’ll get sent to guest services as a gift seeker and you may be asked to leave the park. It’s pretty easy to tell if people are complaining just to get something for free.
It was a decent job, but management sucked, you couldn’t get a promotion unless you were sleeping with a manager. I had to work 60 hours a week at Disney and Sea World just to make my rent. I loved the kids though. I had to come back home because my grandfather had his third heart attack and his second triple bypass, Sea World said take all the time you want, Disney said if you leave now, you won’t have a job when you come back. And this was the slowest time of the year.
Now Sea World was great to work for, I got free beer, they gave me as many hours as they could (they could only give me part time). I got into sea world and Universal for free and got family passes. My manager even got me a case of Ziegenbock (only brewed and sold in Texas) for Christmas!
He better have left a pretty darn big tip. I’m thinking at least $1000. I mean, these people just saved you how much money? You would have at least had to re-purchase two of those rings …
My fiancee and I are getting married next month, and going to Disney World for the honeymoon. And I know that if I lost my wedding ring in the trash, she would kill me.
I mean, really… in the trash?
This level of customer service is adequate penance for EuroDisney.
Kudos, DisneyDrones. The Mouse may have swallowed your souls, but he obviously left your hearts intact.
This is great to hear, and I always like to see good news on Consumerist. Here’s hoping to more stories like this!
True story: I lost my braces (retainers) in a Disney restaurant. I took them off and wrapped them in a napkin so that I could eat. Went to wash my hands after the meal and they had cleared the plates by the time I reached my table. They dug through the garbage to find em. I was 14 at the time.
People are so accustomed to crappy or at least indifferent service nowadays that when someone actually makes an effort for you, as they do at Disney, it’s a huge deal. I have never encountered a grumpy employee there, even when the place was packed to capacity. I could care less about the rides and shows, but I do enjoy taking my family there and the great service is one of the reasons.
@Shadowfire: You’re right. I would kill you.
Seriously, how does that happen?! I can see one maybe slipping off, but losing them ALL?! o.O
@suburbancowboy: Hey man, these days it’s better than even money that a married couple [i]won’t[/i] make it to their 5-year anniversary.
Nice!
@falconfire and davere:
i worked there for 7 years in guest services:
most of the time cast members [employees] won’t accept a tip even after the third time it’s offered unless you do it in front of other cast members. if they don’t have witnesses and management finds out, it could be deducted from their paycheck and donated to charity.
@coraspartan: we kept EVERYTHING that wasn’t obviously trash in lost and found. and i mean OBVIOUSLY trash. we had a golf tee in there once.
but if you really appreciate the service, you can do better than a tip. i once replaced a stuffed plush tigger for a little boy. after his family wrote a letter to disney i got two letters signed by disney vice presidents. i included copies of those letters with my references for the job i have now, making 4 times as much. i am NOT officially qualified for the job because i never completed my degree but i am convinced that those letters helped me get the job