The year was 2006. It had been a doozy of a year for the cast in my life. So, Jimmy, Kimberly, and I decided what we needed was a vacation. Just a little time away to just relax and escape all the drama happening in Maine. So, we headed off to one of our favorite vacation spots, Orlando, FL. This was quite an impromptu trip, and was the week of July 4th, so our timeshare options were a bit limited. So we chose the Celebrity Resort. It was just a rock throw from the entrance to Disney. There weren't a ton of amenities, but it had a pool and beds and looked nice enough, so we booked it.
We checked in on June 30, and spent the rest of the day getting settled and enjoying the pool. When we got back to the condo that night, Jimmy was packing some serious cash so he decided to lock it in the room safe. We all crawled into bed to get a good night's sleep... okay, we didn't quite do that, but we did sleep a little! We awoke the next morning, bright and early so we could go to Universal Studios for the day. When we were ready to leave, Jimmy went to the safe to get his money. He punched in the little code... we waited... and it didn't open. So he tried again... and again... and again. Kimberly tried, I tried, and the safe would not open. So I called the office and they said they would send over a maintenance man.
Johnny, the maintenance guy, showed up at our door. We told him what our problem was, told him what the code was, and he went and tried it too. After he tried, the safe totally locked us out... too many failed attempts. I figured, no problem, maintenance guy will have some sort of override thing to get him in, then we would be on our way. Funny thing, maintenance guy didn't have a clue.
So maintenance guy called the office, who then called the manager. You see, Celebrity Resorts has two locations in the Orlando area. So there was no manager at this one. We then had to wait for the manager to drive over to our location. Once he arrived, we once again had to explain what happened and he went over to the safe and tried. It didn't open. And I thought, well, at least he'll know what to do. I mean, we can't be the first people that have ever had a safe issue in their whole resort history. Funny thing, manager guy didn't have a clue.
Now, if I was the manager, and I got a call that a safe wouldn't open, when I went to the room, I would have brought with me whatever I needed to fix the safe. Evidently, that's just me. Since manager guy didn't know what to do, he said he had to drive back to the other location, get the safe opening instructions, and then come back over to fix the safe. At this point, it was around noontime. We had so far wasted around 4 hours on this safe and all of Jimmy and Kimberly's money was in it. Manager guy said it would take him around an hour to get there and back because of traffic. "Okay, we'll go eat some lunch" I said. His reply to us, "All I can say is everything happens for a reason. You never know why things happen, but there is a reason." I looked at the guy like he had six heads. But, we had no other options, so off he went to the office, maintenance guy headed off, and we went to Pizza Hut. For whatever reason, Pizza Hut seems to be the place we go when we're having a rough day.
While we were at Pizza Hut, we recounted the morning's events. We laughed about the maintenance guy not having a clue. Then we laughed about manager guy having less of a clue. And then we talked about the words of wisdom manager guy gave us.... Everything Happens for a Reason. Now, you should know this about me... I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe that things happen, and sometimes good things come from it. I believe that Everything happens and then God finds a purpose. But I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I also think that anyone that says that probably doesn't really believe it to be true. People say it to try and make people feel better. "Ahh, I'm sorry you lost your home to a tornado, but you know, everything happens for a reason." I just don't buy it. And if this is your philosophy, just try looking into the eyes of some child that has been abused and say "I'm sorry you were abused... but everything happens for a reason." No... nope... I don't buy it. Okay, rant over... for now.
We were at lunch for about an hour when we decided we should head back to the condo. After all, we didn't want to miss manager guy's visit. So, we packed it up and headed back. We arrived back at the room around 1:15 p.m. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. I called the front office, they called the main office... manager guy was nowhere to be found. Then around 3:30 pm, manager guy showed back up with maintenance guy. We were in disbelief at this point. 7 hours and our safe still wasn't open. Well, manager guy finally had the directions to open the safe.
He had to plug the phone into the safe, and then go through a series of steps to make the safe pop open. You're not going to believe me, but the whole process took about 2 minutes. 2 minutes to follow the prompts and open the safe. 2 minutes to get the money out so we could do something. It took 2 minutes. We had waited 7 hours, for this 2 minute procedure.
So once the safe was open, and manager guy had said to us several times, "Everything happens for a reason", it was time for him to leave. I followed him out and asked if they would refund the $7.00 for the safe deposit since we had absolutely no intention of using the safe again. 7 bucks... he said no. He then came back in to show us how wonderfully the safe worked. Only to prove to us, again, that the safe was very good at keeping things too safe. But he would not refund my $7.00.
We laugh about the story to this day. Really, what else can you do in a situation like that? I never got my 7 bucks. We never got more than... everything happens for a reason. And even though it wasted a day, it gives us a memory to cherish forever.... hmmm... maybe that was the reason ;).
And just in case you're interested... we captured it all on video....
Now that was hilarious, capturing it on video!!
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