Thanks For The Souvenirs!
So me and my girlfriend took a trip to Disneyland Paris a few years ago as our first holiday together. We were having an awesome time in the parks etc., but one day was incredibly busy so we decided instead of queueing hours for rides we would do some souvenir shopping instead for a bit.
We are in a store in Disneyland browsing various mugs, fridge magnets, plush toys, you know, the general overpriced stuff.
This is when a very sweet English woman asked me if I could help her across the store as I’m a tall guy. I said, “Yeah, that’s fine” I get it at home in the supermarkets all the time so no biggie.
It turns out her daughter wanted a specific Winnie the Pooh toy that was at the top of a huge pile of plush toys.
I gladly grabbed it down for her and gave it to the little girl who was over the moon. This is where things got strange. A fairly young French lady moved over to me chatting in French and gesturing at a shelf with some glasses on it.
I speak a tiny bit of French, but definitely not enough to know what she wanted, so I politely told her that I speak English and I’m not an employee.
I was wearing jeans and a wine colored hoodie which is not even remotely close to Disney cast members’ uniforms. The French lady stormed off and I thought that was that.
I went and found my girlfriend and we were looking at some gift ideas for our families. From right behind me I heard a woman say, “This is him,” in English, but with a French accent.
I turned around to see the aforementioned French lady who had dragged an actual employee over to me to give me a scolding. Her accent was very heavy but she said something along the lines of “He helped someone else but not me, workers should be trained better.” The actual Disney employee immediately could see I was a guest at the park, apologized and lead the woman away.
All we could hear from the other side of the store was the French lady shouting and getting very irate. I assume she was removed from the store.
Anyway me and my girlfriend took a couple of Minnie and Mickey Mouse mugs to the register to pay for, and the employee who sorted the situation was on the next register she said, “Please wait there.”
She toddled off and came back a couple minutes later with a stuffed Luke Skywalker Mickey Mouse plush and a Stuffed Princess Leia Minnie Mouse for my girlfriend.
“These are for you as way of an apology.” I said, “It’s not necessary, was just a misunderstanding,” but she insisted, so we got some pretty cool free souvenirs.
Thanks, angry French lady.