Sunday, January 17, 2021

There's Magic in Store

It's been months since we last went to the Disney Store.  Ever since the coronavirus pandemic reached the US, Eliot and I haven't strayed too far from home.  In October, I reached the point where I needed to do something, so Eliot and I took a day trip down to Massachusetts to go to a few of our favorite stores.  A week ago, it was time for another trip so last Sunday we drove down to Massachusetts once again.

Technically, Massachusetts still has their ban in place for everyone coming from another state.  I was a little bit hesitant to go, but at the same time, we had a lot of things on our side.  The main reason for our trip was actually to deliver ears to one of our customers.  Since "work" is exempt from this rule, Eliot and I decided we were in the clear.  But, if anyone questioned us, I was prepared to bring up the fact that no one has exactly followed those rules to begin with... including their own residents.  Plus, I wasn't too impressed over the summer when visitors from MA were on all of our local news stations telling everyone that they weren't following our COVID protocols.  

Anyways... last Sunday morning, Eliot and I got up, showered and got ready to travel down to the Disney Store in Burlington.  It was the perfect place to meet since that's where we first met our customer in person while waiting for the Frozen 2 dolls.  We were planning to meet her at 1:00, and after getting stuck in a little bit of traffic, we arrive at the mall around 1:20.  She was already inside shopping while Eliot and I waited our turn to enter the store.  I caught her attention and waved while we waited.

Finally, we were allowed inside.  Eliot and I went to find her and we talked for a few minutes.  She had her 4 year old daughter with her and she was dressed in her Elsa dress from Olaf's Frozen Adventure.  She was really excited about their upcoming trip to Walt Disney World.  Our customer introduced us to her Mom and we talked for a few minutes before she went to the check out and we wished her a wonderful trip.  

Eliot and I wandered through the store waiting for my brother Jeremy to arrive.  (He was planning to meet us there as well.)  He arrived a few minutes later and I waved to him while he waited in line to get inside.  In the meantime, I was so excited when I found some of the Ink and Paint Collection merchandise on display.  I'd heard a lot of items from the collection were making their way to Disney Stores and Disney Outlets so I was anxious to see if our stores got anything.  I had asked for a few items of the collection for Christmas; unfortunately, by the time my parents went to order it, a lot had sold out online.  Thankfully, they had most of the stuff that I was missing... and the best part was that it was all on sale!!!  

Eliot and I grabbed the dessert plate set we were missing, plus an extra set of both plate sets.  They also had the ceramic paint palette serving platter that I wanted.  I actually had wanted three, and they had 4 of them.  We picked the three best plates and also bought those.  They also had some of the drinking glasses and the large dinner plates, but I decided we didn't really need those for our dining set.

However, we found a few other treasures.  Eliot and I bought the rest of the little Ink and Paint Sorcerer Mickeys on display since they were more than half off.  Plus, the cast members had unboxed them so we knew what colors we were getting.  The pink, purple and mint will all live in my office.  Then, I'm putting another mint one on my vanity in our master bedroom.  (He'll match perfectly!)  We also got a few new keys for our collection, as well as a few Christmas face masks that were on sale for only one dollar!  Finally, we ended up buying an Ink and Paint tote bag to put the dessert plates in since the normal Disney Store bags weren't as sturdy.  After we checked out, we took all of our new treasures out to our car to safely pack them in.

We walked back into the mall and headed toward Build-A-Bear.  Since it was closed during our last trip, we really wanted to go there this time.  We wandered around checking out all of the new Harry Potter stuff and Valentine's Day items.  We found a few cute plush snowmen that were on clearance so we decided to buy them to add to our holiday and winter decorations.  (I love snowmen since I leave them up all winter!)

Next, we walked over to Newbury Comics.  We were able to go right in.  Eliot and I browsed the Funko Pops for a few minutes.  We weren't planning to get any, but we found a few that we added to our collection.  Eliot got a Pokemon and Toothless.  We also bought the holiday versions of Flash, Wonder Woman and Superman to add to our Christmas collection.  Finally, I found a Minnie Witch for Halloween.

We stopped by the Disney Store one last time before leaving the mall.  Eliot had realized that we accidentally got charged for two of the reusable bags but we only got one.  (Our fault, not the cast members since we added the Ink and Paint bag after in it's place.)  We realized we forgot to buy our Genie Wishable so we grabbed him, a Donald Wishable for Eliot's office and the reusable bag.  Then, I bid farewell to the store, silently promising to come back to the magic as soon as I'm safely able to.

Once we got back to our cars, Jeremy ordered our take out from the Friendly's by his condo.  We parted ways on the trip up to New Hampshire.  Eliot and I went over to Friendly's to pick up the food while Jeremy went to his condo to grab my new Disney tree skirt that he'd forgotten to bring up to Mom and Dad's house at Christmas.  (He had bought it at the store for our parents since it was sold out online.)  We met back up with Jeremy at the Merrimack outlets, parked next to each other, rolled down the car windows and enjoyed our meal in the parking lot.  After, we finished our food, we got bundled back up and headed to the Disney Store Outlet.  

We found all sorts of fun goodies at the Disney Outlet.  Usually, we don't really find anything that exciting, but it was packed with treasures this time!  They had a bunch of merchandise from the parks that was all on clearance.  We got a Mickey Pumpkin Halloween Votive Candle Holder which was sold out online and going for a ton of money on eBay.  I'm so excited to have one!  I also found the sold out Minnie Candy Corn Witch Coffee Mug that I'd liked from the Halloween collection.  

Eliot and I also found the Mickey and Minnie house ornaments we'd liked when we saw them at the parks.  Eliot bought himself a Matterhorn Bobsled Funko Pop- which has also been sold out.  I found the Tinker Bell holiday shirt that I thought was cute, but never bought.  Finally, Jeremy and I found the new Valentine's Day merchandise and I fell head over heals in love with the new Forky and Karen Valentine's Day plush.

We checked out with our new goodies and headed back to the car.  Jeremy had some extra bubble wrap in his trunk, so we carefully wrapped up our breakable items.  After that, Eliot and I said goodbye to Jeremy.  Then, we hopped in the car and made our way over to the Manchester Mall.  We really wanted to go to BoxLunch since we hadn't had time during our previous trip.  This time, we paid more attention to the clock!

Eliot and I made it to the mall about 30 minutes before closing and went straight to BoxLunch.  We spent about 20 minutes checking out the new store before making our final selections.  Eliot bought a few different things that he'd had his eye on.  I found the Disney Thanksgiving shirt that had sold out online before I could buy it.  I also grabbed a set of Toy Story Alien scrunchies.  I didn't buy any Loungefly bags, but I loved seeing which ones they had on display.

After checking out, we told the employees how excited we were to have a store closer to us than the one at the Holyoke Mall in western MA.  We also said we still needed one in Maine.  The girl we spoke to said they were hoping to expand their market, so fingers crossed that we'll get one at the Portland Mall soon!

After that, we got back into our car and made our way home to Maine.  It was a quick trip down to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but it was so nice to get out and do something.  Eliot and I enjoyed spending a little bit of time with Jeremy.  Plus, it was so nice to meet up with our customer and to talk to someone else in person other than my immediate family!  I'm sure our trips down to the Disney Store will still be numbered while the pandemic rages on, but we're happy to have the opportunities when they come.  Safety is still the first priority, but I'll take the magic when and where I can.  °o°

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