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View Full Version : What could be better than winning a dream? (Long read)



SoCalSteven
08-20-2007, 11:30 PM
How about going to Disneyland and being invited to an event even Disney can't get you into? :D

My fiance Arin and I went to the park around noon this last Sunday, grabbed a bite to eat at White Water Snacks. As an aside, the poolside bar outside WWS was open for the first time I've noticed in a while. After lunch, we went into DCA, but without much direction, so rather than wander around the very hot, bright park, we went over to DL to ride Space Mountain. With a 40 minute wait, most of the line out in the heat, we got FastPasses and headed for Buzz. The A/C in Buzz felt nice, but after over an hour mostly in the hot sun, we were already kind of burnt out. We headed to Indy and waited about 30 minutes in the somewhat shaded line. Around three, we headed to NOS and Jewel of Orleans to drool over some beautiful things...

Of course, we found plenty of things to drool over, including a beautiful bracelet of sapphire and zircon (not sure, another colorless stone that is not diamond) and a sapphire necklace that would match my fiance's ring (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/im2smrt4u/Disneyland/ring.jpg) and my cufflinks (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/im2smrt4u/Disneyland/cufflinks2.jpg) beautifully. Sadly, we are both facing less work and lots of expenses now that school is going to be starting up again, so no purchases for us. :(

For those of you who frequent Jewel as often as we do, you may remember the huge Indian (not Native American ;) ) gold and enamel necklace. It was strangely absent from the display cases, and I was afraid it had been sold. Thankfully for us, it was actually on a field trip. It turns out that Jewel was closing early that day for a special event in celebration of Jewel of Orleans' 10th Anniversary! Apparently my invitation had been lost in the mail...(seriously! :p I had moved and the invite didn't forward I suppose)

Turns out it was a private yacht cruise around Newport Bay, with an opportunity to show off your purchases from the coolest Jewelry store on earth, and of course an opportunity to add to the collection! It was a semi-formal to formal event, so our park attire of t-shirt and shorts for me and a tank top and jeans for her wouldn't quite cut it. They closed their doors at 3:30pm and we departed shortly thereafter. The boat was going to set sail at 6:30pm promptly, so we were already late! lol!

It took 30 minutes to get out of the park, 30 minutes to get home to Pomona, and another 30 minutes tearing through the closet looking for something to wear and getting ready. We found that I had nothing to wear, so we had to buy a nice shirt and get to the harbor in the 1:30 we had left! After speeding down the freeway and navigating the tiny parking structure, we arrived with plenty of time.

Just before 6:30pm all the guests boarded the yacht. We felt very strange being the only young couple there, but we were still thrilled to be there! As we boarded, we were given a glass of champaign and made our way to the upper deck to find a table. After everyone was aboard, we were greeted by the captain and then on our way. For the next few hours, we took in all the wonderful eye-candy, not only around the necks and on the fingers of the guests and staff, but also on the shore and in the docks of the harbor. All the while we were enjoying the buffet, the bar, and eventually the dessert.

Wonderful time, friendly folks, beautiful jewelry, what more could you want? Sounds like we got our own special dream! As we were disembarking, we had someone snap a pic of us. Check it out here (http://www.2smrt4u.org/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/us-boat.jpg). We never did get to use those FastPasses fro Space, but I guess it was worth it! :D

I suppose it is kind of mean to brag, but I've never won any of the Dream prizes and never been able to go to Club 33, and we see trip reports of those all the time, so I had to gloat just a bit. ;) If anyone from the shop is reading this, thanks again for a wonderful evening! :D

Andrew
08-20-2007, 11:35 PM
Huh, I bought my wife's wedding ring (1930s estate) and 1st anniversary gift (Indian carved emerald necklace) from JoA (in 1998 and '99, respectively) and we didn't receive any invitation or anything like that.

Glad you had a good time, though. Did Alex or Dianne show up?

SoCalSteven
08-20-2007, 11:39 PM
I don't know who all was invited or why, but I know that if we hadn't shown up when we did we wouldn't have known about it at all!

Both Alex and Dianne were there.

cstephens
08-21-2007, 10:27 AM
Huh, I bought my wife's wedding ring (1930s estate) and 1st anniversary gift (Indian carved emerald necklace) from JoA (in 1998 and '99, respectively) and we didn't receive any invitation or anything like that.

I'm not sure how they'd keep track of everyone who's ever purchased from them. I don't know that we gave them our address or anything like that - we just knew to make monthly payments. Do you remember if you did?

SoCalSteven
08-21-2007, 11:10 AM
They had my address so they could mail my credit reciepts to me when I made payments over the phone. If you always paid in person perhaps that info wasn't needed.

Andrew
08-21-2007, 11:26 AM
I'm not sure how they'd keep track of everyone who's ever purchased from them. I don't know that we gave them our address or anything like that - we just knew to make monthly payments. Do you remember if you did?
I -think- we've received mailings from JoA. I know we've been contacted by the parent store in SF, since that's where we take Jennifer's ring and necklace when they need repair or cleaning.

I didn't mean to imply that I was insulted or anything negative by not receiving an invitation--apparently they were very limited and went out not too long before the event--I was just curious as to how they assembled their list. We haven't purchased anything from them in seven or eight years (cleaning and maintenance aside) so perhaps they're concentrating on more current customers.