Okay - report time for anyone trying to get a doll in the future.
I was on my computer at 11:45pm PT all set up and ready to go for midnight. I had the
shopdisney site open with a search for the doll, shopdisney's main page for the doll and all their makeup and such that go with it, and a few other tabs of facebook groups for limited edition disney merchandise.
Along comes midnight and I start refreshing everything like mad. Some links pop up on the facebook groups but none of them actually have Cinderella, and she isn't popping up for sale on shopdisney. It's 12:15am now and I've been searching all over shopdisney and facebook with no luck so I just google "Disney Designer Doll Premier Series" and the first link that pops up is for Cinderella. Great! Click on it. Add to cart. ... Sold out. The link went live at 12:09 and was sold out by 12:17.
So for anyone looking to get this doll online, I guess I would recommend just refreshing google along with the others because they make these dolls difficult to find.
Off to bed, and I have stress dreams all night about this doll. I know my Mum would really really love it. So, 8am the next morning and I am out the door to the
DisneyStore. There are two stores each an hour in opposite directions away from me, so I picked the one downtown because they were giving away more dolls, but I was also worried turn out would be larger. It opened at 10am. I nervously bit my nails as my bus stalled in the middle of an intersection and we had to wait for all the cables to be reset.
Finally arrived at the mall at 9:19, 1 minute before the raffle cut off. So an hour to 40 minutes before opening they take names for the raffle. My name was the last one on the list, bringing the totally number of people in the raffle to 21. 8 dolls. 21 people. Not bad odds.
FYI - you have to show ID and whatever card you plan on paying with and prove that they are all under the same name.
There were three cast members running around who were all very lovely and explained everything in detail. They would do the draw at 9:45, so we had to wait around for a bit. More nail biting.
Finally, it was time and the cast members stood outside the store with a box disguised as a book with all the names in it. This was way more of an event than I expected it to be. They had selected a family of the day, and brought two kids up to help with the name drawing. First name. Drum roll....
Me! They had to call my name twice because I couldn't believe it! Applause as they paraded me to the side of the store where I waited and watched at the 7 other names were chosen.
It was now time to opening the store and they did a opening ceremony, where the kids had to find the "key to imagination" which would unlock a giant lock set up in front of the store. There was music and it was honestly magical. The kids found the key, unlocked the lock, and got their own mini keys and stickers to take home. Then the store was opening and we were all paraded to the check out to receive our dolls.
These dolls were way bigger than I was expecting and super glamorous. Fueled with adrenaline, I briskly left the store and got back on the bus like I was afraid they had realized they'd made a mistake giving me one.
And now Cindy will live in my closet until my Mum's birthday, when I know she is going to be blown away.
Good luck to anyone trying to get a doll in the future.