lisaviolet
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2002
- Messages
- 13,954
Here's a positive story about DVC. 
We took a trip in March to VWL. My parents were down in Florida already so I talked them into joining us for a few days. All set.
Nope.
A major storm was coming down the east coast. They kept changing the times and locations - hourly. We were driving. The kind of storm that they were telling you to cancel plans. So I start to fret about my parents. Imagining them sitting in the VWL lobby hour after hour waiting for our arrival. My mom worrying. My dad - hmmm - stressed. And them not being able to get into the room because we are on the reservation. And selfishly fretting about sharing a one bedroom. I'm kind of go with the flow. My parents aren't. So then I fret. Vicious cycle.
This is where DVC is really wonderful. I looked at the points and realized I could take one night off our one bedroom and get them their own studio for two days. So if we are stuck somewhere on the road they were relaxing somewhere. So I call up thinking I'd be lucky to get some kind of cancellation. It's two days out.
AKV is available - what?!?!? - not standard - not Value - but Savanna view! Holy crap I say
. So I book it. So easy. Last minute. Love DVC. Not many timeshares where you could take a day off an existing reservation and get two nights in a studio at the last minute. And without any penalty. And I can add the DDP for them. Something we don't want.
So it takes us nine hours to reach Pittsburgh. A four and half hour drive. We're plugging along. Cars in the ditch. Not fun.
We get there. Can't find them. They are in Jiko using all their TSs in one shot. Another story for another day.
They take us to their room. (I had never seen the AKV suites and thought I had no interest in staying somewhere so dark.)
And my seventy one and seventy two year old parents turn into youngsters before my eyes. Our arrival is quite secondary to their room and their friends on the Savannah. (And by the way a DISer told me to request that area which I can't remember now and Arusha - thanks). And I hadn't seen them for a month or more. They talk about the animals all the way down the hall. My normally complaining filled papa jokes, yes unbelievably jokes
, about the fact that they are what seems a mile from the lobby. They are one of the last rooms. They get into the room, ignore us, and go straight for their permanent spot - the balcony. My mother, God love her, grabs her animal sheet from check-in and shows us all the animals that she has ticked off as seen. My father spends his time "yelling" at the giraffes for visiting one day and not the next. Running to another viewing area out the back to chatise them and talk to them. He converses with the guides checking on the animals about everything under the sun. Forget us - the animals needed their attention.
It was unreal.
Thanks DVC for being so incredibly flexible. Thanks AKV for bringing out such cute behaviour. I have no idea, of course, how much longer we all have together. But I will never forget their love for that room. Never.
What goes around comes around in a lovely way at times in life. My parents took all of us - four children to CR in 1975. I have no idea how they did it. My father was a firefighter, my mother a SAHM. Must have been a major decision for them. But we went and loved it. And therefore my love for Disney World.
DVC is amazing at times.
We took a trip in March to VWL. My parents were down in Florida already so I talked them into joining us for a few days. All set.
Nope.
A major storm was coming down the east coast. They kept changing the times and locations - hourly. We were driving. The kind of storm that they were telling you to cancel plans. So I start to fret about my parents. Imagining them sitting in the VWL lobby hour after hour waiting for our arrival. My mom worrying. My dad - hmmm - stressed. And them not being able to get into the room because we are on the reservation. And selfishly fretting about sharing a one bedroom. I'm kind of go with the flow. My parents aren't. So then I fret. Vicious cycle.
This is where DVC is really wonderful. I looked at the points and realized I could take one night off our one bedroom and get them their own studio for two days. So if we are stuck somewhere on the road they were relaxing somewhere. So I call up thinking I'd be lucky to get some kind of cancellation. It's two days out.
AKV is available - what?!?!? - not standard - not Value - but Savanna view! Holy crap I say
. So I book it. So easy. Last minute. Love DVC. Not many timeshares where you could take a day off an existing reservation and get two nights in a studio at the last minute. And without any penalty. And I can add the DDP for them. Something we don't want. So it takes us nine hours to reach Pittsburgh. A four and half hour drive. We're plugging along. Cars in the ditch. Not fun.
We get there. Can't find them. They are in Jiko using all their TSs in one shot. Another story for another day.
They take us to their room. (I had never seen the AKV suites and thought I had no interest in staying somewhere so dark.)And my seventy one and seventy two year old parents turn into youngsters before my eyes. Our arrival is quite secondary to their room and their friends on the Savannah. (And by the way a DISer told me to request that area which I can't remember now and Arusha - thanks). And I hadn't seen them for a month or more. They talk about the animals all the way down the hall. My normally complaining filled papa jokes, yes unbelievably jokes
, about the fact that they are what seems a mile from the lobby. They are one of the last rooms. They get into the room, ignore us, and go straight for their permanent spot - the balcony. My mother, God love her, grabs her animal sheet from check-in and shows us all the animals that she has ticked off as seen. My father spends his time "yelling" at the giraffes for visiting one day and not the next. Running to another viewing area out the back to chatise them and talk to them. He converses with the guides checking on the animals about everything under the sun. Forget us - the animals needed their attention.It was unreal.
Thanks DVC for being so incredibly flexible. Thanks AKV for bringing out such cute behaviour. I have no idea, of course, how much longer we all have together. But I will never forget their love for that room. Never.
What goes around comes around in a lovely way at times in life. My parents took all of us - four children to CR in 1975. I have no idea how they did it. My father was a firefighter, my mother a SAHM. Must have been a major decision for them. But we went and loved it. And therefore my love for Disney World.
DVC is amazing at times.
WTH!!!
I must pop on over there soon. VWL in my head and the thread. 
We miss you....
