steveanddonna
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2003
- Messages
- 664
It was Tuesday evening; we were still throwing things in the suitcases (and removing cats from same, repeatedly) and my middle toe made sudden, unexpected contact with something very hard and immobile on the floor. Great...Im starting my trip with a broken toe. Thankfully, most of my walking shoes are sandals, so its not the end of the world.
We arose at 4:30 AM Wednesday to be at Midway a little more than 2 hours before our flight. ATA however, had only 2 agents working at the counters and one at curbside. We checked in with 3 minutes left before the flight is closed. Phew!! Many people in line did not make the flight. Trying not to let the morning set the tone for the trip, I take a deep breath and remind myself to let it go - were boarding, the weather is with us, and were going to Disney World!
MCO, as always, was a much smoother operation. The luggage appeared on the carousel in less than 15 minutes, and ours was - drum roll, please - the first luggage out! Things were definitely looking up! We pulled under the canopy at the Poly shortly after 11 AM and inattentiveness/indifference from bell services, plus a sudden, enormous downpour were not the welcome we were expecting. We finally found a bell services CM to check on the room and bring us to Hawaii. It was a bit unsettling walking into Hawaii and not seeing any familiar faces; after 7 years of staying here we are usually greeted warmly by one of the conceirge staff. I took another of those deep breaths and forced myself to think positively. Becky, a CM usually assigned to the front desk, handled our check-in and everything went smoothly. Melissa in IPO had even put our request for e-ride tickets on our itinerary, so Becky was ready with those. She was friendly and chatty and competent - everything we like to see in a CM. Our room was ready, so we changed our shoes, grabbed a cookie from the lounge and were on our way to Caseys for our traditional post-check-in hot dog. The rain had stopped, the sun was out, and things were definitely beginning to improve. As we approached the MK via motor launch, DH observed that he was beginning to feel like this was our real home, and we just return to Chicago to earn some more money to go live at the Poly again. Im in total agreement!
The MK was not terribly crowded, a pleasant surprise, as this was our first summertime WDW trip since we were kids. We were expecting the worst, crowdwise, but there was plenty of room to move, and reasonably short lines until Saturday. We ordered our hot dogs and fries, plus a side of chili for our new Caseys tradition - chili cheese fries - yum! After a little stroll around the park, we returned to the Poly to swim and relax. I opened our mini-fridge to put some bottled water in to chill, and found it full of a previous guests leftovers, including spoiled chocolate milk. I made a little detour to the concierge desk, as housekeeping still hadnt answered the phone after 27 rings. Aida was working at the desk, so I had the chance to finally meet this charming young woman face-to-face. She assured me the stinking mess would be dealt with, so DH & I enjoyed a mai tai by the pool and went back to the room to dress for our Lounge Lizard mini-meet with the real live BambiTamby and Cajunfan herself!
We had just approached the podium at Ohana to ask if the rest of our party had checked in, and as I turned around, BambiTamby was strolling up to us with her youthful mom, who happens to be stunning. Can we say former beauty queen? Lynn arrived shortly after, bearing darling tropical-print gift bags for us filled with some Tennessee specialties - Moon Pies, Goo-Goo Clusters and Jack Daniels coffee and a Mickey Thank You pin. What a sweetheart! Dinner with our fellow lizards was a blast; the food at Ohana was delicious, our waitress was energetic and funny and just plain terrific. Tamby is every bit as delightful in person as she is on our awesome thread, and Lynn is funny and down-to-earth. DH and I ran back to the room to change into shorts for our Wishes cruise and found the fridge still full of food. Another visit to Aida remedied the situation. We felt bad for the concierge CMs because it was obvious that they had thought the problem was taken care of. It seems that all of our recent problems at the Poly have been housekeeping issues. Confident that Aida would take care of things, we met our fellow lizards at the marina for our cruise with special desserts - the pretty and delicious white chocolate slipper filled with raspberry mousse, accompanied by a raspberry sauce, a chocolate mousse cup, and some truffles. It was actually hard to concentrate on the fireworks while we ate this incredible treat! Skipper Joel was informative and shared a great deal of info about the Seven Sea Lagoon and Bay Lake areas. True Disney fans all, we still learned several things we hadnt known before. We returned to the marina and DH and I headed to the MK for e-ride night. It was a looooooong first day, but who could complain? There is no place Id rather be bone-tired than WDW!
We arose at 4:30 AM Wednesday to be at Midway a little more than 2 hours before our flight. ATA however, had only 2 agents working at the counters and one at curbside. We checked in with 3 minutes left before the flight is closed. Phew!! Many people in line did not make the flight. Trying not to let the morning set the tone for the trip, I take a deep breath and remind myself to let it go - were boarding, the weather is with us, and were going to Disney World!
MCO, as always, was a much smoother operation. The luggage appeared on the carousel in less than 15 minutes, and ours was - drum roll, please - the first luggage out! Things were definitely looking up! We pulled under the canopy at the Poly shortly after 11 AM and inattentiveness/indifference from bell services, plus a sudden, enormous downpour were not the welcome we were expecting. We finally found a bell services CM to check on the room and bring us to Hawaii. It was a bit unsettling walking into Hawaii and not seeing any familiar faces; after 7 years of staying here we are usually greeted warmly by one of the conceirge staff. I took another of those deep breaths and forced myself to think positively. Becky, a CM usually assigned to the front desk, handled our check-in and everything went smoothly. Melissa in IPO had even put our request for e-ride tickets on our itinerary, so Becky was ready with those. She was friendly and chatty and competent - everything we like to see in a CM. Our room was ready, so we changed our shoes, grabbed a cookie from the lounge and were on our way to Caseys for our traditional post-check-in hot dog. The rain had stopped, the sun was out, and things were definitely beginning to improve. As we approached the MK via motor launch, DH observed that he was beginning to feel like this was our real home, and we just return to Chicago to earn some more money to go live at the Poly again. Im in total agreement!
The MK was not terribly crowded, a pleasant surprise, as this was our first summertime WDW trip since we were kids. We were expecting the worst, crowdwise, but there was plenty of room to move, and reasonably short lines until Saturday. We ordered our hot dogs and fries, plus a side of chili for our new Caseys tradition - chili cheese fries - yum! After a little stroll around the park, we returned to the Poly to swim and relax. I opened our mini-fridge to put some bottled water in to chill, and found it full of a previous guests leftovers, including spoiled chocolate milk. I made a little detour to the concierge desk, as housekeeping still hadnt answered the phone after 27 rings. Aida was working at the desk, so I had the chance to finally meet this charming young woman face-to-face. She assured me the stinking mess would be dealt with, so DH & I enjoyed a mai tai by the pool and went back to the room to dress for our Lounge Lizard mini-meet with the real live BambiTamby and Cajunfan herself!
We had just approached the podium at Ohana to ask if the rest of our party had checked in, and as I turned around, BambiTamby was strolling up to us with her youthful mom, who happens to be stunning. Can we say former beauty queen? Lynn arrived shortly after, bearing darling tropical-print gift bags for us filled with some Tennessee specialties - Moon Pies, Goo-Goo Clusters and Jack Daniels coffee and a Mickey Thank You pin. What a sweetheart! Dinner with our fellow lizards was a blast; the food at Ohana was delicious, our waitress was energetic and funny and just plain terrific. Tamby is every bit as delightful in person as she is on our awesome thread, and Lynn is funny and down-to-earth. DH and I ran back to the room to change into shorts for our Wishes cruise and found the fridge still full of food. Another visit to Aida remedied the situation. We felt bad for the concierge CMs because it was obvious that they had thought the problem was taken care of. It seems that all of our recent problems at the Poly have been housekeeping issues. Confident that Aida would take care of things, we met our fellow lizards at the marina for our cruise with special desserts - the pretty and delicious white chocolate slipper filled with raspberry mousse, accompanied by a raspberry sauce, a chocolate mousse cup, and some truffles. It was actually hard to concentrate on the fireworks while we ate this incredible treat! Skipper Joel was informative and shared a great deal of info about the Seven Sea Lagoon and Bay Lake areas. True Disney fans all, we still learned several things we hadnt known before. We returned to the marina and DH and I headed to the MK for e-ride night. It was a looooooong first day, but who could complain? There is no place Id rather be bone-tired than WDW!
