KatMark
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2007
Two quick "personal" updates and then we'll get to a trip update.
I won't know much on Alisha until she calls me...probably tomorrow (her parents are with her and aggravating her as always). I can tell you what I do know. They think she has bursitis in her hips and tendonitis in her shoulder. I know she was going back to see the joint specialist. She has to go back twice next week for an MRI and a Psych evaluation (Alisha suffers depression at times because of her mother and other family issues; they think this could be part of her pain as the "mood" spot is next to the "pain" spot in the brain). So far nothing serious...which is good. Everything else thus far can be dealt with.
Mark got a part time job today. After we sat down and talked, we decided he would NOT seek out a full time job. He has been doing this for 35 years and with us hopefully moving to Florida in 21 months or so, why start a new full time job. Mark turns 62 in January and he will take his Social Security early. He can make up to $15,000 a year (I have to doublecheck that figure) without them deducting from his SS check. He will be working at Target 20-30 hours a week. He goes for Orientation on November 8 (and gets paid for it). As of now, it is just through the holidays, but they think they'll be able to offer him something after the holidays too. This will work perfect with baseball and will keep him busy and not just sitting around the house (and he gets out of the rest of the painting for awhile).
Now a trip update, maybe even two for my wonderful DIS friends. I love you all by the way.
Finally, we were "home." Well, it's not our home, but it would be for three nights thanks to a friend at work who owns DVC and sold us her points for $5 a point. Yep, I said $5 a point. She was originally going to sell them to us for $8 a point and then she found out about Mark losing his job and insisted on selling them to us for only $5. I was flabbergasted (and got her a really nice gift to bring back to her from Disney).
So anyway, it was about 3:45 when we pulled up. Oh, I guess you want to know where home is for the next three days. Here you go:
And we were staying here:
We parked our car and walked up to the entrance. A very nice gentleman (I didn't get his name) greeted us and asked if we were checking in. I told him yes, and he escorted us into the building and brought us up to Jon. Jon is THE BEST CM I have ever encountered. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I sent Mark off to take pictures while I was getting us organized.
While Mark was doing that, Jon and I were working together and laughing and joking and having the time of our lives. Jon gave me our anniversary buttons and put 31 years on them because he said it was something definitely to be celebrated. He told me our room was ready and I had gotten my requests of a top floor and the Sunset Savannah. He asked if that was what I still wanted. I said as long as I can see "giraffes." He said, "oh don't worry, you will."
Jon finished giving us all of our paperwork. He asked me if I wanted to make my FP+ selections while I was with him. I told him I already had FP+. These were done by Disney. Because they extended my AP's and couldn't activate them until we got to Disney, I couldn't make my FP selections. Well, they were having none of that and put in all my requests for every day of our trip. I'm telling you major pixie dust this trip. So I told Jon the story without going into a lot of detail. He then said to me, "Honey, this is your lucky day. Those are all "special" fastpasses. You still get to choose your own 3 selections." I was speechless. Jon said, "I can tell by the number of times you've been here and by how sweet you are, that you deserve this extra pixie dust and I'm glad I am making it happen for you." I just about burst into tears. So Jon and I spent the next 20 minutes adding FP+ for all of our days. We had trouble with one with timing, so we ended up cancelling our Beaches & Cream reservation, but that was no big deal.
After blowing Jon a kiss and telling him that he was my all-time favorite CM ever, Mark and I walked back to the car and moved to the parking garage and got our luggage to take upstairs.
I immediately ran to the patio and after dropping everything and telling Mark NOT to touch anything to see what I could see. And this was our view:
I went back in the room and took pictures so my DIS friends wouldn't get mad at me.
And the reason I always want a one-bedroom villa at AKL--MY BATHROOM
Back to the bedroom
Continued in next post
I won't know much on Alisha until she calls me...probably tomorrow (her parents are with her and aggravating her as always). I can tell you what I do know. They think she has bursitis in her hips and tendonitis in her shoulder. I know she was going back to see the joint specialist. She has to go back twice next week for an MRI and a Psych evaluation (Alisha suffers depression at times because of her mother and other family issues; they think this could be part of her pain as the "mood" spot is next to the "pain" spot in the brain). So far nothing serious...which is good. Everything else thus far can be dealt with.
Mark got a part time job today. After we sat down and talked, we decided he would NOT seek out a full time job. He has been doing this for 35 years and with us hopefully moving to Florida in 21 months or so, why start a new full time job. Mark turns 62 in January and he will take his Social Security early. He can make up to $15,000 a year (I have to doublecheck that figure) without them deducting from his SS check. He will be working at Target 20-30 hours a week. He goes for Orientation on November 8 (and gets paid for it). As of now, it is just through the holidays, but they think they'll be able to offer him something after the holidays too. This will work perfect with baseball and will keep him busy and not just sitting around the house (and he gets out of the rest of the painting for awhile).
Now a trip update, maybe even two for my wonderful DIS friends. I love you all by the way.
Finally, we were "home." Well, it's not our home, but it would be for three nights thanks to a friend at work who owns DVC and sold us her points for $5 a point. Yep, I said $5 a point. She was originally going to sell them to us for $8 a point and then she found out about Mark losing his job and insisted on selling them to us for only $5. I was flabbergasted (and got her a really nice gift to bring back to her from Disney).
So anyway, it was about 3:45 when we pulled up. Oh, I guess you want to know where home is for the next three days. Here you go:
And we were staying here:
We parked our car and walked up to the entrance. A very nice gentleman (I didn't get his name) greeted us and asked if we were checking in. I told him yes, and he escorted us into the building and brought us up to Jon. Jon is THE BEST CM I have ever encountered. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I sent Mark off to take pictures while I was getting us organized.
While Mark was doing that, Jon and I were working together and laughing and joking and having the time of our lives. Jon gave me our anniversary buttons and put 31 years on them because he said it was something definitely to be celebrated. He told me our room was ready and I had gotten my requests of a top floor and the Sunset Savannah. He asked if that was what I still wanted. I said as long as I can see "giraffes." He said, "oh don't worry, you will."
Jon finished giving us all of our paperwork. He asked me if I wanted to make my FP+ selections while I was with him. I told him I already had FP+. These were done by Disney. Because they extended my AP's and couldn't activate them until we got to Disney, I couldn't make my FP selections. Well, they were having none of that and put in all my requests for every day of our trip. I'm telling you major pixie dust this trip. So I told Jon the story without going into a lot of detail. He then said to me, "Honey, this is your lucky day. Those are all "special" fastpasses. You still get to choose your own 3 selections." I was speechless. Jon said, "I can tell by the number of times you've been here and by how sweet you are, that you deserve this extra pixie dust and I'm glad I am making it happen for you." I just about burst into tears. So Jon and I spent the next 20 minutes adding FP+ for all of our days. We had trouble with one with timing, so we ended up cancelling our Beaches & Cream reservation, but that was no big deal.
After blowing Jon a kiss and telling him that he was my all-time favorite CM ever, Mark and I walked back to the car and moved to the parking garage and got our luggage to take upstairs.
I immediately ran to the patio and after dropping everything and telling Mark NOT to touch anything to see what I could see. And this was our view:
I went back in the room and took pictures so my DIS friends wouldn't get mad at me.
And the reason I always want a one-bedroom villa at AKL--MY BATHROOM
Back to the bedroom
Continued in next post
).
for the extra bit of pixie dust you got with FP+. Sounds like a great beginning to a trip
Very happy for both of you that something came along.
What a fantastic CM you found at AKL, he sounds like a real angel. To get all your FP+ taken care of like that is just magical. Also the $5 a point is unreal so happy for you to have gotten such a deal especially with everything going on in your life. Onto the food, The Mara is one of my favorite QS spots! They have this African stew that is out of this world.
pixie dust from Jon! 
on your pillow picture. How I wish we had one of Simon and of Holly for Cass. 
That is so sweet. I can still smell his scent on his blanket and every time I do, I burst into tears. Don't know what I will do if the scent ever goes away. 
There's nothing like it.
Can't wait to read more! You guys are the bomb (as my grandson says lol He says it's a good thing lol)!
