Stupid Guest Tricks

Although I don't think I need to ask you guys for this. I thought I would give everyone a quick update of our upcoming Disney World trip (to Florida, MS, to Florida.....hopefully, we can come see you next year).

Well, I was originally booked at Port Orleans Riverside (I, technically, still am). However, the new free dining offers were leaked on Friday and I have now changed to an off-site hotel. Please don't beat me.....

I will actually have a ton of more room, the location is just perfect (on World Drive and right near a Walmart to stock up on supplies), and I won't be loosing that much in Disney "perks" (we were only planning on using extra magic hours three times, tops). So...that being said......

My family will invade on October 20th. You get to celebrate when we leave on the 29th. Tuesday will be our "day off", which just means we lounge around and do nothing all day and then we'll have a really cool dinner at California Grill (we've eaten there before and loved it. And I make my family dress....we don't show up in jean shorts and t-shirts like I saw some people do. Guess business casual doesn't mean much to some people, huh?).

Anyway....I have booked us at Buena Vista Suites. It has awesome reviews on Trip Advisor (I'm not worried about the breakfast, we won't eat it) and Amy (aka The Girl) won't have to share a bed with Kyle (aka The Boy) as she can sleep on the sofa bed.

So, please don't be upset with me....it's just I can save a whole boatload of money (which my husband is turning around and spending on the Eagles-49ers game) and still have a wonderful vacation. A Disney vacation for us is that we're together, visting the parks and [somewhat] relaxing. I don't need to pay to stay onsite and only get little benefit. Besides, it shouldn't be too busy.

See you guys soon!!!

DragonFox98 wrote:I have now changed to an off-site hotel.

... the location is just perfect (on World Drive and right near a Walmart to stock up on supplies)....

...I have booked us at Buena Vista Suites.

Okay, somebody's confused here.

Buena Vista Suites is on "World Center Drive", not World Drive. The two don't even intersect.

The nearest Walmart is 1.5 miles away, and you do *not* want to walk to it -- no sidewalks and 55mph+ traffic.

For that matter, there's no crosswalk across World Center Drive, so please drive your car even if you're just going across the street to the 7-Eleven -- I've seen countless near-hits and a few fatal collisions on this road, and wouldn't want you to be one of them.

Take World Center Drive/SR 536 to get to WDW. Do *not* take SR 535 north of that road, even though the maps make it look like a better route to Downtown Disney -- this is the most horribly crowded and slow road this side of North I-Drive.

BTW, I think your logic for staying off-property is sound, and the hotel chosen is far from the worst. Didn't want to give a different impression, the warnings above notwithstanding.

Zazu wrote:Okay, somebody's confused here.

Buena Vista Suites is on "World Center Drive", not World Drive. The two don't even intersect.

The nearest Walmart is 1.5 miles away, and you do *not* want to walk to it -- no sidewalks and 55mph+ traffic.

For that matter, there's no crosswalk across World Center Drive, so please drive your car even if you're just going across the street to the 7-Eleven -- I've seen countless near-hits and a few fatal collisions on this road, and wouldn't want you to be one of them.

Take World Center Drive/SR 536 to get to WDW. Do *not* take SR 535 north of that road, even though the maps make it look like a better route to Downtown Disney -- this is the most horribly crowded and slow road this side of North I-Drive.

BTW, I think your logic for staying off-property is sound, and the hotel chosen is far from the worst. Didn't want to give a different impression, the warnings above notwithstanding.

I don't plan on walking anywhere but from the lobby to the parking lot at BVS. Promise! lol Yeah, I think the Walmart is south of International Drive, if I remember correctly. And I apologize, I did mean World Center Drive (the one that turns into 536). And your advice is sound....that's exactly the way I plan on getting to the parks....it just makes more sense to me when I look at it on the maps.

Thanks for the advice, I plan on taking it. And I can't wait to see everyone in.....80 days!!!!! My first real vacation (read: non working). I'm not sure I am going to know what to do. I've never had a staff I can rely on before, so this is major. And I won't have to do payroll or transfer money or anything.

See you all soon!

DragonFox98 wrote:My first real vacation (read: non working). I've never had a staff I can rely on before, so this is major.

Many years ago I was a communications manager. I took care of all the technical issues too. I had a woman who was hired as an admin. She got interested in the techie side of the business so I'd have her follow me around to give her real time training. She picked up on things pretty fast and began to resolve problems on her own.

I felt comfortable enough leaving her in charge so I could go snow skiing for a week. The deal was I would check email first thing in the morning, call at noon, and check email again at four PM to help if anything happened that was beyond her experience.

Everything went well for the first few days. I checked email Wednesday afternoon. The first message opened with, "How do you stand this s**t! No wonder you get headaches all the time."

I called, talked her through the problem, gave her a pep talk, and everything was okay. She eventually moved back to Connecticut and got a job as communications manager with a major banking corporation. One of my success stories.

Hobie, that's an awesome story! I'm going away before the end of the month, so none of that will have to be done. It should actually be really quiet while I'm away; the only thing they will have to handle will be payroll. So, I can actually relax.

Donna, my admin/techie, was pretty good at taking care of stuff that didn't need my involvement. In fact, she was a little too good sometimes.

She went on vacation for two weeks. While she was gone the phone bill showed. This was many years before anyone got soft copies so it was three large boxes of IBM punch cards. I hadn't seen a bill in quite a while but I discovered the top card was to sign off on and then send to accounting for payment. I signed and dropped the boxes off in accounting on my way out the door for the day.

The next morning an accounting clerk appeared at my desk and informed me that someone had forged my signature to the bill. Dumbfounded, I said leave the bill and I'd get it resolved.

I called Donna at her parents home in Connecticut and told her what happened. She started laughing and told me, "You're always so busy that I've been forging your signature to all the bills for over three years."

When she got back we went over what I had "been signing" so there were no more visits from accounting.

hobie16 wrote:Donna, my admin/techie, was pretty good at taking care of stuff that didn't need my involvement. In fact, she was a little too good sometimes.

She went on vacation for two weeks. While she was gone the phone bill showed. This was many years before anyone got soft copies so it was three large boxes of IBM punch cards. I hadn't seen a bill in quite a while but I discovered the top card was to sign off on and then send to accounting for payment. I signed and dropped the boxes off in accounting on my way out the door for the day.

The next morning an accounting clerk appeared at my desk and informed me that someone had forged my signature to the bill. Dumbfounded, I said leave the bill and I'd get it resolved.

I called Donna at her parents home in Connecticut and told her what happened. She started laughing and told me, "You're always so busy that I've been forging your signature to all the bills for over three years."

When she got back we went over what I had "been signing" so there were no more visits from accounting.

Too funny!

Another Donna story. We worked for a company that sold re-logoed Hitachi mainframe computers that were plug compatible with IBM peripherals. The sales guys who hit 100% of quota got to go to sales club. It was always quite an event.

Someone in the exec area got the bright idea of having a club event for non-sales staff to reward them. I got nominated but didn't get to go. I left the company a few months later for another opportunity.

A few years later my phone rings at about 11 PM. It was Donna, drunk off her ass. She says, "I got your trip!" What trip? "The one for corporate staff to go to club. The one you should have gone to. And they told us we can do anything we want and just sign for it and the company will pay the bill."

I told her she would be a disappointment to me if she and her buddies didn't run up a huge bill by the end of the week. Later reports indicated she had made me very proud.