This story has two parts.

In May of 2002 my mother and I traveled to Walt Disney World. Both my father and boyfriend of two years had been deployed overseas for Operation Enduring Freedom and my mother and I wanted to get away and have some fun to get our minds off things. What better place to do this than Walt Disney World right?

We were so excited when we got to our room at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We went to set our bags down and that is when we noticed that our room was a mess. The table was full of some kind of syrup, the floor was sprinkled with cereal and other food items, the sink was not cleaned out, and neither was the shower. It looked like we had just been given clean towels and that was it.

My mother didn't want to complain, but I talked her into it. We called the front desk and in less than five minutes they sent someone up to fix the problem. Her name was Albernis. She came in apologizing over and over when we knew it wasn't her fault. With her vacuum in hand she made quick work of the floors. Then, she wiped down almost the entire room and put up some animals that were made from towels on our sink.

She stayed to talk to us for a few minutes and my mother told her that this vacation was my 21st birthday present and she wanted the trip to go well for me. We also went on to tell her about how my dad and my boyfriend were overseas. (We told everyone this because we missed them so much.)

Albernis was so kind. She sat and listened to us and even told us about her home in Jamaica. She definitely made everything better. As if that wasn't enough, Abernis made our entire stay special. Even though she wasn't assigned to our room she would visit our room each day to make sure it was clean and then leave things to cheer up my mother and me.

One day when we came home there was a stuffed Donald Duck (a sailor because my dad is in the Navy) sitting on the table with a card. The card had a picture of Mickey and Minnie on it and it said, "Happy 21st Birthday. We hope you have a magical birthday stay here at Walt Disney World." It was signed love Mickey and Minnie. I cried along with my mother.

The next day when we came home all of the stuffed animals that I had purchased along with a few animals made of towels were sitting in a row on my bed with the T.V. remote in their paws. There was a note next to them that said, "Please don't tell the housekeeper that we were watching T.V." It was so cute.

The next day we returned to a room full of towel animals. There was everything from a duck to an elephant. It was beautiful. The last night when we came back to our room we noticed from a distance that our window shade was up. When we got closer we saw all of my stuffed animals sitting in the window looking out with a note that said, "Welcome home. We hope you enjoyed your day."

Even though it sounds terrible I looked forward to leaving the parks every day to see what Albernis had done with our room. Needless to say, she made our Disney vacation so memorable. However, I didn't know about the WWWD pin program at the time so I couldn't give Albernis one. I read about the WWWD pin program in Disney magazine and ordered some pins for my next visit to Disney. As it turns out, we went to Walt Disney World again this year for my college graduation gift (with my dad and my boyfriend who are home now :) and stayed in the same resort, but not in the same group of hotel rooms.

By the way, just a tip, Albernis and her staff (she is a supervisor) are located in Martinique if you want to special request those hotel rooms. We called housekeeping and Albernis got to come to our room for a guest compliment. She remembered us!

I presented Albernis with her long overdue WWWD pin and she beamed with appreciation. Even though our room was way out of her way she came back every day to leave special notes and my stuffed animals just the way she had done before. She even came to visit us a few more times before we departed and left me another card with Chip, Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Minnie, and Mickey on it. It said, "We hope your stay with us was magical." It was then signed by each character in different colors.

Once again Albernis went out of her way (way out of her way, her area was a long way away from where we were located) to make our stay special. Albernis should be put in your Hall of Fame for What Would Walt Do recipients. She is so deserving.

Albernis if you read this we want you to know that we love you and thank you for just being you! We can't wait to see you again on our next visit!