Weekly Knight News
Week of 10-10-16
Welcome back!
As you may have known, my family took a trip to Florida for our first Disney experience. It was quite the experience indeed. I am not sure anyone has ever said that Disney is relaxing, and if they have then they were lying to you. It is a magical place and we did enjoy our time there. But it is definitely a trip and not a vacation.
The week went fairly smooth until the end of the week once Hurricane Matthew began to disrupt our plans.
On Wednesday we contacted Delta to change our flight from late Friday to early morning Friday in hopes of getting out of town. Thursday morning comes and the storm that "nobody alive has ever experienced" has now closed Orlando airport cancelling all flights. Delta tells us the earliest we can leave is Sunday morning, but does allow us to change flights for again to a Tampa flight on Friday at 2:00.
Now we have to figure out how to get to Tampa. The car rental companies are not renting cars from Orlando airport because the airport will be closed. However, there are rental spots on the Disney complex. We finally found a car at an Avis located at the Hilton hotel and needed to be there by 2:00! Problem was, it was now 1:00 and we had no idea where the Hilton hotel was. So after taking the amtrack, two buses, and sprinting through Disney Springs in the pouring down rain I made it to the Avis counter. Yes I had made it there myself, I left the rest of the family in the dust to ensure I got a car for the family. Don't judge me!
The Avis worker didn't quite know how important his word choice was going to be during our conversation. Unfortunately for him he didn't choose the correct words and told us there were no cars left... We quickly corrected him in the most polite way we could at that moment (I apologized later) that he does have a car available and he needed to look again.
We drove away in our full size sedan and quickly got back to the resort. We had full service meals, quick service meals, and snacks left on our meal plan so we raided the resort's dinner and snack area to load up for our trip to Tampa. We started our trip to Tampa in bumper to bumper traffic while family and friends back home were trying to find us a hotel room for the night. Out of 456 hotels in the Tampa and surrounding area, there were ZERO rooms available.
Our kids were troopers throughout the entire experience and rolled with the punches as we told them we would be staying the night in the airport. We lucked out and found the only cushion/couch/lounge area in the entire airport. And we set up home and protected that area against all comers!
The next morning after a very restless night we contacted Delta again and were placed on the standby for an 8:50 flight. I have never been so happy to hear my last name called by the flight attendant in my life. I told her I wanted to hug her at that moment and happily got the family on the plane to come home!
Obviously, our inconveniences are very minor compared to those who have lost their home or loved ones with this hurricane.
One main thing that stuck out to me throughout this entire experience, is how far good customer service goes to help calm down someone in a stressful situation. From the Delta employees to the Disney resort employees, everyone could tell it was a stressful situation did everything in their power to help with the situation.
Good customer service and patience are great qualities to have in any field of employment. Going into the 2nd nine weeks of this school year remember how important these two qualities are when talking with parents, students, and fellow teachers.
Collaboration
October 14th
Students will have a chance to sign up for events during lunch this week.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Report Card Grades
Schedule
Monday- Deming out after 9:30- JA meeting and IPLI meeting
Tuesday- Deming and Cain out am- Admin Meeting
Wednesday- Deming and Laur out am- NWEA Map conference