Lino Davella and Mary Cimmino met in Disney World, Florida for a memorable vacation. They are in the 30-40 age category.

Hurricanes Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne forced them to change dates two times, but with perseverance and a strong desire to see each other again after many months of separation, they finally reunited on a vacation to one of the world's greatest resorts.

Song Airways from LaGuardia to Orlando was a fantastic flight - DVD players in the headrest of the seat in front of you, free headset for music, ESPN, entertainment channels or $5 for a movie. I went for the movie, Schreck II to start off my week of fun and fantasy and keep my mind off the fact that I was on an airplane which is not my favorite way to travel. Mary took American Transair from Chicago, Midway to Orlando. Her father called her before she left to say that he had just heard they went out of business - turns out that indeed they did file for bankruptcy - but the planes were still flying. The airline personnel weren't the happiest they could have been and the planes were old, but she made it okay.

We took zero dark thirty flights and arrived at the Wilderness Lodge before check in time. I cannot say enough about the staff at the hotel and all of Disney World in general. They magically found a clean room on the 6th floor for us with a pool view - an upgrade from the woods view room that we had reserved. We were so happy we chose this hotel - carved wood everywhere, flickering lanterns in the hallways instead of glaring bulbs - the feeling was peaceful and quiet - everyone helpful and loving their job. We took a bus and ferry to the Magic Kingdom which took about 15-20 minutes but when you're on vacation, this is just fine. We did 4 parks and Sea World in the 5 days we were there - couldn't force ourselves to sit around on the overstuffed couches reading the newspaper as we saw other people doing. To each his own! There were many British people around - very polite and nice. We were told that a family from Britain might come to Disney for a 2-3 week stretch. You need it in order to see everything. We didn't even get to Universal Studios.

We used the brochures and asked questions to plan each upcoming day's events. Eating at the Pooh & Tigger restaurant got us reserved seats to the new Mickey fighting the evil villains water show at the theater section of the Magic Kingdom - 4th or 5th row. They project cartoon images onto a spray of water and at one point light the water on fire. You gotta see it.

The newest fireworks display is called Whispers and is shown at the end of the day. MGM had the Incredibles running around and there's a parade every night on the water with characters and lights, etc.

Disposable cameras in Disney cost about $17-18.00 so if you forget yours like I did or run out, drive or take a taxi to the mall to buy one for $7.00, it's worth it.

The Wilderness Lodge has 2 pools: one big and one small. The chlorine level is very high - due to the little kids I'm sure - and takes some getting used to. There is also a small beach and a villa section with private pools - these are privately owned. We got sandwiches and coffee at the café in the hotel which seemed fairly priced.

We rented a powerboat and got to see the backs of all the resorts from the lake. Our boat broke down after 15 minutes so they towed us back and gave us another one for a full hour and didn't charge us for the 15 minutes we had used (cost=$25.00 per ½ hour). One night we were walking through the Marketplace and saw Pleasure Island up ahead. For some reason there was no one at the entrance and we just walked right in. I think we made out on that one!

There were trees down from the hurricanes but the resorts and attractions were all fine - we got there about 2 weeks after the last 2004 hurricane.

One parting story - we went to a show at the castle and were supposed to get souvenir mugs, but we forgot them. When we got back to the Wilderness Lodge, we mentioned it to one of the staff. They were sympathetic, called the restaurant for us and were told that if we came back we could pick up our mugs. We decided to forget it rather than go all the way back. Then the hotel offered to check and see if one of their 'runners' were going to be in that area to pick them up for us. The runner returned with the mugs, but we had already checked out and flown home. Then, a week later, a box arrived from the Wilderness Lodge with our mugs! This is the nicest gesture a hotel has ever made for me. I am ready for another trip to Disney World and the Wilderness Lodge.