PlunderFest2005Day2

logo by annie

Walt Disney World

"PlunderFest 3"

Orlando, Florida

October 16-24, 2005

Going through the under-the-door spam the previous night, I noticed that the opening keynote addresses would be available on replay later in the day. This was a VERY good thing, because the keynote addresses began at some ridiculous hour like 7:00 am, and the first session in which I was interested wasn’t until 10:00 am. So, I arose at 8:30 am, totally refreshed and eager to start my day.

Damn, I make a FINE pot of coffee, but double-damn, Danon fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt sucks! A few years back, WDW actually had Yoplait 99% fat free, which is my favorite, but then they struck this deal with Danon. Oh, and also, a few years back, they had actual spring water (Zephyr Hills), but now all they have is that distilled Dasani crap. Well, next time, I pack in my own yogurt. Blech!

I went to my session, and then came back, for the next one I had scheduled wasn’t until 3-ish, and I wanted to check what was going on at work. Technically, when you’re away at a conference, you are “on duty” and have to keep up with voice mail and email and such. So I did some work, and then went back for the afternoon sessions, in time to make a stop at Tubbies in the Dolphin for some lunchy lunch. They had some very CRISP melon chunks, nice and cold – mmmm, melon!

Trudging to and fro in business shoes sucks out loud large. I should have worn sneakers, business casual be damned! And I would wear sneakers for the rest of the symposium, but first, I needed to address a developing situation. I got some moleskin in the sundries shop at the Swan, and the man at the counter loaned me his scissors so I could cut off the size pieces I needed. Sat on a little bench outside the shop to apply them where needed, and then continued to trudge in comfort.

My sessions finally ended at around 6:00 PM. On this particular evening, the conference hosts had arranged a private party at Shula’s Steakhouse in the Dolphin. We all gathered for drinks in the bar beforehand, and then went into dinner, where I ate WAY too much. But OMG, it was GOOD!

Here’s what I had to say to my Disney-freak friends when I got back to the hotel room and logged on to post:

“Well, the POR resort has broadband, but apparently, the uptime of said broadband isn't stellar. Yeah, that means I'm on dial-up This really ticks me off, and both the conference hosts AND Disney are going to hear about it. I travel fairly frequently for business, and ALL hotels have wired broadband now. Some even have wireless. So, when the hell is Disney going to join the 21st century?”

I followed the directions to report a problem – dial 56 from the room for Tech Support. I got a recording that says, “Thank you for calling the Walt Disney World High Speed internet support line…” and a bunch more spiel. Then they give you music on hold for about a minute. Mine was, “Now is the time, now is the best time, now is the best time of your life…”. Then, after about a minute of that, they give you a fast busy signal.

I called back again, and I got, “Thank you for calling the Walt Disney World High Speed internet support line…”, followed by “Planetary boogie, it’s the planetary boogie….Uranus is green….”, which kinda cracked me up, until I got the fast busy signal again.

Sighing, I invoked dialup. Let’s continue with my post to the Disney freak friends:

“Lots of walking back and forth between the Swan and the Dolphin today, followed by business dinner at Shula. OMG, I am STUFFED! There were about 30 people from my company at this conference this year, and the conference hosts threw a dinner for us in one of the private rooms there. Shared a ride back to POR with the speakers from Palm. I told them they need to go talk to Steve Jobs and sell their software for the iPod, because I don't feel like hand transferring all my Palm Pilot content, and I don't want to carry both any more.”

There was some speculation about that slow-pokey hurricane Wilma causing weather problems in Orlando in the vicinity of the weekend. There was concern over how this would affect the meets -

“Debbie, it would be dreadful if the Illuminations Party got rained out. I'm a-feared!

I want to make the mug pilgrimage for some hot chocolate, but my poor feet are very tired from all that back and forth. I think they should install that Tom Sawyer raft here, and run it like a ferry between Old Man Island and Oak Manor - it would turn a five minute walk into a 30 second skedaddle across the river.”

It was probably a good thing that the dial-up connection was so slow; that way I could not log into work and get all involved in something. The schedule for Tuesday called for an early session, and I would also be out late Tuesday evening for the special conference Magic Kingdom party. My trip notes show that I turned in at about midnight. No photos for Monday, on account of all I did was conference stuff.