PlunderFest2005Day5

logo by annie

Walt Disney World

"PlunderFest 3"

Orlando, Florida

October 16-24, 2005

For the third day in a row, I made it to an 8:00 am session. At some point, I know that all of these short sleep nights are going to catch up with me, but this is what it’s all about when you attend a conference – you attend sessions, you keep up with work, but you want to fit in a little fun, too, so you have to sacrifice on the old shut eye.

FINALLY, people have abandoned the pretense of business dress from the ankles down! Very few shoe fashionistas remain. I had to laugh when I passed a whole row of people sitting on a series of benches, reading or talking on their cell phones, all wearing suits with sneakers. I felt smug. **I** had been an early adapter!

After doing 2 sessions, I headed back to Riverside, and decided to have a sit down brunch at Boatwright’s. I ordered the sweet potato pancakes with honey pecan butter, and don’t believe I’ve ever had anything quite so good. It tasted just like pumpkin pie in a pancake. Wow!

I was starting to feel rebellious; I was tired of having to pay attention to work matters, so I dawdled on Old Man Island a while. I sat on a bench in the sunshine and called my friend Penny in California, but she was having some sort of dental drama, and couldn’t talk. Then, I went into the sundries shop and stuck both hands into a vat full of marbles. They felt all cool and smooth, but I didn’t buy any. I don’t buy marbles, I find them. Only, I don’t really find them, they find me! Found marbles are definitely more fun than bought marbles. Someday I’ll do a web page with photos of all the marbles that have found me, so you’ll know what I’m talking about and won’t think I’ve … well, lost my marbles (at least, not about this).

I finally settled down to work in the room, and worked straight through until it was time to have the first official meet of PlunderFest 3, and meet me some more pirates! This meet was called the Sippin’ Safari, and it was being held at a bar (well, THE bar) in the town of Harambe, Africa – in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I think I arrived at about 3:00 PM. There were drummers and acrobats entertaining the patrons of the outdoor bar, and they were just finishing up as I arrived.

As previously mentioned, the online Disney community where I met these people has a pirate theme, hence the reference to “pirates” in the preamble. WDW meets with these people are referred to as “PlunderFest”. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to copy and past what I posted to them pirate board, with a few interjections here and there –

LIVE from WDW – The PlunderFestivities have begun! Thursday October 20, 2005, 11:50:02 PM

I just got back from the official Day 1 of the PlunderFestivities, and boy am I pissed off! See, I have an 8:00 am class tomorrow, so I took off after Illuminations. It's EMH [Extra Magic Hours] tonight at Epcot, so everyone else stayed to party some more (we had already partied quite a bit!). Anyway, as I was exiting down the UK-O, Canada! side, I ran into a log jam of people the likes of which I'd never seen before! I felt like part of a cattle herd, and had to restrain myself from mooing (a little cow humor for our friend Mariby). It is horribly hot and humid, and people were crowded together and short tempered. I don't know why so many people were leaving, unless they didn't know it was EMH.

The plaza with the Leave A Legacy "tombstones" was so jammed, I decided to ride Spaceship Earth and see if it subsided. Only I didn't have an EMH bracelet, so I had to get one of those, first. The crowd was gone when I got off the ride, but the bus stop was ridiculous. I waited through several buses. Finally, they sent two buses to load and there were TONS of people behind me when I got on one of them. I am pissed, cause I coulda been rockin' wit mah peeps instead of cooling my heels in line. If only I'd known how crowded it would be, I would not have bothered trying to be a good girl going to bed early!

But we had a great time tonight! We started with the Sippin' Safari in Animal Kingdom. I got there around 3:15 ish or so. Kerry, Georgia, Trixy, and Kevin (Mr. Trixy, aka Mr. T) had already been a-sippin', and I soon started sippin', too. It was very hot in the outdoor bar in Harambe; they had baskets over all the ceiling fans, I know not why. Robin arrived soon after I did. We decided to leave for Epcot before the parade started. Once in Epcot, we made a beeline for Mexico for some mango margaritas, stopping at various F&WF kiosks to sample some food.

[I have notes indicating that we entered Epcot via the International Gateway, and that on the way to Mexico, I bought a hat at the Festival Center kiosks. It was very hot, and I wanted to get my hair off my neck. I also purchased a Festival pin, but they didn’t have the Annual Passholder pins at this kiosk. I was advised to try the pin center near Spaceship Earth, which I thought I might do on the way out, but forgot due to being distracted by the huge crowds.]

Once in Mexico, we got our margaritas [our first Mango Margarita Meet – I think this is going to become a PlunderFest classic!], and some more food from nearby kiosks and parked outside at the San Angel, at a couple of tables down by the lagoon. Coastal [Kerry] talked with Paul [and Darcie] on his cell - they were in line for Soarin', but they soon joined us. Finally, Annie and her sister Kathi joined. It was great to meet all these people in person!

Onward we marched, stopping at the Australia kiosks to get some lamb and polenta and bottles of water. Did I mention it was hot? The bottles of Dasani purchased from Australia had hunks of ice in them, so they were nice and cold. We all did the Wine Tasting Walkabout - you pay 7 bucks and get to sample five different wines. We noticed there's a pattern of selecting the driest wine among the women in our group.

We stopped in Italy for chocolates, and in the American Adventure for beer. In Morocco, more water. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but it was REALLY hot! We were able to pour it into the bottles with the ice hunks to keep it cold - very convenient.

Finally, we marched over to the bridge area between France and the International Gateway to stop for Illuminations. Not the greatest spot, but we've all seen it before. Coastal had heard from ms e and betsy, and they found us halfway through the fireworks. I left them all there on the bridge to enjoy the rest of EMH, and you know the rest (see above rant).

OK, I'm tuckered out, too tired to get the photos out of my camera and post them. Tomorrow!

When I finally got back to POR, I cut through the air conditioned buildings from the bus stop, and stopped briefly at the hotel bar to listen to the piano player lead the crowd through a funny sing-a-long. Outside on the moonlit paths back to Oak Manor, I was walking behind a young family whose little boy was playing a game of “boo!” with his parents. They were pushing a stroller with a sleeping girl child in it, and he kept running ahead, hiding behind a tree, and then peeking out saying “BOO!”. Each time, his parents pretended to be oh! so startled and surprised to see him there, and soft, moonlit laughter would follow.