PlunderFest2005Day6

logo by annie

Walt Disney World

"PlunderFest 3"

Orlando, Florida

October 16-24, 2005

Ugh, it’s morning again! Yeah, these early risings are starting to catch up with me. Fortunately for me, it’s the last day of the conference, with the weekend coming up, so I’ll be able to catch a break from business after this, and just enjoy plundering and pillaging the World with my friends.

With my coffee, I reviewed some personal email, and the weather reports. From Mother came the news that two of my multitude of cousins (our family is the size of a Cecil B DeMille epic) had flown down to the Orlando area to visit their parents. I didn’t think I could carve out the time to meet with them this trip, so I didn’t call. Mother also expressed concerns about the upcoming arrival of Hurricane Wilma. I responded something like, “there are worse places to be during a hurricane than Walt Disney World”, and went on with my day.

I connected to work, and found more emails from various people on the management team, expressing concern for the employees who were in Florida. I gave them the same answer, and seriously went on with my day!

The conference would provide free shipping of all my conference materials (but ONLY my conference materials), so I made an effort to gather all that up and pack it into one of the freebie conference bags I’d received by visiting the vendor Expo, and schlepped that with me to the shuttle stop. I could not believe that after all that drama last night of trying to get to bed at a decent time so I could get up and make an 8:00 am session, the shuttles were running late, and I was late anyway.

So much for trying to be a “good girl”. The shuttle deposited me at the Swolphin at 8:40 am! The session was already in Q&A by the time I entered, and my next one wasn’t until 9:30 am. I proceeded to the breakfast tent and got some stuff to go. As sticky as it already was outside, I chose to park myself on a bench near the Swolphin boat launch, reading the daily Expo newspaper while munching on fresh fruit. There was at least a breeze coming off the water. While I was sitting there, Bro No. 2 called, and we chatted a little about stuff I’d been learning at the conference. I had a revelation while speaking to him. One of the sessions I’d attended dealt with how organizations as well as individuals handle corporate change. I’ve been through 6 mergers in my career (so far… stay tuned!), and I’ve managed to survive and grow my career through all of them. I think I have some sort of natural agility/adaptability that has served me well as the environment has constantly shifted over the last 15 years or so. For my planned retirement career as a counselor (gotta get a counseling certificate… stay tuned!), I think I might specialize in helping people to recognize and adopt the behaviors necessary to be successful in their own careers. Hmmm… stay tuned!

Before my next session, I stopped in at Tubbies on a mission for cotton swabs – note to self, for longer trips such as these, pack a bigger supply of Q-tips! And after the last session, I visited the shipping center to send the schlep bag home. After having dragged that thing around for a week, including into the parks, I was very happy to see it go – bye bye, schlep bag!

Caught the conference shuttle back to the hotel for the last time, and settled down to do some work. By about 3:00 PM, I’d triaged the onslaught of corporate email, dealt with the stuff that required my immediate attention, and was at the bus stop, waiting to go to Downtown Disney. While waiting, I whipped out my Christmas shopping list for review/revision. I’d been seeing stuff in the parks all week and jotting down what should be obtained, and for whom. Once at DTD, I made a beeline for the big World of Disney store, and did some serious damage to the list, securing the discount for using the Disney Visa (or having the Annual Pass, whichever the CM decided to apply). I had the whole shebang shipped back to the hotel for pickup.

On the way out, I stopped at Guest Services with a pile of old passes that Bro & SIL had given me to check for days remaining. Marked each pass with what remained, called and left them a voice mail, so they could decide what they needed to buy for their own trip (coming practically as soon as I arrived home.

OK, I’ve taken care of my very last obligation, and now I’m ready for some serious fun! Tonight was the Tambu Lounge meet, followed by the Dinner at Ohana Meet, followed by the Poly Beach meet, all taking place at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. There was a bit of a wait at the Downtown Disney bus stops, and it was raining some. There was a family on the bus with one of those young children that talks easily to strangers, and provides TMI (too much information) on occasion – the kid had me giggling, and her mom and dad occasionally interjected with cautionary tones, but they were giggling too, so I guess it wasn’t TOO much information after all!

The rain had let up by time I reached the Poly and joined Kerry and Georgia there. Georgia was putting the final touches on some customized pirate “do-rags”, while Kerry and I were on the lookout for people leaving the lounge, so we could rearrange the furniture and have enough tables and chairs for the rest of the crew. Pretty soon, we had a pile of people in the Tambu Lounge – Robin, Donnie, Paul & Darcie, Trixy & Kevin, Annie & Kathi all dribbled in, and drinks were ordered. I got this thing called a Zombie, which was really good, but it was served in this strange glass with a face carved into it – it was scary-looking!

Left to right: Paul, Darcie, Kevin, Annie, Georgia, guy pushing stroller, me, little kid walking in front of guy pushing stroller, Trixy, back of Kathi's head. Kerry must be taking the picture; in fact, I swiped today's pics from him (thanks, dude).

Annie distributed little treat bags for all of us. Inside was a PlunderFest 3 button (“Better Watch Yer Candy!”), a little yellow duckie dressed as a pirate, and some other stuff (sorry Annie – it is now MONTHS later, and I was under the influence of a Zombie at the time, so I cannot rightly remember!).

Soon they were calling us for dinner. I’d never been to Ohana before, so I was looking forward to an adventure. I have to say, this dinner was a bit too much meat and not enough vegetables for my taste – endless rounds of freshly grilled, delicious meats, but I would have preferred more balance with the veggies. We did, however, have a great time. Lots of entertainment happening, what with the MC calling the little kids up to the center of the room to play games and sing songs.

We finally rolled ourselves out of Ohana to continue the party on the Polynesian’s beach. There was still the threat of rain lingering, but we figured we could all crowd into this one little shelter down there, should the need arise. In the meantime, we had the whole outdoor lounge area down by the beach practically to ourselves, as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party raged on across the lake. Ms e, Betsy, and Chance soon arrived. Chance had won a trophy at his Tae Kwon Do meet that day (2^nd place, weapons skills), and he received his props from all the pirates. Ms e had brought more toys for us to play with – everyone got an eye patch and a pirate earring (a single hoop).

A bunch of silliness ensued, with people parking these items on various and sundry unlikely portions of their anatomies. I cannot get the picture of Darcie with a clip-on earring dangling from one nostril out of my mind – I’m scarred for life, I tell ya! J

Ms e also presented Robin with a Rizzo Rat that she’d won in an eBay auction. She’d been so excited about it, and it was pretty exciting keep the secret with her as well. Robin seemed to love her new buddy, even if he is a rat and keeps eating all her dinner LOL.

At some point during the evening (my notes say it was after 10:00 PM), Paul got Moley on his cell phone (one of the pirates that could not make the meet this year), and the phone was passed around so that everyone could say hello. This group typically has a standing Friday night chat online, so this was just a different way of chatting. I told Moley, “You’re being passed around on the Poly beach like a two bit hooker” and she got a chuckle out of that!

Music was being piped in from the party at the Magic Kingdom – I believe we got both the parade music, as well as the fireworks music. It was a special edition of Wishes, and seeing it in 360 surround from across the lake was by far the highlight of the evening – it was simply spectacular!

Finally, someone suggested that in light of the fact that we all had to be at the Wide World of Sports the next morning, in time to attend Chance’s next meet, we should adjourn and attempt something akin to sleep. Paul drove Kevin, Trixy, and I back to Port Orleans – K&T were staying at the French Quarter – and I fell into bed sometime around 1:00 am.