[dac921]

Travelers for this adventure is just…

ME

Thursday, October 26, 2006

My little adventure actually started after work on Wednesday, October 25, since I was leaving out of Newark Liberty International airport, and my parents are 20 minutes from the airport, it just made sense for me to spend the night at their house, I had a 10 am flight out Thursday morning.

The evening was uneventful expect for the fact that I had “WHITE CASTLE” hamburgers for dinner, it has been over 2 years since I’ve had “WHITE CASTLE” and it was a treat.

Anyway, having to be at the airport at 8 am, I went to sleep reasonable early, but of course like always had a hard time sleeping. So I was up at 6 am and then waiting to leave for the airport.

My Mom and Dad dropped me off at EWR around 8 am, off I went to check in, to my complete SURPRISE there was 1 person in front of me, so I checked my bags (yes I said bags, I didn’t feel like taking the big hug bag with me so I took a suitor and smaller bag – I should have brought the big boy instead), then off to security… which took me no more than 15 minutes, I was extremely surprised that the airport was empty.

So thru security I went, stopped off for a well-needed cup of coffee, sat down, pulled out my Nora Roberts’ book, and waited. We started to board the plane with no problems at all. I got to my seat, and settled in for what I was hoping was going to a very smooth flight… Well, I thought it was going to be a very smooth flight, with my luck, and you know I don’t have the best luck in the world, I sat next to a woman who had only flown once before, she sat in the middle of myself and her “BEST FRIEND”. This woman, who did introduce herself, but I can’t remember her name (I must have blocked out for some STRANGE reason), proceeded to talk to me during the WHOLE flight, I tried to read, but couldn’t, I tried to sleep, and couldn’t, she just wouldn’t stop talking to me, she wouldn’t bother with her friend, she just wanted to talk to me an it DROVE ME CRAZY, of course I didn’t say anything, I didn’t want to upset her.

We arrived at MCO 10 minutes early, I was happy about that. The woman and her friend, made a mad dash out of the plane, and must have knocked over 5 people in the process; they weren’t exactly the nicest people in the world. Well anyway, I was on my way to get my luggage, thinking to myself, “Where is that Mears counter?” when I see this man holding a sign… “Dee C- - - - - - - -“, I walk up to him and ask I was Dee, his name was James, he said there was a town car waiting for me…I was like, “NO! I ordered a shuttle to the hotel”. He made a call and found out that the Hilton had transportation arranged for me (and I even got my shuttle costs reimbursed to me). So we get my luggage and off to the Hilton.

I check in go to my room and not even two minutes after I start to unpack, there is a knock on the door. I open and the door and one of the Sales Staff was there with a plate full of water and munchies… also, my H.O.S.T packet, which included my agenda for the next two days, and my HOPPER PASS for Saturday…. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY DANCE I was doing.

So anyway, it was about 2:30 pm, but the time I finished, so I decide it was off to Downtown Disney, which is directly across the street from the Hilton. I stopped at Earls for my lunch and did a little shopping.

I looked at my watch after wondering around DTD and it was 5:00 - “CRAP” I have to get back to the hotel and get myself ready for this reception at 6:00 pm…. Well I thought it was 6 pm, I must have read the invitation wrong, because it turned out to be 6:30 pm which gave me a little more time to get ready. Since I still had to iron my skirt and top for the night, I felt a little more comfortable with the mistake…

Anyway, I went down to the reception, it was outside by the pool… yes open bar and buffet, the food was wonderful. The people were friendly and I meet a new friend from CT… so after dinner it was off to “Desert with the Stars”. I thought it would be desert with Mickey and Minnie being in WDW an all, but I was WRONG… we took limos to Planet Hollywood, YES stretch limos to Planet Hollywood, where we proceeded to have “Desert with the Stars” the stars were no other than Elvis and Madonna… oh it was a lot of fine, I had a chocolate martini actually a few of them, they are very good and just sweet enough.

Jan (my new friend from CT) and I must have spoke with Madonna most of the night, and she was very nice, so at the end of the night, they were giving out goodie bags, inside the goodie bags was a Planet Hollywood Mug and Hat… they had two different styles a man’s hat which is pure black and a woman’s hat which was black with “PH” in sliver studs, Madonna being Madonna, asked both Jan and I how many kids we had and I told her and they gave both of us two extra bags, so I went home with three hats and three mugs from Plant Hollywood…

Then it was off to the hotels “Hospitality Suite”, for some munchies and cocktails… needless to say, while we were in the “Hospitality Suite” a plate full of chocolate was delivered to my room, it had a 5x7 frame of the Hilton logo… I tried to bring it home, but of course, it broke on the flight…

It must have been 1 in the morning before I got back to my room… I was pretty tired and I knew that I had to get up no later than 7:30 am to get ready for the next day’s event.

So that is my first day...

I will try to get more up by end of next day.

[daisyd]

I am sooooooo jealous, lol.

It sounds like you had a good first day (despite the loon on your flight). I can't wait for more!

[dznycropper]

I have to echo Daisy's sentiments....JEALOUS!!!! But I'm glad you had a great time!!

[Erin]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnd, Jealous!

But, happy for you! You really recieved the royal treatment. I can't wait to hear more.

[tonksky]

Um...I have to ask: What is H.O.S.T.? I haven't the faintest idea.
But, whatever it is - sounds like you get all sorts of good stuff!

[dac921]

Originally Posted by tonksky

Um...I have to ask: What is H.O.S.T.? I haven't the faintest idea.
But, whatever it is - sounds like you get all sorts of good stuff!

H.O.S.T = Hilton On-Site Training...

In other words, having alot of fun at the Hilton @ WDW

[jk8]

Sounds like fun! Can't wait to hear more.

[tinkerbelle24]

That sounds great!! Do u work for hilton?

[pkc123]

Sounds like you had a terrific time.All the perks are great.Maybe the lady talked a lot to calm her nerves?Can't wait to hear more.

[dac921]

Originally Posted by tinkerbelle24

That sounds great!! Do u work for hilton?

I don't work for Hilton, but my company hosts a number of conference at different Hilton thought the US.

[dac921]

Originally Posted by pkc123

Sounds like you had a terrific time.All the perks are great.Maybe the lady talked a lot to calm her nerves?Can't wait to hear more.

I think the lady was talking just to keep me awake... I really don't fly well, so I rather just sit back with my headphones on and either read or shut my eyes and relax.

[Jen]

wow ~ sounds like a great day!!

can't wait to hear more!

[dac921]

Friday, October 27th….

Well after Thursday night and having a few cocktails, I did feel a little extra tired can we say… I requested a 7:00 am wake up call, knowing that I would not be getting out of bed until 7:30, so I got myself together, and made my way down to breakfast… what a spread they had, everything was mouth watering…. And the coffee was good too, which I must add, I had a few cups (a lot). Anyway, during breakfast they did their little speech and presentation on what they can do for you… then 9:30 am rolls around and off to my Cooking Class… well after eating that wonderful breakfast, I thought I would be mixing or crushing something, nope, we sat and tasted different types of mushroom, oils, vinegars, had a wine tasting at 11:00 am, we learned how to decorate plates for our desserts… it was a lot of fun. Oh, I forgot to mention that the chef gave everyone a bottle of the most wonderful Basil pressed oil…

Well, at noon, we were told it was lunch time, I just eat breakfast, did the taste test thingy the last thing I wanted was more food… anyway, we set off for lunch, which was a 5 course plated lunch, including 4 different wines… YES I got a major buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…. So we sat through two more presentations. We ended around 1:30 pm it was time for the “Great Race of Orlando”. Well I have no idea what this was going to be so I was excited, we got to the “arranged” stop and told to run into our LIMOS, okay another limo ride (oh, I should say that the limo has a cooler stocked with all kinda of goodies)… how fun. There were two bags there full of stuff, customs, a camera, pens, tap, and the rules… what we had to do is go to these certain places and do the task at hand, plus take pictures so they would know we were there… anyway, there was one special prize for the person who was character the most… let me tell you, I took the Princess Crown and decided that I was going to be HollyLynne for the day… IT’S MY WAY OR NO WAY… that how I acted, when I say someone from “Hello Florida” I ordered them to bow. I actually had one guy tie my shoe… I was bad.

We went into a restaurant to search for the number of fish and jellyfish that were all over the place, well I stepped into this room and counted the fish and jellyfish, as I step out, I didn’t notice that the floor was wet, there was no sign… and yes, as y’all must have guess, I went splat on my BUTT… I hit the floor hard, and I was hurt from that moment on… but like the trooper I am, I keep going, and going, and going. Finished the “Great Race of Orlando” with a squeeze golf ball from one of the Disney Gold Course, sun glasses from the “HOUSE OF BLUES”, a big red Walt Disney World bag and a throbbing knee and butt…

We get back to the hotel, and I go back to my room to get ready for our evening… I enter my room and what do I find, another plate of goodies, this time cookies and a few bottles of water… boy I needed a bottle of water… So I got ready for the evening, headed back up to the “Hospitality Suite” for munchies and cocktails… to wait for the results of the “Great Race of Orlando”. Let me tell you the “Hospitality Suite” sits on the 9th floor of the hotel and it over looks Downtown Disney… you can see the MK, MGM and EPCOT fireworks for that floor… anyway… we all gather to hear the results, my team came in 4th, that’s okay we all had a great time, and they gave us a cookie shaped like a sun that said “Hello Florida” on it… it was cute…

So they gave out all the prize and then said there was one more prize for the person who acted most like their custom… and yes you guessed it… I WON!!! A $25 AMEX Gift Card… Oh boy, I was excited about that… I was going to do the HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY Dance, but my back wasn’t into to…

Then it was off to “Dinner Disney Style”… we have no idea where we were going, so we hopped on the bus, Yeap a charter bus was waiting to take us somewhere… we’re off… and we starting driving, someone said they saw an EPCOT bus… OKAY, then we turned, at first I thought we were going to have dinner around Orlando, but then I noticed that we were pulling into the BACK LOT of EPCOT… oh how much fun, we pulled right in behind all the countries… I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be behind the scenes at EPCOT… and what was the most amazing thing about this… it was clean, there was nothing on the ground.

So we hopped off the bus and start walking toward a HUGE DOUBLE DOOR… every CM we passed greeted up with “HAVE A MAGICAL EVENING”, I was in heaven… so these HUGE DOORS open and what do I see… we are in Canada… YEAH!!!!!!!!! Then we were told that we were having dinner at Le Cellular… well kinda at Le Cellular not in the restaurant but a private party at the top of the 360 degree. The food was wonderful, and of course another wine tasting.

After dinner, we played follow the leader to the United Kingdom, and made a left right past the fish and chips stand, I didn’t even have enough time to shop that evening… which is a bummer for me HollyLynne wanted a pair of moccasins from Canada but I didn’t have enough time to get them for her. Anyway, we are escorted to a private showing of Illuminations… it was just wonderful, we were having desert in the UK while Illuminations was going on… What a show… of course I had my camcorder… it was a wonderful show…

After Illuminations was over, we pilled back onto the bus… thinking that we were going back to the hotel for the night, I was wrong the GM of Hilton started to handout passes for Pleasure Island… I have never been to Pleasure Island at night before. We hit the Adventure Club, that was a lot of fun, I love the interactive skit they did. After the Adventure Club, off we went to 8Tracks… now that is my kinda of club… all 70 & 80’s style music. I wanted to dance but (sorry I gotta do this), my butt hurt too much, I was starting to feel the full force effect from the fall earlier in the day. So I just hung out and talked and had a cocktail or three… I guess by now, I must have lost count of all that was consumed that day…

It was about 12:30 am when we finally left and went back to the hotel… I really needed to get some sleep, I knew where I was going the next day and I needed to catch the early bus to MGM, it was EMH…

I requested a 7 am wakeup call, crawled (I do mean crawl) into bed and off to dream those Disney Dreams…

[Cavey]

Pictures please! (Not of the annoying plane rider)

[dac921]

Originally Posted by Cavey

Pictures please! (Not of the annoying plane rider)

I will post pictures... only problem is that I didn't have time to download them from my camera last night, I had to be a good girl and go teach CCD.

I am hoping to have them posted tonight while I am waiting for all the kids.