Saturday, November 8, 2014

KeyCon 2014 Trip: Day #3

Day number three I got up early and donned my Maleficent outfit.  Today was the day I would finally meet most of my fellow KTTW agents!  Wanda and I agreed to meet over at Boardwalk, where she had previously moved rooms.  I got ready and hopped on the bus to Hollywood Studios so I could take the Friendship Boats to the Boardwalk Resort area.


I've never taken the Friendship Boats before and I was excited to try something new.  I loved seeing the view of the Swan and Dolphin Resorts from the water.  I never realized how architecturally beautiful they are!



A few minutes later, we rounded the corner and I got my first view of the Yacht and Beach Club and Boardwalk Resort areas.  I met up with Wanda outside of one of the restaurants.  She had also met up with Linda, who was waiting on her room at Port Orleans Riverside to be ready.  We decided to go up to Wanda's room to cool off and relax until Tara arrived.  It was so nice to hang out in the air conditioning for a bit.  The entire trip was at least 90 degrees out it was also really humid.  Tara arrived in the early afternoon and we talked while she got settled.  



Tara and I decided that we'd go over to Epcot for some lunch at the Food and Wine Festival. I've never entered Epcot at the International Gateway before!  I've also never bought food from the Food and Wine Festival booths.  Eliot's not that adventurous with food so I decided to take advantage of the festival this trip!  Tara and I started at the Mexico end and worked our way around.  The garlic shrimp at the Australia booth was our first stop.  It was so good!


After that, we decided to go on the Gran Fiesta Tour ride in the Mexico pavilion to cool off. We enjoyed the ride and then took a sombrero selfie!  Next, we adventured over to Norway where we went into the Stave church to look around.  Then we stopped in the Kringla Bakeri og Kafé for pastries.  I didn't have much of an appetite, but Tara insisted I have some of her troll horn.  It was yummy!


We made our way over to China where Tara tried some of the shrimp the black pepper shrimp with sichuan noodles.  Once again, she made sure I ate something and insisted that I eat part of it.  It wasn't bad, but we agreed that it was no Australia.  (I was shocked at my lack of appetite the entire trip.  Looking back, I know it was the heat and humidity.) We eventually ended up at Germany where Tara ordered the German Riesling Flight.  A few minutes later, we met up with Wanda and headed back towards Mexico where we were going to meet up with a few other agents at 3:00.  Instead, I decided to go back to Pop Century to take a quick shower and to change before our 6:00 meet and greet.


After I showered and felt refreshed, I got dressed in my Elsa tank and my Olaf button. (Jeff, one of the KTTW owners, said he's a hugger so I thought it was appropriate.)  I used our conference app to message the others at Pop and we agreed to meet at the lobby to head over to the meet and greet together.  It ended up being only Joleen and myself, but it was good to finally meet her in person.  We talked nonstop as we took the buses to Hollywood Studios and the Friendship Boats to the Yacht and Beach Club pier.


It took us a while to find the Martha's Vineyard Lounge since neither of us had any clue where it was.  We finally found our destination and were greeted by Key to the World owners Heather and Jeff.  I ordered a white wine sangria and spent the next few hours meeting the other agents.  It was nice to put everyone's photo and name to a face!


After the meet and greet, Wanda, Linda, Tara and I decided to find something for dinner. We tried numerous restaurants around the Yacht and Beach Club and Boardwalk area. All of them said we'd have to wait until 9:00 just to get on the waiting list.  Linda even slipped one of the hostesses a $20 bill- that still didn't change anything.  Eventually, we were too hungry to wait and we went to the Boardwalk Bakery for dinner.


We sat there for quite a while after eating.  (IllumiNations was going on in the background before we left.)  We had so many laughs.  The family beside us jokingly asked if they could join us at one point because it looked like we were having so much fun.  I'm surprised we didn't get more looks than we did.  We were all laughing pretty hard. Unfortunately for you guys, we all agreed that what happened at Boardwalk stays at Boardwalk so you can't find out any of our private jokes.


Eventually, we decided it was time to leave and to get some rest.  Tara and I weren't quite done for the evening, so we bid everyone else a good night and headed over to the Magic Kingdom.  It was open until 3:00 am with extra magic hours.  We knew there was no way we'd make it until then but we were happy to be there for a little while.


We went to Pirates of the Caribbean first since the ride had been closed on and off due to problems.  Thankfully, it was open and we didn't have to wait too long to get on it. 


After Pirates, we slowly made our way back to the hub and stopped to take pictures at the Partners Statue.  We both were starting to fade quickly.  Plus, Tara had been up since 3:00 am and hadn't slept at all!  I don't know how she did it when I was falling asleep mid-afternoon after my 3:00 am wake up and early flight!  She's a rock star!


We took a few more PhotoPass photos on Main Street USA and made our way out of the park.  We also got a few pictures at the Train Station before leaving.  Then, we said goodnight and split up.  Tara headed to the Boardwalk bus and I went back to Pop!  °o°

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