Land of Make Believe Convention
Orlando, Florida
June 22-26,2006
By Chris L.
Our vacation started out when we finally got to our motel, and Dee and her family were there to greet us with a gift bag of snacking goodies! We got in late, so we said quick hellos, checked in, and then Tif drove us over to our building, and we said good night.
Monday morning, we went to breakfast at the hotel, only to find that the selection of the continental breakfast wasn't all that great, and on the paying side, the selection wasn't much better! We all caught the shuttle bus to Sea World, and while we were entering, I realized that my Coke bottle leaked into my bag! ARGH! Quick bathroom trip to clean it out, and we were ready! Dee and family wanted to see different things there than what we wanted to see, so we split with a meeting for lunch time set. Not far into our journey, it started to rain, but with the temps in the upper 80's and the humidity right up there with it, it was a welcome relief. After the dolphin show, we walked around al little more, but the humidity was really getting to us. Apparently the same was happening to Dee's family, because she called and said that they couldn't handle it either. We met up for a cool glass of
lemonade that Dee's husband Larry graciously bought for all and we all decided to go back to the motel to rest, and let the worst of the heat go by. So, after a nap, in the later part of the afternoon, we all took the shuttle to Epcot. Marlene went to see one of the attractions while the rest of us got something to eat, and then we started walking around the different countries at Epcot. Somewhere in the United Kingdom, Marlene and I lost Dee and her family, but we looked the world over for them! We watched the Luminations show, and then afterwards, we got a call from Dee, and found them again. We then left the park for the night, and waited for the shuttle bus. We apparently went too early, since we waited nearly 2 hrs. for the shuttle back to our motel! Oh well!
Tuesday, we decided to hang around the pool, because of the heat and humidity, while Dee and her family went and did their thing. Then, Tuesday night, Marlene and I went over to Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island. W enjoyed looking around at the shops and then sat down for a cool drink. Since it was one of those rare times that I wasn't driving, I ordered a frozen margarita! It was sooooooooooo good, and sooooooooo expensive! And, since I had an empty stomach, it was sooooooooooooo intoxicating! Sure, Chris is drunk at Disney and no one but Marlene got to see it! LOL! Lucky for me, (I think!), some guy bumped my arm, the one attached to the hand holding the margarita, and I lost it. So, being the non drinker that I am, I only got buzzed for a little while on that half glass of frozen margarita! We then decided to get something to eat, and went to the Italian restaurant at Downtown
Disney. Once there, I wasn't feeling all that well, and the menu didn't have food that I was familiar with, so I had a bowl of soup. Marlene had a pasta dish, and after eating my soup, I felt ALOT better, so I finished her pasta dish, since it was so huge! And, I stuck with drinking water the rest of the night. Yep, a wuss!
After that, we were fortified to tackle Downtown Disney! I thought that it was more geared to adults, with the clubs and stuff, but people had their kids there too! We went into the 8 Trax club, and saw all sorts of memorabilia on the walls. Once I saw the Partridge Family stuff, I had to hope and search for Bobby! Yep! Right there, before you go up the steps to the second floor, right above Sonny & Cher, was one of Bobby's albums! I was so excited! We then went to the DJ, and checked to see if they had any Bobby stuff to play! Alas, they only had one Bobby tune, Julie, and they said all music played in the club had to be approved by the manager, so they wouldn't be able to play any of the cd's we brought on the trip. I thought it would have been a good idea, to have the fan club go there to party one night, but since we had more of a selection, that idea went out the window, although,
they did play Julie while we were there, and a couple of ladies that were there also danced to it!
After that, we then went to the Comedy Warehouse, and that was a great show, and then over to The Adventurer's Club, which was interactive and even better! It would have made a great outing for the fan club, but that opportunity didn't arise. But, if you ever go to Downtown Disney, I highly recommend The Adventurer's Club. After that, we took a cab back to the motel.
Wednesday morning, Marlene and I rented a car and drove the 50 miles over to the Kennedy Space Center. That was so cool too! We saw on tv down there, that there was going to be a launching, and we had never seen one in person, so we figured why not! We took the tour, and saw that the shuttle that's going up July 1st is already in place. After the tour, we stayed to watch the rocket launch. It was like a 4th of July atmosphere, and we got a couple of seats at a table, so these old bones didn't have to go down and sit on the ground. The launch was delayed by 45 minutes, but it was great! I was so excited, I tried to catch it on my camcorder, but hit pause instead of record! ARGH! Luckily, Marlene caught it on her digital camera! After that, we walked around the museums and the Rocket Garden, and then they were closing the park, so we had to leave, with plans to return and watch a shuttle launch someday!
Thursday morning, we had to return our rental car, and then we had Enterprise drop us off at Kathi's resort room with the packages that I had sent down with the convention stuff I had made. We couldn't find Kathi, so we left the packages at the resort front desk and went off to Animal Kingdom to see if we could find anyone. This park did nothing for us, except to make us hot and miserable, so we left and went back to Kathi's resort. We found her in the courtyard, and after changing into our suits, we helped her bring the stuff over to the pool for the pool party. We had loads of fun, seeing new faces, getting back together with old friends, and having great snacks provided by Kathi, and some really great dips and dippers provided by Christine S.! Yes, I got the recipes from her for the dips too! One was made with cranberries and one with pumpkin! Both quite refreshing and sinfully good!
We also played Bobby Princess Bingo, and had some great prizes for that! Dee's husband and daughter and Christine's boyfriend joined in the fun! Becky Hedge's son was also there, and so were Karen Corwith's kids, and it was great that it turned into a real family affair! At the end of the night, as we were "cleaning up", Kathi and Kathleen had a cake fight! LOL! I'll let them decided on which one started it!
On Friday, we went to the Magic Kingdom. We ran into Kathi, Kathleen, Deidre, Jamie, Debbie S. and Terri H. and Susan P. We went all over, and then went to dinner at the Floridian. There was a slight mix up of the reservation time, and Kathi got a hold of as many people as she could with the cell phone numbers that were provided to her. After Dinner, Fred Miller joined us, and told us some fun Bobby stories. Then we all broke up for the night, and Marlene and I went to see the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. They were, to say the least, AWESOME. They even brought tears to Marlene's eyes, and I'm the one that's usually the softy!
Sunday, it was MGM Studios day, and we ran into Kathi, Kathleen, Karen and her kids almost as soon as we walked into the park and then the rain hit. We waited those out, did some more of the park, they all took turns going on some of the roller coasters, but then the rains hit again. So, after dinner at Hollywood and Vine, which most of them went to, it was decided to meet at the Port Royale Resort, and have a get together there. We all showed by 8pm, and Kathi passed out the good bye goodie bags. We visited with each other, and played some games, Kathleen read off the answers to the scavenger hunt and we even colored Disney pages to send to Bobby, while we were waiting for Fred to show. He was stuck out on the expressways, because of a nasty accident out there. When Fred was finally able to show up, we had a raffle for the goodies that Fred had brought to us from Bobby. I can't
remember who all won what, but I'll try my best. Jamie, Deidre's daughter won one of the Princess pillows autographed by Bobby along with, I believe Susan W. and Debbie S. Dee English won Bobby's autographed SeaWorld jacket, and Renee and Susan P. won Bobby's expired CPR cards. Kathleen won the Snickers bear, and the grand prize winner, (sounds like I'm talking about the Bozo show!) was Deidre, winning Bobby's autographed Leather Pants that he wore at so many of the concerts! The raffle was simple. Fred pulled a raffle ticket with the name on it out of a hat, or had someone else, completely NOT with the group pull the name, and then that winner had to pull the name of their prize from another hat. Unbelievably, the leather pants were one of the last two items to go! And then, the bonus for Deidre was that there was a cleaner's tag left in the pocket for her! LOL! After that, we took
the winner and non winner pics, cleaned up after ourselves, said our good byes, and ended the Bobby Sherman Convention for this time around!