Saturday, October 30, 2010

SEUHW ... the videos

In follow-up to my "SEUHW ... A Recap" blog, I thought I'd post a few videos of the event that I found on Youtube ... I not sure why it didn't occur to me to take any videos??? oh well ...

The Zombie Walk ...



Event Highlights







Joey Fatone singing karaoke.... (yes that Joey Fatone from 'N Sync)



G. Tom Mac and Brooke McCarter at the VIP Party ...



G. Tom Mac and Brooke McCarter jamming by the pool ...

Sunday, October 24, 2010

We're Back ... and We're Hooked!!

... well we're back to reality after an awesome vacation in Orlando.

The first part of our vacation was spent with good friends at Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend which you can read all about here. Following SEUHW, we moved over to Disney. Previously when visiting WDW, we've stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort (and also off-site), but because this year we received a coveted 40% pin code, we decided to take the opportunity to stay at one of Disney's Deluxe Resorts we both liked - Disney's Polynesian Resort. As mentioned previously, because we were able to snag such a great discount, we decided to go for it and booked Club/Concierge Level with a Theme Park View.

We were up fairly early the morning of our departure from the Wyndham and SEUHW, and arrived at Disney around 10:30 am. (by the way - you can click on most of the pictures in this blog for a bigger picture)



After arriving at the Polynesian, we headed to the Hawaii building where the CL/Concierge check-in was located. Unfortunately our room wasn't yet ready, so Bell Services stored our luggage and we headed upstairs to check out the King Kamehameha Club Concierge Lounge.



For those not familiar with Concierge/CL at the Disney Deluxe Resorts, benefits for guests staying in these accommodations include personalized front desk services, turndown service, exclusive access to the Club Level Concierge lounges, refreshments throughout the day and personalized itinerary planning for dining, childcare arrangements, recreational activities, tours, transportation plus any other needs the guest may have.

The King Kamehameha Club Concierge Lounge at the Poly offers a variety of food and beverage served throughout the day.

Kakahiaka (morning service) 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. offering muffins and pastries, tropical fruit, cereal, milk, orange juice, pineapple guava juice, ice tea, coffee drinks and hot chocolate from coffee machines, glass bottles of water, and toasters are available. Yogurt available as well as other items by request. Just ask at the counter.

Auinala (afternoon service) 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. offering fruit juice, bottled water, soda, ice tea, cookies, tropical fruit, gummy worms and m&m’s for the kids.

Ahiahi (evening service) 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. offering different themes each day.

Aumoe (late evening service) 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. offering wine and cheese as well as cordials and desserts. Beer is also available by request.

Every evening they also serve a wonderful tropical alcoholic beverage, the Ku’ulei Special (we just call it Hawaiian Punch). If you are so inclined to whip up a batch at home, the wonderful CMs in the lounge gave me a copy of the recipe - just ask and I shall share (we're seriously thinking of making a batch or two of this for May-Hem).



After spending some time in the lounge, we decided to head on over to Epcot to take in some of the Food and Wine Festival as unfortunately our room still wasn't ready. We had just gotten on the monorail on our way to transfer to the Epcot monorail at the TTC when I received a text message from Disney indicating our room was ready, so back to the Polynesian we went.

When we reserved our room, we had requested the top floor of our building (3rd floor) as all rooms on that level had balconies whereas the second floor only had a sliding glass door and the first floor was a walk out patio. Luckily our request was granted and the room we received was 3511.


... there was even a phone in the bathroom


... and of course the view from our room



What can I say ... Concierge/CL level at the Poly was magnificent - you really can't beat waking up to a view of the Magic Kingdom every day!!

We caught the fireworks twice from our balcony as well as the Electrical Water Pagent. Food and drink offerings in the lounge were most delicious. .. and yes we are hooked - I'm on the lookout for AP rates for our May stay already!!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

SEUHW ... a recap

We arrived in Orlando on Wednesday (Oct 8) and after grabbing our rental car, headed to the Wyndham Orlando Resort which would be our home for the next five days. Wednesday evening was still quiet as most of the people attending had not yet arrived. A couple of our good friends were already there, which gave us an awesome opportunity to spend some quality time with them before the big show.

We had originally thought of heading to Universal for the day on Thursday, however, after getting up early for our flight on Wednesday, and a late night Wednesday night, we decided to just sleep in and take it easy. We did head out to do a bit of shopping, and once we arrived back at the hotel, things started to pick up as more and more people started arriving ... and we again enjoyed an awesome evening of good conversation with great friends at the pool bar.

Friday evening was the official start to the convention, and after spending a quiet afternoon at the hotel, we headed over to Uno's to grab a bite to eat with our friends before the Zombie Walk started.

We didn't actually participate in the Zombie Walk (mostly because it seemed to be taking forever to start), but after taking a few pics of the various zombies and protesters, we headed back over to the hotel to get ready for an evening of debauchery.


Lee had decided to try and get most of his items signed on Friday night when it was less busy, so after helping friends get their table set up for the evening, off we went to get his autographs. Once the convention wrapped up for the evening, we again all congregated by the pool bar for more fun and great tunes by an awesome Kiss tribute band from Fort Lauderdale, FL.


Also that evening, our friend Tony (who goes by the name Rev because he hates the name Tony) introduced me to a wonderful concoction by the name of Cherry Jack Rum. It's really a pity we can't get this rum in Canada as it has become my new favorite beverage!!

After getting to bed much too late the previous evening yet again, we finally emerged from our hotel room around noon on Saturday and headed back over to the convention. On our way over, we ran into Rev again, who this time had donned his awesome Zombie Wolverine costume.


Lee continued his quest for more autographs and once he was finished, we headed into the vendor room where Lee did some shopping. I do have to say that there seemed to be even more vendors than last year and the selection was most awesome.

As the VIP party was this evening, we decided we should probably eat something before heading to the party so rambled across the street to Checkers to grab a quick bite to eat before getting ready for the party. After filling our tummies, we moseyed back to our room, prettied ourselves for the party and were on our way. As we made our way to the VIP party, we ran into Rev once again, who just happened to bring me a travel jug full of Cherry Jack and Coke (yes he is awesome!!)

When we saw the line for the party, we were shocked to say the least. There had to be well over 200 people in line. WTF???

Once inside, we mingled about with the other VIPs waiting for the celebrities to show up. As in previous years there was a raffle for a bunch of prizes and each VIP got 5 raffle tickets so we entered our tickets into the various prizes we would like to win. Also as in previous years, we went home empty handed, although our friend Rev, was the happy recipient of a custom made Zombie Petey Doll which he planned to take with him all over the country and photograph him like the Roaming Gnome.


The VIP party was pretty much as expected. A few celebs mingling around, stopping occasionally to take pics with the VIPs. At this year's party, there was a custom made cake, made especially for the VIP party. The cake was awesome and the cake cutting was really cool. Robert Englund put on the Freddy glove, did a few one liners, and plunged it in, then proceeded to lick the frosting off the blades!!


Now came time for the entertainment portion of the party (other than the crappy karaoke) - G. Tom Mac and Brooke McCarter took the stage and rocked the house!!!


Shortly after everyone started leaving and making their way out to the pool bar again, where G. Tom Mac and Brooke McCarter continued their jam session.


After getting to bed much too late, once again, we headed to the hotel restaurant late Sunday morning (or maybe it was afternoon already, I can't really remember) to grab something to eat before making one last pass through the convention and to say our good-byes as we were off to Halloween Horror Nights that evening.

Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend (or Screamfest as most of us still call it) was most impressive as usual and we thoroughly enjoyed spending quality time with our Screamfest/Spooky peeps. Kudos to Petey and Gina for hosting another awesome event!! It was the perfect way to start our vacation and are very much looking forward to doing it all again in May at the May-Hem show!!