The Wonderful World of Disney

I have to admit, this has been a pretty darn good week even though I worked really hard. I spent the majority of the time down in Orlando, FL at one of the Disney World Resorts. I know, I know…boondoggle right? Wrong, although it’s probably been one of the more pleasant offsite meetings I’ve had in a while.

I was able to work from home on Monday because I had a pinched nerve in my back that I had done working out on Friday night. That’s right...last weekend was spent in agony. I can’t believe my timing on these things—I always get sick or injured on my own personal time. I have to work on these things. By Monday, I was feeling almost 100%, but since I was heading to Florida on Tuesday, I decided to stay home one more day to make sure I was ready for a Disney adventure. I got down to FL on Tuesday afternoon, and the people who tend to be the most fun also got down there about the same, so we all got together and went to dinner Wolfgang Puck’s at Downtown Disney. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to do what seems to be my team’s favorite activity…close down the bar. Personally, not being a drinker, this has very limited interest for me. I wound up throwing the towel in just before midnight.

On Thursday, my favorite day, we had a team building activity called the “Incredible Race”. It was run by Disney, and we had to run all over the World Showcase at Epcot finding clues, getting extra points through “Speed bumps”, and generally getting to know each other and making fools of ourselves. We had to sing and dance at the entrance to Epcot, do hula hoops at one of the spots in the middle of the sidewalk…that kind of thing. It actually was a lot of fun, but with all that running, we were all sweaty and nasty. I wasn’t as excited about that part, but we all looked/smelled equally badly. J Our last stop was at the America land and we wound up having the debrief of the activity and dinner there. Then we had an hour to walk around and ENJOY the park (instead of running all over the place). After that, we had rented out a private balcony area in the Morocco area where they had set up a dessert bar for us. As we ate our dessert, we had a primo view of the big fireworks display, which was absolutely amazing. After the fireworks, several of us took a boat trip back to the resort. That boat ride reminded me a LOT of Venice. It was very cool.

After all our work was done on Friday afternoon, I was able to drive over and meet Joyce and Don for dinner, then Joyce and I went back to Orlando to spend the night and to spend Saturday at Disney. I was SOOOO excited that she was able to get there and hang out with me. I do have to admit that neither Joyce nor I are much of a decision maker when it comes to fun. It took us FOREVER to decide which park to visit, but we finally decided on The Magic Kingdom. We had a good time, but not much of a plan on attacking our visit. We wound up walking around 4 different times because we’d decide on one ride then want to go on another one clear across the park. If nothing else, we definitely got our exercise in!! I actually had a really good time and the weather was perfect. It was probably 70 degrees (a little cooler than earlier in the week), but sunny and beautiful. Around 5 p.m., our dogs were barking and we decided to head back to Joyce’s place in Largo. It took less than 2 hours to get there.

By the time I reached her house, I was ready for some sleep. I hadn’t gotten more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep any night during the week, and it finally had caught up with me. Luckily, I think I wound up getting about 11 hours of sleep before Joyce kicked me out of her house to head to the airport.

My flight was delayed by 90 minutes, I’m not sure why, but since I couldn’t get a direct flight, my connecting flight had left by the time I landed in Washington, D.C. The weather is bad here and in Boston (winter FINALLY hit), and I’ve already been rescheduled twice. I’m hoping that the next flight gets out or I might be spending the night in Washington….It’s starting to feel like home here anyway!

Here’s some pictures that actually came out from Joyce’s and my visit to the Magic Kingdom. Enjoy!