Linda Mac's Orlando Adventures

It has been just over a week since Magic Meets took place and I'm still amazed the event raised $20,000.00 for charity. MouseFanTravel donated $2,500.00 to the cause. WOW!

Before I get into this blog, I want to share something that happened during Saturday's main event. Deb Wills did a very special thing. Everyone attending Magic Meets, even the sponsors and team members, were assigned a raffle number that was printed on our name badges. During the course of the day there were many raffle drawings.

During the final drawings, Beci Mahnken, of MouseFanTravel, surprised the crowd by donating a 2009 MouseFest cruise to the raffle prizes. Low and behold Deb WIlls' number was called first. She quietly passed so that all the other guests could have a chance for the cruise. With no apparent winner, Fred drew a second number. Again, no one claimed the prize. Then Fred called Deb up to stage to pick the next number -- that is when she finally admitted to the crowd what she had done. The family who finally won the cruise was beside themselves by her generosity. My eyes are watering up again just writing about it. Way to go Deb! You Rock!

I will pick up my continuing Magic Meets blogs with some photos from Sunday's events.

Sunday morning started out with a nice buffet breakfast at 7 am. After breakfast there were two breakout sessions including Deb Wills and Beci Mahnken giving an informative talk about Adventures By Disney. I really wished I could have attended it since I did the Southwest Adventure trip last year with both of these terrific ladies. The 2nd talk, by Mike Scopa, was about the special hard ticketed "Party" events held at Walt Disney World (like Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party).

Breakfast tables with Winnie The Pooh cookie jars.

Magic Meets guests enjoying the buffet

AllEars Team Members Mike Scopa and Michelle with Mike's lovely wife Carol in the middle

Fred Block, the big cheese of Magic Meets with attendees

A few early rising vacation planners from MouseFanTravel. From left to right, Debra Gordon, Sara Varney, Michelle Cunningham, Brenda Verrico, Coleen Bolton and Sandy Myers.

Ann, George and Deb

Mary Lee and Fred Block drawing raffle winners

The other big event for Sunday was a trip to Hershey Park that included a special early entry to ride Fahrenheit, the newest attraction which opened on Memorial Day.

I hitched a ride with AllEars Team Member Michelle and Shirley, her GPS gadget. After a few re-calculations and a few wrong turns we made it there with about a minute to spare. Unlike Disney, in order to participate in a special event early entry we had to be at the gate at one of two designated times. One of the main reasons we were late was because it was hard to leave old friends and new ones at the breakfast event. Lucky for us, we were able to park close to the entrance and made a run for the gates.

With all my huffing and puffing and Michelle's pouty face, a kind security guard took pity on us and let in even though we just missed the group. I would love to share some photos of the Hershey Park's characters including the Hershey Kiss, Hershey Bar and the Reese's Cup who were greeting guests but we had to continue our run to catch up with the group. Oh, well maybe next year.

Anyone who knows the area or the directions from the hotel might wonder about the side of the sign this photo was taken from -- in our hurry to get to the park we drove right by the entrance. In our defense, we were told not to park in the Chocolate World parking lot and that's what we first thought this entrance was.

The Main Entrance to the park

Fahrenheit --our challenge for the morning. "97 degrees and Falling Fast" is the coaster's theme. I wasn't sure I about riding Fahrenheit after seeing photos on the Hershey Park website. I thought it was perhaps a similar coaster to the one I had seen at Knott's Berry Farm in California. The Knotts Berry Xcelerator has a launch speed that reaches speeds of 82 MPH and looks to be about twice as tall as Fahrenheit. Funny but after seeing the taller Knott's Berry Farm coaster it made Fahrenheit look like a junior or Goofy's Barnstormer version, but trust me it wasn't!

The Magic Meets Group

Michelle takes a second ride on Fahrenheit with Gary Cruise. I passed on doing it a second time.

There is much more to Fahrenheit then the first drop. Here the list in the order they take place: 90 degree ascent (121 feet), 97 degree drop, inverted loop (107 feet), inverted corkscrew roll, cobra element, airborne inverted S roll, inverted corkscrew roll, Airtime Hill and high-speed bank curve. See why I only went on it once? By the way, this is Hershey's 11th coaster.

AllEars Team Members Michelle, Linda Mac and Scott weren't sure what to make of this strange map. "Which way to Frontierland?"

Carol and Gary Cruise

Next up for Michelle and myself is The Wild Cat, front row of course.

The Wild Cat

One of the unique things about Hershey Park, at least to me, is that it has a small water park "inside" the theme park. The water park opened last year.

The Nathan's stand brought back childhood memories of many summers spent at the Jersey Shore.

Time for the Magic Meets Lunch with Fahrenheit in the background.

Hello Cindy. A big thank you to Cindy for all her hard work, not only putting the lunch together, but for organizing the entire Hershey Park Meet.

More to come.....