Picture This!

If you'll all kindly step forward into my time machine then we can be on our way. Our first brief visit will be to DisMeet of 2006. The gathering of 350 or so Disney fans took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

(beep beep beep beep beep) OK, the date is set for July 15, 2006. Let's go!

It's Steven M. Barrett, author of the famous Hidden Mickeys books. He's in the Main Ballroom showing the audience a slideshow of hidden mickeys and asking them to vote on whether the questionable ones are legit or not. Catch ya later!

In smaller rooms there are breakout sessions going on. Let's peek inside and see what's happening. Sharla Whalen is handing out Dole Whips! That's one way to win over the group for sure. Oh and she's discussing scrapbooking.

You see that blue book in Dave Marx's hand? They're very popular for vacationers about Disney Cruise, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World called Passporters. Sounds like today he's talking about Disneyland. Woo hoo!

They're tallying up the bids and it looks like the Disney World Trivia.com Dream Team has raised nearly $4,000 from their silent auction. All the money will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. Well done.

Everyone back into the time machine. Move it along, don't try to steal the centerpieces from their proper winners. No, you cannot place your nametag on a statuette and claim it as your own.

(peeb peeb peeb) Uh oh. I think it's broken! (beep beep beep) I fixed it! Next stop, Magic Meet in Harrisburg, PA on July 14, 2007 at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center.

I see Fred Block riding around on a Segway. The crowds have gathered and are waiting to be allowed inside. The doors are open and there they go, grabbing tables to accomodate all their friends.

Let's take a gander at who's holding breakout sessions this time around. Hey! It's Deb! Hi Deb! She's talking about how much fun adults can have on the Disney Cruise and giving away lots of prizes.

The boys from WDW Today are podcasting live. They've got lots of giveaways too. Boy oh boy are they having lots of fun tormenting Lou Mongello but it's all good, they love Lou. Oh Louououou.

The kids are having a good time watching the magician and playing with their chicken fingers. We should get going as the day is coming to a close. Tomorrow lots of these folks are heading to Hershey Park and maybe even Hotel Hershey (as seen on "Great Hotels"). Chocolate lovers abound!

(beeeeep beep beep) And we're back. I hope you all enjoyed your trip. For those of you attending this year's event on July 18-20th, this was a sneak peek of things to look forward to.

I'll see you folks there and you can expect photo recaps from Scott and I.
Toodles.

If you'll all kindly step forward into my time machine then we can be on our way. Our first brief visit will be to DisMeet of 2006. The gathering of 350 or so Disney fans took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

(beep beep beep beep beep) OK, the date is set for July 15, 2006. Let's go!

It's Steven M. Barrett, author of the famous Hidden Mickeys books. He's in the Main Ballroom showing the audience a slideshow of hidden mickeys and asking them to vote on whether the questionable ones are legit or not. Catch ya later!

In smaller rooms there are breakout sessions going on. Let's peek inside and see what's happening. Sharla Whalen is handing out Dole Whips! That's one way to win over the group for sure. Oh and she's discussing scrapbooking.

You see that blue book in Dave Marx's hand? They're very popular for vacationers about Disney Cruise, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World called Passporters. Sounds like today he's talking about Disneyland. Woo hoo!

They're tallying up the bids and it looks like the Disney World Trivia.com Dream Team has raised nearly $4,000 from their silent auction. All the money will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. Well done.

Everyone back into the time machine. Move it along, don't try to steal the centerpieces from their proper winners. No, you cannot place your nametag on a statuette and claim it as your own.

(peeb peeb peeb) Uh oh. I think it's broken! (beep beep beep) I fixed it! Next stop, Magic Meet in Harrisburg, PA on July 14, 2007 at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center.

I see Fred Block riding around on a Segway. The crowds have gathered and are waiting to be allowed inside. The doors are open and there they go, grabbing tables to accomodate all their friends.

Let's take a gander at who's holding breakout sessions this time around. Hey! It's Deb! Hi Deb! She's talking about how much fun adults can have on the Disney Cruise and giving away lots of prizes.

The boys from WDW Today are podcasting live. They've got lots of giveaways too. Boy oh boy are they having lots of fun tormenting Lou Mongello but it's all good, they love Lou. Oh Louououou.

The kids are having a good time watching the magician and playing with their chicken fingers. We should get going as the day is coming to a close. Tomorrow lots of these folks are heading to Hershey Park and maybe even Hotel Hershey (as seen on "Great Hotels"). Chocolate lovers abound!

(beeeeep beep beep) And we're back. I hope you all enjoyed your trip. For those of you attending this year's event on July 18-20th, this was a sneak peek of things to look forward to.

I'll see you folks there and you can expect photo recaps from Scott and I.
Toodles.

I wasn't able to find the time or a laptop to be able to post live from MagicMeets so without further ado, here's my Friday recap.

On Friday I arrived around 4pm after spending 9 hours on the road including stops along the way for lunch, gasoline, and restrooms. Highway 78 was shutdown and there were no signs or policemen to redirect traffic. Luckily, my friend Karen realized we were near other highways listed on the directions we had and so we eventually found our way.

The AllEars table was setup so I didn't have any work to do except to deal with a slide show I'd created for a digital frame. The photos would rotate while cued to music at our table. After playing around with photos and moving folders, Mike Scopa got it all working or so we thought at the time.

I joined a group of friends for dinner at Perkins. That was a nice time with good and funny conversation.

That night a bunch of us went to Magic Tunes, a Name That Tune type of game hosted by Mike Scopa, co-created by Trent Schwartz, and engineered by Mike Newell (www.mouseworldradio.com). The evenings contestants were Lou Mongello (www.disneyworldtrivia.com), Deb Wills, Steven Barrett (www.hiddenmickeysguide.com, and Annette Owens (www.mousefantravel.com).

The game worked like this, Newell played an audio portion of a song and you had to guess what movie, attraction or television show it is from. It was a great deal of fun to not only try to guess where the soundbites were from but also to watch all the antics of the contestants who are all good friends with one another.

And now, on with the photos.

Mike Newell at the soundboard. I like to call him Mix Master Mike.

Mr. Mike Scopa as the host of MagicTunes. Is he the next George DeWitt?

You know these crazy kids as Lou Mongello and Deb Wills. Later, Lou moonwalked ala Michael Jackson sans the sparkling white glove.

Steven Barrett and Annette Owens had more of a dry humor about them.

And lastly, my favorite shot of the night: Vicky, Carol, Mary, Linda, and Michelle having a riveting good time.

It's hard to cover an event like MagicMeets with so much going on. I enjoyed photographing the Main Ballroom events and some of the Breakout sessions with speakers like Deb Wills, our wonderful webmaster of AllEars.net, Shontell Crawford of DVC by Resale, Disney's first CMO Justin Muchoney, Johnny Zotto training young animators and Steve Barrett, author of the Hidden Mickey's Guidebooks. What I came away with was how much fun people were having at MagicMeets and wanted to share a little of it here with you.

During the first breakout session, Deb Wills did a talk entitled, "Let's Go Cruisin!", about the Disney Cruise Line. Deb answered questions and encouraged guests who had been on a cruise to share their experiences. Deb even got into character much to the delight of the 100 plus members of the audience.

Deb Wills of AllEars.net getting feedback from an audience member at her "Let's Go Cruisin!" breakout session during MagicMeets.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5.3, 400 ISO, EV +0.3, 82mm Focal length

Next door, Johnny Zotto was running his "How to Draw Mickey" Breakout session for the kids attending MagicMeets. I stopped in as they were finishing up drawing Mickey Mouse and were preparing to draw Goofy. It amazes me how just by drawing circles, ovals and parts of them create our lovable Disney characters.

Samantha Hogan proudly shows off her Mickey Mouse drawing she made under the instruction of Johnny Zotto at MagicMeets.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5, 400 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

Lots of prizes were given away by the sponsors who attended MagicMeets. Fred Block, the founder of MagicMeets, would get the entire ballroom excited when announcing the next prize drawing. Photos, books, beautiful gift baskets and even a Mousefest 2009 cruise for two was given away to the amazement of the winners.

A happy Pamela Berkheiser poses with her Hidden Mickey prize package she won at MagicMeets.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5, 400 ISO, EV +0.3, 42mm Focal length

The real winners of the day was the Make-A-Wish Foundation as $20,000 was raised to help make wishes come true from the hearts of all who attended the 2008 MagicMeets.

I spent Saturday morning enjoying breakfast with my fellow AllEars Team members. Then we were off to the ballroom for group photos, mingling, and any last minute touch-ups to the table. Scott and I kept having shootouts because we're cool like that.

As you can imagine, I spent most of the day running around taking photos. This year however, I was able to bid in the silent auction and actually wound up winning but we'll get to that later.

This year's keynote speaker was David Anderson, an Imagineer. He's a college professor and listening to his albeit too short stories about working for Walt Disney made me want to go back to school just to take his classes.

Next came a series of breakout sessions. Deb spoke about how much fun it is for adults to set sail on the Disney Cruise. There was a raffle and here we have Linda Lou amidst the crowd handing out tickets inbetween filming the informal lecture.

At various intervals throughout the day, door prizes were awarded. We each had a unique number on our ID tags and constantly checked to see if we were the lucky winner.

With a headset and cell phone, Fred was communicating with...well I have no idea who with but his trusty Segway was always by his side or under him.

Shortly before the auction ended I made another round or two to check on my bids. Pretty much everything I was interested in had a fantastically high bid. Great for the Dream Team but not me. I found one item that I wanted to get for my friend's birthday and I'd tell you what it is but she reads my blog. After i made my last notation I was stuck in auction traffic. As I stood in the middle of 2 tables, surrounded, the moment they started counting down seconds, a woman who had previously tried to distract me from checking on an item pushed me aside and wrote down one last bid. In the midst of this she also knocked that clipboard onto the ground. It's nice that we all want to help raise money for a fabulous cause but pushing and shoving is not necessary.

The auction is over. Walt Disney Trivia.com Dream Team members collect all clipboards.

The WDW Today podcasters collected donations from listeners who were tuning in live.

Lou Mongello and his hard-working staff gleefully and tearfully raised $20,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

When all was said and done, it was an enjoyable day spent with friends old and new. I learned a lot from David Anderson and hope to see him again at Magic Meets.

The big winner of the day was this woman who won a Disney Cruise donated by MouseFanTravel. Woo hoo!

All I can say is if it wasn't for the MagicMeets Fahrenheit ERT (Early Ride Time), I would never have had the chance to ride this great coaster. Once the doors opened to the public, there was a two hour wait to get on for most of the day. I got to ride it four times during the ERT! What a great perk for MagicMeets. Cindy Garfinkel was the MagicMeets Hersheypark coordinator who arranged for the ERT and an excellent lunch in one of the catering areas. She did a fantastic job and has already told me there will be another one next year. I figured the lunch saved me almost $100 for my party of four.

The new for 2008 Fahrenheit rollar coaster as seen from the Hershey Kissing Tower.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/80s, f/18, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 95mm Focal length

Here's some of our intrepid MagicMeets ERT attendees going down Fahrenheit's 121 foot, 97 degree drop.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/100s, f/16, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

Fahrenheit threw in a few of these inversions to keep the heart pumping after the drop.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 48mm Focal length

Here's the whole Fahrenheit ERT gang. The ride vehicle is empty beacuse everyone is in this photo (well, except for three photographers).
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/200s, f/14, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

For more pictures and commentary on MagicMeet's Sunday events including a great description of Fahrenheit and a photo of some confused AllEars.net staff, check out LindaMac's blog entitled Magic Meets and Hershey Park - Sunday - Part 1.