Hey everyone, it's time for Friends for Life 2025, of which I still haven't finished the 2024 blog despite just having to embed videos and pictures at this point. Whatever, it's time for me to write this year's blog, and you can find other blogs I wrote here and here. Quick overview, it's a conference for people with type 1 diabetes at Disney World's Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center, and mskate has T1D and loves going to the conference, and since she wrote a children's book about T1D we sell the book at the conference. This year we did things a little different, instead of everyone flying mskate and her dad drove since her dad doesn't fly, and instead of going to a Disney park IRA and I went to Universal Studios and Island of Adventures since we were able to get discounted tickets through the conference. It was pretty nice having the car since it meant we were able to bring more stuff and drive to Universal instead of having to Uber. While I generally enjoy figuring out how to best pack all our book selling stuff (display stands, table cloth, pricing stand, signing markers and pens, collapsible stool, and of course the books), it was pretty nice being able to just pack up the bin we keep it all in throughout the year. I also generally enjoy figuring out how to pack all the food stuffs I bring every year (because why spend hundreds of dollars on foods when I can just bring $20 worth of food from home), but it was also nice being able to just put the food in some boxes and stick in the back of the car. We also put the big suit cases in the car which saved us quite a lot of money in baggage fees, and it meant we could bring our wagon which would make taking everything to the convention hall easier (normally we put things in the suit cases and wheel it down over multiple trips, but we could just throw it all in the wagon and do it in 1 trip). Also, this year mskate and I were staying in the tower (inside hall hotel) instead of in the various casitas (outside hall motel) since mskate won the volunteer raffle for the stay in the tower instead of just getting a free room in the casita. This meant not nearly as much time walking outside. Of course all of this meant that mskate had to leave much earlier, but it was fine. OK, all the "new and different" stuff is out of the way, time to start the actual adventure.
Things started out pretty simple. IRA and mom-in-law came to the condo to pick me up Sunday morning and drive to the airport. I packed up my backpack and carry on bag and started driving. Since the far off lot worked out so well for mskate and I last time we did it this time. We found our parking spot and got in the bus, and no big deal. We went through security no problem (except for how my chain always trips the security, I need to start putting it in my mouth so I can get through security without tripping it). We got to the terminal no problem, and after waiting around we got on the plane. Originally IRA and I were going to be together while mom-in-law was going to sit separately, but we were all put together at the last minute which was pretty cool. I watched Better Man on the flight (because I wanted to see the movie about the chimp man and why it was, I need to review it because I don't know why Robbie was portrayed as a chimp man). An annoying thing near the end is that someone turned on the announcement thing and stopped all the video monitors, and I barely was able to finish my movie. I also took some creative common and stock photos.
Creative Commons Video, Youtube Link Rumble Link
Creative Commons Video, Youtube Link Rumble Link
Once we got to Orlando things were pretty simple. We got off the plane and made our way to the ride share pickup location. I ordered the uber and no problem there. I was the only one with a carry on and none of us had big luggage (that was all in the car), so we didn't have to worry about picking up the luggage from the pickup nor did we have to worry about getting a car that was big enough to carry it all. The ride was pretty calm and easy, and once we got to the hotel we didn't have to do any unpacking since mskate and dad-in-law had already unpacked the car.
Since we were staying on property we were able to go to one of the water parks on check in day. We have been to Typhoon Lagoon multiple times so this time we went to Blizzard Beach, a park I haven't been to since I was a kid and the in-laws have never been to. IRA and I went there first by ourselves, and since we could do everything with our magic band and weren't bringing our phones, wallets, or changes of clothes we decided "we don't need a locker." It was a pretty frugal idea, but we forgot about our shoes. Luckily we were both wearing waterproof shoes (crocks for me and flip flops for IRA) and water safe shoes are allowed on rides, so we just wore them. After going in we went right to the chair lift to see if we could ride that, but the line was super long and we were hot, so instead we waded through the wave pool and enjoyed some waves. It's been a while since I wore shoes in the water, and boy was there a lot of extra drag when walking. The first slides we rode were the Downhill Double Dipper and Snow Stormer. I don't have a whole lot to say about them, just fun water slides. The next slide though was the Toboggin Race, a mat slide where one controls the speed of going down based on how much the handles are pushed down. I like to pull all the way up and see how fast I can go, and since there are typically bumps I can sometimes get air. Unfortunately I've put on like 80 pounds since the last time I rode one and wasn't able to go "super fast" but it was still fun. I think IRA managed to get some air. After that we went on Teamboat Springs, a raft ride with a bit of a story of a ski resort. IRA was a bit worried that we would have to sit with strangers and didn't really want to do it, but I got him to and we didn't have to sit with strangers, which meant that he really liked it and said "OK you were right, that was fun." IRA wanted to do the big slide, the Summit Plumet, but I didn't really want to and since it was a "major slide" I took his flip flops and told him to find me in the lazy river (since that was like the last attraction). I rode the river about 2 loops and then ran into mskate and her dad. It wasn't planned, it just kind of happened. This is when I got called out for losing IRA since there wasn't really much of a meet up plan. I rode the lazy river for about an hour going around 3 or 4 times, and eventually IRA found me. Everyone else was kind of done and ready to go back, but there was 1 last slide I wanted to do, Runoff Rapids. It was a walk on like every other slide, so by the time I rode the slide and showered I was able to meet up with everyone before the bus got back. There was some kind of scavenger hunt, but we didn't get very far with it before leaving. Pretty fun time even if it was short.
This night we went to dinner at Port Orleans Riverside with some friends. These friends have a 12 year old boy that has a lot of excitable interests, and likes flashier things, very similar to me. Last year he was admiring my rings and was looking at rings at one of the stores, so when mskate and I saw a stainless steel ring at a craft show we got it for him, and he REALLY liked it. We took a bus to Disney Springs to take a boat to Port Orleans. It was a pretty cool boat ride, I got a lot of stock footage. Dinner for me was pretty good, but not so much for everyone else. I got the BBQ sampler platter (ribs, brisket, and sausage) with good mashed potatoes (I don't like a lot of mashed potatoes) and green beans, and everyone else in our family got prime rib. Mine was really good, but everyone else didn't like theirs, it was too fatty or something. After dinner IRA and the boy went to the gift shop to look around. Since neither of them are "fully responsible," mskate told me to go to the gift shop to keep an eye on them. While there I did pin trading, and then we all participated in the trivia challenge. It was Disney movie trivia and we collectively answered all the questions, and got trivia winner buttons. I wore it with my other buttons and made for a great souvenir. Some time after the gift shop both the boy and I were eyeing the arcade at the hotel. I told him "ask your mom if it's ok that I be the responsible adult for us to check out the arcade." He asked his mom "if Pokematic will be the responsible adult can we check out the arcade" and she said we could if I was OK with it, to which I said "I'm the one that offered and said he needed to ask." We weren't planning on playing any games, sometimes it's fun to just look at the machines and see what's available. There were some cool machines, and there was a space invaders challenge mode game that had "Port Orleans" on the demo screen. It was pretty fun, a good way to start the trip.
OK, it's now time for Universal Studios. Since the conference had discount tickets on Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures, and with everyone at Epic Universe, IRA and I decided to do this. For breakfast I had my pancake cup and peanut butter, and packed my bag for snacks and park eating. We drove to Universal since we had a car, and parking would cost less than what ubering back and forth would have cost. Driving was not that hard, mskate was worried about the traffic and directions but it wasn't any harder than other trips. I did almost miss the turn, but no problem. We parked on the top of the parking structure, where we parked at spiderman. The layout of Universal is pretty cool. First there's a cross over to the security section (of which I didn't have any problems), which then has a cross over to "the Universal Shopping District," which then leads to one of the 3 parks. The shopping district was pretty neat, there were universal stores, restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and Panda Express, and the NBC Sports bar. It was pretty cool. Today we went to the original Universal Studios, and we walked by the big Universal Globe as we walked through the Universal Arches. We walked in and were immediately greeted by minions. We started with Minions Mayhem, a 3D movie ride simulator where the seat moves you around, since it was right there at the start. IRA doesn't really know Minions and I admit that I'm not the biggest Despicable Me/Minions fan, but I do enjoy them and these kind of rides are fun. The story is that it's the girls adoption anniversary and we were turned into minions and have to get the present they got Gru back. Things got kind of interesting because we rode the ride 1 and a half times. As we were riding it the first time someone started getting out of their seat, and then eventually they had to boot the person off the ride. They had to restart the ride, and the ride operators said "you are going to experience deja-minion, you will think that you've seen this before but you haven't, have you been here before" and everyone played along and said "no." The ride itself was pretty good, very immersive.
After Minions we went to "New York" where we passed by the Jimmy Fallon race experience and went to a corner of the street. Now this particular corner has some strong memories for me. When I was 10 years old my family went to Universal Studios after our Disney cruise, and it was around Marti Gras, which meant that they had a Marti Gras parade where they threw beads and coins (which I think are still somewhere). We stood at this one corner where they were throwing the stuff to the kids and we had to yell "throw me something mister," and when we walked passed this corner I remembered those memories. I'm like "that's where I stood and begged for beads, and tanman didn't want any purple beads or coins since purple is a girls color." After that trip down memory lane IRA and I rode the Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster. This was one of four rides where we had to lock up our bags in a locker. It was a REALLY amazing ride, the story is that we go through the story of The Mummy and try to escape the demon mummy that we released. What was really cool is that the story was easy to follow, and there was fire effects that could be felt. IRA said "that was the coolest ride ever, it's my favorite, so much better than Guardians." After The Mummy we rode Transformers the Ride 3D. It's a 3D ride on a track that moves you around a city as the transformers fight. I got kind of dizzy, but it was still fun. When we were leaving we saw a Transformers meet and greet, with a costume character with face articulation and voicing which was really cool. We didn't do it because the line was long, but it was really cool to watch from away. As we were walking through Hollywood there was a parade show going on in our way, so we found another way which was like through an alley way. Kind of neat.
After New York we cut through Hollywood and made our way to the thing I was most excited for, Springfield USA, home of The Simpsons. I'm a fan of The Simpsons, it's a show I've been watching since highschool and watch every Sunday since college. Going to "real Springfield" was my destination. I'm seeing Lard Lad Donuts, The Duff Beer Brewer, Officer Wiggams, and best of all Moe's. I'm not a big beer drinker (I don't much care for "beer flavor"), but I had to have a Duff beer, served to me by Moe, on the bar that Homer drinks at. I used the love tester and got my picture with Barney, and watched show clips on the TV above the bar. Moe's was connected to the other restaurants, and for lunch we both had Krusty Burgers. That was REALLY good, the secret sauce was great and the use of cheese sauce was great as it had lots of flavor above normal cheese (it also gave it that gooey look to be more accurate to the cartoon). Overall the meal was like $30 and wasn't a lot of food and drink, but to "experience Springfield" it was worth it. There was also Cletus's Chicken Shack, Flaming Moe's, Frying Dutchman, Lisa's Teahouse of Horror, and Luigi's Pizza (all references to episodes), but Moe's Tavern and Krusty Burger are the main iconic places that I had to go to. All this came at the perfect time since it was lunch time and I was getting a little hungry. After lunch we went to the Kwik-E-Mart and I bought a Kwik-E-Mart name tag pin with my real name on it (because "pokematic" isn't my legal name, and that is so cool). After all this we rode The Simpsons Ride, a retheme of The Back to the Future ride. This was a pretty good retheme; in the original BTTF ride you have to drive through time in your own DeLorean to catch Biff after he stole a DeLorean, and in the new Simpsons version you have to chase Sideshow Bob to get Maggie back while riding in a roller coaster cart. It's pretty good. After that we left Springfield, there was some "spin around" ride but we aren't into those.
Right after Springfield is World Expo, which is just the Men in Black ride. This was a really fun ride, it's one of those "shoot the targets while on a moving vehicle ride, similar to that of Buzz Lightyear in Disney World. There are a bunch are animatronic targets that you have to shoot at, all looking like aliens that you have to shoot in the head. IRA and I had to share a vehicle but we still had the back row to ourselves, and since there are 3 to a row and only 2 of us I took 2 guns and shot them both. I did really well, I got a score of 143,650 and 134,265, which are both like middle level from what I remember. The ride was basically the same as when I was a kid. The only thing was they didn't have the alien at a cool down station outside promoting Coke. I remember it would spray you with a mist to help cool down, and this animatronic alien would say things like "you know what MIB really stands for, most incredible beverage, meaning coca-cola" and "if you really want to cool down, have yourself a coca-cola." That's all there was in the World Expo.
Now for "the big addition," and that is Harry Potter land, specifically Diagon Alley. It's kind of funny, the entrance is kind of hidden, like you have to go through an archway that's behind an obstacle, and then you're transported into Diagon Alley. Let me say, the theming here was absolutely perfect. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the 4th DVD my family got (first was Shrek, second was Land Before Time the Big Freeze, and 3rd was Dr. Doolittle), so I watched it quite a lot as a kid, which means that I saw Diagon Alley many times and am very familiar with the way everything looks, and this was on point, it felt like I was walking into the movie. There's only 1 ride here, Escape from Gringotts, and boy was it cool. We got a locker (because it was one of those rides), and got in line. This was like walking into the bank in the movie, with one of the goblins taking notes and directing you, where you then go into the vaults with different news papers and wanted posters (with moving pictures), and then the ride is a big coaster like thing where there are screens talking to us and we have to escape from Voldemort, and I think we see Bill Weasley with the other characters. After the ride we went to one of the wand shops and got a wand (it wasn't Olivanders, but we did get a Hermione wand). We walked around the different shops, looking at Olivanders and the Money Exchange and Weeslies Wizard Weezes and similar. We also did the wand things, but had some trouble but others worked. Really cool place, a must for any Harry Potter fan. The only thing we didn't do was The Hogwarts Express, but that's because it's a train that goes between the parks and we didn't have a park hopper pass. Oh well.
Our next stop was San Francisco, where the only ride was the Fast and Furious ride. The entrance and exit are kind of far apart, and Harry Potter land is right next to the exit. I walked in and asked "how do we get to the front," and was told I had to walk to the end of the block to get there. I'm not the biggest fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, but I do enjoy how they're unapologetic action movies and that's what makes them good (like, you aren't going for some deep story you're going to watch good looking people drive good looking cars really fast). The entry theming was pretty cool, you're at Don's garage and are going to a party, and then the story is you're on a party bus that gets pulled into a high speed race and escape, and you're surrounded by a screen that puts you right in the center of the action without actually moving much. I know it sounds kind of lame, but it's actually pretty cool. Once we finished the ride it was a Florida rain, but we just hung out in the gift shop until the rain finished. The gift shop was pretty cool, lots of different things like the movie, fun to look around in.
After San Francisco we had kind of ridden all the rides, but there was still a fair amount in Hollywood to do. We went to the Universal Monster Makeup show, which was REALLY cool. What they do is show off the different movie makeup techniques to make monsters and otherworldly things, and some special effects like a knife that looks like it's cutting you but isn't really. The presenters were really animated and entertaining, but it is a little PG-13. After the monster makeup we did The Bourne Stuntacular, a stunt show set in the Jason Bourne film series universe. This was probably my favorite thing at Universal. First, I like stunt shows, it's just really fun watching someone do those kind of things. But the real kicker is that unlike Indiana Jones where "we're filming a movie" it's "this is the movie," and Jason is running through the city and fighting people on different set pieces all while a screen in the back shows real city things that are choreographed with the things that are happening in the real world. I just have major appreciation for the kind of things that had to go into making this show. This is an absolute must if you ever go to Universal. The last thing we did in Hollywood was E.T. This is an original ride, and it shows. I want to say the pre-show video is still shown on CRT screens, but if not it's still VHS quality video. Having somewhat recently watched ET this was pretty fresh in my memory, and it's a fun little ride about going through the city to get to ET's planet and restore life. A cool thing is you get an "interplanetary passport" card with your name on it and at the end of the ride ET should say your name. Channel Awesome's Walter was wrong, this was working. After ET we went to Spongebob Storepants, a store that is based on all things Spongebob. It's not exactly "perfectly themed," but they do have a pineapple that is playing the dance music from the Jellyfish pet episode while flashing different colored lights just like in the episode. I danced to it, and so did IRA, and it was fun.
Now it's time for Dreamworks land. I'll be honest, this is "the little kid area" and doesn't offer much for adults. There was a Shrek playground, a Troll's kiddie coaster, another playground, and a Kung Fu Panda's Kung Fu School show. We went to the kung fu school show mostly just as a place to sit down and see what it was. It was this mocap thing where someone behind the screen was acting and talking while Po was shown and doing what the actor did. From a technical perspective it was kind of neat, but it really wasn't for us. We did have some fun with the King Harold's Swamp Symphony, a set of pressure pads that made frogs sing a note. I also got this cool picture of me at Shrek's house.
After Dreamworks we kind of did some miscellaneous things we missed at the start. We started with Villain Con Minion Blast, an interesting ride thing where you get a blaster gun and shoot at a screen, while standing on a moving platform with a wireless blaster. This was pretty neat, I've never been on a shooting ride where you're not in a vehicle and the gun is attached to the vehicle. There were a lot of times where I wasn't standing on my circle and got all twisted when the conveyor belt changed. The next ride was a roller coaster called Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket. It's a pretty fun roller coaster, but it not only requires a locker but also requires empty pockets with metal detectors. We put our bags in a locker but then we had to get a small locker for our pocket stuff. That was annoying, but whatever. The ride is that you're making a music video and it records you as it plays a song. I wanted to listen to disco but it played rap, oh well still pretty fun outdoor coaster. This is when there were some problems. Somehow the locker with our pocket stuff forgot our ID, and when we scanned our ticket to get our stuff it opened a new locker. IRA is freaking out and saying "I didn't want to do this ride, it's all your fault" and I'm like "dude, relax, I'll get this taken care of." I find an attendant and he said he'll open the locker if we have ID in it to prove it's ours. He opens the first locker and it was our stuff, I pull out my wallet and show him my driver's license, and IRA pulls out his ID to prove he is who he is as well. With that out of the way, IRA changed his tune and said "OK it was actually pretty good." Our last ride was Race Through New York Staring Jimmy Fallon. Neither IRA nor I are a fan of late night, and IRA particularly dislikes Jimmy, saying Jay Leno was much better. We almost skipped it but still had a fair amount of time left in the day and decided to give it a shot. It was actually kind of cool, they had different histories of the Tonight Show, showing off Johnny Carson on an old console TV, Jay Leno on a CRT from the 90s, and Jimmy Fallon on a modern TV. Then the ride is get in a car and race through New York against a screen. It's funny, at the end Jimmy loses and is kind of a dirty racer, which made IRA happy "because Jimmy was the villain."
This is now the end of the day, it's about 6PM but we've already done everything and there wasn't like a fireworks show (there might have been something, but we weren't that interested). We did go to some different stores, looked at the Wicked display and saw some movie costumes (and dolls with the porn link removed). We also went to a store and got chocolate frogs, but after that we left the park. After leaving the park we went to America's largest McDonald's in Orlando. We weren't exactly sure if we wanted to do it since we were tired, but there was no other time we were going to do it so we went with it. We weren't the only people with this idea, the place was super crowded. We ordered a pizza because it was one of the unique menu items (the others were pasta), but it was kind of annoying. We used the self service kiosk because it was faster than ordering in person, but we got the kiosk with a broken card reader so we still had to stand in line in order to pay. We took turns waiting in line because we wanted to look around the restaurant and see the arcade and play structure. It was really cool, but we didn't have the energy to do the arcade. It was cool though, and I got the pressed pennies and medallions. Once we got our order number we sat at the counter and watched them make the more elaborate items. That was actually pretty cool, we both like watching food get made and they were putting on a show for us. Then the pizza was decent, not great but not terrible, think of the difference between a restaurant burger and fast food burger, and you have the difference between a real pizza and McPizza. After that we went back to the hotel and just settled in for the night.
It was now day one of the conference. I started out by looking for Bruno to get my sticker, which I did. I got registered, getting my name tag and wrist bands. Seeing that I'm an exhibitor I get a white band so I can get in the exhibit hall outside of normal hours. Before bringing our stuff down I did my looky-loo walk around the exhibit hall to see how everyone was setting up and getting some behind the scenes video. It's pretty fun to get this behind the scenes stuff, everyone sees the final product but very few people get to see the set-up. After that I went up to the room and got the wagon to bring the stuff down. It was a pretty easy set-up; lay out the table cloth and then organize everything to put under the table to make it easy to set-up every day. Everyone puts their stuff away when we aren't running our booths, the big guys put it in a free-standing locked room and us small guys put it under the table. I set-up some paperbacks on the big stand (because they need more support), some hard covers on the small stand (because they don't need support), the pricing display, the raffle box and prizes with the raffle tickets, and got the papers set-up (coloring pages, email sign-up form, and mskate's biography sheet). They were all set-up under the table in an easy to get and set-up location. I also set-up some snacks under the table since we would be spending so much time there and would likely need something to snack on while working the table. One of the cool things about having a table is that we have a place to put our exhibit hall pickups, which is great because there tends to be a lot of big things that we get.
After the set-up IRA and I went to Disney Springs to go to the movie theater. We went to see F1, a movie about a racecar driver who comes out of psudo-retirement to race for a team that's struggling, and he gets them to win. It's a pretty good movie, do recommend. The main thing was we wanted to go to the big AMC there, and while it was kind of cool it wasn't anything super spectacular. After the movie we walked around Disney Springs a little and then parted ways. I wanted to go to Goofy's Candy and buy one of those garbage can candy tins, but when I got there they didn't have any of those left. That was annoying, I wanted a go away green tin. Oh well.
With all this extra time, I needed something to do before we had our event that night. I think I googled "things to do at resorts for free" and I learned other hotels had "find a character" hunts. When I learned this I decided I wanted to find as many as I could. Since I was at Disney springs I went on whatever bus was next, and that was Polynesian resort where they had Hei Hei. I looked hard, like, REALLY HARD, looking everywhere in the lobby and upper level, but I couldn't find him. I asked for hints and I got hints but still couldn't find him. I then asked someone in the front desk and he said "Hei Hei is on vacation," so that meant I spent about 30 minutes in vein. Oh well. I then got on a bus to go to Animal Kingdom (since it was the next bus out), and then planned on going on the next bus to the next resort (which was Riviera). However, time was not on my side and once I got to Riviera I had to get to Disney springs to go to the next event.
It's now time to do the volunteer appreciation night at Splitsville at Disney Springs. It's a bowling alley that gets rented out and we have a private party on the 2nd floor. We all took charter busses to Disney Springs and we got on one of the last busses. This was not a good sign since it meant we would have trouble getting a lane and table, but IRA and I were determined. Once we got off the bus we ran ahead of everyone else and got in line for the party. Once we got in we went right to the back of the upstairs and were not only able to find a table but also find a lane. This was great, once we claimed our table IRA started setting up the lane, and I got some foods. They had pizza, chicken burgers, and cheeseburgers. I got some pizza and cheeseburgers, and got a drink. It was an open bar, but I needed water so I started with water, and because mskate likes diet coke I got her a diet coke. Bowling was really fun. I found that the 13 pound ball worked really well for me, and IRA found a ball that worked alright for him. Mskate and dad-in-law joined in some, but it was mostly IRA and I. We weren't really playing a specific player, just kind of alternating between 8 different players. I bowled 2 strikes and a spare or 3, and IRA bowled some spares but never got the strike he was going for. When I bowled a spare or strike I did a victory dance. Dad-in-law wasn't very good since he hasn't bowled in over a decade, and later in the night I set-up bumpers for some of the "players," mostly for dad-in-law and mskate, but I also bowled some frames with the bumpers. IRA was all "no I want to bowl for real, no bumpers for me," but then he saw how I was able to bowl the ball into the bumpers and make it go back and forth until it hit the pins, and then he thought it looked really fun and wanted to bowl with the bumpers. They were playing a lot of fun dance music, including a dance remix of Shiny Happy People (which I took video of). I was there for a couple hours, and then went to do some other fun things.
After bowling I went resort hopping looking for buttons. The first place I went to was Port Orleans French Quarter, where I had to find Louis the Alligator. I managed to find him pretty quickly, and with my phone dead I took the selfie on my video camera. The front desk guy thought that was kind of interesting. Once I got my button I went to the bus stop to catch the next bus anywhere. Maybe I'd catch the internal bus and go to Port Orleans Riverside or maybe I'd catch a bus to a park. I got lucky and the next park was Hollywood Studios, a part on the skyliner rout. I got on the skyliner and road to the middle, and then to Art of Animation and Pop Century. First I went to Art of Animation and asked which character they had. I was told Nala and was given the hint that "she likes to play games," which meant "the arcade." I looked around the arcade and found her on top of the "token machine." Since my phone was dead I took the selfie on my video camera. Getting the button was a bit annoying though, because a lot of people were checking in and only 2 desks were open. I didn't want to be all "I just want my button, can I cut?" though, so I waited patiently. After getting my button I walked over to Pop Century where they happened to be doing their movie night, which was Camp Rock. When I got there I asked what their character was and it was Goofy who was "enjoying a view in the windows," which meant he was in the windows of the gift shop. I got my button and got on the sky liner with the intent of going to Caribbean Beach, but then there was lightning in the near distance and I decided I should probably go back to the hotel before it got too wet. I made it back before the storms hit me, and then enjoyed the rest of the night to get ready for the real start of the conference.
It's now the first REAL day where things happen, meetups and focus groups and docudiabetes. I started with the significant others breakfast meetup at the restaurant. It ended up just being the leader and I, but that was OK, we just caught up and talked about videogames. I had an all American breakfast; eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, and something else like that. It was pretty good. After breakfast I went to look for Bruno, and found him among the t-shirts in the gift shop. I did a little hanging out in the exhibit hall getting more behind the scenes looks before my event. It's pretty cool watching it come to life and be built. I don't remember what I was going to do at this point, but I ended up doing a focus group for a new insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor. I told them about the kind of frustrations I had with Dexcom, mainly that the share doesn't always work and it's tedious to add followers (like, the videogame Pokemon Go is easier to add friends than with dexcom, and that got a good reaction from the host). After that it was time for lunch; salad, mac and cheese, tomato soup, and some kind of chicken thing that I didn't have. After lunch it was time for Docudiabetes, a showcase of short films made by guests. Mskate and I made one on the cruise we went on, and IRA filmed one in his basement (which he asked me to edit for him). I was like "I just don't want to lose to someone who is 'just a kid being cute' without much direction." Thankfully I didn't, I still lost but the people who won were "actual short films" and not just "look, kid being cute." After docudiabetes it was snack time, pretzel bites with spicy mustard and cheese sauce. That was good. Then it was getting time for the opening of the exhibit hall, which meant I had to get all the stuff ready to sell the books. I put the stuff out, and did a lap of all the booths one more time now that everyone was ready, and I forgot the ipad for POS, which meant I had to run back to the room before everything opened. I thankfully made it, and then it was showtime. Sometime around here is when there was the significant other's safe space event, where we just have an open discussion about how diabetes affects us and the challenges we face, without any influence from our loved one(s) with diabetes telling us "it's not that hard" or whatever. It's a great thing because we need support too.
The opening night went pretty well, I thin we sold 10 books over the course of the evening, and it was fun being a salesman. I had a pretty good salesman technique; I'd say "hello" to passer byes, they'd look and say "hello" back, that drew them in, and then I gave them the elevator pitch for the book. Seeing that I minored in business but don't use it much in my daily work, it was pretty fun using my skills for once. I also had some time to walk around the hall. I talked to some different people and got some freebies. I went to the Omnipod booth and got their comic book. They partnered with marvel to make a comic book about a diabetic super hero who uses an omnipod. I haven't read it yet, but it's cool they have it. While I was filling out my information I talked to the employee that I gave all the animal crossing items to, and she apologized for not having the animal crossing island like they had the past 2 years, especially after I gave them like 100 thousand bells worth of items that were all super hero themed (but I had beaten the game and had like 50 million bells in the bank, it was nothing). I won some cool stuff on the wheel, and got some other stuff like sunglasses and a card game, and played a diabetes racing game with a time attack high score. I went back to the table and worked on selling the book, and then when the exhibit hall was closed I packed up the stuff and went back to the room for the night. I don't remember what happened for dinner, but I'm sure I did something kind of neat.
Day 2/3 of the conference breakfast was provided. It was fruit, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, and french toast. I had the hashbrowns, bacon, and french toast. After breakfast I did my Bruno hunt, and started playing a bounty hunter character when talking to the employees and camera. Some of them got it, others didn't and I had to drop the act. It was mostly a "sell books" day, I got to the exhibit hall and set-up the table. The conference photographer took some photos of our booth, and then I took some video of him. I generally just kind of waited around, invited people to the booth, and gave them the elevator pitch. For lunch it was Italian, salad, pasta salad, mostacholi, meatballs, and chicken parmesean. Good foods. After lunch was more exhibit hall, and it was Mickey Bar day; the day where they give out Micky ice cream bars, Mickey ice cream sandwiches, and diary free lemon ice cups for people who can't have dairy. They also had pizza spring rolls and gray stuff chocolate tarts. I got an ice cream sandwich since that's my favorite. Once the exhibit hall closed I went to a significant others meet up at the restaurant in the middle of the pond. It was a good hang out, I had a cocktail and hung out with some other SOs, some of whom came to the safe space meeting.
Now for the big night, the costume banquet. Since the theme of the conference was super hero, Mskate and I dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, and IRA dressed up as teenage Ben 10. As the first Disney super hero family, I was expecting lots of Incredibles costumes, but surprisingly few people dressed up as them, or anyone in general (most people just wore one of the give away capes from a vendor like Dexcom or Medtronic). Dinner was really good, salad, green beans, mac and cheese, corn dog bites, chicken, and brisket. I had salad, green beans, and brisket. Really good. There was the big speeches and honors, and then they did the docudiabetes winners. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't win, but IRA did, people really liked his lego short film. After the showcase it was time to get in line to meet the characters. Every year the conference gets some mascot characters to take pictures with the attendees. I got in line real quick so we didn't have to wait long. It was the Incredibles, Mr. and Mrs. and Frozone. We got our autographs from Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and while one was signing the other challenged mskate and I to contests of our character. Mr. Incredible challenged me to "weight lifting" where we both mimed weight lifting and deadlift squats, and then Mr. Incredible challenged mskate to stretching. When we met Frozone I introduced mskate as "my greater good," and told him we have to go bowling some time, and after shaking my hand he acted as if I crushed it. Fun time, especially since it's the rare instance where guests can dress up as characters and get pictured with official characters. While on our way back to the banquet hall we ran into a dad dressed up as Captain Underpants, and when I went back in the banquet hall for the dancing I ran into another dad dressed up as Quail Man. I did some dancing, doing some of the line dancing and conga line, but I couldn't do it too long because my costume got hot.
Day 3/4, breakfast wasn't included so I made a pancake in a cup with peanut butter. More booth monitoring and before lunch I sold enough to cover the cost of our table. Lunch was soft shell tacos, I had both corn and flour tortillas, put some rice and beef in, and topped with lettuce and onions. I also found Bruno after lunch, so yay. At Omnipod I got a poster for the comic book, which will look really good on my poster wall once I get around to hanging more up. It was another Micky bar day, so I got another ice cream sandwich, yum. This was also the last day of the exhibit hall, so everyone started packing up what they could, and I put some stuff away. Here's a funny thing, we did a give away raffle every day of a toy we got from Chuck E Cheese or Ollies for signing up for our email list or buying a book (and we had some happy meal toys we gave away with book purchase early on), and on the last day one of our friends won. This made it easy for us to give the prize since everyone else picked up from the booth the next day. Once we were all done mskate brought the wagon down and I packed up our entire booth. It was a great time and we ended up coving all of my costs with the book sales. Yay. The rest of the afternoon/evening was pretty bland, for dinner we went to the restaurant in the hotel with some friends and it wasn't very good, I ordered a burger and it kept coming out undercooked, which really sucked. Oh well.
Now for my favorite part of the conference, the volunteer and spouse appreciation night with karaoke. Mskate doesn't really get it, but I really like it, especially since I get to flex my voice acting by singing as Goofy. The DJ said "I remember you from last year," which was great. I ended up singing 3 songs; girls (goofs) just wanna have fun (with a bit of Donald Duck), All Star, and Take On Me. I wasn't the only person in our group to do it, IRA tried to sing Life is a Highway, but he struggled and kind of bombed. I signed up real quick and was first (with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun), and was followed by an American Idol contestant, and he said "I don't know how I'll follow that but I'll try my best," and he did really well. There was also this young woman, kind of small, who sang Bodies [let the bodies hit the floor], and she was really good. Like, it's a really bass voice song, and she was very treble, but she managed to pull it off. I stayed a bit longer than mskate and IRA, and wanted to sing Goofy Goober Rock, but I was tired and tomorrow was my 2nd Universal Studios day, so I had to get rest.
Normally I'd upload video of my singing, but they kind of turned out bad. Sorry.
OK, it is time for our 2nd Universal day, at Island of Adventures. This is another part I went to as a kid but haven't been to since. Getting there wasn't that hard, and when I went through security I tripped the metal detector with my challenge coins (because I carry mine around like tradition is says to). Once you enter it has some great theming, it's like a port of trade in an undeveloped civilization, which is pretty cool. We started out by going to Seuss Landing, the Dr. Seuss land. As a kid I was a big Dr. Seuss fan, I loved the crazy worlds he created and stories he told. IRA not so much, his mom didn't believe in books that had fake words (and Ted was a master of making fake words). Oh well, one doesn't have to necessarily be a Seuss fan to enjoy Seuss land (but it does help). It's a great land, a Dr. Seuss book come to life, and I loved reading the different things and pointed out how the Zax were the first thing build in Island of Adventures (since that's how the story goes). Our first ride was the High in the Sky Seuss Trolly Train ride, a train that goes around above Seuss Landing and goes through the alphabet (with silly Seuss words), with some set pieces on top of buildings. It's a kind of fun ride, a good little thing to start the day. Second we went on the Cat in the Hat dark ride. It's an...interesting experience. Of all the rides, it's quite dated; lots of uncanny animatronics and "things on poles," but still a fun way to get out of the heat. After Cat in the Hat we did the If I Ran the Zoo walk through experience. This is not a great experience for adults, it's "walk through a play park and there are some little activities" (like a tick tack toe guy who to win I had to select the option on his crotch). We still had to do it, just to "own the libs."
After Seuss Landing we went to...technically The Lost Continent. Back in the day this had the Sinbad stunt show and Poseidon's Furry show, but they are both closed and now all they had was an interactive fountain and a restaurant. We went to where Poseidon's Furry was and it looked cool, but we couldn't find the entrance, until we found that the entrance was blocked off and it was closed. Oh well, all the theming was still pretty cool. My guess is they're going to put How To Train Your Dragon here, they already had some How to Train Your Dragon photo ops and movie prop displays.
Now it's time for a "real experience," a 2nd Harry Potter land, this time themed after Hogsmeade, the wizard village older kids can go to. While not quite as impressive of a set as Diagon Alley, it was still very movie accurate. The first ride we went on was Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure. The story was that you had to go somewhere with Hagrid and Arthur Weaselly was helping him out and the motorbike was going crazy, or something. Walking through the queue was really cool, lots of Harry Potter theming and it all looked like we stepped into the movie. There was also a group of friends all dressed up like the girls from the girl's school in Goblet of Fire. IRA and I complemented them on their costumes and in unison they all said "thank-you," which I'm sure they practiced since that was very in character. The ride itself was really cool. You either "get on the motorcycle" or "ride in the side car," and it goes super fast with some crazy turns, and IRA and I just happened to be in the front row. There's also some slow down "see Hagrid and the creatures" elements, which are quite immersive. After that ride we rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a ride that makes you feel like you're on a broomstick flying through various set pieces in the castle. This was one of those rides with combinations of screens and set pieces, and when you're in the queue you walk under portraits of the house founders and Salazar is all "look at these muggles, who let them in" while the other founders are all "they're quite alright Salazar," and then there's a scene in Dumbledoor's office projected on a hologram. On the ride there was one time where Hermione's video was desynched with her audio. After the ride we happened to see a little show, ribbon twirling with the girl's school and gymnastic combat with the boy's school from the tri-wizard tournament. We weren't planning on this, it just kind of happened, and was really cool. After the show we went on Flight of the Hippogriff, a calm little roller coaster where we ride Buckbeak or something like that. For lunch we went to The Three Broomsticks and split a BBQ platter. It was really crowded, and we managed to find the only table left that happened to have 2 chairs. This place was great, the corn was really good, the potatoes were great, and the ribs were great "real restaurant" quality. Highly recommend for anyone going to Island of Adventure. It's "real food."
Our next stop was Jurassic Park, which had some really great theming. When you enter the land it's walking through the arch way of the original Jurassic Park. With how cool it was, there admitedly wasn't much for us here. The only thing we really did was The Velocicoaster, a roller coaster themed after escaped Velociraptors from the Jurassic World trilogy. Still really cool though, you like walk into the research lab and see the raptors being raised, and there's a pre-show video with Chris Pratt, and then the ride is running around the raptor enclosure with some on the ground, and I want to say it lets out at the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, which is just a gift shop and restaurant, but there was a thing with "move the eggs around" and it was like the gift shop in Jurassic Park, which was all cool. A ride I remember being really cool was Jurassic Park River Adventure, but it's a "you will get wet" water ride and while it can feel good in Florida heat it isn't fun in Florida humidity. We did watch the drop though. The only other thing is Pteranodon Flyer and Camp Jurassic, 2 kiddie locations. I remember wanting to do Pteranodon Flyer as a kid but mom wouldn't let me because it was a slow loader, but now that I'm an adult and can do what I want I was going to ride it. Well, I would if it wasn't "you must be this short to ride" and I was too tall. I remember Camp Jurassic being pretty cool, a very immersive place to explore, but without a kid of my own it would be too weird.
Next up was Skull Island, the land of King Kong. This is a very limited land, just Skull Island, Reign of Kong. However, it was a really cool ride if you ask me. The story is you're an expedition crew to Skull Island and you need to deliver supplies, and then you get thrown off course and have to have Kong rescue you from the various animals of the island. It's a screen ride where you're in a bus and things are projected around you, and there are some set pieces like a giant King Kong head. I really enjoyed it. After Skull Island we went to Toon Lagoon, a land dedicated to comic strip and 40s cartoons, characters like Popeye, Dudley Do Right, and Dagwood. As another land with mostly water rides, not a whole lot for us. I did eat at Wimpy Burger though, which was really fun to say I got a hamburger today that I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for, and IRA had some of my fries. I also went on Me Ship The Olive, a little walk through ride where you can explore Popeye's ship. As a big Popeye fan it was a fun little thing, even though it's mostly for little kids. The land was mostly just a look around, lot's of fun sights. Oh yeah, somewhere around here there was also this shirt.
Now it's time for the big one, saving the best for last, it's Marvel Super Hero Island. Of all the things, IRA was looking most forward to this since Universal Studios had to license the characters and "really do something with them," unlike Disney who is "just throwing their acquisitions in the parks willy nilly." He really liked the gift shops and almost bought an anthology book of comics, but decided against it because it would have been too big. The first ride we rode was The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, a 3D screens ride where we follow Spiderman take on a Sinister 6 (it's not the "main cast," but it's a team of 6 villains"). The story is Jay Johnna Jamison sent us out on a mission to follow Spidy in a special vehicle, and then we get caught up with all the villains and their plans, and narrowly stop them. One of the villains is hydro man (a man who can turn into water) and IRA was asking "why wasn't it Sandman, he's a way more popular villain than hydro man," to which I told him "he wasn't quite as popular when they built this ride, it's older than Spiderman 3; plus if the villain is water they can splash riders with a little water (like they do in the ride), can't do that with sand," to which he said "yeah now that you say it that makes perfect sense." After the ride we walked around a little and avoided rain by hanging out in an arcade. We didn't play any games, but did enjoy looking at all that they had to offer. Afterwards we went to Cafe 4, a small restaurant themed around Fantastic Four. IRA was done and happy to just sit at the restaurant eating his pizza, but I still wanted to ride The Incredible Hulk Rollercoaster and Dr. Doom's Fearfall. It was good for me that IRA didn't want to ride the rides, he was able to hold onto my bag and all my pocket stuff since Hulk didn't allow riders to bring stuff (they had metal detectors), and because he wasn't riding I was able to go on the single rider line which got me on pretty quickly. It's a fun roller coaster, the story is Bruce wants to remove his Hulk but in the process he becomes Hulk and you go on a crazy rampage. Dr. Doom's Fearfall is a tower drop ride, one that shoots you up and then drops you. The story is that Dr. Doom needs fear, and you're going to give it to him. Fun tower ride, and then it let out in the arcade. Once I rode those rides I met up with IRA for what was next.
Before leaving we went back to Harry Potter so he could get a wand; he got a wand for mskate but he wanted his own, a Harry Potter wand. I told him we'd get one at the end of the day since it was annoying carrying the other around all day last time (and since he was getting it just because mskate got one I was hoping he would forget about it by the time we were done, but he didn't so his money and what not), and now that we were done we went back to Harry Potter land to get one. This is when something REALLY weird happened. We're walking through Seuss Landing, I'm talking to the camera, and these young college age guys start staring at us and pointing getting all excided. I'm thinking "oh no, someone recognized me and now I'll have to disclose my secret identity" (because I keep my real live separate from my online persona), but actually they were looking at IRA. One of them chases us down and is like "you're him, you're the guy" to IRA, and we're like "uhh, who?" and he's all "you're Josh Block aren't you" and he's like "no I'm not Josh Block," he pulls up Josh's instagram and is like "this isn't you!?" and I'm like "no his name is [real name that's not "Josh Block"]," and by this time his friends catch up. They ask if they could still take a picture with us and we said sure, they got their proof they met an eceleb doppelganger. After we realized what just happened IRA said "now that I think about it, that wasn't the first time people stared at me." IRA's not "online" so he doesn't know all that goes into internet culture and lolcows, but after looking up Josh he said "I think I might grow my hair out because I don't want to be mistaken for him." Well guys, you didn't meet WorldOfTshirts but you did meet pokematic. After that we got IRA his wand and he did some of the spell locations in Hogsmeade.
Once we were done with Island of Adventure we explored the Universal Studios shopping district. We looked at Hard Rock Cafe but didn't go in, but they had a concert that night so there were people waiting for tickets. We went to VooDoo donuts and looked at all the donuts available, but didn't get any. We also looked at the Burger King Whopper Bar, which wasn't anything special (I don't even have video to look at for reference). The last stop was the Super Mario World store. There wasn't exactly "exciting things" at the store, just lots of Super Mario themed merch in a bunch of Mario themed display stands. After that we just went back to the hotel.
That evening there was a Friends for Life party thing, a teen and young adult event where they have Mickey pretzels, arcade games, and a dance floor. I had a pretzel and played some pinball and ms pacman, and might have really enjoyed it under other circumstances, but I wanted to do character hunting. The next bus happened to be to Magic Kingdom, which was great for me because that meant I could ride the monorail to The Contemporary and others. I got there and rode the monorail, and then made it to Contemporary. I went to the big gift shop area and asked around, and got some hints of where Edna would be, which was the food court. I looked around but couldn't find it, and looked hard, but no. Eventually I talked to someone and they told me it was too late, so I missed out on getting another button. Oh well, I still got my monorail ride, and got to see a little of the light parade on the lake, which was cool.
OK, it's now the final day. We had breakfast with the conference, which was Micky waffles, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and hard boiled eggs. They also have characters, Micky and Minnie, and Donald and Goofy. When I met Goofy I did my Goofy voice, and for Donald I did my Donald yell (because I can make something that sounds like him, but can't do his voice). The handler said "oh we need you to follow us around and talk for us." That's quite the complement. After breakfast we got everything packed, and those of us that were flying went to the airport. The plane ride back was pretty good even though I had to check my bag at the gate (because they ran out of overhead space), I was separated from IRA and mom-in-law but no big deal. When I got to my seat someone was sitting in it and asked if I could sit in her seat (the emergency exit row). That worked really well for me, a lot of extra leg room. My neighbor was in a similar situation, he was supposed to sit next to me in the normal row but someone was in his seat as well. It was kind of neat, because our chair was so far from the chair in front of us we had these pull out screens. I watched most of Second Hand Lion, and it was a pretty neat movie, not quite what I was expecting. I say most because I had to stow my screen on take off and landing, which meant I missed like the last 10 minutes. Oh well. We went to baggage claim and got my bag as I took some video, and then mom-in-law pulled out our parking lot ticket and we found our car no problem. Got home and rested. All in all, great trip with lots of fun. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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