Floriday, part IV (the final chapter)

Sunday came and we walked down to Big River restaurant to have lunch on the boardwalk prior to going to Epcot. We had amazing service from our waitress who actually apologized profusely for making me wait two seconds while she got me more hot water for my tea. I think I got another cheeseburger - I don't recall. I just remember having hot tea and needing to blow my nose often.

We walked toward Epcot after lunch and exchanged our code for some tickets. It felt good to walk around a bit. We went left today and went into Britain. We could hear the sound of a really awesome bagpipe rock band (no, that wasn't a typo). There was a lot of Beatles memorabilia and tea shop (no Bewley's tea, just Twinning's, whatever that crap is), among other stores. Then we retraced our steps from the day before. Ryan wanted to find Germany to see if he could get any nifty Germany memorabilia, so we went in that direction. Primarily we just walked around and looked at the sights. I was still ridiculously hot, either from a fever or the humidity. At about 4pm we started walking back toward the hotel since we had to be at the awards ceremony at 6pm.

Back at the hotel we started getting ready for the ceremony. I had gotten an awesome dress for the occasion and Ryan had a nice outfit complete with a tie! A little before 6pm we headed down to the ceremony which was starting off with appetizers and cocktails in the Saint James rooms. They had a photographer stationed inside the entry-way - it reminded me of prom. We got our picture taken and then turned around to see Mickey standing down the hallway!

Inside the Saint James rooms were many appetizers. The patio had a bar set up as well. I couldn't taste so I didn't feel like eating anything and, since I was sick, didn't want to have a drink. I just asked for two bottles of water. The bartender looked at me like I was a weirdo. We mingled with my boss, her husband, Melanie, and Kevin. In the meantime, we had a few pictures taken with Minnie Mouse and Goofy. I also went back into the hallway and had my picture taken with Mickey and two of the head VPs of Career Services with a mock award.

A little while later, two trumpet (cornet?) players arrived and played a song announcing the arrival of our Master of Ceremonies, a lovely Englishman whose name escapes me. He had the curly white wig of someone in Parliament or something. Very fancy! He welcomed us to join him in another room and we followed him outside and then back in through another entrance. Standing before us was Snow White's storybook in very large format. The "book" had a cutout in the middle where the doors to the hall were. In we went.

The room was gorgeous! It was decorated with beautiful faux stained glass windows with different Disney iconic items - an apple, a rose, a glass slipper, etc. Then the trumpetists were back and the Englishman made another announcement - dinner was served!

First course was a lobster chowder (or mushroom for Ryan since he hates seafood a bit more than mushrooms). The lobster chowder was a bit spicy and worked wonders for my sinuses. Second course was a salad. It had a lot of big pieces of vegetables so I had to cut everything up. I'm sure it was fine. The main course for me, since I was a vegetarian when I won this trip, was some type of quiche and a vegetable. Ryan managed to get upgraded to steak. He asked if I wanted to switch but I didn't want to waste the steak on my lack of taste. For dessert, they brought us "Cinderella's Slipper" which consisted of a white chocolate slipper with some type of cream and a dark chocolate mousse. Each plate also had a hand stamped (I'm assuming) chocolate Cinderella's Castle. The detail was amazing!

During the meal, they announced quotes about each of the winner's and then announced that winner's name. The winner would then stand up in acknowledgement once their name was called. This was the part that saddened me a bit. Don't get me wrong, the quotes about me were great. It's just that they were all taken from my LinkedIn site. Instead of trying to get new quotes, my supervisor handed in previously written quotes so she wouldn't have to trouble herself. Frustrated me at the time but I guess I'm having the last laugh.

We had more characters join us for the dinner. All of the TAG winners were even given our own wands and pixie dust. And the first person I used my wand on after I was sworn in as a Fairy Godmother - me!

Monday we flew back to California. The flight was much less crowded and Ryan and I were able to spread out. After we got home, I pretty much went to sleep and didn't go outside until Friday night. It wasn't the way I had envisioned this trip but it turned out amazing anyway.