~Kathie
Tinker Bell Fanatic
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2000
Well.....it took me a while but I finally finished.
Lunch at Club 33
We were seated in the main dining room and lunch was a buffet. I won't tell you that we sat and ate for over two hours but here is just a sampling of what was offered that day.
Appetizers and salads
Mixed greens
Grilled vegetables, eggplant, peppers all colors
An antipasto salad that was wonderful
Cucumber, tomatoes and other simple garnishes
A cheese tray with so many different kinds of cheese I lost count
Artichokes stuffed with a shrimp salad
Avocados stuffed with something else (I don't eat them so I kind of ignored this one)
Peel & eat shrimp
A very large fruit tray with cantaloupe, honeydew melon and strawberries
And some other foods I probably forgot about or missed.
For entrees they had a peanut chicken, a pork and a lamb entree along with beef tips.
There was a medley of fresh steamed vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower and peppers
A rice dish, two potato dishes, and another vegetable dish.
On the other side of the room was the Pasta station. The choice of Mickey ears Pasta with ziti or tri-colored cheese tortelini with a choice of the following sauces or any combination there of. Marinara, Pesto, Alfredo, butter, Sun dried tomatoes. I opted for the tortelini with the pesto sauce. Others got a combination of sauces such as the Alfredo with a touch of Pesto or a touch of sun dried tomatoes. I could have tried it all but they would have had to wheel me out of there. It was all too tempting. The wonderful thing was that they prepared the pasta right in front to you. They cooked it too your liking and asked if you wanted extra garlic, red hot pepper etc. Cooked perfect and quite a cooking display.
Now we hit dessert. Walking by the dessert table on the way in I almost missed it. I was too busy checking out the food line on the other side of the room. Here they had chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a white icing, cookies and a cheesecake type cake. There were also marshmallows and strawberries and whipped creme and the smoothest most delicious melted chocolate I have ever eaten.
Many of the people at our table took a few strawberries and drizzled the chocolate over them. While I, being allergic to strawberries, chose to put that chocolate sauce over some marshmallows instead. The perfect topping for a perfect meal. It took us over 2 hours to eat. The service was wonderful and the atmosphere was delightful.
Now how do we top this? We headed out to the park and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to help members of the MountainEars Club finish the Trivia Challenge. Suffice to say I went around the Disneyland Park on the train four times. I saw things I never knew existed. It was fun!!!
There was no way that we would be eating dinner so we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion both of which are my favorites. Then we headed to Autopia. Of course we didn't have Fast Pass but the line didn't look too bad so in we went. Big Mistake. Right after we got in line they closed one of the tracks because someone had gotten hurt. It looked like some member of
this woman's family hit her from behind as she was climbing out of the car. She fell forward and hit her head or face on the bar in the front of the car. Of course security was there and they took forever to move the woman making sure she was ok. When it was finally our turn we decided to go in the same car. Now Tina & I look like Mutt & Jeff. She is tall and thin and I am the opposite. /infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif We had been shopping so we each had some bags and we each had a backpack. Now picture getting all of this and ourselves in the car. Now picture us getting it out. Can't! We were laughing so hard that we couldn't get out of the car. Two CM's came over to give us a hand. One put out her hand I think expecting to help me out of the car. I started handing her the bags and the backpacks that I had crammed on the floor of the car and in between us. Too funny! We held up the whole line of cars (we were the first ones) but we had the CM's in stitches laughing. We enjoyed the ride. We then went to meet up with some of our other friends and watch the fireworks. We shopped a little more and then headed back to the hotel. Room hopping begins tomorrow night.
Tuesday
An open day, we spent the day hitting antique shops and sightseeing and then headed to Disneyland. The Convention package offered a special trip to the Orange County Performing Art Center to see Disney's Beauty & the Beast but we had all seen it at one time or the other so we chose to spend the time in the park.
At night we headed back to the hotel for Room Hopping. For those not familiar with room hopping it is great. The best way to describe it is Disneyana Stores scattered through out the hotel. We went to the NFFC Hospitality Suite on the 17th floor to get the numbers of rooms that were open and began out attack. We had a great time and got some bargains. And this was just the beginning. More rooms would open as the week went on and the Sunday Show & Sale got closer.
Wednesday The Convention Begins.
The theme of this year's NFFC Convention is "Every Day's A Holiday With the NFFC". The NFFC Chapter Meeting and the NFFC General Business Meeting were held in the morning session and then a break for lunch. We went into the park for breakfast and ate at the Carnation Plaza right on Main Street. It was wonderful. Nice to just sit and watch the tourists and the Main Street Trolley go by. The food was delicious. We went looking for some pins and headed back to the hotel for the afternoon seminars.
The first speaker was Randy Webster from the WDI Archives. Randy spoke about how the WDI Archives presents exhibits at the Gallery and at other places around the country. Very informative.
The second seminar was an Author's Panel consisting of the following:
Tamara Hodge & Devin Frick- "Disney in Clay"
Bruce Gordon - "The Nickel Tour"
Tim O'Day - "The Making of Disney's California Adventure"
Dave Smith -100 Years of Disney
Tamara & Devin's book deals with the many different figurines that Disney has made since the beginning.
Bruce Gordon has updated his the original Nickel Tour Book. If you haven't read the first one it is wonderful. It gives a in-depth look at Disneyland.
Tim O'Day chronicles the behind the scenes making and formation of Disney's new theme park, The California Adventure which is scheduled to open February 2001.
Dave Smith is the director of the Walt Disney Archives and is most famous for his Disney A-Z reference books and Disney Trivia Books. This book covers the first 100 years years of Disney.
After the seminars were over there was a book signing session where the authors were available for autographs and copies of their books could be purchased.
Tonight is the Welcome Reception and Themed Dinner "Pollyanna's Fourth of July Picnic." The Mayor of Harrington and his wife presided over the picnic. A wonderful buffet was served and teams were picked for some picnic games. All in all it was a fun evening.
Thursday
The morning began with a Collector's Breakfast. The breakfast had a Christmas Theme and was titled "Christmas in July". After breakfast someone NFFC Members showcased their different collection. There was a train collection, a dalmatian collection, an Disney ornament collection and many more. The morning seminars began after breakfast.
The first Speaker was Doug Marsh the President of the NFFC Orange County Chapter. He spoke and showed pictures of some unique and hard to find Disneyland items that we would like to have in
our collections.
After a lunch break the afternoon seminars began.
Terri Hardin, Sam McKim and Nina Rae Vaughn each talked about the Disneyland Map. Terri Hardin is a sculptor who talked about her design of a Disneyland Map that is a type of puzzle. Sam McKim designed the first Disneyland Map in 1955. It was his design that was copied for the Walk Around the Park Promotion where you took your map to various locations in the park and got the map stamped to get a pin. Nina Rae Vaughn designed the 45th Anniversary Map of Disneyland that is available for sale this year at the park.
Tony Baxter from Walt Disney Imagineering gave the next seminar on the history of Disneyland and also told us how he came to first work for Disney.
Becky Carter from Walt Disney Merchandise Operations and the head of Pin Trading at Disneyland talked about "Pin Trading Disneyland Style". Matters such as pin trading etiquette, how to approach a cast member, a good trade verses a bad trade, and a sneak peek of some of the upcoming pins to be released were revealed.
Kim Peterson from California & David Schiller from Florida talked about pin trading on their respective coasts and the differences between the two and what to expect. Each of them brought a portion of their collections to share and then a pin trading session took place. Guests at the seminar, were invited to submit a trade for certain pins among them the Disneyland Pin Trading pin and a WDW Security pin. I'm happy to say that there was a tie for the DL Pin Trader Pin so they
awarded 2. One of them went to Tina. She was thrilled.
We had dinner and then went again to room hopping. More rooms were open this night and we found some bargains including a couple who was selling their collection of pins. I found a pin that a friend had been looking for for a while. As a matter of fact I found three of them. Two were very scratched but one was perfect. I bought the one pin. My friend would be thrilled.
Friday
Jeff Hoffman was the first speaker and he talked about the Disney legends and how they decided to start this wonderful tradition and how they came to pick the recipients. If you ever get the chance to go to the Disney Studios and see the garden do it. Jeff also gave us insight and showed a few minutes of a home movie as to how the Legends Statue was designed and made.
The next seminar was moderated by Kim Justice,wife of Disney Imagineer and animator Bill Justice. It was titled "Disney Dames-the View from the Executive Suite" The guests on the panel were Lucille Martin who worked at the Studio with Walt, Eleanor Moye, Marian Tytle, and Barbara Wilcox. Some of these women had worked directly with Walt Disney, Roy Disney, Ron Miller, and Micheal Eisner and all of them except Lucille are still with the studio.
Noontime brought the "Lunch With a Disney Legend"
This year the NFFC honored:
Dick Jones, the voice of Pinocchio
Volous Jones, the animator who first brought Donald Duck to life.
Dodie Roberts, Supervisor of the Disney Paint lab
Ruthie Thompson, started off staring in the Alice Comedies and then worked for the Disney
Company in many capacities but is best known as the first woman to join the Cinematographers
Union for her work in Scene Planning.
Les Perkins was the moderator. This luncheon is always a favorite for NFFC Conventioneers. The honorees provide quite an insight to the early days of the Disney Studios. Also invited are past Legends. This Year's luncheon was attended by Alice Davis, Bill Justice, Sam McKim and Richard Sherman to name a few.
After the luncheon was an autograph session with the honorees.
The next event was the NFFC Auction. 45 items were entered by NFFC members and the bidding on some items was fast and furious. The most popular items were of course pins. I volunteered to assist at this event and I was a recorder. My friend Joanne & I kept track of which items sold and how much they sold for. We had a lot of fun and even won a few items ourselves. As soon as the auction was over we headed to room hopping.
Saturday--the last day
9:00am brought the start if the final seminars of the convention. The first seminar discussed the new merchandise that would be available at the California Adventure Merchandise shops and those at the new Downtown Disney planned for Disneyland.
The second seminar was with the famous duo Bruce Gordon & David Mumford, Walt Disney Imagineers. They are a convention regular event and they produce the Bruce & David Show. There is always a surprise. This year things were a little different. David is on assignment in Tokyo and is currently working on Tokyo Disney Seas. He was brought to us by satellite. We did get to see a little bit of what he is working on but since everything is top secret we didn't get to see much. After a couple of breaks in the transmission Bruce continued on his own. There is always a surprise give a way at the end of the show an this year was no different. The parking at DL was torn up for CA Adventure and we each received.......you guessed it.....a dirt bag. A bag full of dirt and concrete from the old parking lot.
After lunch the seminars began again.
Tim O'Day spoke to us about the new alliance between Disney & ebay. The auction site featuring Disney items will be launched in September.
The next seminar was presented by animators Don Waller and George Wong who talked about their work on the movie Dinosaurs.
This seminar was also followed by an autograph and signing session. Time to get ready for the closing banquet.
NFFC New Year's Eve Party.
Dinner was good, but the room was freezing as usual. The Hyatt is always cold. Good thing we all had long sleeves on. After Dinner the show began. Steve Davison the creator of the "Believe" fireworks show at DL told us a little about the story behind the fireworks and showed us how he presented the idea without actually shooting off the fireworks to the Disney Powers that be. This man is so full of energy. Picture him running around the stage acting out how the fireworks would explode. First he showed us how he did it and then he showed us how he did it to the music. What a show. All we needed were the fireworks themselves.
The next two presenters were long and drawn out. They were Don Dorsey and Gavin Greenway who presented a presentation on WDW's Illuminations 2000.
Sunday The NFFC Show & Sale
Conventioneers got in at 9:00am. Three big rooms of Disneyana goodies. It was wonderful. I found lots of goodies and even some bargains. I almost forgot. After the Show & Sale we headed to the park and Fantasyland. We went on Pinocchio's Journey and Peter Pan's Ride and shopped at Tinker Bell's Toy Shop. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Then we watched the fireworks.
All I could picture was the presentation Steve Davison had given the night before. The fireworks are incredible!
Tomorrow I go home. It was a wonderful trip. I hope I can make it again next year. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
Thanks for reading.
~Kathie
[This message was edited by Kathie on 08-27-00 at 12:10 AM.]
Lunch at Club 33
We were seated in the main dining room and lunch was a buffet. I won't tell you that we sat and ate for over two hours but here is just a sampling of what was offered that day.
Appetizers and salads
Mixed greens
Grilled vegetables, eggplant, peppers all colors
An antipasto salad that was wonderful
Cucumber, tomatoes and other simple garnishes
A cheese tray with so many different kinds of cheese I lost count
Artichokes stuffed with a shrimp salad
Avocados stuffed with something else (I don't eat them so I kind of ignored this one)
Peel & eat shrimp
A very large fruit tray with cantaloupe, honeydew melon and strawberries
And some other foods I probably forgot about or missed.
For entrees they had a peanut chicken, a pork and a lamb entree along with beef tips.
There was a medley of fresh steamed vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower and peppers
A rice dish, two potato dishes, and another vegetable dish.
On the other side of the room was the Pasta station. The choice of Mickey ears Pasta with ziti or tri-colored cheese tortelini with a choice of the following sauces or any combination there of. Marinara, Pesto, Alfredo, butter, Sun dried tomatoes. I opted for the tortelini with the pesto sauce. Others got a combination of sauces such as the Alfredo with a touch of Pesto or a touch of sun dried tomatoes. I could have tried it all but they would have had to wheel me out of there. It was all too tempting. The wonderful thing was that they prepared the pasta right in front to you. They cooked it too your liking and asked if you wanted extra garlic, red hot pepper etc. Cooked perfect and quite a cooking display.
Now we hit dessert. Walking by the dessert table on the way in I almost missed it. I was too busy checking out the food line on the other side of the room. Here they had chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a white icing, cookies and a cheesecake type cake. There were also marshmallows and strawberries and whipped creme and the smoothest most delicious melted chocolate I have ever eaten.
Many of the people at our table took a few strawberries and drizzled the chocolate over them. While I, being allergic to strawberries, chose to put that chocolate sauce over some marshmallows instead. The perfect topping for a perfect meal. It took us over 2 hours to eat. The service was wonderful and the atmosphere was delightful.
Now how do we top this? We headed out to the park and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to help members of the MountainEars Club finish the Trivia Challenge. Suffice to say I went around the Disneyland Park on the train four times. I saw things I never knew existed. It was fun!!!
There was no way that we would be eating dinner so we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion both of which are my favorites. Then we headed to Autopia. Of course we didn't have Fast Pass but the line didn't look too bad so in we went. Big Mistake. Right after we got in line they closed one of the tracks because someone had gotten hurt. It looked like some member of
this woman's family hit her from behind as she was climbing out of the car. She fell forward and hit her head or face on the bar in the front of the car. Of course security was there and they took forever to move the woman making sure she was ok. When it was finally our turn we decided to go in the same car. Now Tina & I look like Mutt & Jeff. She is tall and thin and I am the opposite. /infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif We had been shopping so we each had some bags and we each had a backpack. Now picture getting all of this and ourselves in the car. Now picture us getting it out. Can't! We were laughing so hard that we couldn't get out of the car. Two CM's came over to give us a hand. One put out her hand I think expecting to help me out of the car. I started handing her the bags and the backpacks that I had crammed on the floor of the car and in between us. Too funny! We held up the whole line of cars (we were the first ones) but we had the CM's in stitches laughing. We enjoyed the ride. We then went to meet up with some of our other friends and watch the fireworks. We shopped a little more and then headed back to the hotel. Room hopping begins tomorrow night.
Tuesday
An open day, we spent the day hitting antique shops and sightseeing and then headed to Disneyland. The Convention package offered a special trip to the Orange County Performing Art Center to see Disney's Beauty & the Beast but we had all seen it at one time or the other so we chose to spend the time in the park.
At night we headed back to the hotel for Room Hopping. For those not familiar with room hopping it is great. The best way to describe it is Disneyana Stores scattered through out the hotel. We went to the NFFC Hospitality Suite on the 17th floor to get the numbers of rooms that were open and began out attack. We had a great time and got some bargains. And this was just the beginning. More rooms would open as the week went on and the Sunday Show & Sale got closer.
Wednesday The Convention Begins.
The theme of this year's NFFC Convention is "Every Day's A Holiday With the NFFC". The NFFC Chapter Meeting and the NFFC General Business Meeting were held in the morning session and then a break for lunch. We went into the park for breakfast and ate at the Carnation Plaza right on Main Street. It was wonderful. Nice to just sit and watch the tourists and the Main Street Trolley go by. The food was delicious. We went looking for some pins and headed back to the hotel for the afternoon seminars.
The first speaker was Randy Webster from the WDI Archives. Randy spoke about how the WDI Archives presents exhibits at the Gallery and at other places around the country. Very informative.
The second seminar was an Author's Panel consisting of the following:
Tamara Hodge & Devin Frick- "Disney in Clay"
Bruce Gordon - "The Nickel Tour"
Tim O'Day - "The Making of Disney's California Adventure"
Dave Smith -100 Years of Disney
Tamara & Devin's book deals with the many different figurines that Disney has made since the beginning.
Bruce Gordon has updated his the original Nickel Tour Book. If you haven't read the first one it is wonderful. It gives a in-depth look at Disneyland.
Tim O'Day chronicles the behind the scenes making and formation of Disney's new theme park, The California Adventure which is scheduled to open February 2001.
Dave Smith is the director of the Walt Disney Archives and is most famous for his Disney A-Z reference books and Disney Trivia Books. This book covers the first 100 years years of Disney.
After the seminars were over there was a book signing session where the authors were available for autographs and copies of their books could be purchased.
Tonight is the Welcome Reception and Themed Dinner "Pollyanna's Fourth of July Picnic." The Mayor of Harrington and his wife presided over the picnic. A wonderful buffet was served and teams were picked for some picnic games. All in all it was a fun evening.
Thursday
The morning began with a Collector's Breakfast. The breakfast had a Christmas Theme and was titled "Christmas in July". After breakfast someone NFFC Members showcased their different collection. There was a train collection, a dalmatian collection, an Disney ornament collection and many more. The morning seminars began after breakfast.
The first Speaker was Doug Marsh the President of the NFFC Orange County Chapter. He spoke and showed pictures of some unique and hard to find Disneyland items that we would like to have in
our collections.
After a lunch break the afternoon seminars began.
Terri Hardin, Sam McKim and Nina Rae Vaughn each talked about the Disneyland Map. Terri Hardin is a sculptor who talked about her design of a Disneyland Map that is a type of puzzle. Sam McKim designed the first Disneyland Map in 1955. It was his design that was copied for the Walk Around the Park Promotion where you took your map to various locations in the park and got the map stamped to get a pin. Nina Rae Vaughn designed the 45th Anniversary Map of Disneyland that is available for sale this year at the park.
Tony Baxter from Walt Disney Imagineering gave the next seminar on the history of Disneyland and also told us how he came to first work for Disney.
Becky Carter from Walt Disney Merchandise Operations and the head of Pin Trading at Disneyland talked about "Pin Trading Disneyland Style". Matters such as pin trading etiquette, how to approach a cast member, a good trade verses a bad trade, and a sneak peek of some of the upcoming pins to be released were revealed.
Kim Peterson from California & David Schiller from Florida talked about pin trading on their respective coasts and the differences between the two and what to expect. Each of them brought a portion of their collections to share and then a pin trading session took place. Guests at the seminar, were invited to submit a trade for certain pins among them the Disneyland Pin Trading pin and a WDW Security pin. I'm happy to say that there was a tie for the DL Pin Trader Pin so they
awarded 2. One of them went to Tina. She was thrilled.
We had dinner and then went again to room hopping. More rooms were open this night and we found some bargains including a couple who was selling their collection of pins. I found a pin that a friend had been looking for for a while. As a matter of fact I found three of them. Two were very scratched but one was perfect. I bought the one pin. My friend would be thrilled.
Friday
Jeff Hoffman was the first speaker and he talked about the Disney legends and how they decided to start this wonderful tradition and how they came to pick the recipients. If you ever get the chance to go to the Disney Studios and see the garden do it. Jeff also gave us insight and showed a few minutes of a home movie as to how the Legends Statue was designed and made.
The next seminar was moderated by Kim Justice,wife of Disney Imagineer and animator Bill Justice. It was titled "Disney Dames-the View from the Executive Suite" The guests on the panel were Lucille Martin who worked at the Studio with Walt, Eleanor Moye, Marian Tytle, and Barbara Wilcox. Some of these women had worked directly with Walt Disney, Roy Disney, Ron Miller, and Micheal Eisner and all of them except Lucille are still with the studio.
Noontime brought the "Lunch With a Disney Legend"
This year the NFFC honored:
Dick Jones, the voice of Pinocchio
Volous Jones, the animator who first brought Donald Duck to life.
Dodie Roberts, Supervisor of the Disney Paint lab
Ruthie Thompson, started off staring in the Alice Comedies and then worked for the Disney
Company in many capacities but is best known as the first woman to join the Cinematographers
Union for her work in Scene Planning.
Les Perkins was the moderator. This luncheon is always a favorite for NFFC Conventioneers. The honorees provide quite an insight to the early days of the Disney Studios. Also invited are past Legends. This Year's luncheon was attended by Alice Davis, Bill Justice, Sam McKim and Richard Sherman to name a few.
After the luncheon was an autograph session with the honorees.
The next event was the NFFC Auction. 45 items were entered by NFFC members and the bidding on some items was fast and furious. The most popular items were of course pins. I volunteered to assist at this event and I was a recorder. My friend Joanne & I kept track of which items sold and how much they sold for. We had a lot of fun and even won a few items ourselves. As soon as the auction was over we headed to room hopping.
Saturday--the last day
9:00am brought the start if the final seminars of the convention. The first seminar discussed the new merchandise that would be available at the California Adventure Merchandise shops and those at the new Downtown Disney planned for Disneyland.
The second seminar was with the famous duo Bruce Gordon & David Mumford, Walt Disney Imagineers. They are a convention regular event and they produce the Bruce & David Show. There is always a surprise. This year things were a little different. David is on assignment in Tokyo and is currently working on Tokyo Disney Seas. He was brought to us by satellite. We did get to see a little bit of what he is working on but since everything is top secret we didn't get to see much. After a couple of breaks in the transmission Bruce continued on his own. There is always a surprise give a way at the end of the show an this year was no different. The parking at DL was torn up for CA Adventure and we each received.......you guessed it.....a dirt bag. A bag full of dirt and concrete from the old parking lot.
After lunch the seminars began again.
Tim O'Day spoke to us about the new alliance between Disney & ebay. The auction site featuring Disney items will be launched in September.
The next seminar was presented by animators Don Waller and George Wong who talked about their work on the movie Dinosaurs.
This seminar was also followed by an autograph and signing session. Time to get ready for the closing banquet.
NFFC New Year's Eve Party.
Dinner was good, but the room was freezing as usual. The Hyatt is always cold. Good thing we all had long sleeves on. After Dinner the show began. Steve Davison the creator of the "Believe" fireworks show at DL told us a little about the story behind the fireworks and showed us how he presented the idea without actually shooting off the fireworks to the Disney Powers that be. This man is so full of energy. Picture him running around the stage acting out how the fireworks would explode. First he showed us how he did it and then he showed us how he did it to the music. What a show. All we needed were the fireworks themselves.
The next two presenters were long and drawn out. They were Don Dorsey and Gavin Greenway who presented a presentation on WDW's Illuminations 2000.
Sunday The NFFC Show & Sale
Conventioneers got in at 9:00am. Three big rooms of Disneyana goodies. It was wonderful. I found lots of goodies and even some bargains. I almost forgot. After the Show & Sale we headed to the park and Fantasyland. We went on Pinocchio's Journey and Peter Pan's Ride and shopped at Tinker Bell's Toy Shop. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Then we watched the fireworks.
All I could picture was the presentation Steve Davison had given the night before. The fireworks are incredible!
Tomorrow I go home. It was a wonderful trip. I hope I can make it again next year. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
Thanks for reading.
~Kathie
[This message was edited by Kathie on 08-27-00 at 12:10 AM.]
