#ZINCON Kickoff Day
Posted on August 14, 2018 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.
Thursday morning is convention kickoff day. I usually try to get in line early but by the time Brian and I walk over from our hotel room to the ballroom the line is almost always already long. It wasn’t too bad this year. As an added bonus, I ran into Patty Leddy (one of the ZCOM Reps for our region, District 43 — Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma).
I knew immediately it would be a great day!
Brian, the caped Wichita flag man, waited in line with me until they let us in. Met some people while in line. There’s quite a few pics so I’ll spare you those. They only make sense to me anyhow. It didn’t take long for the doors to open and then we were finally inside. Here’s a selfie of me waiting for the kickoff session to begin.
Los Jefes (Rob and Rose) won Inspiration of the Year.
And Diosiris Visbal, who I met in 2013 at my very first #ZINCON, won the Angel Diversity Scholarship award. It’s very rare that I actually know the people receiving awards, which made this year’s kickoff quite special.
BIP performed. I didn’t get the best pics at kickoff but I made up for it during the theme party. You’ll see when I post those photos and videos.
We got to see the actors who are playing Beto in the Colombian TV series about his life. The two younger actors are actually dancers in real life. The older one is a famous Colombian actor.
Here’s a better picture of the four of them.
After kickoff I had Reggaeton Rebellion with Loretta and Marcie. I think I had Reggaeton Rebellion in 2013 or 2014. I’ll have to look back at old blogs and pics. Anyway, I met these Filipino ZINs while waiting in line for our session.
I took a selfie during one of the breaks.
I didn’t stay for photos with Loretta and Marcie after the session because I have a few with them already. I pretty much stalk them every chance I get when we’re on the cruise. I did take a selfie on my way to Afrobeat – Makossa.
Here’s a post Afrobeat – Makossa group photo.
Ended the night with my five-for-one master class featuring Mauricio Camargo, Ecem Kuntay, Benjamin Richard, Rodrigo Angelo, and William Villasenor. It was amazing! The five of them worked so well together.
I’m not sure what happened to Mauricio that he’s not in this photo. I’m really sad about this. LOL. He must have had somewhere to be.
Speaking of, the presenters also provide demos and mini sessions at the We Move the World stage in addition to their regular workshops, sessions, and trainings they have to lead. Here’s the schedule of the different demos and mini-sessions that happened at the We Move the World stage. There’s so much going on that you really could just come and hang out, even if you’re not registered for convention.
Granted you don’t get to go to the sessions, fitness-concert, or theme party but you could learn a lot just by hanging out around the stage. This is a great option for spouses (like Brian), non-ZIN friends who are traveling with with their ZIN friends, or for ZINs who didn’t have money for registration but still want to be part of the action. I’ve actually heard of people doing the latter and having a great time. Not sure if it compares to the real experience but it’s certainly an option.
Anyway, that is it for Thursday. More #ZINCON recap next time. GNG!
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First Night in Orlando
Posted on August 12, 2018 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.
Just a few pictures from Wednesday, the day before ZINCON kickoff.
I had a different outfit planned for Wednesday night but I loved the ZINCON exclusive tank that I decided to wear it instead.
We walked around and took photos.
I’m always so excited for all of it.
I turned this photo black and white so I would look like I was part of the picture.
Did it work? Here’s the original photo before it was cropped and converted to black and white. What do you think?
Here’s another fun one with the posters/signage.
Caught the Latin Urban team minus Jhon Gonzalez.
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Just me trying to win something at the WorkoutTemps booth.
Walking by the We Move the World Stage before the ZIN Flavors Master Class.
That’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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Representing Wichita
Posted on August 12, 2018 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.
While we didn’t get our favorite room this year (22638), we did make the best of it. We hung our flag up and made it feel like home.
Here’s a close up.
Brian also did his fair share of pimping the Wichita flag by wearing it.
Here here is, walking from our hotel room to the convention kickoff.
Here are a few photos of Joel and Brian while we were waiting in line for the fitness-concert event.
Joel always makes everyone look so diminutive.
Here’s Brian showing off his flag cape.
I really regret not having photos of me with the flag. This one was so big though. I couldn’t wear it as a cape because it would drag on the floor when I did. I didn’t really want to carry it around either. I may need to get a smaller, more portable flag (perhaps one on a stick) for next year.
The one benefit of the flag is that it helped Bobbie find me during kickoff. And, it was a great conversation starter because people would inevitably ask, “What country is this?” and we would have a good laugh about it being a city flag rather than a country flag.
That’s all for now. Check back soon for more ZINCON recap. GNG!
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Arrival in Orlando
Posted on August 7, 2018 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.
Here’s a selfie of us aboard the plane enroute to Orlando (above) and then upon arriving at MCO, here’s a picture of Brian getting in the car (below).
I didn’t take pictures of the hotel lobby and our hotel room this time for a couple of reasons. First, we were in a bit of a rush. I wasn’t sure what the line at convention check-in/registration would be like and I didn’t want to be late for my Zumba Wear Insider 3 Star early shopping experience. Second, we didn’t get our favorite room this year so there really wasn’t anything exciting to write home about room-wise. Someone else was staying in 22638 until Thursday so they couldn’t give it to us. Such a bummer! Oh, well. I didn’t really have status this year since I barely stayed at Hyatt properties so I didn’t expect any special treatment.
Since we weren’t going to get our favorite room anyway, I wanted to try something different and stay in tower 1 this time instead of staying in tower 2, where we normally stay. I figured it would be closer to everything, which would mean less walking. Brian absolutely hated the room that we got so he went back and asked for the original room that they were going to put us in back in tower 2. The room wasn’t fabulous but it was an improvement.
Hopefully, I’ll be a Globalist next year and we’ll be back in room 22638 again.
While Brian was dealing with the room situation, I went to registration to get my name tag which is required before I could go to the special Zumba Wear Insider shopping thing. Thankfully, the registration line wasn’t too long and moved pretty quickly. It looks long in the picture but I’ve actually seen it longer.
Quick selfie at registration just for fun.
Of course, I had to take a picture of my first ZINCON badge as a 3 Star Zumba Wear Insider. One of the perks is being able to shop the Zumba Wear Store at ZINCON before the store actually opens. Insiders got to shop with the Zumba Education Specialists, Jammers, and other presenters at noon. The store didn’t officially open until 2 PM so we got a two-hour head start, which I really appreciated. In previous years, I was always too busy to go to the store on the first day and, even when I did, the line was always so long. By the time I got in there, everything I wanted was sold out of my size. This year, I actually got to be one of the people to get first dibs on everything. I must say, I felt pretty special.
I got to selfie with Erick Santana while we were waiting to get in. I could have selfied with a bunch more people (because everyone was there waiting to get in to the store) but I behaved myself. LOL.
When I say everyone, I really mean EVERYONE — including Marcie and Loretta, and Benjamin and Rodrigo, and Lars, and Barb, and Nick and his wife…
If you are a ZIN who regularly keeps up with the ZIN volumes, you’ll recognize many of the faces below.
In this video you’ll see Cat and Ecem, among others…
Here’s a walking selfie with George.
Here’s a walking video of Cat and Loretta.
They basically had us meet at South Hall B so we wouldn’t be in the massive Zumba Wear Store line at South Hall A. Then we walked to South Hall A from the lower level to get in to the store early, unbeknownst to all the people who had been waiting in line for hours for the store to open at 2 PM.
Pictures of the awesome new line.
I almost got these sweatpants. I really wanted one of everything but I had to restrain myself. I had to get only the things that I absolutely had to have now and reminded myself that these will eventually go online and go on sale. So no need to go bat shit crazy shopping and buying everything in sight.
My biggest regret is not getting these fringe leggings because they look so awesome when you’re dancing. Now I have to wait until they’re available online.
Here’s the front of that halter tank.
Cool camo patterns.
I did get this rose and camo print sports bra and leggings. There’s also a matching headband which I did not get.
I also got this whole outfit (right) — the black shirt with gold print and the camo leggings with the gold foil accents.
This is the special Swarovski crystals area. It’s so exclusive that they only let so many people in there at a time. There’s a separate bouncer guarding the entrance. And, they put a limit on how many of each item you can buy (only one per person).
I got a pair of leggings with Swarovski crystals.
And, a lace-up tank with Swarovski crystals. These were the only things I could afford in there. Most of the the items were over $100.
Here are the sports bras I got.
I really didn’t need to buy the sports bras but they matched some of the outfits I got so I had to get them too.
Same sports bra with a different tank.
Same sports bra with the same tank above except in black.
Here’s that cute rose and camo print outfit.
Incidentally, the two new tanks also look great with the rose and camo outfit.
I also got the camo leggings with the gold foil. This was on a follow up trip to the store, when I could bring Brian with me.
I also got the yellow tank with the eyelets in the back on this follow up shopping trip. I didn’t want it at first but changed my mind after seeing it on other people.
Brian got some sweatpants and a new STRONG shirt.
My ZINCON 2018 exclusive tank.
Brian’s ZINCON 2018 exclusive shirt, which I’m now regretting not getting one for myself. The shirt is just a basic shirt, which didn’t seem special because EVERYONE was wearing them while we were at ZINCON (including the servers at the B-Line restaurant). However, now that we are away from it all, the shirt seems pretty special. I wish I would have bought one for myself too.
One of the improvements they made to the shopping experience this year is now you get credit for items purchase at ZINCON. I really didn’t want to shop at the Zumba Wear Store before I wouldn’t get credit towards my Zumba Wear Insider status. But now you can get credit for it, which is really cool. I’m super happy about that change. It fixes my dilemma of not wanting to shop at ZINCON because of the whole credit thing.
I also got these body sprays for free. I was happy I got them for free but at the same time, I wished that they were selling them again this year like last year, because I wanted to stock up.
Anyway, I’m getting really sleepy. Until next time. GNG!
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Journey to #ZINCON 2018
Posted on August 5, 2018 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.
Brian got to relish an “I told you so” moment on our way to Orlando. We decided to fly out of Kansas City this year to save money. It’s been a while since we’d done that (the last time was 2011 when we traveled to the East Coast with the Dills). We have a very nice airport in Wichita now and there are usually good flight options (granted, not as many as the Kansas City airport, but it’s better than it has been); however, the flights were super expensive for some reason. I wanted to pay around $330, which is what we have paid to travel to Orlando in the past, but this time the prices were hovering around $400 per person. So Brian and I decided to pull the trigger and fly out of Kansas City instead. Our airfare ended up being about $200 per person but it was a direct flight from Kansas City to Orlando (so we wouldn’t have to mess with connecting) and it’s through Southwest so there aren’t any check-in luggage fees. Plus, since there’s no connection, we would arrive in Orlando around 9:00 am which is plenty of time for my 11:45 am Zumba Wear Insider shopping appointment.
I couldn’t believe that in 2018 we managed to find ourselves driving three hours out for a flight but, once I accepted it, I actually began to look forward to spending the night in Kansas City. I had all of these ideas. We would go out to dinner at one of my favorite places and hang out and have some pre-ZINCON fun before hopping on the plane to Orlando the next day.
Well, the best laid plans are often foiled. Or so is the case in my world. Instead of leaving work at 4:00 pm on Tuesday like I wanted, I ended up leaving closer to 5:00 pm. That meant we didn’t make it to Kansas City until after 8:00 pm. I really should have taken Tuesday off too but I ended up with a few meetings and the day proved to be super busy so by the time I thought to add Tuesday (I had put my ZINCON vacation on the calendar months ago but not Tuesday) it was too late. There were already meetings on the calendar. I probably could have gotten out of them but I hate missing things. I’m the kind of person who answers my desk phone as I’m leaving the office because I can’t leave knowing that I have voicemail that hasn’t been listened to yet. I also always respond to emails — though, sometimes too hastily. Bottom line, it would have been better had I taken Tuesday off (because Brian was smart enough to take that day off) and we could have gone up to Kansas City early in the day and actually done stuff. But I didn’t. I worked the full day instead and so that’s what happened.
We arrived at the hotel too late and didn’t really feel like doing anything. We did get there with enough light to check out how to get to the airport from the hotel. Yes, I know. The Kansas City Airport Marriott is like two minutes from the terminal but we are nerdy and didn’t want to get confused, specially since we will be navigating it in the dark the next day. It was actually really confusing (because there’s all sorts of different parking options and the one that Brian insisted on was the garage parking — the most expensive option obviously, that’s Brian for you) so I’m glad we did a trial run of sorts. It made finding the parking garage easier the next day.
In the meantime, we hadn’t had dinner yet so we decided to just eat that the restaurant inside the hotel, KC Tap & Table. It wasn’t fabulous but it wasn’t terrible either. The crab cakes didn’t look like much but they were actually pretty good.
The flat bread pizza was just okay.
Take the food review with a grain of salt, though. I may be a bit salty over the fact that we could have eaten for free had we arrived just a few minutes earlier. There was free food in the club lounge for elite rewards members until a certain time. When we got there, they had packed everything up except for the dessert.
All that was left were some fresh fruit and crème brûlée. But it was free so I had some. LOL. However, the sugar got me amped so, instead of going to bed early like we were supposed to, we ended up staying up and catching up on some Netflix.
The next morning, we both got up pretty early but we weren’t in any particular hurry because we were pretty much at the airport already. We were parked and in the door by 4:00 am for our 5:20 am flight. You would think that would be enough time but NOOOO! If you were not checking any bags in, I guess that was fine. The line for the Southwest check in counter was insanely long!
It was almost 5:00 am by the time we got to the counter. And, of course, since it’s less than 45 minutes before our flight, they couldn’t guarantee that our bags would make it. Brian was a little bit freaked out about that, which in turn made me worry as well. And then she tells us to run to our gate.
In our panic, we went the wrong way — in the opposite direction of the TSA Precheck security line. So then we had to start running back the other way because there was no way we were going to quickly make it through the regular security line. I get through security but Brian gets hung up because he’s randomly selected for an additional screening. I’m on one side through security and he’s on the other side. He’s like, “Just run to the gate so you can make out flight. If I don’t make it, I’ll catch the next flight!” This shit just got serious.
Anyway, I make it aboard the plane and I tell the flight attendant that my husband got stuck at security and he’s coming and she’s like, “If he makes it, he makes it. Nothing we can do about it.”
I call Brian in a panic to find out where he is and he tells me that he’s in the jet bridge getting ready to board. Jane is with him too. Whew!
Oh, yeah. This is Jane, a Zumba instructor (ZIN) based out of Overland Park. That was the silver lining in all of this. We met Jane while waiting in the long check in line and we got to visit with her a bit. She was also going to ZINCON. So at least I made a new friend.
All three of us made it, as did our bags. Here’s a video of us arriving at the airport in Orlando with our fancy, schmancy customized ZINCON suitcases.
BTW, Brian, who likes to be at the airport three hours early, never let me forget that the whole debacle of almost missing our flight was my fault because I hate getting to the airport too early. But we made it so I can’t say I learned my lesson. However, I will be less likely to complain about going to the airport too early next time.
That’s all for now. Check back in a couple of days for a recap of the rest of our ZINCON adventure. GNG!
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