Getting Out of Orlando
Posted on October 25, 2016 by Ching under Travel.
I was really hoping that I would be able to fly out of Orlando in time. No such luck. I’m glad that my friend Tammie talked me into changing my flights so that I would be flying out Tampa instead. Had I not taken her advice, I probably would have gotten stranded in Orlando after Southwest canceled my flight.
Tammie flew with Delta so she had a noon flight out of Tampa. I ended up tagging along with her, which I am super grateful for because I’m not sure how I would have managed the two hour drive to Tampa by myself.
We were initially concerned about the weather on Friday so we talked about spending the night in Tampa. There’s a Marriott attached to the airport, which would have been really convenient. However, we had to nix that idea after we couldn’t find any available rooms. Not just at the Tampa Airport Marriott but throughout the area. Brian tried to find a hotel for us. The closest hotel that had availability was 51 miles from the airport.
He was like, “I’m on the phone with the hotel. You need to tell me now if you want me to reserve these rooms for you guys.”
“Just hang up,” I told him. “I need to talk to Tammie first because that hotel is too far from the airport.”
After I told Tammie she was like, “My mom lives 50 miles from the Tampa airport! We will just stay with her.” Tammie’s mom and stepdad live in Winter Haven, which is between Orlando and Tampa.
Tammie’s mom and stepdad were kind enough to put me up for the night. I event got my own cozy room (above photo), which Brian was curious about. He wondered if Tammie and I were bunking together because we always chat on video before bed each night. It would be weird to do that with someone in the room with you so he was super relieved that I had my own room for the night.
Interestingly, since we used Tammie’s mom’s SUV to drive from Orlando to Tampa, her stepdad was going to fill up the tank for the drive the next morning. Well, after driving to half a dozen gas stations that were all completely out of gas, he just gave up. It was wild. I’d never been in this kind of situation before.
Lucky for us, Tammie’s stepdad’s truck had a full tank of gas and both of us just had carry-on sized luggage that could easily fit in the covered truck bed so they were able to drive me and Tammie to the Tampa airport in the truck the next day. We left first thing in the morning on Friday.
Tammie was worried about her extremely short layover in Atlanta but we got to the airport early enough that she was able to get on the earlier Delta flight. She left Tampa around 10 AM instead of noon. As for me, I was flying with Southwest and my flight wasn’t until the evening. I had a lot of time to kill at the airport.
I was going to use the time to see my friend Dawn who now lives in the Tampa area but they were expecting some bad weather (just tropical storms, not hurricane weather like in the Atlantic coast). The weather actually wasn’t too bad but it scared both of us enough not to chance it and we canceled our plans ahead of time.
Since I had so much time to kill, I decided to eat some breakfast. The Qdoba inside the Tampa airport serves the most delicious breakfast burritos. That was a plus.
I found a good spot (conveniently located next to a power outlet) at the Tampa Airport Marriott to setup a mobile office and used the opportunity to catch up on email. It worked out great.
I grew tired of sitting around after a while and so I decided to walk around. The Tampa Airport Marriott is actually pretty neat. They have a nice outdoor area complete with a ping pong table. It’s such a shame that it was wet outside and I had no one to play with. Ping pong would have been a great way to kill some time.
There’s a cute little gazebo in the outdoor terrace/patio.
The outdoor area is actually quite spacious and nice.
There’s even a pool and a hot tub.
They also have a branded bag-toss/cornhole game. I wish the weather would have been better and I had someone to play with.
Thankfully, I found a nice, comfy reading couch.
There were several of these sitting areas throughout the hotel.
I nabbed one for myself and decided to do some reading. Many times I’ll bring a book with me for inflight reading but I end up visiting with my seatmates that entire flight and so I don’t actually end up getting much reading done, if at all. It worked out well because I was able to finish my book.
I also got to video chat with Brian on his way home from work.
The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful, which was fine by me. I really couldn’t handle any more excitement.
My flight from Tampa to St. Louis had a late departure but I wasn’t too concerned because I had a long layover in St. Louis. The flight from St. Louis left on time and arrived in Wichita a couple of minutes early. It was still really late, though. And, since we live all the way on the East side of town, it was almost midnight by the time we got home.
I was so tired that I actually subbed out my Zumba class the next morning so I could do laundry and catch up on rest before driving to Kansas City on Monday. All in all, it was quite an exciting week.
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Fun Times at EMACS
Posted on October 25, 2016 by Ching under Travel.
Here are a few fun pics from the EMACS conference a few weeks ago.
West sponsored a fun networking event at Howl at the Moon and it was kind of rainy that day so they bussed us over there from our hotel.
The EMACS group took over the entire place.
Sherii’s birthday was coming up in a couple of days so they greeted her on the board. That was pretty cool!
Here’s a picture of Alicia and Alex.
And Faith and Sherii.
That was a fun event. Thanks to West for sponsoring the outing and for Chartwell for putting together a fun customer experience conference.
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Cuba Libre at Pointe Orlando
Posted on October 21, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Here’s a picture of some of my coworkers at the EMACS Welcome Reception…
After the Welcome Reception, our entire group walked over to Cuba Libre.
The restaurant is kind of dark but it has a really cool, Latin vibe. Our server explained that the restaurant turns into a nightclub on the weekends and they’ll even have multiple DJs.
Here’s a picture of Alex and Sherii.
Picture of the Chef’s Tasting Menu above.
I believe this is the pisco sour drink made with egg whites. Alex and Tammie both had one. Tammie who has been to Peru says it tasted pretty authentic.
I had a mojito of some sort. I can’t remember now what flavor it was.
Wait… That might have been someone else’s mojito because this might have been my drink. This is what I get for waiting so long to blog about the experience.
Here’s a picture of another cocktail.
And another. Sorry. I wish I could remember what all of these are called.
Here are some pictures of food. I probably won’t remember what all these wonderful dishes are called either.
I really wish I could remember. It was all very good. I enjoyed my dinner and I know everyone else did too.
I can’t wait to return next year for ZINCON so Brian can try it.
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Hyatt Regency Orlando
Posted on October 19, 2016 by Ching under Travel.
I got to experience the Hyatt Regency Orlando (the hotel we stay at every year during ZINCON) outside of ZINCON and it was like an alternate dimension.
The first photo is what the lobby looks like during ZINCON and the second photo is the lobby outside of ZINCON. It’s like a whole other world!
I had to take a picture of B-Line because it was completely dead. Usually when we’re here for ZINCON it’s buzzing with colorfully-clad people.
I also had to take a pic of Faith’s massive suite.
She had a dining table, living room, and balcony!
I had forgotten how amazing the hotel fitness center is.
I had to take some pics of it.
Their beautiful workout studio would put most dance studios to shame.
They even have a spin studio with spin classes every morning on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. No need to miss group classes while you’re traveling!
The hotel not only has a great fitness center but the pool area is amazing. It’s even more amazing when it’s not super crowded like it is at ZINCON. I enjoyed a very nice afternoon reading and taking a nap by the pool with Kelsey on one of the days.
As hotels go, the rooms are well furnished with everything you need. It even includes a bathroom scale.
The reason why there’s two in this photo is because Kelsey, who recently started a weight-loss program at the time of our trip, had to weight herself everyday so she decided to bring her own scale. I could have sworn that I told her ahead of time that the hotel supplied bathroom scales in all of the rooms. I guess she forgot.
They think of everything. The only thing missing from the rooms is a microwave, which they don’t have because — as the concierge explains — it’s a fire hazard. However, they’ll provide one by request if it’s needed for medical reasons.
All the staff members were on their A-game while we were there. Kelsey and I asked for a microwave for her room (for her special diet), walked over to Walgreens to get her flavored waters, and her microwave was already in her room by the time we got back (less than 30 minutes later). At the hotel I stay at in Kansas City, it would have taken half a dozen phone calls just to get the simplest of things done. Seriously.
Customer service at the Hyatt Regency Orlando has always been pretty good during all the times we’ve stayed there but they were operating at another level that week. I wondered if everyone received a pep talk right before the EMACS Customer Experience Conference came to town. I joked about this to one of the bellhops that I ran into in the elevator one day and he said they did have a big huddle a few days before. You definitely don’t want to mess up with a bunch of Customer Experience experts because thousands of people will find out about it. LOL.
But, one of the funniest parts was when Kelsey and I went to get coffee at the onsite Starbucks. I happened to be wearing my “WE MOVE THE WOLRD” shirt from this year’s ZINCON. When I got up to the counter the barista read the writing on my shirt and was like, “WE move the world… You’re a Zumba person?!!”
“Yes, I am.”
“But that was months ago.”
“I never left,” I told her. “I’ve been here the entire time.”
You should have seen the shocked look on her face. You could tell she was trying to process it and it took a moment for her to realize I was kidding. And then she told me how much they love the Zumba convention and all of the Zumba people because they are always so happy and loud and they bring life to the place. She said everything seems so lonely and dead after the Zumba convention. She also told me that it’s the only time that they’re open until 8 PM. The rest of the time they close at 4 PM because it’s just so dead.
Having experienced the hotel outside of ZINCON, I understand what she means. It’s really not the same. It made me so nostalgic for ZINCON and I can’t wait until we are back again next year.
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Cocoa Beach, Florida
Posted on October 16, 2016 by Ching under Travel.
I was at the EMACS conference in Orlando a couple of weeks ago and with several people from work. Kelsey and Tammie were among the attendees. Kelsey and arrived in Orlando around the same time and shared a car to the hotel together.
Since we didn’t have a car and rain was in the forecast, Kelsey and I figured that we would just ride the trolley to the outlet mall. As luck would have it, Tammie was visiting her mom and step dad in Winter Haven over the weekend and arrived in Orlando on Monday with a car. She was more than happy to drive us to the outlet mall but the three of us agreed to go to the beach instead.
Tammie, who has considerably more experience with Florida weather than both Kelsey and I, told us that usually rains in Florida all of the time but then it just stops so she wasn’t daunted by the weather forecast. And so off we went to Cocoa Beach, about an hour away from Orlando.
It did rain pretty hard on our way out there and it was super gloomy and cloudy but the rain started to slow down as we got closer and closer to the beach. As soon as we found a place to park, the rain stopped completely and the sky seemingly opened up and the sun came out. The weather could not have been better.
Here are some pictures we took at Cocoa Beach…
We had quite a bit of rain, as evidenced by the wet pavement in this photo.
But the sun was starting to peek out. Mother Nature welcomed us with open arms.
The because would normally be crowded but there was hardly anyone there that day. I suspect the rainy forecast deterred many people from venturing out.
The Cocoa Beach Pier wasn’t crowded at all.
The three of us had a really nice time walking along the beach. There were only a handful of people at the beach at first but, as the sun came out and stayed out, more people began to show up as well.
There might have been more birds than people that day. LOL.
Here’s a selfie of me and Kelsey.
Here’s a picture of Kelsey and Tammie.
And then here’s a selfie of the three of us together.
I think we walked about three miles. It was wonderful. I never would have predicted it but I’m totally a walk along the beach kind of person.
The fact that I caught a bunch of Psyducks and Magikarps and hatched a few eggs while we were walking was just icing on the cake. LOL.
I’m so grateful that we had the opportunity to visit Cocoa Beach before Hurricane Matthew showed up. This is definitely one of several highlights of the trip.
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