Soooooo....What is the final version of Parti Gras!!!!!!!

[GotAnyPins]

I'm sitting here in the new hollow mountain, while Ed and the Elves try to get everything up and running, and winding down from Parti Gras...and being bored..I thought I would pull a Raul, and start trouble!!!!

The question is.....what is the final review of the event, from all who went...

I will post mine later...I was a proxy for Lauri, and I am still looking for an odd sized box to send all her loot....I'm sorry in advance if the food doesn't stand the trip

 

[Beachangel]

It was a blast!

My friend and I had such a fabulous time at our first pin event. All the rumours circulating that it would be cancelled, it was too expensive, the pins aren't great, yada yada yada yada! Well, it was a wonderful evening from the fire juggler to the food, to the games, to the prizes, to characters and to the royal coronation. It was pure fun fun fun!

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

I agree! I have only been to the Star Spangled Pin event, prior to attending the Parti Gras, and this was soooooo much better! I was concerned about the price, but I feel like DH and I got our money's worth and then some. The games during the day were fun (of course, I'm prejudiced because I was on a winning team and got a coveted Gold dubloon!), it was mostly pretty well organized, and the evening at the AK was amazing! Loved the food, loved the fog machines, loved the characters, jugglers, parade members, and the activities were really fun.

I only came away with one negative, and that was the dubloon/prize topic. During the day there was quite a build-up about winning dubloons, especially gold ones. During the games in the evening, many of the game attendants made statements when they ran out of Gold dubloons, that 15 of the other colors, or 4 green, or some other combo would be honored in place of the gold. When it came time for redemption, that simply was not true, and the coveted prizes advertised for 2 gold dubloons ran out quickly. The issue was all about expectations. There were expectations created that simply were not met, and that was unfortunate. If all event CMs had given guests the same info, it would have been fine, but there was a bit of a communication breakdown, and that was a shame.

I think the pins are really nice, and was particularly pleased with the mask set and the bobbleheads. We met many very nice people, and look forward to attending events like this in the future.

 

[Beachangel]

Posted by Mrs. Snowgod:

I only came away with one negative, and that was the dubloon/prize topic. During the day there was quite a build-up about winning dubloons, especially gold ones. During the games in the evening, many of the game attendants made statements when they ran out of Gold dubloons, that 15 of the other colors, or 4 green, or some other combo would be honored in place of the gold.

Yeah, I heard that too, but it didn't sound right. I asked a CM and was told that gold doubloons were limited in quantity and therefore not even guaranteed if you won a game.

It was such a fun evening that it is a shame to hear that someone may have been disappointed.

 

[Tinkerbel129]

Saturday, February 1st.....

Lisa (Tiggersmom) and I arrived a little after 11:00 am, was greeted by a cast member and given Mardi Gras beads. She then directed us to the registration table where we picked up our credentials and our free gifts (hurricane glass with the logo on it and 4 pins). Then we were directed to another table to receive our RSP pins. Then found friends and went to sit down look over everything. We registered for the games and chatted with fellow pin collectors. Got to see many friends again, Donna (GotAnyPins), SuzanneB, Leslie (BeautyLLM), Michael (Brer-Rabbit), Corey (RockinPooh), Vince & Suzi (Parkhopper's), Scott & Suzanne (ScottakaMickey), Larry (Dizneypins), Michelle & Milton (Shoes99) and many others, please forgive me for having a memory loss. SuzanneB and I went to do the trade board, this was my first time ever doing this, there is always such a line, it was fun, you have 2 minutes to make 2 trades. Then we went back to the room to take our merchandise and get Suzanne settled in, came back and got some lunch and then headed back to the hall for some trading. I must say this part of the day I think went very smoothly.

Now the evening started to roll in and it was time to head back to the room to get ready for the party. I transformed into the BEAD FAIRY, wings included. As Suzanne and I had come out of our building, one of the bell hops was coming by in his golf cart, so this fairy did what....but put her thumb out and hitched a ride to the hall. Boy, did the night air get cool and we had quite a walk. I put my mask on and came into the hall and started handing out beads (I bought 288 with me to give out). Everybody seem to think it was neat, tho some thought I was a cm and wanted more than one and tried to grab them from me. I simply told them I did this on my own. We then headed out to the buses and waited to board, we finally got on and a new friend (Steven) from California asked if I would sit with him in the front seat, which worked out great. As other attendees boarded I gave them a strand of beads, (thanks to Kim and Aunt Chris for keeping me organized). A couple of minutes later we were on our way.

The bus pulls up to Animal Kingdom and we are on our way!! The temperture is still dropping, this fairy is starting to get chilled. We went right in and preceded to Island Mercantile area, where they had performers playing music and a couple of characters, and of course all along the way I gave a strand of beads to people and cast members. We headed over to where the food was and found a table. I thought the food was pretty good, though I would have liked to have seen a little more in the side dishes. After dinner we headed over to Camp Mickey - Minnie, boy was there a lot of fog. They had fog machines set up and it was really cool, even if this short fairy got lost in it, it was almost as tall as me. As I walked I passed out more beads along the way and everyone that it was really neat that I was doing this. Finally I reached the area where the games begun, the lines were quite long, so I tried to find a shorter one. Caught up with Leslie, Michael and Corey again and we stood in line to play ski-ball, while we waited in line Michael was in charge of getting desserts. I think they could have been better, like some cookies or rice krispie treats as a option, I am not a bread pudding or peach cobbler lover and it was very evident on Leslie and my faces when we tried it. Well Corey landed it right in the middle and won 15 dubloons, Leslie had a little issue with the understanding what she was suppose to do, we won't go there. I got it in the 2nd level and only got 1 dubloon, not fair it should have been 2. We continued to play some other games and win more dubloons. I think they had about 8 different games and I got to play 4 of them due to the lines. We saw lots of characters everywhere, even Jiminy Cricket and yes, I was still handing out beads and having a lot of fun.

We then decided it we would head over to redeem our dubloons and boy the lines were long, so we got out and headed back to watch the coronation, we had to wait awhile before they would let us in to be seated and it just kept getting colder. The show they put on for this was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. Congrats to the King & Queen. Afterwards we headed over to get back in the line to redeem the dubloons, it moved pretty quick, then off to the 3rd RSP line. Then off to the buses and back to the hotel.

If I had to make improvements, these are the things I would recommend.
1. Better selection of desserts
2. I would have listed the games on the back of our credential cards and hole punched them once you had played the game once. So others could have had a chance to play.
3. There should have been a parting gift of some kind. (if the attendance was as low as it seemed, maybe had given everyone a second glass and set of 4 gift pins). I know I would have liked a pair of the glasses.

These are just some of the things I can think of right now.

On sunday morning things were very organized in line to purchase extra pins and Kristin checked everyone's credentials and checked them off the list, meaning they had their last chance to buy pins. Kuddos to Kristin!! While I was standing in the line she saw me and signaled for me to come up to her, she then presented me with a Continueing the Tradition pin for all I had done the night before. Many Thanks to Kristin. Then we were off to the Magic Kingdom for some fun and Scoops seminar.

All in all, I had a great time hanging out with friends and being a freezing Bead Fairy. The next 2 days people would see me and say "You're the BEAD FAIRY right", I now think this might be my new name. Well I think I have written a LOT for now, and for those who know me this really is a LOT!!

 

[BeautyLLM]

The skee ball incident: I didn't have a problem understanding the game. I asked the CM what we were supposed to do and she said "put the ball in the 500 point hole". So I walked right up to it and dropped the ball in. Next thing I know, she's summoning villains and trying to get me in trouble

The bread pudding incident: you know how when little kids eat something they don't like, they just spit it out? I SO wanted to spit out that bread pudding blech!

 

[buggin']

Wow...sounds like ya'll had a great time at the event. Its hard to believe that its the first one we missed...other than the Princess Ball that is...

So glad to hear about the great time...now its off to read the Queens report...!!!

Buggin'
Amber