Ensemble Conference

I recently went to a conference in Orlando for travel professionals who belong to the Ensemble consortia. My agency does focus on Disney - although we do everything - but the conference just HAPPENED to be in Orlando, so we were pretty excited. It was a really great conference where I learned SO SO much about the travel industry. It was also a great chance to get to meet many of the agents that I work with. We work from home all around the country so even though I have talked, IMed and emailed with them all, I had never met them face to face! So it was really nice to be able to put faces with names. Here is my friend Sharla who was in my start group that I got to room with!! I'm pretty sure Smart car was a sponsor...


The first day was all business with a fancy dinner that night. However, the second night was when the real fun began (um, not that it wasn't all fun?). The second night was sponsored by Disney, since they just happened to be around the corner, and they shuttled us all over to Epcot and led us behind the gates to where they normally hold their Party for the Senses party. It is a paid, ticketed even that they have during the Food and Wine Festival, and we basically got to go to a pared down version of it to see what it was like. It was, in a word, fantastic! It was set up in this huge hall and had live music and stilt walkers and all kinds of fun stuff, as well as seriously delicious food. The picture below was taken of one of the most delightful things I have ever put in my mouth. Take a glazed donut, cook it in a pan full of melted butter, sprinkle some cinnamon on it and then flambe it in rum, and that is what you have below. Basically the world's BEST donut. Sorry it was half eaten before I could stop myself to take a picture.



After the party we all got to go to a private area where we watched Illuminations. It isn't my favorite fireworks show, but it was pretty neat to have such great seats.

The next night we went to the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but I am going to do a whole other blog post on that. Here is our group after eating, before heading over to Illuminations. Best travel professionals ever!!!