I realized that I forgot to post any pics from my recent trip to Disney World!
Mark was presenting this year at the IBM Lotusphere conference which is held in Florida & within Disney World, so for once I decided to tag along! He has been there twice before, but even though I wanted to go with him, it always seemed like such a long and expensive trip and also I couldn't take so many days off from studying. But this year I finally decided to just pack my books & laptop and go for it!
We stayed at the Dolphin resort which was awesome!
I loved all the fountains everywhere.
This was the view from our balcony:
We arrived Friday evening and I was so exhausted from the long flight, that I just took a long swim in the swimming pools and then a soak in the hot tub and went straight to bed. It was awesome ^__^
There were so many birds and seagulls around and you are not supposed to feed them obviously, but w/e, here's me sharing my chocolate & mint raw vegan bar with one of them:
Mark's presentation was on Sunday, so it was good to get it out of the way quickly and not have to stress about it for too long. My sweetheart being proud of his speaker pass:
Mark showed me around the resort since he's been before, it was pretty quiet and pleasant at this time of the year. Obviously there were the hordes of conference attendees, but there weren't too many tourists around. These are some pics from the Board Walk which is near where we were staying:
I had decoed some nails to match my outfit which had gold embroidery:
I finally found a Duffy bear stuffed toy as well as a Duffy pouch! We took some photo booth pics too:
I had no problem finding nice vegan food around. I didn't feel much like eating out all the time, so I stocked up on snacks from the shops there (which I mostly ate on my bed while studying and watching sitcoms heh heh). They had all sorts of stuff available for vegans, some raw vegan snacks, as well as gluten-free things etc. I found that when eating out, they were very accommodating with customizing the food to any special dietary requirements, which was awesome really! The portions were huge though. I had this wrap when I was out on the Board Walk, which they customized a bit to make it vegan for me, and it weighed as much as 3 wraps...
Mark was mostly busy during the day with attending sessions, which was good for me cause I got to do my studying & preparing a seminar I had to give when I came back to London. But he did pop in many times to check on me during the day and I did join him for dinner and drinks and stuff in the evenings (when I felt like going out rather than watching sitcoms and back-to-back Family Guy episodes that is... God I love American TV!!)
Here's another lazy outfit shot. I don't remember taking those shoes off at all during my stay...
...and dinner, nom nom:
One of my favourite things about the stay there was that they have these big thermos mugs that you can buy when you arrive, and with it you get as many free coffee refills as you like around the resort during your entire stay! How awesome is that?
Ok, this entry is gonna end lamely like that cause I am running late and I need to go to the bank. I will post more pics (including some of Duffy Bear IN THE FLESH!!!) soon!
xxxxx

Comments
I love the Rose Melody(?) dress you're wearing and the Duffys! :D And the picture you took with Mark is so cute! <3
Isn't that meat in the food pictures??????? :O
xxx
Aw thanks, and yup, it is a Rose Melody dress! It's so comfy!
The thingy on the salad that looks like meat is actually a huge-ass portobello mushroom with balsamic dressing! And the food in the long platter was starters for sharing, so it's some meats along with veggie stuff like roasted red peppers, capers and pickled green peppers etc :D
Glad to read you were able to enjoy your stay despite having to work on your PhD and presentation.
Yeah, I think I enjoyed it more because I was also doing work - otherwise I would have just felt way too guilty!!
Edited at 2012-02-09 08:24 pm (UTC)
Ha ha, how did you even notice them? Yes, they are bebaroque, I got them on sale
last year(I now realize it was probably 2 years ago or more, but lately I have been calling anything from 1-5 years ago "last year"...) to go with all the gold-trimmed loli stuff :DEdited at 2012-02-09 09:21 pm (UTC)
Hope to see you soon - haven't seen you for ages :(
Are you coming to Hyper Japan? I'll be there Sat & Sun, so I hope to see you there at least!
Haha welcome to American portions! The thing is in the US, the portions are bigger but then people are also more likely to take food home. I still find that not very widely acceptable here. And I have to say because Americans generally demand more service and quality (which you pay more on tips), so restaurants are usually more accommodating than the ones here in my experience.
I didn't know that bear is called Duffy Bear! XD
Most of the time, I have to keep eating after I am full, simply cause I feel that it's rude to leave anything on my plate... and I really hate that! Take away boxes would be awesome :D
I would have thought that nails would be your thing, cause you are so creative and good in crafts! I think you should give it a try, it's quite fun!! :D
I'm so jealous you got to go to Disney World! That must have been awesome! :)
I hadn't been to any kind of Disney World / Land before, I was starting to think that I was missing out! Despite having been to France quite a few times I never made it to Disneyland :((