Food Blog Forum Orlando Recap {Part 2}

{For Part 1 of my Food Blog Forum recap, click here.}

How do you deal with meeting new people for the first time? What’s your reaction when you find yourself in interesting social situations? {i.e. Meeting people you’ve already read all about.}

Me? I’m a babbler.

{I know what you’re thinking. Me? Babble? Never.} 😉

I start talking and then I can’t shut myself up. I talk to fill the silence with timid people. I talk to “put it all out there” and be open. I talk because I want the other person to feel like they’re not the only one sharing. Or oversharing as the case may be.

So, even though I consider myself quite social, I can also be quite socially awkward. At least, that’s what it feels like when it’s happening.

You can imagine how I felt going into Friday evening’s welcome reception with 125+ of my closest “friends” that I’ve never met.

Disney did their best to make us all feel at ease… beautiful little bites of food circulated the room, an open bar served up some liquid encouragement for flowing conversation, and the surroundings weren’t too shabby, either.

Within the first few minutes, I found myself chatting with Elise Bauer from Simply Recipes {one of the very first food blogs I ever stumbled upon}, Megan from Wanna Be a Country Cleaver {one of my more recent favorites! I totally hugged her. I’m a nerd.}, Julie from The Little Kitchen {whom I had the privilege of meeting last year at Central Florida BlogCon}, and Lindsay from Love & Olive Oil.

Can I tell you what I said to these lovely folks? Nope. Not a word of it.

I was tuned into the Babble Station. All babble, all the time. I proceeded to yammer on for the rest of the hour with various other bloggers.

Fun Fact: I spoke with Tina from My Life as a Mrs. and we discovered that we’re practically next door neighbors. Like, we shop at the same grocery store and everything. I also got to meet 2 more local bloggers — Denise from Creative Kitchen and Michelle from The Domestic Mama & The Village Cook . South Florida Bloggers represent! 😉

By the end of the reception {which, by the way, was signaled by a woman walking around the room playing a xylophone-type contraption… Oh, Disney.}, I had made my way around the room and spoken to quite a few people but still had so many more I wanted to chat with!

We quickly changed into comfier “play clothes”, and made our way to the Magic Kingdom in hopes of getting to ride a few of the highlights and catch the fireworks display & the parade.

It was just a tad windy waiting for the boat on the dock.

So, the three of us took on the Magic Kingdom after dark. As we discovered, there were a lot of changes to the park since the last time I visited, which made it sort of difficult to navigate. {Read: We got lost. A lot.} But we still managed to get to ride a couple of the “Mountains”, and even some of the attractions in the new and improved Fantasyland.

Over by the new Beauty & The Beast area in Fantasyland.

Most importantly? I got a Dole Whip.

That is one happy Dole Whip-eating girl.

We called it a night after the parade since we knew we had to be at breakfast by 8:00 a.m. and before I knew it, my alarm was going off and it was time for the conference!

I’m SO not a morning person. But I have to say, the whimsical breakfast spread presented by Disney definitely made losing some sleep a little less painful.

How often do you get to start your day with a light-up fruit salad?

Swag, unloaded from the bag at home. I’m pretty sure some of the stuff isn’t even pictured here.