Annual MINI event close to Walt Disney World, Florida
Got here ok, beating the storm back home. First problem – flat battery! But rolling it backwards down the driveway made for an easy “jump” start, then 20 miles to charge it.
After that a quick wash, a quick jump in the pool to cool off, then over to Embassy Suites to meet many other MINIs and owners (including Stephanie and David & Erica).
A few iPhone snaps to keep you interested …
Actually, GPMINI crawls south is closer to the truth!
I’m heading down to Florida tomorrow for the excellent Mickey & MINI event, which I attended last year with George, sharing his classic Mini … this year I wanted GPMINI to attend, but couldn’t take the time off work to drive her down there.
So instead I used the services of Inter City Lines … and I’ve got to say, I wasn’t really very impressed! Next time I’ll use FedEx 😉
Inter City were fine for the initial setting up of the contract – and I hope they were fine at actually transporting the car! They have nice trucks with a lift gate so that the car is driven flat, no worries about ground clearance … But Inter City are not very good at communications!
Last Monday (15th) I called to see what day they planned to pick up the car, because on the Tuesday I had a meeting … they didn’t know. But then at 4:30pm, when I was already at my meeting’s location, they called to say they were coming the next morning! Less than 20 hours notice 😦
Luckily I was driving the convertible so GPMINI was at home – but Margaret had to deal with the picking up since I was away. And the driver had the audacity to complain that GPMINI wasn’t pristine clean (no wonder since I’d been away for the weekend and didn’t know they were coming – of course unlike many of their cars, GPMINI isn’t garaged).
So, they picked the car up on Tuesday (the 16th) and said it would likely be in Florida Friday or Saturday (delivered to our second home down there).
Finally, GPMINI was delivered yesterday – they called our management company at 9pm Tuesday night to deliver, but they sensibly suggested waiting till Wednesday morning.
Thus, it took 8 days to deliver GPMINI from Massachusetts to Florida – slower than I drove the other way last year during The Great Ice Cream Run!
I really have no complaints about the time – I wanted it delivered by tomorrow and it was – but I’m not at all impressed with the very short notice they give of both collecting and delivering the car.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to joining GPMINI and Mickey & MINI this weekend 😀
An absolutely excellent weekend – with many many thanks to George, who provided continuous friendship and transportation is his fabulously cute new Mini … and thanks also to Pedro (of MotoringFun), Alex, Barry and everyone in Sunshine MINIs!
Friday evening, after happy hour drinks at the hotel, there was a great dinner get-together with perhaps 80 people attending (sponsored by MinSpeed, previously MyMINI). The food was very good, and after prize presentations (including a hilarious one for best “hard luck” story on the way to the event), we ended with a group picture:
On Saturday afternoon, George & I attempted a photo scavenger hunt – it was great fun but a bit frantic, especially since we non-locals didn’t know many of the “secrets” that the locals did know 😉 … then everyone re-grouped at Kitty O’Sheas for food (generously provided by Downtown MINI of Orlando), and drinks! Photo scavenger hunt results were announced, with Brandy & Amy taking first place … And then, it rained!
Thankfully, only for a while … so in the evening we were able to watch the original Italian Job movie, courtesy of the hotel (there was also a go-karting event, which we heard was excellent as well!). It’s quite amusing laying on sunbeds by the pool, in the dark, watching a movie – especially when you can’t really see the picture because all the lights are still on (but of course we all knew the movie anyway, and we could still hear it!)
On Sunday, a MINI golf event was organized at the Disney Winter Summer Land course; George & I sneaked in a game at Fantasia first … and that’s where I dropped my camera(!) and had to find the bit that dislocated from it 😦 so no more pics; but thankfully the camera is now re-assembled and appears to be still fully functional.
For more, visit Pedro’s MotoringFun website, George’s website, the Sunshine MINI club website, or the official Mickey & MINI website … and try to make it next year so we can meet up in Florida 🙂
M&I / GBMINI 
