The Attic at Disney's Boardwalk Inn

This is the first full day of KHM Travel Group’s Crystal Conference. KHM Travel Group is my host agency. There are several components to owning a travel business. Booking travel and helping clients is the space I want to be in, but there are also other important areas such as supplier relations, commissions, and compliance areas of the business that also require a lot of work. A host agency helps with these other components. My host agency is amazing and this year they are celebrating their 20-year anniversary!

Many of our preferred suppliers showed up in a big way to celebrate! We had several top executives come to educate us. Royal Caribbean and Disney both brought their A games. As well as valuable education, they brought entertainment. I have never seen a more comical travel update presentation given. Have you ever been to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and seen the actors heckling guests upon entry? It’s fun and entertaining. Anyway, one of those actors came to give the update presentation. We learned all about the new things happening at Disney, but with comedic twist. Their presentation also included singers from the parks performing songs that fit with the updates. I’m pretty sure one of the singers was one who normally performs in the Lion King show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. There are lots of exciting updates happening at Walt Disney World in the next couple of years!

Disney Springs

Soon enough it was time for lunch which was provided by the conference. I wasn’t sure if they would have something I could eat so I had decided to eat at Disney Springs. We walked over the giant bridge to access Disney Springs and made it to Raglan Road. It was relatively empty, and we received quick service. I had the shepherd's pie which was good, but I was a little disappointed that there was no pastry component to it.

We meandered through Disney Springs after lunch and built up an appetite for a small, sweet dessert. There are so many choices for sweets at Disney Springs so today I tried something new. Amorette's Patisserie is a French-style bakery and my new favorite place for dessert. They have the cutest little petite cakes and desserts. I opted for an adorable rose made out of chocolate mousse. It was the perfect size to satisfy my sweet tooth.

The Attic

Our evening session at the conference was an award’s ceremony. Each supplier announced their top agent for 2024. The awards were balanced with entertainment. Mo5aic is a beatbox group that performs on Royal Caribbean ships and they were so talented. This group of five men comes out singing. It’s only until the second or third song that I realize that they aren’t singing to a soundtrack. They are creating the drum beat and music while some of them sing. It was really cool to see what can be done!

Several suppliers are present at the conference and many of them extend invitations for dinner. I was lucky enough to be one of the top sellers for Disney and was invited to a special evening out. They bused us from the Hilton to the Boardwalk Inn. Here we walked through several corridors to a place called The Attic. This is a private venue space which is commonly used for Disney weddings. Here they hosted a small reception for about 15 of us and I was so honored to be included. It was very casual and quiet and a peaceful end to the day. We’re of course all Disney people so the conversations were free-flowing, and it was a highlight of my trip. We ended the evening by watching fireworks from the outside deck. Fireworks at Disney are the best.