20 Years of NFFC
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This July, the NFFC will be hosting its twentieth annual convention. I have been fortunate enough to attend the last fifteen straight, and this personal milestone has inspired me to reminisce about some of my favorite convention memories.

My first memory is actually fatigue. Coming from the Eastern time zone with its three-hour difference is a major adjustment. But other demands on my time (like my job) have never given me the luxury of spending an extra day or two to conquer my jet lag before the convention begins. (I did try once, but ended up going with friends to try to crash the Disney Studio in Burbank.) And since I want to maximize my annual “Disneyland fix,�? I invariably end up going to bed on Pacific time, yet I still wake up on Eastern time. It’s like an entire week of 27-hour days!

The upside is this gives me an excuse for all the less-than-smart things I do. Like the time I became totally disoriented during room hopping.

“Room hopping�? is the NFFC’s equivalent of “shop ‘til you drop,�? when people sell merchandise out of their rooms. Usually at least one night is entirely devoted to this treasure hunt. The problem is conventioneers’ rooms are scattered throughout the hotel; usually there are at least a couple on every floor. Thus, for the serious shopper a systematic approach is a must.

One year I hit on a fool-proof plan for efficiently covering the entire hotel (in this case the Hyatt Princess Alicante) in one evening — I would begin on the top floor, walking the hallway from one end to the other, go down the stairwell on the far end to the next lower floor, walk the hallway the opposite way, go down the stairwell on that end to the next floor, etc. No elevators to wait for, no stairs to climb, perfect!

So I began my shopping spree -- across Floor 16, down the stairwell to Floor 15, across the opposite way to the stairwell, down to Floor 14, across and down to Floor 12...

Oops, I missed one. Back up to Floor ... 14! No, that can’t be right. Down again to Floor ... 12. What’s going on here?

It took a full three minutes of running up and down the stairwell before I finally realized the hotel had no Floor 13.

Moving on, one activity of virtually every convention is the foot rally, a combination trivia contest/scavenger hunt that has carried several labels and seen several formats over the years. Each year I actually try to avoid getting involved, preferring to spend my precious park time enjoying the attractions. And each year I get lured into joining a team, usually by the promise of a can’t-miss (ha!) plan to win.

One year our scheme was to collaborate with other teams. The idea of three or four teams tying for the top spot didn’t deter us in the least; it seemed the only way I would ever be able to claim any kind of victory.

That year’s version had to be completed in one day. Several pages of detailed questions had to be answered and the results were due by late afternoon. Despite this, everything was going swimmingly as we bargained with others, trading our answers for theirs. Then to our horror, we realized we were totally stumped by one Frontierland question... and were rapidly running out of time. My mind has since blocked out the painful details, but the question was something like “Who loved Cowboy Joe?�?

We were on the verge of panic when a teammate finagled a hint from another team: “Look in the Frontierland shooting gallery.�? We rushed over and there it was -- the cowboy’s name on a tombstone as a gallery target. And below the “Loved By�? part of the caption was a lady’s name! Success at last! We scribbled the name down and raced to turn in our entry, making it was a few minutes to spare.

Except we didn’t win. During the contest critique at the convention banquet, we were informed that this question was our downfall because we had not provided the complete answer. The intent was to pay your money and shoot the target on the tombstone. When hit, the entire tombstone raised, revealing... more names! And all names were required for full credit. (During my last Disneyland visit, I noticed a target with a similar action: “Nancy’s Dan — A Truly Devoted Man.�?)