Orlando Open

I've only seen one thing and that about the 8-Ball events. Nothing else. I know that Ellen Van Buren won the Ladies and Niki Rasmussen came in second and they both said that there were 12 ladies in it. One player said there was 48 in the Men's Open 8-Ball but havent heard about the nine ball events other than Deadstroke won against the 13 year Nick by 2 games. I thought I'd be reading a lot about it but I guess not. I didn't go due to an obligation to spend my husbands birthday with him. Took him on a two day trip and that was nice.
 
What I can remember on about 9 hours sleep Thursday thru Sunday.......

I just spoke to Eydie and Bob and the are on a fishing trip trying to enjoy a couple of days here in Florida. Eydie will have the results and a complete story here in a couple of days. The Disney people were charging over $1000 per day for an internet connection, and a wireless signal was over $600 per connection.

Ellen Van Buren did win the 8 ball women's event over Nicki R. and Jessie Bowman won the men's 8 ball over Shane Van Denberg.

Mickey 9 ball event was won by the 13 or 14 (I'm not sure) Nick Tafoya who also won the junior event. This event had 67 entrants. This kid will be someone to watch in the future as will his younger brother Mark. He bested many more seasoned players including many road players that were in attendance. Bob Romano played tough the entire event and finished 2nd.

The Minnie 9 ball event was won by Stephanie Mitchell and Ellen finished as runner up.

The Big Quacker 9 ball event was taken by Josh Johnson over Stan Tourangeau. I was suprised at the light field (22) for the Quacker, and hopefully next year the people that said they were coming will actually show up.

Speaking with Eydie they are planning on having the event as an annual event, but it will be at a different venue. The Disney location was central for the Florida players, but $7.00 for a beer and $3.50 for a cup of diluted coffee, was an insult. And I won't go into all the other behind the back tricks the Disney people pulled, but I think Mickey and his people are gay 'cause they are experts at giving it to you in the A_S !!

ps... When did Deadstroke beat the Kid?? I think it was some other kid(not Nick) and Art was not in the event, he was there to Help.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the innagural Niagra Falls and Windy City Opens!!

Joe
 
daytonajoe said:
Speaking with Eydie they are planning on having the event as an annual event, but it will be at a different venue. The Disney location was central for the Florida players, but $7.00 for a beer and $3.50 for a cup of diluted coffee, was an insult. And I won't go into all the other behind the back tricks the Disney people pulled, but I think Mickey and his people are gay 'cause they are experts at giving it to you in the A_S !!


Joe
This is exactly what I commented when this tournament was first brought up. Disney is TOO HIGH priced of a place to hold a pool tournament. What a joke!!
 
That's just Disney or basically any theme park you go to for entertainment. I happen to have a good time when I go to Disney and I do go often. The prices are theme park prices and its expensive at any those type of entertaining places. I don't think there was anything wrong with the venue. It just happens sometimes you have a good turnout and sometimes you don't. This is also the time of the year when a lot of people go to Disney for vacations so its prime season for them. Things are just expensive there unless you know the venues, their contracts and how to work with it.
 
The internet connection at Disney is $10.00 per day. NO Where near $1000 that Eydie said. She had that wrong too.
 
Disney Marketing Policy

Disney promises to deliver the poorest quality product at the highest possible price with the least amount of service. You would almost think they had the same board of directors as Marriot!!!!
2 cups of coffee
1 sm. orange juice
3 sweet rolls
__________________
$27.50 at LAX 5 years ago.


Go figure!!!!!!!
Purdman :rolleyes:
 
Wrong???

MouseTyme said:
The internet connection at Disney is $10.00 per day. NO Where near $1000 that Eydie said. She had that wrong too.

Sorry to disagree but I inquired and that was the rate. One of the vendors attempted to use his wireless ( cell phone) internet connection and it came up that the rate was $500 or so!!

Also thanks for the great rates NOT !!! Walk ins got the same rate if a Florida resident. I knoe because I did!!
 
MouseTyme said:
The internet connection at Disney is $10.00 per day. NO Where near $1000 that Eydie said. She had that wrong too.
Maybe in your room, but not where the conventions are held.
 
Hi Joe,

It was great to meet you even though you don't know how to call a push shot. Just kidding! Glad to have been able to give you a Heiniken!

We got back around 11am, and I slept the day away.

Now, I'm fighting a cold that I got right before we left FL! I hope to see you in Vegas during APA teams!

I;m glad I was able to help you guys out! You did run a great tournament and I would ask you to be my ref all day long!

Take care,
Susie
 
Orlando

There were only twenty-two players that showed up for the Big tournament. WOW! Thats amazing. What did first place pay anyway in that particular event? Did the winner even get even?
 
MouseTyme said:
The internet connection at Disney is $10.00 per day. NO Where near $1000 that Eydie said. She had that wrong too.

By the way Linda thanks for taking the time to talk with me on getting tickets. We ended up just grabing the children and taking off and got the tickets at the gate. I know I could have probaly got a better deal with you but it was last minute. You were very nice and helpful with information for me. Thanks Kay

PS
I will be calling you for my next Disney trip
 
MouseTyme said:
The internet connection at Disney is $10.00 per day. NO Where near $1000 that Eydie said. She had that wrong too.

That's not true. The internet connection in the room was supposedly $10 a day, the wireless connections OUTSIDE the convention hall were $10 a day, IF YOU COULD CONNECT.

I tried to connect at several points, including the room and could not. I went to te front desk on the last day to see if I could connect there and to my surprise I could. The desk clerk told me that connecting at the Coranado resort is spotty and there are some places that are "best".

While I was trying to connect in the convention hall I was directed to a webpage login for SmartCity and given no further instruction. I called the front desk and was handed off for over 40 minutes because NO ONE could tell me HOW TO CONNECT or WHAT IT COSTS.

The Coranado Resort is pretty, the way Disney has it set up is pretty bad. I don't know if it costs a thousand for a hardwire connection in the convention hall. I do know that the connectivity for the resort is not even as good as most second rate motels these days. For as much money as Disney charges for everything they ought to have wireless connectivity in every corner of that property and CLEAR instructions when the connection comes up.

I am not going to say one word about the negotiations with Disney on this event. I will say that the service is atrocious. They put one garbage can in the convention hall. ONE GARBAGE CAN for several hundred people. It took us two hours to get someone to come and empty it after it began to overflow.

My girlfriend went to the food court to get a sandwich. She paid $8 for a ham and cheese sandwich. When she returned she opened it up and it was ONE SMALL PIECE OF HAM AND ONE SMALL PIECE OF CHEESE on a LARGE PIECE OF BREAD. This is ridiculous.

And since they only HAVE ONE BAR at the Coranado resort - it makes perfect sense to CLOSE it at midnight.

I won't spend any money with Disney that I don't absolutely have to. To me they are financial mercenaries with just about zero sense as to what their hotel customers want. Maybe they are the greatest at theme parks but they are lousy hoteliers and convention hosts.

John Barton
 
It seems that all everyone wants to do is complain about Disney. Its set up for family entertainment. Sure they close the bar at midnight, after all you have to cut the kids off at some point. ;) Its a theme park and its pricy. The fact of the matter is maybe it wasn't the theme park that was the cause of the problems. I have stayed at Disney and I have stay off Disney and I have never had a problem. I have never had a problem with the food portions either. Everyone wants to blame Disney but I in all the years I have been in Florida I feel that Disney was not the problem. I do know that several players were very disappointed and felt the event was not what they expected or what was advertised. I want all to understand that this is my personal feelings and it is based on what players have stated to me. I did not attend and I had made the decision on not attending in April. It was my husband's birthday and I wanted to be with him making his birthday a special event, which we had a blast. We do enjoy Disney several times a year and take the grandchildren as often as we can.
 
Kay,
You can bring a tournament to the players, but you can't force the players to come to the tournament! I guess people from the Fury tournament ought to know that since their last event at Cue N You was cancelled due to only one player showing up. in fact, that player told me about that personally. It is a shame when you work so hard on something and the players don't appreciate it.

"Everyone wants to blame Disney but I in all the years I have been in Florida I feel that Disney was not the problem."

"I did not attend and I had made the decision on not attending in April."

Unless you were there, you really shouldn't be going on what you heard!

I was there for 6 days and was impressed with the way the tournament ran. As soon as the player auction was done, the brackets had already been drawn by a random computer generator. No one had to wait around for cards to be drawn. From what I was told, the players had a blast! Josh Johnson, who won the Big Quacker, was thrilled, and I heard that directly from him! The Romano's gave away tons of door prizes while at other tournaments, you have to buy raffle tickets to win anything. I know they worked their butts off to make this a nice event.

Coronado Springs was beautiful, however, our shower dripped the entire time. We even switched rooms after the first night and the problem still occurred! The food court was pretty, but I had to wait 20 minutes just to place my order for a small pan pizza. There was only one person in front of me too. You would think that a 5 star resort would not have that kind of problem. We also did not get 2 wake up calls. I have had better service from a Motel 6! Aside from the small problems, the tournament was great and the resort was fun. The pool was very pretty. In one of lakes, we saw 2 alligators, bullfrogs, turtles and tons of fish. It was very peaceful.
 
Kay,

I said that Disney is probably the best at theme parks and that in my opinion they aren't the best at either hotel service or convention service. Just because you have had great experiences does not mean that I and others did as well. You weren't there so you really can't comment on what some of us went through.

If you had paid $8 for the sandwich we got and you didn't feel even slightly ripped off then I have to say that you have too much money and don't care if you get bad product for premium prices.

As for the tournaments, yes the turnout was smaller than anticipated. There are a variety of reasons for this and you know which part you played in it as well. Despite that it seemed as though most were enjoying the play and I heard very few negative comments from those who did show up.

At least Eydie and Bob had the courage to go with their convictions and try something new in the billiard industry. I had many players tell me that their kids enjoyed going to the parks AND playing pool during the same weekend. Although it didn't work out entirely as planned, I commend the Romanos for putting on a great event.

John
 
KBP said:
It seems that all everyone wants to do is complain about Disney. Its set up for family entertainment. Sure they close the bar at midnight, after all you have to cut the kids off at some point.

Um, you have a "resort" the size of a small town, specifically the Coronado Complex. This is attached to a convention center. At any given time there are several thousand business people staying there. To have one bar that closes at midnight is just idiotic from a business standpoint. I don't even think that they had a restaurant besides the food court. What the hell do I know though? I just go to the conventions and do business at them, I don't run them. I seem to do more business when I am comfortable than when I am not. I wasn't comfortable there.

In Las Vegas, at the Sands Convention Center I could walk the same distance from the convention hall as at Disney to the food court and be in the Venetian with access to several bars that never close, a half dozen superb restaurants, entertainment, my room, and dozens of high-class shops.
At the Coronado where I am basically trapped, all I have is the food court which closes at 10pm and the bar which closes at midnight. Yippee.

Also, DO you think that ANYONE at Disney has the foresight to put a map of the whole place up so that visitors could see where they are and what other things are going on? Maybe they do but there certainly wasn't anything that I could see anywhere in the convention center hallways.

So, feel free to continue to be ripped off by Disney. My kids are going to learn to have fun without being sucked into Disney's world of "legal" thievery.

John
 
John,
Disney is no more a rip off than any other theme park. Sorry you had a bad time there. I have never had a bad meal or time there in anything that I attended and I have attended other conventions there. Like I said I have never had any problems with Disney and from all the people that go there by the thousands they haven't either. If you wanted more of a party then it should have been some place else, plain and simple, but from my understanding it was booked there due to it being a family atmosphere. So no partying just family fun and business. Maybe that is why they are so successful.
As for as courage to go forward with projects, practically anything you attempt takes courage to do with the way things are. I know a lot of people with courage to take on a lot of things. BTW What happen to the Diamond Smart Tables and the lights that were to go over the tables? Just letting you know what I heard.
 
a_susie_cue said:
Kay,
You can bring a tournament to the players, but you can't force the players to come to the tournament! I guess people from the Fury tournament ought to know that since their last event at Cue N You was cancelled due to only one player showing up. in fact, that player told me about that personally. It is a shame when you work so hard on something and the players don't appreciate it.

For your information. Neither me nor my current Tournament Director knew the event had been cancelled till the day of the event. We had spoken to them about a month prior to the event and all was fine and then we were told the day of the event that it was cancelled. So it seems that someone is trying to destroy the tour in that area. The TD called to get directions when he arrived in town and that is when he found out. We do appologize for that but it seems to be out of our control when someone calls and pretends they are either me or work for me so we are taking measures against that happening again. It's like you said you are going by what you heard and that's not the whole story.
 
Kay...

KBP said:
John,
BTW What happen to the Diamond Smart Tables and the lights that were to go over the tables? Just letting you know what I heard.


The Diamon deal fell apart at the last minute 3 days before set up day, whan the advised Bob and eydie that they couldn't cover the order... So a mad scramble resulted in getting the tables sent from Vegas!! There was supposed to be a 9 footer as well...but we will let the party that promised to have one there explain themselves if the so chose. Bob and the entire staff tried to get a 9 footer from a local table Mfg. even offering to purchase it if they would deliver and set up , all to no avail.

Another side issue was disney never did any promotion in house. So to say if I had a major company or venue going on I would have signage on the sandwich boards directing guests and participants to what was happening at the facility. The message center had a small post that said "Disney Open" with no detail as to what it was.

The facility also advised that they would not be providing any beverage or snack service within the conference center 1 week before the doors opened for the event. Ask anyone there but it was about 1/4 mile form the hall to the Bar/Food court. Just imagine the lost revenue for The Coranado from pool players just in beer sales @ 7.00 per beer!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last tourney I was involed in provided a free buffet to all attendees ( burgers and dogs ect.) as appreciation for us having the event there. and it was in the local area for most and they booked very few room nights.
 
Back
Top