I won one of the MACNA 2019 weekend passes on August 12th, supplied by MACNA to Reef2Reef.
I signed my son up for the kids aquascaping contest, which was free to enter. I have 3 kids but the age range was 7-12 and my girls are 6 and 14. There were only 10 spots and I learned later he was the last one signed up. The kids cove and contest was sponsored by Planet Aquariums and Real Reef rock. All contestants got to keep the tank and rock used in their scape. The contest was from 11am until noon, with winners scheduled to be announced at 2pm (more on that later).
The looming Hurricane put a damper on some of the festivities and I know a bunch of people that were going to go did not. While the convention was quite busy, it didn't feel crowded. This coming from someone with Disney annual passes.
Friday I was not able to head to Orlando until about 2pm because of daytime errands and picking my kids up from school. I got there around 3pm and the parking lot was not giving out any more tickets (more on that later), but the gate was open and there were a ton of empty spaces. Sweet.
The doors next to the parking lot went through to the vendor floor. There was no security or desk or anything checking passes- which I thought was odd. Like, the entire show anyone could walk right in- nobody checked badges or anything, I did not see any personnel downstairs. :::shrug:::
I asked a few random people where registration was, everyone was very nice. I had to walk down a loooong hallway, around a corner, and up some stairs to the 2nd floor to find the registration desk to get my badge and bag o' swag. I also had to figure out where the speakers were and how to get there. There was a great map of vendors- but zero information about where any of the rooms for talks/demos were. The speakers were upstairs on the 3rd floor. I had downloaded the app but it did not have locations for the rooms. The signs were few and far between the ridiculously long trek- and confusing.
I managed to make the 3:30 aquascaping talk with Joseph Caparatta (barely). I took a few notes but it seemed like most of it was common sense to me. After that I headed down to the vendor floor.
I did see a lot of coral! So many awesome frags and cool gear. I started the contest to win a Waterbox - it required getting stamps from certain booths. I also entered about 4-5 other contests around the floor for things from gift certificates to free stuff. Some of those don't end until later in the week. :::fingerscrossed::: I got a shirt for me and one for my son from Kessel, one for me from Live Aquaria, and one from SaltwaterAquarium.com.
The only coral I bought was from Chaos Aquaculture and it was a Japanese toadstool leather. They only had 2, a bigger frag that had sold already and my wee little ball. It was $20. I did buy some pods and rotifers from Aquaholic Aquaculture for cheap, too.
I had no idea where to go for the raffles so I missed out on Friday. Some booths started to close early on Friday- around 5pm. I did not see everything, but figured I could try the following day. I tried to find someone who worked for MACNA to see if there were reception tickets available due to cancellations- but there was nobody. There were no vending machines, the hotel bar was really far away, the Fritz lounge was closed, and the water dispensers were few and not marked. I did not go to the reception room, possibly could have tried there but decided to just head out. I did not take many pictures on Friday.
Jellyfish and nems! This nem was waaaay out of my price range, lol. It was already sold anyway.
I forgot my Polyp Lab lens, his colors were beautiful.
Shark belly! This was the setup for the kids aquascaping contest.
On my way out, the gates were down and I didn't have a ticket. I didn't see anyone in the booth and was worried. I scooted up a bit and the woman was sitting with her head down. I waved to get her attention- it took a minute. She opened the window and I told her it didn't give me a ticket. I'll spare the details but she was really rude and it was like pulling teeth to get the non-information that I did get from her. I paid full price and left.
~
Saturday the kids and I were up bright and early and on the road by 8:30 to make sure we got there with plenty of time for the contest. When we got there the parking attendant at the booth (different woman) was nice and reminded me to get validation before I left.
We walked around doing the BRS stamp card for *their* contest before heading over to the kids cove. Something I hadn't noticed on Friday- a ton of booths had candy. My kids noticed. It was like Halloween and they were nice and sugared up for the whole day. I made sure my son was checked in. We walked around a bit more and came back just before 11.
We did the contest. Some parents were... more enthusiastic than others. Despite repeated requests to let the kids do it and written directions stating no coaching- there were a couple of parents who didn't seem to care. It was frustrating, but what are you going to do? :::shrug::: The coordinator told me that she has plans next year to make marked-off areas parents cannot cross.
You can see the most helpful dad in the first pic. He is in every single one of my shots other than the other 2 here.
Before they were done, I mentioned to the coordinator that the BRS and a few other contests were being announced at 2pm (same as scaping winners). Those contests were "must be present to win". She consulted other parents and changed the winner announcement to 1:30pm so we could make the BRS booth (whew!).
My son did not place, which is fine because he got a free tank and rock- easily $100 worth of rock and the tanks are not cheap, either. He really packed it in there, lol, we did not even use it all for the final scape at home. The winners got the same, just also little trophies along with their photos taken. My son and the girl next to him collaborated and shared rocks/advice while scaping. It was cute. Now we have a 10gal nano cube waiting for equipment so we can start cycling next week.
To order some of that equipment I used the $25 discount from BRS and another $25 gift card from SaltwaterAquarium.com. I got the free BRS shirt, so did my son, and my kids also got SaltwaterAquarium.com shirts. I swear I had no idea I'd walk out of there with so much clothing. Other things given out include about 5 metric tons of stickers, some chemipure, carbon, and a few types of fish food. There were some coupons as well- including free salt from Live Aquaria. I also bought a cool frag rack from Dirk's (you can see part of it in the 2nd pic of the coral I bought above).
The BRS booth was hopping at 2pm. Just a sea of blue t-shirts. The guy next to us caught a shirt they thew into the crowd. They threw a lot. Then the guy next to us caught another one. He asked if anyone wanted it since now they had 3, and nobody said anything. I said sure, so my husband can wear it. I did not win any other BRS stuff, sadly.
The view in front of us and behind us. Over by the far wall with the orange stripes, there were more blue shirts. Heh.
Then I bought a shell headband for my daughter and coral glasses for my son from Pirates Reef Corals- and they threw in a t-shirt for my daughter (they only had an x-small). I took a lot of pictures of coral/tanks, but didn't think to also photograph the booth names each time. I got a little excited and bought a combo pack of 5280 pods and phyto from AlgaeBarn. I really really love their products. Lots of very visible pods.
The kids were hopped up on sugar and thirsty. I didn't see anything to eat/drink- I assumed the Fritz Lounge was going to be, well, a lounge- but there was nothing there on Friday at all (after 4pm) other than tables/chairs. There was a bar setup on Saturday, but it appeared to be beer and wine. I should have asked if they had water or soda but I did not. Luckily we went by Ultra Coral Australia where they were giving out sodas. I told them I could not get anything and they did not mind- they also talked with me about the beautiful corals that I could not afford anyway. Heh.
A $400 colony from Ultra Coral Australia.
I think these are them, too.
There was a huge tank and stand available in a raffle. It was only $20 per ticket at the TankMeUSA booth and there were not very many entries. The rub was that whoever won had to take possession of it by the end of the show. As in, pick it up and haul it home. I told my husband. He was way too subtle in his encouragement and I did not enter.
We decided to duck out a bit early. Getting the tank + rock to the van was a struggle. I remembered to get a validation. I asked if they could give me a refund, they said no but to ask at the front desk. They gave me 2 validations- one for Saturday and an extra hopefully to be applied to Friday (the validations were for the length of the show, not just single day).
I drove around to valet and parked while I ran in to ask about a parking refund and *ice* for the pods/phyto I impulsively bought despite planning to go to Epcot for F&W afterward. It was about 3:30pm, and wicked hot.
The front desk told me they could not give me a refund as the parking lot was managed by a 3rd party vendor, so I would need to talk to the valet people. He also could not find bags for ice but suggested I go to the restaurant or bar to ask. I went into Fuel to buy some water (again, we were wicked thirsty), and ask about ice. The girl who helped me was *super* nice. She gave me a ton of ice double-bagged in grocery/to-go type bags. I wrapped the ice, all the t-shirts, and the pods/phyto and stuffed them in the aquarium (in case the ice leaked- spoiler: it didn't).
Then it was off to valet to ask about a refund. I don't know what it is with the parking staff, but they need to do some training on how not to look at and talk to people with obvious disgust from the get-go. Two women and a man (he was the nicest of the 3), talked in circles and told me that since I didn't get a validation the day before they couldn't use my validation because I didn't get it the day before, despite being dated for the entire weekend and not a single day. They said people didn't understand about validation was not their problem- they gave the validations to the convention and it's on them. Also- if they gave me a refund then a bunch of other people would start lining up for refunds and they couldn't have that.
I left and we went to Epcot and had a mostly great time. It poured for about 10 minutes (standard summer afternoon here), but was otherwise pretty nice. heck of a way to find out your umbrella leaks, though, heh. When we got home around 9 the ice was only about 1/3 melted and the phyto/pods were cold. Woo! I took a lot more pictures on Saturday. I'll leave out the Epcot stuff, heh.
OMG I just love them.
There were a lot of clown fish. Like, a lot. I think there were about a half dozen other tanks I didn't get good pics of that were full of clowns.
I love feathery worms. This tank was really pretty and brighter in person.
The Kessel booth had a mermaid!
Sunday I considered going back to MACNA, but the whole event was closing at 3 and a few vendors said Saturday was their last day. I talked to my husband about the $20 tank raffle and he wondered why I didn't enter, renting a truck would be at most $50. I was kicking myself over that but, hey. It is what it is. I also considered going Sunday because attendance was way down and the chances of winning the raffles was higher. I had just seen everything else, the talks were mostly cancelled, I wasn't buying any more corals since I had to put a bunch of money into the new tank setup (and a media reactor + wavemaker for my tank), and my eldest kid was sick (she stayed home with my husband Saturday- she was crabby about missing Epcot, lol). People on the app said that anyone who had receipts showing they paid full price for parking previously was getting free parking on Sunday, though. I was peeved about that, lol.
Due to the multiple rude employees, there is no way I would stay at Swan & Dolphin again. If MACNA wants to do Orlando in the future, and specifically Disney, again- they need to pick a Disney owned resort. I had fun overall, though- and got a *ton* of stuff. Well worth the price of attendance- and my attendance was free! If I had had more money available, there were a lot of deals to be had. Just gotta pick through the vendors and figure out who is showing off their stuff, and who is trying to sell it.
I signed my son up for the kids aquascaping contest, which was free to enter. I have 3 kids but the age range was 7-12 and my girls are 6 and 14. There were only 10 spots and I learned later he was the last one signed up. The kids cove and contest was sponsored by Planet Aquariums and Real Reef rock. All contestants got to keep the tank and rock used in their scape. The contest was from 11am until noon, with winners scheduled to be announced at 2pm (more on that later).
The looming Hurricane put a damper on some of the festivities and I know a bunch of people that were going to go did not. While the convention was quite busy, it didn't feel crowded. This coming from someone with Disney annual passes.
Friday I was not able to head to Orlando until about 2pm because of daytime errands and picking my kids up from school. I got there around 3pm and the parking lot was not giving out any more tickets (more on that later), but the gate was open and there were a ton of empty spaces. Sweet.
The doors next to the parking lot went through to the vendor floor. There was no security or desk or anything checking passes- which I thought was odd. Like, the entire show anyone could walk right in- nobody checked badges or anything, I did not see any personnel downstairs. :::shrug:::
I asked a few random people where registration was, everyone was very nice. I had to walk down a loooong hallway, around a corner, and up some stairs to the 2nd floor to find the registration desk to get my badge and bag o' swag. I also had to figure out where the speakers were and how to get there. There was a great map of vendors- but zero information about where any of the rooms for talks/demos were. The speakers were upstairs on the 3rd floor. I had downloaded the app but it did not have locations for the rooms. The signs were few and far between the ridiculously long trek- and confusing.
I managed to make the 3:30 aquascaping talk with Joseph Caparatta (barely). I took a few notes but it seemed like most of it was common sense to me. After that I headed down to the vendor floor.
I did see a lot of coral! So many awesome frags and cool gear. I started the contest to win a Waterbox - it required getting stamps from certain booths. I also entered about 4-5 other contests around the floor for things from gift certificates to free stuff. Some of those don't end until later in the week. :::fingerscrossed::: I got a shirt for me and one for my son from Kessel, one for me from Live Aquaria, and one from SaltwaterAquarium.com.
The only coral I bought was from Chaos Aquaculture and it was a Japanese toadstool leather. They only had 2, a bigger frag that had sold already and my wee little ball. It was $20. I did buy some pods and rotifers from Aquaholic Aquaculture for cheap, too.
I had no idea where to go for the raffles so I missed out on Friday. Some booths started to close early on Friday- around 5pm. I did not see everything, but figured I could try the following day. I tried to find someone who worked for MACNA to see if there were reception tickets available due to cancellations- but there was nobody. There were no vending machines, the hotel bar was really far away, the Fritz lounge was closed, and the water dispensers were few and not marked. I did not go to the reception room, possibly could have tried there but decided to just head out. I did not take many pictures on Friday.
Jellyfish and nems! This nem was waaaay out of my price range, lol. It was already sold anyway.
I forgot my Polyp Lab lens, his colors were beautiful.
Shark belly! This was the setup for the kids aquascaping contest.
On my way out, the gates were down and I didn't have a ticket. I didn't see anyone in the booth and was worried. I scooted up a bit and the woman was sitting with her head down. I waved to get her attention- it took a minute. She opened the window and I told her it didn't give me a ticket. I'll spare the details but she was really rude and it was like pulling teeth to get the non-information that I did get from her. I paid full price and left.
~
Saturday the kids and I were up bright and early and on the road by 8:30 to make sure we got there with plenty of time for the contest. When we got there the parking attendant at the booth (different woman) was nice and reminded me to get validation before I left.
We walked around doing the BRS stamp card for *their* contest before heading over to the kids cove. Something I hadn't noticed on Friday- a ton of booths had candy. My kids noticed. It was like Halloween and they were nice and sugared up for the whole day. I made sure my son was checked in. We walked around a bit more and came back just before 11.
We did the contest. Some parents were... more enthusiastic than others. Despite repeated requests to let the kids do it and written directions stating no coaching- there were a couple of parents who didn't seem to care. It was frustrating, but what are you going to do? :::shrug::: The coordinator told me that she has plans next year to make marked-off areas parents cannot cross.
You can see the most helpful dad in the first pic. He is in every single one of my shots other than the other 2 here.
Before they were done, I mentioned to the coordinator that the BRS and a few other contests were being announced at 2pm (same as scaping winners). Those contests were "must be present to win". She consulted other parents and changed the winner announcement to 1:30pm so we could make the BRS booth (whew!).
My son did not place, which is fine because he got a free tank and rock- easily $100 worth of rock and the tanks are not cheap, either. He really packed it in there, lol, we did not even use it all for the final scape at home. The winners got the same, just also little trophies along with their photos taken. My son and the girl next to him collaborated and shared rocks/advice while scaping. It was cute. Now we have a 10gal nano cube waiting for equipment so we can start cycling next week.
To order some of that equipment I used the $25 discount from BRS and another $25 gift card from SaltwaterAquarium.com. I got the free BRS shirt, so did my son, and my kids also got SaltwaterAquarium.com shirts. I swear I had no idea I'd walk out of there with so much clothing. Other things given out include about 5 metric tons of stickers, some chemipure, carbon, and a few types of fish food. There were some coupons as well- including free salt from Live Aquaria. I also bought a cool frag rack from Dirk's (you can see part of it in the 2nd pic of the coral I bought above).
The BRS booth was hopping at 2pm. Just a sea of blue t-shirts. The guy next to us caught a shirt they thew into the crowd. They threw a lot. Then the guy next to us caught another one. He asked if anyone wanted it since now they had 3, and nobody said anything. I said sure, so my husband can wear it. I did not win any other BRS stuff, sadly.
The view in front of us and behind us. Over by the far wall with the orange stripes, there were more blue shirts. Heh.
Then I bought a shell headband for my daughter and coral glasses for my son from Pirates Reef Corals- and they threw in a t-shirt for my daughter (they only had an x-small). I took a lot of pictures of coral/tanks, but didn't think to also photograph the booth names each time. I got a little excited and bought a combo pack of 5280 pods and phyto from AlgaeBarn. I really really love their products. Lots of very visible pods.
The kids were hopped up on sugar and thirsty. I didn't see anything to eat/drink- I assumed the Fritz Lounge was going to be, well, a lounge- but there was nothing there on Friday at all (after 4pm) other than tables/chairs. There was a bar setup on Saturday, but it appeared to be beer and wine. I should have asked if they had water or soda but I did not. Luckily we went by Ultra Coral Australia where they were giving out sodas. I told them I could not get anything and they did not mind- they also talked with me about the beautiful corals that I could not afford anyway. Heh.
A $400 colony from Ultra Coral Australia.
I think these are them, too.
There was a huge tank and stand available in a raffle. It was only $20 per ticket at the TankMeUSA booth and there were not very many entries. The rub was that whoever won had to take possession of it by the end of the show. As in, pick it up and haul it home. I told my husband. He was way too subtle in his encouragement and I did not enter.
We decided to duck out a bit early. Getting the tank + rock to the van was a struggle. I remembered to get a validation. I asked if they could give me a refund, they said no but to ask at the front desk. They gave me 2 validations- one for Saturday and an extra hopefully to be applied to Friday (the validations were for the length of the show, not just single day).
I drove around to valet and parked while I ran in to ask about a parking refund and *ice* for the pods/phyto I impulsively bought despite planning to go to Epcot for F&W afterward. It was about 3:30pm, and wicked hot.
The front desk told me they could not give me a refund as the parking lot was managed by a 3rd party vendor, so I would need to talk to the valet people. He also could not find bags for ice but suggested I go to the restaurant or bar to ask. I went into Fuel to buy some water (again, we were wicked thirsty), and ask about ice. The girl who helped me was *super* nice. She gave me a ton of ice double-bagged in grocery/to-go type bags. I wrapped the ice, all the t-shirts, and the pods/phyto and stuffed them in the aquarium (in case the ice leaked- spoiler: it didn't).
Then it was off to valet to ask about a refund. I don't know what it is with the parking staff, but they need to do some training on how not to look at and talk to people with obvious disgust from the get-go. Two women and a man (he was the nicest of the 3), talked in circles and told me that since I didn't get a validation the day before they couldn't use my validation because I didn't get it the day before, despite being dated for the entire weekend and not a single day. They said people didn't understand about validation was not their problem- they gave the validations to the convention and it's on them. Also- if they gave me a refund then a bunch of other people would start lining up for refunds and they couldn't have that.
I left and we went to Epcot and had a mostly great time. It poured for about 10 minutes (standard summer afternoon here), but was otherwise pretty nice. heck of a way to find out your umbrella leaks, though, heh. When we got home around 9 the ice was only about 1/3 melted and the phyto/pods were cold. Woo! I took a lot more pictures on Saturday. I'll leave out the Epcot stuff, heh.
OMG I just love them.
There were a lot of clown fish. Like, a lot. I think there were about a half dozen other tanks I didn't get good pics of that were full of clowns.
I love feathery worms. This tank was really pretty and brighter in person.
The Kessel booth had a mermaid!
Sunday I considered going back to MACNA, but the whole event was closing at 3 and a few vendors said Saturday was their last day. I talked to my husband about the $20 tank raffle and he wondered why I didn't enter, renting a truck would be at most $50. I was kicking myself over that but, hey. It is what it is. I also considered going Sunday because attendance was way down and the chances of winning the raffles was higher. I had just seen everything else, the talks were mostly cancelled, I wasn't buying any more corals since I had to put a bunch of money into the new tank setup (and a media reactor + wavemaker for my tank), and my eldest kid was sick (she stayed home with my husband Saturday- she was crabby about missing Epcot, lol). People on the app said that anyone who had receipts showing they paid full price for parking previously was getting free parking on Sunday, though. I was peeved about that, lol.
Due to the multiple rude employees, there is no way I would stay at Swan & Dolphin again. If MACNA wants to do Orlando in the future, and specifically Disney, again- they need to pick a Disney owned resort. I had fun overall, though- and got a *ton* of stuff. Well worth the price of attendance- and my attendance was free! If I had had more money available, there were a lot of deals to be had. Just gotta pick through the vendors and figure out who is showing off their stuff, and who is trying to sell it.
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