I finally had a chance to post up photos from last weekend’s Mickey & MINI 4 event. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had my exposure setting on my camera all messed up so if some of the photos are a little light, that is why (sorry about that). I also included a weekend recap below to let you know what we did and hoping that you realize that, if you didn’t go this year, you just HAVE to go next year :). Enjoy!

Even though Mickey and MINI 4 officially kicked off on Friday the 26th, there were quite a few of us that arrived a day early to beat the rush and get things ready for the MINIac invasion that was to come. A nice group of us went to dinner Thursday night at Trail’s End restaurant at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. The food was good and the conversation was even better. Disney fireworks topped the night off in splendid fashion.

Friday brought with it the largest group of MINIacs that Orlando has ever seen. Throughout the day, they arrived at the host hotel, filling up the entire hotel parking lot by the end of the day. MINIBee’s Motoring Merchandise and Way Motor Works were on hand selling all kinds of goodies. I had the honor of being in the car of a Mickey and MINI participant as she drove her MINI for the first time after getting a pulley installed. The reaction was classic (yes I did catch it on tape :)). The registration tent was hopping with everyone picking up their goodie bags. I decided to come out of retirement for the weekend and played Mr. DJ for the fine folks who were there.

The Friday welcome banquet was a huge success. over 50% of the 300 participants participated in the dinner and a good time was had by all. MINIBee created the following video to showcase the previous year’s activities to show everyone what was in store. A big thanks to Jack (MINIBee) for putting the video together.

After dinner on Friday, a large group headed over for some go-kart fun. We had an absolute blast! On one of the 4 four tracks, we got to try out our drifting skills by wheeling a go kart around a short track oval that was sprayed with baby oil! Can you say Bristol?? At midnight, we set off on our midnight run through the backroads of Disney (what fun!!).

Saturday morning kicked off with our annual Morning Motoring rally that went through various Orlando roads and ended up in the EPCOT parking lot for a photo op in front of Spaceship Earth. We had about 70 MINIs join us for this adventure and the photos came out great!

After the motoring, half of the group went to “Drink Around The World” at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival and the other half took on the challenge of the Mickey and MINI Scavenger Hunt. Later that day, we all drove to a Mystery Sleuth Dinner Show where we all got to eat while being entertained in a fantastic interactive theatrical production. The cast went out of their way to include the MINI in their performance :).

On Sunday, everyone had a chance to sleep in and relax before heading over for “MINI” Golf at Disney’s Winter Summerland Mini Golf Course. The course proved challenging, but fun and was a great way to close out the weekend.

I want to say thank you to all who attended this year. Also a big thank you to all of the sponsors and vendors that made the event possible. Planning is already underway for Mickey and MINI 5 and I hope to see you there!

[ Mickey & MINI 4 Photo Gallery ]