New York, NY

I got into the city a little early, at 10:25, and hoped into a cab. It was awesome to see the city all lit up before me and reminded me a little of SATC with me dressed up in the back. I had no problems getting to the Roosevelt and took a quick shower and climbed straight into bed as we had another big day ahead.

First thing in the morning we headed down the block to find a little something for breakfast as we knew we would be getting treats at our first company visit. I settled on a yogurt parfait and a coffee and was ready to hit the town. Up first, Dylan's Candybar, where Kelley alum Maggy Siegel is the COO. She opened up the store for us and gave us a personal tour of the 3 floors of candy. It was a blast! We even got a sneak peek of the back room where all the inventory is kept and then we headed to the cafe for some treats (I got pumpkin ice cream) and some question and answer time with Maggy. It was a great experience and gave us a little different perspective of retail than Target and Wal-Mart who come to campus.

We had a little free time before our next visit and a few of my classmates and I went to Loehmann's nd then to Feline's. I ended up not getting anything but a proscuitto sandwisch from the Bed Bath and Beyond cafe.

Then it was time to head to Macys.com's offices. We were able to meet with HOUR and the merchandise, planning, creative and IT team. It was a really neat perspective on retail, and was great to see the differences between a brick and motar store and an e-tailer.

When we finished up there we were on our own, I headed back to the hotel with some of my classmates and changed into "something more comfortable" and then headed off to get some dinner. We walked to Serendipity, and were greeted with an hour long wait! We found a cute Italian place across the street and had an AMAZING dinner of pasta and salad. We hustled out of there to make our reservation at Serendipity, and proceeded to gorge ourselves on Frrrozen Hot Chocolate and a "Can't Say No" sundae. Everything was good but we needed at least 2-3 other people to help us eat everything. With full bellies, we headed back to the hotel making sure to look at all the holiday windows at Bloomingdale's before calling it a night

M-I-C-K-E-Y...

The flight to Orlando was great, got lots of reading done and picked up a Martha along the way. I got to ride the Magical Express to Coronado Springs to meet up with my Kelley girls for dinner. I was already smiling ear to ear and we weren't even in the park, I was already that excited!

We got up early on Monday for Magic hours and headed to Animal Kingdom before our meeting with Corporate. It was my first time in that park, and it was awesome, like a cross between our trip to Thailand mixed with the Wild Animal Park. We rode Everest (so much fun!), the Dinosaur ride, and the Kilamanjaro Safari. Then after a quick french toast breakfast we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our meeting.

Dressed in our business casual, we headed to the Maingate offices. There we met with the Parks merchandising team and were welcomed with our own pair of ears. We had a wonderful meeting and were able to learn a lot about the process from sample to production, I also got a few sneak peeks into the collection for next year.

Then it was time for me to head out, grabbed my bags and said goodbye to the girls and headed to the Orlando airport to make my way to New York.