Saturday, June 15, 2019

Paradiso Decadence Adventure Report Part 2



Welcome to the second installment of my Paradiso 2019 summary!

This report will be divided into two parts as well. The first half, I will be talking about Day 2's morning at the Miniature Museum, while the second half will contain my thoughts on the Tea Party in the afternoon. Let's get to it!

Day 2 - Morning

We woke up at 6AM and were barely ready on time for our trip to the Kansas City Museum of Toys and Miniatures at 10AM. I never get up that early, so it was a bit of a challenge to get ready while being so tired. We managed to get there on time but, because we only had 10 out of 30 people, we ended up starting the tour quite late. There was so much to see, even if they only took us to see the museum highlights.  I would honestly recommend saving this destination for a separate occasion --specially since I could have used the extra sleep! On account of the people's lateness, the tour felt rushed and I felt like I was missing some things. However, the museum itself was very interesting and had some beautiful displays.

My favorite part was the moving sculpture at the heart of the museum. It had hundreds of toys people in the area had donated over time.
Coordinate for day 2 in front of the moving sculpture


Day 2 - Afternoon

The tea party was the main event. We arrived at the Little Theater just in time to queue up. There were so many beautiful coordinates, and it was obvious that people had put their best foot forward. I was very tired, so unfortunately that colored my memory of the experience. Because I'm hard of hearing and there was a lot of echo in the venue, I had a really hard time understanding the MC and the guests answering questions in the beginning. This extended to the ouji and judge responses at the start of the pageant as well, unfortunately.
Beautiful venue for beautiful people

The food seemed to be okay. I'm very picky with what I eat, so I didn't really enjoy it much, but I knew it was coming and that it was nobody's fault. It didn't really feel decadent, though, as the dishes were rather simple. They included fruit, some vegetables with dip, strawberries, and chia pudding, if I remember correctly. The pudding was probably the least popular, as nobody in my table really finished theirs.

Picture from Bodyline Website
The venue was stunningly beautiful, but the caterers seemed overwhelmed with the amount of people they were serving. While most of the audience was enjoying the ouji pageant, I missed a good portion of it due to being unable to follow the conversations that reverberated off the walls. Still, all the princess wooing performances were adorable and, in some cases, hilarious. My favorite act came from Prince Lapin, the eventual crown winner. They met their bunny princess and danced to the Waltz of the Flowers together until the bell rang and the princess had to go in a hurry. It was doubly cute because both prince and princess were wearing the bodyline print 'Bunny Cinderella'.

The other performers were creative and comedic as well, and all the oujis' coords were impeccable. They sang, rapped, dropped packages, and seduced with puns from what I could tell. It was enjoyable to watch and a good distraction from the socializing that was going beforehand.

Look at all the wonderful princes and princesses!

Overall, the event was fun to attend, and it was inspiring seeing so many amazing coordinates. If you are an introvert, I would recommend going if you already know some people there. To me, it felt like people go in groups, and it was intimidating to break those small cliques to get to know people. Otherwise, it is a great event to attend and save your social and physical energy for.

1 comment:

  1. From past experience of organising bigger meetups, when you know that you might have picky eaters, it's best to keep the food simple so that more people find something to enjoy. Had the organisers made the food decadent, not only would it eat a bigger chunk of their budget (and with lolitas it's better to spend that budget on visual things like venue and photographers), but it's also risking that the food might be too extravagant/out of the box for many to enjoy. It's good that you managed to enjoy the event despite accessibility problems, as long as you had fun and made some good memories. :)

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