Alla's Days Weekend adventure

The luncheon was about to start and my friends and I made our way to our table. We were sitting at table #13 and it was very close to the stage. When we arrived at our seats, we found a picture book which contained pictures of every cast member, and a little hourglass. That picture book was what everyone got their autographs in. At around 11:20, the DAYS clip reel was played and it was soooo great. They showed scenes from the past year and everyone screamed when their favorite actor or actors were being shown. They also showed some bloopers which have obviously never before been seen and they were hilarious. At the conclusion of the clip reel, Suzanne Rogers (Maggie), and Frances Reid (Alice) were revealed on stage to welcome the fans to the Annual Fanclub Luncheon celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Days of our Lives. Suzanne then introduced Jim Reynolds (Abe) and Josh Taylor (Roman) to introduce the cast. The men took turns introducing a couple of cast members at a time. The cast members entered in groups according to their story line and each group was introduced with a little background about their character.

The actors were to come in from the door in the front of the ballroom and make their way to the stage where there were tables set up for them. Of course each group of actors entered to loud screaming and clapping from fans. Jensen's group was the fifth one to be introduced and they were introduced by Jim Reynolds. Jim said "Poor Eric is torn between two women, the sexy Nicole and the very sweet Greta. Here are Jensen Ackles, Arianne Zuker and Julianne Morris." Jensen, Arianne, and Julianne made their way to the stage and sat at their table.

The introductions continued and at around 11:45 the entire cast was out on the stage. Jim (Abe) then introduced some of Salem's favorite couples to help pull raffle tickets. About 10 minutes later we were told that 3 people have been chosen by some web site (sorry, not sure which one) to be the contestants in the DAYS trivia challenge. Jim introduced Patrika Darbo (Nancy) to explain the rules of the game. At around 12:00 Jim introduced Joe Mascolo (Stefano), Jason Cook (Shawn), and Kirsten Storms (Belle) to lead the ULTIMATE DAYS CHALLENGE TRIVIA FINALS!

The entire game was so funny to watch because Joe Mascolo was acting the way Regis Phillbin does on the millionaire show. About 15 minutes later they had a winner, I'm not sure about what they won, and Jim called upon more of Salem's favorite couples to call out more raffles. Jensen and Julianne were the last ones to call a raffle.

At this point one of my friends turned to me and said "hey look, that guy looks like Jensen, that must be his brother." I turned around, and realized that it was Jensen's brother, along with the rest of his family. Jensen's father was standing up and video taping Jensen and Julianne on stage when they were calling the raffles. He had a big smile on his face and you could tell just by looking at him how proud he was of his son. One woman who was sitting at my table heard me say that that was Jensen's family and she said to me "Look how proud his father looks". It was that obvious.

At approximately 12:30 Jim dismissed the actors to go to their tables to sign autographs, and the autograph signing lasted until approximately 3:00. My friends and I wanted to go to Jensen's table first but realized that within seconds, his line was longer than anyone else's. We decided to go meet the other actors and come back to Jensen's table when the line would be shorter. Little did we know, that was never going to happen.

We first went to meet Matt Cedeno (Brandon), what a nice guy. He took his time meeting everyone and got up every time a fan wanted a picture, (unlike some other actors, that never once moved from the position in which they were sitting in). We then met everyone else who was sitting at that same table, Ali Sweeney (Sami), Adam Jeffries (Larry), and Austin Peck (Austin). Adam Jeffries was a very nice guy as well. He's a good actor and I told him that I hope they decide to put him on contract. He agreed with me, and thanked me. After meeting these four actors, we went to check on Jensen's line, and it only seemed to get longer. I spotted Mrs. Ackles standing to the side of Jensen's table and decided to go over and say hello. I walked over there with my friend Sharisa and said "Mrs. Ackles? Hi!" She looked at me and said "You must be Alla." Mrs. Ackles then introduced me to Jensen's older brother Josh, and younger sister McKenzie. We spoke for a little bit and then Jensen's father walked over. Mrs. Ackles introduced me to him and I introduced my friend Sharisa to all of them. I asked Mrs. Ackles if they were going to be at Kevin and Patrika's event that night and she said that they were. I then complained about Jensen's loooong line and Sharisa told them that at last year's luncheon Jensen's line was the second longest, after Drakes (John). After about another 5 minutes I said bye to the Ackles' and we told each other that we'd see each other later that night at Kevin and Patrika's event. Mrs. Ackles also told me to say hello to Beth.

My friends and I made our way over to Victor Webster (Nicolas) who was sitting next to Jay Johnson (Philip). We took lots of pictures with Victor and with Jay. Victor is simply great and he's soooo much fun to even talk to for 5 minutes. Jay Johnson is another great guy and he has so much personality. When you talk to him, he looks you straight in the eyes and he seems so interested in everything you have to say. Jay told us about his soon to be out web site and gave us some 5X7 headshots.

We then made our way to Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe), who was sitting in between Patrika Darbo (Nancy), and Aaron Van Wagner (Jason). Kevin Spirtas (Kevin) was sitting on the other side of Patrika, and we went over to him later on. Nadia Bjorlin is simply breath-takingly beautiful. She's very friendly and down to earth. I told her that a girl that I go to school with now sent her regards because they used to go to high school together. Nadia was happily surprised and told me to tell that girl that she said hello and that she misses her. We then met with Aaron Van Wagner and he is soooo much better looking in person than on T.V. There are not many people that I can say that about, but he is definitely one of them. He seemed like he was so happy to even be sitting there and meeting all the fans. Nice guy.

Jensen's table was right next to where Aaron Van Wagner was sitting, but that line just seemed to get longer and longer. We decided to go see Kevin Spirtas and Patrika Darbo, who we just saw the night before at Austin's event. When Patrika saw us she joked "Oh no, the MAFIA, go away". We were about to ask Patrika about her and Kevin's even that night when we saw little white balls flying at Kevin and some of them were hitting him. We couldn't figure out where they were coming from until we turned around and saw that Victor Webster was throwing them at Kevin from across the room. Kevin grabbed an 8X10 of Victor that Sharisa was holding, jumped on top of his table and yelled to Victor threatening to rip his 8X10. We all stood there and yelled "No Kevin, DON'T". It was sooo funny!

It was then announced that there was only about an hour left to the entire luncheon and I realized that I had not yet seen Jensen. My friends wanted to meet Lauren Koslow (Kate), who was sitting next to John Aniston (Victor). Her line was also rather long so we decided that I would go stand in Jensen's line and they would join me after they met with Lauren and John. I went to stand in Jensen's line and my friends joined me about 10 minutes later. I overheard some people on line talking about how nice and friendly Jensen's family was and some people even went over to take pictures of them.

My friend Negin had to leave early because she was going to help out with Kevin and Patrika's event. Sharisa and Jaclyn joined me on Jensen's line, which was together with Julianne's. It was finally our turn and I was excited and happy to see Jensen again. He looked up and me and said "Hey! What did you do? Go see everyone else before you came over here?" I then told him about how his line is never going to get any shorter so I wanted to meet everyone before I came over there. Jensen then walked around the table and gave me a hug hello. I then gave him a card from Beth and he thanked me and told me to say hello to her. I couldn't really hang around there as long as I would have liked to because Jensen's line was still pretty long and I knew that everyone there wanted to meet him before time was up. I quickly took a picture with Jensen and Julianne and told him that I'd see him at Kevin and Patrika's event that night. He told me that he wouldn't be signing at that event because he had no time to rehearse with the rest of the cast. My friend Sharisa then got a picture with Jensen and Julianne and we said bye to them.

We really wanted to meet Joe Mascolo (Stefano), who was sitting next to Suzanne Rogers (Maggie), so we made our way to their table. It was so weird talking to Joe because he has no accent in real life. He asked me where I was from and I told him that I was from New York. He says "where?" so I said "New York City", so he says "where?" so I say "Brooklyn", so he says "where?" so I say "you wanna know where in Brooklyn?" and he goes "yeah". By this time both him and I were laughing. I told him where in Brooklyn and he said he knew exactly where that was because he used to live in the NYC area. I took a picture with him and then my friend took a picture with him and we went over to say hello to Suzanne Rogers. We took pictures with Suzanne Rogers and I just wanna say that I don't know how old she is but I wanna look like her when I'm her age. What a sweet and beautiful woman. At the next table were sitting William Utay (Dr. Rolf), Marcy Kaplan (Marlo), and Steve Blackwood (Bart). We got autographs from them in our booklets and took pictures with all three.

It was then announced that the luncheon was going to be over in about 15 minutes. We realized that we wanted to meet and haven't met some of the teens. We went to stand in line where Farah Fath (Mimi), Jason Cook (Shawn), and Kirsten Storms (Belle) were seated. We waited in line and by the time it was our turn, Kirsten had already left. Farah and Jason stayed and wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted an autograph, got one. That was soooo sweet of them. I met Farah and I was totally amazed by her. Out of all the actors that I've ever met, she seems the most real. She is more down to earth than anyone and she says exactly what she's thinking. She's a very, very cool girl. I took a picture with her and got her autograph in my booklet. I then went over to say hello to Jason and he remembered me from the charity basketball game that I met him at in the beginning of May. He said "Hey, I remember you, what's up?" I was happily surprised and the first thing I did was get him to sign a picture of him and my friend Jessica, who is a BIG fan of his. After he signed a picture for Jessica I took a picture with him and thanked him.

By this time the entire place was clearing out fast and there weren't that many people left in the room. I realized that Josh Taylor (Roman) was still at his table and my friend and I walked over there. There was a staff member standing by his table telling everyone that he had to leave. I really wanted a picture with him and was very disappointed when he couldn't take one with me. I think he saw that I was disappointed and he made up for it later. (You'll read all about it in the summary from Lauren Koslow's event). After he signed about 5 more autographs, he left.

I turned around and noticed a whole crowd of people on the other side of the room. I went over there to see what was going on and saw that Drake Hogestyn (John) was still signing autographs and taking pictures with everyone. His line was sooooo long it looked like he wasn't going to get done for another hour. I stood at the side of his table and just took pictures of him. About 5 minutes later my friends wanted to leave because we were going to attend Lauren Koslow's event in about an hour.

Overall, I had an AMAZING time at the luncheon and it all felt like a dream. I have met many of the actor's before this luncheon but this was something else. It was wonderfully organized and I give a lot of credit to everyone who helped organize it. I can't wait till the luncheon next year. I want to tell all of you to save that birthday money and come out to Cali for the luncheon next year. Its an experience you'll never forget. I promise!!!