I had done the attendee party at TechEd 2005, and was completely blown away by it then.  I had no idea they’d actually bought out all of universal studios for 3-4 hours, with complimentary food and booze every 100 feet or so.  This led me to have the same expectations for this year’s party, which unfortunately was still cool, but not nearly as cool as 2005.  It seems half the park was rented out to another event, and that half happened to include the Mummy ride and some other cool stuff.  I think 2005’s party was longer than 8-11pm.  Still, complaining aside, it’s a very fun event: free drinks all over place tons of food including giant BBQ turkey legs this year (you’d have to see it…) and lots of stuff to do including Terminator, Jaws, Men in Black, etc. 

I got several bits of merchandise for my daughter and some Microsoft crawlers for my son.