Day 7: Friday October 26, 2001- Resort Hopping and MNSSHP

We wanted to sleep late this morning but the girls woke us up at 7:00 anyway. We ate a quick breakfast and went out exploring the All Stars. Michael loved the All Star Movies and took way to many pictures there...lol. When we got back to the All Star Sports we where all a little tired so we ate a sandwich for lunch, put in a wake up call for 4:00 and everyone to a long nap. When we woke up we fixed hot dogs and Mac& Cheese for supper (we brought a single burner with us and some pans). Then everyone got dressed in our Halloween costumes for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I was a Medieval Princess, Michael was Professor Snappe (from Harry Potter), Brittany was a Gothic Princess, & Cheyenne was Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). After I had gotten dressed I went down to the food court to get drink refills, while I was filling up my mug I was surrounded by a group of about 8 kids looking up at me, I was dressed in a green velvet medieval gown with a gold crown with pearls & crystals on it, just like the one in Shakespeare in Love, I still don't know if I just looked really odd or if they thought I was a CM...lol. On our way to the MK we saw tons of kids dressed in costumes but no adults, Michael and I started getting scared that we where going to be the only adults there in costume, we of course where not. After we passed the security check point Michael asked a CM if adults where allowed to trick or treat also and she said yes, adults are kids at WDW. YEA!! We go in grab a map and a bag and make our way down Main Street USA. It wasn't 7 yet so Main Street &Fantasyland was the only part of the park open. We went to the bridge at Adventure land and waited for 7:00 for them to open. When it opened we went straight to the first 2 treat stations and then found the Jungle Cruise was about to open. We where the first ones on, I have never ridden this at night before, it's a neat experience. After the ride we went to a couple more treat stations and then to Pirates of the Caribbean for our free family photo and to ride the ride. We then danced a little bit with some of the characters, they had set up a little stage right outside the pirates ride with a DJ. We then went over to Frontierland to ride Splash Mountain but decided not to since both Brittany's & My costumes where made of velvet, we where scared the water might ruin them. So went over to the haunted Mansion instead, the line was Alot shorter tonight about a 5 min. wait, we had wanted to ride it Monday but the line was long and the fast pass was out. We then head over to Fantasyland, grab fast passes for Peter Pan and ride It's a Small World. Then it was over to listen to Merlin tell a story and get pictures in front of Cinderella's Coach (they had it lit up surrounded by pumpkins, it was beautiful). Then it was back to Peter Pan for our fast pass time. After Peter Pan we went back around to the front of the castle to watch Cinderella's Surprise Celebration again. Then back to ride Snow White and Pooh. We then ran into all 7 dwarves and Michael had to get his picture taken with Grumpy who kept poking Michael in the ribs and teasing him the whole time. After the Dwarves we went to get more treats and then off to ride Buzz. We then danced a little more by the stage in tomorrow land where another DJ was playing music and hit the last treat station. By then it was almost time for the 10:30 Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Parade. After the parade we went over to see if we could catch the 11:30 Halloween Riverboat Ride but everyone else had the same idea as us and the line for the boat was just to long so we hit a couple of treat stations a second time, rode Peter Pan again and then started back down Main Street, window shopping along the way. This was a Great night, Michael and I have decided to make this party a yearly tradition even if we just go to the MNSSHP and nowhere else. I highly recommend it, it is just to wonderful! We then head back to the All Star and to bed.

Day 8: Sat. October 27,2001- Sea World & Belz Outlet

Today Mickey woke us up at 6:45 (Michael was not thrilled with this wake up call since we did not get to bed until 1:15am). We got dressed and ate breakfast in the food court. We then headed over to Sea World for Shamu's Halloween Spooktacular. We had bought tickets on post before we came here so Michael skipped the line that said military and we went straight in (big mistake). It turns out not only do police and firemen get in free but Military also, they didn't say that on any of the mailings I had seen. When we found out that we where supposed to get in free we went to guest relations and they gave us 4 adult tickets to Sea World, FL and 4 adult tickets to Busch Gardens, Tampa that never expire plus the American Hero passport (still with the free day on it for up to 6 guests) good until Dec. 31st, plus, 2 tickets for free skills games, a coupon for the Luau, a coupon for a discount at one of the gift shops, and a coupon for a discount at a restaurant on property. Now we have an excuse to go back down to Disney before the end of the year, WooHooo! I think we are going to try to get tickets for the MVMCP and make it a long weekend. The day started off pretty good, except for the fact it was pretty cold and windy today. First stop was the Sea Lions. We had a very good time feeding them. Then off to the dolphin show, Cheyenne decided she didn't want to sit through any of the Sea World shows so we didn't get to stay for the whole show. We then tried searching out somewhere to eat, major undertaking. The only 2 restaurants in the whole park looked even halfway descent to us so we got the girls some spaghetti and Michael and I skipped lunch. After they finished eating we went over to the penguins and then to ride Journey to Atlantis. Cheyenne, my 4 year old, really wanted to ride this and she was tall enough, since it looked similar to Splash Mountain only with a bigger hill we said yes (she has never been on a roller coaster before). Brittany would not go on so she looked around the girt shop while Michael, Cheyenne, & I rode. We walked straight on went though the little boat ride section and down the big hill, Cheye did great, she loved it. Then we started up another hill thinking the ride was over, it was not. At the top of the Hill the boat picks up speed it goes completely dark you go down another big hill and the thing turns into a regular roller coaster (it's a really great ride but I wish we would have warning about the back part of the ride before hand) this is where Cheyenne started crying but she still did very well considering. I would have never taken her on there if I would have known what the ride was like, I guess that what I get for assuming. She was fine afterward and by the end of the day was asking to ride it again but we said no. After Atlantis Michael went on Kraken by himself while the girls & I waited. When we where finished with the rides it was time for Shamu's Halloween Spooktacular to start (it didn't start till 1:00). We headed over and grabbed our bags and the girls went to the first treat station. This was a huge let down after MNSSHP, the people passing out candy where rude and acted like they didn't even want to be there, and there was maybe 6-8 stations in the whole park all of them around Shamu's Happy Harbor and the Shamu theater. We went to the Creepy Creatures show (Cheyenne was asleep) and then went over to see Shamu at the underwater viewing area, it took us 15 min to get close enough to even see the whales. I forgot to mention the park was very busy, the lines where huge and the crowds where everywhere, it even took us 25 min. to get though to the security check point and another 10 min. just to get into the park. After Shamu we went and grabbed hot dogs from a stand they had set up for the Halloween party and the girls went to play in Shamu's Happy Harbor. When they where finished it was getting close to 6pm. So we left, we didn't really have a good time today. Before today Brittany's goal was to become a Marine Biologist and work at Sea World when she grew up now she says she would rather work at the Haunted Mansion.

When we left we headed to Belz Outlet to go to the Character Premier. Thank goodness we didn't come her the first day we where at Disney like we had originally planned, we would have spent our entire trip budget in this place...lol. We ended up just buying the girls some neat Mickey hair bows and 2 Mickey pumpkin buckets from the MNSSHP ($5 each). We then headed back to the resort to pack up and go to bed.

Day 9 & 10: Check Out and Head home

We got up at 8 this morning and went to McDonald's for breakfast again. We then went back and started loading up the car. We where listening to the TV in between trip to the car and heard the news about Port Orleans closing, I was in shock, Brittany started crying because we had promised her that we would stay in the FQ in May for Star Wars weekend and she was really looking forward to it. Then they announced that Pop Century's opening was postponed indefinitely, Brittany began to cry even harder, she wanted to stay there for the Halloween party next year. I hope they open at least one of them back up soon. We finished and went to check out and turn the wheelchair back in. We where back on the rode by 11:05 and stopped right outside of Orlando for lunch at Burger King (I had gift certificates for here also). We where back on the rode again an hour later for our long trip back home. We stopped at Michael's Dad's in SC for the night, got up went and to lunch with my mother and picked our cat up (my mother cat sitted for us) and headed back to KY. We got back here at 10:00 Monday night and found that our van had been towed, (they where paving our street but didn't send notices about it until the day after we left for Disney) not a very good way to end a wonderful trip, is it? We did get our van back Tues. afternoon, though.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4