Tonya - October 2001

Day 1: (Sat. Oct. 20, 2001) Arrival, Downtown Disney, & the Campfire at Ft. Wilderness

Starring... Tonya, Michael, Brittany (age 10), & Cheyenne (age 4)

After 2 days of traveling from Ft. Campbell, KY to Greenville & Charleston, SC to FL, staying with relatives along the way, we arrived at the All Star Sports about 1:30pm EST. We had requested to be in one of the Surf's Up Buildings, upon checking in the CM tells us we are in Surf's Up but the room will not be ready until 4:00 so we went straight to the food court and bought our mugs then headed to the playground to let the girls run wild for a little while. As we are sitting there we realize we didn't ask if the room was a smoking or non-smoking room (we wanted a smoking). So Michael ran up to the check-in desk to ask, they had put us in a non-smoking room in Surf's Up building 6, when he told them we wanted a smoking room they changed us to a smoking room in Surf's Up Building 1 and it was ready (Yea!! Finally a bed..lol). She also informed him that since EE had been cancelled that characters would be making resort appearances from 7:30am-9am on Sunday, Tues., & Thurs. I know everyone complains about the size of the rooms in the All Stars but I really liked it here. It was the perfect size for the 4 of us.

We rested a little and decided to head over to Downtown Disney to window shop and play in Lego Land. I had to drag my girls away from the Legos and my husband away from the World of Disney..lol so that we could go grab supper before heading to Ft. Wilderness for the campfire. We decided on McDonald's and ate supper as quickly as we could then headed straight to Ft. Wilderness. We arrive at the campground at about 7:45 and grabbed the Boone Bus down to the campfire. The campfire was already going and very busy when we arrive. We get smores packs (we bought 2 which turned out to be to much for the 4 of us, I still have 1 of the smores packs here) and head for one of the fire pits. After getting good and sticky Chip & Dale show up. Cheyenne was scared of Dale and was not interested in staying for the movie since it was not a cartoon tonight; it was Parent Trap; so we decide to call it a night (so we thought anyway), we get to the bus stop about 8:20 to catch the Crockett Bus back to the parking lot. We only had to wait 5 min. on the bus but as everyone was starting to load the bus the driver would stop them and ask very rudely where they where going. When it was our turn we told him the parking lot and he told us to get off of the bus, the parking lot was not on his route and we had to get on the Boone bus to get to the parking lot, he was very rude about it to. We are confused since the Crockett Bus heads straight towards the parking lot and the Boone Bus goes the opposite direction but we get off the bus and wait for the Boone Bus. The bus arrives after about 25 min. This driver was very nice, she to asked where we where headed and we told her what had happened with the Crockett bus, she then informs us that the Crockett bus is the bus we should be on and that the driver had done the same thing to another family the night before. We then have to get off and wait for the next Crockett Bus, after another 25min. of no bus we give up and decide to walk back to the parking lot (it was nice out so the walk really wasn't bad). By the time we get back to the parking lot we are both angry about the bus situation so we head straight to the front desk. The CM (Michael) is very helpful, he tells us that this is like the 5th time in 2 weeks that this bus driver has had a complaint and gives all 4 of us new fanny packs while he calls the transportation office, the manager was not in so he left our name, hotel, and room number for the manager to call us back the next day.

When we finally get back to the All Star Sports it is 11pm. Exhausted, frustrated, and still a little angry we all head straight to bed hoping the rest of our trip will make up for this night.

Day 2: (Sunday Oct. 21, 2001) MGM & Epcot

This morning Mickey woke us up at 7:08am, the girl's loved having Mickey call them. We decided just to have cereal in the room this morning to try and save a little money for other things. After a quick stop at the gift shop for lanyards and autograph books, we headed over to MGM Studios at 9am to buy our magical moments pins so that we have them for the whole trip and get the free Internet pins, unfortunately they said they had sold out of the free pins on the first day that they got them in and they didn't know when they would be getting more, they did let me order them though, I had to pay $9.95 shipping for the 4 free pins and I have know idea of when I will get them but I ordered them anyway. After we bought our pins we headed over to Star Tours but the girls decided not to ride it at the last minute so we took the sissy exit out. We then we to Muppets 3D, I have to say I loved this one, I have been to MGM several times before but this was the first time I had went to the Muppets, very cute show. It was starting to sprinkle when we came out of Muppets, it was funny seeing everyone scrambling for ponchos only to have the rain stop the second they got them on, we just braved the rain, Woody & Buzz where at Al's toy Barn so the girls grabbed their books for their first autographs. Then it was off to the great movie ride.

By this time it was 12:30 and we had PS and was meeting Michelle, her husband and son for the Ice Cream Social at 2:45 so we left and headed over to Epcot. It was raining again by the time we got there and didn't really stop the rest of the day, since I have lupus the sun and heat really gets to me so I was loving this rain it was a very light rain so it kept the temperature very nice the whole time. We still had a little time before we need to head to the Garden Grill so we rode Spaceship Earth, went to the Ice Cool Station (Brittany, my 10 year old, had been reading my e-mails from the loop so I couldn't trick her into drinking Beverly..lol), & watched the Jamitors perform (Michael swore that they were Stomp until he actually saw them). We then headed into the Land pavilion to wait for Michelle and our PS. The Ice Cream Social was so much fun, the Garden grill was almost empty so the characters, Mickey, Chip, Dale, & Pluto spent Alot of time near us. I have some great pictures of all 3 kids with the characters (my favorite picture is Chip giving my husband rabbit ears...hehe). It was very nice meeting Michelle and her family. The girl's loved playing around with Chris (Michelle's son). I think the Ice Cream Social is a definite do again for us. After we had said our good byes we headed over to the Living Seas, I didn't know that they had taking the ride out, I was so disappointed, but it was still fun seeing all the fish and we where lucky enough to be there when the divers where feeding them. My 4 year old fell asleep on us so we decided to go see the Lion King show & Food Rocks in the Land while she slept. When she woke up we split 2 kids meals (got to love the Mickey mac & cheese..lol) and then headed over to the World Showcase about 6:30. The girls where able to hit every Kidcot except for 3 by 8pm when they close. They cancelled the 8:30 Tapestry of Dreams parade because of the weather so it gave us more time to explore before Illuminations. We walked onto the Maelstrom (Norway) twice, this is mine and Michael's favorite ride and now my 4 year olds also. After Illuminations we headed back to the All Star. When we got in the room we got a call from the transportation manager about the bus situation at Ft. Wilderness. He offered us either money off of our room or a free rental van but since we had a car and had paid for our whole trip in full he refunded us $30 of the money we had paid on the room. Even though it had rained all day it turned out to be a wonderful day.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4