Disney 2008 (Halloween Trip)

[myke]

I will try to document the trip as the days pass with photo's and some information along the way.

Day 1 -

We left Saturday Morning early, about 4 am, the drive was easy and Joe did a great job, I learned that flying out of Midway is a bit further then O'hare but well worth it for the time saved in the Security check point stuff, and walking time. Our flight was fairly smooth and un-eventful only part I didn't care for was the touch down, the plane hit the ground and bounced back up one time before it settled on the ground finally. It was a smaller plane, the Boeing 737, so that may be why. The flight took maybe 2 hours and 30 minutes, with a one hour time zone change ahead so, we lost one hour that we will regain on the way back.

Rachael and Jordon in the airport still in Chicago...

Kathy and Jodi in the shuttle on the way to the rental car place in Orlando...

Shuttle from the airport to the rental car place took maybe 10 minutes, and the line at the rental car place took some time, maybe 30 minutes, the car is ok, a Hunda Senata, has XM radio built in, nice plus.

The house we rented is fantastic, huge 6 bedrooms and baths, heated pool and hot tub, steam room.



Here is the Kitchen....



This is our room, there are 6 rooms very simular to this room.



This the door leading out to the pool and Hot tub area...



This is a work in progress, stay tunned to the site, I will try to keep up with our trip as the days pass, but no promisses!

myke

[myke]

The Forcast looks good for this Orlando area....

[myke]

Day 2 - part 1

Day 2 started off with breakfast and shopping, to get all the items we forgot to buy the first trip to the store.

The plan is to spend the day at Epcot once we get started. It should be fun and I should have more photo oportunaties then just the neighborhood here where we are staying....

The computer I am useing here at the house is a pretty nice little Pentium 4 Dell, high speed internet and 15" LCD display. It works well and everyone is getting a turn to take care of their football picks and stuff.



Here is another photo of the front of the house we are staying at, I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning and noticed many of the houses are quite simular and most look vacant. Some are for sale, and some have tall grass and green water in the pools. Not very many appear to have people living in them full time.



It's a pretty nice Gated comunity and well taken care of, with the exception of the houses that are vacant.



Another shot of the pool from the top of the fence!



Rachael carved the pumpkin!

[myke]

Day 2 Part 2

We spent the majority of the day at Epcot as planned and the last couple of hours at Hollywood Studios to see Fantatasmic!



Kathy and her buddy Nemo...



Kathy didn't care to much for this ride, mission to mars was to much G-Force for her...



One quick shot of the Mono-rail, I have not ridden it yet this trip but we plan to use it some tommorrow...





The Mickeys Fantasmic show was great! I did not see it the last time we were here 10 years ago, I think it only shows at particular times or days. Obviously the photo's I took do not do it justice. Hope Kathy's better camera took some nicer shots.

[treekath]

MUST BE FRINKEN NICE TO BE WALKING AROUND IN SHORTS AND WE R HAVING THE COLDEST WEATHER OF THE YEAR HEAR YA IT WAS DOWN TO 26 OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT LASTNIGHT

[myke]

Yea, you know now that you mention it, it is pretty darn nice!

Day 3 -

We got a fairly early start today, all these parks open so late morning, some open at 9 and some open at 10, half the day is shot by 10 if you ask me. But we did get off to a good start first thing after breakfast was out of the way.



We spent the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the weather was perfect and so far of all the parks we have been to, I would have to say this one was the most crowded early but by afternoon it was clearing out for some reason.



You can see this big tree from the gate as you just are entering the park, and also from just about everywhere in t he park. Inside it has the show from "It's a Bugs Life" We didn't go inside this time, all of us pretty much remembered it from the last time, and the kid's didn't care to see it again.



This was a pretty common scene throughout the day, Kathy with her "Big Lens" she got some good shot's and with my little pocket sized camera I pick out some good Photo Opportunities here and there.



This was a cute shot of the girl's on the way up to Mt. Olympus to ride the roller coaster, notice they are dry at this point...



Now you can see they decided to try the water rafting ride. And as you can see they are now getting quite wet!



and wetter...



Looks like they had fun anyway.





We took the safari ride and this time, and as luck would have it, none of us had to pea at all, and the truck was not delayed by a giraffe sleeping on the road. Good thing we did not have to get off the ride to pea, this would have been a bad spot!



We stopped along the way several times to listen to the people who were working at each of the exhibits, We listened to the one about the Ape's. (no tail = ape, size does not mater) Cranes, they eat what looked like dog food out of a box that they needed a long neck to get the food out of, otherwise the wild ducks would eat it all. Anteater, they eat 30,000 ants in a day when they are in the wild, but at disney they eat dog food that tastes like ants, go figure



Jodi and Joe made Brat's on the grill back at the house and they were excellent!

About half of the group went to Epcot for the fireworks show, I stayed at the house because I was tired of walking for the day and I wanted to watch the Colt's and Titens game on Monday night football.

myke

[myke]

Day 4 -

We went to Sea World today, this is not really considered a Disney park so you buy the tickets seperatly and saddly there is no Mono-Rail track.



The first show we went in to see was called the Sea World Blue Horizons Whale and Dolphin Show. I have seen this type of show in the past but I really don't recall the people standing on the nose of the animals and being launched out of the water like this, I'm not sure if its a new idea or if I just wasn't paying attention.








Riding on the backs of the Dolphin's like a surf board I have seen before, looks like fun.



The animals are always so beautiful. they did some great tricks, they had a lot of cool water effects, a lot of acrobatics and diving etc.



The girls road the Kraken and loved it, it's the big roller coaster at Sea World Orlando. Rachael road it once and Jordan and Molly road it 3 times!





We also went in to watch the Shamu - Killer whale show. The whales are always so huge, it's amazing to see them jump out of the water and splash the people in the front rows!



There were allot of beautiful area's and gardens, here is a shot of the girls sitting by a water fall.





I took a shot of the girls trying to pet the Dolphin's....



Here is one of the girls feeding the Sting Rays

[myke]

Day5 -

We spent the first part of the day at Hollywood Studio's and the second half at Magic Kingdom.



The first ride we went on was the Towwer of Terror at Hollywood Studio's, I intended to take photo's at the top and throughout the ride, but I was too busy hanging on! It took 30 minutes from the the time we entered the line untill the time we exited the ride. Good thing Kathy did not ride this one! She would not have liked it.



We went in a saw a Hollywood Stunt show, there was motor cycle stunt riders and car's. They showed us how some of the stunts are done, disapointed that the 007 James Bond car is not really driven by his remote control watch, there is really a guy hidden on the side of the car driveing it.



We did not go in the Star Wars Jedi attraction, but I thought this Imperial Walker looked life like and kewl!



The Magic Kingdom is all about the Mono-Rail, you park remotely and ride the mono-rail into the park, and then back out to the parking area at the end, Got my Mono-Rail fix for the week now.





Cinderella's castle gives you different looks throughout the day, and they change the color with lights at night. I thought it looked kewl in purple!





Been looking for Horseshoe pits all week, this is about as close as I have gotten, I think it was some place to eat that we diddn't go into.



Next we will be going back to Magic Kingdom for the Not so Scarry Trick or Treating deal, It should be a hoot, You buy extra ticket's for this night, they kick out all the people who didn't pay extra and the kids get to trick or treat around the park from 7 till Midnight, I think!

[sister]

Damm, Looks like you guys are really having fun!!! I love the sea world photos. maybe one of theses times Jim and I will get a chance to go on a trip like yours. Still praying for our new house to go threw. Just waiting on the sellers bank to accept the offer.
Looking forward to more photos from your trip, Your camera is doing a great job myke.

[myke]

Day 6

We had the extra tickets for this special day at the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not so Scarry Halloween Party, The tickets get you into the park and rides for the party and you don't need to use the regular park hopper pass, so that way we still have our hopper pass left to use today.

The kids dressed up in thier costumes, Jordan was a Fairy, Rachael and Jonny were Pirate's and Molly was Mary Popins. They got to go and Trick or Treat in Disney for candy and things from 7:00 PM untill Midnight. The park closed to the people who did not pay for the extra ticket deal and did not have the arm band. The lines were short for the ride's and They got a huge amount of good candies, It will be difficult to bring home on the plane.





We rode the Pirate's of the Caribean ride and went into the Haunted Mansion (Halloween Time for sure)









The Fireworks were great, It did not really mater where you were in the park to see it, they set off fireworks on all sides of us.



These night shot's with no flash were difficult to get clear! I needed a tripod or a garbage can to set my camera on but there was not always one handy.

[myke]

Day's 7 and 8-

Day 7 we could have gone back to Epcot with the group and decided to stay home and play Yahtzee and Crazy Eights. I guess we were all just Disney'd out and tired of walking, tiered of shopping. Kathy and I kicked butt in yahtzee and Jodi and Joe kicked butt in Cazy Eights and Kings in the corners, and pit fall. Good thing for yahtzee.

Day 8-

This was the day we left for home, we had to check out of the house by 10:00 am and our flight didn't leave Orlando until 7:00 pm. So we had quite a few hours to kill. We spent some of the time at Downtown Disney. Shopping and walking. Towards the end this Disney trip really felt like one big shopping trip. Our flight was very smooth and we got Home about 10:30 last night.


myke

[treekath]

Nice work, myke I believe you covered our trip well. love your wife kathy.