Day 19 - Part 4 - Farewell Disney
Just as we finished our photos with Michael the Main Street Band announced itself! We decided to follow them up Main Street for a bit. They were playing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones themes, which was fun and something different.
It was about time for our Star Tours Maxpass by this point, so we headed over to Tomorrowland again. We had decided that, since we didn't feel the need to do or see much else, having had so many days in the parks, we'd have lunch after Star Tours and then head back to the room to relax/pack that afternoon. This meant Star Tours would be our last attraction of the trip.
When we arrived the standby wait was 50 minutes. We were glad to have a Maxpass. While we waited in line we met a lovely couple from Perth who were celebrating their 7th Anniversary with a trip to the US. They'd never been to Disneyland before, and were a bit worried Star Tours would be a bit too intense for them, so I was able to assure them it's a pretty mellow ride as far as thrills go. I then went onto explain how each ride is different thanks to the randomness of the 4 sequences of the ride. I also explained how someone in the ride car would be picked to be the rebel spy, and it was really fun for the person who was chosen to see their face up on the ride screen. They were on their way to Vegas to renew their wedding vows, followed by San Francisco, New York and Hawaii, so we were able to give them some touring suggestions for the latter two places, which we've visited before. I love having a good chat to someone in a theme park line, it really makes the wait go much quicker!
Disney seemed to know that this was the final ride of our trip (ok I know they didn't know, but it felt like they did). We didn't get as many unique scenes as the time we got scenes from the new movies, but we still did get to see a lot of scenes we hadn't seen yet on this trip. We started with the Storm Trooper scene, made our way to the Wookie Planet (which I rarely see), got a message from Admiral Akbar (who I also rarely see) and finished with the Death Star over Geonosis (which I ALWAYS see - I think this was the third time this trip). I was so happy to go to the Wookie Planet (which, given the very few times we've seen it always seems like a prize to me) and then Disney topped even that. I got to be the REBEL SPY!! This has actually happened to me once before (poor Jared has never been chosen) and I know this isn't logical, but it felt like my own special farewell from Disneyland!
Being the Rebel Spy adds so much fun to the ride. It's really great to know everyone was racing through the Galaxy protecting me (hehe). It was also fun to contradict C3PO at the end of the attraction, when he says the rebel spy is safe though I think shaken. I think my response to this was "nope I'm great" which elicited a number of giggles from the others riding within earshot.
We headed over to our final meal of the trip next. We really hadn't had many burgers on the trip, and were craving a good American burger before we left. There is something about an American burger that is just so much better than burgers here in Australia. I can't put my finger on what it is, but I wasn't leaving the USA without experiencing a good burger. So we headed over to the Galactic Grill to enjoy a couple of cheeseburgers and fries. A great last meal (we were taking advantage of eating junk food while we were still on holidays).
It took a little while to find a table, it was very busy. We also didn't want to sit in the full sun either. Shady tables were hard to find as the umbrellas were not up due to the wind. We managed to hover as another Aussie family left a shady table on the outer edge of the seating area.
I had to take a picture of the Halloween themed drink cups!
The food was delicious and we had no regrets about our final meal at the parks. We were slightly sad to not have a better view of the parks for our final meal. The back area of Tomorrowland, where the Galactic Grill seating area is located, looks like the future as envisioned by Back to the Future in the 1980s! I'm glad Disneyland is going to be overhauling this area in the near future.
Jared had also decided he loves mobile ordering, because it saved him time waiting in line for food. Because my feet are much worse than his he is always the one who has to do yet more standing waiting for food. There was a decent line for the Galatia Grill, even though it was pretty early for lunch (not quite 12pm). So we did a mobile order and all Jared had to do was collect the food once it was ready.
After lunch was done we exited down Main Street one final time, making sure to turn around for one last glance at the castle. We were sad to be leaving, but we'd had such a fantastic morning it was hard to feel too sad.
The Main Street Fire station area was surprisingly quiet, so we took a photo. We finally took the proper camera out. It had been put away after our time in Galaxy's Edge as I'd promised Jared that he could have a rest taking photos on our last day, so he could just soak in things. So all the other pictures you've seen were taken by me on my iPhone.
We'd never managed to get a picture of the archway into Disneyland. I love this transition from the real world into the magic of the parks, as well as the plaque "Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy". It really is the prelude, the movie credits, to the wonderful thematic world that is Disneyland, where new memories can be made each time you pass under that magic tunnel. Disney was smart in the way he created the Disneyland entrance, as a way to entice people and build anticipation for what was to come!
We hadn't had any Photopass photos that day, but there was a relatively short line for the Photopass Photographer out the front of the train station, so we hopped in line to wait for some final photos together.
These photos turned out to be some of my favourite from the trip. We hadn't really realised it, but we hadn't had ANY magic photos taken at Disneyland. The Photopass Photographer here was kind enough to ask us what magic shots we'd had done, so he didn't double up. When we told him none he told us that just wasn't on, so he'd give us a few!
First up we had a magic shot reminiscent of the very first magic shot we ever had taken, on our first visit to the Magic Kingdom in 2011. The Tinkerbell Surprise!
Next up was the Halloween flaming pumpkin. We he told Jared to put his hand out and for us to look scared/shocked I knew what was coming. I thought it would be funnier to try look "intrigued". I think I pulled that off - and it is a little funny!
Our final magic shot was my favourite! I got to "hold" some Disney balloons.
We finished up with a few final shots of the Train Station.
We headed into Downtown Disney briefly to exchange a jumper I'd bought a few days before that I didn't love on me and I found another Disney nightshirt to buy too.
After Downtown Disney we headed into the plaza to take what has become a traditional photo on our last day at Disneyland. It's what I call the "happy I came, sad I have to leave" photo pose.
It starts like this....I look happy because I went to Disneyland...
Then I look sad because I'm leaving Disneyland...
We've taken these shots of me on every trip since our honeymoon. This time, Jared got in on the fun too (he normally doesn't).
I then decided I had to do the same thing with DCA behind me!
As we exited the Star Wars theme played again, and it felt like the perfect melody to leave to. We felt like we had really gotten the most out of our time at Disneyland and the triumphant sounds of Star Wars complimented our feelings of satisfaction.
I really do love the music at Disney. It is so important, as it really adds to the experience and helps create a whole sensory environment that you can really got lost in.
We headed back to the bus port, caught the next ART back to our motel where we rested, packed and waited for our Karmel Shuttle, which arrived about 20 minutes early before we were ready to go! Thankfully it waited for us, and we got ready in no time.
We headed into the airport riding in our shuttle with a lovely family from New Zealand, and we enjoyed chatting away to them, which made the trip go much quicker.
I won't bore you with the travel details, I don't really have many as I stopped taking notes once we arrived at the airport. Suffice to say, we flew home over about 30 hours and 2 flights, in economy. We were lucky enough to have economy X seats on our flight from LA to Sydney, which meant we were right at the front of economy in the section with infinite leg room, which allowed me to bring our small carry on suitcase down from the luggage compartment and put my feet on it.
We had been quite disappointed not to be able to upgrade to Business on the way home but ironically I actually slept better on the economy flight home than the Business flight on the way over (which still wasn't great, I never sleep well on planes). We finally arrived home around 2pm on the Sunday afternoon, having rested reasonably well, though of course that didn't stop the jet lag we experienced for the next few days. Poor Jared had to go straight back to work on the Monday (though working from home) but I was lucky enough to have another week off.
That brings us to the end of our Disney Anniversary Trip Report. I want to thank all of you who've joined us on our trip, and who've expressed such kind praise for this report and our photos. I love writing these reports, they help me relieve our fantastic Disney holidays, and it makes me so proud and pleased to know that I can help those of you reading along feel as though you are back at Disney.
I know I'm going to need to read lots of reports for my Disney fix in the next few years. Now that our little boy is on the way, I'm not sure when we will get to the parks next...it's all so very up in the air. But I am certain we will come back one day, and in the meantime, I will continue to love and appreciate the Disney parks from afar and to rely on all of you wonderful DIS'ers to take me on a Disney theme park experience through your words, pictures and comments!
As Mickey would say....See Ya Real Soon!