Farewell to California

Day 11, Part 1:

Thursday, 27^th November

We were up bright and early at 4am this morning to get ready to head to the airport. Our taxi arrived at 5.15 and the driver was a little bit stroppy that we weren’t at reception when he arrived 20 minutes earlier that we had booked our taxi for. After all the pick ups we got to LAX at 6.30am

 When we got to the terminal check in took a while. We had to scan our passports and get our tickets at on kiosk and then go to the check in desk to drop off the bags. Once we finally got checked in we headed straight through security were they were going to take the Mickey Popcorn Bucket off me because they thought it was a bottle! I have no idea how they thought he was a bottle:

 

I opened him up and showed them he was full of stuff for the plane like my iPod and other bits. They let us through with him and we headed for to the Coffee Bean for some breakfast. My trip buddy got some sort of flat tuna sandwich:

 

I got 3 mini doughnuts that were a bit stale:

 

I had my Tigger tail from the previous night which was a bit squashed at that stage so had that as well and we just sat for a while watching people go by. I was fascinated by the amount of people that had dogs in the departure area. When we were finished eating we took a browse through some of the shops as we headed towards our departure gate. There was some pretty cool stuff in the shops:

 

Twilight dolls:

That’s the happiest Eeyore I’ve ever seen:

 

Eventually we made it to the boarding gate:

 

Once they boarded the plane we seemed to be sitting for ages before they headed for the runway so I got a few pics of planes coming and going as I was waiting:

 

Eventually the plane did take off and it was time to say one last goodbye to California:

 

I slept the whole way from Los Angeles to New York and when I woke up the sun was setting over America:

 

While we were in Anaheim we had been reading all week about how New York was snowed under. When we landed there, there was no sign of snow. Once we were off the plane the first things we decided to do was get some food. We got a pizza with the runniest cheese ever:

 

Then I had the chocolate Frog that I had got at the Warner Brothers Studios tour as dessert:

We took a quick look through the shops again while we were heading to our boarding gate:

 

Marshmallow Nutella?!:

 

This little dude was dancing in one of the shops as well:

 

Once we were finished shopping we went to wait at our gate and soon it was time to say goodbye to America and head for Ireland:

As it was an evening flight when we were in the air they announced they would be serving the food as quickly as possibly so that people could sleep if they wanted. The choice was BBQ chicken or pasta. I had the chicken:

 

I slept the rest of the way home and didn’t wake up until they were coming around with a light breakfast of yoghurt and raisin biscuit:

 

Shortly after that it was time to land in Ireland:

 Dublin Airport had put up some Christmas decorations while we were away:

We had some Disney chocolate while we waited for the bus and soon we were on the final part of our journey home:

 

Our trip was over. There was so much more we could have seen and done both in the parks and in Los Angeles area in general and we both loved Disneyland itself:

 

Last evening in Disneyland!

Day 10, Part 3:

So we had just left the Mark Twain Riverboat and next we headed to Adventureland for a visit to the Enchanted Tiki Room:

 

When the Tiki Birds show was finished we went to check out the Adventureland Bizarre. They had a lot of different things here that weren’t Disney themed and we didn’t see them in any other shops in the parks either:

 

Next I went to explore Tarzan’s Tree-house:

Once I had climbed out of the Tree-house I headed over towards Tomorrow land to do some Vinylmation trading but the parade blocked my way so I took a few pictures of the castle before heading back to my trip buddy:

I spotted this cute Popcorn Machine on the way:

Once I got back to my trip buddy we went to try claim a spot for Fantasmic.  It was 6.30 at this stage and the show wasn’t on until 9pm but we noticed a lot of people were putting blankets down to reserve their space for Fantasmic and the area was already really crowded. It really didn’t seem like a fair way of doing things as most people had the blankets spread out and only one person sitting on it while the rest of the family went to various rides. We found a spot between two blankets at the front and sat on our bags there though. I had a few movies on the iPod so we watched those while we were waiting. Eventually the show started it was pretty similar to Disney World’s version except with Peter Pan and a pirate ship instead of things like Pocahontas

 

The show was good but where we were sitting wasn’t the best. Nobody stood up to watch it so we ended up having to watch through railings. I think we would have been better off somewhere further back where we could have stood up to see it. Anyway once the show was over the CM’s literally hoarded us out of the place towards New Orleans Square and it was like sardines in a tin it was so crowded. We took our time though and took pictures along the way of course:

 

We eventually got back out to the Castle where they announced that the fireworks were cancelled due to “high winds.” I thought that was odd as it was cold but there was no wind. Anyways we snapped a few last pictures of the Castle before we made our way slowly down Main Street:

We stopped off at the lobby for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln to get a few last minute pressed pennies and found a really cool one with Walt Disney’s signature on it:

 

 When we came back out we spotted Mickey Mouse in his festive gear so went over to say goodbye to him:

 

We said Goodbye to Walt as well before we left the park:

It was time to say goodbye to Disneyland for the final time and head back to the hotel:

When we got back to the hotel we finished off our packing. We were sad to be leaving California but had a great few days:

Around the Land on the Lilly Belle

Day 10, Part 2:

So I was waiting at the Train station for the Lilly Belle and soon enough they came around and gave us all a ticket to board the Lilly Belle:

Soon enough the train came along:

The Lilly Belle was the last carriage on the train.  Our conductor was not the happiest CM in the land but he did tell us a bit of history as we went along. He told us that the carriage itself was on the go since 1958 and all about how Lillian Disney helped to decorate it originally but that it was no longer in its original state as it had been decorated with white wicker furniture and they didn’t wear well. The train went all around the park and we were told when we could stand and take pictures but otherwise everyone sat in silence listening to the history lesson:

Once the train was back at Main Street I found my trip buddy and we took the normal train around the park. The train goes through Splash Mountain so you can see inside and then in Tomorrowland it goes through an area with Dinosaurs:

 

We eventually got off the train in New Orleans Square and headed here for food Clickie  One we were finished with our lunch stop we headed into Critter Country to pick up some Tigger Tails in Pooh’s Corner:

 

I tried a bit, it was nice but I preferred the Olaf wand so I bagged the rest of it for later on and we headed towards Adventureland stopping to take some pictures of the Mark Twain along the way:

 

Next we were headed for a jungle adventure on the Jingle Cruise:

 

The wait time was 30 minutes and the queue seemed to go round in circles, going up and down stairs for ages before you came to the boats. There was a few jungle themed things to see along the way as well:

 

 Eventually we got to the boats and headed for our jingle cruise and a cargo plane had dropped tonnes of Christmas items along the way:

Once we were back on dry land we headed for the Jingle Jangle Jamboree where the first thing was saw was Santa’s house which was of course all decorated for Christmas:

Then up around the main stage there was lots of character roaming around in Christmas outfits. Some would pose and some wouldn’t. A few characters were doing what we used to encounter in Paris where there would be a mob of people for pictures and they would only choose the ones that were under 3ft tall which became a bit frustrating after a while:

As well as characters you could colour little star decorations:

There was also postcards you could colour and either leave a message on one to be sent to the American Troops abroad or bring home with you. While we were there a little show started up on the stage so we stayed to watch:

 

When the show was over we headed to another part of the Jingle Jangle Jamboree and there was a cowboy there singing songs from Toy Story:

We didn’t stay long where he was instead we headed to the Mark Twain and took a quick trip on that: