Our 1st Proper Halloween - Disneyland Leg **COMPLETED** About This Page:

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by chezp

I'm so glad the weather cleared up for you. Great day!

We were super glad the weather cleared up too , especially after our last stay at Disneyland was pretty much rained out

Originally Posted by mushu22

Great day

Thank you

Originally Posted by FanOfMickey

Great day!! Love that donald mug your desert came in

As soon as I knew there was a special edition Donald mug involved with the dessert menu, I knew I had to get it, despite being overly full (if only I had a pig icon to insert here! ) It now sits next to the TV, where I get to see it every day

[Big Sister]

Friday, 12 October 2012: Heaven is a pair of comfy shoes

Woke towards 9am with an excruciating cramp in my left leg. I couldn't get to sleep after that, as my leg stayed tender, so I went through my usual routine of having a shower, then sitting out on the balcony with my journal while waiting for Nest to get ready for the day (he actually got up before me today!)

For breakfast, Nest had his usual fresh harvest fruit plate (this time with strawberry yoghurt) and a glass of non-fat milk.

I had a Mickey shaped waffle with warm berry sauce, and a plate of melon in season (honeydew melon and rockmelon - I wished there had've been watermelon also, as that was what I was particularly craving for.) The melon plate was garnished with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, which were all super nice.

I was suddenly so tired after breakfast, so it took a while to gather the energy to resume motivating us to both get going. Judge Joe Brown then The Big Bang Theory were on the tele, which was also distracting us from the task at hand. I felt so guilty for letting the TV be so distracting while we were in such an exciting place.

We finally extracted ourselves from the hotel at 2.40pm - at least it was 40 minutes earlier than yesterday! Our destination was Cars Land in DCA, but we weren't able to use our special hotel guests only entrance, as my five day park hopper had been used up, and I needed to buy a top-up of three days. At the same time, I thought I'd get Nest a two day park hopper, as his current one would be expiring the following day. It turned out it would be cheaper for us to get an annual pass for our remaining days, so that's what we did. (When I was booking our package online, a five day park hopper was the largest ticket showing as available. Next time, I'm going to buy us annual passes each - that way, we wont have to worry about our tickets running out, plus we'll be able to receive 10% discounts everywhere )

We entered DCA through the blue gates and into the new Carthay Circle area. Took the opportunity to photograph Candy Mountain in the window of a nearby store, which was really hard, due to the reflection in the glass. Went inside the store quickly to see if they sold postcards of it, but they didn't.

On our way to Cars Land, it took us three attempts to find a PhotoPass photographer who had the correct equipment to take our portraits for our annual passes, and download them to the system.

While taking photos in Cars Land, Nest pointed that in one direction, it was beautiful blue sky, and in the other direction, there were terribly grey foreboding clouds. It was funny to see such two distinctive colours joining over the one area! Despite the clouds over half the park, it was quite glary outside, and Nest had left his sunnies back at the hotel. We did a quick whirlwind tour of the shops to see if they sold any sunnies, but weren't able to find any.

Went to Flo's V8 Cafe for lunch. We both had carved roast turkey with mashed potato and turkey gravy. For Nest's second side, he had a pasta salad, and for my second side, I had a roast corn salad (though on hindsight, I wonder if they would've allowed for a second serve of mashed potato with gravy? ) We both had water to drink, and I had a choccie mud pie for dessert. I would've loved some cream to go with it, as it was very rich on its own. Nest was going to get an apple and cheddar pie for his dessert, but changed his mind at the last minute and didn't get anything.

We found a table in the shade outside around the side of the cafe, with a view of the top part of the mountain ranges. While we were eating our super delicious lunch (it was so delicious, Nest wanted to eat mine for me, in addition to his own ), a little blue party car went slowly by, and stopped in the street to our left, and threw an impromptu dance party. We laughed so much when Party Rock Anthem was the first song off the block (we'd been hearing it everywhere since our cruise, but still weren't sick of it.) Another song that played, was At the Carwash, which the guy at the table next to us, sang along to (it's one of the songs that has been stuck in my head ever since I saw a presenter on Play School sing it over a year ago.)

With a deep breath, we headed for the Radiator Spring Racers after lunch, hoping that the queue would be reasonable. It wasn't. Despite wanting to experience the attraction together, we entered the single riders line in the hope that it would be quicker than the normal line. It wasn't. After five minutes of no movement at all, Nest called it quits.

To cheer ourselves up, we went and got a fast pass for the Tower of Terror, to ensure we'd get to ride at least one attraction this day. I noticed our return time was between 7.50-8.50pm, which wasn't possible due to Mickey's Halloween Party, so we just joined the normal line, which had a 35 minutes wait. While we were waiting, we got to see the Pixar Play Parade. Heimlich was part of it, which Nest and I were excited about.

In the foyer of the Tower of Terror, I suddenly noticed a cute abandoned dolly on the sofa that I hadn't noticed before, and asked Nest to take a photo of it, as it's easier for him to get his little blue day-to-day camera out, then it is for me to get my big camera out. He pretended to fuss at my request. I don't recall if I've noticed this before either, but the little girl in the video prelude to the ride, is holding an old-fashioned plush Mickey Mouse.

Nest and I shared the front row with an old couple who I don't think had ridden before, due to their reactions I know their ride experience made my ride experience extra enjoyable, and I bought the resulting souvenir photo afterwards.

We headed to the next new attraction, Luigi's Flying Tyres...

...but the wait time was listed as 40 minutes, which was a no go for Nest, so we went to the last new remaining attraction, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. It had a wait time of 20 minutes, which was acceptable to Nest, so we joined the line. While waiting for our turn, we saw someone with two Timothy Mouses - we were quite envious Even though this ride is what my friends would call a baby's ride, we absolutely loved it! Even though it just consists of being pulled around by a baby tractor for about a minute to jolly music, it's a lot of fun, especially when the tractor swings sharply, causing it to squash the person you sit next to (in this case, Nest )

Time was getting on (3.50pm - early entry to Mickey's Halloween Party was 4pm), so we went to Ariel's Undersea Adventure for me to video, as I had been lugging around the camcorder all day for this purpose alone. There was quite a queue for it - it wasn't a walk on like last time, but we got through in the end

Before going back to the hotel to get ready for the party (I decided to get dressed up this time, as the weather wasn't as boiling as the previous party night), we stopped off at the Grizzly River Run, which only had a wait time of five minutes, an extremely acceptable wait time where Nest was concerned - bonus! Even though it was a cool day, Nest didn't mind the prospect of getting wet, as we'd be going straight back to our room afterwards, which was just a few steps away thanks to our special entrance. We shoved all our bags in a large locker, and lined up. A boy riding by himself, asked about my Disney Halloween t-shirt (wondering if it was this year's edition), had we been to a Mickey's Halloween Party before, and where were we from. He ended up being assigned a different tyre to us, so that was where the conversation ended. Due to the short queue, we didn't go past the office with the book, Learn to Relax, so I wasn't able to point it out to Nest. Having been an avid reader of the title, he obviously knew it was there though

We shared a tyre with a one child family, and a young couple. Just as the young guy was saying, "This is bad" (the going was rough, but it was at the beginning, and anyone was yet to get wet), he got soaked. We all laughed, and he seemed initially shocked, then took it in good humour. I was the next person to cop it - I got absolutely drenched!! Every single item of clothing I was wearing, got soaked, and I also got a free hair wash. Where was this soaking on the hot days when I needed it?! I remember screaming when I thought I was going to get wet, and the water met me head on (I didn't know it was coming from that direction, and got a mouthful!) It must've looked so hilarious, that the young guy laughed so much, no sound came out of him for a while. Nest got wet too, but not as much. The whole tyre was laughing as we careened around to the big drop! This time, the Dad was facing backwards as we went down, but somehow the young guy copped it again! As we arrived back at the exit point, I remember the worried looks on the peoples' faces waiting to ride when they saw us. I remember hearing the young guy saying he was going to freeze (the sun had since gone down), making me really thankful that our hotel was just a few steps away, and that I'd be dry in a few minutes.

It was fun getting dressed up for Mickey's Halloween Party. It was fun for Nest too, as he used the time to relax in front of the tele (he decided not to get dressed up, despite me having bought him a Gandalph wig and beard - I didn't mind though.) One of our favourite US holiday shows was on - Family Feud. I ended up chucking my red and black wig out, as it looked absolutely stupid and didn't fit correctly - nothing like the picture on the front of the packet!

We got going to the party around 8pm with Nest's camera gear in tow. As he was taking pics of the entrance, a woman with her three kids stopped to ask if we were a news crew?! When Nest had finished taking photos out the front, we entered the park, collecting our trick-or-treat bags and getting a wrist band each (this time they were prismatic yellow. It went ok with my dress )

Once inside the park, Nest continued to take photos, this time of the giant Mickey pumpkin and flowing white Mickey ghosts. Then we went around trick-or-treating, which was a pretty lengthy process due to the crowds and the fact that my black kitten heels were absolutely killing me! We went through buildings we hadn't been in before, such as the lower level of Innoventions, I think it was (people were lining up in there to get their photo taken with Perry the Platypus, a character I've never seen in the Disney parks before), and the Golden Horseshoe Cafe, the latter which was beautifully decorated for Halloween.

Time was wizzing by, so we hurried (as best as I could, anyway, due to my ridiculous footwear ) back to Main Street to get ready for the special Halloween fireworks ... which I watched barefoot for comfort reasons. Once Nest had his tripod set up to his liking, the lights all around us went out, signifying that the fireworks were about to start.

An instrumental soundtrack featuring trumpets, was gradually building up to a crescendo, joined in the end by what sounded like a hint of Christmas bells. The castle gradually took on a green glow, and fairy lights danced on a nearby tree to the right. Red dots soon turned on and off around the place, as if scary creatures were looking out at us. Zero, Jack Skellington's dog from The Nightmare Before Christmas, soon flew from out of nowhere and circled the castle. He shimmered just like I imagined a ghost would, and you could see his flashing orange nose, even way back from where we were standing - it was a fantastic sight!

There was a giant globe to the left of the castle, on which Jack Skellington's head appeared, welcoming us all to the show - ''Its time to celebrate the season of tricks and treats! The sights! The sounds!'' And with that, he called out the spirits to socialise :0 ''After all, my friends, this is Halloween!'' While Jack laughed and dogs howled, fireworks erupted to the Haunted Mansion's well known song, Grin Grinning Ghosts. Red and green bursts erupted gently to the opening bars. When the song sped up, out came the exploding rockets and multi-coloured starbursts. Then lines of single orange shoots slowly erupted from below, with bursts of flames billowing out periodically for added effect. At the end of the song, green starbursts erupted overhead, more single orange shoots shot up from below, and fiery flames burned either side of the castle.

To the opening bars of This Is Halloween, the castle lit up in sections of colour (mainly orange and purple), before it was time for the fireworks to take centre stage once again. Starbursts erupted overhead, featuring the colours of purple, orange and red, followed by an onslaught of green ones. Loads of smaller clusters (red and green) popped underneath this bigger display. As the song got crazier, it was as if a whole factory of fireworks had been set off, with loads of green and orange rockets shooting up and over the castle to meet the seemingly thousands of multi-coloured starbursts erupting overhead. This section of the show ended in a load of red rockets, until just gentle silver sparkles remained.

Next, Ursula from The Little Mermaid graced us with her presence. ''Happy Halloween, darlings! Its such a wicked time of year, isn’t it? And I have just the spell to put us all in the mood!'' As Ursula sang the spell, green and orange starbursts erupted gently in the sky above the castle. Then to the tune of Poor Unfortunate Souls, gorgeous extra large multi-coloured starbursts lit up the night sky, with orange rockets streaming overhead from either side of the castle.

Cruella De Ville from 101 Dalmatians was our next visitor. To the tune of her self-titled song, unusual orange fireworks went off. They were kind of like starbursts, but instead of the huge glittery cluster finish, they kind of reminded me of a spider, with thick lines bursting out in all directions like legs, with a sparkly bit on the tips as if they were feet. These new spider fireworks were then followed by green and silver starbursts. Then we were introduced to more new fireworks, which were single orange shoots soaring up from the ground in a straight line, emitting a single blue orb each, that shot further up into the night sky. These were really impressive. Small purple rockets followed from the ground up.

To the tune of Never Smile At A Crocodile, smiley face fireworks populated the night sky, interspersed with orange and green rockets.

The next segment of the show, was accompanied by a instrumental sample of songs. I couldn't identify all the songs (some of the titles were on the tip of my tongue), but the ones I could, are below:

· Heffalumps & Woozles: pretty candy coloured starbursts (pink, green, gold and red all at once.)

· Pink Elephants On Parade: Pink rockets arcing over the castle and meeting in a burst up the top, followed by royal blue starbursts to the left side of the castle.

· Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf: About half a dozen pink and orange starbursts going off at once. Somehow, the little bits remaining afterwards, seemed to dance about to the music?! This was followed by little rockets coming up from below, cumulating in little bunches of pink and green clusters.

The songs I couldn't quite identify, were accompanied by massive red starbursts, red rockets arching over the castle, rich gold spiders with multi-coloured sparkly feet, little gold shoots cumulating in little orange clusters, and yet another lot of fireworks which were new to us, in the shape of green coils - awesome!

Jack came back on the globe, laughing, while thick orange rockets shot up, followed by a sped up version of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, with alternating green and orange rockets, then green and orange starbursts. This was then followed by loads of green and orange rockets arcing over the castle, with the segment ending in another factory amount of multi-coloured starbursts erupting overhead.

The Bogeyman then replaced Jack on the globe, singing a song which I think is called Boogie Woogie, while green starbursts erupted overhead and the castle glowed pink and purple. Added to this display, were purple rockets wiggling up from below and ending in an exploding coil shape, while starbursts went off higher up in the sky. It ended in green rockets arcing over the castle, with orange and green starbursts.

A scary instrumental from Fantasia was the next musical number, which was accompanied by fire flames either side of the castle, flower bursts with huge deep red centres and orange shoots, and ended with almost blinding fire flames increasing in size, to the sound of evil laughter.

Jack and Zero came back to introduce the finale, The Halloween Scream Along, where we were all invited to scream along as if we were trying to wake the dead. ''C'mon Zero - well take frights to new heights!''

· This Is Halloween: Flower bursts with huge orange centres ; pink, orange and green starbursts ; and dancing zig-zag pink things.

· Grin Grinning Ghosts: A variety of coloured starbursts and flower bursts, followed by loads of green shoots going in all directions in amongst a sudden onslaught of multi-coloured starbursts.

· Happy Happy Halloween: A series of fast orange vertical rockets shooting up, as three big green starbursts erupted in a horizontal line overhead. This was repeated a couple of times, and looked awesome!

Lastly, short orange rockets fanned out from behind the castle, and a factory of multi-coloured starbursts erupted overhead. Jack came back one last time, saying, ''Wasn't that a scream? I know you're just dying to come back and celebrate with us again! Happy Halloween, everybody!''

The Mickey pumpkin lights flanking the castle, came on to the tune of I Put A Spell On You. For a while, the globe next to the castle looked like a full moon on a stormy night. Occasionally, I noticed that the Bogey Man would silently appear on it, as if to keep an eye on us.

A new urgent point of business to attend to directly after the fireworks, was to buy myself a pair of crocs, as I seriously couldn't last the entire night in heels (it was so misleading how they felt fine in the store!) I went to the Crystal Arcade, and asked the Cast Member about shoes. He said that they sold flip flops in that store, but I could try Clothiers across the street who specialise in women's fashion and crocs. Still, since I was already there, I went to check out the flip flops first (despite if I bought a pair, that I'd be wearing them with stockinged feet - LOL!), but knew on sight that they were kids' sizes. Nest and I turned around to go, and both our eyes lit up on spotting the oversized bright yellow Mickey and Minnie shoe-styled slippers! I tried the adult large ones on, and they were a perfect fit! Even better, was that they were so spongy and cushiony inside, and felt like heaven to my feet after the hellish pain of my kitten heels. Nest said that it was Halloween, and that I'd be able to wear them with my costume and get away with it. I didn't need anymore convincing, and went to buy them straight away, so glad I had found them before the crocs! (I couldn't believe it when I later caught an episode of Modern Family set in Disneyland, and one of the female characters was experiencing the same problem as me, and came to the same conclusion, ending up in a pair of Minnie slippers herself - what a massive coincidence! I'm not a regular viewer of the show, but I found this episode so funny, as I was able to fully relate to the situation, having experience the exact same problem myself.)

On showing my ID to use my Key to the World card as payment, the Cast Member asked what the difference between a learner's licence and a full licence was. I said that the L's mean that I don't know what I'm doing yet She said that in the US, you can get your licence in a day! :0 You have to pass a written test, then a practical test, and then that's it! I seriously couldn't believe it! In Oz, you have to do a two day theory course and pass a written test at the end, otherwise you have to do it all over again. Then you have to have six months of practice driving with a fully qualified driver, before taking either a one-off practical test with a government instructor, or undergo a series of log-book driving lessons with a registered driving instructor, with a final practical test at the end (which you obviously have to pass also.) Groan.

Once outside the store, I found the nearest bin and threw my heels out, and slipped comfortably into my Minnie slippers From then on, compliments changed from my costume, to my footwear - LOL! It was funny walking in the slippers at first, due to the design of them being so big. I felt like that chihuahua on America’s Funniest Videos, walking with his legs out cos he had little gumboots on, which he wasn't used to - LOL!

We sat on the curb in Main Street opposite the Crystal Arcade, waiting for the late showing of the Halloween parade.

Surprisingly, it didn't get as crowded as I expected. We were a bit on the hungry side by this stage, so Nest gave me a packet of carrots from his trick-or-treat bag, and I gave him a packet of apple slices from mine (LOL - to think I jokingly complained about being given healthy snacks at some of the trick-or-treat stations, when that's what ended up rescuing us!) I'm glad we took time out in Main Street, as it was then we noticed the swirling Halloween patterns on the buildings, and coloured lights inside the windows, swirled on and off according to the song being played.

The parade music began playing long before the first float appeared, which increased our anticipation of what was ahead. The opening float was vampire bat Mickey, opening and closing his cape to reveal the name of the parade: Mickey's Costume Party. The lettering was orange accentuated with dancing silver fairy lights. The banner above the float, was orange also, topped with half a dozen little Mickey head lights, and illuminated with the phrase, ''You're Invited!''

Dancing around this float, were many Halloween characters. The males were dressed as counts, and were wearing black trousers, frilly white shirts, maroon vests, a cape, and top hat. The females were dressed as witches, and were wearing short glittery green, pink or orange dresses with a thick black bow around the waist, stripy stockings, black ankle boots, long black gloves, and a black witches hat. A Mummy monster was also in amongst this mix, and I loved how he danced to the parade music :D

Preceding the next float, were more performers dressed for Mickey's Costume Party. The men were dressed in oversized pants (to make them look roly-poly ... I don't need oversized pants to make me look roly-poly! ) held up with braces, a chequered tan and yellow shirt, and topped off with a bowler hat. The females' costumes were just as interesting - they wore shiny short pink dresses, the skirt bit of which was made up of three discs, along with opaque white stockings, white heels, and short wavy blonde wigs.

The second float was a costume shop. It was a single unit with a post in each corner, but no sides. It was decorated with Mickey jack-o-lanterns wearing witches hats and what I originally thought were moustaches, but turned out being toothy grins - LOL! Dancers wearing masquerade masks and feather boas, partied on board. A lady in a national Dutch costume, and a man dressed as a doctor, danced after the float.

A giant Mickey jack-o-lantern wearing a pirate hat and eye patch came down Main Street next, accompanied by Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Smee, and other pirates.

They were followed by a giant Minnie jack-o-lantern accompanied by all the Disney princesses. Continuing on in this fashion, a giant Mickey jack-o-lantern dressed as a cowboy, accompanied by the Toy Story characters, were the next on scene, followed by a giant Disney Pixar monster Mickey jack-o-lantern accompanied by a selection of Disney Pixar monsters.

The family of the day was next on scene - they travelled in an old-fashioned car with the hitchhiking ghosts from the Haunted Mansion. They were followed by a Cast Member riding a bike towing a platform featuring Mickey's teddy bear, Duffy.

A herd of dancing animals were the next spectacle, featuring the cow from Mickey's brilliant Silly Symphony Orchestra, the Country Jamboree bears, and the apes from The Jungle Book. Following the animal dancers, were human dancers. The females wore unusual skirts which reminded me of cupcakes. The males were awesome in this section - they were all performing on stilts, which I thought was really clever and must take a lot of skill to master. They certainly received a lot of cheers.

The finale float was huge!

Daisy Duck was dressed as a princess, and was standing on the front steps of the float. The stairs had bunches of white, yellow, apricot, orange and white roses tied to the rails, with black metal Mickey bats coming out of the centre of each arrangement. Mickey and Minnie were at the top of the stairs. Mickey was dressed as a count, and Minnie was dressed in a purple witches costume. They were dancing in front of a Halloween designed stained glass arch window. Lit up jack-o-lanterns adorned the rail posts, and dried autumnal arrangements lined the rails themselves, with white Mickey ghosts coming out of the centre of the arrangements.

On the other side of the Halloween designed stained glass arch window, were Pluto dressed as a clown, and Goofy dressed as a superhero.

A miniaturised version of the castle was attached to this float. Chip and Dale were out on the balcony, dressed as burglars :0 Donald was standing on a side balcony, and was dressed as a prince. The rails had a spiderweb design, and featured what I originally thought was a dangerous red-back spider, but on viewing Nest's photos after watching my video, it turned out to be a friendly black spider wearing an orange Mickey ear hat - how cute!

There was a character on the other side balcony, but I couldn't see who it was. I was surprised and excited to see that the character out on the back balcony, was Miss Piggy! The parade was shorter than I expected, but I really enjoyed it and was glad we saw it.

After the parade, Nest took photos of the Halloween tree in Frontierland.

There was a pirate dance party near the Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante place, where Party Rock Anthem was playing Then the Black Eyed Peas song that used to be played non-stop on the year of it's release. When we came out of the Golden Horseshoe from trick-or-treating, YMCA was playing I sang along for a bit, just as another person had begun to. (If you can't sing along to YMCA in public while in Disneyland, then where can you?!)

Lastly, we went to It's a Small World for Nest to photograph. It was strange seeing it purple with orange jack-o-lanterns swirling all over it, instead of it's usual bright silver fairy lights. Having said that though, it was still beautiful to look at, and I'm glad Disney included it in their Halloween decorating plans. Afterwards, I managed to convince Nest to line up to go on it with me - I was so thrilled! I absolutely loved the refurbishment It's a Small World has received - it is so new, fresh and sparkly looking! I also love the Disney characters that have been added to it (Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell (I didn't notice Tinkerbell until the last second, as she was so tiny and there was just so much to look at!), and the Little Mermaid, for example.) I truly hope to be able to video it before we go.

Nest wanted to go back to the hotel after that. Just after he had said that, I couldn't believe that the party's over message came across the loudspeakers - what timing! Our time at the party had gone so unbelievably fast! :0 I had been hoping to ride Big Thunder Mountain, then end with Autopia at least - it would've been fun to drive while wearing my Minnie Mouse slippers! I also would've loved to have ridden Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, especially if Nest had been wearing his wig and beard, as with both of us wearing costumes, the souvenir photos would've been great!

Didn't see any Where's Wally or Princess Leia costumes tonight. A few people seemed to be wearing costumes similar to mine, or made out of the same red velvety material at least. I saw someone dressed as the teapot from Beauty and the Beast, which was cool. Mine and Nest's most awesome little kid's costume we saw, was R2-D2! And the super cutest had to be of this approximately three year old boy dressed as Pinocchio - he was soooooooo cute!

As we hadn't had a meal since Flo's over in Cars Land, we ordered late night room service once back in our room. Nest had chicken quesadillas (chicken, melted cheese, guacamole and salsa featuring the popular Anaheim pepper), turkey burger with cheddar cheese on a harvest bun, served with fruit, a glass of non-fat milk, and a litre bottle of water.

I had fire roasted vegetable soup, a turkey burger with fries, and a litre bottle of water.

We had guacamole added to our burgers. More than enough was heaped on two saucers for us! There was so much of it, we ended up laughing for a while. Also, they were over-generous with their sides of fries and grapes!! I ended up asking Nest, "Would you like a burger with your grapes?", as it was as if they were the main focus of the meal, and not the burger. Good job we hadn't eaten for hours!!

Nest went to sleep pretty much afterwards (I don't blame him!), while I potted around until 3.30am, doing nothing in particular?! Strange! Each time I peeked out the window, DCA seemed alive with what I presumed were cleaning and maintenance crews.

Next entry: Last full day in parks

[chezp]

Oh wow, the party looks 100 times better since they moved it from the California Adventure, when we saw it, to the Disneyland Park. I love the shots of the fireworks and the parade. Your outfit looked wonderful - so sorry about the shoes though. I feel your pain - I still have a scar on the back of my heels from two weeks ago from walking in shoes at Disneyland Paris.

[FanOfMickey]

Someday I will have to check out the Halloween party out at DL, I have seen it multiple times at WDW and love it.

Love those slippers

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by chezp

Oh wow, the party looks 100 times better since they moved it from the California Adventure, when we saw it, to the Disneyland Park. I love the shots of the fireworks and the parade. Your outfit looked wonderful - so sorry about the shoes though. I feel your pain - I still have a scar on the back of my heels from two weeks ago from walking in shoes at Disneyland Paris.

It's great to hear that Mickey's Halloween Party has improved somewhat since you last went. Nest and I certainly enjoyed ourselves Now that this year's Halloween celebrations are available to book, I so wish we could involve ourselves again (especially with the super scary Halloween Horror Nights at Universal! ), but alas, the finances just aren't there. Having said that though, I have bought tickets in two separate $30 million lottery draws, so I may just have to eat my words if the tickets do what they're supposed to

Glad you the Goodness knows where I'd be without Nest's skills in that department!

I had fun getting dressed up - thanks When I was younger, I used to wear all sorts of shoes that weren't good for my feet. Now that I'm a lot older, out go the heeled boots and high-heeled work shoes, and in come my comfy trainers which I'm never without (with the exception of the Halloween party ... I'm never making that mistake again!) I hope your battle scars have healed!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by FanOfMickey

Someday I will have to check out the Halloween party out at DL, I have seen it multiple times at WDW and love it.

Love those slippers

I hope you get to attend Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland one day - it's great to be able to experience the seasons at both WDW and DL, to see what the differences are, and have twice the fun! I would really love to experience Halloween at the Florida parks - the celebrations sound so much bigger! (I understand that that's not always a good thing, but I'm sure in this instance, it would be a great positive )

The Minnie Mouse shoe slippers are really cool, aren't they? It's currently winter here in Oz, and soooooo freezing. The Minnie Mouse slippers are getting a daily workout (and aren't as golden as a result ... I suppose wearing them outside to check the letterbox doesn't help )

[Big Sister]

Saturday, 13 October 2012: Last full day in parks

Didn't want to get up at my usual waking time of 9am, seeing as I had gone to bed at 3.30am, so I forced myself to go back to sleep, and managed two more hours, getting up at 11.11am - double number!

Had a shower, and by the time I was out, Nest was up watching cartoons. There was this great new (to us) one on, called The Regular Show, about a raccoon who is friends with a woodpecker The episode was about a song from their childhood, called The Summertime Song, getting stuck in the raccoon's head:

Its Summertime and you know what that means

Gonna head down to the beach and do some beachy things

Its Summertime, it feels just right

Gonna gather all my friends and well party through the night

Its Summertime luh-uh-loving. Its loving in the Summertime

[etc. etc.]

The racoon couldn't help but sing and/or hum it all the time (like I do with infectious songs), which drove his friends crazy. The episode was about all the methods they used to help the racoon forget about it, including singing a hilarious song called Aw, Snap!

(One, two, three, four!)

Awww, snap! Awww, snap!

Come to our macaroni party then well take a nap!

I asked Nest if we should do our washing next, even though it was a boring task and would use up valuable park time, but he said no, that that we should order room service instead As it was past breakfast menu time, we were able to order from the all day dining menu, which meant I could have my favourite spaghetti with meat sauce I was going to get a glass of red to go with it, but decided to just stick to water at the last minute. Nest had spaghetti and meat sauce, plus a bottle of water too, as well as chicken quesadillas.

A second episode of The Regular Show finished, and then a marathon of Dual Survival began. Nest got massively hooked, and couldn't bear to tear himself away from it. I went out on the balcony where I wouldn't be distracted, and forced myself to finish yesterday's journal entry.

I was finally ready to hit the parks at around 4.20pm. I felt massively guilty about having taken so long about it, especially as it was our last full day. I tried really hard to motivate Nest to come with me, but he needed a relaxation day, and said he'd meet me in the Penny Arcade on Main Street at 8pm.

As I was by myself, I went to the Business Centre first, to check if Qantas had sent me any e-mails about flight changes. They hadn't. And like the Blue Fairy, I left a pile of glitter where I had been sitting, as my new Disneyland t-shirt was shedding glitter like nobody's business. If Nest wanted to track me down before our meeting time, he just had to follow the trail of pixie dust I was leaving behind me

Next, I popped into the World of Disney store to buy the moving Mickey Mouse hands pocketwatch for Nest as a surprise, only to find they had sold out At least we got the last musical Mickey train pocketwatch the other day from Off The Page in DCA! So I wouldn't leave empty-handed, I picked up four packets of those tiny little Disney figurines, a super mini Donald plush, a mini Mickey ears hat keyring, and a laughing Donald pressed penny. (When I got back from our trip, Disney sent me an e-mail asking me if there was anything I had forgotten to buy while I was over This e-mail ended up being a godsend, as I was able to successfully order the sold out pocket watch for Nest as a surprise for Christmas , and a Disney sleigh ornament for myself, that I had seen and liked, but didn't buy as we already had so much stuff to get home with us.)

The lines to get into the Disneyland park were so long! Inside the park was just as packed - I assumed it was because it was the weekend.

The first attraction I headed to, was It's a Small World. While waiting in line, I heard constant sparrow chatter. At first, I thought it was the queue soundtrack (), but then I realised that the perfectly maintained trees shading a portion of the queue, were shaking with activity! I couldn't believe my luck when I was assigned the front seat of the boat all to myself - perfect for my video assignment! I was really happy I could pan from side-to-side without getting anyone's head in shot!

My next goal was to video the Alice in Wonderland ride, so off I set to join the massive queue with insanely narrow widths to navigate. Once again, I considered myself very fortunate, considering the length of the queue, to get a caterpillar all to myself. I can't vouch for the quality of the video, as the caterpillar crawled along at quite a speed through the attraction, that I don't think it allowed much time for the video to focus. At least the finished product will mean something to me

I considered joining the queue for Peter Pan's Flight next, as it's my favourite Fantasyland ride, and I had yet to go on it this trip, but my appetite won over. I had yet to eat at the Bengal BBQ (one of mine and Nest's faves), so off I set to navigate the throngs of people to get there. To my amazement, I got there when there was a rare lull in the queue, as I noticed after I had been served and found myself a place to eat at the standing area, quite a queue had formed. So for dinner, I had a plate of shallots with my three beef kebobs with zulu sauce (I don't know why they serve that many shallots!) and a bottle of water. (I haven't mentioned Adventureland much this trip journal, if at all, as our favourite ride there, Indiana Jones Adventure, was sadly closed for maintenance, and wouldn't be opening again until Winter )

By the time I had finished dinner in Adventureland, and made my way back to Fantasyland, I had a little less than an hour to meet up with Nest. Looking at the queue for Peter Pan's Flight, I wondered if it was possible to make it through in time, and decided I'd give it a go. Fifty minutes later, I finally got to board my very own pirate ship to Neverland It was 7.55pm when I did ... and my watch still seemed to read 7.55pm when I got off! The whole ride experience was over in a flash (unlike the queuing experience ) Despite wishing Nest was sitting next to me, I had really enjoyed the flight. I can't remember the ship having swooped nose first so much before. I also think I noticed for the first time, little patches of cloud over London. I also loved flying through the nets of stars (they weren't tunnels, as you could see through the stars to the next scene.)

As soon as I returned from Neverland, the plan was to hot foot it through the castle and down Main street to meet Nest. Unfortunately, my plans were thwarted by the evil barricade rope I darted out through an archway to the left of the main castle entrance, down an extremely dark path that went by the Snow White statues and water feature, glanced the edge of Tomorrowland, and with some deft sideway movements, finally made it over to the correct side of Main Street I came to the Penny Arcade much quicker than I expected, so I was glad I was paying attention Did a quick once over the of the store, and on not finding Nest, waited out the front for him. I finally spotted him towering above the crowd he was stuck in, slowly making his way towards me. I went against the crowd to meet him

Nest was really hungry, so we went to the Bengal BBQ to get him something to eat. I was hoping I wouldn't get the same server as before, as I find that kind of thing embarrassing. As luck would have it, I did get the same server Nest got four chieftain chicken skewers and a bottle of water. This time we were lucky enough to get a table to sit at

We wanted to ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy more than once this trip, so we headed on over. The wait was two hours long , and all the fast passes had gone for the day, so we went to Autopia instead. We got a fast pass for it, and while waiting for it to become valid, we joined the normal line. Nest was put at position six, and I was put at position one, which meant I would be following him on once the next car arrived, like on a previous day we rode. I waved as he went by, and watched him putt putting ever so slowly off into the darkness to give me a chance to catch up as soon as my car arrived. The normal night fireworks began as we were doing our lap - it was very distracting - thank goodness we weren't driving for real! We stopped to watch them on the exit ramp along with others - the fireworks were very beautiful. At one stage, Nest ducked into a licence booth and came out with another hilarious finished product.

We decided not to use our fast passes for our second go on Autopia for that night, as the wait time had been reduced to 15 minutes - I wondered where the crowds had gone to suddenly. (Probably Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, as we were to find out later.) As we were waiting in line, I noticed some strobes streaking across the night sky, probably from the World of Colour. As Nest looked up, he saw two bats flying the length of the strobes, which was great to see. Later on, a lost balloon seemed to follow them.

Something happened to the Autopia queuing system this time round, with Nest being next to go, and me having to wait a whole lap. We didn't like this, so I messed the queue up even further, by joining Nest's line to be his passenger. It was so much fun! As a passenger, I noticed road signs, such as "Mouse crossing", that I hadn't noticed whilst driving

I really wanted to go on Haunted Mansion one last time, so Nest weathered the queue for it, which didn't take as long as initially thought. It was hard getting to the Haunted Mansion, as the whole foreshore of Rivers of America was packed with people waiting to see Fantasmic. We listened to the music and caught glimpses of it while moving around the Haunted Mansion queue. If you listened carefully, you could still hear the gentle chimes of the Haunted Mansion queue soundtrack. Didn't notice anything moving at any of the windows like I did once in 2007. Our hitch hikers at the end of this ride, were three stripy snakes tied together with a ribbon.

We really really wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain next, and were so disappointed when we found it had broken down Tried once more to go on Space Mountain one last time, but the waiting time had risen from two hours, to two-and-a-half hours! No chance! And with that, we went back to our hotel to pack. Yes, I know - leaving things to the last minute again!

We stopped in the Disneyana Store on Main Street, for me to choose a gorgeous Robert Olszewski light box to add to my collection, and the Main Street Electrical Parade light up ornament set #3 for Nest (he loves the little grub in it.) The cast member on duty had to get someone special to serve us. The lady in question brought out the items for us to inspect, and make sure they worked and weren't damaged in any way. With the light box (Splash Mountain was out of stock, so I chose the Mad Teacups one), she explained how the maker can't stand on/off switches, so he hides them as best as possible so they're hardly noticeable. Apparently they've had people bring back the light boxes, complaining that they don't work, the switches are that hidden to some people.

The figurines that came in the Main Street Electrical Parade set #3, were Gary Grub (Nest named the grub Gary), Smee in his rowboat, Big Ben, Cinderella in her pumpkin coach, and a snail. All these little figurines were sooooooooo tiny! I exclaimed with glee, that even Cinderella had a face (her head was tinier than a pin head!) And the antennae on the grubs were cute too - the lady seemed worried about their wellbeing. The lady told me that when the guy comes in for signings, that the stock flies out the window, and he always signs in miniature, which is cute in itself. I love hearing anecdotes like that. She lined them all up on the board, flicked the switch, and they came to life in beautiful colours that constantly change. Hope we don't blow them up like I did with the 2006 Halloween party lights due to the differences in voltage between our countries

The lady commended us on our choices, and asked if we were on a honeymoon or some equally special occasion Thank goodness Nest was off looking at something else at the time, as he can't stand it when that assumption happens, and I'm equally as embarrassed!! Having said that, for surprisingly only the second time this holiday (it happened so much during our 2010 holiday), I explained how Nest was my little bro, that we share the same travel interests, and enjoy collecting nice objects such as the sets we were there for that night. When the lady gave me a pen to sign for our purchases, I took the lid off and was left with holding just an empty tube - the ink and nib had totally disappeared, and we just stood there laughing for a while

With our purchases encased in thick polystyrene within their respective cardboard boxes, we left the park and walked back through Downtown Disney to get to our hotel ... to pack ... I didn't get to bed until 4am I seriously don't know what my problem is when it comes to packing! I had a shower afterwards, so I wouldn't have to stress about fitting one in the following morning. Even though I know Nest had set his alarm clock, I thought I'd set the hotel's one as backup. Nest had been asleep for ages by this time, and as I tried to set the alarm, Pink blasted on. Nest can't stand her music, which I knew, and due to me panicking, couldn't find the off switch or volume control, and just made things worse I finally hit the CD option instead, then decided to just use the buzzer mode. Thankfully, Nest didn't wake up during that brief (though it didn't seem brief to me at the time) hullabaloo.

Next entry: Departure Day

[chezp]

What a shame this is coming to an end. Great last day in the parks!

[clio]

Sorry to read your trip is coming to an end. I really enjoyedd seeing pictures of the Halloween party at DL. It's so different from the one in Florida.
Liz

[FanOfMickey]

Sad to see your trip is coming to an end. They always go by way too fast don't they.

A little off topic, but have to mention I saw Koalas for the first time at our local zoo last week. They are the cutest and I fell in love with them. I have now added Australia to my bucket list so I can see them in the wild.

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a shame this is coming to an end. Great last day in the parks!

I'm sad it's coming to an end too Perhaps that's why I've left it so long till posting my next entry I can't believe that it was only this time last year, I was in full swing with the planning, and that the trip was almost upon us! I can't believe how quickly time has flown! Fingers crossed our next trip will be upon us before we know it

Glad you enjoyed my previous entry - thanks!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by clio

Sorry to read your trip is coming to an end. I really enjoyedd seeing pictures of the Halloween party at DL. It's so different from the one in Florida.
Liz

I'm delaying the end of the report for as long as I can , so that the fun doesn't have to end (Not really - I'm just incredibly disorganised at the moment )

Glad you enjoyed our coverage of Disneyland's Halloween party! It really was a lot of fun, and we hope to experience it again, as well as the ones in Florida. Australia barely acknowledges Halloween celebrations

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by FanOfMickey

Sad to see your trip is coming to an end. They always go by way too fast don't they.

A little off topic, but have to mention I saw Koalas for the first time at our local zoo last week. They are the cutest and I fell in love with them. I have now added Australia to my bucket list so I can see them in the wild.

I agree - super fun trips like this one, certainly do go by too fast! Before you know it, you're back home wondering to yourself if all that really did happen

Glad to hear you've added Australia to your bucket list so you can see some koalas in the wild They sure are super cute little Aussies! I love it how they spend most of their time sleeping, and most of their waking time eating - what an ideal life! I've had the absolute pleasure of being able to hold one about ten years ago now, I think, and it was sooooooooooooo soft, smelt like eucalyptus (who would've guessed?! ), and was very gentle (it didn't wiggle about or scratch me.) I've quickly scanned through my photo sets on Flickr to share, but unfortunately they don't go back to that time.

[Big Sister]

Sunday, 14 October 2012: Departure Day

The hotel alarm buzzed to life at 9am I didn't get up because Nest's original alarm was still to go off, plus all I needed to do to get ready to leave was get dressed, wash my face, and do a last once over of the room to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.

Nest's alarm went off at 9.30am. I got up and did all that I needed, and then sat out on the balcony watching the crowds in the DCA park below. I had woken up momentarily at 7am, and recalled hearing people screaming around the park even then ... presumably to get fast passes for the new Radiator Springs Racers before they ran out. It's surprising I heard this, as the sound proofing is usually pretty good. (I did get up to go to the bathroom at the time, and found the bill poked under our door - it was nowhere near as bad as I had expected! PHEW! )

At 10.55am, luggage huddled just inside our door, I rang Bell Services to ask for someone to come and collect our luggage for storage until later on that night (our flight back to Oz was due to leave at 11.50pm.) Then I rang to use the Express Checkout option, which I learnt to be awesome, as all you had to do was listen to some very brief recorded instructions, leave your name, room number, and time you'd be checking out, and that was it! Too easy! It was great being able to completely by-pass the front desk, instead being able to immediately head out to begin our day. We left our room right on the check-out time of 11am after the bellhop had taken our luggage.

With one of the most stressful parts of the trip over (the final packing), we headed to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney for an early lunch, as we've enjoyed dining here each time we've come to Disneyland, and today was the only time this trip we were able to squeeze it in. It was surprisingly busy even though it was an hour till lunch, so we left our names at reception, then wandered around the gift store while waiting for a table to become available. There were quite a few nice things in there, but I knew not to go crazy with the shopping at this late stage of the trip, as we already had more than enough luggage than the two of us were able to handle between us. We also stopped to admire the aquarium, and spotted our favourite 'nose' fish.

We got a nice table for two at the foot of the waterfall, just in front of the swinging forest monkies, who came to life every 20 minutes or so, the same time a thunderstorm (in sound and light only ) would hit.

For starters, Nest and I both had crumbed mozzarella sticks with a salsa dipping sauce. One served contained eight decent-sized sticks, and while very lovely, I filled up super fast (nerves at the flight ahead, perhaps?), and couldn't finish them off. Luckily Nest was able to come to the rescue and polish them off for me. For drinks, Nest had diet Coke, and I had Sprite (we didn't fall for the 'lemonade' trick this holiday! )

As you would then go on to imagine, I then went on to have massive trouble dealing with my main course of beefburger with cheese, guacamole and onion ring, complete with a side of fries! PANIC! Nest was only just able to finish his massive square BBQ chicken pizza, and wasn't able to help me out this time round.

While we were eating, a photographer took our photos while we held a stuffed snake and frog?! She caught me with a mouthful of food, which I couldn't swallow fast enough, so I wasn't smiling in the first photo. I didn't realise I was strangling the frog from nerves The second shot turned out though, as did the "pull your best funny face!" photo, so the latter two were the ones I chose to purchase. (Sorry, but I just can't seem to find where I've saved the photo to )

Hiding most of my uneaten meal under my generous sized serviette , we then migrated quietly to the gift store (after having paid our bill, of course.) There, I bought shots two and three, as well as a summer jumpsuit for a friend's baby, which says, "I'm not small, I'm fun-sized!" I hope my friend finds it as funny as I do

All week, Nest and I had been seeing adverts on the tele for Christopher Walken's new movie, Seven Psychopaths. It premiered the Thursday just gone, and Nest and I were really excited about seeing it after lunch today. Unfortunately, it wasn't showing at the local AMC theatre in Downtown Disney - we were SO disappointed , and were at a loss at what to do momentarily. We eventually decided to see Looper starring Bruce Willis instead, as the adverts were claiming it to be the best action movie of the year (which I highly doubted due to having seen The Expendables 2 the weekend before our trip.)

We still had a bit of time till the movie started, so Nest busied himself with the arcade games in the foyer, winning a blue Mater Lego kit from the skill tester - woo hoo!

Still overly-full from lunch, we just picked up a bottle of water each from the snack bar (though the individual punnets of raspberry cheesecake ice cream didn't escape my notice ), and made our way to cinema three. A behind-the-scenes of popular evening shows was playing, focusing on such titles as Castle and The Mentalist, followed by an onslaught of movie previews Gotta love a movie preview or two! The one that appealed to me the most, was Mama, as it looked soooooo scary! I had seen teaser posters for it around Universal, which gave nothing away, so I thought nothing more of it at the time. Paranormal Activity 4 looked promising also, even though I found the first one boring, and never followed up on the following two instalments as a result.

Looper ended up being an ok movie to pass the time of day, but it definitely wasn't the action movie of the year like the adverts had been touting it. I was so shocked when I checked my watch on leaving the cinema, and found it to be 3.40pm! It seemed so late all of a sudden!

It had been nice and cool in the cinema, and now we were back in the hot crowded confines of Downtown Disney. We thought catching the monorail to DCA would save us time, but it turned out it would've been quicker walking, as we had to wait for the second monorail, as the first one was full up, and then we found we had to get off in Disneyland, despite people waiting to get on there. Getting off and joining the end of the long queue would've taken as much energy as walking over to DCA ourselves, so we did the latter.

Our goal at DCA park was to experience Radiator Spring Racers. Nest wanted to check to see if there were any fast passes left. I was pretty sure there wouldn't be (not meaning to be pessimistic), and a Cast Member overheard us, saying that they all went in the first hour of park opening

On reaching the queue entrance and seeing the estimated wait time, Nest was pretty much immediately put off. I said that we should try and give it a go, as the lines for the other attractions would probably be just as long, so we may as well wait it out at an attraction we'd yet to experience So at the time, it was around 4pm, and we wanted to get going back to the hotel at 6pm, to give us time to navigate the crowds, get our luggage out of storage, so we'd be in time to catch the 6.50pm Magical Express to LAX. Leaving at that time would allow for any traffic difficulties, and hopefully still get us to LAX by the recommended three hours before departure time

As Nest and I had never been on Radiator Spring Racers before, we didn't know the design of the queue, thus exactly how crowded it would be. Though if the end of the queue is at the entry to the ride, and the estimated time reads at 120 minutes, then I think it's a pretty good indication that you're in for a long wait I think what saved us, was that at one point the ride broke down, and that a whole lot of people ahead of us left. Having said that, it was still a pretty long wait, but not as long as it could've been. I thought it was great how Cast Members were walking the lines selling drinks and popcorn I shouted Nest to a diet Coke.

As it was a long wait (have I mentioned that before? ), it gave you plenty of time to take in your surroundings and notice things you would probably miss if you were just to whoosh through. Highlights were the fountain full of coins (we spotted an Aussie $2 in there - that definitely would've been missed if you were running by, as they're so small!) ...

... a structure of different coloured glass oil bottles, some of which seemed to glow...

... and a garden featuring a variety of cacti. Nest liked the long thin 'fluffy' looking ones.

Nearing the front of the queue in the last shed type structure, you were able to catch glimpses of the main arena (it was pretty much shielded by the surrounding mountain ranges.) The first bit I noticed, was a small bridge up very high crossing a waterfall, and the other glimpse was a few seconds of the actual ride vehicles themselves, as they sped around a corner.

Our goal leaving time of 6pm came and went By that stage, we were so close to the 'real' queue, and we had been waiting for two hours, and didn't want it to be all for nothing I was so excited when it finally came time to board our vehicle! Just before boarding, I looked back, and saw that the queue was still at full capacity, stretching back as far as the eye could see

Even though I'm barely familiar with the movies, I absolutely loved this ride - the Imagineers and labourers who brought it to life did an absolutely fantastic job! It was seriously well worth waiting over two hours to ride! One of my favourite parts was driving through Cars Land at night - it was as if you were in a slightly smaller version of the DCA park itself - the detail was amazing, and the night atmosphere spot on - it was so awesome! My other favourite part was speeding around the racetrack, which had lots of twists, turns, and ridgebacks to it. Sometimes it felt as if we were travelling on our side, the angles were that extreme!

I dearly would've loved to have stopped to buy our souvenir photo afterwards, but it was 6.30pm by that stage - the time we needed to be back at the hotel by! From the glimpse I did get of our photo, my head looked so big, it seemed to take up the whole shot - how embarrassing!

We navigated the crowds as quickly as we could, and were relieved when there wasn't a queue at Bell Services, so we could get our luggage without delay. We waited out the front of the hotel, and the Bellhop appeared five minutes later with our luggage. He took us over to the Magical Express stop, unloaded our luggage, and asked if the rest of our party would be joining us soon. When I said all seven pieces of luggage was just between the two of us, he seemed quite shocked! Nest and I were both busting for a bathroom break, which we just managed to fit in during the time we had left to wait

We didn't want to be leaving this time around, as we had had such a wonderful time. Since we had no choice in the matter (why did I have to make it on the night season three of the Walking Dead premiered?!), we were relieved to have caught the bus we had been aiming for, and were finally on our way. We were a tiny bit annoyed when we learnt we had to transfer to another bus on reaching the Disneyland Hotel, but that's just because we're lazy

After making two runs to get all our luggage on the LAX Magical Express, and tell the driver which airline we were flying with, we got settled once again, just in time to watch Shrek, which had only just begun screening. Before pulling away from the Disneyland Hotel (I still remember the scene from 2010 ... only this time, it wasn't raining!), the driver paused the video and read out the list of airlines we had given him. He had left Qantas off, so I called it out, he wrote it down, and then resumed the video - all that came out was an evil laugh! Due to the sequence of things, it was as if it was in relation to our airline, and the whole bus then started laughing ... perhaps it was one of those moments where you just had to be there

I'm glad it was dark outside as we travelled along, as it cushioned you against the fact that you were leaving the Disney bubble. I watched the movie on and off, catching one of my favourite moments where Donkey follows Shrek up a mountain. Shrek farts, and Donkey starts complaining, "Shrek! Was that you?! I had my mouth open and everything!" Eddie Murphy portrays the character brilliantly!

We were at the airport in around 45 minutes. As the Magical Express went on its way and left us struggling with enough luggage for four people, it was then that the comfort and magic of the Disney bubble popped, and we found ourselves back in cold harsh reality Forging forward while ladened like mules, we were guided to the correct check-in desk thanks to the giant red and white Qantas kangaroo logo

It was a relief to get rid of our suitcases once again ... though I had to pay $120 for the privilege , seeing as we had an excess number this time round (better than having to pay over $1000 postage fees like last trip! ) We sat and waited at our gate for the next two-and-a-bit hours, wishing we were on the 10.25pm flight, and not the 11.50pm flight To pass the time, we worked on our journals while eating turkey salad sandwiches from the nearby stall.

When it finally came time to board, I became stressed out when the lady at the counter asked if I could wait to the side, as I was worried if that meant I had been bumped from my seat in premium economy, despite having paid a fortune to secure it Nest got through fine, but waited with me to see what was going on. During this time, I was also worried about people using our overhead luggage space, as we had so much we needed to store. I was so relieved on finding out that the reason I had to wait to the side, was to be given my receipt for the excess baggage fee I paid. I was a little confused at the same time though, as they had already given me one at the time of payment?! Crazy!

I was so relieved once on the plane (we were in the upstairs section this time - a definite first!), that we still had the bulkhead seats I had excitedly chosen way back when booking. For the first time ever, Nest was able to stretch his long legs way out in front of him for the entire duration of the flight! Due to the lovely leg space, we had to sacrifice our hand luggage storage space, so one of my bags had to be stored in the crews' quarters. Once seated, Nest was served a glass of water, and I opted for a glass of bubbly - best to make the most of it while I still could!

This time round, Nest and I were sitting on the left side of the plane where there were only two seats per row, which we really loved Nest loved having the window seat while still being able to get up freely, and I loved having the aisle seat, where I could go to the bathroom as many times as I liked without having to constantly disturb Nest. The lady across the aisle from me gave me her Cosmo mag, as she had finished reading it. This was lucky for me, as my stash of 2.5 week old gossip mags I had yet to read, were in my bag in the crews' quarters. Having said that though, I never got around to reading it

Our flight, due to depart at 11.50pm, didn't take off till 1am! I don't recall a reason being given for this - perhaps it was because I was so stuffed by that stage. As soon as I watched the sparkling lights of LA below, I drifted off to sleep, thanking my lucky stars for the excellent noise cancelling headsets given to us, as it completely blocked out the snoring coming from the person behind us What a long flight it would've been if we only had the pissy headsets we were used to from economy flights.

I wasn't going to worry about dinner, as I was disappointed about the choices - chicken (which I can't have) and ahi tuna (which I don't like) - where's the beef?! I then decided I'd get the chicken - at least I could eat the mashed potato and vegies, and give the chicken to Nest. By the time the crew got to us though, they had run out of choices - it was the first flight all over again! I let Nest have the last chicken dish, and asked if I could have a meatball sandwich (a snack listed as available all throughout the flight.) While waiting, I was given a tray of sides - a lovely salad consisting of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, baby bocconcini, with a balsamic vinaigrette, followed by a dinner roll with butter. Neither Nest or I are coffee fans, so neither of us had the tiramisu dessert. The meatball sub wasn't nice like I expected it to be. I ended up picking the meatballs out, and just eating the roll with cheese and pesto on it. At least I wasn't starving thanks to the turkey salad roll we had at the airport.

I was definitely ready for some shut-eye after that Before I went to sleep, I worked out how to compile a play list using my entertainment system. For the next couple of hours, I slept to the musical strains of Duran Duran's Greatest Hits, Marc Bolan's Electric Warrior, and the Stones' Forty Licks. I was conscious of being shaken partly awake on two or three occasions due to turbulence, but that didn't bother me, and I was able to go back to sleep straight away (the seat's far incline helped greatly, in addition to the brilliant noise cancelling headphones.)

I seriously couldn't believe on next looking at my watch, to find I had slept for over half the flight! Now I didn't have enough time to watch all the Louis Theroux documentaries I had been planning to. I managed to watch his doco on plastic surgery, his two part doco on the biggest jail in Miami (as much as I love him, I cringed in disbelief when he entered a cell housing 24 inmates, and asked them all how they were going! How did he think they were going?!), and only half his documentary on people who keep exotic animals as pets. (I'm glad I didn't have time to watch it all, as the denial of one certain individual, and the selfishness and immense ego of another individual, made me see red )

Somewhere in amongst all that, I picked at a continental breakfast - I just stuck to the honeydew melon, lovely sweet fig muffin, and water.

Once the plane had landed, the staff were really nice and brought me my bag without me having to ask for it

I thought we had had plenty of time to make our connecting flight, but I had forgotten about daylight savings time (as did the flight information section on our entertainment system.) It wasn't until our flight Captain (Captain Cook - everyone laughed each time he said that (Captain Cook was the name of the explorer who discovered part of Australia)) came over the loudspeaker with the time, did I realise we had an hour less than originally thought Despite this, I still thought we'd be ok

We got through Customs quickly thanks to the Aussie express line However, we were held up for ages at the baggage carousel, as our luggage took forever to appear Then there was a blockage at the next entrance we had to go through, and I was so relieved we were able to bypass the long unmoving 'something to declare' line due to the lady at Customs putting a particular stamp on our re-entry card when I said the only food we had was loads of candy. We were now free to make our way to the Qantas transfer lounge ... which is where things started to go downhill, so I'll keep it brief ... or at least try to

When we checked in for our flight to Canberra, we were told we weren't going to make it, and were booked onto the next one, where we wouldn't be sitting together The lady caught me looking at my watch for a long time, looking puzzled According to my line of thinking, we had plenty of time (ie. half an hour), but she said they needed at least 40 minutes to get the luggage over. I got really annoyed inside, thinking what was ten minutes, and that if we were somebody important in the eyes of the public, that staff could've made it work. I think the same thing happened to the couple behind us, as they looked visibly pissed off Nest thinks we were bumped, because they overbooked our flight and had given our seats to someone else.

At our gate, I went to the service desk and got anything but good service, and left in frustration Then Nest and I could hear the staff arguing with each other from where we were sitting, which I thought was unprofessional When I noticed a new staff member joining the desk, I approached the desk again to enquire about Nest and I getting a seat together. She had a frosty manner , but said to leave our boarding passes with her, and she'd see what she could do.

The boarding time for our replacement flight came and went, and there was no communication to us about what was happening I also didn't appreciate the lack of communication about our boarding passes, especially when all the staff disappeared from the service desk for a prolonged period of time! It turns out the walkway gate to the plane wouldn't open, so we had to change gates. I had to race up to the service desk to get our passes back

We were annoyed at having to catch the bus to the plane. My annoyance grew when they got the blind lady to board first, and had her dog lay right in the entrance of the bus , where every single person had to step over him while juggling hand luggage. Common sense would tell most people, to reserve the front seat for the blind lady, and have her board last so her dog wouldn't be obstructing the walkway - it's basic OH&S! If all that wasn't bad enough, the bus drove only ten metres, and we were at our plane! What the?! It would've been less hassle to walk!

We all got settled in the plane, relieved to finally be on our replacement flight Safety demo over, we thought we were well on our way ... until I heard the plane stop The pilot said something was wrong, and that a technician was coming to check it out. We were served water and asked to keep the air vents fully opened so the cabin could be kept cool. Eventually, the technician left, and we were all excited to be on our way finally. We were told that by law, since the door to the aircraft had been opened during this time, we had to watch the safety demo again. Groan! Since no one new had joined us during this time, I thought this to be extremely unnecessary!

The groan at the news of the repeated safety demo, wasn't as loud as the collective groan by passengers when told that our flight was cancelled, and that we had to change planes!! I was instantly fuming! We had gotten this far - all I wanted to do was get home - it was only a half hour flight, yet the process was dragging on and on.

We joined the existing 12.35 flight, and was massively happy when Nest and I were given seats together in the second row, and not all the way up the back! I was surprised how they could find seats for us all. If we had been allowed on our original flight, we would've been home over half an hour ago by this stage - so infuriating! After another unnecessary stupidly short bus ride to the next plan, and viewing our 100th safety demo for the day, we were finally in the air and on our way home! We were served water and cute boxes of snacks (which turned out to be gross - a fruit flapjack I didn't touch, and a feta, sundried tomato and basil muffin which sounded nice in theory, but wasn't nice in taste.) At one stage while investigating my snack box, I hear a quick tearing sound, followed by a sudden whooshing sound. I looked over to Nest, to find that he had tipped sugar all over his tray table, and had a surprised look on his face. He told me he thought it was a wet wipe! My mood was fully restored to happy as a result

Nest and I were off the plane as soon as we could be. We felt guilty Johnny had been waiting for us for so long, and didn't know what was happening. (We were able to advise him of the first flight cancellation, but he was uncontactable for the second flight cancellation, as he doesn't have a mobile.) Mum came as a surprise to pick us up, and also to keep Johnny company. She had been talking to Johnny all that time, during which time he got a headache

We were so happy to be back in our hometown and leaving all airports behind us after hours of being stuffed around Johnny drove us to our favourite kebab shop which sell the best kebabs in town Nest had a chicken kebab, and I had a lamb kebab. They're so big, I could only eat half of mine, and Nest could only eat 3/4 of his (you know a dish is big when even Nest has trouble finishing it! )

I spent the rest of the day unpacking, distributing gifts, and regaling the family with anecdotes. Nest escaped from his big sister for the first time in 2.5 weeks , and caught up with some mates

Even though the Sydney to Canberra flight problems were hard to endure, I'm glad they happened at the end of the trip, and not at the beginning And when you think about it, I much prefer to return home late, than perish in a crash enroute

I'm now excitedly planning our next trip! While it would be awesome to return to Disneyland next year to make good use of our annual passes before they expire on October 7, realistically speaking, I don't think that's financially possible I can tell you this for certain though - another Disney cruise will most certainly be part of the itinerary! We're new recruits and fully addicted!

Next entry: Wrap-up of the entire trip

[chezp]

What a great final day - I'm so glad you finally got to experience Radiator Spring Racers. You can't go to Disneyland now and not experience that.

Sorry about the saga on the return flight home. I can imagine how happy you were to finally be home.

Looking forward to your final thoughts.