Postby KeithS » Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:48 am
Here is the final journal entry of our trip! I'll be back to post more theme park photos from WDW, Universal and Disneyland later today.
7 April 2013 – Disneyland - LAX
Finally our last day on holiday arrived. After breakfast this morning, we went back to our room just to check on our packing, but we were fairly confident by this stage so headed over to Disneyland for a half-day goodbye.
When we entered the park this morning, the Disneyland Band were at the entrance, along with Alice and the Mad Hatter - and what was the band playing when we came through the turnstiles? Waltzing Matilda! Our first stop after entering the park was Pirates – there were quite a few major rides that we hadn’t been on because of the spring break crowds so today was as good a day as any to knock them off. After Pirates, we headed straight onto Haunted – both these attractions were walk-ons today; an indication that the holiday period was finally over.
After leaving Haunted, we headed up past Splash to Winnie the Pooh and had a turn on that. We were contemplating Splash but it was cooler today and we didn’t want to pack wet clothes.
After Pooh, we headed back to the hub via the Big Thunder trail and on the way we visited the Wishing Well. Princess Belle was blocking the path back to the hub, so we scooted through the castle and then got a photopass picture in front of the castle.
Next up, we headed up towards the Matterhorn which had the shortest queue we’d seen in five years! So we hopped on and finally got to ride it again. It wasn’t as bumpy as I was lead to believe, although not as smooth as newer coasters.
We then headed over to the Teacups as that is always a last day tradition for Della and I. I also wanted to ride Alice in Wonderland, but the queue was 50 minutes, so that wasn’t going to happen today.
After the teacups, we headed into Tomorrowland and Space Mountain queue was also quite long, so we jumped on Buzz Lightyear for a final battle. It was now time for lunch and we headed to our traditional last day lunch at the Plaza Inn of Cobb and House salad (something light before flying).
It was getting close to our departure time, so we decided to get some last minute shopping in for office gifts. I bought chocolates while Della got some ear hats at the Mad Hatter.
With that done, it was time for our final attraction of the holiday – our traditional Grand Circle Tour of the Magic Kingdom on the Disneyland Railroad. We hopped aboard after a short wait and relaxed as the train took us around the park. Finally, it came back to Main Street and we headed down the stairs and out of the right-hand passageway. We passed through the exit gate around 3:20pm and after a quick visit to our brick in the Esplanade, we headed across Harbor Blvd and back to the hotel.
Once there, we got showered and changed before finalising all our packing. Around 5:10pm, we took all our luggage downstairs and checked out of the hotel. The Disneyland Express bus came and before long, we were on the freeway heading to LAX. Our dream Universal, NASA, WDW, Cruiseline, Disneyland holiday was at an end.
Keith
Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015