Mike & Sam Go West! Day 15 - Disneyland - The Final Curtain

[soarinfan]

Mike and Sam Go West!

A Holiday Extravaganza

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The day had arrived – it was our last day in Disneyland California. And also our last day in LA which was a shame! Naturally we had chosen to spend our last few days in Disneyland as it was something to look forward to, but now it had come to an end it was certainly a sad moment having to say goodbye!

It was another early start today driving back to Anaheim one final time. Part of us wanted a lay in – but we knew we had to leave the park early tonight as we had an ADR at Goofy’s Kitchen (our first ever character meal!) before having to drive back to Hollywood and pack. We had a very early morning the next day getting to LAX to fly to San Francisco, so it made sense to get to the park as early as possible. We knew the rides which we really wanted to revisit, so we headed straight to the first one – Indiana Jones! We loved this ride in Tokyo, and the fact they have it in English over here in Disneyland was a total bonus! We grabbed a Fast Pass and headed on to try and find somewhere for breakfast over in Frontierland.

Now I really wanted a Funnel Cake & a Dole Whip – but seemingly the only place that sold Funnel Cakes was shut until lunch time – travesty! However right next door was Big Thunder Mountain with a 5 minute queue, so we thought it would be rude not to one final time. We managed to get a good seat fairly near the front of the ride – we really enjoyed this as we knew that Big Thunder Mountain in Paris was going down for a lengthy refurb in Paris (over a year!) so we wouldn’t get to go on it then, and although I would get to go on it in October in Orlando, by the time Sam & I got back in May the following year to Orlando it would potentially be closed as well! On the plus side – really liked the new ending to the ride which they are currently putting into the Orlando version (and hopefully the Paris version too! )

Click above to watch our POV!

Splash Mountain was next as it was starting to hot up and the queue was fairly light. We love Splash Mountain (especially in Orlando) as it has what Sam calls “The smell of happiness!” – unfortunately here in California it just smells like stagnant water but what can you do!

Click above to watch our POV!

We wanted to go on Winnie the Pooh next as it was right next door to Splash Mountain (weirdly – not in Fantasyland like in other Disney Parks). The loading platform was also outside completely open to the elements which is weird! As bright and colourful as it was, it unfortunately still does not beat the version they have over in Tokyo which is simply something else – very similar to Ratatouille but a 100 times better if you have been to DLP of late!

I was ravenous by the time we got off, as we still hadn’t had any breakfast. Sam grabbed a cookie from Pooh Corner, and I headed back over to where they dish out the Dole Whips in Adventureland in the hope that it was open and the queue was actually something you could stomach. Thankfully it was fine so we grabbed a cheeky dole whip (which was as delicious as always).

We grabbed our Space Mountain FP for after lunch and took another quick ride on the Matterhorn. I love this ride but Sam isn't too keen - being quite small she gets thrown about a fair bit on it! But its great fun for me . Afterwards we enjoyed a bit of time in Fantasyland and had a quick spin on Walt's very own carousel. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Peter Pan's flight was loading! It was for AP holders and CM's only which was great - as I was now an AP holder of course! Unfortunately, with Sam not being an AP holder the CM would not allow her to ride, so I decided to give it a miss and stay with her. Instead we had a look around inside the castle at all of the cool little displays.

We were a bit peckish so decided to stop for something to eat - and Sam chose Pizza Port (anything with the word pizza included is always a good choice!). I decided to go for the Pasta in the end - it was really nice! Plus it went well with the hundreds of packets of Parmesan cheese I had grabbed to sprinkle on the top

Straight after lunch we used our FP for Space Mountain as we were pretty much next door to it. This would be our last ride on Space Mountain for this trip - it was good but I was gutted we didn't get to see the Hyperspace Mountain overlay which they installed a couple of months after our visit!

We headed on back over for one last spin on PotC. It was so funny - the boat in front of us for some reason didn't stop at the loading bay and just kept on trundling through because the CM's were talking to each other and not paying attention - by the time they heard the screams of "oi we want to get off not go around again!" it was too late and the boat was already sailing away When we got off (thankfully after just 1 ride - its a long'un in California!) we found Club 33 - amazing to think this was built so Walt could entertain his VIP's when they visited! I don't think they'd be too impressed if we strolled in in our t shirts and shorts!

We were both feeling a little sleepy (probably from all of the silly early mornings just to GET from our villa to Anaheim!) so we tried to wake ourselves up with a walk through Tarzan's TreeHouse! Many steps later, and whilst Sam was spending her time taking pictures of some Disney Ducks - I noticed out the corner of my eye that the funnel cake place was open! YES! I said to Sam I'm sorry I know dinner is in a couple of hours, but it just HAS to be done. And so it was. And boy did I regret it afterwards - I was stuffed!

We decided to have a sit down in the original Enchanted Tiki Room whilst we were absolutely stuffed. The air con was lovely, but with the air con, the dark light, and the very full stomach - I have to say it did pretty much send me off to sleep! - haha!

Once we were out of there it was getting towards the time where we were going to have to think about making a move for our dinner reservation. We decided to use the rest of the time in the park shopping up and down Main Street & the Emporium - where we picked up some nice goodies featuring the 60th Anniversary design.

It was sad saying goodbye to Disney here in California - I think it is true what people say - you really can feel Walt's presence here. We said a special goodbye to the light in his apartment window, and headed out

Goofy's Kitchen was the location of our dinner tonight - our first ever Character Meal! It was quite a trek to the Disneyland Hotel from the parks through Downtown Disney, but we made it there in the end. It was only a short wait but we were soon ushers in to see...

GOOFY!

It was so cool to meet Goofy in his chef whites! You didn't have to stick around for a photo, but it seemed that if you did, as soon as you were done the servers were ready to collect you so it was worth while! We had photos taken on our own cameras too, as the prints were fairly pricy as you had to buy an entire pack of stuff that came with it which we weren't interested in.

Every 15 minutes or so the music begins and everyone waves their napkins in the air like lassoo's as the characters come out again - apart from Sam which can't do it and it looks more like she's scratching her back with the napkin I thought it was hilarious!

There was a variety of stuff on the menu as it is a buffet, salads, pizza, pasta, chicken, meats etc, plus a variety of puddings! Interestingly, a peanut butter & jelly pizza. It was different to say the least - so I only had one slice of that one! But it was a very well organised belly stuffing!

After we were well and truly stuffed, we settled the bill, waved goodbye, and headed back to the car. It was only about 7:30pm but we had to leave early, because we had to get back to the villa to pack and say goodbye to Jade & Jake. Because at 3am we'd be off to LAX to fly to San Francisco!

Thanks all for watching and reading! Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel to get the latest updates of videos and things! Day 16 - our first day in San Francisco is coming soon!

[KristyA]

Enjoying your report, looking forward to the next part. We are doing Vegas and San Fran in May so interested to see what you do in SF.

[dozy]

love it

[soarinfan]

Thanks dozy - hope you're enjoy the videos too