Thursday, October 23, 2014

Disneyland Road Trip - Day 8

Thursday morning was our final day at Disneyland! It was also the only day we were sans Ga-Ga & Pa. At first I thought it would be so difficult, but actually it was just fine. We had to modify what we did and went on so we could include Zeke in everything and it was actually a nice change of pace. I'm glad we were able to take the bigger kids on the wilder rides earlier in the week. 

Prior to entering the park that day we had to check out of the hotel. We packed everything in the van and then made the decision to just leave the van parked at the hotel since our parking pass said we were leaving that day....it didn't specify a time. 

This was also the day we used our magic morning pass so we were able to get into Fantasyland and Tomorrowland an hour early. 


Quick photo op in front of the castle on our way to Fantasyland. There is a new character greeting where you can meet Elsa and Anna, but in order to do so you have to stand in line and basically get a fastpass from a cast member. We got our fastpasses about a half an hour after the park opened and the time we were scheduled to see them wasn't until 2:10! I'm pretty sure if you don't use your magic morning and go straight there your chances of getting passes are slim to none! 


We took the kids on the Storybook ride. I haven't been on this ride in years! It was pretty cute! 


Holding onto Zeke so he doesn't go overboard! 


The palace from Aladdin! 


Prince Eric's castle from The Little Mermaid! 

We also rode on the Alice in Wonderland ride....it broke down when we were at the very end. Thankfully we were outside the ride so we didn't get stuck inside with all the music and noise. It only took them a few minutes to come rescue us. Then to our great dismay the kids HAD to go on It's a Small World! They have updated it a bit and we survived...barely! We were wanting to take the kids into ToonTown, but for some reason it was closed. There were cast members by the gates, but I never did go and see what was going on. 


So instead we ventured over to Tomorrowland to ride the Astro Orbitor again. Michael rode with Jack and I rode with Ella and Zeke. Owen got a rocket all to himself! Of course the cute little chicken never did raise his rocket all the way up! 


Cute little co-pilots!!! 


Then the older kids wanted to go on Star Tours and the Buzz Lightyear ride so Zeke and I wandered around and then found a shady spot to sit and watch the Jedi Training Academy. I hadn't read up on it and didn't really know what to expect. I was told that we needed to make our kids stand out in order for them to be picked, but I know my kids and they don't really like being in the limelight so I wasn't worried about it too much. We did bring their lightsabers with us since we didn't put them together right when we built them. A cast member fixed them and then the boys played with them during the show. 


We were over on the far left side of the stage and at first I thought we'd have a great view and then brought out this huge wardrobe thing and parked it right in front of us so we couldn't see the stage. Thankfully the characters move around a bunch so we could see pretty well. 


Darth Maul was pretty creepy looking! 


It was super cool when the whole stage lifted up and Darth Vader came out to fight the kids. 

Before sitting down to watch the Jedi Training I had gotten us fastpasses to Space Mountain, but after the show we realized it would be a pain because one of us would have to take a few kids and then the other would have to go on afterwards. It just wasn't something we really wanted to do...plus Owen was freaked out in the dark so it probably wasn't a good idea anyway! We ended up giving away our fastpasses for others to enjoy!

After that the kids were ready to say goodbye to Disneyland and go over to California Adventure to have some fun. Our first stop was at a little market right after you get in the gate where we got some fruit since the kids were starving. Then we just decided to go to the Test Pilots Grill for lunch. This is by far the best place to eat in regards to amount of food, type of food and price. Michael and I split a bleu cheese bacon burger with fries and we got the kids 2 adult size chicken nugget (Not MCD's quality...really nice chicken breast nuggets) meals with fries and split it between the 4 of them. I think it came to $32 so that was pretty cheap! Plus we ended up only wasting 1.5 chicken nuggets. At almost every other restaurant the kids would barely eat anything we bought them. 

Owen really wanted to go on California Screamin' again, but logistically it just wasn't going to work. He was the only child that was big enough to go so I was going to have 3 kids....2 in strollers! We explained it to him and he was fine. So we started walking towards the Ferris Wheel and Zeke fell asleep! 



I do not like the Ferris Wheel...especially the swinging ones...so I just pushed the stroller through a few stores and then sat on a bench with a dad holding his sleeping daughter. 


I took that time to snap a picture of Zeke and upload it to FB and then I looked up and Michael and the kiddos were right in front of me. I tried to get their attention, but they couldn't hear me. 



After that Michael was pretty much done with rides so I took the kids on a few. We went on the Swings, Goofy's Flight School roller coaster, the Jumping Jelly Fish and the Golden Zephyr.


The boys were able to go together thanks to us coaching Jack to say he was 7....when I say coaching I mean lying! As if I really needed to teach him that! However, you'll be happy to know that when you ask him how old he is now he says 6 so there was no permanent damage! :) 


Jumping with my cute Ella Bean! 


After the Golden Zephyr we....kids included were D O N E...DONE!!! It just hit us and we were ready to say goodbye to Disneyland. 


One more stop at the bathrooms before heading out. Ella was super tired here! She never sucks her thumb in public....she only sucks it when she goes to bed at night and then she takes it out once she's asleep. She amazed us though because she NEVER took a nap or fell asleep in the car at all the entire trip and she behaved beautifully! This is a girl that still naps everyday at home for at least 1.5 hrs and if she misses a nap is a crazy child. Like I said...amazing!! 

As you might remember we had passes to go see Elsa and Anna and we had every intention of going back to Disneyland and doing us, but like I said we were DONE! I did try to give our passes away to a couple with a little girl heading towards Disneyland, but they didn't want them....not sure if they thought I was selling them and that's why they didn't want them, but I was surprised....these tickets are pretty sought after! I didn't want to stand there forever trying to find someone that wanted them so I figured I tried and called it good. 

On the way to the hotel I started getting worried that maybe they towed our van since technically we had checked out that morning. Thankfully our van was just fine and didn't even have a boot on it like Michael was worried about. We got the last little bit of stuff in the van, I left the nasty switched stroller by the dumpster and we set off on the next leg of our journey. 


That night we were driving all the way to Fresno which is about 4 hours away. We stopped at some town and ate at Wendy's for dinner. I really dislike fast food, but we needed to get on the road quickly so we wouldn't be arriving at the hotel after 10pm. With that being said we only ate fast food 4 times our entire trip...I'm so proud! When we did arrive it was dusk and I had promised Owen we would go in the pool, but then we discovered that they had an outdoor pool. It wasn't well lit and it was actually cool out. Note to self...always make sure the hotels has an indoor pool! It ended up being okay though because it gave the kids time to play with the toys they bought with their money. 

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