Days 34 & 35 - Disneyland and Going Home (The Finale !)

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Well all things must come to an end and so it is with this holiday.

I was up early as I had to see if the Car would start OK whch it did. I then decided to go for a drive to Wal-Mart one last time as I had to pick up a few goodies for a workmate back home. I also picked up a birthday present for Luke to bring home (can't say what it is in case he reads this blog before 6th March !).

Got back around 10AM, and got all the bags packed up and I was a bit frustrated that the electronic luggage weighing gadget (I think that's the technical term for it) was not working . We knew we were allowed to have 2 checked pieces each with a combined weight of 32KG, but with the gadget malfunctioning we had to wing it. I then booked our Super Shuttle ride for tonight at 8PM to take us to LAX for flight home.

We left the luggage in our Hotel, and took the final walk down to the entrance of Disney. One last day to cart around a backpack with 3 cameras, a video, 4 bottles of water, 15 different snack items, wallets and the survival kit (yes I am over it !).

Disneyland today and another fine and sunny day. Who would think it is winter time here. We decided to head to Frontier Land first to do the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Carribean. The latter was different since I last was here as they have had the Pirates movies released and there were a lot of new exhibits with Jack Sparrow in fine voice and very realistic. We had some Beignets in the French Quarter area with a crappy cappuccino (those yanks know nothing about making good coffee !) as it had about 80% froth, and hardly any coffee to drink.

Splash Mountain was closed for renovations but we were not in the mood to be getting wet anyway as we were all wearing our going home clothes. We went on the Winnie The Pooh ride, and then on the Thunder Mountain Railroad which the kids did not realise they had been on a few days earlier when they did it at night time. Luke bought some more Disney Trading Pins to fill up his Lanyard.

Next was Peter Pan where the wait time was around 45 minutes, and then King Arthurs Carousel. We then went down to Mickey's Tune Town which did not have a lot for teenagers. I was a little disappointed that It's A Small World was still closed as this is one of my favourite rides although it can be one of my most annoying songs.

We had a late lunch at the burger place in Fantasyland which was full of greasy stuff and one I regretted eating (motivation to resume my diet when I get home I guess). Kerry had a flatbread Pizza which she did not not enjoy.

A few more rides and soon enough it was time to go. We were all pretty full from the late lunch so we decided we wold have Subway for dinner. We planned to get back to the Hotel around 7.30PM and eat our sandwiches in the lobby whilst waiting for supershuttle but as soon as we got there he was already waiting. He was OK to wait however so we headed off around 7.45PM and bid farewell to the Camelot Inn & Suites.

Being a Monday night traffic was light and we arrived at LAX about 8.30PM. Great now we have only 3.5 hours to kill! We got dropped off outside the VAustralia check in counter and we were the only ones there. We grabbed our supply of luggage and no queue to join (we had managed to accumulate 2 backpacks, 2 Laptops, 2 small Suitcases for carry on, our orignal 4 suitacses and 2 more we had bought on our travels and filled up).

I was quitely confident about the weight issue, but to my surprise the guy was more worried about the carry on stuff which had a 7KG limit. First back was 10KG (ouch !!). I had to move stuff between the carry ons to get all under 7KG which I finally did but it was stress I did not need.

We then got some good advice to wander over to the Tom Bradley Terminal which is the main one and had lots of facilities with duty free shopping, bars etc. At around 10.15PM we went back to go through security and I had forgotten that what I had bought for my mate in the morning at Wal-Mart was still in the carry on luggage. The customs guys were ruthless so the $40-00 package is now in bits and pieces and because some of the box included fluids which are no go on the plane.

We get on the plane on time, and just about to leave when the Captain said "a woman has had to leave the plane due to ill health however we will need to find her luggage before we can depart". Great ! Can you imagine trying to look in the cargo section of a plane for a medium sized black suitcase. Anyway it only held us up for about 30 minutes and we were on our way.

I tried to relax and enjoy the flight. Luke sat next to me again and he was off to sleep pretty early so I decided to create my play list on the entertainment system and try out the new Bose headphones. I created a playlist of 161 songs which went for 11 hours or so no need to repeat any ! I started with an alphabetical list of artists so AC/DC were first up and I really cranked up the volume. I enjoyed listening to some old classics such "She's Got the Jack" and "Back in Black" which I had not heard for years.

After a while I then started watching Wall Street 2, but after about 2 hours into the flight I was shatterred so off to to sleep I went. Kerry & Elise were sitting in front of us and also looked to be sleeping (I think we had rows 28-29 Seats F & G). Not sure how long I slept for but I remember waking up with a sore neck and then finished watching the movie. I would recommend to anyone to buy the Bose headphones as they are so good at keeoing out the aircraft humming noise and after being served scrambled eggs for breakfast I was in great shape.

Luke however did not wake up until we had already passed Fiji. I wish I could do that ! We had managed to skip Tuesday whilest we were sleeping. Anyway it was a bit bumpy on the way home but we arrived early at around 7.30AM QLD time. It was Australia Day and getting through immigration was no problem. We picked up all the luggage pretty quickly and we then had to declare some wood carvings we had bought in Mazatlan. Luke was excited as there were signs saying they were filming the Border Security TV show, although I did not see anyone (I told Luke not to make a scene just in case !). Declaring was good as we got through Customs really quick and our chaffeur was there ready to drive us home.

Not much traffic around and it was warm and humid. An hours drive and we were back home in Tweed Heads. Yes home after five weeks away and it was Australia Day.

Well that's all for now until next time I go on adventure. A few pics will be added soon to finish off with.

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Comments

[Lyn W]

Inspiring trip
Welcome home! Looks like you guys had a great trip. We're planning a Mexican cruise next Jan and you've given me lots of tips and food for thought. Thanks.