When we left off DH and I had spent an AWESOME evening in Downtown Disney. I would highly recomend making time to have a date with your significant other when you are at Disneyland. DH and I have decided we are going to try the childcare center next time so that we can go on a date again!!!
Before I begin our last day, here is a picture I forgot to post of DH on Tengaro Terrace (you can kind of see the musician in the background):
The next morning was our last day at Disney. We got a bit of a late start on the day so our morning started at California Adventure. When we were walking in we ran into Phineas and Ferb:
After working our way through the crowd we headed over to Goofy's Sky School. This ride was consistently posted a 45 minute plus wait the entire weekend we were at DL. We decided to bite the bullet and just get in line. After 45 minutes it was our turn:
The front of the coaster was so small, and my DH is so tall....I was laughing about it the whole time we were riding. Let me tell you, this ride scared the crap out of both of us!!!!! Sitting in the front made you feel like you had no protection whatsoever. It felt like you could just fall out at any time.
After Sky School it was time for lunch. We ended up going to the Paradise Garden Grill to have some greek food. Basically it was meat on a stick with rice and flat bread. I know that is not an elaborate description, but beleive me the food was awesome! This area has some lovely seating areas too. We sat and listened to a latin band for about 45 minutes. Then it was time to go back to the hotel for a nap.
After our nap we headed back to DL for the evening. We didn't take many pictures because we just wanted to enjoy our time. We did FINALLY go see The Magic Memories and You presentation at Its a Small World. About halfway through the presentation, DH turned to me and said, "I miss our kids." Awe.....that's why I love him.
Our last ride that evening was the Haunted Holiday Mansion. The wait was over an hour but we wanted to do it one last time. As we waited we saw snippits of Fantasmic.
On the way out we stopped at Walt's statute and said goodbye to the Castle:
We also took a picture of a pumkin that served as inspiration for our pumpkins last halloween:
We headed down Mainstreet to our hotel...The Year of the Annual Pass was Over.
OVERALL REVIEW
I have to say, having an annual pass was an incredible experience. It saved us lots of money on the trips we took. The downside (if you consider it a downside) is that we ended up at the parks more because we wanted to utilize the passes as much as possible; because of this an argument could be made that we actually ended up spending more at Disney than we otherwise would have without the passes.
The upside is that we have had an incredible year as a family and have made memories my children talk about all the time. While we are taking a break from family vacations from Disney for one year (we are planning on a Disney World Trip in May 2013), I can look back at this experience and get excited for the next.
I also think the annual pass is the way to go if you are DVC Owners because using the two in conjunction with eachother really makes sense. It was affordable for DH and I to go down to LA for the weekend because both the major expenses were covered--tickets and lodging.
Lastly, this last year has shown me that Disney is constantly evolving and changing. I have got to see so many changes over the last year and I am super excited to see the changes that have taken place when we venture back.
Thanks for following along! Stay tuned for a BONUS TRIP (yep...that's right...a BONUS TRIP) report covering January 2012!!!!!