So my birthday in Australia flew by, with plans to celebrate here with a third day at Disneyland. However, there has been some discussion today about the fact if it is another birthday I must be AnOTHEr year older – and I ain’t adding two years at once!!!! Ross told the people at the gate about the celebration and they gave me a badge to wear, so everywhere we go people wish me a happy birthday! I will never celebrate with so many people again in my lifetime!!
We started the day at California Adventure, looking at exhibits and shows while Ross queued for a fast pass for the CarsLand ride. After queuing for half an hour at 9.30am, he managed to get us Fastpasses for between 5 and 6pm!!
So we decided to head back to Disneyland to do Mickey’s Toontown (the only land we missed entirely) and to give everyone one more chance to do something we have missed or their favourite ride again. On the way in we saw Princess Belle, who had a photograph with the girls, signed her autograph, and gave our Belle a special hug. It was so sweet. Grandma cried, and Belle skipped all the way to our next ride.
After Toontown we went on Zac and Belle’s choice, ‘It’s A Small World’ – I promise Luke I did not influence their choice!! We then went to Sam’s choice of the Peter Pan ride and Abi’s choice of the Finding Nemo submarine but both had 40+ minute queues, so we admitted defeat and went to Maccas for lunch and free wifi again. It was 2pm after all. We are now back in our hotel for another forced siesta before returning to finish off the day at California Adventure.
Catnap complete, we returned to California Adventure for the parade and the Radiator Springs ride. While the standby queue was 75 minutes, our queue with fastpasses totalled 12 minutes. The ride was great, and worth the wait! We then explored the Wilderness Adventure Park while Ross and Tim did the roller coaster at Paradise Pier, and then I got to take Sam and Belle on the Little Mermaid ride together. I have never been such a third wheel in my life nor enjoyed it more! It was so gorgeous watching them discuss every scene as we rode around.
Grandma then requested ice cream for dinner. Just icecream. The kids thought it was a great way to celebrate, but I am salivating for some salad! We then returned to Disneyland to finish off the requested rides and watch the fireworks. Our night finished with the Peter Pan ride, which was the first ride my Mum and I went on 18 years ago on my last visit here. A fitting finish. We said goodbye to the grandparents and theme parks.
And so ends this part of our trip. Everyone is sad to leave although Zac and Sam are quite excited about our next stop, Legoland in San Diego. Abi and Jarrod discussed plans to come back with friends when they are older. While I am a little sad they are making plans to grow up and holiday without me (sob!), my indoctrination of the wonderful world of Disney is successful and complete 😉