Can We Move Here and Be Pancho’s Handlers? A Sept '11 Throwback TR (Complete)

[tayalltheway]

Ugh, leaving the park on the last night is the worst Our bus driver at WDW told us that it just means you are one day closer to your next trip!

It definitely stinks to say goodbye on the last day. I know I've never escaped with dry eyes. At least the bus driver's attitude is a good way to look at it!

 

[tayalltheway]

September 22, 2011

Chapter 49
Goodbye for Now

We woke up on our last morning with a thorough dose of the vacation-end blues. Luckily we still had a couple hours before the Super Shuttle was scheduled to take us to the airport. We decided to head downstairs for one last Disney snack before leaving. The Surfside Lounge had the delicious Cinnamon Twists we had gotten on one of our first days of the trip, so we got one to split and brought it back up to our room to eat while we finished packing. We dug in before I could get a proper picture.



It was just as delicious as the first one, and we were glad to get to enjoy one last taste of the Disney deliciousness.



After breakfast, we headed down to the lobby and went to the gift shop. We hadn’t yet checked out Mickey in Paradise because it had always been closed by the time we got back to our room. Now we had to visit to get the Paradise Pier pressed pennies.



On the way back up to our room, we took our favorite detour one last time and rode the glass elevator up to the top floor. DCA was already beckoning us, though it would be a while before we would enter there again.



Before too long, the time had come for us to head out. We took one last look down our hallway as we made our way toward the elevators.



I tried to soak up all the Disney I could in the lobby before we left.







Our Super Shuttle was ready to meet us as we got outside, so we got in and bade our final farewell to Paradise Pier.

The drive to the airport wasn’t very pleasant—Super Shuttles rarely are. We definitely hit some traffic, and we felt a little ill. The other family in the van with us was vacationing from Australia and it was crazy hearing them talk amongst themselves about everything they had done on their trip so far. They were really doing a coast to coast U.S. trip, and Disneyland was just one of many stops for them.

When we reached LAX, we were able to get through security and to our gate quite easily. Of course, our flight was delayed by a couple hours. We almost always have delays coming back from a Disney destination. I guess it would be much worse to have delays at the start of our trip, though, so we couldn’t complain TOO much.

Finally we were able to board and we were on our way. The long flight that had seemed so interminable on the way out went much more quickly on the way back—probably because we slept for a very good portion of it. As we flew, we lost three hours, so we soon began flying into the sunset. Almost this entire day was taken up by traveling.



When we did finally reach New York, we hurried to get home as quickly as possible. We were already missing Disneyland and dreaming about what it would be like to live there. I can honestly say, however, that we never could have dreamed exactly what our futures had in store.

Continued in Next Post​

 

[tayalltheway]

Epilogue
The End is Only the Beginning

I think when you have a life-changing experience, you rarely realize it while it’s happening. So was the case for our trip to Disneyland. At the time, it seemed like a really fun vacation; we got to see the original Disney park in all of its glory; and we definitely fell in love with Walt’s park. Any thought of moving here and making a life for ourselves that revolved so closely around Disneyland wasn’t something we were seriously entertaining at the time though.

It’s crazy to think how many things might have gone differently had that strange blip in the WDW reservations system not suddenly made every value resort unavailable for the dates we were looking at. I don’t want to go all “Brave” on you folks here, but maybe fate did have something to do with it. Anyway, having seen Disneyland and decided that it was full of all the Disney magic that we love about Walt Disney World, it was on our radar when we decided New York living was no longer for us. And the rest, as they say, is history. History that you can find out more about in my other trip report.

We were honestly shocked by how many of the rides that are on both coasts are just BETTER at Disneyland. Whether it’s the actual attraction (like Space Mountain) or just the fact that the lines are nowhere near as crazy (like Soarin’ Over California and Toy Story Mania), we basically got to experience all of the attractions we love and discover several new ones. Indiana Jones quickly became one of Tracy’s favorite rides anywhere—and I definitely enjoyed it as well—and we both LOVED the Halloween overlay on the Haunted Mansion.

In terms of food, Disneyland definitely delivered with some of the signature items we had heard so much about. The Tigger Tail is one of the best snacks ever, we loved the Hot Link Corn Dog, and our table service meals were all such great experiences. Now if only they would add some vanilla swirl to their Dole Whip machine, it would really be perfect.

One of the best things about this vacation was that it was really able to feel like a vacation. Between not having to take buses everywhere and actually getting some sleep because the parks closed early, we got to relax more than we ever do in Florida. Both of us came off the trip feeling recharged and we were able to plow back into our everyday lives. While this was the first trip since my medical issues started to become a problem, it luckily wasn’t anywhere near as big of a burden as it could have been.

It’s never fun to see a trip end, even just when reliving it in a trip report, but at least this trip was so far in the past that I can honestly say in retrospect that what we had lying ahead of us has been more exciting even than this Disney vacation.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about Tracy and my introduction to Disneyland. Hopefully you are also enjoying reading about our exploits as it has become our home. If you haven’t started that trip report yet, now would be the perfect time. Here’s a link, and I hope to see you all over there!​

 

[Tasscrapper]

Wow. What an incredible trip report. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it almost made me late for work this morning! Now I can go start on We Moved to Disneyland now that I have the back story. By the way you and Tracy have awesome smiles and they have cheered me the last two days as I have read your report.