Despite my strict blogging while travelling park to park, making use of long flights to write to keep everything fresh in our minds, by the time we hit our last stop, after almost three long weeks, things slipped a bit so most of this last post was written retrospectively.

Even at the time, it was unbelievable how far we’d come on this journey. We remarked often how crazy it was what we were doing and how even to us it seemed unreal. Landing at LAX, we were only one more hour long flight away from home but of course, we had one more place to visit.

Despite living so relatively close, we’d only visited Disneyland together twice. We’d planned only to have the weekend there for various reasons but sure enough, being so close to the end of the journey, it was enough.

Regardless, we were up bright and early for rope drop – a must at Disneyland any time of year if you want to stand a chance at getting on any rides.

We took the morning to ride some old favourites, successfully grabbing a few Fast Passes and beating the crowd to get onSpace Mountain Ghost Galaxy, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.

There were only a few unique attractions here we were particularly interested in:

• Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps! As new additions to the Disney family, at the time this was the only park you could get photos with them. Even so, they were somewhat hidden away in a nondescript photo area for 30 minute slots. By the time they opened the queue, they had to close off the end.

• Now reopened as Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! , at the time we took the opportunity to have one more go on the Tower of Terror prior to it’s rebranding. At the time, they’d already started stripping away the facade and were milking it with special ‘Final Checkout’ merchandise (which of course we bought).

• Having visited almost a year earlier for the final showing of the live Aladdin show, we decided to pass on the replacement ‘Frozen Ever After’ show out of protest.

• Our dates also managed to coincide with AP days which got us into some extra areas and some other small perks. Some of these had long queues so we didn’t bother too much.

• Our dates also coincided with Gay Days which added a nice festive atmosphere and colour. Out of coincidence, Judit also briefly met up with a friend from New Zealand who was visiting specifically for the occasion.

With everything ticked off by the end of Saturday, we were able to take the time to just walk, enjoy the ambiance and marvel at what we’d accomplished.

And with that, with weary legs, tanned skin and a few pounds lighter, on Sunday afternoon we dragged ourselves back to LAX and enjoyed a final dinner and raised a glass in the Qantas lounge before the final hop home and back to real life and continue on with our Happily Ever After…

We will be in Anaheim at Disneyland from September 30th – October 1st. It is the sixth and final stop on our trip.