California Day 6 - (Adventures by Disney Day 5)

This was our last full day of Adventures by Disney.  It went soooo fast.

We started out with our group at the breakfast buffet at Storyteller’s Café in the Grand Californian hotel.  It is a character breakfast as well.  There were not a whole lot of guests there at that time so our group enjoyed a lot of character interaction.

Then it was off to open another park.  This time we got into California Adventure before it was open.  There was a guest who was quite upset that were entering the park when he was just told the park wasn’t open.  The cast member was very patient but it took several times of explaining that we were a special group tour before he quieted down.

Again, there isn’t too much I can share about exactly what we got to experience in Disney’s California Adventure.  We did get to go on Radiator Spring’s Racers as a group which was a lot of fun!  

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And again, we ended as a group at around 1 pm and were sent off with fast passes for the afternoon.  My sisters were flying in this day so we met up with them and were able to share some fast passes for all of us to do some ride together.  We rode several attractions and had a really nice afternoon.  

We parted ways for now from my sisters and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our farewell dinner with our Adventures by Disney group.  We all met in the lobby and then were led to a conference room in the hotel.   There was a screen and laptop set up and the guides showed us a slideshow presentation with pictures that they had taken of all of us over the course of the trip.  It was so much fun to see and re-live.  Then we were asked what our favorite moments of the trip had been.  There were so many great responses.  Many touching on the fact that our group as a whole worked really well together and how wonderful the guides had been.   Our guides said that this was their first “hiccup free” trip and they shared some of their favorite moments.  The moments they shared were reactions and expressions that different people in our group had to different surprises and activities that we had done.  It just reinforced for me at how connected and involved the guides were in our trip.  They weren’t just dragging us around from place to place but really cared about how we experienced everything.

From there we headed over to the restaurant location.  I am not going to say where we ate because it was not something we knew until that morning.  I will say that it was an excellent meal.  ** Surprise alert ** I will say that when we arrived to dinner, each place was set with Mickey “Glow with the Show” ears.  It was so cool to see them all lit up when we entered and it was a great surprise that we each would have a pair of ears to wear to the World of Color show that night.  (Glow with the Show ears look like the standard Mickey ears but the ears light up.  The lights are synced to different shows in the parks so in the audience the ears will all match and light different colors during the show.)

During dinner, Summer Rose came around to verify our departure information and transportation.  Chris and I were staying 2 extra days but we were switching hotels to a Homewood Suite nearby.  The policy for Adventures by Disney is that if you book your post-trip stay through them, they will provide private transportation back to LAX.  We ended up booking our own post-trip location and we were flying home from Long Beach airport, so I had arranged our own transportation.  When Summer Rose came around to us, she had our plans listed as staying the 2 extra days but remaining at the Grand Californian and using ABD transportation.  I explained what our arrangements were and she said not to worry and she would change the car service to pick us up at Homewood Suites.  She did not have to do that at all so that was a great surprise!

After dinner, we all went to the World of Color show.  World of Color is the night time show in Disney’s California Adventure.  It involves music, images being displayed on water and lights… and it is very difficult to really describe well.  We really enjoyed it.  Our Adventures by Disney group had a reserved section, of course, and it was great to see everyone’s Mickey ears light up along with the show.

When it was over, that was pretty much the end of our Adventures by Disney trip (we just had breakfast the next morning).   No one wanted to leave.  Someone started an email list so we could each add our contact information.  The park was now closed, all the guests were leaving and the Disney cast members were cleaning up around us but our group was still standing there not wanting the trip to end.  But eventually we had to move along, especially since we had to park to move to our next hotel in the morning.