Castiel has providing for some of the funniest scenes in Supernatural so I am glad they are keeping him around at least. I've really gotten into him and it is nice he is around, I do wish they continued with the heaven/hell stuff and helped Castiel get heaven in order and possibly leads to Castiel becoming an arch angel or something.
Yeah, they already killed off any chance of Dean having a normal life seeing as he tried for a year (but still did an odd job) and then got sucked right back into it. It wouldn't make any sense if Dean went to a normal life. I could see Dean somehow sacrificing himself to save Sam and the world, but I would think Sam will just continue to hunt after that. I'm sure they will come up with a fitting end whether this is the last season or they give us another either way, they generally do.
I agree with lack of ghost, but we got dragons and faeries! The two things the brothers didn't believe in.