Again, with Karen off to her conference, dad and I headed over to Ponderosa. Afterwards he left for home and I left for Blizzard Beach. While at BB, it hit me that there had been a lot of people at the parks and even hotel that spoke with a British accent. I had even overheard someone at BB saying that it was cheaper for them to vacation in Florida as opposed to Europe. Huh, interesting! Disney has truly become an international vacation destination!
While at BB, I got really brave. I swore after the last trip (1995) that I would NEVER go down Summit Plummet again, EVER! Well, I don’t know what possessed me but I seemed to be overly brave having down the Rock'n' Roller Coaster not once but twice. So, after thinking, "what the heck", I did it! The previous time I had the sensation that I was falling forward and would actually fall out of the slide. After rationalizing to myself that a very large number of people ride this slide without any ill effects I lied back and enjoyed the ride! How cool!
Next up, Snow Stormers with the mats. One improvement here compared to last time is that they have installed a system to transport the mats up to the top of the ‘mountain’. My last attempt at riding Snow Stormers failed because everyone would get off the end of the slide and never let go of their mats and then carry them back up! Now it is a much better set-up.
Lunch was under the shade over by the volleyball court. After a relaxing float around Cross Country Creek I packed it in and went back to the hotel.
Karen had an early day from her conference today and so, after a short nap and showers, we arrived at the Beach Club for our priority seating for Cape May Café. We were a little early and so spent a short time meandering around the gift shop. Here, as in all of the shops you could see the pin frenzy going on. We bought our first pin, a DVC 2000 pin as well as a Beach Club Xmas ornament. With our drink coaster flashing to signify that our table was ready we walked back to be seated.
As we are both avid seafood lovers, dinner at Cape May Café was most enjoyable. The food is good and plentiful and the service is always excellent. With our bellies full, we walked through the International Gateway and over to France. While making our way to Morocco (our ultimate goal Norway), the announcement for Tapestry of Nations beginning in 3 minutes was broadcasted. We hadn’t planned on staying for the parade as we would be back in WDW in October at BoardWalk but we found a relatively deserted spot just across from the Morocco café. Well, it was worth the wait and we’re both glad that we did! This has to be one of the most impressive parades that Disney has ever put on. The music and costumes were outstanding. Coupled with this was perfect evening weather with a soft cool breeze that made for an extraordinary event.
Making our way around World Showcase, we finally made it into Norway before closing. With our return to BoardWalk in October already planned we decided to skip the crowds with Illuminations and to rather enjoyed Norway. We had an entire boat to ourselves as well as sharing the movie theater with only four others. When we came out of the gift shop (we purchased a Santa Lucia figurine), Illuminations was just finishing. After the majority of the mob departed we casually walked to the Disney Traders and then up around Canada, United Kingdom and out the International Gateway and over to BoardWalk. Because we had been so bad at dinner, desert was shaved ice at the BoardWalk. It was a nice night with the humidity fairly low and a nice cool breeze blowing. After making our way around the Crescent lake and taking some nice night photos, we returned to the car and back to the hotel.