Day 4- Wednesday
It took me some time to get up and moving today. Coffee made it a little easier. I finished my paper and emailed it off. Gotta love the HSIA. Afterwards I drove to MGM to ride my favorites- Rock ‘N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. I intended to get a FastPass from RNR but the standby line was less than 5 minutes. A great ride every time! TOT was also a virtual walk-on. After these two, I walked over and rode Star Tours and then stopped in to the Brown Derby for lunch. When Karen and I visited in February, there was French Onion soup on the menu, a perfect item for a cold February day. I thought it would be good for a cold December day as well! How disappointing to find it had been taken off the menu. The only soup that was available was the Mulligatawny Soup. I had that and the Portabella Mushroom, Chevre Cheese Raviolo. Both were actually quite good actually. I took a piece of the Brown Derby’s signature ‘Grapefruit Cake’ to go. Back to the car, I drove home and called Alexis. We made plans to meet for dinner at Restaurant Akershus. Aha, I would finally have a chance to eat there.
I left in the late afternoon to meet Alexis I had planned one more ride on Mission: Space before dinner. My plan was to sneak in at BCV and through the International Gateway. When I got to security I told them I would be eating at Cape May (all right, a little fib), they asked if I had PS. I told them I would be making it when I got there. Security informed me there was an awards ceremony and only those with confirmed PS would be allowed on the resort. So, I pulled U-Turn and drove around for a bit, calling WDW-Dine for PS at Cape May Café. Once I had memorized my PS # (nothing to write on in the car), I went back to Security. A new security guard didn’t even question me as to a PS#, just waved me through. Eesh, all that work for nothing!
After passing through the International Gateway, I hurried to M: S. The single rider line had only a 2 minute wait time. After a successful mission, I circled around and got right back on the line again. What a great attraction. After my second mission to Mars I made my way to Norway and Restaurant Akershus. Alexis was waiting for me and we were seated right away. I would highly recommend this restaurant! The cold buffet had almost 30 choices of salads, smoked fish, etc. All very tasty, and ‘all you care to eat’. Along with the cold buffet, there is a hot menu to choose from- also very good. The hot menu is also ‘all you care to eat’ too and the portions are relatively small so that you can try a number of different menu options without filling up too fast.
After dinner we rode Maelstrom and then Alexis and I walked around World Showcase, talking all the way. We talked Disney, Disney and more Disney. She gave me her view as a Cast Member. It’s good to hear that her love of Disney had not been spoiled by working at the Parks and seeing some of the behind the scenes things nor by knowing some of the ‘inner workings’ of the place.
I dropped Alexis by MouseGear where she was going to do some Christmas shopping. I was a bit beat and still had packing to do for a morning flight. One last stop by the ‘Lights of Winter’ and I headed back to the car after walking one last time through the International Gateway. Once back at SSR, I finished gathering and packing most of the stuff I had bought.