50th announcement

[GapToothed]

Well, I made the trek up today for the big announcement... no surprises other than the coaster Tokyo DisneySea is getting. I was standing in front of some CM's that commented that there were more CM's present to watch the ceremony than guests! After the ceremony, I took my first ride on Big Thunder since it re-opened. It felt slower, but I think that's been proved unlikely... anyway, I was headed over to DCA for Tower when I saw Eisner and Julie Andrews being seated for interviews outside the Plaza Pavillion. I lurked around and discovered Marty Sklar seated for interviews. Luckily, as he was leaving, I managed to get an autograph along with another Disney fan. Of course, no one knew who Marty was, so we joked that we would say it was Regis Philbin and that Jay Rasulo seated near him was Drew Carey. I went over to the the other side of the setup and saw Eisner being interviewed. A few minutes later, he got up and as he was making his way backstage, I was able to snag a handshake. I could have gotten an autograph, but I chickened out.

Tower had a 75 minute time posted, but it turned into 90 minutes as Alpha shaft went down but apparently came back up pretty quick. I returned at 5 for my fastpass time and that wait was pretty short. But again, Alpha shaft was down. The posted time was 60 minutes - the wait in the extended queue in the sun must have been enjoyable...!

All in all, a most enjoyable day at the resort!