#florida tower

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

Two versions of Tower of Terror have prominent dragon motifs, but only one provides an in-universe version for it.

Florida Tower, the original, has dragons on its unique crest, which find their way into curtain embroidery in the lobby and libraries. It looks super cool, and oddly was never repeated for any of the other Twilight Zone towers. Bizarrely even Florida's merch department forgot about the dragon crest for a while and kept using the Paris/California shield crest for even Florida specific merch.

DisneySea Tower, the last (depending on how/if you count Mission Breakout), has dragons in wallpaper, in architectural details, in furniture... and it's obviously symbolic of Harrison Hightower's greed, since dragons hoard wealth and treasure the same way he does.

I have no idea if this has any meaning, it's just odd that there is a sort of theme between the two.

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

Thanks for the Tower/SEA info! Do you happen to have pictures of the SEA easter eggs in the Hollywood Tower Hotel? Also yeah you're right about the mummy being the most egregious, other SEA members went plundering too but this dude was stealing whole entire people

The most recent, actually-confirmed-by-CMs, actually-in-the-ride reference is this monkey by the photo counter in Florida. It's supposed to be the Mystic Manor monkey, and was added in 2024 (after my most recent visit in 2023), so the photo is by @chunkecheeks

As for other SEA references,

This now-removed newspaper prop contains what I'm fairly certain is a canceled SEA character, Pete Corrigan, manager of the Hollywood Tower. The article muddies the waters on what version of the Hollywood Tower is canon, as the photo shows DCA (and this newspaper was in California Adventure) but the detail about mahjong at the hotel is Florida-exclusive. It also gets other points of lore, like the hotel's opening date, wrong. The transcript of the article (since the photo isn't the easiest to read) is in my post here: https://a-land-of-shadow-and-substance.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-tower-and-buena-vista-street-hidden.html This newspaper was in place until 2018, when I took these pictures. It disappeared about two weeks later.

Then, there's this photo from Shanghai Disneyland (which I haven't personally been to), taken by @laffiteslanding

The main headline and photo clearly shows/references the Temple of the Crystal Skull from DisneySea, although it oddly calls the group the League of Adventurers/LoA rather than the Society of Explorers and Adventurers/SEA. HOWEVER, as can be seen at the left, it has an article about the Hollywood Tower Hotel incident! So Hollywood Tower = same universe as Temple of the Crystal Skull, which is in-ride observably in the same universe as Hotel Hightower! Also interesting is, based on what's readable of the Hollywood Tower article, we have another new set of Tower OCs in play: the elite Herman family, who seem to be the Elevator Five, completely overriding the TV movie names and relationships for those characters as well.

And while we're on the subject of SEA... are there any confirmed Pirates of the Caribbean characters in there? Another pet theory of mine, ever since Curse of the Black Pearl, is that the Pirates movies take place in the same universe as Indiana Jones.

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

The DHS Drop Shaft Sequences: Explained!

One of my greatest frustrations in attempting to record and preserve the Tower in blog form was the Florida incarnation's different drop seq

@chunkecheeks answered one of the BIGGEST questions I've always had about Tower of Terror: what drop sequence matches with which special effects? Here's a (hopefully) clear explanation, at last!

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

I’ll always be impressed by the fact that someone actually did a near-complete POV video of Tower of Terror in 1994.  Not only is it a drop ride, but video cameras in 1994 were...not convenient nor especially durable in that era.

(Video from TowerofTerrorDatabase--also, check out the original ending sequence!)

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

Not enough Tower of Terror merchandise acknowledges that the Florida version’s building is painted full-tilt Barbie Dreamhouse Pink

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Fun news!  According to @rodjgaming, the Florida Tower boiler room radio now plays the sound loop from DCA/Paris!  I’m glad that they added this detail; it seemed like Florida had the setup to have both the radio and the “spooky wall” (although theirs was in the exit area), but didn’t have them running before.  Glad at least one has made its Floridian debut*!

*assuming this isn’t a re-debut; there’s limited information about the Tower in its earliest state since it pre-dates easy filming in theme parks

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

So, I looked up how Tower of Terror is being run with the reopening.  As I expected, the pre-show is turned off.  The lights are on in the library, which offers unprecedented look at the details/Easter Eggs in there.  I’d say I hope to see photos... but really, nobody should be at a theme park in the United States right now.  Seriously, just no.

Also, I’m disappointed at the social distancing measures within the ride vehicle itself. It looks like guests are being loaded in every other row, which is decidedly NOT six feet apart.  I didn’t see pics of any plexiglass dividers (like on Jungle Cruise) to try and make up for the closer distance either.

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

Just noticed another thing about New Dimension of Chills: There’s a lot of emphasis on a square of TV static/the TV “turning off” at the end of the ride sequence, similar to Florida’s ending except projected over the exit doors instead of a screen.

I wonder if this is to make the ride experience more similar to Florida, or a sign that the designers might plan to actually implement these new projections in Florida.