Halloween at the Hollywood Tower Hotel

When it came to “Halloween” rides at the Disneyland Resort, two spooky rides generally came to mind: the Haunted Mansion and the Tower of Terror. They were the two rides most consistently promoted as “spooky,” even though other rides (I’m looking at you Snow White’s Adventures and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride) arguably top them on the scariness factor. As one of the two designated “haunted” rides, Tower of Terror was consistently promoted as California Adventure’s Halloween offering, often being the Halloween map cover choice for DCA.

That said, despite being promoted as a Halloween ride, Disney's treatment of the Tower during the spooky season was rather uneven.  In sharp contrast to significant makeovers like Ghost Galaxy and Monsters after Dark, Tower got extra decorations and effects and some subtle new details... that only appeared in 2006 and 2007.  They were rather nice, though, for being so understated and unused.

One of the most notable decorations was the dramatic bat arch over the entry gates, which was even featured on promotional materials:

Advertisement for Tower with bat arch at the Mickey and Friends tram loading area.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

Ad poster on the side of a ticket booth near Downtown Disney.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

The bat arch itself.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

There were also stained glass decorations on the lampposts in the Tower grounds.

Photo by Mrbellcaptain

The building itself also received unique lighting projections at night, featuring bat and spider web designs as well as additional lightning flashes.

There also was apparently a small show wherein victims of the lightning strike disaster told their story:

According to Mrbellcaptain, Disney also added wind and rain sound effects to the garden areas, in addition to adding a soundtrack of a little girl playing.  There was also a meet and greet with hotel staff characters, such as a doorman and a maid.

Photo by Mrbellcaptain

Inside the building, the lobby got a slew of Halloween decorations, all indicating that a lively Halloween party was underway when everyone suddenly disappeared.  In-story, the Twilight Zone disaster happened on October 31, 1939, and for once the decorations matched.

Festive orange jack o' lantern garland ran throughout the room.  Photos by Mrbellcaptain

Melted candles and some pumpkin and cat decorations on the fireplace.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

Witch-themed ring toss game by the main seating area.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

Decorations on the tea table scene.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

Decorations by the dragon statue.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

Two of the more notable lobby decorations were the Halloween gala poster and the banner over the check-in desk.

The poster read:

The Hollywood Tower Hotel

Halloween Gala 1939

Join us on the 13th floor at the Tip Top Club for a spooky good time!

Now Appearing: Anthony Fremont and his Orchestra

Note the little paper witches on the table next to the poster, which confirm this was next to the dragon statue.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

It appears that this poster was placed next to the table with the dragon statue in 2006 (see photos above), but in 2007 it was moved to a much more visible spot directly next to the queue's final turn that passed in front of the seating area.

The banner over the check-in desk read:

Charms of the Witching Hour

Happy Halloween

Hollywood Tower Hotel

1939

Photo by Mrbellcaptain

The gift shop display window also had special decorations, including an orange dress replacing the usual black one.

Photo taken 30 September 2016 by a reader.  This was the only consistently returning Halloween decoration at the Tower.

The Halloween decorations were nice little details that were sadly underutilized.  Arguably, the ride itself was underutilized too as it received no alterations during Halloween time... at least until its final Halloween.

For Disney’s 2016 HalloweenTime promotion, the Tower finally got a true Halloween mode. Called “Late Check-out”, it was advertised as a chance to ride the Tower in complete darkness. As such, “Late Check-out” wasn’t the mode most suitable for video presentation, but here is a link to a recording nonetheless:

Unfortunately, due to my pass expiring in the summer, I was unable to experience “Late Check-out” in person and thus my report of it is based on videos and the testimony of fellow fans. The basic reaction seems to have been mixed; the general gist I got from comments in reviews is that “Late Check-out” was a good start to a concept that was ultimately mediocre in execution. Several comments stated that, while falling in the dark was fun, the spotty narration combined with the dark, non-functioning show scenes gave more of an impression of a broken ride rather than an intentional alternate experience.

Personally, I got the sense that, yes, this was a good start for a Halloween mode that could be built upon and improved in later years.  I can't help but wonder how much of the surprisingly fun Monsters After Dark evolved from potential future concepts for a Tower Halloween mode.

Another significant addition for the Tower’s final Halloween was the live performances of the Silver Lake Sisters in the lobby area. Here is a link to a full concert performance by the Sisters:

Who were the Silver Lake Sisters?  They were actually characters from the lore that was infused into Buena Vista Street during the DCA 2.0 remodel. They’re the fictional owners of the Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Café, a quick-service eatery on Buena Vista Street. Guests could trace the Sisters’ careers by looking at the “memorabilia” on the walls of the dining area. Included were advertisements indicating that the gals used to sing at the Tip Top Club at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.  The official Disneyland website entry for the cafe stated, "All over the cafe's walls, you'll see memorabilia from the Silver Lake Sisters' heyday, from black-and-white publicity photos to posters of venues they've played, including the Hollywood Tower Hotel ballroom." ([link]; quote retrieved 11/20/16)

 For more information about these characters, here is an official Disney Parks blog entry on them: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2015/02/the-magic-of-disney-parks-storytelling-fiddler-fifer-practical-cafe-at-disney-california-adventure-park/

Indeed, two specific HTH-themed posters did decorate the cafe's walls, and indicated that the Sisters not only played at the hotel, but that they were scheduled to perform there on the night of the Twilight Zone disaster.  The posters were displayed together on a wall, one on the right, one on the left.

The left-hand poster.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

The right-hand poster.  Photo by Mrbellcaptain

After the opening of Mission Breakout, all Tower of Terror references were scrubbed from Buena Vista Street, thus denying the Hollywood Tower even Easter Egg status.  This included the Silver Lake Sisters losing their most illustrious venue.  I haven't seen the new decor myself yet, but I've h
eard that posters now indicate that the Sisters performed at the Carthay Circle instead.

Due to not having a pass I was unable to see the Silver Lake Sisters in person. According to comments by those who did see them, the singers were very talented but they were shorted by the venue. Rather than getting a proper sound system, they had to sing through the same speakers meant to transmit only quiet background music. Also, they were situated in the lobby, where guests were generally funneled through quickly without much of a chance to enjoy the performance.

Based on photos and video, I also had another slight gripe with the Sisters. Namely, that they looked like normal 1930s-1940s women. The Tower was supposed to have a haunted, abandoned vibe, especially in the ultra-dusty lobby. And yet there the girls were, performing as if nothing was amiss! This was an easily fixable issue too; Disney simply needed to give the girls a ghostly makeover, similar to how the Dapper Dans are given ghost makeup and perform as the Cadaver Dans during Halloween events.  I’d say this would be an improvement Disney could make next year…except there would be no “next year” for the Tower.

The addition of the Silver Lake Sisters highlighted the loss of lore brought about by the Tower’s removal. The designers of Buena Vista Street made sure to integrate the Tower with their new, detailed environment, only to have it disappear. It is also disappointing that the only time this lore was actually put to use was for a one-time Halloween event that can never be repeated.

It’s worth noting that, on the micechat forums at least, there was a rumor that these Halloween events were not intended to be special “final year sendoff” events, and that the Tower was not even supposed to last through to Halloween 2016! According to these rumors, Imagineering had long been planning on creating a Halloween mode for the Tower and Disney’s marketing department was planning on centering the 2016 Halloween ad campaign around the Tower and its new Halloween mode. The Guardians of the Galaxy news shocked both departments, as did supposed original closure date of August 2016. A combination of fans begging for a longer chance to get one last ride and marketing/ride development begging for a chance to implement their Halloween mode and ad strategies made the execs extend the Tower’s run until January 2017. That said, these are RUMORS and I don’t really have solid information on this.

The fact that exterior demolition work on the Tower began on October 1, 2016, right at the start of the Halloween season, does add credence to that original closure date, however. The combination of demolition and the simultaneous promotion of “Late Checkout” also felt like an awkward compromise between fans, Imagineering, and the execs who wanted GOTG ASAP. I have no evidence that the rumors were true, but the timing seems fishy enough to lend tenuous credence to them.

Thus concludes my summary of Halloween celebrations at the DCA Hollywood Tower Hotel--sadly, a tale of missed opportunities and good ideas implemented on too-rare of occasions.  At least, for now, we can enjoy Monsters After Dark as we wonder what could have been.

Monsters After Dark: The Review

What you might want to know before reading: Obviously, I'm a huge Tower of Terror fan.  However, I'm also a big fan of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).  I absolutely hated Mission Breakout, as detailed in my review here.

(Note: in this review "Mission Breakout" reviews exclusively to the normal version of the attraction, while "Monsters After Dark" refers to the Halloween overlay)

Mission Breakout managed to be even more utterly horrible than my already-pessimistic predictions had foreseen.  When Disney announced that the attraction was already getting an alternate version, in the form of a Halloween overlay, in its very first year, I was skeptical.  It could be a chance to fix some errors of the main version... or it could just pile more garbage on top of garbage.

Furthermore, if Disney wanted a Halloween ride in that location... couldn't they have just, you know, left the Tower of Terror as it was?

Like with Mission Breakout, I decided to hold off on my review of Monsters After Dark until I rode it.  I wasn't sure what to expect, since Breakout had set an extraordinarily low bar for what could constitute an "improvement".

My verdict: I legitimately enjoyed it, and it clearly improves on Breakout (although that wasn't difficult).  However, it still doesn't live up to what it could be, and not just because "it isn't Tower of Terror".  I'd grade it somewhere directly between a B- and C+.  It's better, but Disney's still slacking.

Now, to expand upon that verdict:

1. The Exterior

Monsters After Dark (henceforth MAD or "Monsters" for short) does not run all day, like Ghost Galaxy or Haunted Mansion Holiday.  Instead, as its name somewhat hints, it begins running at approximately 5pm, with the ride operating as Breakout during the day.  It's still daylight at 5pm, so if you ride MAD early the exterior is still as much of an absolute trainwreck as it is as Breakout.

Once night really falls, however, it's a drastic improvement.

Breakout's off-putting alien pineapple color scheme is replaced by a projection-mapping based setup.  The palette is now dark blue and purple, with occasional beating-heart-esque pulses of red.  The projections make the building come to life, with sparks and pulses running along the pipe and electrifying the sign.  The different animation sequences make the exterior fun to watch.

The coherent colors and the animation of the architecture vastly improve the exterior appearance.  Interestingly, something like this was what Disney initially promised for Breakout.  During announcements for that attraction, presenters described things running along the pipes and an animated nighttime exterior.  It's an utter waste that they're using this only for a temporary setup, rather than what was promised for the ride year-round.

Furthermore, I couldn't help but find the color scheme a bit... familiar.  Purple and blue, with lightning crackling to make the sign flicker?  Hmmm....

2. The Queue and Preshow

I rode standby for MAD, so I got to see the museum portion of the queue.  The themeing is changed from its normal orderly setup in Breakout.  The lights are darker and red-lit as the building has gone on lockdown in the wake of the Guardians', well, breakout.  The video screen shows "security camera" footage of the Collector’s employees desperately trying to clean up and get out of the wreckage as alarms blare.

Sadly, you get very little time to appreciate the details.  I'm not sure if there's been changes to preshow loading, or if there's now less queue space in the room to let viewers see it, but guests move through the museum very quickly.  You get like 30 seconds at most to take it all in.  It's a shame, since there's some cool movie props in there, and the setup seems to do well to establish the panicked tone of destruction for Monsters After Dark.

In terms of the preshow waiting areas, they're still as poorly decorated as Breakout, but at least MAD inadvertently gives an explanation: maybe those displays look so bad because they've been looted/partially destroyed.

The preshow itself is mostly the same, with Rocket briefing you on your mission.  The difference here is that your mission is now to serve as bait to distract the supposedly-numerous monsters while Rocket rescues Groot.  All my complaints about the Rocket animatronic and its quality still stand, but in terms of story I feel that the MAD preshow is a great improvement over Breakout.

Specifically, there are two improvements.  One, the guests now serve a better purpose in the story of the ride.  Serving as passive bait for space creatures makes more sense than Breakout's weird, awkward, shoehorned-in "we need you to wave your hands to unlock the generator" purpose that is completed within the opening seconds of the ride.  Two, there's now a stronger reason for the lifts to be going crazy.  In Monsters After Dark, the building is in ruins--of course the elevators aren't in top shape!

After the preshow is the boiler room... and it really is the boiler room again this time.  Tower's rumbling boiler room BGM is back in full force, with a few "scurrying critter" sound effects (which sound recycled from the Indiana Jones queue) added in.  The lighting is very dark, punctuated by bright "red alert" lights and searchlights scanning the area.  It's very creepy and atmospheric...almost as if this space was meant to represent a foreboding space in an abandoned building.

The silhouettes of various monsters are implemented as an Easter egg in the lighting.  Every once in awhile you'll see the weird shapes of the creatures cross a light.  This is very poorly implemented, however, due to the way the lighting crosses the areas where guests walk.  It took me a few minutes to realize that the shape in the light was supposed to be a spider-like monster, and wasn't an accidental silhouette from the hairstyle of a guest several feet in front of me.

Even worse: This is the only time guests encounter monsters (plural) in Monsters After Dark.  Despite the title, there is only one monster in the entire ride sequence.

Speaking of that ride sequence...

3.The Ride

Loading for the ride goes much as normal.  The intentionally choppy automated safety warning goes well with the tone of a building in ruins.

Tower of Terror's spooky background loop for loading has also been reinstated, and guests hear subtle screams and wooshing "dropping" noises as they buckle their seatbelts.  This does a great job of setting up an ominous feel... but, of course, it did so for Tower as well.

The magic happens as the ride starts.  Instead of the terribly un-entertaining, potentially nauseating Breakout, guests get...an actually enjoyable experience!

The first place that Monsters is vastly superior is its drop set.  Unlike Breakout, Monsters actually has proper drops --including a couple of airtime elements.  There's still some awkward moments with the flow of the drop sequence, like some pauses and times where the sequence seems to emphasize going up more than down, but it's miles ahead of its non-Halloween form.

The second part of Monsters I must address is the story element.  Unlike Breakout's bizarre hard-to-follow cutaway scenes, Monsters has a clearer and simpler story about us distracting a dragon while Rocket and Groot run from it.  Stops at the screen do not do the "hover" effect nearly as much as Breakout, thus drastically cutting down on motion sickness as well.

One major problem I have with the drop set and story element, though, is that Monsters never uses the "generator room" floor.  All scenes are at the screen floor.  Why did the designers not use the generator?  It would have been very easy to include it for a scene with Rocket searching for Groot, or even a generic "power going out" horror cliche.

The third element of Monsters After Dark is its soundtrack.  Unlike Breakout’s various “Awesome Mix” soundtrack selections, MAD sticks to one original, mostly-instrumental composition (the sole lyric seems to be “Monsters After Dark”, chanted a few times).  This song is much more enjoyable than the Awesome Mix selections.  The fact that it was composed to create a specific atmosphere and complement the ride alone makes it a much better fit than the hastily-applied licensed pop songs.

Furthermore, you can actually hear the music.  Despite Breakout being advertised as a music-centric experience, it is nigh-impossible to hear the soundtrack during the ride.  In MAD, the soundtrack is loud and clear, from its 40s-esque spooky opening, to the sample of the Psycho soundtrack, to the blaring electric guitars of the main tune.  The actions of the elevator also sync to the music well, therefore delivering the fun, thrilling, music-based experience that Breakout was supposed to deliver.

The ending of the ride sequence will seem very familiar to Tower of Terror fans.  The final surge up to the top of the shaft and drop down are the same as Tower’s “final charge”.  Furthermore, as the ride vehicle pulls in to unload, the music changes once again to some 1930s-40s esque music, Tower’s “pipe clank” ending sound effect plays… and the tower gets struck by lightning.

Interestingly, that ending might have been a change from when MAD first opened.  A few videos I watched from opening day didn’t seem to feature the lightning strike, although they did feature the pipe sound effect.  The ending certainly caught me by surprise when I rode Monsters.  I also cannot figure out what purpose the strike has, other than as a shout-out to Tower.  One of the loading cast members made a vague reference to “the generators acting strange” but this potential plot point wasn’t mentioned consistently enough to be a clear explanation.  The strike serves as an effective final jump scare, so it’s entirely possible that it was added for one last thrill, but story-wise it’s rather out-of-nowhere.

Personally, I found that ending sequence rather bittersweet.  On one hand, it was almost like having Tower back for a few seconds.  On the other hand, it was a big glaring reminder of my favorite lost ride, and the better-suited Halloween ride that existed in that location.

Despite my mixed feelings over the ending sequence, I really enjoyed riding Monsters After Dark.  Unlike its abysmal non-Halloween form, I actually would enjoy riding this attraction multiple times.

So, if I liked the ride so much, why only give it a B-/C+ grade?

Personal feelings about that ending sequence aside, Monsters after Dark fails to take advantage of its own available resources.  At no point does it use the generator floor, despite there being a multitude of ways the designers could have incorporated it.  Perhaps even worse is the discrepancy between the title, preshow, and actual ride.  The title and preshow both promise monsters, plural, while the ride only ever features one dragon.  Sure, the other monsters technically appear in the form of silhouettes in the boiler room, but as I noted the silhouettes were so subtle that they were nearly Easter eggs.  Given that Mission Breakout features different ride sequences, I expected Monsters to do so as well--perhaps with different creatures for different sequences.

In short, Monsters after Dark is a very enjoyable ride experience and incredibly superior to Mission Breakout, despite not taking full advantage of its resources.  It is an utter shame that Disney has relegated it to a seasonal overlay, when this is the attraction that Mission Breakout could and should have been from the start.