Alternate Tower Spotlight: The Florida Tower of Terror--Exit and Gift Shop

Having made it through your fateful journey down the cursed elevators, Cast Members instructed guests out of the ride vehicles.  There were two unload doors--one for each drop shaft, approximately facing each other.  The area was grey and industrial with concrete walls, like the boiler room, but without that warm red brick--just a that little bit much colder, and, in the color symbolism of the ride, more supernatural.  Directly between the two drop shaft unloads, free standing in its own grey column, was a real elevator--the other end of that "chicken elevator" that was cleverly hidden in the loading area.

The exit area, looking back toward the "chicken elevator" exit and the two drop shaft unloads.  June 28, 2017

Walking past the chicken elevator, guests entered a large empty space, void of almost anything aside from some concrete ledges along the walls that served as convenient benches.  Approximately halfway down the left wall of this section (that is, left as you were going toward the photo viewing area), a section of the concrete wall finish had been "scraped away" to "reveal" the exposed brick underneath.  The revealed area had the recognizable "spooky wall" chalk markings around it, and the bricks themselves had some suspicious gaps, as if they were supposed to be concealing a speaker or some other special effect that was supposed to emanate from this spot.

Looking towards the photo viewing screens, while standing approximately in front of the "spooky wall".  June 28, 2017

The "spooky wall", June 28, 2017

I highly suspect that this at one point was Florida's "spooky wall" Easter egg, and that there is a speaker behind those suspicious brick gaps.  Guests sitting on the ledge bench in front would probably get a surprise from hearing the ghostly girl behind them!  That said, as of 2017, this wall did absolutely nothing special.  Furthermore, unlike California's "spooky wall", I couldn't find anyone even mentioning the Easter egg with regards to Florida.  I suspect that, if indeed this wall functioned the same way as DCA's, it hadn't done so for a very long time.  Technically, markings alone still made this unusual wall patch a shout-out to the episode "Little Girl Lost".

The large sitting area had its own special exit music, unique from the music later heard at the DCA and Paris exits.  I have yet to find a clear recording of it, but it sounded very ominous, pulsing, and intense, almost in a manner reminiscent of the Jaws theme.  It had a much more aggressive tone than the atmospherically spooky Twilight Zone-based DCA exit theme.  It was, however, hard to hear over the crowd noise of all the exiting guests.  I was unable to make a live recording of it.

At the end of the large room, opposite the elevator exits, was the photo viewing area.  Two television screens--one for each drop shaft--displayed guests' pictures above a junk-filled office/storage area.  On the front desk of this office/storage area were two sensors where guests could wave their magic bands to claim their elevator's photo.  To the right of this was a cork board covered in announcements, and on the left, hanging from the bars enclosing the storage area, was a chalkboard reading "Picture if you will..." in Twilight Zone font.

June 28, 2017

June 28, 2017

To my extreme surprise, I could not find any specific Easter eggs in the photo viewing area.  The place was utterly packed with tons of random junk, the exact sort of visual noise one would expect a Twilight Zone reference to be hiding in, and yet, nothing!  I also haven't read of anyone else finding anything special hidden here either, so I tentatively have to conclude that, for once, the junk really was just junk.  The only specifically relevant detail I found was that, if you leaned in a bit and looked at the back part of the office that extended to the right, the clock over the desk read 8:05, consistent with all other clocks in the attraction.

Cork board next to photo viewing area, June 28, 2017

The view if you lean in to the photo viewing area and look right, June 28, 2017

To continue towards the exit, guests turned left from the photo area, going through a short hallway.  The door going into this short hallway was a large sliding door in the industrial style of the "storage area" of the exit, while the doors going out were elaborately wood carved in the "public-facing" style of the doors found around the lobby and other such areas of the hotel.

The inner door, June 28, 2017

The short hallway and outer doors, July 2, 2017

Guests then found themselves in the Lower Lobby and the hotel's conference center, which in real life served as the photo purchase area.

Looking back at the doors to the exit area, June 28, 2017

Directly ahead of guests in the lower lobby was a long counter, almost like a second check-in desk, with a lovely mural of the hotel on the wall behind it.  This was where guests could view and purchase their ride souvenir photos.

The right side of the lower lobby counter, seen directly outside of the hallway doors.  June 28, 2017

Left side of the lower lobby counter, with the mural behind it.  June 28, 2017

A closer look at the lower lobby mural, June 28, 2017

Opposite the photo purchase counter was a vaguely Greek fountain.

An overall look down the lower lobby; photo purchase counter is at right.  June 28, 2017

The fountain, June 30, 2017

Moving past the photo purchase/lower lobby desk was the hotel's conference area.  A square area on the left was sectioned off for employees only and had an employees only door within it; it possibly represented a luggage check story-wise.  The doors were labeled "Beverly Room", however, which would suggest a conference room.  Against one of the walls of this square was a machine where you could make personalized Tower of Terror themed dog tags.

The "luggage check", with the side of the dog tag machine on the left, July 2, 2017

Doors to the Beverly Room, July 3, 2017

Directly next to the sectioned off area was another set of employees only double doors, labeled "Fountain Room", presumably a conference room.  Next to these doors was a change machine and a quarter coin press machine.

Fountain Room, July 30, 2017

Opposite the Fountain Room, on an angled wall, was the Sunset Room.  Judging by its grand painted name, I'd assume that this was supposed to be the nicest ballroom in the hotel.  Furthermore, it was having an event at the time of the lightning disaster; it had a menu posted next to the doors.  The menu in question was absolutely brimming with Easter Eggs.

The Sunset Room, July 2, 2017

The Sunset Room Menu, June 30, 2017

In case you couldn't read/don't want to zoom in on the photo, the menu read:

The Sunset Room

Dinner * October 31, 1939

Hors D'oeuvre

Grape Fruit Maraschino

Sweet Gherkins a la Moutarde

Bismark Herrings

Soups

Clear Turtle with Sherry

Potage Ecossaise

Cold Consomme

Fish

Grilled Bluefish

Dover Sole

Whitefish Matheson

Entrees

Mignon of Beef

Rack of Lamb Johnson

Tournedos Nicoise

Grill

Mutton Chops

Spring Chicken

Calf's Liver and Bacon

Deviled Quail on Toast

Vegetables

Fresh Green Peas

Cauliflower au Gratin

New Carrots

Salads

Autumn Salad

Belgian Endive

Polonaise Beaumont

Dessert

Peach Shortcake

Apple Pie and Cream

Gateau Chocolate au Rodman

Tea and Coffee, Liqueurs, Cigars, Cigarettes

You may have noticed quite a few names hidden among those fancy foods.  Those are the names of prominent showrunners of The Twilight Zone, the most obvious being Rodman/Rod Serling.

Past the Sunset Room, guests found themselves at the decorative gates of Tower Hotel Gifts.

Gates to the entrance of Tower Hotel Gifts, July 2, 2017

Honestly, there's not much to say about the gift shop.  It was, well, a gift shop.  Of note, however, were two decorative posters on the wall, and the fact that "Talking Tina" from the episode "Living Doll" was on a shelf above the cash registers.  All photos taken in late June-early July 2017.

Display of Tower of Terror merchandise immediately inside the entrance from the ride.

Decorative item on the back of the previous display.

Wallpaper behind the shelves of the gift shop, with a unique HTH logo variant.

Cash register with "Talking Tina" behind it.

Overall view of the shop, standing in front of the register counter.  That purple shield above the shelves in the background has a banner reading "Tower Hotel Gifts".

View of a different shelf with another "Tower Hotel Gifts" shield, and a partial view of one of the posters.

The poster from the previous photo.

Decorations above a soda display.

Another view of the cash register.  Note the way the cashier is dressed; gift shop workers had their own unique uniforms and did not dress as bellhops.  I also witnessed a guy try to buy the round "Hollywood Tower Hotel" plaque from the top of the shelf in the background; employees had to explain to him that it wasn't for sale.

The second unique poster; this would be one of the first things guests saw if they walked into the gift shop from the outside, rather than from the ride.

Oddly, a lot of merchandise seemed to be leftovers from the DCA version.

This shirt was also sold at the DCA location.  Note that the shirt says "Hollywoodland", which was the land where DCA's tower was located, rather than "Sunset Boulevard" for Florida.

This shirt just straight up had the DCA Tower on it, despite the facade being totally different from Florida's.

Two sets of double doors let guests exit the gift shop into the exit courtyard.  Flanking the shop exit were three display windows, two to the left of the doors and one to the right (if one was facing the exit doors from the courtyard direction).  These were decorated for Halloween, indicating the season of the Hotel's unfortunate demise.  All photos taken late June-early July 2017.

Sign above the exterior doors

The first window on the left.

Detail of the sign in the first window on the left.

Second window on the left.

Detail of the sign in the second window.

The right side window.  No special signs in this one!

The exterior gift shop door was directly below the door where guests entered the lobby going into the ride, just one floor below.  You exited the ride one floor lower than you entered.

Overall view looking back towards the gift shop exit.  Note the lobby entrance above.

The exit courtyard didn't contain much; it was an open space with some benches, drinking fountains under a trellis, a snack/coffee stand, and a penny press machine.

Looking out at the courtyard and coffee stand after exiting the gift shop.

Looking toward the courtyard exit.  Note the penny press machine and the drinking fountains to the left of the machine.

Exiting the courtyard took guests back past the queue entrance and out onto Sunset Boulevard, thus concluding their tour of the Tower of Terror.