Of course I wrote about the notorious "round architectural things" that can immediately differentiate exterior photos of the two in one of my very first posts. Disney Imagineers confirmed that budget cuts led to DCA having architectural details painted on rather than actually built like they were in Paris. My coverage of Paris Tower in general has been one big list of differences between DCA and Paris.
However, in light of the possibility of Paris getting three new drop sequences, perhaps the most surprising difference between the two is that DCA had two different ride sequences all along... you'd just have to be really observant to notice them.
In my writeup of the ride experience at DCA, I noted something off about the mirror scene: namely, that sometimes the elevator shook violently when the guests turned into ghosts, while at other times the elevator stayed still. I assumed this was some kind of malfunction, where sometimes the shaking effect wouldn't work. Since it didn't necessarily affect the overall ride experience, I was content to leave it at that.
Then a group called the Hollywood Tower Hotel Preservation Society sent me an interesting observation: one of the drop shafts (specifically, the one on the far right when facing the building) just... didn't shake at the mirror scene. Instead, it had a different sequence where the elevator did a sharp jerk as the bell sounded when arriving at the hallway. Seriously!
For comparison, here is a video showing the far left elevator in action, where it clearly shakes as the guests become ghostly in the mirror scene:
(Fun fact, I can tell it's the far left elevator based on the jagged outline of the building rubble visible when the doors are open at the top)
Meanwhile, here's the far right elevator, with no violent shaking to be found:
You can also see the different ways they enter the hallway scene, with the far right elevator doing a distinct jerk as it parks in front of the opening doors.
Upon reading this revelation and confirming it based on careful video comparisons, I then wondered why this was the case. My first guess was that it was a construction necessity. One of the shafts also has the hallway and mirror scenes on different floors from the others, due to the effects equipment necessary for the hallway scenes being too space-consuming for all three copies of it to be built on the same floor.
I figured one way to tell if this was a necessary and intentional part of the ride's operational design was to compare it to Paris. If Paris also had one elevator different, I felt safe in assuming that it had something to do with a construction necessity, such as lack of space for the shaking effect in all three drop shafts.
Nope! According to both Laffite's Landing and another user by the name of jimmydiddles13, all the elevators shake at the mirror in Paris!
It's a LOT harder to find onride videos of Paris Tower in action to confirm this, but I think I've found some evidence. Here's what is definitely Paris' far left shaft running its sequence as expected:
And here is what appears to be the far right elevator... with distinct violent shaking during the mirror scene!
So, to sum it up: DCA had two ride sequences. In two of the elevator shafts, the ride car would shake during the mirror scene, but in one it would not. There is no obvious reason for this; Paris shakes in all elevators so therefore it was not any kind of design necessity.
DCA had odd architecture due to budget cuts, was cloned from a ride that didn't exist yet, and had two different ride sequences for no apparent reason. Oh, and it also got turned into an outer space warehouse that in no way matched the existing building. What a strange, strange Tower.
