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 sequences.  As shown in my existing summary of the ride sequence, the best I could do at the time was describe the effects that I knew existed and just sort of say, "well, it involves those."

Thanks to @chunkecheeks on Tumblr, that finally changes today!

@chunkecheeks had the opportunity to ride the Disney's Hollywood Studios incarnation of the Tower many, many times in a row, and subsequently figure out how each sequence matched each special effect.  She helpfully explained the details with these charts from wdwmagic:

Note that she and I believe that this drop profile corresponds to the "lightning crackling along the shaft" effect that I noted in my previous summary of the ride, as otherwise this is suspiciously devoid of effects.  However, as of 2024 and her trips through the ride, the lightning effect was not present.  It is unknown if this is due to malfunction or potential rider complaints about flashing lights.

Yes, that's right, there are DIFFERENT VARIATIONS OF THE MANNEQUIN SCENE!  Because it's so dark and it's over so quickly (not to mention happening in the most intense drop sequence), I never registered that there are 1) different mannequins in different drop shafts and 2) they are mannequins of the previously established characters of the ride.  It makes sense, but I never registered those mannequins as being more than generic ghostly figures.  They are apparently the same model mannequins that appear in the 5th dimension sequence.

In my experience/writeup of the ride, I noted that there seemed to be some sort of flowing fabric blown around the ghostly mannequin figure.  @chunkecheeks reported not seeing any fabric flowing around them, but we theorize that it's possible that was related to the blast of air she didn't feel.  It's possible the air blast refers not to something meant for the riders, but instead to give the fabric that ghostly flowing effect.

The mannequin scene is visible on all drop sequences, especially during the day when light leaks in, but the the elevator doesn't always stop there.

She also noted further additional details about the ride experience in 2024:

In the ascent shaft that serves the right-hand elevator in the left-side loading station, the hallway scene ghosts appear larger than in any other ascent shaft.  It is unclear if the projection is set larger for some reason, or if the glass installation is closer/angled differently.

The "ride photo in the eyeball" effect in the 5th dimension scene is broken again for all elevators.

"Drop Profile 3" may be some sort of default pattern for the ride.  On two separate days, she rode the ride after it experienced downtime.  For six and eight rides in a row on those respective days, the Tower only produced Drop Profile 3, before apparently varying again several hours later.  While it is entirely possible that could be luck, it also would make sense for the ride to have one "safety" sequence to default to if there were some issue with the computer.

And the Tower did get a bit of sprucing up just before its 30th anniversary!  The scorch marks on the crashed lobby elevators got an enhanced paint job:

Photo by @chunkecheeks on Tumblr

There are also some additional Twilight Zone references and Easter Eggs!  Stay tuned for those!