So, I guess I left everyone just outside the lobby doors for (checks notes), FOUR YEARS. And that post was already a year after the first post about DisneySea Tower!
Look, when all your footage was from a time when DisneySea was banning photos even in ride queues, and from trying to sneak pictures with a years-out-of-date, no-low-light-capability camera in 2019, AND your ride experience itself was disappointing, it doesn’t exactly give you the most motivation to try and actually finish your posts.
But then, as I mentioned in my previous post that FINALLY let me read all of the lore and backstory of this ride, @idreamofthemeparks took a trip to DisneySea in 2025, with a good camera, and with no filming ban in place, and let me use her photos!
Some of my pictures were salvageable. I’ll label which ones are 2025 vs. 2019, both for attribution’s sake and for historical clarity. Although I highly suspect you’ll be able to guess anyways; if it looks much sharper, it's 2025.
Now, let’s all go to the lobby! Here’s the general layout:
There are a LOT of emergency exits. Seemingly the entire right-side wall (when you’re entering) is glass windows/doors that serve as exits. I guess Tokyo Disney takes its safety precautions extra seriously, as none of the other Towers have this many exits in the equivalent scene. I can't even explain it away as earthquake safety, since California Tower didn't go this far with the exits either.
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| Overall initial view into a crowded but well-lit daylight lobby, with a look at the ornate second-level arches, ceiling, and chandelier. My photo, 2019 |
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| Overall view into an empty but low-light nighttime lobby. Gives a good overall view into the room, despite the unintentional horror vibes. My photo, 2019 |
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| Ceiling/chandelier details. My photo, 2019 |
You enter under a stained glass window depicting Hightower standing on top of the Earth, with his cane resting on New York City, where this Tower is set. Around the top of the arch is the quote, “The world is mine oyster, which I with sword will open—William Shakespeare.” This, of course, goes perfectly with Hightower’s egotistical personality. I find it notable that it includes the full quote, with the “violent” second half, reflecting how, as confirmed in the newspapers from the outer queue, he will resort to violence to get what he wants.
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| A view looking back from mid-lobby, showing the overall entry doors. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| A closer look at the stained glass window. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
If you’re in the standby queue, you’ll be mainly winding around the left side (if you’re looking in from the entry doors) of the room. Your first stop is turning left into a queue pen with an emergency exit. Not much to see here, it’s mainly extra queue room, but there is a set of stolen coffins and Egyptian art pieces above the emergency exit, and some luggage piled on this side of the check-in desk.
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| Going into the alcove/queue pen. My photo, 2019 |
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| A much clearer picture of the Egyptian artifacts. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| View into the side of the check-in desk, with some of the stacked luggage. My photo, 2019 |
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| A better look at the stacked luggage, @idreamofthemeparks 2025 |
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| View looking from this alcove toward the center, giving a glimpse of the first chandelier and some of the side lamps on the arches. My photo, 2019 |
In the equivalent alcove on the opposite side of the room, on the other side of the entryway, is the grand fireplace scene. The theme of Hightower’s decorations here is, to put it simply, “orientalism.” He’s mashed a bunch of “exotic” artifacts from across Asia together into an elaborate but culturally patchwork seating area. The rug, chairs, and couch all appear to have East Asian designs, with dragons on the rug. The fireplace grate, likewise, has East Asian dragons, with writing on the grate that has me wondering if it’s actual words or if it’s one of those “American gets Asian writing on a thing but it’s actually gibberish they just think looks cool” situations. The reliefs on the wall, the fireplace itself, and the statue pieces on the mantel seem to be South Asian/Indian in origin. A portrait above the fireplace depicts Hightower standing proudly in front of a South Asian temple, from which he presumably plundered the fireplace and its related artwork. The temple strongly resembles the Temple of the Forbidden Eye/Indiana Jones Adventure from Anaheim Disneyland. Although Hightower canonically has ties to the DisneySea version of Indiana Jones Adventure instead, I can’t help but wonder if this is a deliberate Easter Egg to the Californian ride, given the interconnected “all stories are true” nature of both the Indiana Jones mythos and Society of Explorers and Adventurers (SEA) mythos.
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| @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
As you may have noticed in the preceding photos, above all of the archways surrounding the central areas of the room are murals depicting Hightower and his assistant, Mr. Smelding, stealing various artifacts. Some of them match stories/pictures from the informational boards outside, while others feature artifacts we see hoarded elsewhere in the hotel. Based on various photographs and YouTube videos of the ride, I have estimated the layout of the murals here:
In the initial left queue alcove, the mural on the outer wall (that is, the wall that forms the exterior of the building) shows Hightower and Smelding taking an Easter Island Moai. Across from it, above the side of the check-in desk, a mural depicts the two running from some angry natives across a rope bridge over a waterfall.
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| Moai mural, @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| Rope bridge mural, @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
The murals above the fireplace scene match the scene’s contents. The one attached to the exterior wall depicts Hightower and Smelding riding elephants through a rice field, away from some sort of Indian-looking temple. The one above the archway going further into the lobby shows an expanded version of the “Ninjas from New York/Hightower’s Towering Tales for Boys” artwork from the information boards outside; it shows Hightower in a rickshaw with a set of samurai armor, pulled by Smelding, as they flee from a Japanese castle that presumably houses the armor’s rightful owners. The best images I have of these are from @idreamofthemeparks's overall view of the fireplace scene above, so the best I can do is offer these cropped zooms for a closer look at them:
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| Japanese Castle/"Ninjas from New York" mural. Detail from photo by @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
Admittedly, the murals make it a bit difficult to do a descriptive “walkthrough” of the lobby, since I’m faced with the choice of describing them all now, or making guesses at when you’ll encounter them in order in the queue. I decided on describing them all at once, since queue layouts can vary slightly based on the length of the line (i.e. a very short wait will just breeze straight to the pre-show). Note that when I say “left” or “right”, I’m basing the directions on if you’re entering the building and facing straight forward.
Going past the initial alcoves, the first mural on the left is above the check-in desk. It shows our pair of thieves flying away in a hot air balloon with two mummies. Fittingly, the check-in desk it frames, which I'll showcase in a moment, also has an Egyptian theme.
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| Stealing mummies mural, @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| Wider view of the mummy theft mural from across the lobby, my photo, 2019 |
Across from the hot air balloon mural, on the right side of this central “hallway”, the mural shows them taking a winged sphinx-like statue from a ziggurat.
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| Ziggurat mural. Note the multiple emergency exit doors below, with some themed to elegant hotel doorways and others disguised as stained glass windows. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
On the left again, above the doors where guests go into the pre-show, is a snowy scene with Hightower, Smelding, and a gryphon statue fleeing a castle in a horse-drawn sleigh. The castle looks European to me—as we’ll see with more artifacts later, Hightower’s idea of “primitive cultures” he needs to “liberate” art from extends to Europe as well. In between this mural and the final mural on the back wall is a smaller painting that I have no clear images of; my best guess is a ruined city in a desert environment.
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| Detail of sledding/gryphon mural and unidentifiable smaller mural, my photo, 2019 |
Across again, on the right, is a mural that heavily ties in to the S.E.A. timeline and DisneySea as a park. It shows the Raging Spirits temple from the Lost River Delta—i.e. the ride structure in the land just across the park—and, of course, Hightower and Smelding absconding with artifacts from it. If you actually visit the Lost River Delta land, you’ll find crates around Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones Adventure marked for Hightower. I also do not have a clear image of the small mural here, but it appears to be some sort of stormy seascape. Given that the Japanese mural depicted one of the pulp stories from the board outside, my guess is that this is “The Rescue of Poseidon,” which also showed a stormy seascape.
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| View showing the Lost River Delta mural, as well as the possible "Rescue of Poseidon" mini-mural, my photo, 2019 |
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| Crate of artifacts marked to "The Hightower Trust," found in the Raging Spirits queue. My photo, 2019 |
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| Further context showing the location of that particular Hightower crate. My photo, 2019 |
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| The actual Raging Spirits temple facade. Interestingly, it resembles Kuzco's palace from The Emperor's New Groove. My photo, 2019 |
Finally, the grandest mural covers the back wall, above the main elevator scene. This shows Hightower triumphant, standing in front of his grand hotel, unloading all of his ill-gotten gains from the other murals at the American Waterfront harbor. The boat they’re unloaded from is designated Hightower II, indicating he owns even more ships beyond the Hightower’s Pride yacht mentioned in the newspapers outside. The dragon’s head being unloaded from the boat is “The Beast of Tamas” mentioned in one of the pulp magazines on the outside display, and will be a prominent feature later in the queue.
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| The main mural, which I've deemed "Hightower Triumphant." My photo, 2019 |
Okay, now onward to more features of the lobby.
Roughly in the center of the room is probably the most unique Tower of Terror couch. It’s round, has a plant on top, and a jacket(?) draped over it.
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| A wonderfully spooky view in an empty lobby. My photo, 2019 |
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| A clearer, closer view, showing the draped jacket. Or is it some sort of cape? @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
The check-in desk is about mid-lobby, on the left side. It has a distinct Egyptian theme. Indeed, if one looks down, the desk itself is constructed out of pieces of Egyptian wall. Given the mummies elsewhere, it seems to be tomb wall specifically. Historical context means nothing to Hightower, when it can serve his hotel instead!
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| Egyptian wall turned into the check-in desk. My photo, 2019 |
The key and mail slots behind the desk are likewise framed by Egyptian statues. A sphinx and an old telephone are on the left side of the desk. A sign with the Hotel Hightower’s “HH” logo reads “Bell Captain.” There is also (what I believe is) a telegraph machine, further emphasizing how old this hotel is supposed to be. It is hidden behind the sphinx lamp in the first photo below, but slightly visible against the back wall under the relief art by the telephone in the second image.
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Left side of the desk. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025
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| My photo, 2019 |
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| Key/mail slot cabinet. My photo, 2019 |
At the center of the desk is the check-in book, open to pages for the hotel’s last days: December 30th and 31st 1899. The names and addresses appear much more boldly printed than in Florida’s version of the book. The cursive writing means it’s difficult to tell what each name is, and therefore to attempt to discern if they’re Easter Eggs or otherwise have meaning. Those that I could confidently discern, I have noted. Please let me know if I’ve made a mistake, or if there’s any you can read more clearly. Note that I have written out words that are abbreviated in the actual book, for clarity’s sake.
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| Check-in book. My photo, 2019 |
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| Left page of the book in sharper detail. @idreamofthemeparks 2025 |
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| Right page of the book in sharper detail. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
The left-side page, for December 31st, from what I can tell, reads:
Marshall Field, Philadelphia [note: there was a real department store magnate of this name during this time frame, but he doesn’t appear to have any significance to Philadelphia]
Gregor [?] J. Dragozula [?], Stanford
Lorenzo Banotonic[?], Roma
Thomas Steven Jackson, Mobile, Alabama
Winston R. Yates, Queenstown
B.D. Petersen & Wife, Baton Rouge
[unreadable] G. Sawyer, Nantucket
George Harold Fellowes, Ottaway, Kentucky
Wm. Rockefeller, New York [note: William Rockerfeller, real historical New York businessman of that era]
Upton [unreadable] Langley, Littlerock, Arkansas
Charlotte Cottonwood, Greenwich, Connecticut
Thaddeus Thompkins, Fargo, North Dakota
W. Henry Harrison, White Plains [note: there was historical president William Henry Harrison, and he was from Virginia, which has a White Plains. However, not only did his signature not look like the one in the book, but he would already have been dead for quite some time by 1899]
N[unreadable] J. Hill, Frederick, Maryland
[I cannot read the handwriting of this line at all]
Solomon Smith, Springfield
Theodore Taylor, Gatorville[?], Florida [note: I can’t tell if that’s a bad G or a weird Y, but Gatorville made the most sense?]
[I cannot read the handwriting of this line either]
Warren Wilson, Augusta, Georgia
N[unreadable] W[unreadable], Cl[unreadable], New Jersey
The right side of the page is for the previous day, the 30th. I assume the book is arranged in the right to left arrangement for the expectations of a Japanese audience. Its list is:
Arnold J. Stanford, Cincinnati
Michael Ivanovich Ostnovsky, Newark
Edward Ellsworth, Dunstanberg{?]
J.P. Morgan, New York [note: real businessman of the era, even though his signature apparently didn’t look like the one in the book]
Mrs. Henrietta Nelson, New Bedford
J[unreadable] K. Jordan, Georgetown
Frank W. [unreadable], Jr., Evanston, Illinois
Cornelius V[I’m tempted to guess Vanderbilt, but there is no obvious t…], Utica, New York [note: if it is supposed to be Vanderbilt, the real historical businessman was already dead by 1899]
Barnaby Stewart, New York
William McCatchery, Danbury, Connecticut
Frederick Weyerhauer[?], Newbury, Massachusetts
J.D. Rockefeller, New York [note: real life New York businessman of the era]
David Preston, Long Island
Claudia Espinosa, Santiago
James Joseph Kilmorton[?], Charleston, South Carolina
Mildret[?] Miller, Boston, Massachusetts
Beatrix de Quiberg, Bruxelles
A.A. Littley[unreadable], Amherst, Massachusetts
Mr. and Mrs. Mackworth King, Toronto, Canada
G. [or is it a Y?] C. Oppenheimer, Morristown
Timothy A. Carter, Atlanta, Georgia
Mrs.[?] N. Umpton[?], Minneapolis
The right side of the desk has a bell, a dry inkwell and pen-resting spot, a sign that I believe says “registration” (with another HH logo), and a matching sphinx lamp. There's also a key on the desk. In the rear-right on a small counter by the gate employees would use to access the desk is a stamp, as well as papers (letters?) in an organizer.
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| Right side of the desk. You can see the grate doors to the pre-show area beyond the sphinx lamp. My photo, 2019. |
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| Close-up of the key on the desk. The number appears to be 863. My photo, 2019 |
Past the check in desk is a pair of opened grated doors, leading to the first part of the pre-show. But before we go there, we need to check out the three displays on the far rear wall.
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| My photo, 2019 |
On the farthest right, when facing this rear wall, is a set of wooden doors labeled “The Rajah’s Pool.” This is a location we’ll see after the ride, in the form of the gift shop. The door is appropriately placed on the side near the gift shop, so they could theoretically connect to the “actual” pool area.
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| View down the side "hall" of the lobby toward the "Rajah's Pool" doors. Note the elaborate unique ceiling. My photo, 2019. |
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| Slightly closer look at the doors and the sign above them. My photo, 2019 |
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| A view of the elaborate emergency exit doors partially visible to the right of the images above. @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| Sign demarcating fastpass and standby queues on one of the central columns to the left of where the previous photos were taken. My photo, 2019 |
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| An unintentional "liminal space survival horror" view of the Rajah's Pool door corner. My photo, 2019 |
In the center, under the mural of Hightower Triumphant, is the main display—Harrison Hightower’s crashed elevator.
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| @idreamofthemeparks, 2025 |
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| My photo, 2019 |
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| My photo, 2019 |
Hightower framed his elevator with Greek architectural pieces (presumably stolen, similar to the Parthenon marbles in real life). It’s unclear if the pieces near the top have been cracked apart by the force of the crashing elevator, if Hightower found them in pieces, or if he brutally chiseled them apart to fit the shape of his elevator door during installation. The ornate doors of the elevator are not just twisted, but torn open, giving a glimpse into the wrecked shaft beyond. Frayed cables dangle from the top as lights flicker within the shaft. The words “Danger: open shaft” are painted in white on the rear concrete wall, while a wood piece wedged diagonally across the open doors is printed with “DANGER” in red. The dial above has a light that flickers on and off—or, at least, it appears to do so in some of my 2019 images.
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| The dial apparently lit. My photo, 2019 |
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| Literally the next image in the camera roll, showing the same scene but with the dial unlit. My photo, 2019. |
The wrecked elevator is flanked by two posters. To the right is a poster advertising Hightower’s homecoming event/unveiling of the cursed idol.
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| My photo, 2019 |
I cannot read all of the text from available photos, but what I can tell is:
Homecoming Celebration
Congo River Expedition
Guest of Honor
Harrison Hightower III
[several unreadable lines]
“The Curse of Shiriki Utundu”
Treasure of the Dark Continent
Atlantis Ballroom
December 31, 1899
To the left is the hotel directory. Much to my dismay, none of the photos I have available are clear enough to read it. The best are the ones where it's visible next to the elevator (a few paragraphs above here) and in the photo showing the Olympic Restaurant corner in the next paragraph. Here's a zoom-in:
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| From my photo, 2019 |
The best estimate I can estimate is:
HOTEL DIRECTORY
Ground Floor[?]
Hotel Shops
The Rajah's Pool
Olympic Restaurant
Mezzanine[?]
Open Deck Salon de [unreadable]
[unreadable] [unreadable] Room
Alexandria Library[?]
Solarium
[???] Floor
Ladies' Sitting Room
[???] Floor
Gentlemen's Smoking Room
[???] Floor
Atlantis Ballroom
[???] Floor
Explorer's[?] Club Sitting Area
[???] Floor
[unreadable] [unreadable]
[???] Floor
Penthouse
Many of these locations are mentioned in the lore newspapers outside!
Left of the hotel directory is a set of doors matching the “Rajah’s Pool” ones, but this time labeled as “The Olympic Restaurant.” On the left wall, in a little arched alcove, is a menu for this restaurant, but unfortunately I also lack a clear photo of that detail. If Hightower’s grand opening celebration menu from the lore board outside was any indication, I presume that the Olympic’s menu had some pretty unusual stuff on it.
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| Olympic Restaurant corner. My photo, 2019 |
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| Slightly closer look at the doors, and their sign reading "The Olympic Restaurant." My photo, 2019 |
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| Labeled image showing where the Olympic Restaurant menu is located, as well as where guests head toward the pre-shows. My photo, 2019 |
Finally, all guests finish their tour of the lobby by turning to walk through those open gated doors next to the check-in desk. A massive portrait of Hightower greets them from the opposite wall, as they step through into the first part of the pre-show.
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| My photo, 2019 |
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