The DisneySea Tower of Terror: Part 1 Intro, Surrounding Area, and Fastpass Stand

This, as you may recognize, is a Disney Tower of Terror attraction.

However, it is not a Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction.  Well, at least unless you dive deep into the increasingly intricate lore connecting Disney's parks, at which point a distressing amount of attractions actually take place in the Twilight Zone.

The Tokyo DisneySea version of the Tower of Terror seems to be somewhat famous now for having a different story than the other incarnations.  Therefore, I figured, it probably served the purposes of this project best to start by introducing the story and lore of this version before getting to the actual walkthrough.

That, it turned out, was a really bad idea.

The DisneySea Tower of Terror (Tokyo Tower for short, despite the fact that that's the name for a completely different Tokyo landmark) is one of the cornerstone attractions for Disney's ongoing Society of Adventurers and Explorers (SEA) timeline.  And, now spanning all of Disney's parks around the globe, SEA has a lot to explain.  Maybe too much to explain.  An overwhelming amount to explain that caused me to procrastinate on writing this for nearly a year.  It doesn't help that, given SEA and this attraction's location in the Tokyo parks, a lot of promotional material is in Japanese, and I had to rely on translations and summaries of varying quality.  So, as a disclaimer at the start here, I'll state that I tried to focus just on the story affecting this attraction (for my sanity's sake), did my best to find reliable-seeming translations, and I'll direct you to this Laffite's Landing article for a summary of the larger SEA lore instead of trying to explain it myself.

Also, like with previous walkthroughs, everything will be written in past tense for consistency purposes, despite this version not only still operating, but being the version LEAST likely to ever shut down.

Information will be as accurate as possible to April 2019.

And now, on to the walkthrough:

The official attraction poster, on a ticket booth outside DisneySea

DisneySea's Tower of Terror was located in the American Waterfront section of the park on [insert street names here].  The American Waterfront represented the hustle and bustle of early 1900s New York: a thriving, rapidly growing urban area with a busy port, elevated streetcars, and the glitter of the theaters.  However, just beyond the idyllic Waterfront Park, there loomed an imposing reminder that not everything was well in this land--the abandoned Hotel Hightower.  After a fateful New Year's party to celebrate acquiring yet another stolen artifact, its owner met a terrible fate in an elevator crash, and the building was spared by the New York Preservation Society, which now runs tours of the structure.

View of American Waterfront from across DisneySea's central lake

Built by Harrison Hightower as a testament to his own ego, and as a place to house his massive collection of stolen artifacts, it dominated the American Waterfront skyline.  Its architectural style was best described as "eclectic", and featured a lot of "exotic" details such as middle-eastern style arches.  Hightower didn't just steal artifacts, he stole architectural styles!

Overall view of the exterior, showing the building shape.

A closer-up overall view.

The very Moroccan-inspired gift shop exterior, on the right side of the building, with a bit of the fastpass stand on the right side of the image.

In front of the Tower stood Waterfront Park, an idyllic spot with benches under pavilions with words like "Art", "Dance", and "Theater" engraved on them.  It looked like there was usually fountains in the center of the park, but since I visited at Easter time there was a large, garish, theme-breaking Easter Bunny/Chickens display filling the space instead.  I did my best to crop that out of my photo.  Anyways, I found it notable that the primary front-facing approach to the looming Tower went through an idyllic park with inscriptions celebrating humanity's positive creative endeavors, while the Hotel Hightower was a testament to plunder and ego.

View from Waterfront Park

In front of the ride was a warning sign, written in three languages: Japanese, English, and what I believe is Chinese (please correct me if I am wrong).

Warning sign

Canonically, this was the oldest hotel in the Tower of Terror universe.  Having been constructed in the 1800s (it was dedicated in 1889, as per an inscription on a brick near the fastpass entrance), it featured details such as having "hansom cabs only" painted on the curb in front of the entrance and having the fastpass stand be horse stables or a carriage house.  Florida Tower's signage indicates that it also had horse stables at some point as well, but Tokyo's prominent display of the actual stables, in a location convenient for theoretical hotel guests, really drove home the point that we're in an era where horses are still the primary transportation.

The dedication plaque, inscribed one one side of the fastpass entrance arch.

Painted curb in front of the hotel entrance.  Hansom cabs are horse-drawn taxis, in case anyone was wondering.

Sign on the fence outside of the fastpass courtyard indicating that this is a carriage entrance

Fastpass stand/stables exterior

Overall view of the fastpass stand interior

Fastpass distribution machine

Fastpass stand rear wall, with a cast member.  This wall is behind you as you face the ticket machines.

Those rectangular plaques on the rear wall of the fastpass stand confirmed the structure's former use as a stable/coach house.  They read "Coachmen must be responsible for their carriages at all times", and had the hotel's name and logo at the top.

That "HH" logo (Hotel Hightower, of course; no need for it to be "HTH" here) also appeared on emblems on the columns of the fastpass stand.

HH logo plaque on one of the columns of the fastpass stand

Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea still used the original paper-based Fastpass system.  The tickets had blue monochrome artwork at the top (much like DCA Tower, albeit a less saturated blue),  displaying the "Tower of Terror" logo with an illustration of Shiriki Utundu's head and lightning emanating from the top of the Tower.

A "not a fastpass" ticket I got specifically so that I'd have an example of the art.  I don't have examples of actual tickets because I, well, used them.  Apologies for the photo quality; there were technical difficulties with my scanner, so a phone pic had to suffice.

There was one more noteworthy feature of this fastpass courtyard, besides the gift shop entrance/exit.  Across from the fastpass stand was a wall with stained glass doors, and an alternate set of entrance/emergency exit doors.  This was the exterior of one of the lobby walls, with the alternate entrance/emergency exit doors being used for what appeared to be the child switch pass system.  As a result, a copy of the ride's warning sign was posted to the left of them.  Interestingly, guests using that door would find themselves walking through one of the lobby show scenes, which I'll elaborate more about when discussing the actual lobby.

The wall with the stained glass door and alternate entrance/emergency exit

Cast member exiting the side door, plus a look at some of the further architectural details

On the stained glass doors was a sign reading:

CLOSED

By order of the city of New York 

Department of Building Safety

NO ADMITTANCE

Asmuth Sign Company, Delancy Street

The "Closed" sign.  I assume the Asmuth Sign Company and/or Delancy Street is a reference to SEA lore, given how absolutely lore-dense this attraction is, but cannot confirm that assumption.

The fastpass courtyard was also on the fastpass entrance side of the main entryway.

Archway/side view of the fastpass entrance from the fastpass courtyard

Detail of gryphon carving and HH logo in the arch

Overall view of the fastpass entrance, with a convenient clock.  The actual entry arch is that small one on the right; the larger central one was for standby.  Furthermore, the two CMs (in black dresses) are flanking the date plaque.

Detail of the clock, showing the HH logo in place of the 12

You might have noticed that this building shared its main shape with the Paris and California versions of the Tower.  However, you may also have something odd about the placement of the gift shop relative to the main building.  Whereas Paris and California had the gift shop and exit to the left of the main building, Tokyo placed it on the opposite side, with an extended standby queue garden going along the left side.

The central entrance had a marquee reading "Hotel Hightower", with the address of One Park Avenue.  Periodically, this sign would light up with hidden green lights spelling "Tower of Terror".

The overall front entrance with the marquee in unlit mode.  Note how standby enters under the marquee but fastpass enters through the right arch.

Front entrance with the marquee lit with "Tower of Terror"

Along the standby queue enclosure along the building on the left (before the gardens), there were signs advertising tours of the hotel by the New York Preservation Society.  In addition to hyping the tour as a celebration of the legacy of Harrison Hightower, these signs also established "Tower of Terror" as being an in-universe nickname for the building.  The side of these signs facing the queue had displays full of lore, but I'll cover that when I cover the standby queue.

Click to enlarge the photo if you want to read the individual signs!

The gate enclosing the standby queue gardens also had another "Closed: No Admittance" sign, same as the one found in the fastpass courtyard.

Garden fencing and gates.  Note the HH logo plaques on the columns.

The Tower had two different types of unique trashcan designs; the New York Preservation Society designs dotted the exterior and surrounding areas, while Hotel Hightower ones were within the bounds of the attraction itself.

New York Preservation Society trash and recycle cans

At night, the exterior lit up a dramatic saturated blue, thus following the Tower of Terror tradition of using blue to signify the supernatural.

However, this was not the most prominent lighting effect present on the exterior.  One of the most dramatic aspects of this version was how animated the exterior was at all times of the day.  With the exception of the name-changing marquee that shared an effect found at other Towers, the rest of the exterior animation was unique to Tokyo.  When any of the ride vehicles reached the top and the doors opened for that dramatic exterior view, green lightning crackled from the top penthouse window to the appropriate drop shaft, timed perfectly so that the car dropped when "struck" by the electricity.  The appropriate sound effects also accompanied this effect, and it was done at all times of the day, not just at night as one might expect.

Note that, given the difficulty of capturing such a fast sequence on photo, I had to use pictures from different "lightning strikes" to show each stage of the effect, hence the inconsistency of which shaft is lighting up.

The Tower at night, from across the lake

Lightning emanates from the cursed penthouse

Lightning from the penthouse strikes a drop shaft

Another unique aspect of Tokyo Tower was just how much lore got dropped on you before you could even get in the queue.  Without even getting into the finer details of the larger SEA lore and how it tied into details of American Waterfront, there's a whole newspaper display about Harrison Hightower and his hotel, placed near the fastpass entrance.

DEFINITELY click to enlarge and read!

Every clipping in that display is readable and lore-relevant.  And that display was the abridged version!  This display case was for the benefit of fastpass riders, or for times when the standby queue was too short to pass the full lore display (on the back of the three signs advertising tours) in the standby queue.

This is in stark contrast to the Twilight Zone versions.  Those three all let the atmosphere alone do the talking; there's lots of very detailed spooky hotel stuff going on, telling the story of glamorous resorts suddenly abandoned after a disaster.  However, none of them started off by introducing specific names or events; that didn't even begin to be revealed until the pre-show.  Even then, throughout the ride, the Twilight Zone Towers remained coy about specific details (you had to watch the dubiously canon TV movie to even know the ghosts' names); everything started as an enigma and ended only slightly less so, and that was a deliberate part of the spookiness.

Instead, Tokyo starts off your experience with a ton of specific detail, which is just a small part of the downright overwhelming SEA lore.  Throughout the ride guests know exactly what is happening to them, why, and by whom.

Neither approach to lore is necessarily better than the other (as I'll attempt to convey in the rest of this series, Tokyo certainly doesn't skimp on atmospheric detail), but they are incredibly opposite each other.

Faced with that wall of information about whose hotel this was and why us guests are supposed to be there, let's get in the queue!

The OTHER DisneySea

So, if you've been in the Disney fandom for even a short while, you've probably heard of DisneySea.  The second park built at the Tokyo Disneyland Resort, it's renowned for its elaborate themeing and high quality attractions, with some even considering it one of the best Disney parks in existence.

What seems less commonly known, however, was that DisneySea was originally intended for California.  Specifically, it was going to be built at the Port of Long Beach, integrated with a port for the Disney Cruise Line.  A lot of what ended up being built in Tokyo-- such as the giant volcano with a Jules Verne E-ticket, and a harbor with a large passenger-liner type ship--was already planned out and ready to be built in Long Beach.

As it turns out, my friend's parents actually worked on this DisneySea project, doing concept artwork.  Unfortunately, no known copies of their art have been released to the public online, and they had to give all of their copies to Disney as part of the project (The last they heard, their oil painting of a cruise ship in front of Long Beach and DisneySea was in the gallery above Pirates of the Caribbean... which is now gone).  Still, they kept a Preliminary Master Plan executive report, dated July 1990, and graciously let me read it and scan it, along with some of their sketches and their copy of the public press announcement.

The front cover

Maybe this is all old news, but it was fun to dive through all this information, despite a lot of it being rather mundane discussions of water usage plans, public infrastructure concerns, and the like. I figured I'd share some of the meatier, more parks-oriented bits I found.  It's a dive into the origins of both one of the most acclaimed Disney parks, and one of the most notorious ones.

[Note: In case you're wondering, my sources say they didn't have to sign any NDAs regarding this, and even if they did, this is a long-dead, long-cancelled project Disney likely doesn't care about.  Plus, most of the Preliminary Master Plan was published to the public as part of the press announcement of the park.]

Alright, starting off: that date.  July 1990.  That's the month when the project was officially announced to the public, to mixed response.  As Anaheim would probably tell you, Disney has a BIG impact on a city, for better or worse.  It's telling that Disney World essentially made its own government (the Reedy Creek Improvement District) to avoid working with another authority.  Disputes between Disney and Long Beach were what eventually killed Long Beach's DisneySea.

The first section is the Executive Summary.  It names the entire resort as Port Disney, and it was set to include not just the DisneySea theme park, but also five hotels, a shopping district, new marina slips, and a port for the Disney Cruise Line.  The inclusion of the shopping district predicts the addition of both Downtown Disney in Anaheim/Florida and the construction of Ikspiari at Tokyo Disney Resort.  In fact, the setup of a second resort, hotels, and a shopping mall seems to have been directly ported (heh) to Tokyo in 2000-2001.


Up next is an aerial site map of the proposed new construction, which would have been reclaimed from the bay--same as Tokyo DisneySea's construction.

After that is a photo of a 3D render of the new park.  Doesn't that volcano seem familiar?  We'll get there in a minute.

Last in this section is this pretty painting of fireworks above the park.  I haven't seen this circulated widely; it's always nice to see some "new" concept art.

The next tab, Port Disney Description, is where fun begins.

Let's start off with a section entitled "Overall Development Concept."  This was the era in which Disney really started to push towards being all-inclusive resorts that tried to keep guests on-property, but notably this section went out of its way to mention a "need to link Port Disney to other Southern California amenities", integrating the resort with the town of Long Beach (to "continue Long Beach's recent efforts towards revitalization"), and suggesting access to water shuttles to places like Catalina Island.  These passages seem an attempt at placating Long Beach's concerns about the resort, and it's an odd feeling reading them while knowing that the city and Disney eventually failed to compromise.

This section also mentions "project unity", which it defines as "All elements of Port Disney...should be experienced by the guests as one interconnected project.  Therefore, uniformity of landscape, signage, lighting, and other means of developing a consistent image are highly desirable."  That certainly does describe the eventual Tokyo DisneySea, and as a fan of well-themed design I certainly enjoyed seeing that line officially in print.  However, it also stings due to the fact that Port Disney's cancellation eventually led to the notorious uncoordinatedly-themed California Adventure.

Speaking of California Adventure's rocky start, this section also says that "retail should be the connective element" in the plan of the overall resort.  I couldn't help but draw a parallel to the complaint that early DCA had too few attractions and too much retail/dining.

Up next is another layout of the site plan.  There's not much I can really comment on, but I do find it interesting that the vaguely triangular shape of DisneySea has similarities to the eventual shape of the Tokyo version.

After that is another concept art, showing the view from the entry drive, looking southeast.  Notable in the background, through the palm trees, is a cruise ship next to a spherical building (which would have been the park's icon, like Epcot) and the Journey to the Center of the Earth volcano.

The next section, entitled "DisneySea", is perhaps the single most exciting page in the whole document.  I'll tackle it paragraph by paragraph.

"The centerpiece of the proposed master plan is a new ocean-oriented theme park concept, tentatively called "DisneySea", that combines a wide variety of Disney-style rides, shows, and attractions with activities directed towards developing a better understanding of the sea.  Disney's Imagineers have focused their efforts on exploring the myths, romance, challenges and mysteries of the ocean--the world's last great frontier.  Both fun and educational, DisneySea would break down barriers between our guests and the sea. 

While the theme park is currently in the early stages of development, some of the concepts under consideration are briefly described below."

Obviously, the theme park eventually would end up being named DisneySea.  What's unique here is the emphasis on education.  It seems, at this time, loftier educational goals (as seen in early Epcot) were still on Disney's mind.  It's also notable that Port Disney would have been near the Long Beach Aquarium, possibly fueling this educational feel.

"Oceana, the architectural focal point for the park, would rise up from the center of DisneySea in a series of futuristic bubbles, luring guests to a fascinating evolutionary journey through the world's seas.  Guests would walk through a state-of-the-art, two-story aquarium.  The curious would journey into the 21st century, visiting a working Future Research Center where scientists from the world's leading institutions would come together to conduct oceanographic studies, in much the same fashion as researchers now gather at the Living Seas and Land Pavilions at Epcot Center in Walt Disney World.  Adults and children alike would learn about the ocean and its diverse marine life in a hands-on exploratorium."

Well, there's our answer to the round building next to the cruise ship earlier!  The Epcot influence is directly stated here, with the focus on education and the futuristic architecture making this sound like an ocean-focused west-coast Epcot, or if the Living Seas became a park.  What I find both humorous and tragically short-sighted is this emphasis on the future and journeying into the 21st century when this was already being announced in 1990.  As in, only 10 years before the actual 21st century happened.  To me, this perfectly encapsulates the shift between Disney's lofty educational phase (best demonstrated by 1980s Epcot) and it's more current, quick-turn-around entertainment phase (California Adventure).  They're still preaching about the future here, while ignoring that the "future" in question is on its way fast.

"At Mysterious Island, Guests would discover the lost City of Atlantis on a modern version of a Disneyland "E" attraction.  Children could follow clues to buried treasure on Pirate Island, while the more intrepid might dare to board Nemo's Lava Cruiser and careen suspended through dangerous caverns."

Well, this paragraph more or less happened, albeit a bit scrambled around.  Tokyo DisneySea has the Mysterious Island, complete with volcano.  Guests can encounter Atlantis in a suspended vehicle on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or outrun some lava on the thrilling volcanic E-ticket Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Families can also have fun exploring a fortress and ship at Fortress Explorations, near Mysterious Island.  While Fortress Explorations isn't technically pirate-themed, Jack Sparrow does do meet and greets there.

"Aqua-labyrinth, a challenging maze with walls made only of water, would serve as the entrance to Heroes' Harbor, where they myths and legends of the sea come to life.  Here guests would find rides themed to the adventures of Sinbad, Ulysses and other storied adventurers from the past."

Well, the Sinbad ride happened, albeit placed in the Agrabah-like Arabian Coast section instead.

"On the edge of the Bay facing downtown, a boardwalk would recreate the nostalgia of the Long Beach oceanfront in its heyday.  Nearby at Fleets of Fantasy, a harborful of fabled and fanciful ships, including outsized Chinese junks and Egyptian galleys, would disguise exciting rides and dining and entertainment experiences."

Paradise Pier, is that you!?!?  I've read criticism of the Paradise/Pixar pier concept as being one of the poorest Disney themes, due to intentionally mimicking the kind of unthemed amusement park that Disneyland generally replaced.  It's exceptionally odd to read about the "weak" boardwalk theme being originally intended for DisneySea, of all places.

"Shoppers and diners will be intrigued by DisneySea's themed environments--a Grecian village, an Asian watermarket, a Caribbean lagoon.  Here guests might be seen surfing, snorkeling, or wading through tropical reefs teeming with fish.  Some will experience the ultimate underwater adventure--being lowered in a steel cage into a tank full of sharks."

Interestingly, none of the themes in this paragraph ended up in the final DisneySea.  If you're wondering, Tokyo DisneySea has lands based on Italy (Mediterranean Harbor), Jules Verne's novels (Mysterious Island), The Little Mermaid animated film (Mermaid Lagoon), the Middle East (Arabian Coast), South American jungles (Lost River Delta), and New York City (American Waterfront), as well as the SEA headquarters fortress and the steampunk/sci-fi Port Discovery.

It's arguable, though, that the surfing and snorkeling type attractions eventually ended up expressed via Castaway Cay on the Disney Cruise Line.

Then there's the last paragraph:

"At the rim of the American continent and the Pacific Ocean, DisneySea will be a place of magic and wonder offering a unique entertainment experience."

DisneySea totally ended up on the rim of the Pacific Ocean... on the other side of it.

This was followed by the two most familiar artworks from this project.  I've seen these widely circulated as WESTCOT concept art, or even Tokyo DisneySea concept art. Here they are in their true context: artwork for a Californian DisneySea that never happened.

The rest of the text and figures in the document are pretty dry and cover practical matters about assuring Port Disney's road changes won't negatively impact the city, that they'll comply with shoreline access laws, etc.

The last point of interest I found about the parks were figures 10 and 11, which showed a color-coded overview of the whole resort.  At the time, Disney owned both the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose, and planned on incorporating them into the Port Disney resort.

The SS Columbia, a large passenger-liner shaped attraction building at Tokyo DisneySea, looks suspiciously like the Queen Mary, and was likely included in the Tokyo version as a modification of the original Long Beach plans.  Coincidentally, in 1997 there were plans to potentially send the Queen Mary ship to Tokyo.  As of 2019, the ship is still in Long Beach, albeit no longer owned by Disney.

To announce PortDisney to the public, Disney published a modified form of its Preliminary Master Plan in the Long Beach Business Journal.  As explained in the introduction on the front of the announcement, it's almost identical to the internal document, aside from some different illustrations.

The most significant alteration was the inclusion of a letter from the Walt Disney Company to the Directory of Community Development of Long Beach and the Director of Port Planning of Long Beach.  Most of it was rather standard "we're confident this project will be well received, will be mutually beneficial to the city, and have thought out the practicalities of transportation" spiel, but one paragraph near the end sticks out like a glaring red beacon.  It read as follows:

"As you know, we are also in discussions with the City of Anaheim concerning an alternative project adjacent to Disneyland.  A final decision will not be made for come time, and will ultimately be based on several factors, including community support, governmental approvals, public sector participation, and theme park and resort economics."

Ah, the birth of the notorious DCA.

Here's the whole letter if you wish to view it.  It was difficult to scan due to the size of the newspaper (it had to be done in sections and digitally stitched together), so I apologize for any difficulties in viewing:

Click to view

Page V included a new artwork of a view of the marina from the proposed hotel.

Page VII also included a new section clarifying the proposed fate of the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose.  The Queen Mary would have been moved 700 feet to accommodate construction of a hotel.  Meanwhile, the Spruce Goose was "not included in the master plan", with Disney promising to figure out a use for the plane if the Port Disney project got the green light.

The Spruce Goose is now at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon, having been sent there in 1993.

The last tidbit of California DisneySea I have to share with you are these marker sketches by the artists who shared all this material with me.  Done on newsprint, they depict the cruise ship docks for PortDisney.  These are the only pieces of their DisneySea work that they still have.

And thus ends my exploration into one of the great What Could Have Beens of Disney Parks.  The Oriental Land Company took over the DisneySea idea when Long Beach rejected it, leading to the brilliant park that stands today.  Meanwhile, Disney went ahead with that Anaheim project, to, well, results of varying quality.  In all honesty, I can't say I'm disappointed in how history played out.  While I would have loved to have had DisneySea as one of my local Californian parks, I doubt that it would have been made into the absolute masterpiece it is had it not been built in Tokyo.  Given the eventual time frame of DisneySea and DCA's openings, we would have gotten a DisneySea built by the decisions and budgets that led to California Adventure.

We dodged disaster on that one.

Happy Halloween!

For my annual pumpkin carving, I decided to honor the other Disney building that's filled with blue ghosts and perpetually beset by thunderstorms.  It is the Haunted Mansion's 50th anniversary year after all!

This is actually the biggest and probably the most difficult pumpkin carving I've ever done.  The pumpkin is huge (easily a foot across), and I had to improvise the carving pattern from a design not intended for pumpkin carving (it would have left "floating" sections that are obviously impossible).

This took me about an hour and a half to complete, including the time it took to hollow out the pumpkin.  I'm pretty proud of the results!

Freshly carved

Lit up at night!

A Mansion Connection?

While browsing the Disneyland Opera House's display in honor of the Haunted Mansion's 50th anniversary, I noticed a certain piece of concept art.  At first it didn't stand out among the more famous pieces, like the bright red painting of the Hallway of Changing Portraits.  However, after reading Long Forgotten's writeup of the exhibit, I realized that the scene it depicted was familiar-- but not from the Mansion.

This was VERY high up on the wall, with a LOT of light glare, so this took quite a bit of digital manipulation to get clear and in proportion!

This artwork by Ken Anderson, as you can see, depicts a line of guests staring at their reflections in a large square mirror on a wood-paneled wall.  Long Forgotten's interpretation is that it is showcasing a proposed effect where "people see their own reflections in a large mirror and are presumably horrified by how pale and ghostly they look".  The informational plaque accompanying this image in the gallery suggests that it is artwork for an early version of the Hitchhiking Ghosts gag that eventually served as the Mansion's finale, but I can't help but notice a significant difference. 

In the Haunted Mansion, guests see themselves in the mirror WITH the ghosts, but, as Long Forgotten pointed out, here the guests are seeing themselves AS the ghosts.

Hmm, where have I seen that before?

DCA

Paris.  Screenshot from here

Tokyo.  Screenshot from here

At DCA and Paris, the wall even has wood paneling!

Now, obviously it's no secret that Tower of Terror borrowed a LOT from the Haunted Mansion.  The fact that the hallway scene runs on the Pepper's Ghost effect Disney perfected with Mansion's ballroom scene is just barely scratching the surface--I even suspect that the reason all the non-Tokyo versions use blue as the "ghostly" color is that it's carried over from Mansion (the source television show is black and white, after all; they could have colored the ghosts any way they wanted)!

I can't help but notice the context in which the mirror scene was added to the Tower of Terror as well.  Imagineers suddenly faced the challenge of finding an effect to replace Florida's 5th dimension sequence in a more compact space that still served as the "things are getting spooky" transition.  It's easy to imagine them looking back in their archives to gather inspiration from the original Ghost-Infested Disney Building.

Of course, it's just as likely it's all a coincidence.  However, it's still an interesting look at how Tower draws on traditional ghostly effects and scenes, to the point that one of its most familiar sequences more or less shows up in an artwork created over 50 years before.

DCA: The Weirdest Tower?

Supposedly, the Towers of Terror at Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland Paris are copies of each other.  They are not.

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.

Masterpost: The Florida Tower of Terror Full Walkthrough!

Here it is, finally complete, my extensive documentation of my all-time favorite Disney attraction--the original Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios!  Utilizing extensive photography, detailed written description, and video content, this gives an intensely detailed impression of the ride as it appeared in summer 2017.

At sunset's "golden hour", July 2, 2017

The Main Walkthrough:
1. Introduction, Sunset Boulevard, and the Hotel Grounds
2. Hotel Exterior, the Tower at Night, and the Exterior Queue
3. The Lobby
4. The Library and Pre-Show
5. The Boiler Room and Loading Areas
6. The Ride!

6b: The DHS Drop Sequences: Explained!
7. Exit and Gift Shop

Bonus Content:
The Sweet, Soothing Blue of the Supernatural: Color as a Storytelling Tool in the Tower of Terror

I hope any readers enjoy this project; it was a lot of hard work, stretched over two years!  I hope my effort is apparent.