I cannot believe one of the goods wasn’t THE CAST MEMBERS! I have such incredible interactions with cast members EVERY SINGLE TIME I ride this. They ham up the horror and camp, they give one liners as the doors close, some of them even slap their hands on the window and drag them down or do maniacal laughter…I mean that’s half the experience for me! They’re part of the world! They’re such an integral part of the story telling and world building, I love them all
This podcast is ALWAYS a home run. THIS episode however, had me losing my MINNNDDDDDD laughing. I'm at work with my earbuds in, just crying with laughter at the audio of kids crying without moving their mouths and Garret's AI "Ryan Bergara" moment 💀💀💀😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣
Former Tower of Terror cast member of the WDW attraction, saddest fact, WDW Tower of Terror had the record for the largest elevator system, however it was not originally the record holder; it obtained this record on 9/11/2001. :(
They better pass this on the smart phone test. No ride better exemplifies the entertaining you on “atmosphere” alone than the Tower of Terror. Standing in the lush overgrowth, with the old time music drifting softly through the distance, you feel like you’re standing in the overlap of two words: the first being the Hollywood Tower Hotel in its prime. You almost half expect to see a movie star walking along the path ahead toward the “tennis courts”. The other is the hotel in the present day. Standing in the shadow of a looming, sinister ruin, it feels haunted. It feels like you’re somewhere you’re not supposed to be. That queue is a work of art.
This ride is the reason I love theme park rides. This ride is the reason I’m watching this podcast. I’m a ToT simp since 96 and if they ever threaten to change it, I’m chained up right next to Ryan.
Garrett randomly liked one of my roller coaster videos on Insta ... it really made my day. I've been on the Tower of Terror rides in: Disneyland Paris, Tokyo DisneySea, Hollywood Studios, and California Adventure. The pre-show for the one in Japan is really cool. Controversial opinion ... I like the Guardian of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout redo of the ride.
So happy with the World Class test result for this episode! The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror is in my top 3 favourite rides ever, probably the top spot most days. Fantastic episode guys! 😁
@@angelinadavis7924 i honestly didn’t even remember who he was at first when he was on the pod until i saw the video and was like ooohhhh i know that guy lol the way he apologizes every time he interrupts them or cuts someone off is so sweet haha
my favorite ride!! another "good" that i'm not sure was discussed in the ep is the way that they build anticipation when you're entering the second elevator shaft. that thin column of light combined with that harsh sliding sound and just pushing forward into complete darkness - possibly the eeriest effect in a disney park? gives me goosebumps every time
Once I was on ToT in WDW, we went through the dimension and ended up just facing a lit, brick wall for a hot minute before the drop. It felt broken (maybe it was lol) and was EXTREMELY scary tension right before the drop. Just so good.
I freaked out when the DisneyWorld version started moving forward as I'd only ridden the Disneyland version, and scared the Hell out of my sister as she hadn't ridden either and didn't know why I was freaking out.
This was the very first ride little 6 year old me ever went on at Disney because my 4 year old sister convinced my parents. Me and her were SO unbelievably terrified. Every. single. ride. we went on the rest of the vacation we asked a cast member if it was scary. My mom still remembers my sisters screams to this day. 10/10 parenting, and probably the scariest experience of my life
I'd be so sad if it gets taken from DisneyWorld, I absolutely loved it at Disneyland and was heartbroken that it got reskinned. The theme is great and there are so few spooky rides left.
So with Tower of Terror having Seatbelts now, It opened with a Lap Bar per Row originally I believe. I would love to pay for a one night event where they just pull you down as fast as they can! Reinstalling the speed that was lost before opening as Mr. Watts' Dad said! That'd be thrilling and fun I think! Thanks for the great episode again FYA! D
“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call .… The Twilight Zone.”
From Wikipedia: On June 23, 2021, it was reported that Walt Disney Pictures was developing a new film based on the attraction, starring Scarlett Johansson, who would also produce the project through her production company, These Pictures, alongside Jonathan Lia, while Josh Cooley would write the script. Development on the film was initially canceled following Johansson's lawsuit against Disney after the company released the Marvel film Black Widow on the streaming service Disney+, but resumed after the lawsuit was settled.
The first time I went on this ride as maybe a 6 or 7 year old? I was so scared I screamed for the entire drop sequence, but not like a fun scream or a regular kids “I’m scared” scream. I screamed a “I am being actually murdered, gruesomely, right now” kind of scream. So we have the on ride photo framed because I am dead center, red faced, mouth open, eyes filled with terror, and almost everyone in the car is turned to look at me thinking like, is someone being stabbed behind me? lmao
Fun fact : when they approached Otis to design the elevator to drop the way it does, they were initially extremely skeptical as that’s the the paramount thing they design elevators NOT to do 😂
even with all the new rides i still think tower of terror is the BEST ride at hollywood studios, and also has one of the absolute best queues of any attraction ever. i love the touch of doing this episode in black and white, so perfect
What I find interesting is the parallells between the (non-IP based) Tokyo Tower of Terror storyline and the Guardians of the Galaxy version in California Adventure. In both, you have a sinister collector (Hightower/Tivan) who adds a small mischief maker (idol/Rocket) to his collection, which ultimately proves his undoing. The difference is that in Guardians, we are in cahoots with the mischief maker.
When I was a CM at WDW I got to do a backstage tour of Tower of Terror (the only tour I ever landed a spot for) and can confirm that the secret book IS REAL. My name and hometown are proudly in that book 😌
Fun fact: For the mahjong game in the lobby, Disney brought in two professional mahjong players, had them start a game, abandoned it midway through, and covered it in cobwebs.
The Tokyo Sea version 100% has the least amount of drops. The theming is incredible but the ride itself is very, very tame compared to the American versions.
I just rode Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios for the first time last month. The theming, scenery, and ride experience are all top-tier. It's definitely in my top 5 rides out of all 4 Orlando parks.
I remember the first time I got on this ride, I almost bolted for the exit but I just went ahead and did it. Now I love this ride and I love seeing other people's reactions as they're about to get on.
WDW News Today did an event a few months back for the 35th anniversary of this ride and they flew in a bunch of MGM imagineers and had some segments about Tower which had a ton of great firsthand info and stories about how this ride came to be.
Walt Disney knew that kids liked to be scared when they felt safe, such as watching one of his films. That’s why he put the scary scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when she’s running through the scary forest
I think they're going to leave the theme of it alone primarily because Hollywood Studios has a long list of other problems it has to solve before it starts messing around with rides that are still reliable, popular, and beloved. Like, once they finish putting the Monsters Inc land in, I'd guess that the next change would be retheming Rock n' Rollercoaster to something other than Aerosmith. Also, they've already got a Guardians ride in Florida. Only thing I can think of is that if Universal ever moves on from Marvel in Islands of Adventure, something might flip, but most of their current new plans for rides are family animated films, and they're not gonna take a family property and put it into a drop tower.
I don't ever want them to replace the WDW version, however in another, let's say theme park that doesn't have one, I could see a Doctor Strange themed Sanctum attraction being really cool
Listening to the part about varying the drop timing at the top and having a voice over that they're having technical difficulties, it made me think of something I've seen at Rock'n'Rollercoaster. I've been in the single rider line a few times, which usually means a 10-15 minute wait once you reach the boarding area, watching trains launching. I distinctly remember walking out of the studio room into the boarding area to a stopped train. There was what sounded like a prerecorded announcement that said something along the lines of "Thank you for your patience, you will be departing... immediately" and as soon as they said immediately, the train took off with the riders screaming. I only saw this happen one time and hope to catch it again. Love the show. I can't remember if you've done a Rock'n'Rollercoaster episode, but if you haven't, I hope this comes up. I hope to catch you guys in the parks sometime.
Man, this made me nostalgic for the DCA Tower of Terror... I miss it so much (even though I was indeed terrified by it). But I would take a TVA version over the Guardians of the Galaxy one we have now. >.>
I rode this w/ only a bar holding us down, next to my Dad, who was a big guy. I went flying up, almost standing & he was holding me in terror while I "wooo'd" alll the way down😅
1:27:36 once on tower of terror when i was probably 13-15 ish, me, my dad and my sister were on the ride and it broke down. the lights came on and everything. we heard the “sorry for the inconvenience the ride will begin moving momentarily” and the lights went out again but we were just stuck for like a minute in the dark. and then it started up again and we dropped with like no warning other than like a half second of creaky elevator sounds.
The hallway ghosts can still be seen in the drop shaft. There's a screen built into the front wall of the shaft that will show images of them during certain drop sequences.
I miss the ghosts in the shaft. Also - there was a clip shows on the post show projector at one point of a bunch of gears and such falling down the shaft before launching back up. Miss all that.
I was too big of a chicken to ride this ride when my family went to WDW in 2002 (and still would be today, let’s be real, huge fear of heights), but my adrenaline junkie older brother went with my dad. He was 13 years old at the time. He had heard from someone that if you put a penny in your open palm while riding, since you’re going faster than freefall, the penny would appear to levitate. And by golly, he was told correct. Penny started to levitate, and this apparently was right at the point where they snap the photo for the photo op because there is a photo of him now in our possession where he is very clearly midway through exclaiming “OH SHIT” with the penny just visible above his palm. He said shortly after that though the doors opened and the penny was sucked away. This ride has always fascinated me as a Twilight Zone fan but I do wish there was a chicken version where we’d get to do the dark ride before and then just take a normal elevator ride down. 🤣
I love the ride for the engineering, design and story. But the actually concept of an elevator in freefall is an actual fear of mine so I tend to panic a bit in the queue when people make me ride it. The fact the disney world version has that added sound of the cable snapping does not help with my fear.
I miss the tower of terror sooo much 😭 last I went to Disney Ca it is just not the same vibes anymore and I am not a super hero fan so it really hurt losing it 😢 gonna have to save up for a trip to Florida!!
The mirror effect in California’s version was put there because they took out the effect of your car leaving the first shaft and entering the drop shaft. Personally, that always made the mirror effect cheap to me, like it was a substitute for the much cooler effect of traveling forward in an elevator!
Regarding the "have they ever nerfed the horror aspects" of the ride convo: I don't think there's anything in this that's any scarier or more graphic than Haunted Mansion, and the drop tower part of it probably filters out younger kids who wouldn't be able to handle anything in there.
Honestly, I have my issues with the phone test. As a sewist who loves vintage and things like art, design, in a very immersive, well designed queue, I'm making photos of myself in my pretty handmade dress and details I like. But then, I could be in a boring queue and I'm knitting, or crocheting.
