You'll notice that I didn't preface Tower of Terror with the words "The Twilight Zone." That's right -- I'm putting up the Tokyo DisneySea version of Tower of Terror for this year's tournament. Why? I've explained before why I believe that Tokyo's Harrison Hightower story provides a better setting for the ride than the somewhat forced Twilight Zone overlay. (The TL;DR? The Twilight Zone is supposed to be all about ironic punishment. But there's no explicit irony in the TZToT lightning strike. The Harrison Hightower backstory provides a truly ironic reason for the strike, despite the lack of the Twilight Zone brand.)
But a better backstory wouldn't provide enough reason to prefer Tokyo's version of this popular drop ride to Florida's, given the Fourth Dimension scene and random drop sequences at Walt Disney World, which Tokyo's lacks -- as do the versions in Paris and Anaheim, too. So why choose the Tokyo version?
The preshow.
Tokyo's Tower of Terror offers a unique preshow that sets up the Harrison Hightower story with a visual effect that's simply the most amazing illusion I've ever seen in a theme park. I'm not linking a video because if there's even the slightest chance that you will one day visit Tokyo DisneySea, I hope that you'll walk into the Tower of Terror preshow without having seen an inferior video reproduction of what happens there, so you can feel its full effect, in person. You can have Florida's random drop sequence. I'll take watching that preshow over and over and over again. (FWIW, Theme Park Insider readers have given the Tokyo version a higher average reader rating than they have for the Florida one, though far, far fewer readers have rated the Tower in Tokyo.)
Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure dominated the Theme Park Insider reader ratings for the first couple years after I started collecting reader reviews online in 1999. The first theme park attraction to put a motion simulator on a dark ride track, Indy revolutionized the dark ride experience, paving the way for Spider-Man, Transformers and the upcoming Antarctica ride.
Even today, Indiana Jones wows fans in Anaheim and Tokyo with its use of animatronics, practical sets, and stagecraft to immerse you in a rollicking movie-serial-style adventure. (The Tokyo DisneySea version is called Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull, but is the same ride as in Anaheim, with the eponymous Crystal Skull replacing Mara and a temple idol effect replacing the rat room. The queue's larger, too, but those are the only differences.)
I know that starting with just 16 rides in the tournament left us with some really tough first-round match-ups, and I expect this to rank among the toughest. Of course, I also know that while I'm trying hard to raise awareness of Tokyo DisneySea and its outstanding Tower of Terror version, many of you will want to cast a vote for Tower of Terror on behalf of the WDW Twilight Zone version. If so, go right ahead. It's your vote. May Shiriki Utundu forgive you. ;^)
Let the flame war begin in the comments.
Tomorrow: The quarterfinals begin with Journey to the Center of the Earth vs. Haunted Mansion.
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I'm probably one of the only people in the world that feels the Tower of Terror (in any of its incarnations) has always been far over-rated. It's a ride that's practically ALL about the pre-show, the building facade and the theme. All of these things just disguise the fact that the meat-and-potatoes of the experience is an extremely brief, simple drop ride. There, I finally said it! I don't really like drop rides that much. If you removed the elaborate overlay and just presented the actual ride, it would be more fit for Six Flaggs than Disney. I didn't really get all the hype when it opened, and I still don't get it.
Haven't voted just yet, I'm slightly torn...ToT at Tokyo DisneySea sounds exciting!
But I really like Indy, always grab a FP for that.
Plus the ToT at DCA is super "AP heavy".....Folks repeat the opening monologue in unison & photos are always ridiculous (and I've been guilty of that :-(
But I still enjoy it.
I'll guess I'll go with...
It captures the feel of Indiana Jones movies and has THE best queue without resorting to gimmicky touch screens that Disney seems to love in WDW lately. Tower of Terror in Florida is the best of the lot, but the queue isn't as great at Indy. Indy doesn't seem to break down anymore either, and has a fantasticly fresh paintjob!
Indy is a solid ride, and featured one of Disney's first interactive queues. It immerses you into the story, and is a well executed extension of the franchise (much moreso than Florida's stuntshow).
But without the build up, without the elevator literally moving forwards though the Twilight Zone, without the gardens, without the randomized drop sequences, and with the over-the-shoulder restraints (yes, I do believe that DisneySea's version has OTSR, which I'm sure does not help to supply the amount of airtime that the Studio's version has), I think that Tower of Terror at the Studios seems to be a stronger attraction.
However, DisneySea's really has a beautiful facade and the disappearing idol has to be one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. I do like that it strays from the Twilight Zone tie-in and builds a story of its own. And in the end, it's unique, but its still Tower of Terror which I absolutely love, and therefore it gets my vote.
Bryce, I'm pretty sure that the Tokyo version still has seatbelts, but just has an additional shoulder belt (similar to a car seatbelt) instead of just a lap belt like the other versions of the attraction. Probably more restrictive, but not airtime killing.
I'm going to guess 90% of ToT votes were based on DHS and not the Tokyo version.
As with Splash many of its votes came from MK and not DL
I think with exception to FJ most attractions benefit from having clones also attracting votes, with exception to PoTC whose most visited location is also its shortest and most maligned version.
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I can imagine the conversation in the corporate offices of Disney. Executive: "Well, our proprietary research shows that a majority of our visitors prefer X kinds of rides and attractions." Lackey #1: "But in the poll from this theme park website, Splash Mountain beat out Radiator Springs Racers by a slim margin!" Executive: "That changes everything! Throw our research out the window! From now on, we go back to duplicating popular rides from the 1980s!"
C'mon, people, the tournament is just for fun. It's a diversion for people who like theme parks and theme park rides.