Tower of Terror / I can draw!

I was at Disneyland and California Adventure Park in the past 2 days (the Disneyland blog post may or may not happen because it was just too awesome and will take very long to blog out my thoughts and thus I'm too lazy to begin on it), and one of my favourite rides was the Tower of Terror.



On the exterior, it's called the 'Hollywood Tower Hotel', and it sticks very well to this theme in the exterior and interior decor, as well as the ride staff managing the people inside.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="544"] 'Hotel' lobby[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="545"] Staff dressed as bellboys (or whatever they're called)[/caption]

The queue begins in the lobby, and then they'll let in about 20 people at a time to enter this room they call the 'library', where the lights suddenly go off and a small TV flickers on to play the introduction video of the place. The general idea is that this hotel was zapped by lightning and then the people disappeared into the Twilight Zone (the narrator has an emphatic pause at the end of the video: "... where they were all transported to... -pause- ... The Twilight Zone" and those who were riding this ride repeatedly would enthusiastically say it together with him haha quite funny. After this video, we are then directed out of the library to the 'service elevator' where the ride takes place.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] Elevators![/caption]

Now, I actually headed to this ride the moment I entered the park, because it sounded like the most fun one. It was a freefall kind of ride - the kind they raise you high up and then drop you, rinse and repeat. I wasn't prepared for the whole scary theme!

I was genuinely nervous as I was waiting to begin the ride; my heart was thumping in my chest and I was trying not to look too nervous lol. The whole setup was pretty good and awesome (though on repeated rides I begin to realize that the plot is a bit irrelevant and stretched.)

Once you got loaded up in the elevator, the staff then checks your seat belts and gives the final  brief about no flash photography etc, and I LOVE how they keep up their acting here and deliver some sort of eerie farewell when they step out of the elevator to keep up with the whole haunted hotel / twilight zone elevator thingy. I will recall as many as I can.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="647"] My maiden ride! I didn't know there was a picture taken at this point so I was not prepared for it :o[/caption]

Staff: "... Enjoy your stay." -angles head downwards while looking up and gives a super creepy evil grin as the door closes in front of his face- (my fav actor haha)

The Ride

The elevator descends quickly about 1 floor and opens again, with a large mirror, and the narrator says to 'wave goodbye to your real world self', and then the mirror becomes some screen which shows distorted silhouettes of ourselves. The elevator descends further another 1-2 floors and we see some of the ghosts from the intro video earlier (some kind of hologram or sth, really ghost-like looking).
They disappear and then reappear far in the distance in an elevator, and the narrator says something like their story was of the past, but today, the story... is YOURS. And you see their elevator DROP away into oblivion and there is a brief 'oh shit' moment of realization when suddenly your elevator suddenly drops quickly (I think it actually accelerates quicker than 9.81m/s2 (Gravity) because I tested by holding a coin in my hand - the coin actually hits the ceiling)

After the initial drop, it accelerates upwards and then the doors open when you're at the top of the hotel, showing you this awesome sky-view of the park, which is also when they take your picture, then the doors close as you drop again, and this repeats about 2-3 times. Really awesome stuff haha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="572"] Enjoying myself a lot better the second time[/caption]

Staff: "... It was nice knowing you." -evil grin-

I actually walked right back in for a second time after the first ride was over. So fun! I love freefall rides. My favourite one was this ride in Taiwan where they raise you damn high and you can actually see the ground getting further and further away as your legs dangle... and then you DROP like 15 stories or something (this one maybe drop about 5-10 stories only)

After going around the whole park and taking the fun rides, I was left with time to kill, so I decided to ride this a few more times to camwhore hahaha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="509"] Look at the little girl in front of me - she was actually quite scared before the ride and the 3 girls in the front row was trying to assure her it was ok.
After the ride, the little girl was SOBBING like mad. The poor little thing was probably scared sick![/caption]

Staff: "This elevator has been known to have some technical difficulties and failure, but we heard it only affects the first 3 rows, so don't worry about it." (there are only 3 rows in the ride LOL. This dude is funny)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="499"] I'm doing Shrek ears[/caption]

Staff: "... if you have any comments or questions about safety, do feel free to - " -elevator door closes as she's talking and shuts before she can finish- (I LOVED this one haha. They're so creative!)

At this point, I was getting bored of the whole intro video and the 'buildup' before the ride, so you can see my increasing stages of boredom in the next few photos:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="672"] Falling asleep...[/caption]

Staff: "This elevator has had its ups and downs, so... I wish you guys all the best." (so punny haha)

 



Reading something else because the ride is boring.
(I -think- the couple in front of me are acting-posing.... I can't be sure though lol)

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="537"] camwhoring on my own, don't care the actual camera already hahaha.[/caption]

 

Yup, that was the last ride of the Tower of Terror.

Overall, I felt Disneyland was better than California Adventure Park - the rides were about equal, with CAP maybe SLIGHTLY better, but Disneyland was obviously more magical. I'm not sure how I would spend more than 2 days there though, don't know why some people get 5 day passes, unless you really go for EVERY SINGLE thing.

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I was walking around burning time at CAP when I walked into an animation class. Check out my first drawing!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="560"] When I finished this, my first thought was 'WOAH. Did I really just draw this?? '[/caption]

The rest of the drawings I did weren't as cool, but oh well.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="469"] Mickey![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="495"] Pooh bear! I actually drew something else before this but I don't even know what it is so I won't post it (Agent P? K?)
Dedicated this to my gf haha she likes poohbear[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="505"] I asked for the teacher's drawing too so I could give it to my gf. The teacher's name is Katey. I thought she may end up being some famous Disney artist or something so should take haha[/caption]

Not bad eh, my sketches?

Okok this post has gone on forever, bye!