Orlando/SoCal Theme Park Showdown: Tower of Terror vs. Tower of Terror
The Orlando parks have dominated the Theme Park Insider Orlando/Southern California Showdown so far. Will that trend continue today? Let's find with our first match-up of the day, featuring the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror rides at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World and at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim. Consider whatever details you'd like when voting, including setting, decor, ride or narrative. The vote will be open for 24 hours.
Disney's Hollywood Studios' Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: Sunset Boulevard
Disney California Adventure's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: Hollywood Pictures Backlot
The differences? Both versions of Tower or Terror are, at their heart, themed drop rides set in a hotel. Beyond that, though, the differences are substantial. The Hollywood Studios original in Florida opened in July 1994 and its exterior is inspired by the Hollywood Tower in California. (You can see it just north of the 101 freeway in Hollywood, if you're ever out our way). The California Adventure version opened 10 years later, in May 2004, and its exterior is inspired by Pasadena's Castle Green.
On the inside, once you've boarded the elevator, you are in for different ride experiences on each coast, In Florida's Tower of Terror, you proceed up the first elevator shaft, before proceeding forward into a Fifth Dimension scene that will lead you to the drop shaft. In the drop shaft, riders get a randomized pattern of drops, before descending to the unload station. In California, your elevator pushes back immediately, before rising to the "ghost riders" scene, then proceeding to the drop sequence in the same shaft.
Feel free to further break down the match-up in the comments.
Other Showdown winners:
- Disneyland's Fantasmic! defeats Walt Disney World's Fantasmic!, 51% - 49%
- SeaWorld Orlando's Journey to Atlantis defeats SeaWorld San Diego's Journey to Atlantis, 84% - 16%
- Disneyland's It's a Small World defeats Walt Disney World's It's a Small World, 70% - 30%
- Walt Disney World's Splash Mountain defeats Disneyland's Splash Mountain, 76% - 24%
- Islands of Adventure's Jurassic Park River Adventure defeats Universal Studios Hollywood's Jurassic Park - The Ride, 58% - 42%
- Walt Disney World's Tom Sawyer's Island defeats Disneyland's Pirates Lair at Tom Sawyer's Island, 59% - 41%
- Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean defeats Walt Disney World's Pirates of the Caribbean, 75% - 25%
- Walt Disney World's Space Mountain defeats Disneyland's Space Mountain, 52% - 48%
- Universal Studios Florida's Revenge of the Mummy defeats Universal Studios Hollywood's Revenge of the Mummy, 87% - 13%
- Walt Disney World's Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin defeats Disneyland's Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, 56% - 44%
- Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion defeats Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, 58% - 42%
Replies (10)
Never been on either, but WDW wins because of Exterior, Interior, and random experiences.
(Cue dramatic music)
Submitted for your approval: Two hotel themed, drop based Rides. Both are masterworks of theming, but there is something wrong here. In only one of these hotels can you enter the forth dimension.
Up ahead, there's a signpost. It reads California Adventure. But before you check into this hotel, you should think twice. You are about to enter... The budget cut zone.
(Music concludes, dramatically of course)
Seriously. This isn't even a contest. I'll never forget going on the ToT at CA, and discovering that the elevator doors in basement boarding area didn't open to an elevator, but rather a hallway which leads to the elevator. The only good thing that the CA version adds is the mirror illusion just before the drop sequence (which, I must admit, is pretty cool). Other than that, the WDW ToT wins hands down. The DL's version's lack of a forth dimension room where the elevator leaves the shaft places it at an unrecoverable disadvantage.
The Studios version is well worth the visit. It feels like a complete ride. The DCA version is not only shorter, it feels like they made deliberate budget cuts. I know they had problems with the WDW layout like the constant breakdowns in the 5th Dimension room. Instead of fixing the flaws, it broke it competely apart. The newer revised version is just a big mistake. It would have been better for them to change the story completely so there is no comparison. They did a new story at Tokyo DisneySeas. Probably works better.
California's version wasn't so much budget cuts, but differences in the amount of land they wanted to use and different goals. They were attempting to improve ride capacity and reduce the amount of downtime. The movement of the ride vehicles through the attraction in Florida is complicated and problematic.
Without question the Florida ride is superior, but part there is a part of the California ride that is better and that is the audio. The audio in both the library and ride are superior at California Adventure.
DHS's Tower is a world class attraction. DCA's version is "TOT Lite", as my DLR Guru (you know who you are!) says.
ToT is the Bizarro Pirates of the Caribbean. What Disney did to Disneyland's Pirates in Florida, it did to Disney World's Tower of Terror in California - you get very nice, but abbreviated, versions of the classic original.
I think 9% of the 300 people hit the wrong button by mistake!
I haven't been to DCA's Tower, but I have seen ridethrough videos of it. While I like the effect with the 'mirror,' it simply can not compare to the experience of having your elevator car suddenly start moving INTO a hotel corridor, and then having that corridor transition into the Twilight Zone itself, before finding yourself in that ill-fated elevator shaft of so long ago. The story makes more sense, without the initial silliness that California seems to suffer of having the elevator car having to move into the shaft. That just throws the story and the pacing right out the window...
How Orlando didn't win this 100% is beyond me! I only went on the WDW version once and it still lingers in my mind about how cool it was compared to the DLR one. Oh well, I guess some people really do like the DLR one, or are so biased that they always have to vote for the park closest to their heart.
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Why are we even voting on this one? This is a given, it's obvious, a no brainer.