What Were They Thinking? - Disney's 2004 Rose Parade Float

You can file this post under the heading of, "What Were They Thinking?"   Or maybe put it in a file marked, "Too Soon???"

California Adventure's Tower of Terror attraction opened in May of 2004.  Just four months earlier, Disney featured this very unattractive float, in the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade.

Even the author of this Los Angeles Times article, asked the question, "What was Disney thinking?"  She felt that Disney's decision to feature this float in the parade, less than 28 months after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, was a bit "too soon."

Here's a close-up shot of the float, by Eric Warren on Flickr:

As stated in the Los Angeles Times advertisement at the top of this post, the float was on display in the park, from January 2nd through January 19th.

The Tower of Terror attraction opened at the park, four months later.  The exterior design of the building was scaled back drastically, from the original version of the attraction at Walt Disney Studios, in Florida.  Personally, I have always thought this version looked very cheap and ugly (just like the float), especially when compared to Walt Disney World's, and Tokyo Disneyland's Tower of Terror attractions.  I was also not a fan of the color choice for the building's exterior.  It reminded me of Disneyland's ugly "brown and gold" Tomorrowland, of 1998.

This artwork of the building was located on a wall in the gift shop, at the exit of the ride.  It was removed in 2017, when the attraction was re-themed to Marvel Studio's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

We will wrap up this post with footage of the Tower of Terror parade float, moving down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard, on New Year's Day.

Here's wishing a very happy New Year, to all!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day From Flick's Fun Fair!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Here's just a little bit of green for you today from Flik's Fun Fair and A Bug's Land.

Tower of Terror

Tokyo DisneySea has the most detailed Tower of Terror out of all the Tower of Terror attractions around the world. Tokyo's theme and backstory are completely different than any of the other versions. This one does not have a Twilight Zone tie-in. Instead, the New York City Preservation Society is supposed to be taking guests on a tour of an old hotel. The hotel's owner, Harrison Hightower had mysteriously disappeared one New Year's Eve when the hotel was struck by lightning and the elevator to his penthouse was sent crashing to the ground. There is more to the hotel owner's backstory that involves him traveling around the world and taking ancient artifacts from other countries. One of these artifacts was a cursed idol by the name of Shiriki Utundu. The idol is a part of the pre-show, which includes some pretty awesome special effects, and it also turns up again on the elevator ride up to the penthouse. After riding all versions of this attraction, I would have to say that this is my favorite both inside and out.

Just take a look at the detail on the exterior. The hotel sign is fiber optic and the part that reads "Tower of Terror" fades in every so often and then fades out. The view below is of the side of the building just after exiting the attraction.

The S.S. Columbia is "docked" just down the street. Also according to the backstory, the owner of the hotel was a huge shipping magnate and owned a steamship line in addition to the hotel.

American Waterfront

The American Waterfront is the next port we will be visiting in Tokyo DisneySea. This "land" is quite large and features two different themes. The first is a 1920's/1930's New York City theme and the second is a New England fishing village theme. The two areas together are so big, that we will just look at an overview of the New York section today. The building to the right in the photo above is McDuck's Department Store, which is a large "Emporium" type of store. The taller building down the street and on the left is the Broadway Music Theater, where guests can see daily performances of a "Broadway" style musical review.

The DisneySea Electric Railway is an elevated railway that takes guests from the American Waterfront area to Port Discovery which is another "land" on the other side of the park. The shot above is of the American Waterfront station (with the Tower of Terror behind it) and the photo below was taken looking down from that station's platform.

The American Waterfront has it's own steamship, the S.S. Columbia. To me this ship more than just resembles the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. If you recall, in the early nineties, there was talk of Anaheim's "second gate" being built in Long Beach alongside the Queen Mary because at that time, Disney was leasing and operating the ship's hotel and attractions. This second gate was going to be called "Port Disney" and was going to feature different themed sea ports, a volcano, etc. Disney then decided that rather than build that park in Long Beach, they would build "Westcot" in the old Disneyland parking lot, but ultimately those plans were changed and they decided to build "Six Flags Over Anaheim" instead.

I must say that if Port Disney had been built in Long Beach, I have every confidence in Disney that they would have totally botched it up and that it would not have even come close to resembling Tokyo DisneySea. The Japanese spent 4 billion (in U.S. dollars) on Tokyo DisneySea. Disney spent less than 700 million on California Adventure. I think I have mentioned it before, but Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea are NOT owned by Disney. They are owned by The Oriental Land Co., and I must say once again, that they have surpassed Disney in the quality, themeing, and maintenance departments, which is very sad.

Ahhh, but again I digress.......anyway, the S.S. Columbia steamship is not a real ship, but an incredible simulation (like Beatlemania). It is actually a "building" with water around it (sorry to destroy the illusion). In the photo below, that thin little horizontal strip of water visible just above the concrete wall on the right side of the ship, is actually Tokyo Bay. The illusion of this being a real ship is incredible. From inside the park, it appears that the ship could just back out into the bay at any moment. The ship has two themed restaurants on board as well as a dock that serves as a stage for a show entitled, "Over The Waves".