ToT: Lights came on right before drop!

One Lil Spark

EPCOT Center Defender
Original Poster
I've been meaning to post about this since I got back from The World, but never got around to it until now. I wanted to see if this has ever happened to anyone else...

On 01/16/08 I went by myself to DHS. The first thing I did was head to Tower of Terror. There was NO wait and I was able to walk right into the preshow. Once I was loading the elevator, I got the left side front row, aisle seat. There was a mother with a very young girl sitting behind me. The little girl was crying and the woman asked to take her daughter off the ride. The CM let them off and found 2 new people to take their place.

Well, at this point, the CM forgot to close the front gate to our actual elevator cart. (So basically, my right foot didn't have any sort of barrier in front of it!) Everything was awesome as usual on ToT, but once we hit the place where you should move into the drop shaft nothing happened. The music stopped. It was pitch black.

Then all of the lights come on and a maintenance man comes out of a door to the left of the shaft (never knew there was a room there!). He starts inspecting our cart. No one is saying a word because (I'm sure) most thought it was broken and were terrified. He looks at me and at the person who is on the right side front aisle seat and asks which one of us opened the gate. I said, "The CM let a woman and her daughter off and must have forgotten to close it." He says, "Sure he did," and rolled his eyes at me! He asked again who opened it and when no one spoke he closed the gate, walked back to his room, and slammed his door.

After that, the lights went back down and a voice spoke saying for us not to panic and that we'd get the full effects of the drop. We made it safely back down after a few half dozen or so heart racing drop sequences.

I thought it was really cool to see it with the lights on, but it stinks the maintenance guy was mean. Has anyone else seen ToT with the lights on? Has the gate been left open for anyone else's ride?

Have a magical day! :wave:
 

PeoplemoverTTA

Well-Known Member
Wow, freaky story! That's cool that you got such a unique look at ToT.

The maintenance man was totally out of line, though. There's cameras in there...wouldn't they have seen it if you had opened the gate (if you would even been able to with your seatbelt on)? Oh well...

Neat story, though!
 

ChrisFL

Premium Member
YES! I have been on the ride when the lights came on...short story...

Me and a few co-workers who were contracting for Disney were off one day and I had been on ToT dozens of times, so I was hyping it up to this one guy and it was a nice night to ride...

So anyway, yes, we heard Rod Serling's voice right before you enter for the drop and we stopped, I knew immediately there was a problem...the interesting part was that the lights came on after a few mins, they first said they were going to evacuate but about 10 mins later went ahead and let us drop with the lights on...totally ruining the experience.

Anyway, the INTERESTING part was waiting there, with the lights on, I saw something you can't even see in the dark. Just to the right of our car was an elevator entrance doorway like the regular one you enter inside, with a huge "4" painted on it, and the entire doorway, and number sign on top was sitting on its left side! Clearly it was meant to be theming of some sort but it didn't make any sense as to why it's there. It has never been lit up to see it.
 

TOTGuy

Member
I believe it was originally supposed to be that you were at the top of the shaft looking down or up into the twilight zone, then they just never really used it. As for maint, I'm sorry. It's no excuse but downtimes on a major attraction make anyone crabby. What I'm assuming is that the cm in tower control saw that the gate was open and ride stopped the elevator in fifth dimension. This is a soft shutdown and is recovered easier than an e-stop. Maint. checked the vehicle and once they closed it the ride stop was recovered, allowing you to continue your journey. Sorry again about Maint, but they have an even tougher job than us Attractions CMs do, and they don't even have to talk to anyone. LOL!!!
 

the-reason14

Well-Known Member
Nothin like that has ever happened to me yet, Maybe one day. Anyways, I do remember seeing some travel channel special or some kind of advertising, where during the drop that door your talking about was shown open and a guy was holding on to the rail looking terrified. I dont remember which TC show it was on, but I remember seeing it on tv, I dont think there were alot of people on the elevator.
 

Wilt Dasney

Well-Known Member
I don't think the gate is anything more than show. Odd that they would stop the vehicle for that. Maybe the stop was for a different reason and, like someone said, the maintenance guy decided to "fix" the gate and was trying to maintain character while he did?
 

kcw

Member
I don't think the gate is anything more than show. Odd that they would stop the vehicle for that. Maybe the stop was for a different reason and, like someone said, the maintenance guy decided to "fix" the gate and was trying to maintain character while he did?

i'm sure at the very least that it keeps personal belongings that have come loose or shifted from falling out of the elevator
 

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
The maitenance guy was just messing with you to scare/confuse you... trust me, they are all very nice. Also, there is no possible way for a guest to open the gate.
I don't think the gate is anything more than show. Odd that they would stop the vehicle for that. Maybe the stop was for a different reason and, like someone said, the maintenance guy decided to "fix" the gate and was trying to maintain character while he did?
Actually, it is a safety issue.
 

Philo

Well-Known Member
I hope the maintenance guy was playing along. It seems to me that they wouldn't build a latch system which could be opened by a guest - most other 'intense' rides use system which lock until the rides finished or opened by a ride operator.
 

Thelazer

Well-Known Member
I hope the maintenance guy was playing along. It seems to me that they wouldn't build a latch system which could be opened by a guest - most other 'intense' rides use system which lock until the rides finished or opened by a ride operator.

You would think that the control system would not allow the car to even move from the load postion, if the gate itself was not completly closed and locked into place.

Seems like they need to look at the programming and fix that.
 

nighttimewisher

Well-Known Member
Not quite the same but...
Just after new year, we were on ToT with what seemed like a lot of first-timers. We got up to the 1st show scene and it played out, but once the lift doors shut again, we just stayed there. Everyone was silent for the longest time because most of them were freaked!
We got the usualy spiel a few times then they brought us down, and put us in a different elevator.
The CM's were awsome, staying in character the whole time. As soon as our door opened on the broken one, the CM said "oh looks like you didnt quite make it to your room" and the CM on the other elevator reminded us that breakfast starts at 8am and hoped we made it to our "destination" this time
 

doop

Well-Known Member
Interesting story, thanks for sharing, being stuck on ToT must have been a little nerve wracking.
Thelazer said:
You would think that the control system would not allow the car to even move from the load postion, if the gate itself was not completly closed and locked into place.

Seems like they need to look at the programming and fix that.
You know, that's a pretty good point.
 

PeoplemoverTTA

Well-Known Member
The CM's were awsome, staying in character the whole time. As soon as our door opened on the broken one, the CM said "oh looks like you didnt quite make it to your room" and the CM on the other elevator reminded us that breakfast starts at 8am and hoped we made it to our "destination" this time

That's a great story! I love "looks like you didn't quite make it to your room." Creepy and hilarious! ToT CMs are great :sohappy:
 

One Lil Spark

EPCOT Center Defender
Original Poster
There were actually 3 CM's in the elevator with me that were in their plain clothes. When we never moved into the drop shaft and the music turned off and we were waiting in pitch black one of them (a girl) said, "Uhhh, this isn't supposed to happen." The guy next to her said, "I know. What's wrong? I hope we get evac'ed!"

Once we'd gotten to the unload area, they were commenting on how the maintenance man was being a jerk. As far as I could tell, he wasn't in 'character', but I could be wrong. I mean, he actually rolled his eyes and snapped at me. I just didn't think that there would be any way if someone was buckled up properly for them to open the gate.

Who knows, maybe it's happened before. :wave:
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Anyway, the INTERESTING part was waiting there, with the lights on, I saw something you can't even see in the dark. Just to the right of our car was an elevator entrance doorway like the regular one you enter inside, with a huge "4" painted on it, and the entire doorway, and number sign on top was sitting on its left side! Clearly it was meant to be theming of some sort but it didn't make any sense as to why it's there. It has never been lit up to see it.

TOTGuy was right. The 5th dimension level is sort of designed to look like the elevator car is turned on its back and you're looking *up* the shaft. That's why that door is on its side. When the doors to that level first open, there are industrial looking lights on, etc. Then after a few moments you pull out and they turn off and the weird lighting starts. But if you look at those industrial lights, they're turned sideways. So those first few seconds are there to disorient you. (Further disoriented when you roll OUT of the shaft into the room, which a normal elevator doesn't do)

-Rob
 

the-reason14

Well-Known Member
There were actually 3 CM's in the elevator with me that were in their plain clothes. When we never moved into the drop shaft and the music turned off and we were waiting in pitch black one of them (a girl) said, "Uhhh, this isn't supposed to happen." The guy next to her said, "I know. What's wrong? I hope we get evac'ed!"

Once we'd gotten to the unload area, they were commenting on how the maintenance man was being a jerk. As far as I could tell, he wasn't in 'character', but I could be wrong. I mean, he actually rolled his eyes and snapped at me. I just didn't think that there would be any way if someone was buckled up properly for them to open the gate.

Who knows, maybe it's happened before. :wave:

I also dont think there is a way to open that door while your on the ride. Unless it wasnt shut tight and someone had something wedged in there and pulled it open. I dont know.
 

DeborJohn

Member
I had a similar experience back in 2003 - DS and I were on the ride and it stopped, totally black, then the lights came on and the maintainence worker came out of that little room and we were fixed! I told my son that we were in the Twilight Zone (Being from Binghamton, NY like Rod Serling, I figure I deserved the special treatment).
 

eekjones

New Member
that is so funny!!!! somethink like that has happened to me before. it was my first time on ToT for about 3 years or so. we were at the top and as soon as i heard "in the Tower of Terror...", i waited and waited for the drop and i was gripping the handle bars. then all of the sudden, the lights come on and the maintenance guy said that our elevator wasn't securely locked into the shaft, so we got to walk out and through the room with the lights on and down a regular elevator where we got to ride it on the other side. it was CRAZY!!!
 

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