update one of two

far back row: Stephanie, me, Ben, Bethany, Annie, Doug
middle row: Debbie, Katie, Liz, Stephanie, Nancy, Emily, Karen
front row: Shannon, Lisa, Gary

That's a picture of most of the people I work with. In guest clothing (as opposed to costumes). A few weeks ago, Gary (one of the two Nutrition Center managers) took us on a backstage tour of two scary rollercoasters at Hollywood Studios: the Hollywood Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Rollercoaster.

Our tour guide, T.J., has worked at the Tower of Terror since it opened. Apparently the ride tends to malfunction when he's not there. The Tower likes him. Anyway, he showed us the security area where they monitor the ride and make sure that no middle-aged women try to jump out of the elevator car before the scary drop part. He also explained the random drop sequence selection to us and how the Disney World Tower of Terror is different from the one at Disney Land California (the elevator car at Disney Land doesn't leave the shaft like ours does). He told us that Tower was the most expensive ride in Disney World... until Test Track's track had to be rebuilt three times. Tower also had the most computers of any ride in Disney World... until Test Track decided the solution to their problems was more computers! TJ also told us about some of the antiques in the lobby of the Tower (ToT).


The chairs set at this table date back to the 1500s(?). They're Portugese. The ToT Imagineers found them at an estate sale in California and bought them for super cheap because the descendants of the recently deceased owner didn't know what they had. Another cool thing about this photo is the attention to detail. The story behind the Hollywood Tower Hotel is that it was struck by lightning in the 1930s and was then transported into the Twilight Zone. Although the bellhops are destined to stay there forever, many of the hotel guests were able to make it out in time. You can see that a lady left her handkerchief and gloves on the table and that there's an imprint of her lipstick on the wine glass. The plates are antiques, too, but some of the smudges on them are from the pastries the couple was enjoying when the disaster occurred. The cobwebs were made from hot glue. The lampshade was made from an old 1920s flapper's dress. There's a company that specializes is making dead silk flowers.



MahJong (I think that's how it's spelled)--the Chinese? tile game--was gaining popularity in America at this time. The two men who were playing the game ran out of the hotel without cleaning up their game.



This couch is not a genuine antique, but it has its own cool story. When the Imagineers were looking for furniture for the Tower, they happened upon a furniture advertisement from the 1920s. They called the number on the flyer, and the company was miraculously still in business. Still more surprising was that the company still had the means to make the sofa that the Imagineers saw in the ad. So they bought two identical new-antique sofas... and that's one of them!

I didn't really hear the significance of the rest of these photos, but they're still cool to look at. :)