One of the stops on TOT was for a picture (no not during the drop). Then it appeared on the big eyeball you passed on the way to the drops. It was there in the early years, then it was gone for a long time. Last year I saw it again once. When they don't take your picture, it is just random people in the car, otherwise you can see yourself if you look quick.
THAT'S RIGHT. I
knew there was another stop.
I asked my brother, who's a ToT fanatic and knows everything about the ride, and he said there was a Twilight Zone-ish little visual effect, they took your picture and then you saw yourself, then the elevator was "struck by lightning" and the people in the vehicle vanished. Then the picture appear/disappear trick happens again (sans lightning) in the transition room.
It makes sense because while reading a ride synopsis of the other rides at the other parks, a similar thing still happens.
The best I can find was that the effect was phased out at WDW because it was done largely to prolong the otherwise very short ride (because it was only one drop). The effect worked poorly and when they switched to multiple drops, they got rid of it entirely because the additional length to the ride wasn't needed anymore and because of how the ride is structured, it allows for faster loading and processing of the cars, increasing efficiency. The other parks still include an extra scene because they're structured differently and can operate more efficiently, so no real time is really sacrificed by having it as cars already can be loaded and sent off more efficiently.
Which makes sense, really... I remember people were frustrated when it opened that the ride had such a huge line and was only, from start to finish, about a minute and a half long, a majority of it being show features and not the "thrill."
I've never seen the other ToT versions, but I've been told they're more story and effect driven then the WDW version, and that it has shutdowns a fraction of what the WDW version does.
though I'm not surprised
