There has certainly been a lot of talking lately among Disneyland Paris fans wether and when the attraction known in Florida as “The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror” will be build and opened in our Walt Disney Studios. Many fans are on the lookout for even the slightest hint of something developing in the area behind and around “La Terrasse” - which is rumoured to be earmarked as the future area for this amazing ride as indicated by the “Hollywood Tower Hotel” (HTH) logo prominently featured above the gates in the rear of this (as it seems) non permanent dining area. The discussion has been further fueled by the possibly similar architectural design of the walls and icons of the area and the building currently rising up in a corner of the area compared to the concept art of the California version of the ride being currently under construction in DCA.
But what if I told you that no drops into the Twilight Zone were ever considered for EuroDisney? That this ride was never meant to be errected in Marne-la-Vallee, that Disney building this ride in California and in Paris (and possibly in Tokyo once the ground has been secured) is yet another sign of Walt Disney Imagineering’s (WDI) changing mentality in designing and reproducing rides - or that the models and maps for the original Disney MGM Studios Europe proof this??

Yes gang - if WDI had had it’s way back in the mid 90’s no Disney theme park would have ever seen the reproduction of one of the "new" rides designed in the last decade for one of the parks! Each theme park would have had it’s trademark “exclusive” rides. Sure the parks would have shared the same premises (a movie ride for the studios, pirates and ghosts in the Magic Kingdoms, ...) but all those new rides which Imagineers where developing in the mid 90’s (Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, Plancto’s Intergalactic Revue, Rocket Rods, Test Track, Discovery Mountain, ...) would have been unique. Ok, some would have shared their technology but no Disney theme park would have had an clone of a ride from another Disney park!
What am I talking about? Well simply put, Imagineers up until the mid 90’s were eager to break the mold and design something which could be on par with the Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion, the two Disney trademark rides of the late 60’s which are still, according to many, unbeaten by everything that came out of Flower Street since then. In order to do this they knew that they had six parks to work with and fit attractions in (four Magic Kingdoms, EPCOT and Disney MGM) and a few more theme parks coming up. So they wanted to design something unique for each park, some kind of “trademark ride”, so that fans would have to travel to all parks to ride all the big ones.

“But how much time does it take to design an attraction?” now this is one of the most difficult questions to answer - rides and lands can be practically designed and opened in a few months (Mickey’s Birthdayland or the Indy coaster in Paris are proof to that) or may take years till finally see the light of day (Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye was seven years in the making, Tokyo Disney Sea nearly ten) but the average time it takes to design and build an E-ticket ride is something around five years, from the imagineer's first pencil sketches to the exciting opening day.
As you can imagine the Tower of Terror with it’s amazing elevator and vehicles was a bit more complicated than your average E-ticket ride, so it was in active development for the Disney MGM Studios Florida as early as 1990, so exactly at the same time when cranes and bulldozers where working round the clock in Paris to get EuroDisney ready for its opening in time. The tower was one of those projects which Imagineers knew could provide an all new experience found in no other theme park no matter where in the world (the Indiana Jones ride with its EMV technology and the "in 45 minutes round the world cruise" designed for Westcot were meant to be in the same category). So even it took till early 1993 till the ride was finally green lighted (with a lot of hesitation) Imagineers were already trying to figure out how to use this new ride technology and fold it into another (completely different) experience for one of the remaining 5 Disney theme parks once the original ToT had been installed.
And just as the “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye” with its EMV (Enhanced Motion Vehicles) was re-designed and re-themed to become the Countdown to Extinction for Disney's Animal Kingdom and later on served as basis for Test Track, Rocket Rods and Journey to the Centre of the Earth the Tower of Terror was to be re-designed and re-themed to become Geyser Mountain!

“Why geysers?” and "What does all this has to do with our beloved Disneyland Paris?” - well my friends, first of all Disney has always had a passion for geysers. The first sighting of one in a Disney theme park dates back to the first years of Disneyland and the “Geyser Country” segment of the “Minetrain through Nature’s Wonderland” ride. And then “geyser effect” of shooting water and everything placed above the water high into the air fits perfectly with the AGV (Autonomous Guided Vehicle) system which the Tower of Terror pionieered. Just this time guest would first be “blown up” and then be falling back down! And as if this wouldn't be enough to excite guests of "Geyser Mountain" this time the Imagineers were set to wrap this amazing technology even more sophisticated in a Disney-quality dark ride an element which had been (partly) set aside or not completely accomplished in the original Tower of Terror ride.
Jeff Burke, EuroDisney’s Frontierland Show Producer, immediately realized that this was a natural fit for the Frontierland storyline, so without hesitation he created a team to prepare concept art and models for this ride to be included into EuroDisney’s “phase 2” line-up. The story his team came up with was pretty much complimentary to what happens inside Big Thunder Mountain - traveling in mine cars through an abandoned gold mine guests would have eventually encountered a geyser and be blown up and down by it. The “Geyser Mountain” design team in fact devised a storyline set around both Thunder Mesa’s gold mining town theme and was also able to fit in a homage to both Disneyland and an American Legend: the famous ”Old Faithful” geyser.

Set on the banks of the Rivers of the Far West EuroDisney guests would have walked past Phantom Manor (a new wider path would have been constructed) and entered into what guests now simply see as “Geyser County”. The path would have wound around the dinosaur bones, rocks, debris and the constantly creaking and erupting little geysers. Off in the distance, behind the railroad tracks guests would have seen the “Old Unfaithful” geyser (a tongue-in-cheek joke on California’s legendary “Old Faithful” geyser) giving little smoke eruptions every minute which consequently would have caused all the other geysers in the area to move, rattle, bubble and shout some water into the air.
Once passed this amazingly themed area guests would have entered a mine, which would have acted as a queue-area to the ride through Thunder Mesa’s legendary gold mine. The queue itself would have featured gold mining tools similar to those found inside the Big Thunder Mountain queue. The whole legend of Frontierland would have been completed by these seemingly endless caves found beneath the natural rockwork.

Once guests boarded there mine car the vehicle would start moving along the rails into impressive caves filled with natural wonders from stalactites and stalagmites to streams of water and gold highlighted by the lights fixed to vehicles. Just as in Big Thunder Mountain a homage to the “Rainbow Caverns” would have been included too - here the travelers would have passed a whole scene surrounded by wonderfully coloured (blacklight) water pools with drops of water falling of the cave's ceiling creating paddles of beautiful colours. As the cars proceeded deeper and deeper into these natural caverns the lights would have slowly started to fade and the sound of water dropping of the cave's ceiling would have subtly given way to the sound of wind moving around sharp corners, whistling and of rocks tumbling down a hill ... until (in the “usual” Disney style) something would go terribly wrong!
The vehicles would have entered a illuminated lit cave full of sleeping bats all with there eyes closed and silently resting. Unfortunately from one side of the vehicle a “loud hissing” sound would have been heard, a small geyser would have erupted and thus sleeping creatures would be woken up and in a matter of seconds would have been seen moving toward the car where they would immediately break the lights of the car! This incredible effect would have been a 3-D sound extravaganza using the same technology that is behind Walt Disney World's Alien Encounter show. Guests would have seen the AudioAnimatronic bats opening there eyes and wings and only a microsecond later would have heard the loud sound of breaking glass in the same second the lights would have gone out. The vehicle would have immediately started to move out of the cave with only a faint emergency light casting a barely visible spot on the paths ahead. Once every guest would have believed that now the worst part was over a small eruption of a long dormant geyser would have caused a chain reaction and the cave's walls and parts of its ceiling would have come down all around the car trying to navigate out of the caves...

As if the sound of the "attacking" bats and the eruption wouldn't be enough guests would have realised that their car had arrived up in a dead end - right above of the legendary “Old Unfaithful Geyser” which sounded as if it was going to explode in a matter of seconds.
“Kaboom”!! Like a bullet guests would have found themselves being shot up towards the caves ceiling - steam and hot water under and around them! The mine car itself would shake, rattle and some parts would break off emphasizing the dramatic situation. As the oar car would continued to rise and fall, bounce up and down on the water fountain of the geyser rocks would have started falling of the ceiling creating a natural opening right above the car, illuminating the cave before the geyser would have shot the car higher than ever before, right through the small hole in the ceiling! Rising up in the steam a breathtaking view of Geyser County and the Rivers of the Far West with the Big Thunder Mountain would have opened (don’t forget to smile for that onboard photo) before the geyeser would have lost some of its power and teh car would have plummeted back into the darkness, only to be shot up into the bright daylight once more. But luckily for the guests at this second shot  the car would not fall back all the way down but only back onto the tracks on a second upper level of the cave, so the guests would have found themselves finally out of risk and back on their way to to the mine's entrance.

Yes, “Geyser Mountain” or the "Old Unfaithful” as it was called would have been at least on par with the Tower of Terror, in some aspects it would have been even breaking new ground by combining the incredible dark ride themeing of the Indiana Jones Adventure or the Big Thunder Mountain with the best use of the AGV system. But when the “Geyser Mountain" team presented there Frontierland expansion project to Tony Baxter and the upper Disney brass the reactions were mixed. Obviously the Imagineers were enthusiastic about this idea, yet again WDI would improve on an already incredible ride and most of all break new ground both technically and storytelling wise. But the management was sceptical - due to the $120 Million+ price tag this ride would have had, especially as the management was trying to find some sort of cost effective expansions as the park's major phase two expansion, the “Discovery Mountain” already was proposed to cost $200 Million+. With the Storybook Land on the other side of the park already under preparation as an expansion there was just no way they could green light the construction of Geyser Mountain during EuroDisney’s phase two expansion period (tentatively scheduled as ranging from 1992 up to 1995).

Still both Imagineers and Disney management knew that thrill rides (especially when well themed) can provide the perfect marketing lure to get in repeat visits of guests. Therefore it didn't cut Geyser Mountain out of the plans but moved it down into expansion phase three - along with Toon Town and a water ride. This expansion agenda would have allowed EuroDisneyland to have projects ready to start construction immediately *AFTER* the 1995/6 opening of the second gate, the “Disney MGM Studios Europe”, to further expand Europe’s Magic Kingdom. A set of two thrill rides (the water ride and Geyser Mountain) plus a whole new land was thought to be just what the Magic Kingdom would need to counter the effect the opening of the second gate would have on its guest numbers. The management and the Imagineers were so convinced this plan was a "winner" that they already  created the Geyser County area in Frontierland next to the Boot Hill to prepare the future expansion, practically creating a "preview" of what was to become the next expansion of EuroDisney’s Frontierland eventually.

Well, what needs to be said now? We all know the problems which lead to the changing of the phase two expansion plans (and I already detailed quiet a bit of these too). But even so the financial turmoils at EuroDisney led to a complete stop of all work for the expansion of the European resort the Geyser Mountain was never really forgotten by WDI. Instead the concept started its very own tour of all the different Disney theme parks worldwide as it was practically pinned down as an attraction for various  locations at certain points: the Disneyland Resort Anaheim has seen this project been talked about first for the area behind their Big Thunder Mountain (in the Festival of Fools Arena/Big Thunder Barebeque area) inside Disneyland and then for a slot in the “Golden State/Grizzly peek” section of DCA, before the latest word came out which indicates that right now it is considered again for the area behind the Big Thunder Mountain in Disneyland. Walt Disney World has had this attraction talked about for a replacement to Tom Sawyer Island or some other location in the Frontierland of the Magic Kingdom just as well as some place in the Animal Kingdom evn so the later would have to be combined with a little bit of rethemeing. Sure a few changes, and cost effective downsizings were done in the mean time as far as the concept is concerned too...

And the Disneyland Resort Paris? Well, “no good idea ever dies at Imagineering” my friends. Even so there is no doubt by now that the Walt Disney Studios will eventually see the Hollywood Tower Hotel rise and “shine” (well - it shouldn’t actually shine but it will in the eyes of the fans) the Geyser Mountain idea is not completely dead! But sure enough the expansion plans right don’t call for this amazing ride to be on the short list of SETEMO (aka Disneyland Paris Imagineering / DLP-I). Instead the expansion of the studios, especially with the opening of the Tower of Terror, and a few surprises for the Disneyland Park are up next for the future on that list.
But one thing is sure my friends: in the 1987 agreement Disney and France signed to get EuroDisney underway certain deadlines and obligations were included which have to be met in order for the company not to lose the right to build on certain parcels of land ... and one of these obligations is 3 (t-h-r-e-e) themeparks operating by 2017. Consider this: the hot rumour for the themeing of the eventual third gate is set around “the forces of nature” - and the Geyser Mountain concept art and model is still in store at the archive of EuroDisney and SETEMO/DLP-I. So why do I have the feeling the “Old Unfaithful” is not completely dead? ;-)

For now it's TTFN - tatafornow

MickeyFantasmic