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As we draw nearer and nearer to our time, the more modern class of S.E.A. members begins to emerge, with interconnected stories told in one-of-a-kind rides across the globe... And it all begins just days after that 1899 class portrait was painted...

2. The Hotel Hightower

Image: Shenghung Lin, Flickr (license)

Location: Tokyo DisneySea, American Waterfront
Setting: New York, 1912
SEA Connection: Confirmed
SEA Host: Harrison Hightower III

Hollywood, 1939; the Hollywood Tower Hotel, a beacon for the showbusiness elite; a rogue lightning strike on Halloween night, and a descent into The Twilight Zone. Forget it all. When planners at the Oriental Land Company (owners and operators of Tokyo Disney Resort) decided to bring a version of Disney's popular free-fall dark ride to Japan, they faced a major hurdle: The Twilight Zone was entirely unknown in Japanese pop culture. Luckily, a miserly member of S.E.A. offered an alternative...

Image: Disney

Built in the late 1800s in the bustling young metropolis of New York, the Hotel Hightower was indeed a star in its own right... but only in service of the ego of its financier: Harrison Hightower III. A millionaire shipping magnate, Hightower earned his fortune (and a collection of antiquities) the easy way: stealing. Throughout the lobby of his hotel, Hightower has proudly commissioned paintings and murals that show his daring escapes from the natives, weapons drawn, who try to chase him down as he makes off with their sacred relics.

And in fact, it seems that Harrison – a prominent if disliked member of S.E.A. – would return with his riches to this opulent headquarters here in New York, stashing his stolen treasures in a gargantuan vault and flaunting his vast collection to the old money of the city's elite.

Image: Disney via themeparkinsider.com

However, something is indeed about to happen that will change all that. New Years Eve, 1899, Hightower invited the city's best and brightest to a New Year's Eve party at the hotel, eager to show off his greatest "find" yet: an African wooden idol called Shiriki Utundu. When local reporters questioned if Hightower was intimidated by tales that the frightful idol may be cursed, Harrison laughed and – just to prove he held no fear – put his cigar out on Shiriki Utundu’s head.

What followed defied explanation, but suffice it to say that Mr. Hightower never made it to his penthouse that night. His body was never found... though Shiriki Utundu was inexplicably returned to his prized pedestal in Hightower's study without a single scratch...

Image: Disney

We arrive in DisneySea's American Waterfront thirteen years after Hightower's disappearance... and the abandonment of the hotel. A blight on the otherwise bustling streets of New York, the Hotel Hightower is slated for demolition. But the New York City Preservation Society has begun an aggressive campaign to protect the building as an architectural landmark, running tours of the once-grand hotel (and Hightower's untouched collection of cursed artifacts) with an attention-grabbing name to bank on the urban legend of Hightower's disappearance: "The Tower of Terror."

Replace the Hollywood Tower Hotel's lobby, library, and boiler room with Hightower's lobby, study, and vault and you get the idea. But Shiriki Utundu stands now as one of the most sinister and genuinely scary villains in the Disney Parks catalogue. In fact, our first encounter with him ends with one of the most unsettling "how'd they do that?" special effects ever. 

Image: Disney

Tokyo's one-of-a-kind reinvention of the treasured fan-favorite freefall is so spectacular, it earned its own in-depth entry in our series, Modern Marvels: Tower of Terror tracing the history of Disney's drop ride from Florida to Japan and beyond. Make the jump there to dive deep into the haunting history of the Hotel Hightower.

While the ride itself mirrors its cousins in California and France, Harrison Hightower and his standing in S.E.A. create a tantalizing tale that gives this Tower of Terror timeless and international appeal... and our first concrete figure to stand among S.E.A.'s enviable ranks. But Hightower wasn’t the only member of S.E.A. to spend his life collecting antiquities and treasures…

3. Mystic Manor

Image: Disney

Location: Hong Kong Disneyland, Mystic Point
Setting: Mystic Point, Peru, 1916
SEA Connection: Confirmed
SEA Host: Lord Henry Mystic and Albert

Sure Harrison Hightower might give S.E.A. a bad name, but a visit to Mystic Manor across the sea at Hong Kong Disneyland will help you see the bright side of this international organization. Lord Henry Mystic is just the saving grace that S.E.A. needed. Mystic toured the world just as fervently, stumbling upon many cultures and locales and all the while collecting his treasures the old-fashioned way: without stealing them. The kindly fellow did just as much exploring as Hightower, but made a lot more friends in the process, including the mischievous monkey Albert, whom he saved from a giant spider somewhere in the African jungle.

Image: Disney

When Lord Mystic decided it was high time to retire from S.E.A. and his expeditions, he took one final journey to Papau New Gineau where he constructed the elegant Victorian estate of Mystic Point and an elaborate hilltop mansion. The mesmerizing architecture of Mystic Manor (featuring elements from many different cultures around the world all combined together) well represents the experience within, where Lord Mystic and Albert welcome guests to tour their collection of treasures. The queue weaves through an Exhibition Room where black-and-white photographs on the wall show the opening of Mystic Manor in 1896, and that group portrait of S.E.A. (including Harrison Hightower!) dated 1899.

Lord Mystic and Albert usher us deeper into the home where we board his latest and greatest invention: magnificent Mystic Magneto-Electric Carriages that will whisk us into the manor and through the priceless artifacts stored there.

Image: Disney

Cleverly, these Magneto-Electric Carriages are brought to life through Disney's groundbreaking trackless ride rechnology, as four carriages at a time are dispatched into the home, weaving, spinning, and dancing around each other effortlessly with no track in sight.

The journey begins in the Acquisitions and Cataloguing Room, where Lord Mystic sets us loose to explore his newest arrivals before they’re properly sorted. His most valuable? A newly-arrived ancient music box – encrusted with jewels and golden monkeys – whose music is said to grant life to the lifeless. A silly superstition, of course, so Lord Mystic leaves us alone with Albert, who can’t seem to keep his eyes off the thing. One touch later and the trackless ride sends guests through Mystic’s collection in a whole new way. The manor’s many rooms – dedicated to ancient Greece, Norway, Egypt, Medieval England, and more – all spring to life as the inexplicable floating dust of the music box spreads through the home.

Image: Disney

After a stunning finale wherein the Chinese collection literally tears the mansion apart, all is restored to order as we return to the Cataloguing Room and the musical dust is sucked back into the Music Box just as Lord Mystic returns to check on us. “Now, Albert, you didn’t touch my music box, did you?” The monkey rolls his eyes at his master and chirps, "Oh no, no!" and another S.E.A. adventure has come to a close.

Mystic Manor is commonly understood as one of the most impressive and amazing attractions at any Disney Park in the world. That's why it, too, earned an in-depth look  Modern Marvels: Mystic Manor – that tells the complete story of how a monkey and a music box fuel an Imagineering masterpiece.

Mystic Point also includes the Garden of Wonders, a collection of oversized relics too large to fit into the mansion, each providing unbelievable optical illusions and astounding scale. There’s also a Mystic Freight Depot Stage, the Archives Shop, and an Explorer’s Club Restaurant, all connected within the same S.E.A. backstory.

We may have met two of S.E.A.'s most avid artifact collectors, but the ship hasn't sailed yet. On the next page, we'll find out about a third member and the first S.E.A. ride in the United States... Read on...

 
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Comments

The BTMRR queue has a letter ffrom Jason Chandler found member of S.E.A. hanging in it. Pretty sure that means it's a confirmed connection.

I love your posts. Please keep it up.

You missed the Oceaneer Club onboard Disney Cruise Line's Disney Magic. Disney's Oceaneer Club is home to a collection of fascinating props and treasures from the journeys of Captain Mary Oceaneer. A member of the SEA, Mary invites all children to set sail on an ocean of self-discovery and fun.

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