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Yesterday I alluded to the mad scheme I was going to try. Today we gave it a whirl.

What happened was, after we'd planned out what parks we were doing (Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom) and picked our FastPass rides, Ros decided that she wanted to try the Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios. Working out the logistics, I figured the only way we could do it was to use the early morning Magic Hours opening today at the Studios park, run for the Tower of Terror at rope drop so we could get in right away without FastPasses, and then whip over to Animal Kingdom for our first FastPass on the safaris. All of which meant getting up before six and being on the first bus at 7:15.

I figured since this was my mental idea, Ros and I would do it and meet the Sweetie at the Animal Kingdom. Ros, however, managed to convince her dad to come along. (And when I say convince, I mean she said "Daddy, would you come, too?" Yeah, he's a pushover.)

We managed to pull the whole thing off.

Here's Ros and the Sweetie waiting outside Hollywood Studios for opening. We got there by twenty to eight, and there was a surprising number of people waiting by the time they started letting us in.

We really booked it once they let us in. Here's the approach to the Tower, with Ros running ahead of me at the bottom of the frame.

The running paid off. We managed to be first in line! (The people who were running ahead of us were apparently all heading for the Aerosmith Rock 'n Roller Coaster. I kid you not.)

For those of you who don't know, the Tower of Terror is a drop zone kind of ride, where they put you in the elevator of an old haunted hotel, plunge you into darkness, zip you up to the top, open a window so you can see how high you are, and then drop you in free fall. Five times. I like coasters, but I found the thing freaking terrifying. I screamed the whole time, and the second last time they started shooting us to the top, I screamed "Noooo, not again."

Ros, whose idea this whole thing was, and who'd harassed me about doing it to the point where I came up with this mad scheme, was really, really, REALLY scared by it all. When they'd open the window I'd look over at her, and she was absolutely petrified.

Here she is giving her verdict on the ride. (It didn't get an out and out thumbs down, but it got the dubious thumbs sidewise.)
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Here's a wider angle to you can see the Tower itself.
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I don't think we're going to get Ros on a big kids ride again for another year or two after this one, but it was kind of a fun, if mental, experience. I don't regret it, and I hope Ros doesn't either.