The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is one of my favorite attractions at Walt Disney World, and I love that it combines one of my all-time favorite television series with great Disney design. The elevator actually moves through what’s called the “Fifth Dimension” scene, which is where the elevator really seems to enter the Twilight Zone. It is worth noting that this version of the Tower of Terror is the only one that moves both vertically and horizontally. From there it’s into the boiler room and into the ride portion of the attraction.įull ride-throughs explaining every moment of the attraction are plentiful, but that’s not really the purpose of this post. From there, it’s on to the library where a newly-discovered episode of the Twilight Zone plays, explaining what happened to the hotel in 1939. The indoor queue starts with the main lobby, which is covered in dust and cobwebs. Oddly ominous music from the 1930s helps complete the spooky mood. Next comes the outdoor queue, which takes guests through once gorgeous–but now overgrown–gardens and grounds. It’s the foreboding icon at the end of Sunset Blvd. In terms of the attraction itself, the experience starts as you step foot onto Sunset Boulevard, which was actually constructed with the Tower of Terror anchoring it. This is the story at the Florida, California, and Paris versions of the attraction, with Tokyo having a substantially modified story that follows the same structure. The hotel, now a permanent fixture of the Twilight Zone, has ‘recently’ reopened for tours(?), and bellhops invite guests to explore what happened that fateful night by going aboard a still-operational maintenance service elevator. It was closed after lightning struck the building, transforming the hotel into something in the Twilight Zone, and causing several guests in an elevator to mysteriously vanish. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror’s story is framed within the television series with guests entering the story as they visit the Hollywood Tower Hotel, once a star in its own right, and a beacon for the show business elite. It has aged incredibly well, and is proof-positive that Disney’s best attractions are timeless. If you get past the intentionally-dilapidated looks of the hotel, you’d be hard-pressed to guess that this were a 25-year old attraction. Opened in 1994, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is still as fresh and original as it was when it opened 25 years ago. Let’s start with the original, and arguably the best. Your destination…the worldwide Disney theme parks… Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World With that, we invite you if you dare, to join us in a most uncommon elevator, about to take a strange journey. My fandom of the Tower of Terror stems from two things: the queue to post-show detail and brilliance of the Tower of Terror, and the way it weaves in the Twilight Zone (one of my all-time favorite television shows) universe into most versions of the attraction. Second, there are enough differences among the various versions that, as a fan of these attractions, it’s actually a joy to see a ‘new’ take on a familiar concept when in the other parks. First, all of these attractions are so good that they are deserving of homes in every park in the world (you dropped the ball, Hong Kong!). While I normally am not a huge fan of cloning attractions, Tower of Terror is an exception, right there with Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. As I believe this is a seminal Disney attraction that showcases Walt Disney Imagineering at its peak, and since there are a few very different incarnations of the Tower of Terror, I thought it’d be fun to look at how they vary around the world. Guests have now been “dropping in” to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World for over 25 years.
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