The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
You can find more information on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at The Service Elevator
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, more commonly known as Tower of Terror, is a simulated freefall thrill ride at Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, California. It is based upon the television show The Twilight Zone. The Disney-MGM ride opened in 1994 and the California Adventure version in 2004.
As part of the Happiest Homecoming on Earth celebration, another Tower of Terror attraction will open at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan (2005), and later at Walt Disney Studios in France (2008). The Tokyo DisneySea version of Tower of Terror will not have a Twilight Zone theme.
The ride is themed to resemble the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel. The storyline of the ride is that on October 31, 1939, the hotel was struck by lightning, transporting an elevator car full of passengers to the Twilight Zone. The exterior of the ride resembles an old hotel with a blackened scorch mark across the front of the facade where the lightning destroyed part of the building.
At 199 feet, it is the tallest attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort and also at the Disneyland Resort. According to Walt Disney World staff, the ride is only 199 feet high because of regulations that would require a fixed red light beacon to be added to the top of the building if it were 200 feet tall or higher to meet FAA regulations. Having a red beacon on the top of the building would detract from the theming of a 1939 hotel.
Ride Description
Guests entering the ride are ushered into the library, where they view a short clip of Rod Serling describing the events at the hotel, presented in the style of The Twilight Zone television series' opening segment. From there, guests pass through the hotel's basement "boiler room" and into a large elevator equipped with 6 rows of seats, accommodating 21 passengers.
Florida version
In the Florida version of the ride, the elevator rises for a few seconds before coming to a stop. The doors open to reveal a corridor populated by the ghostly occupants from 1939, who then disappear. The corridor fades to a starlit night sky, and a window breaks (like in the opening segment of each episode). The elevator doors close and the car begins to rise again. At the top, the doors again open and the car mysteriously moves forward out of the shaft, through a section of the ride called The Fifth Dimension: a surreal collection of objects and sights, once again in the style of the television show's opening sequence.
The car stops in complete darkness, and after a pause, the randomly-selected drop sequence begins. At one point, doors in front of the riders will open to reveal a view of the park from a height of 13 stories. In the years since the attraction's initial opening, a randomized pattern of drops and lifts have been added, where the ride vehicle will drop or rise various distances at different intervals. This change was made to make every trip to the Twilight Zone a different experience. After a series of these drops have been made, the ride vehicle returns to the basement of the Hotel.
Florida attraction facts
- Grand opening: July 22, 1994
- Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
- Attraction enhancements:
- Height: 199'
- Ride duration: 5:00
- Height requirement: 40"
California version
While similar in concept and theme to the original ride in Florida, the version of this attraction in Disney's California Adventure does have some differences. The first difference is that the elevator pushes backwards away from the elevator door while a starfield appears around it. The narrator states "You are the passengers of a most uncommon elevator, about to take the strangest trip of your lives. Your destination...unknown, but this much is certain, a reservation has been made made in your name". A door closes, placing riders in darkness as the elevator rises.
The first stop of the elevator is in front of large mirror. The voice of the narrator tells riders to "wave goodbye to the real world". As they do, electricity begins to arc around the mirror and the reflection of the riders is replaced by a ghostly image. The elevator shudders as the door closes and the elevator moves to its next stop, a corridor similar to the one in Florida. Instead of the window at the end of the corridor, there is an elevator door that opens to reveal the 1939 guests dropping into space.
The car the passengers are riding in then drops into darkness before ascending to the top of the shaft for a view over the Disneyland resort before dropping only to rise to the top again for a second drop.
California attraction facts
- Grand opening: May 5, 2004
- Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
- Building design: Pueblo Deco
- Height: 183' (40' underground)
- Height requirement: 40"
Ride system
The ride employs specialized ride technology developed specifically for Disney, particularly the ability to move the elevator cab in and out of the drop shaft in the Florida version. This element was removed for the version in California, reportedly due to the fact that this was the area in the Florida attraction that causes the most shutdowns as the computers lost track of elevators while they made their horizontal transit. The California version was able to take advantage of a relatively new technology that allowed guests to be transformed into ghosts before their eyes.
Although the ride is designed to feel like a freefall, the elevator is actually accelerated downward faster than the pull of gravity for extra thrills. This can actually be observed by passengers: loose objects such as water bottles or purses will actually "float" in mid-air for a couple of seconds during the longer drops, as the lift falls faster than the objects themselves can. This effect is similar to that seen in the Reduced Gravity Aircraft used by NASA to simulate weightlessness.
In an effort to be true to the spirit of The Twilight Zone, Disney Imagineers reportedly watched every episode of the original television show at least twice. The attraction buildings are littered with references to Twilight Zone episodes, most of the references being found in the library.
The video shown at the beginning of the ride was made to look like introductions shown at the beginning of The Twilight Zone episodes on television. The voice of Rod Serling is done by Mark Silverman.
Tower of Terror in the news
On July 12, 2005, a 16-year-old named Leanne Deacon from Kibworth, Leicestershire complained of a severe headache and other symptoms after riding the Tower of Terror at Disney-MGM Studios. She was taken to an Orlando hospital in critical condition [1]. She felt a ill while still in the park and was transported to a local hospital. Deacon underwent surgery to stop intercranial bleeding. On August 6, she returned to England by air ambulance, still in critical condition.
Walt Disney World Resort inspectors invited state officials to observe as they examined the ride for safety after the incident. After judging that there was no malfunction or unexpected operation, the Tower of Terror was reopened on July 13, 2005. The reason for Deacon's collapse is still unexplained; she reportedly had ridden the attraction several times previously during her visit with no ill effects. [2]
There have been three previous incidents regarding guests' health after riding the Tower of Terror that involved hospitalization. In 2003, a 47-year-old woman was treated for an anxiety attack related to claustrophobia. In separate incidents in 2004, a 45-year-old woman and a 62-year-old man were both treated for chest pains. None of these incidents were considered serious.
Links
- Hollywood Tower Hotel - features ride information, media, articles and videos of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction.
- WDWMagic.com - WDWMagic.com's tribute to the Tower.
- Towerofterror.cjb.net - A small fansite deticated to the Hollywood Tower Hotel.