Thirty-One Days O’Horror: The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror (Disney Theme Parks)

“You’ve Just Crossed Over….”

Narrated by Rod Serling, Disney World’s The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror is one of the most popular rides in the Orlando park. An accelerated drop dark ride, the Tower is the second tallest structure in all of Walt Disney World and features a 130′ drop that is randomly adjusted by the controller to give riders a unique experience.

The ride takes place at the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel where a terrible accident occurred in 1939. The tower is struck by lightning causing five people to mysteriously disappear and apparently die. Their ghosts supposedly haunt the now damaged hotel which has fallen into disrepair.

The line queue for the ride is scattered with all sorts of memorabilia from The Twilight Zone and cobweb-covered rooms. The narration video features manipulated footage of Serling voiced by Mark Silverman. Both Silverman and the rooms that riders walk through do a wonderful job of building an eerie and suspenseful feeling.

Riders are then placed into a “maintenance elevator” and are lifted up. While lifting, more scenes are shown to riders as the elevator doors open at seemingly random intervals. The final scene shown transports riders into the fifth dimension and the drops begin. The drops are random, but one of them opens up to show the riders a beautiful (and short) view of the entire park. It’s both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror is a really fun ride. The set up makes it very creepy and the anticipation of the first drop and each following drop gives riders and their hearts some breathtaking moments. Other versions of the ride have opened in other Disney theme parks, but the Walt Disney World version seems to be the most beloved and popular of the bunch. A television film was also released based loosely on the ride featuring Steve Guttenberg and a young Kirsten Dunst. I haven’t seen that film yet, but I’d like to catch it one day. It’s only available on DVD as far as I know.

If you’ve taken a ride on the maintenance elevator at the Hollywood Tower Hotel, let me know what you thought about it in the comments, especially if you’ve ridden one of the versions of the ride that isn’t at Walt Disney World. If you’ve seen the movie, let me know what you think about that as well.

As always, thanks for reading my post. More towering terror awaits tomorrow!