Tower of Terror
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At A Glance |
Anyone scared of lifts / elevators
riding the Tower of Terror will either be instantly cured,
or scared stupid! In total the ride lasts for 5 minutes. The
drop(s) of 13 storeys last 2½ seconds, reaching 39MPH.
Min ride height of 40 inches applies.
Unsuitable for pregnant women, or anyone with heart, back
or neck conditions.
Third drop added to drop sequence (March 1st 1999). |
Rising to a height of 199 feet above the park, the
Hollywood Towers Hotel was built to the highest possible standards
of comfort and service. But on it's opening night (Halloween 1939)
during a violent thunder storm, one wing of the hotel was hit
by lightening, and mysteriously disappeared, along with an elevator
carrying five people.
Now 60 years later, the only way for YOU to inspect
the hotel is by using the service elevator. A VERY REAL elevator
which takes you from the basement to the top of the Hotel. Slowly
the doors open, and you look out over the park 130 feet below.
Suddenly there's a clank and the elevator drops a few
inches! Terrified you hold on as the main doors slowly close,
and the elevator plummets 130 feet to the ground! You breath a
sigh of relief as the elevator finally slows to a stomach wrenching
standstill. But wait..... This is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror-2.
And the "2" is there for a reason...... The Second drop
!
NOTE: The Tower of Terror attraction's drop
sequence has been reprogrammed several times, and no features
several drops, and a randomiser that selects the ride pattern
at random from a selection of preprogrammed patterns, so that
guests making consecutive trips on the Tower's lifts can often
encounter a different drop sequence.
Detailed Information
As for the drops, the opening is at a height of 157
feet up (but it only drops 130, or 13 stories down from there).
The first smaller drop in darkness is about 8 stories, then back
to the top for the 13 story plunge doubled. In case you were also
wondering, the speed of the drop is about 39 MPH, and the drop
itself only lasts for around 2 ½ seconds, though it seems
a lot longer!
The theming within the Tower of Terror is some of the
best conceived by the Disney Imagineers, and is probably only
rivaled by that of the Haunted Mansion. Once inside it's really
difficult not to think that the building, and all of its contents
really do date back to the late 1930s. The queueing are in the
bioler room, just before you get into the service elevator is
particularly impressive.
Note, there's a reason why the Tower of Terror was
built to be 199 feet tall. Florida state law requires an aircraft
beacon on all structures that exceed a total height of 200 feet
or more. By coming in under the 200 foot limit, the Disney imagineers
avoided having to put a large red flashing light on top of the
Tower of Terror, which they felt would have detracted from the
look of the building.
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