You may be asking how I know when the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror doesn’t open until May 5th. Well, it just so happens (breathing on nails and polishing them on my shirt), that my mom works at Disneyland, and she was given four passes for herself and friends to go on the ride today - to work out the bugs before it’s opened to the public.
Woohoo!
It is a total and complete blast. There’s an intro video, and I don’t know how they brought Rod Sterling back from the dead, but he’s there, introducing the story line. The ride is housed in a “service elevator”. You sit down and strap in, and it goes completely, totally black, then has a field of stars and the theme music. I could not tell when we were rising in the air, but there were a couple of starts and stops, where we’d fall just a few feet, pause, and then go back up.
Then we got to the top, and went into free fall, stopped, somehow got back up to the top, free fall again, and this repeated another two or three times. I was completely disoriented because I couldn’t figure out when we were going back up. Most of this was going on in total darkness, except for when the shutters at the top of the elevator shaft opened, giving us a view of the park.
I screamed, I laughed, I left finger marks on my mom’s shoulder. In the gift shop, I bought a cool jelly eyeball that I’m going to freak my students out with. Bwahahahahahaha!
Yeah, Tower of Terror rocks. I must have gone on it at least 10 times on my last trip to Disney World - and probably more; I spent the better part of the morning going back and forth between ToT and the Rock’n’Roller Coaster depending on which one’s wait time was longer. Is the architecture of the California version identical to the Florida one? The Florida one was kind of creepy because of its similarity to an abandoned hotel in a town near me.
There’s been one at Disney World for ten years, dude. The new one at -Land is apparently the same, from your description.
They found a guy that sounded like Mr. Serling (no “t”) to do the intro, and took the pictures of him from old TZ episodes (you’ll notice he doesn’t say anything ride-specific when he’s in the picture).
It doesn’t freefall; it’s pulled up and down by giant motors faster than freefall.
Here’s a page o’ trivia on the original (Florida) one. Spoilers, of course – I wouldn’t recommend looking at that site until after you’ve done everything once.
I’ve never been on any of the Tower of Terrors, but from what I heard, the one at Disneyland has a significant difference in loading from the one at DisneyWorld, where the elevator car moves horizontally before the first drop, which sorta spoils the surprise…?
I’m not sure how much of a surprise there is to ruin, considering that the riders’ elevators dropping (and the screams issuing therefrom) are clearly visible and audible in the outdoor ride queue, and the facts of the ride are made apparent in all the literature, brochures and advertising for the attraction.
Well, I didn’t read anything in this thread (sans the first paragraph) as I didn’t want to spoil the ride as I’ll be down there the week after it opens. I just wanted to express how much I’m looking forward to this ride and I’m elated to hear it lives up to the hype. Here’s hoping it can hold its own against the amazing Disney World version (at MGM Studios), since there are a few differences.
Anyways, I can’t wait to ride it! One of the best rides ever (based off the Disney World version).
I think the idea is that it’s not the fact that you are going to drop at all that is the surprise, but when you are going to drop. The moving horizontally gives you advance warning it’s about to happen.
The one in Florida definitely DOES move horizontally and then clicks into place before dropping. The surprise is that it doesn’t really feel like the elevator has raised high enough to drop yet.
Well, at the same time, it doesn’t drop immediately. The ride is random; there’s an indeterminate length of time where you’re just sitting there in the dark, completely on edge, wondering when it’s going to drop you. And then you have no way of knowing how long you’re going to fall, whether (and how many times) it’s going to raise you up and drop you again, etc.
Yep- this is one of the best things about it! It’s different everytime. This is one of those rides where you can’t help but scream your damn fool head off!
Does the idea of working “out the bugs” on a ride that’s designed to drop people 13 stories sound like complete lunacy to anyone else? I can just see it now…" OOPS! what a mess. Whelp, back to the drawing board!" Maybe it’s the fact that all such rides make me lose whatever my last meal was, or my acute desire to live, but something just makes me cringe at the thought of testing out one of these crazy new ‘rides’ ( read: insanity corroborators ).
I also have been on the Tower of Terror at Disney World several times. Once I went with a physics class that participated in a special program where they took us through all the physics and interworkings of the tower. It was extremely interesting.
They must have dropped us 7 times on one particular ride; after the first several drops the screams sort of morphed from “Weeee, this is scary exciting!” to “Uuugh, please stop this thing now!”
Apparently you can set a penny on an armrest and watch it “float” as you fall, but we were told not to do this, so I didn’t get a chance to see it. I think it would be neat to watch, though.
Ooooh, I love this ride! I used to work for Disney and I’d go to WDW (all the way from Tampa) just to ride this ride! (along with the Rockin Roller Coaster, of course, which also rocks!)
Ahhh yes, I remember very well the first time I rode it. I didn’t know what to expect, so waas surprised when the drop came (despite the clicking noise). Though it’s kind of obvious, it still doesn’t ruin the ride! I mean, you know going into it what the ride is all about. But it’s still superfreaky!
I like the way the line works at WDW. You really get into the whole theme of it. Disney has this unique way of turning a ride into a story. I loves it. Have fun.
