The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, or simply Tower of Terror, is a series of similar accelerated drop tower dark rides located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, Walt Disney Studios Park, and formerly located at Disney California Adventure. The attraction is inspired by Rod Serling's anthology television series, The Twilight Zone, and takes place in the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel in Hollywood, California. The Tokyo version features an original storyline not related to The Twilight Zone and takes place in the fictional Hotel Hightower. All versions of the attraction place riders in a seemingly ordinary hotel elevator, and present a fictional backstory in which people have mysteriously disappeared from the elevator under the influence of a supernatural element many years previously.
| The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror | |
|---|---|
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
| Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
| Area | Sunset Boulevard |
| Coordinates | 28°21′36.2″N 81°33′35.4″W |
| Status | Operating |
| Cost | US$140 million |
| Opening date | July 22, 1994 |
Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane available | |
| Disney California Adventure | |
| Area | Hollywood Land |
| Coordinates | 33.8065479°N 117.9174805°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Opening date | May 5, 2004 |
| Closing date | January 3, 2017 |
| Replaced by | Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! (Avengers Campus) |
| Walt Disney Studios Park | |
| Name | The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - A New Dimension of Chills |
| Area | Hollywood Boulevard |
| Coordinates | 48.8666589°N 2.7768075°E |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | December 22, 2007 |
Disney Premier Access available | |
| Ride statistics | |
| Attraction type | Drop tower dark ride, haunted attraction |
| Manufacturer | Otis Elevator Company |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Theme | The Twilight Zone |
| Music |
|
| Height | 199 ft (61 m) |
| Drop | 130 ft (40 m) |
| Speed | 39 mph (63 km/h) |
| G-force | 1.3 |
| Vehicle type | Automated guided vehicle (Florida) Elevator (California, Paris) |
| Vehicles | 8 (Florida) 6 (California, Paris) |
| Riders per vehicle | 21 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Riders per row | 7 |
| Duration | 3:34 |
| Height restriction | 40 in (102 cm) |
| Pre-show host | Rod Serling (voiced by Mark Silverman) |
| Ride host | Rod Serling |
Must transfer from wheelchair | |
Closed captioning available | |
The original version of the attraction opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios, then named Disney-MGM Studios, at Walt Disney World in July 1994. A decade later, Disney began plans to add similar versions of the attraction to their newest parks at the Disneyland Resort in California, Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan, and Disneyland Paris. In California and Paris, Disney sought to use the popular attraction to boost attendance at the respective resorts' struggling new theme parks. The California and Tokyo versions of Tower of Terror opened in 2004 and 2006, respectively, while financial problems delayed the opening of the Paris version until 2007. The California version closed in January 2017 and was replaced by Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout!, which was later incorporated into Avengers Campus in 2021.
The Tower of Terror buildings are among the tallest structures found at their respective Disney resorts. At 199 feet (60.7 m), the Florida version is the second tallest attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort, with only Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom being taller by 0.5 feet (0.2 m). After its retheme, the 183-foot (55.8 m) structure at the Disneyland Resort is still the tallest building on the property, as well as one of the tallest buildings in Anaheim. At Disneyland Paris, it is the second tallest attraction.