Tower Of Terror For Walt Disney World’s Summer Nightastic Debut

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Tower of Terror

As part of Walt Disney World’s Summer Nightastic promotion, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park has received an update that promised to enhance the classic ride with new visuals sounds. But after visiting the updated version of the popular attraction last night, it’s apparent that many of its fans have left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the changes.

Before I elaborate, see if you can spot the changes in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrxxkD43KUg

The average theme park Guest visiting the Tower of Terror may not even realize anything is different. But plenty has changed within the eerie ride’s walls – and not all for the better.

When we spoke with Walt Disney Imagineer Jason Roberts last week about the pending updates, he wasn’t able to reveal specifics about what would be coming to the Tower of Terror, but did say that Imagineers from several different fields were involved, including those responsible for visuals, sounds, and even ride programming. So what was achieved by all of these talented Disney employees?

On the outside, in honor of Summer Nighttastic, Guests are promised that the Tower of Terror would have a new “glow” to it. It turns out that the attraction’s two elevator shafts now emanate a bright green color whenever their doors open. It’s a perfect color to combine with the everyday deep purple color of the rest of the building, but I’m not sure I’d call it “glowing.” I’ve been told that plans also involved enhancing the Hollywood Tower Hotel sign with some lightning/electricity effect, but it never worked properly.


On the inside, not much has changed until you step foot into one of the ride’s “maintenance service elevators” to begin your ascent into the Twilight Zone. During which a group of hotel Guests materializes and disappears, the first scene features new bright flashes of light at the beginning, time with an audible crash of thunder. These added flashes don’t add anything to this scene but are presumably necessary for what’s to come.

In the final scene before the big drop (commonly known as the “5th dimension” scene), elevator doors open to reveal sweeping changes. The visuals that normally flank the elevator car as it moves forward have been completely covered by a starfield, created simply by black fabric and tiny lights. Normally familiar Twilight Zone-inspired images like a ticking clock and a giant eyeball are present here, but instead, all that is immediately seen are stars. Moving forward in the scene, passengers suddenly realize that, straight ahead, their own image is being projected onto a wall in front. It’s a photo that was taken during the new flashes of light in the previous scene. Within a few seconds of recognizing themselves, Guests witness their images dissolving to blue and then disappearing from the image altogether, leaving only a photo of an empty elevator car behind.

This scene has Tower of Terror fans disappointed by the Summer Nightastic update, as it appears to have been hastily assembled. The scene itself is quite reminiscent of a unique scene present in the Tower of Terror found at the Disney California Adventure theme park in Anaheim. Instead of the “5th dimension” scene, Guests are presented with what appears to be a huge mirror. But shortly after seeing their own faces smiling back at them, Guests witness themselves fade into the Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, it’s a great effect that has been poorly transported to the Orlando version of the attraction.

Rather than an impressive, real-time, full-motion effect as is since, in the California Adventure version, this new addition fades one photograph into another. Obviously, the image is nothing more than a quick video projection, added to an existing wall, and not large or clear enough to be impressive. While it is fun to see yourself inside the Tower of Terror, the effect itself is largely a failure.

Fortunately, the changes that ensue following that effect are improvements. Crackly ’20s-style music has subtly been added as Guests pass into the final elevator shaft, preparing for the drop. New sound effects accompany the ride’s famous drop, which has also been re-programmed. The new drop sequence appears to utilize the entire shaft, allowing plenty of out-of-your-seat air time at the top, push-into-your-seat G-forces at the bottom, and unexpected ups-and-downs in between. It appears that this is the only drop profile that will be active during Summer Nightastic, replacing multiple randomized sequences.

Rekated : Disney’s Tower of Terror Doesn’t Actually Drop

Overall, the average theme park Guest will still find the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror an exciting, immersive, and thrilling ride. The subtly-enhanced audio, new drop sequence, and overall eeriness outside the Hollywood Tower Hotel are all welcome additions. But die-hard fans of the ride will almost certainly find themselves wishing that the lackluster “enhancements” to the pre-drop scene would themselves disappear into the Twilight Zone, never to be seen again.

Summer Nightastic continues through Aug. 14, 2010, at which point we’ve been told that the Tower of Terror would return to its non-Nightastic state.

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