The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (175 page)

The elevator stops, the doors
jerk open, and Guests are confronted with their own reflections.  Lightning strikes the mirror and crackles dangerously.  Your reflections melt into ghosts, and then vanish altogether.  In case it’s in any way unclear,
Serling
announces that you’ve entered the
Twilight Zone
.

The doors close
, and the elevator is yanked higher.  The doors fly open again.  Guests see a hotel hallway and an elevator at the end of it.  Rapidly a little scene plays out, narrated by
Serling
.  You witness the crackle of lightning, the dramatic disappearance of the five Guests, and the plunging of
their
elevator.  And then,
voila
! 
Your
elevator drops without warning!

Guests
in your elevator shriek and squeal and some of them probably pray.  Your elevator isn’t free-falling.  It’s literally being pulled down so quickly that you hang in the air a bit, above your seats, secured only by your seatbelts.  You stop abruptly and then feel your elevator car rushing up, up, up, all the way, it seems, to the top of the hotel.

You drop again, and you’re braced for a stupendous plunge, but, “gotcha,” the car only falls a few feet.  Just as Guests are breathing a sigh of relief, the elevator makes
one of its longest, stomach-flipping dives.  It’s around this part of the show that lights flash and your photo is being captured, so be sure to smile if you can.

The
Tower of Terror
is relentless.  Just when you think, “OK, phew!  That must be it,” your elevator dashes upward again and makes another steep drop.  And then you climb to the very heights of the hotel, and doors open onto a stunning view of the parks from over a hundred feet up.  It’s quite an exhilarating sight, as well as a frightening one.  Before, enclosed in the tower, you were only guessing how high up you were.  Now, looking out from such a height, you can see
exactly
how far you have to fall!  You hang there for a few seconds, the anticipation building.  Guests often shriek in response to the view, and the tension.  And then you fall again!  You fall so fast that you seem to float above your seat.

You’ve fallen to the unloading level.  Yes, the terror is finally over.  As your car glides forward toward the elevator doors, you hear the
Twilight Zone
theme again and
Serling
warns you about checking into “a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood.”  You’re lucky, he cautions, that “you didn’t find yourself a permanent resident of
The Twilight Zone
.”

Once your vehicle docks at the elevator doors
, they slide open and you can unlatch your seatbelts.  Gather up any belongings you placed in the pouch, and gather up your kids.  A friendly
Bellhop
is just outside the elevator to welcome you back.  Exit the elevator in an orderly fashion and follow all signs and Cast Member instructions as you head for the exit.

Even seasoned drop-riders might be feeling a bit dizzy or queasy after
their trip into the
Twilight Zone
.  The special effects, the rapid lifts and falls–it can all leave one feeling a bit disoriented.  So watch your step, particularly on the stairs.

When you exit, you’ll
pass video screens that show photos of Guests during their plunges.  The photos are typically hilarious; eyes are wide in terror, or squeezed shut tightly; mouths are open mid-shout or mid-shriek or mid-laugh.  If you and your party are planning to purchase a print, note the ID number of your group’s photo.

You’re routed into
Tower Hotel Gifts
, the haunted hotel’s large gift shop, and it’s here that you can buy copies of your hair-raising elevator photo.  You can also peruse a large selection of merchandise from
Disneyland Resort
’s spooky thrillers: 
Haunted Mansion
,
Pirates of the Caribbean
and, naturally, the
Tower of Terror
.

If you were brave enough to ride one of the
Tower
’s haunted elevators, you almost
have to
memorialize your triumph with some type of
Tower
souvenir.  If you’re on a tight budget, there are
Tower
pins, keychains, shot glasses–a lot of little knick-knacks.  If you have more to spend, check out the wide array of
Tower
T-shirts.  Guests for whom money is no object might want to buy a
Hollywood Tower Hotel
towel or bathrobe; they’re as fluffy and comfortable as if crafted for a real, not fictitious, luxury hotel, and are priced accordingly.

You exit the gift shop on the
east side of the attraction.  The
Tower of Terror
’s entrance gate is to the west.  Die-hard thrill seekers will head west immediately to queue for another exciting journey into the
Zone
.

The
Tower of Terror
is aptly named and not for everyone.  If you have health conditions or fears and phobias that preclude experiencing anything related to enclosed spaces, steep heights, sudden drops of more than a hundred feet, pitch darkness, and ghosts–be warned that this attraction has all of those elements, and more!

W
hen I first rode a
Tower of Terror
elevator in 2006, I didn’t know what the heck I was getting myself into.  When I was a kid I was fearless, but at almost 40 years old I’d lost my fondness for insane drops.  Associating
Disney
with
WDW
’s
Haunted Mansion
and family films, I expected an imaginative, well-crafted, spooky, but relatively gentle experience.  I couldn’t have been more wrong about the “gentle” part!

The
Tower of Terror
’s exterior and interior charmed me, and I was under the mistaken impression that our drops would be shallow, measured, and relatively mild.  Wrong, wrong, and wrong.  The drops were not shallow, or measured,
or
mild.

From the moment that our vehicle first drifted away from the elevator entrance and the
Twilight Zone
theme started playing, I was completely disoriented, and then the rapid ascents and wild drops started.  The
Tower
played with our elevator like a cat plays with a mouse.  It shook our elevator and lifted it up and down with the ferocity of a terrier shaking a rat in its powerful jaws.

Our
Tower
photo was hilarious.  I remember you could only see the top of my head and my small niece was completely obscured as I protectively covered her.  My brother-in-law teased me mercilessly, albeit affectionately.  The
Tower
had well and truly terrified me!

Between
2007 and 2012 I braved the
Tower
again on multiple occasions.  I refused to let it conquer me.  After all, I’d been a bit nervous when I rode
Disneyland
’s
Space Mountain
in 2006, but the more I rode it, the more I adored it, until it became my favorite
Disneyland
attraction.  Perhaps once I acclimated myself to the
Tower
’s plunges …?

For those of you
who brave the
Tower
repeatedly, who laugh in the face of gravity, I salute you.  And I might see you in the
Tower
’s
Twilight Zone
from time to time. 
Did You Know?
  There isn’t a real
Hollywood Tower Hotel
in Hollywood, but there were plenty of elegant Hollywood and Los Angeles hotels constructed in the 1920’s;
DCA
’s
Tower
is a composite of those.  Some of the real landmark hotels faded over time and were torn down; some sank into decay but remained standing.  Some were revived and are thriving anew, like the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which has a lobby easily as gloomy and haunted-looking as the
Tower of Terror
’s–maybe moreso!  Some, like the Biltmore or the Chateau Marmont, have always been successful.  None of these places was ever struck by mystical lightning (as far as we know), but many saw their share of Hollywood scandals, crimes, and assorted goings-on. Far from downplaying its colorful past, the Chateau Marmont incorporates its scandalous history into its marketing materials.  And the Hollywood Roosevelt is famously purported to be haunted, supposedly experiencing everything from cold spots, voices, and a ghostly child, to phantom glimpses of Marilyn Monroe. 
Did You Also Know?
  My sister once opined that
Disney
should build actual guest rooms at the
Tower of Terror
, and what a fabulous idea that is!  What Guest–provided they could afford it–wouldn’t want to spend a night or two at the glamorously ghostly
Hollywood Tower Hotel
?  Other
Disneyland Resort
fans and Cast Members have had the same idea.  The problem?  As massive as the tower appears from the outside, its interior is jam-packed with elevator shafts, motors, machinery, maintenance and Cast areas, and control rooms.  It takes a tremendous amount of equipment and resources to safely run and service the
Tower
’s seemingly haunted
Service Elevators
, so there’s no room left over for actual Guest rooms and amenities! 
Did You Also Know?
  One of the best results of the
DCA
overhaul is the elimination of the
Tower
cul-de-sac
.  Originally, after Guests completed their visit to the
Tower of Terror
, they had to turn around and walk all the way through
Hollywood Land
to reach any other land in the park.  Once the
cul-de-sac
was eliminated in February 2010, Guests were able to walk directly into
Flik’s Fun Fair
and thence into the heart of the park without backtracking all the way through
Hollywood Land
.  This welcome change significantly improved pedestrian flow and made navigating the park a much easier and more enjoyable experience.  Guests with mobility issues will be happy to learn that the
Red Car Trolleys
which originate in
Buena Vista Street
,
DCA
’s new entrance land, carry Guests down
Hollywood Boulevard
and drop them near the
Tower of Terror
.  Guests are also able to ride the
Red Car Trolleys
in the reverse direction, from the
Tower
back to
Buena Vista Street
.
Night Vision:
  At night, the
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
is especially striking, lit by moodily beautiful purple and green neon.  Somehow at night, when you stand outside the hotel, the muted 1930’s tunes carry strangely through the darkness; haunting old songs like “We’ll Meet Again” sound even more forlorn, even more like music being transmitted through the ether from a tragic past to an eerie present.  Even if you don’t venture into the hotel, if you’re in
DCA
after darkness falls, take a few minutes to stand outside the hotel and drink in the perfectly rendered dark nostalgia. 
Holiday Vision:
  Sometimes in October, the
Tower of Terror
is at its best–or worst, depending on the point of view–dressed in its ghoulish regalia. And what Halloween trip to
DCA
would be complete without a visit to the
Tower of Terror
? As part of its
Limited Time Magic
program in 2013,
Disneyland
gave Guests an opportunity to pose for photographs with grisly, ghostly
Bellhops
at the
Tower of Terror
on autumn nights. 
FastPass:
  Yes.  As one of the most popular
DCA
attractions, the
Tower of Terror
is linked to the
FastPass
system for much of the year, especially during summers and the holiday season.  During slow periods, however (winter, and parts of the autumn and spring) the
Tower of Terror
queues are short and the attraction may be disconnected from the
FastPass
system.  Visit the
Disneyland Resort
website (
www.disneyland.disney.go.com
)
or refer to an up-to-date
DCA Guide
to check whether the
Tower of Terror
will offer
FastPasses
during your visit.  If
FastPasses
are offered during your trip and you encounter a long wait time, go to the
Tower of Terror
’s lovely
FastPass Dispenser
area just north of the attraction’s entrance gate.  This is one of the most elegant (if spooky)
FastPass
areas in either park. 
Kid’s Eye View:
  It’s terrifying! 
Teen’s Eye View:
  It’s really exciting, but if you have a fear of heights, it really isn’t the best ride for you!