Following is a comparison of the two Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attractions at Disney's California Adventure and Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida. Click here for an overview and review of the attraction.
First off, let me be perfectly clear: Both the Disney's California Adventure and the Disney's Hollywood Studios versions of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror are wonderful, classic attractions and among the best that Disney has to offer. If the Florida ride never existed, guests would hail the Anaheim ToT as an instant archetypal attraction. But the Walt Disney World ride, which debuted in 1994, is the original and had a ten-year jump on its West Coast counterpart. And it includes a major element missing in its California clone. That accounts for my slightly lower rating. (But only slightly. Florida gets a perfect 5 stars; I give California 4.75 stars.)
Here is why the Florida Tower gets a higher rating than California: The "Fifth Dimension" is found only in Florida.
Just before the elevator cabin begins its gut-wrenching drops and rises, Florida passengers experience what is known as the "Fifth Dimension." The car's doors open, lights illuminate a hallway, and the elevator slowly, incredibly moves forward(!) into the hallway. As the "do-do-do-do" Twilight Zone theme music plays, bizarre scenes that are part Rod Serling and part Salvador Dali appear on either side of the elevator, including a huge eyeball, a door to nowhere, and the five apparitions from earlier in the ride. The elevator moves towards a star field at the end of the hallway. The stars disappear, and a huge vertical line takes its place. The line splits, revealing a second elevator shaft. The cabin moves into the shaft, everything becomes pitch black, and Rod Serling intones, "You are about to discover what lies beyond the fifth dimension. Beyond the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination...in the Tower of Terror." The faster-than-gravity freefalling mania ensues.
California has a unique effect also.
Called the "Looking Glass," the elevator doors open (ding!) to reveal a stately table with a large mirror above it. Rod Serling invites the passengers to wave at themselves; however, the reflections, still waving and responding in perfect synch with the guests aboard the elevator, morph into ghostly images. Then the ghosts disappear altogether leaving an empty elevator. Granted it is a cool and creepy effect, but it doesn't atone for the missing Fifth Dimension horizontal movement of the cabins.
California has two cabins per shaft.
While one car is loading, another car is experiencing the ride. That's why the cabins have some limited horizontal movement; one car moves a few feet out of the shaft into the loading and unloading areas thereby allowing the other car to move vertically in the shaft. This also explains why, unlike Florida's single boarding floor, the California version loads on two levels.
Florida has a series of random drop sequences.
The Florida ride has gone through a series of drop programs through the years. Now, a computer randomly selects the cycle, so you'll never know what you will experience. But every sequence includes a healthy dose of drops, rises, and false starts. The California version offers the identical program on every ride, but it includes a bunch of drops, rises, and false starts. (When the Florida Tower first opened its ride sequence only included a couple of drops and rises.)
A few other minor tweaks.
- The exterior architectural styles of the two circa-1939 Hollywood Tower Hotels are different. The California version represents something known as Pueblo Deco. (Hmm. Sounds like a great name for a Latin porn star.)
- Before plummeting, the cabins of the California ride groan and violently shake more than the Florida version.
- There are a couple more of the great star-field effects, in which everything fades to black save a few twinkling stars, tacked onto the California attraction.
- At the end of California's ride, there is a wonderful cartoon-like audio track of clanging gears and sheared metal pieces crashing to the bottom of the shaft.
Overview and review of the Tower of Terror
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror California Photos
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Florida Photos
