The Day the Tower Opened: Part II

It’s always exciting to do a soft opening of a Walt Disney World attraction. such was the case back in 1994 when my family and I were among the first to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

When we left off in Part I my son, daughter and I were about to experience for the first time, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

But before going on I need to explain that I want to remind everyone that this day some hundreds of years ago or so it seems….or many years ago…that this was DAY ONE for this attraction. It was a true soft opening. None of us knew what to expect.

For that reason I really wanted to be authentic in this Substack and recall exactly what my thoughts and observations were for that day.

I had to dig deep into my “archives” and I found my actual trip report from that day.

So from this point on the words you will see will be in italics signifying they are the exact words from that and they will be in italics to note they are from that trip report from July, 1994…seemed like yesterday instead of 31 years ago.

Again, from here on in….my trip report:

It took but 20 minutes to get to the loading point in front of the elevator. I couldn’t help but notice how many cast members were staffing this attraction. They were all over the place. Just before we got on a small boy (barely made the 42″ height requirement) asked about the drop. “What drop?” asked the cast member, “We have good elevators here at the Hollywood Hotel.”

Good job.

We march into the elevator followed by the cast member who tells us there is to be no photography of any kind. This is for the safety of everyone in the elevator. She then SLAMS THE GATE. This was done for effect. My daughter Holly started praying. Just before she closes the doors the cast member says, “See you at the bottom!”

The doors close and we hear Rod Serling’s voice and the elevator shoots….that’s right SHOOTS UP about 20 feet. The door opens and we are looking out into a hotel hallway. It’s about 80 feet long. There are tables, mirrors, doors, paintings, plants, intersecting hallways, and a window at the far end. I don’t recall what good old Rod was saying, but as he said it the five poor souls who were in that elevator that fateful night walked into the hallway and beckoned for us to follow them. They were ghostly apparitions.

As they beckoned us they, and the hallway, began to fade…no it’s not fading it’s changing. Woa! Now I’m looking into deep space, a star field. How the heck did they…WAIT!?!

The window is still there…it’s on…WAIT!?!

It’s floating towards us…CRASH!!!!!

It falls and the doors slam shut.

Too cool.

We shoot up another 50 feet and Rod says something about the Twilight Zone. The doors open. The elevator moves forward on a track of some sort and we pass by images of TV’s Twilight Zone. I won’t go into the details because at the time I was not sure what I saw (I know now).

Blue…I remember the color blue. Think of the opening of The Twilight Zone Television show and you can get an idea of what you’ll see. As we move forward through “The Zone” I’m thinking, “Hey that’s a screen coming up. We’re gonna hit it…HEY WE”RE GONNA…” A big white line or lightning bolt or laser light or something like that comes down in front of us, crackles and splits this wall. This part of the attraction is was somewhat fuzzy to me at the time. It blew me away.

Okay we are at the end of the track now wha………THE DOORS SLAM SHUT! I’m thinking, “Some day I just gotta get my will in order.” We SHOOT UP ANOTHER 50 FEET and hear Rod mumble something…we hear one word loud and clear…..TERROR! The doors open up and we are under one of the “Os” in the word Hollywood. The O is sparking and we can see just beyond the soundstages towards what was then Catastrophe Canyon. “Oh my God!” yelps Holly. We drop a foot. I had forgotten about that….for the photo. I think, “Oh-Oh!”

Then it happened.

Please note that I worked quite a bit on this part of my report because I wanted to capture and as best as I can accurately describe what happened. The elevator TOOK OFF. It didn’t fall. It didn’t drop. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s a free-fall. Someone stepped on the gas and we were PULLED DOWN at a tremendous force.

Have you ever watched a cartoon where a character runs off a cliff and suddenly realizes he’s not on solid ground? The bottom part of his body drops but his neck and shoulders stay up for a second…then they follow the rest of his body. That’s what it felt like. The only part of the body (I thought) that feels distressed is the chest and above. I thought I was going to split in two. I actually felt that my head and shoulders were going to remain up there…or my innards were going to escape through my mouth.

But! But! But! But….before you get turned off from what I’ve just said listen to this. This PULL happens so fast that you cannot even complete a single thought. Just as you START to feel the uneasiness I just described…IT’S OVER! I mean ZIP! IT’S OVER! Be aware that even though the lower half of your body appears to have gone through the ride without any ill effects…it ain’t so. Your knees and legs will shake as you get up and leave the elevator. Your body is in shock for a minute after the ride.

My body was pretty upset because I didn’t tell it what was going to happen. My brain was still puzzled by the special effects. My chest was trying to fall back into place, and my legs were warning me to keep moving or they were going on strike.

Let me make this interesting observation.

Thank goodness the drop is in darkness. I would think that if we could see outside as we dropped we’d be in serious trouble at the bottom. I know there are coaster people out there who are saying, “C’mon Mike! It sounds like a coaster!” Nope. Coasters are always moving. This vehicle TOOK OFF FROM A STANDING POSITION. I wish I had looked up as we plummeted.

We are back from 1994 to tell you there is still more from The Day The Tower Opened.

In my trip report I called it “The Aftermath” and I will share it in The Day the Tower Opened: Part III.

See you next time.