The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is one of the most beloved rides in all of Walt Disney World, and has been thrilling guests since the mid-1990s. However, though this attraction has continued to wow guests for the last 25 years, like any other ride, it needs a little TLC from time to time. And it looks like Disney is finally ready to give this attraction the attention it deserves (it hasn’t had a major refurbishment since 2010!) in the very near future as a massive refurbishment is planned for this year that will be kicking off in just a few weeks! But if you’re bummed out that you might not get to experience this attraction during your next visit to the park, we’ve got some good news for you..
This refurbishment will be carried out in phases while the attraction stays open
Though most attractions must be totally shut down while they are worked on, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is somewhat unique as it has three different “elevator shafts” that can run independently. So while one of these shafts are closed and being worked on, the other two can continue to run. And while this means that the attraction will stay open during this refurbishment (which is definitely good news), the ride’s capacity will of course be diminished while work is ongoing, which means guests wanting to experience this ride will experience longer waits and reduced FastPass+ capacity. And even though that might be a bit of a hassle, with Toy Story Land continuing to be extremely popular (and the new Cars attraction opening soon) hopefully guests will be spread out enough to mitigate any large wait time increases due to this partial closure over the next few months.
Several broken effects will be fixed during this refurbishment
Image: Disney
Though you might not realize it, several effects on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror have been either scaled down or completely non-functional for several years now. The random drop generator, for instance, is not functional on all shafts, and several lighting effects in the pre-drop area of the ride have not been working as intended for quite some time. Fortunately these broken effects, along with a few others, will be addressed by this refurbishment, which should bring this ride back up to its ideal condition. In addition, we may actually get some upgraded effects, as updated equipment could be installed during this refurbishment in some key show scenes as well.
Don’t expect any massive changes
Image: Disney
Because of the quickie transformation of the west coast Twilight Zone Tower of Terror into Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout at Disney California Adventure, some fans of this attraction get a little nervous when they hear that work is being done on a Tower of Terror attraction. But fear not! The Twilight Zone theming is going to be staying in place for the foreseeable future at this park, and aside from fixing things up and restoring some broken effects, this refurbishment will not be significantly modifying the experience of this ride.
The refurbishment will start in just a few weeks
Image: Disney
Though we don’t have an exact start date for when the refurbishment will kick off, it looks like Disney is getting ready to begin the phased closures for this attraction in spring 2019 (which means we’re probably looking at the first closure sometime in March), with a planned completion date of summer 2019 (which we’ll guess means August). Though these targets are of course flexible, we’d image the overall goal here is to get the ride running at full capacity again (and with all effects working) by the time Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is ready to open this fall, as this park is going to need all the extra capacity it can get once guests flood the park when this blockbuster new land opens later this year.
While it may be a little frustrating in the coming months to deal with longer wait times and hard-to-snag FastPass+ reservations for this attraction, we’re excited that Disney is investing in bringing this attraction back up to its best version.
