Firefighters had to rescue guests from The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Friday afternoon, WFTV shared.
Tower of Terror Evacuation
Reedy Creek Fire Department told WFTV that they were in the process of rescuing 28 people from the ride. WFTV’s report was posted at 4:05 p.m.
The Fire Department said the riders were stuck for about 45 minutes. It’s not unusual for rides to briefly stop, but a 45-minute pause and firefighter-assisted evacuation is more unusual.
The reason for the ride getting stuck is not clear. At the time of writing, it still boasts a 145-minute wait time according to My Disney Experience, but this could be an error or could mean one side of the attraction is still operating. In February, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror returned to full capacity with both elevator shafts operating simultaneously after a year of refurbishments.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then Disney-MGM Studios) in 1994, based on the iconic sci-fi horror show “The Twilight Zone,” spawning a series of attractions both cloned and modified around the world.
On the attraction, guests step into a glitzy Golden Age hotel, The Hollywood Tower Hotel, abandoned in 1939 after an actor, a singer, a child star, her nanny, and a hotel bellhop vanished from the elevator, along with an entire wing of the building, during a lightning strike. Legend says these five were transported to The Twilight Zone. Now with the help of iconic host Rod Serling, you can step into an episode of the iconic series yourself to find out what really happened that fateful night.
The version in Paris is a clone of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror built at Disney’s California Adventure in 2004 (later Disney California Adventure). The California version closed in 2017 to become Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT, featuring the characters from the iconic Marvel Cinematic Universe trilogy. In that ride, guests visit an exhibition held by The Collector from the first film, ready to show off his latest acquisition — the Guardians of the Galaxy. But one of them, Rocket, escapes, and he enlists the help of guests visiting to help bust his friends out and escape the museum.
Meanwhile, at Tokyo DisneySea, guests experience a completely original story fitting to its home in American Waterfront. This version opened in 2006 and tells the story of eccentric collector Harrison Hightower III, who traveled the world pilfering artifacts from cultures and societies to display at his New York City hotel. After an expedition to Africa, he brings home a cursed idol of death, Shiriki Utundu, whose curse he mocks by burning a hole in the statue’s head with his cigar. On the evening of December 31, 1899, he starts to bring the idol up to his private penthouse, when the idol comes alive, drops the elevator, and causes Hightower to disappear without a trace. Now guests are invited to a tour from the New York City Preservation Society, making a case to preserve the abandoned hotel rather than see it demolished. But the curse of Shiriki Utundu still looms over the hotel.
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