Help! I got the special seat
Written: Jun 12 '02 (Updated Jun 12 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: very scary build up. Ride itself is brilliant
Cons: length of queues
The Bottom Line: I loved this ride. It frightened me silly but I still want to go on it again.
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| wednesdaygirl's Full Review: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror |
When I told my family I was going to Florida for my holidays the first response I got was 'you must go to the tower of terror'. So I went. WOW
As soon as we arrived at MGM studios we decided to go on the tower of terror because we thought the queues might be shorter earlier on. Unfortunately because we come from England where the holiday periods are slightly different we hadn't realised it would be spring break when we arrived. The park was heaving. We got the first shuttle bus from our hotel so we could be in the park more or less when it opened. Everyone else had the same idea. The shuttle bus driver got the message over his radio that all the parks were not moving and to drop all his passengers at Magic Kingdom and let them get the Disney transport from there as they were the only things that were moving. Hence it was about 11 am before we actually got in the park and headed for the tower.
You can see the tower from anywhere in the part as it is so tall. We walked up Hollywood Boulevard to it and found the estimated queue time was 120 minutes which was a bit of a shock. As we did not want to spend all our time waiting we decided to use the fast pass system. This is a great idea - but you can't do it very often. What happens is you put your ticket in a machine and it then issues you with a half hour slot later in the day when you can come back to the ride and go to the front of the queue. Once again everyone else had the same idea. We put our ticket in the machine and the time slot it gave us was between 4.30 and 5 in the afternoon. Good job it wasn't later when we first went for the ride.
Coming back at 4.30 we headed to the front of the queue and within about 5 minutes of waiting found ourselves in an old dusty hotel lobby where we were greeted by an old fashioned bellhop who ushered us into what seemed to be a library. The room went dark and we were then treated to a film giving the story of the ride. It seems a family booked into the hotel and entered the lift whereupon the hotel was hit by lightning sending the front of the hotel and the lift into the TWILIGHT ZONE.
We were then led from the room through what looked like a boiler room and finally ended up in front of a row of elevators. Whilst waiting for our elevator to arrive I had time to reflect on how much I didn't want to be there. I was terrified - but too late to back out now. As we got into our seats in the elevator my friend and I found ourselves on the back row. I was informed by the very unsmiling bellhop that I had the special seat but hopefully I would be alright. They hadn't lost many visitors this year. It seems that as well as seatbelts all the other seats had a safety bar across as well. Only 1 seat in the back row didn't have the bar - you just relied on the seat belt. Guess where I was sat. As he closed the doors on us I was begging and pleading with anyone to change seats with me but no-one would. Everyone else thought it was hilarious. It didn't matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it was safe as no ride would risk harming its passengers all I could think was how can just a canvas belt hold me when everyone else had a bar as well. I clung to the bars of each on my neighbours.
We turned out to be in a sort of car that set off and meandered through the corriders of the hotel and then in front of us we saw the same family that had just vanished in the hotel - only a little bit more ghostly looking. All this more or less in darkness. Then the car stopped and we were in front of a wall. All of a sudden a window opened in front of us and we could see out over the park. We were VERY high up. The window closed and the car dropped like a stone. Then it rose and the window opened again. It dropped again - not quite as far this time and then rose and the window opened. This happened several times. Each time the drop was different. Some were only a floor or two but some were about 10 floors. Then there was a long drop, a few seconds wait and the doors opened to let us out. I had to unclench my fingers from round the bars. I had gripped them that tight my hands wouldn't open and they hurt. Feeling rather wobbly we walked out into the gift shop.
CONCLUSION
I found this ride extemely scay. The build up of tension was excellent. Even though I knew logically there was no way I would be hurt I could still not manage to convince myself of it. Judging by the screams neither could anyone else. The minute I got off the ride my first thought was 'Can I go on it again.
The only downside was the length of the queue but unfortunately that is the problem with all the rides - especially the most scary ones. I would certainly recommend anyone to go on it.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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Epinions.com ID:
wednesdaygirl
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Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Happily divorced with 2 grown up children and not enough hours in a day.
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