Just in time for the 30th Anniversary of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a fun bit of theming has been restored to the lobby. While riding the attraction today to celebrate its 30th Anniversary, we were able to capture some photos of the newly restored scorch marks at the elevators in the lobby.
Restored Lightning Scorch Marks at Tower of Terror
As the story goes, lightning struck the Hollywood Tower Hotel back in 1939, sending riders into the 5th dimension. When we visit in the present day, we find ourselves in the very same hotel, under eerily similar conditions. Instead of the lobby elevators, which are still out of service in a setting that looks completely untouched since the events of 1939, we head to the boiler room, to take the only elevators still in operation – maintenance service elevators.
Some of my favorite storytelling from Walt Disney Imagineering is non-verbal. From a lush environment in Pandora – The World of Avatar, to a more unforming planet in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and everything in between, small details are waiting to be discovered to add depth to your Walt Disney World experience.
One such non-verbal bit of storytelling has recently been restored at the Tower of Terror attraction. Scorch marks that had been painted over decades ago have returned to the out-of-order lobby elevators. In this archive photo below, you can see that there are cracks around the lobby elevators on the left side of the image, but the cracks don’t really resemble anything beyond a crumbling building.
With a bit of new paint, those cracks tell an entirely different story. As seen below, the cracks are not necessarily a symptom of an aging building, but something entirely more sinister. Of course, if you’re experiencing the ride for the first time, you may not notice the scorch marks until you are in the next room and the pre-show video shows the elevators being struck by lightning.
Longtime Cast Members that we spoke with assumed that the scorch marks, which were last visible some 20+ years ago, were simply painted over during the early years of the attraction. Here are a few more photos of the excellent lightning scorch marks, restored recently.
Other, less-recent changes that have happened over the past months are the reintroduction of some of the mood lighting in the lobby and in the hallway just past the library. The lighting that was fixed over the past year includes lighting thrown on the perimeter walls in the lobby, seen on the left in the photo below.
Even more lighting effects were addressed over the last year or so, including some of the shadows thrown on the wall in the hallway below, just past the library pre-show.
In addition to the updates to the queue, guests can find all-new merchandise in the post-ride gift shop. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any 30th Anniversary merchandise.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!