Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios experiencing longer wait times than usual with only one side of the ride system in operation

Oct 06, 2021 in "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror"

Tower of Terror queues October 6 2021
Posted: Wednesday October 6, 2021 3:13pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In recent weeks, you may have noticed that The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios has longer wait times than usual, frequently extending beyond 60 minutes.

On several days recently, Tower of Terror has some of the longest waits in the park, even eclipsing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance late in the day.

It appears that over the past month, only one side of the ride system has been in operation. Last week Foxtrot was in operation (the right side looking from the front), and this week only Echo is operating (the left side).

One of the unique features of the Tower of Terror ride system is that it can continue to operate during maintenance, with work taking place on one side at a time.

It isn't clear what is being done or if the work is anything beyond the basic maintenance of the ride system. No dates are available for when the ride will return to full capacity.

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surfsupdonOct 07, 2021

On 10/2 and 10/3, both sides were indeed running. Tower is my ride, and I rode it each day as a walk on into the library.

MagicHappens1971Oct 07, 2021

I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think so.

LilofanOct 07, 2021

If both sides were running, there would be more screams out of the top windows of the building. Those screams for the first timer is scary.

wdwmagicOct 07, 2021

Were both sides running?

Nubs70Oct 07, 2021

And thus WDW now has even more to provide crap customer/ride service. Running short on ride staff or ride vehicles saves on labor and maintenance. Creating long lines creates demand for ftl passes. If the month is looking a little short of revenue projections, take a couple of ride vehicles offline and Genie income goes up.

ohioguyOct 07, 2021

They're just preparing for the "Guardians" re-theme. 🙃

DisoneOct 07, 2021

Same for me last week.

MagicHappens1971Oct 07, 2021

When I was there last weekend wait times never exceeded 30 minutes that I noticed. Both days I was at studios it never exceeded the “13” mins

dreday3Oct 06, 2021

I thought I read the wait for it have been low the past couple weeks. Maybe I'm just used to seeing huge waits for so long....and yeesh, didn't they just have one side closed for the longest time???

GhostHost1000Oct 06, 2021

Happy 50th everyone!

PuertoRekinSamOct 06, 2021

It’s likely cable replacements. This maintenance happens a lot more frequently than you would think. It’s usually a couple days per side with a small gap between (in case there are issues). In the past it wasn’t as noticeable because they just lessened the number of FP distributed during the down times.

AylaOct 06, 2021

If only there were some way to increase capacity... 🧐

TouchdownOct 06, 2021

Tower down to one shaft is always an issue, hope it’s fixed soon. Is it echo or foxtrot that’s down?

drizgirlOct 06, 2021

If only there were some way to pay to skip that line.....