Why You Need to Plan for LONG Wait Times at Tower of Terror in Disney World

One of the LEAST magical things about Disney World is waiting in a very long line before getting on your favorite ride.

There are some great hacks to avoid those long lines, such as getting to the parks early or going on rides during nighttime fireworks shows. But there’s one attraction that has had a consistently HIGH wait time lately, and it looks like that long wait isn’t going away anytime soon.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is home to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror — one of the most classic thrill rides in Disney World. Although it’s not unusual to see 60-minute+ wait times for this attraction (it’s an iconic ride, after all), lately we’ve been seeing even HIGHER wait times than usual.

Yesterday, we noticed that the wait got all the way up to 160 minutes at one point! Even for the popular Tower of Terror at peak Spring Break time, that was a surprise to us. We checked with a nearby Cast Member to see what was going on.

The Cast Member we spoke to told us that 2 of the ride’s elevators are currently closed. Although you can only see 2 elevators from the front of the attraction, there are usually 4 operating at any given time.

That means that this attraction is operating at half capacity right now, and unfortunately, it will be doing so for a while. The Cast Member said that once work is finished on the first 2 elevators, the other 2 will be closed for refurbishments as well. Apparently, it could be a few months before Tower of Terror is back at full capacity, which means those LONG wait times could be here to stay for a while.

On the bright side, doing refurbishments this way (2 elevators at a time) means that the ride is only half-closed instead of fully closed!

If you want to avoid the long wait time, be sure to take advantage of Early Theme Park Entry (for Disney hotel guests) and get to the park as early as possible. We usually recommend being at the gates at least a half-hour before opening time. Head to this ride first if it’s a must-visit for you! And remember that you can purchase Genie+ (for $15 per ticket per day) to reserve your spot to skip the line at this ride.

We’ll keep an eye on this and other projects going on in Disney World, so stay tuned with AllEars for more updates!

A NEW coaster in Magic Kingdom was spotted testing ride vehicles!

Is Tower of Terror a must-visit for you? Let us know in the comments.