That big building above is the Hollywood Hotel Tower Of Terror at Disney's MGM Studios. It was the spot for movie celebs in the 1930's until a terrible accident during a stormy night. Lightning struck the building causing an elevator shaft to malfunction and the elevator to plummet to the ground killing some movie stars. Allegedly.
This attraction is the most exquisitely themed ride in the whole of WDW. The walk to the building is through artfully overgrown hotel gardens leading to the foyer which is as it was that night 70 years ago; leather luggage, newspapers and fur coats all coated with cobwebs and dust. We creep down into the basement past the old furnaces and pipes and find an old service elevator. 10 of us are strapped into seats inside the elevator and then it begins it's journey through the 'doomed' hotel. The ghosts of the dead lure us down corridors until we are facing a wall which suddenly turns into a gigantic TV screen which then splits into two and opens to reveal....sunshine and the theme park layed out 14 stories below us. The doors suddenly close and we are dropped to ground zero in a stomach clenching 2 seconds. Hang on, there's more. The elevator launches us back to the top where we are given a swift view of the park again before plummeting earthwards again. And then it does it again, one final time.
This mixture of high technology and old-world movie glamour is stunning and has proven to be such a design classic that Disneyland Paris is getting its own version of the Hollywood Tower Of terror soon.



Anorak alert - graphic artist Casey Jones was involved in the design and artwork for this attraction. Here's his vision of the bellboy uniform at the hotel which the staff (sorry, cast members) wear.