10. A familiar shape

Image: Molly, Flickr (license)

One of the clearest "Hidden Mickeys" is in the boiler room, where the first boiler's grating consists of three circles forming a Mickey head shape.

9. The devil incarnate

As you board the elevator, look to the left hand-side. There's an inspection certificate, dated October 31, 1939 and signed by "Cadwallader". This was a character in another Twilight Zone episode, Escape Clause, who was eventually revealed to be the devil. The inspection certificate's number is 10259, celebrating the date that the first Twilight Zoneepisode aired.

8. The real service elevator

There is a real elevator tucked away in the Hollywood Tower Hotel - but this one is for use by guests with disabilities.

7. Eerie music

Listen out for the musical soundtrack, which was arranged by Richard Bellis. It features music from various different episodes of The Twilight Zone.

6. Autonomous vehicles

The Tower of Terror actually employs more than one type of vehicle in order to enable riders to leave the elevator shaft and pass through the Fifth Dimension. Guests sit in Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs), which rise up to the corridor scene in a Vertical Vehicle Conveyance (VVC). When they reach the Fifth Dimension corridor, the AGVs come into their own. Rather than riding on a track, the AGVs are guided by wires under the floor. When they reach the far end of the corridor, they lock into another vertical motion cab, which handles the actual drop sequence. The AGVs are powered by onboard batteries, which are charged while riders are unloading. At any one time, up to eight of these vehicles could be circulating around the Tower of Terror's ride system.

5. Pepper's Ghost

The corridor scene employs the Pepper's Ghost trick, which is famously used in the Haunted Mansion's ballroom scene. The images are projected via a mirror onto a pane of glass, to give the impression that the ghostly characters within are right in front of you. The corridor is made to look longer than it really is using a forced perspective technique, with the elements at the far end of the corridor being smaller than those that are closer to riders.

4. Two into one

There are two drop shafts on the Tower of Terror, as you may have noticed if you watch the ride from the outside. However, there are actually four elevators that lift the AGVs up to the Fifth Dimension scene - two of these merge into a single corridor scene. This enables the ride to have an increased capacity.

3. Faster than freefall

When you plummet downwards on the Tower of Terror, you are not, in fact, freefalling. The AGV vehicles lock onto platforms in the drop shafts. These are connected by cables to two enormous motors, which are 12 feet tall, 35 feet long and weigh a massive 132,000 pounds. These are used to move the platform up and down at rapid speeds - faster, in fact, than the speed that would be achieved through gravity alone. You'll hit a top speed of 39 miles per hour. Want to test this out? Place a penny in the palm of your hand. When you drop downwards, it will float a few inches above your hand, because it is falling merely at the speed of gravity.

2. Hidden Memorabilia

As the elevator rotates towards the exit, look out for some items of Twilight Zone memorabilia. Among these is Caesar, the creepy ventriloquist's dummy from the episode Caesar and Me. You can also see the slot machine from another episode, The Fever.

1. The Sunset Room

As you exit the ride, look out for the Sunset Room on your right. You'll see a menu dated October 31, 1939 - the date that the hotel is said to have closed due to the unfortunate lightning strike.