If you’re headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios soon, don’t be surprised if a few familiar sights aren’t exactly ready for their close-up. There is quite a bit of visible maintenance work underway in the park, including a nearly empty Echo Lake and extensive scaffolding covering parts of The Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Let’s start with Echo Lake, because it’s pretty hard to miss.
The lake has been almost completely drained, leaving the normally picturesque area looking more like a giant empty basin.
Gertie is still standing proudly along the edge of the lake, of course. But without all that water surrounding her, the famous dinosaur looks a little like she’s wondering what on earth happened to her neighborhood.
We haven’t seen Disney announce details about the work being performed at Echo Lake, so we’re not going to pretend we know exactly what’s happening down there. For guests visiting right now, however, it’s worth knowing that this normally scenic section of the park looks considerably different than usual. Echo Lake remains enough of a recognizable Hollywood Studios landmark that Disney still promotes the area as one of its available photo-session backdrops.
Tower of Terror Is Wrapped in Scaffolding
Over on Sunset Boulevard, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is getting some attention of its own. Large sections of the Hollywood Tower Hotel exterior are currently covered in scaffolding, including areas surrounding that iconic hotel sign.
The good news is that this one is primarily a visual issue for guests. Disney continues to list Tower of Terror as operating, so you can still take that trip into the Twilight Zone even though your photos of the building may feature quite a bit more scaffolding than usual.
And let’s be fair: maintaining something as enormous and elaborately themed as the Hollywood Tower Hotel is going to require some ugly phases every now and then. It just happens to be one of the most photographed structures in the entire park, so there’s really no hiding it when exterior work is underway.
A LOT Is Happening at Hollywood Studios
The timing is particularly noticeable because Disney’s Hollywood Studios already has so much happening around the park. The Magic of Disney Animation opens on September 14, and Disney has now begun giving us a much closer look at that newly reimagined area ahead of its debut.
So if you’re visiting Hollywood Studios over the next few days, don’t panic when you walk past Echo Lake and wonder where the lake went. And if Tower of Terror is one of those photos you absolutely have to take every trip, you may want to get creative with your camera angle for a little while.
Theme parks are constantly being maintained behind the scenes, but sometimes there’s simply no way to keep that work behind a construction wall. Today at Hollywood Studios is definitely one of those times.
