Disney World’s Haunted Mansion
(I stumbled upon a great group of bloggers on Instagram who hatched an interesting plan. Each month, the group picks a topic and everyone writes a blog post with their own take on a Disney subject. The great part is that everyone links to the next blogger’s post at the end of theirs. It’s a great way to spread the word about Disney bloggers. If I’m not park hopping at the moment, blog hopping seems like a fine idea. Welcome to the Disney Friend’s Halloween Blog Hop: Disney World’s Haunted Mansion!)
Fall season has finally arrived in my neck of the woods. Now that the weather is cooler, the air crisper and the neighborhood is looking a little “spookier,” I am feeling Halloween-ish. In the spirit of the season, I’m going to get a little nostalgic about Disney World’s Haunted Mansion. Attention all you Grim Grinning Ghosts! It’s time to socialize!
We have never been to a Disney park during Halloween or for any of the various Halloween parties, experiences, or ride overlays.
We are not happy about this. It’s on our Disney bucket list, believe me. It’s just difficult with a school schedule to work around and an unwillingness to suffer the death rays of an August sun in Florida. While we haven’t visited during Halloween, I still manage to get a little bit of spookiness included with every visit to the Magic Kingdom. Yep, the Disney classic Haunted Mansion ride which is celebrating 50 years of 999 happy haunts!
My first trip to Disney World was in 1975 and one of the few things that I remember vividly is the Haunted Mansion.
I don’t necessarily think that it was due to fear, but it made a lasting impression on an 8 year-old me. I’d like to think it was because I was a little scared, but ended up enjoying it in the end. A tiny little triumph for a pretty easily spooked kid. Sort of the same way that I feel about Flight of Passage as an adult. Love that ride on its own merit, but I think mixed in with that is a sense of accomplishment for having the courage to get on the thing in the first place. My fear of thrill rides is legendary and the term “thrill” is used by me to describe pretty much everything except the People Mover and It’s a Small World. You get the picture.
Even though I’m a notorious scaredy cat, I have always been drawn to classic movie monsters and ghost stories.
Born and raised in George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) country, I also grew up watching the Saturday late night local “Chiller Theater” television show. I loved the old Hammer films, and read A LOT of Stephen King. Let’s put it this way. I believe in ghosts. I just don’t want to meet any. Need a little humor with my horror, so Haunted Mansion’s mischievous residents are right up my alley. Yes, the Bride is creepy and Little Leota’s “Hurry Back” as you exit gives me goosebumps EVERY TIME, but most of it is just blissfully silly.
In fact, most sources agree that Walt wanted a haunted house that would appeal to all ages. A delicate balance of horror and hilarity was needed to make an experience that everyone could enjoy. A little fun to soften the scary edges.
For those of you not familiar with the ride, Disney World’s Haunted Mansion is located in the Liberty Square area of Magic Kingdom.
Versions of the Haunted Mansion ride exist in Disneyland, Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland & Disneyland Paris (as Phantom Manor). Hong Kong Disneyland has “Mystic Manor” which is more magical than supernatural.
I can only comment on the Haunted Mansion in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, but I do hope to make the comparison in person someday. That Disney bucket list that I mentioned? It is very, very long.
The Haunted Mansion ride is what Disney calls an “Omnimover” ride. Basically, the ride cars run continuously on a track. Guests walk along a slow moving conveyer to the next available car and climb aboard. For the Haunted Mansion, these cars are aptly named “Doom Buggies.” The seat backs curve around the guests (up to 2 adults or 2 adults and 1 kid) like clam shells that enclose and separate you from the riders in other “Doom Buggies.” Narration and music is pumped through speakers inside the “Doom Buggy” as it travels through the ride.
The crafty Imagineers created a tricky little ride vehicle for the Haunted Mansion that not only added to the spookiness but also enabled them to force guests to “see” what they wanted them to see.
The Omnimover system allowed for the “Doom Buggy” ride cars to be turned and positioned throughout the ride to ensure that guests see the special effects and not the “man behind the curtain.” It’s sleight of hand, Disney style.
The “Doom Buggy” travels through the Haunted Mansion, past creepy portraits, floating candelabras, singing statues, a seance and a rip roaring banquet full of dancing, singing, and dueling spirits. At the end, the “Doom Buggy” makes its way through a dusty attic where a spectral bride sends it out of the attic window and into the graveyard to add YOU as the 1,000th haunt!
A Google search for “Haunted Mansion storyline” will quickly have you falling out of the digital version of the attic window.
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion was the prototype and it went through years of development. Many different people worked on ideas for the ride over those years. The facade of the building was built in 1963, and stood in the park nearly 6 years before the ride opened in 1969.
Exhibit building for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair (the genesis of It’s a Small World, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Carousel of Progress attractions) pulled focus from the project as well as Walt Disney’s death in 1966.
Over those years, the Haunted Mansion became quite the mixed bag of storytelling.
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion once posted a sign encouraging ghosts seeking a great retirement spot to send their resumes. With all of those happy haunts, it is no surprise that the Haunted Mansion has many tales to tell.
All of the years of development and the subsequent hands involved from inception to completion made for a messier backstory. Throw in Cast Member stories, tour scripts, Haunted Mansion themed comic books, an unfortunate film adaptation as well as fan fiction and it’s not hard to see how Disnified urban legend played a part. The most that folks can agree on is that it’s a spooky house haunted by 999 ghosts and your little visit to the house and small “mishap” in the attic makes you number 1,000.
As for the parks outside of the United States, Tokyo Disneyland is very similar to the Disneyland/Disney World mansions. Disneyland Paris’ “Phantom Manor” is similar to the U.S. mansions but is heavily tied into Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Hong Kong Disneyland’s “Mystic Manor” involves the S.E.A (Society of Explorers and Adventurers) which has tie ins all over the Disney parks, Disney Springs and Disney Cruise Line. (S.E.A. is off topic but super interesting. For more on this, check out Attraction Magazine’s blog post.)
The Haunted Mansion, like its haunts, has about 999 different things going on.
As many times as I have been on the Haunted Mansion ride, there are still things that I didn’t notice before and I am still not sure exactly what is going on in there! Is that a birthday party or a wedding in the ball room? Is Constance Hatchaway a black widow bride that has taken a literal hatchet to all of her husbands? Was Master Gracey one of them? Is Master Gracey really the Ghost Host? How do all of the crazy characters: the tight-rope walker, the dueling portraits, and the singing busts figure into the story? What about Madame Carlotta, Lady Renata, and Butler Broome that come out to play during Disney World’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party? So many questions!
Rather than try to make sense of Disney World’s Haunted Mansion storyline, I just try to enjoy the splendid quirkiness of it all.
I get a kick out of the fact that it’s visible over the shoulders of Frontierland’s roaming bears. The beckoning infamous organ music that lures you in from Liberty Square gets me EVERY time. At night, back lit by the fireworks, the mansion is other worldly and at its very best.
Little touches like the standby queue wait time displaying 13 minutes as a default for a 10 minutes or less wait time is just the sort of thing you expect at Disney World. Don’t even get me started on the morose Cast Members that run the show. When you get a really great maid or butler that is particularly full of monotone and snarky eye-rolls? That’s Haunted Mansion perfection.
While I love everything going on inside the Haunted Mansion, I do have a FAVORITE character.
Many rides exit through the gift shop, but the Haunted Mansion at Disney World has its own stand alone gift shop a little to the right of the entrance: Memento Mori. According to Disney Parks Blog, the Memento Mori gift shop was once the home of Madame Leota. She’s the misty spiritualist that you see floating inside the crystal ball in the seance room of the Haunted Mansion ride.
Leota is, hands down, my favorite of the ride characters. While I would love to see the Hatbox Ghost at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion someday, I still think he could only be second in my heart. You just can’t get any better than that blue haired goddess. Her magnificence is not bound to the seance room. Her tombstone watches over everyone in the ride queue and her portrait in the gift shop is, well, illuminating.
While Disney World’s Haunted Mansion does still loom up on that hill, I remember it as larger and even more foreboding as a kid.
Well, I am a little bit taller now so the perspective is a bit different. My clearest memory, though, is of the hitchhiking ghosts. There was a real concern that they were coming home with and I was NOT having it.
I’m a grown up now, most of the time, and I still love this ride. It’s pretty easy to sneak in a solo ride or two when my sister and son are riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on repeat. I like having a “Doom Buggy” all to myself so that I can hear the narration better. It also adds to the mystery if I’m solo on the journey since I can’t really easily see the other riders in adjacent buggies of doom.
You could say that I’m a wee bit obsessed with Disney World’s Haunted Mansion.
The Ghost Host’s maniacal laugh may or may not be set as my current cell phone notification. It is possible that I have visited Target several times in order to snag little Madame Leota and hitchhiking ghost figures. I am not ashamed of this.
Most of my Disney doo-dads (that aren’t red and white polka-dotted) are Haunted Mansion related.
Figures: Target Everything else: Disney Store
Too much? Nah. Just the right amount.
Rumors occasionally circulate that there is a Haunted Mansion themed hotel or restaurant in the works, but nothing has materialized yet. If Disney ever DOES build a Haunted Mansion hotel or restaurant, sign me up! If Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean can have their own related restaurants in the parks why can’t Haunted Mansion?? Perhaps a cocktail lounge selling only the finest spirits??? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Some great sources for more information: Disney Parks Blog , Jeff Bahm’s Doombuggies.com blog and his Unauthorized Story of Walt Disney’s Haunted Mansion book. There is also a great YouTube video with side by side comparisons of three Haunted Mansion rides.
Check out Mouse and the Magic’s take on the topic!
Here is a list of all of the Disney Friends Blog Hoppers!
3 Comments
The Disney DINKs
One fun fact we always loved is the original inspiration for the architecture came from a mansion in Baltimore, our home town!
Lisa
I absolutely Loved this post! I’ve grown to love the Haunted Mansion and always wanted to learn a little more about the ride. Thank you for writing this!
Jennifer Stuart
I am also Haunted Mansion obsessed. It is hands down my favourite ride and has been ever since I was a kid. I am a giant Constance fan and Hat Box Ghost is probably my number two. Interesting that the back story to the Mansion at Disneyland is a little different but then so are the exteriors of the Mansions. Can never get enough of this classic ride— so I guess that I’ll just have to hurry back……