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The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion is an attraction located in Liberty Square

History

Origin in Disneyland

Like many of the original Magic Kingdom attractions, the Haunted Mansion began as an idea for Disneyland. Before the park was even built, Walt Disney and artist Harper Goff were working on an idea for a haunted house type attraction. The original sketch by Goff was titled, "Church Graveyard and Haunted House" and featured a Gothic style mansion on top of a hill . The original haunted house attraction was envisioned as a walkthrough attraction, in which guests would see various haunted scenes . Some of the original ideas for the attraction included: a ghostly sea captain who killed his wife, an unfortunate family living in the mansion, and a ghost wedding which would have featured various Disney villains including, Captain Hook, the Lonesome Ghosts, and the Headless Horseman .

The idea of a ghostly bride was a part of the Haunted Mansion's early design

When the addition of the Haunted Mansion was being planned for Disneyland, the Mansion was to be located off a crooked alley on Main Street . Soon however, plans for the Mansion were put on hold, and when Disneyland opened in 1955, The Haunted Mansion was nowhere to be found. Despite this, shortly after Disneyland opened the Haunted Mansion project was brought back into the spotlight. In 1958, Walt Disney decided that he wanted to create an expansion for Disneyland called “New Orleans Square”. The Haunted Mansion was chosen as one of the attractions for the new area , and construction began in 1962 .

From the beginning however, problems began to plaque the Haunted Mansion project. Story line problems were a constant for the attraction, and in 1964 Disney's attention was turned towards the New York World’s Fair. Another blow to the struggling project came in 1965 when Walt Disney, the driving force behind the project, died . With Walt gone, Imagineers were divided about what tone to give the Haunted Mansion. Imagineer Marc Davis wanted to present the ride in a comical matter (giving the attraction a lighter tone) while Claude Coats thought the Haunted Mansion should be a real haunted house with a dark and ominous tone. Eventually, Imagineers decided on a compromise. The beginning of the attraction was given a darker tone while the latter half would be more "silly" and feature a "swinging wake" . Imagineers also decided to make the Haunted Mansion a dark ride, with "Doom Buggies" as the attractions vehicles (the change from walkthrough to dark ride helped solve the problem of guest capacity) .

With the story line and tone finally decided, the Haunted Mansion officially opened in Disneyland on August 9, 1969.

Museum of the Weird

One of the other ideas for the Haunted Mansion that Rolly and Walt explored, was the Museum of the Weird. The museum was to be a part of the entrance and queue to the Haunted Mansion. Showing guests various oddities "discovered" around the world, the Museum of the Weird would also have doubled as a restaurant (similar to Disneyland's Blue Bayou restaurant which is connected to Pirates of the Caribbean)

Rolly Crump working on models for the Haunted Mansion

. Rolly Crump came up with various ideas for the museum including: coffin clocks, candle men, man-eating plants, tiki busts, a mirror with a face, and a "living gypsy cart". With the death of Walt Disney and the subsequent uncertainty about the tone of the attraction however, the Museum of the Weird portion of the attraction was eventually scrapped.

Although the Museum of the Weird was never built, ideas from the museum can be found within the Haunted Mansion itself. Examples of this include:

• The red chair that appears to have face
• The wallpaper in the "Corridor of Doors" with various faces and eyes.
• The gypsy cart that sells merchandise outside of the Disney World Haunted Mansion .

Disney World Construction

During the time the Haunted Mansion was being finalized in Disneyland, plans were made for the creation of an identical version in the (not yet open) Magic Kingdom. Unlike the Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion however, the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World was set in the American Northeast, not New Orleans (due to the fact that Liberty Square replaced New Orleans Square in the parks design). The change in location is evident when looking at the attraction’s architecture, which took on a colonial or Hudson River Valley style . The Haunted Mansion opened with the rest of the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971 .

Changes Since Opening Day

Throughout the attractions first 35 years, the Haunted Mansion saw a relatively few number of changes. Most notably, during this period, the original bride figure was replaced first in the late 1970s/early 1980s and again in the mid 1990s . In 2006 however, the Haunted Mansion closed for its fist extensive refurbishment. At this time,

The original Bride figures. Photo: Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion. Alt= Haunted Mansion Brides

• The exterior of the mansion was repainted

• The queue received a new canopy

• The foyer received new wood and carpet. Furthermore the Master Gracey portrait was digitized

• The Sinister Eleven portraits were moved to the load area and a couple other spots around the attraction. In their place (the first hallway that the Doom Buggies travel down), new portraits which change when lightning strikes were added.

Finally, at this time the Haunted Mansion also received two new scenes. The first scene replaced the Spider Staircase scene and features stairways that seem to go to different dimensions, denying the laws of physics. This scene was inspired by the lithograph print "Relativity" by M.C. Escher.

Most notably however, during the refurbishment the Haunted Mansion's attic scene was reworked. At this time, a new bride named Constance Hatchaway was added to the attraction, and the attic was rethemed to reflect her dark backstory. When entering the attic the Doom Buggies now passed three portraits of Constance and a different husband surrounded by their wedding gifts. As guests pass by, the heads of each groom disappear. At the end of the attic, guests come face to face with Constance who ominously references her wedding vows, while making a hatchet appear in her hands. With the addition of the Constance backstory, the original bride figure and the "pop-up" ghosts that were originally found in the attic were removed.

In October 2010 the Haunted Mansion closed for refurbishment. At this time, the attraction's queue was overhauled and given new interactive elements . When the queue reopened it featured an interactive cemetery, which now housed a sea captain's crypt, a composers crypt, a family of headstones, and a library crypt.

On July 11, 2022, Disney announced that the Hatbox Ghost would be added to the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Manson in 2023 . The Hatbox Ghost was originally designed for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, but was removed shortly after the attraction opened as the intended effect did not work. In 2015, the figure was returned to the Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion.

The Queue

The original queue for the Haunted Mansion featured a hillside graveyard full of humorous tombstones. In 2010 however, the queue was given an overhaul. Now when guests reach a certain point in the line (the former location of the turnstiles), they have the option of splitting off to the left or right. The path on their right leads guests directly into the attraction. If guests choose the left side however, they can experience what Disney calls the new "graveyard queue".

The Family of Busts

The family of busts in the new Haunted Mansion queue.

If guests choose the graveyard queue, one of the first things that they see is a family of marble busts. Besides showing the faces of the various family members, the busts have also a depiction of a small weapon and a humorous epitaph. When guests pass, each bust will whisper a clue as to who killed them. It is up to guests to solve the mystery and find out who killed who. The family is comprised of (epitaph in quotes):

• Bertie –“Avid hunter and expert shot, in the end that’s what he got.”

• Aunt Florence – “Never did a dishonorable deed. Yet was found face down in canary seed.”

• Uncle Jacob – “Greed was the poison he had swallowed. He went first, the others followed. His killer’s face he surely knew, now try to discover who killed who.”

• The Twins, Wellington & Forsythia – “Departed life while in their beds, with identical bumps on identical heads.”

• Cousin Maude – “Our sleeping beauty who never awoke, the night her dreams went up in smoke.”

The Composer's Crypt

Continuing on through the queue guests pass by a series of crypts, beginning with the Composer's Crypt. Here, musical instruments are carved into both sides of a crypt and when they are pushed; the instrument plays a portion of the attractions theme song "Grim Grinning Ghosts". One side of the crypt features basic instruments (such as those used by the band in the graveyard scene), while the other side features more ghoulish looking instruments. The Composers Crypt also features a large pipe organ (identical to the one in the Ballroom scene) with banshee heads and a red-eyed raven sitting atop it. When guests push the keys to the organ it plays “Grim Grinning Ghosts” while also shooting guests with a blast of mist. The organ is engraved with the name "Ravenscroft" which is a reference to Thurl Ravenscroft, the lead vocalist of the singing busts in the Graveyard scene.

The Sea Captain's Crypt

The Sea Captain's crypt

The next crypt that guests come upon in the queue is the Sea Captains. An inscription on the crypt reads:

When looking at the Sea Captain, guests will notice that his arms, leg and hat are all sticking out of his green crypt. The crypt seems to be full of water, and water flows out of cracks in the crypt and squirts guests as they walk by. The Sea Captain can be also heard singing a "drunken sailor" song, and from time to time even sneezes, shooting water everywhere. On the more morbid side, the Sea Captain can also be heard drowning as bubbles rush to the top of the crypt. Finally, if guests try to plug one of the many holes in the crypt, another one will begin to leak.

The Library Crypt

The final crypt guests come across in the Haunted Mansion queue is the library crypt. Two sides of this crypt look like the bookcases found inside the mansion, which hold haunted books that move in and out by themselves. Guests can also push the books, adding some entertainment for younger guests. More importantly however the books on the cases are marked with ghostly symbols, which gives guests a letter, giving them the task of deciphering the message that the books spell out.

The third side of the library crypt features a glowing book surrounded by decaying flowers. In the book, the ghost of the "Poetess Prudence Pock" is working on her poetry. Prudence will usually need guests to help her finish the poems, by giving her rhyming words. Guests can speak to Prudence by using the "Spectrecom" which lets guests “speak with the nearly departed." A sign above the book says:

The final side of the crypt has another plaque dedicated to Prudence which reads:

NOTE: If you want a key, to figure out what the haunted books are trying to tell guests, check out Inside the Magic's guide below:

http://www.insidethemagic.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/haunted-mansion-cryptogram-symbols.jpg

The Tombstones

Main Article: Haunted Mansion Tombstones

The original graveyard in the Haunted Mansion queue is still in place, however during the 2010 refurbishment the headstones that paid homage to Marc Davis and X Atencio have been moved from the hillside to the middle of the interactive queue. Likewise, the tombstone marking the resting place of Master Gracey has been moved into the queue. Added to the hillside graveyard at this time were headstones for Gus, Erza, and Phineas (the Hitchhiking Ghosts) and Neb Nub (one of the singing busts found in the Graveyard scene) .

Attraction

The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride which takes guests through an aging mansion, where 999 ghosts live and roam about.

The Foyer

The aging portrait in the Haunted Mansion's Foyer

The first room that guests see when entering the Haunted Mansion is the Foyer. The Foyer has orange wall paper, wood finish, and is dimly lit by candle chandeliers. Although not seen, guests may notice an organ playing in the background. On the left side of the Foyer is a fireplace with a portrait of a young man hung above it. If guests watch the portrait they will see that the man appears to be aging before their eyes, slowly turning from a young man into a rotting, skeletal corps. In the Foyer the Ghost Host greets guests for the first time, saying:

To hear the Ghost Host speak to guests in the Foyer click play below:

<flashmp3>Foyer.mp3</flashmp3>

The Stretching Room

After the Ghost Host introduces guests to the Haunted Mansion, they are ushered into an octagonal gallery known as The Stretching Room. This room features vertically stripped wallpaper and menacing green gargoyles. The room also has four seemingly normal portraits of unknown people hanging on the walls. Inside the room the Ghost Host once again speaks to guests saying:

[[Image:Stretching.jpg|thumb|400px|The full portra

Welcome to The Mickey Wiki - Your Walt Disney World Encyclopedia! To start exploring, select a park below! The Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion The exterior of the Haunted Mansion Magic Kingdom Land Liberty Square Opening date October 1st, 1971 Vehicle type Doom Buggies Number of vehicles 160 Ride duration 11 minutes Audio-Animatronics 109 Disney Genie + Yes The Haunted Mansion is an attraction located in Liberty Square History Origin in Disneyland Like many of the original Magic Kingdom attractions, the Haunted Mansion began as an idea for Disneyland. Before the park was even built, Walt Disney and artist Harper Goff were working on an idea for a haunted house type attraction. The original sketch by Goff was titled, "Church Graveyard and Haunted House" and featured a Gothic style mansion on top of a hill . The original haunted house attraction was envisioned as a walkthrough attraction, in which guests would see various haunted scenes . Some of the original ideas for the attraction included: a ghostly sea captain who killed his wife, an unfortunate family living in the mansion, and a ghost wedding which would have featured various Disney villains including, Captain Hook, the Lonesome Ghosts, and the Headless Horseman . The idea of a ghostly bride was a part of the Haunted Mansion's early design When the addition of the Haunted Mansion was being planned for Disneyland, the Mansion was to be located off a crooked alley on Main Street . Soon however, plans for the Mansion were put on hold, and when Disneyland opened in 1955, The Haunted Mansion was nowhere to be found. Despite this, shortly after Disneyland opened the Haunted Mansion project was brought back into the spotlight. In 1958, Walt Disney decided that he wanted to create an expansion for Disneyland called “New Orleans Square”. The Haunted Mansion was chosen as one of the attractions for the new area , and construction began in 1962 . From the beginning however, problems began to plaque the Haunted Mansion project. Story line problems were a constant for the attraction, and in 1964 Disney's attention was turned towards the New York World’s Fair. Another blow to the struggling project came in 1965 when Walt Disney, the driving force behind the project, died . With Walt gone, Imagineers were divided about what tone to give the Haunted Mansion. Imagineer Marc Davis wanted to present the ride in a comical matter (giving the attraction a lighter tone) while Claude Coats thought the Haunted Mansion should be a real haunted house with a dark and ominous tone. Eventually, Imagineers decided on a compromise. The beginning of the attraction was given a darker tone while the latter half would be more "silly" and feature a "swinging wake" . Imagineers also decided to make the Haunted Mansion a dark ride, with "Doom Buggies" as the attractions vehicles (the change from walkthrough to dark ride helped solve the problem of guest capacity) . With the story line and tone finally decided, the Haunted Mansion officially opened in Disneyland on August 9, 1969. Museum of the Weird One of the other ideas for the Haunted Mansion that Rolly and Walt explored, was the Museum of the Weird. The museum was to be a part of the entrance and queue to the Haunted Mansion. Showing guests various oddities "discovered" around the world, the Museum of the Weird would also have doubled as a restaurant (similar to Disneyland's Blue Bayou restaurant which is connected to Pirates of the Caribbean) Rolly Crump working on models for the Haunted Mansion . Rolly Crump came up with various ideas for the museum including: coffin clocks, candle men, man-eating plants, tiki busts, a mirror with a face, and a "living gypsy cart". With the death of Walt Disney and the subsequent uncertainty about the tone of the attraction however, the Museum of the Weird portion of the attraction was eventually scrapped. Although the Museum of the Weird was never built, ideas from the museum can be found within the Haunted Mansion itself. Examples of this include: The red chair that appears to have face The wallpaper in the "Corridor of Doors" with various faces and eyes. The gypsy cart that sells merchandise outside of the Disney World Haunted Mansion {originally a similar cart would have been located in the Museum of the Weird and would have interacted with guests}. Disney World Construction During the time the Haunted Mansion was being finalized in Disneyland, plans were made for the creation of an identical version in the (not yet open) Magic Kingdom. Unlike the Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion however, the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World was set in the American Northeast, not New Orleans (due to the fact that Liberty Square replaced New Orleans Square in the parks design). The change in location is evident when looking at the attraction’s architecture, which took on a colonial or Hudson River Valley style . The Haunted Mansion opened with the rest of the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971 . Changes Since Opening Day Throughout the attractions first 35 years, the Haunted Mansion saw a relatively few number of changes. Most notably, during this period, the original bride figure was replaced first in the late 1970s/early 1980s and again in the mid 1990s . In 2006 however, the Haunted Mansion closed for its fist extensive refurbishment. At this time, The original Bride figures. Photo: Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion. Alt= Haunted Mansion Brides The exterior of the mansion was repainted The queue received a new canopy The foyer received new wood and carpet. Furthermore the Master Gracey portrait was digitized The Sinister Eleven portraits were moved to the load area and a couple other spots around the attraction. In their place (the first hallway that the Doom Buggies travel down), new portraits which change when lightning strikes were added. Finally, at this time the Haunted Mansion also received two new scenes. The first scene replaced the Spider Staircase scene and features stairways that seem to go to different dimensions, denying the laws of physics. This scene was inspired by the lithograph print "Relativity" by M.C. Escher. Most notably however, during the refurbishment the Haunted Mansion's attic scene was reworked. At this time, a new bride named Constance Hatchaway was added to the attraction, and the attic was rethemed to reflect her dark backstory. When entering the attic the Doom Buggies now passed three portraits of Constance and a different husband surrounded by their wedding gifts. As guests pass by, the heads of each groom disappear. At the end of the attic, guests come face to face with Constance who ominously references her wedding vows, while making a hatchet appear in her hands. With the addition of the Constance backstory, the original bride figure and the "pop-up" ghosts that were originally found in the attic were removed. In October 2010 the Haunted Mansion closed for refurbishment. At this time, the attraction's queue was overhauled and given new interactive elements . When the queue reopened it featured an interactive cemetery, which now housed a sea captain's crypt, a composers crypt, a family of headstones, and a library crypt. On July 11, 2022, Disney announced that the Hatbox Ghost would be added to the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Manson in 2023 . The Hatbox Ghost was originally designed for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, but was removed shortly after the attraction opened as the intended effect did not work. In 2015, the figure was returned to the Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion. The Queue The original queue for the Haunted Mansion featured a hillside graveyard full of humorous tombstones. In 2010 however, the queue was given an overhaul. Now when guests reach a certain point in the line (the former location of the turnstiles), they have the option of splitting off to the left or right. The path on their right leads guests directly into the attraction. If guests choose the left side however, they can experience what Disney calls the new "graveyard queue". The Family of Busts The family of busts in the new Haunted Mansion queue. If guests choose the graveyard queue, one of the first things that they see is a family of marble busts. Besides showing the faces of the various family members, the busts have also a depiction of a small weapon and a humorous epitaph. When guests pass, each bust will whisper a clue as to who killed them. It is up to guests to solve the mystery and find out who killed who. The family is comprised of (epitaph in quotes): Bertie –“Avid hunter and expert shot, in the end that’s what he got.” Aunt Florence – “Never did a dishonorable deed. Yet was found face down in canary seed.” Uncle Jacob – “Greed was the poison he had swallowed. He went first, the others followed. His killer’s face he surely knew, now try to discover who killed who.” The Twins, Wellington & Forsythia – “Departed life while in their beds, with identical bumps on identical heads.” Cousin Maude – “Our sleeping beauty who never awoke, the night her dreams went up in smoke.” The Composer's Crypt Continuing on through the queue guests pass by a series of crypts, beginning with the Composer's Crypt. Here, musical instruments are carved into both sides of a crypt and when they are pushed; the instrument plays a portion of the attractions theme song "Grim Grinning Ghosts". One side of the crypt features basic instruments (such as those used by the band in the graveyard scene), while the other side features more ghoulish looking instruments. The Composers Crypt also features a large pipe organ (identical to the one in the Ballroom scene) with banshee heads and a red-eyed raven sitting atop it. When guests push the keys to the organ it plays “Grim Grinning Ghosts” while also shooting guests with a blast of mist. The organ is engraved with the name "Ravenscroft" which is a reference to Thurl Ravenscroft, the lead vocalist of the singing busts in the Graveyard scene. The Sea Captain's Crypt The Sea Captain's crypt The next crypt that guests come upon in the queue is the Sea Captains. An inscription on the crypt reads: "Here floats Captain Culpepper Clyne, allergic to dirt so he’s pickled in brine. He braved the sea and all her wrath, but drowned on land while taking a bath." When looking at the Sea Captain, guests will notice that his arms, leg and hat are all sticking out of his green crypt. The crypt seems to be full of water, and water flows out of cracks in the crypt and squirts guests as they walk by. The Sea Captain can be also heard singing a "drunken sailor" song, and from time to time even sneezes, shooting water everywhere. On the more morbid side, the Sea Captain can also be heard drowning as bubbles rush to the top of the crypt. Finally, if guests try to plug one of the many holes in the crypt, another one will begin to leak. The Library Crypt The final crypt guests come across in the Haunted Mansion queue is the library crypt. Two sides of this crypt look like the bookcases found inside the mansion, which hold haunted books that move in and out by themselves. Guests can also push the books, adding some entertainment for younger guests. More importantly however the books on the cases are marked with ghostly symbols, which gives guests a letter, giving them the task of deciphering the message that the books spell out. The third side of the library crypt features a glowing book surrounded by decaying flowers. In the book, the ghost of the "Poetess Prudence Pock" is working on her poetry. Prudence will usually need guests to help her finish the poems, by giving her rhyming words. Guests can speak to Prudence by using the "Spectrecom" which lets guests “speak with the nearly departed." A sign above the book says: "Her plaintive pleas can still be heard: O' muse provide the perfect word" The final side of the crypt has another plaque dedicated to Prudence which reads: "Here lies Poetess Prudence Pock, she died it's said from writers block NOTE: If you want a key, to figure out what the haunted books are trying to tell guests, check out Inside the Magic's guide below: http://www.insidethemagic.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/haunted-mansion-cryptogram-symbols.jpg The Tombstones Main Article: Haunted Mansion Tombstones The original graveyard in the Haunted Mansion queue is still in place, however during the 2010 refurbishment the headstones that paid homage to Marc Davis and X Atencio have been moved from the hillside to the middle of the interactive queue. Likewise, the tombstone marking the resting place of Master Gracey has been moved into the queue. Added to the hillside graveyard at this time were headstones for Gus, Erza, and Phineas (the Hitchhiking Ghosts) and Neb Nub (one of the singing busts found in the Graveyard scene) . Attraction The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride which takes guests through an aging mansion, where 999 ghosts live and roam about. The Foyer The aging portrait in the Haunted Mansion's Foyer The first room that guests see when entering the Haunted Mansion is the Foyer. The Foyer has orange wall paper, wood finish, and is dimly lit by candle chandeliers. Although not seen, guests may notice an organ playing in the background. On the left side of the Foyer is a fireplace with a portrait of a young man hung above This Day in Walt Disney World History On this day in 1989, Delta Dreamflight opened in the Magic Kingdom. <wikitwidget-alt-feed>