The Haunted Mansion gets an anniversary makeover

As a Disney devotee and an annual passholder to Walt Disney World here in Florida, I love to keep up on the various things going on at the parks. With the 40th anniversary coming up this October, the Disney imagineers have been hard at work getting the park ready for the celebration. Aside from adding in some much-needed Magic Kingdom upgrades like a safety lap bar on Splash Mountain and general refurbishment of quite a bit of the park, they’ve also added some interesting new touches as well.

The biggest upgrade at the Magic Kingdom recently—at least in my opinion—has to be the changes to the Haunted Mansion. Last year some construction walls went up outside of the ride, which barred the public from seeing all the fun gravestones that were near the entrance. Rumors started, as they often do with ride changes, that the plan was to get rid of the headstones altogether and install an interactive queue for the kids like the Winnie the Pooh ride has. Many Haunted Mansion devotees felt that by adding an interactive queue, much of the spirit of the ride (no pun intended) would be destroyed. Others pointed out that the original imagineers couldn’t even reach a consensus on which storylines to develop and whether to make the Haunted Mansion funny or scary after Walt Disney’s death in 1966. Aftter all, the fans reasoned, the Haunted Mansion had already seen major changes with Leota’s seance circle and the attic bride, Constance Hatchaway. Debate raged, and everyone wondered what was going on behind the fence.

In the early part of this year, a curtain went up over the hitchhiking ghosts, which caused even more of a stir. After all, these ghosts are the one part of the ride that really “interact” with people. Gus (the short one with a ball & chain), Phineas (the mid-height one with the goofy smile), and Ezra (the tall, skeletal one) have a huge following after all—especially as Disney likes to put them on almost every single piece of Haunted Mansion merchandise it makes. In the place of these three favorite ghosts who liked to ride along were CGI ghosts projected on a heavy velvet scrim. This new effect was very disappointing to many people—and a cause for alarm to the fatalists. As with the walled-off entry, rumors about the update spread like wildfire. Some said Disney was just refurbishing the old animatronic hitchhikers, and others said that the plan was to leave the non-interactive CGI ghosts up from now on, meaning our beloved ghosts would no longer actually hitchhike.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to see the new upgrades for myself, and I can tell you that as a long-time fan of the Haunted Mansion, I was impressed. The interactive queue is indeed present—and yes the graveyard has been split up. However, the design of the interactive queue is an improvement that will be valued when the hot summer days here in Florida hit. (Perhaps not so much during the icky cold, wet winters, but the good news is that we only have a month or so of that anyway!)

There are now two separate approaches to the Mansion which are separated by a large iron-work fence; at least once you’re through the initial twisty line in the front courtyard section. The line to the left will take you through the shiny new interactive queue, and the one to the right is a direct line for the front door of the Mansion. I’d also note that the fence design blocks the viewer in the fast line from seeing all the neat stuff in the interactive queue area. Based on looking at the other ride with a similar line configuration and interactive queue—The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (formerly Mister Toad’s Wild Ride)—I strongly suspect that Fastpass will be coming to the Haunted Mansion at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Should you opt to take the line to the left, you’ll be greeted by five busts, which are a part of a murder mystery. I understand the busts will also have vocal effects, but at the time I was there for the soft launch, they had only just been given their final cosmetic finishes. I’d also add that the faces on these new named residents of the Mansion are very much in keeping with the beloved, zany spooks that imagineer Marc Davis created, should any Haunted Mansion purists be concerned.

From there, you will snake past gravestones until you come to the tomb of the composer. The first side you’ll encounter is covered in normal instruments like drums, a xylophone, and trumpet among others. When each of the instruments are touched, they play certain musical notes. By themselves, they don’t sound like much. However, as you add more hands (and thus more instruments) to the mix, you’ll begin to recognize Grim Grinning Ghosts, the Haunted Mansion’s beloved theme song. On the opposite side of the large tomb are the “decomposed” instruments which have been assembled from all manner of creepy materials and sound quite odd. As with the first side, it’s not nearly as impressive with only one or two instruments playing, whereas all of them together make for a pretty cool rendition of the song. I’d also note the appearance of the black cat on this side of the tomb, which is a nod to an earlier Haunted Mansion character concept sketched by X Atencio, and believed to be based on Edgar Allen Poe.

Between the two instrument-covered sides of the tomb is a pipe organ that has been carved into the monument itself. While none of the keys move, anyone who decides to pass by and touch them will find themselves also playing Grim Grinning Ghosts in concert with the instruments on the two sides. This is the first place where the “nice in the summer” part kicks in, as there are small holes directly above the keys that mist your hands with water, and the pipes themselves blow mist at your face. I foresee a lot of thankful park visitors during the summer enjoying this particular addition—and a lot of kids squealing with surprise. As with the black cat mentioned before, there are also nods on the pipe organ—the inclusion of a raven, and the inscription “Ravenscroft,” a tribute to voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft.

Moving on, you’ll pass a smaller version of the graveyard with shovels, some new tombstones and Master Gracey’s headstone in the center, until you come to the tomb of the sea captain. This was another early storyline concept from the Mansion’s earlier days, relegated to a portrait previously. As with the pipe organ, the captain’s tomb also employs water, although these are random squirts and mists that tie into his epitaph as opposed to being something triggered via touch. I’ll leave you to read that and enjoy it on your own.

Turning the corner, you’ll encounter the cryptogram library on the side of Prudence Pock’s tomb, which give little hands something to do as the books randomly slide out and must be pushed back in. (They are repeated on both sides.) For those who love a bit more mystery, there is actually something to the cryptograms, but I’ll leave you to figure that out rather than ruining the surprise. On the end of Madame Pock’s tomb is an interesting interactive book that requires guests to interact with it. Most of the answers for this part are deadly easy to figure out, which makes it very good for smaller children. Personally, I felt the voice acting on this part was a bit silly and overblown, but one miss in a bunch of interesting hits is forgivable.

I’d also note that there are new inscriptions on a nearby mausoleum: nods to other well-known Disney names such as Paul Frees, the voice of the Ghost Host. The mausoleum is actually another much-needed improvement to the Haunted Mansion: It’s actually a handicapped access entrance to the Mansion. While I’ve not been through this new accessibility entrance, I’ve been told it connects with both the exit and the area just past the stretching room inside the ride.

From there, the ride is largely as it ever was, save for a general tune-up. It appears that certain parts have had a fresh coat of paint, a bit of oil, and other portions have had a light dusting. (At least the parts that aren’t necessarily supposed to be dusty, anyway.) Once past the graveyard, you are once again greeted by that cheerful trio of hitchhiking ghosts who interact with you, but these updated versions are infinitely more fun compared to the static ones that were there before. Rather than attempting to describe their effects, I’ve embedded an official Disney video below that explains it far better than I’d be able to. That way, you can decide for yourself if you’d like to see it ahead of time, or be surprised when you make it down here to the Magic Kingdom. I’ve also added in a sneak preview video from before the interactive queue opened, which should give you more of an idea of some of the pre-ride fun in store.

In all, I’m glad to see the upgrades remained in the overall spooky, silly fun of the ride itself. For now, it’s time for me to get back to tracking the news on just what we can expect from the huge Fantasyland update that’s coming up next!