Haunted Mansion

Description

The Haunted Mansion is a classic ride at the Magic Kingdom. It takes you on a buggy ride through a mansion haunted by ghosts, ghouls, and other foul things of the night and afterlife. As they say, there is room for one thousand ghosts in the mansion, and currently 999 reside there... any volunteers?

At night, the mansion is lit in blue lights, creating a somber view. Occasional white flashes against the side of the building make it look like lightning is crashing around the mansion.

Entrance

The Haunted Mansion is located in Liberty Square, and is situated next to the Liberty Square Riverboat. There are two lines for entry, one for normal entry and the other for FastPass holders.

Line

When you enter the line at the Haunted Mansion, pay attention to your surroundings. At the main entrance is a horse-drawn hearse, but where the horses should be are simply the reins held up mysteriously by unseen entities. As you get closer to the door, there is a graveyard off to the left hand side, and all of the gravestone markers hold witty phrases for those buried underneath.

Once inside, there are a number of stages you must go through before you get to the ride proper. First is an entry foyer where you gather with about thirty others, and some announcements are made by those attending the ride. Take note here of the portraits on the wall, as they will appear to be rotting before your eyes and in the end, will be portraits of corpses. After this, you are ushered into one of two rooms where there are paintings on the wall. A voice recording is played and the walls begin to grow taller (or do you grow shorter?) and reveal more of the paintings on the wall. At the end, the ceiling of the room disappears and you are greeted with the gruesome sight of a person hanging from a noose from the rafters while lighting flashes and thunder crashes. The exit to from this room funnels into a common hallway between the two rooms where you then line up for the ride.

Riding the Ride

To get onto the ride, you walk along a moving walkway and climb into your buggy. Each buggy holds two adults, though a third child could probably squeeze in the middle. Two persons are recommended however due to an event that occurs towards the end of the ride.

Once on the ride, you go through a number of rooms and hallways showing all of the classic gruesome things that have to do with haunted houses. Clanking chains, ghosts popping up, and coffins galore. The presentation of ghosts in this ride is second to none, and I know of no other ride out there that comes even close to depicting the spooky supernatural.

Towards the end of the ride, you are turned so that your car is facing a set of mirrors. In the mirrors you see yourself and whomever you happen to be riding with, and in the middle of the buggy is a ghostly apparition. Each of the ghosts in the buggies are different, and you can tell because you can see a number of the buggies to either side and they all have different ghosts.

One of the nice touches about the ride is the amount of detail placed into the different scenes. For instance, when you are first getting into the buggies, in the back right-hand corner is a small table with a chair and a lamp that no one ever sits at, yet it is there in the loading area for people to see if they simply would look.

1. One of the first things you go through in the buggies is a hall of paintings where the eyes of the characters in the paintings follow you. Even the cats in the paintings have eyes that follow you.
2. Next you go through a library, filled with nothing by ghost stories written by ghost writers.
3. After this is a player piano, and on the floor in front of the piano you can see a shadow of someone playing it. It is only too bad that they could not get the shadow to sync well with the keys that are being played.
4. Next come some spooky spiders.
5. then a long hallway with a candelabra floating down the middle of it away from you. Something to keep an eye out for here is the back of one of the chairs nearby, which has a pseudo image of Donald Duck inlaid into it. This is what is known as a Hidden Mickey.
6. Next are a bunch of doors along the hallway which are either breathing in and out or have their knockers knocking. At the end of this is a grandfather clock whose hands have been replaced with bloody fingers, and also happens to be going backwards.
7. This is the crystal ball room, where a ghostly woman's head makes predictions from within a crystal ball. On the walls and hanging from the ceiling you can see day-glo objects, including a trumpet.
8. The dining room, where ghosts dance and eat dinner to music playing. Also pay attention to the paintings high on the wall, as one set of paintings has a bit of a gun fight.
9. The screaming room, where ghastly heads reminiscent of New Orleans Mardi Gras pop out of boxes and scream at you.
10. The beating heart bride, a mannequin dressed up in a wedding dress whose red beating heart is glowing from within her and the sound of the beats is quite noticable.
11. The graveyard comes next, where all kinds of objects are to be seen. Of particular interest is the man holding a lantern in one hand and the leash to his hound dog in the other. This is a classic image. Also to be seen here are the four talking heads, projections on the inside of glass balls that look like talking heads. Quite well done.
12. There are then some singing Valkyries.
13. Finally come the hitchhiking ghosts, where you get to see a projection of ghosts sitting in the middle of your buggy in a mirror.

Exiting the Ride

You get off the ride in the same way that you get on, via a moving walkway. Once off the walkway you go through a hallway and then a door, and you find yourself towards the front of the building very near the entrance. Be sure to check out the pet cemetary off to the left hand side of the walkway as you exit, as it is just as comical as the cemetary you see on your way in.

Opinion

By far one of the best rides at the Magic Kingdom. The technology used to present the imagery in this ride was developed over thirty years ago, and even today nothing else compares.