Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
When the crypt doors creakAnd the tombstones quakeSpooks come out for a singing wakeHappy haunts materializeAnd begin to vocalizeGrim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!
From the time he began dreaming of what Disneyland could be, Walt Disney wanted the new theme park to have a haunted house. Originally, it was supposed to be a walk-through attraction, and the Southern mansion was designed to look decrepit and neglected. However, Walt did not want something so run down in his shiny new park.
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Walt became inspired when he visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. He was captivated by the stairs that led nowhere, secret doors, and an elevator.
The attraction was supposed to open in 1965, but things changed after Disney premiered “it’s a small world” at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Then, Walt died in 1966.
After that, the attraction underwent a major overhaul and redesign. Instead of creating a walk-through attraction, Disney Imagineers decided to utilize the omnimover and created the Doom Buggies. It allowed the new attraction to not only hold more guests but also let the Imagineers control what the guests saw, considering the ride vehicles could move in any direction.
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The Haunted Mansion opened in New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park on August 12, 1969, and was an immediate hit.
It was so popular with guests that a similar attraction became one of the opening day attractions at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World two years later, on October 1, 1971.
While both attractions have largely similar stories, there are some big differences between the Disneyland and Disney World versions of the attraction. Let’s take a look at them!
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The Facade
This is the most obvious difference between the two attractions, and there is a big reason for it.
As stated above, the original attraction opened in New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park in 1969. To fit the theme of the land, the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland looks like a large plantation home, complete with a wrap-around porch and columns in the front.
The Magic Kingdom, however, does not have New Orleans Square. Instead, they have Liberty Square, which brings America’s Colonial era to life. The house is a combination of Dutch Gothic and Hudson River Valley.
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The Ride Queue
The differences are striking when it comes to the queue (AKA line) that guests have to wait in before they ride The Haunted Mansion.
The ride queue in the Magic Kingdom is not only interactive, but it also tells a story and even lets guests solve a mystery!
There is a group of busts towards the front of the line. They are family members who have all killed each other — Cousin Maude, Forsythia and Wellington (the Twins), Uncle Jacob, Aunt Florence, and Bertie.
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There is also an interactive wall by the composer’s crypt, where guests can press various etchings on the tomb and corresponding musical instruments will play. If you listen carefully, you’ll find that the instruments will actually play Grim Grinning Ghosts!
Guests can also help poet Prudence Pock complete her unfinished poem and listen to Captain Culpepper Clyne’s gurgling noises. “He braved the sea and all her wrath but drowned on land while taking a bath.”
The Haunted Mansion ride queue at Disneyland, however, is not interactive. It is a simple queue that takes guests through both a pet cemetery and a regular cemetery, like the one in Disney World. There are funny tombstones that rhyme and tell how family members died. Take Good Old Fred; a great big rock fell on his head.
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While the ride queues are strikingly different now, there are some big changes happening in Disneyland. The ride currently utilizes a virtual queue system, and most of the standby queue is blocked off. Disney crews are working hard on giving the queue a major overhaul, making it more interactive like the one in the Magic Kingdom.
The Stretching Room
“Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination — hmm? And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows and no doors… which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out!”
The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland is not as long as the one in Walt Disney World, mostly because of space. Because of this lack of space, the infamous Stretching Room in Disneyland actually serves a purpose. It takes guests down an elevator, and then they walk underneath the Disneyland Railroad before they board their Doom Buggies.
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Since Disney World does not suffer from a space problem, the Stretching Room stretches upward, without moving the guests to a different location. The effect is purely for story purposes.
The Haunting Ride Through the Mansion
The Library
If you are only familiar with The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland Park, then you might wonder what the heck we are talking about. And that is because Disneyland’s version of the ride does not have a library.
However, at the beginning of the Magic Kingdom attraction, guests are taken through the mansion’s library, which is full of priceless first editions — only ghost stories, of course.
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There are several busts of some of the most well-known ghost writers in history in the library as well. They have all decided to “retire” to the Haunted Mansion and make it their permanent home. Two of these busts can be seen near the end of the queue in Disneyland.
The Stairs to Nowhere
This is one of the best parts of The Haunted Mansion (in my opinion), and it is only found at the Magic Kingdom attraction. The Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom is longer than the one in Disneyland, which allows for more creepy and fun rooms.
This dark room is full of stairs that lead in all directions, but none of them go anywhere. They are right-side up, upside down, diagonal, tilted to the side, every which way you can imagine.
Credit: CrackedMack, Haunted Mansion Wiki
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The Hitchhiking Ghosts
Just like the Magic Kingdom ride queue, the Hitchhiking Ghosts scene is interactive, while the one at Disneyland is not.
Guests at the Magic Kingdom will see the three ghosts — Ezra Beane, Professor Phineas Plump, and Gus — interact with them in the mirrors. Sometimes they even take guests’ heads off and switch them!
At Disneyland, the Hitchhiking Ghosts simply sit with the guests in their Doom Buggy as they get ready to follow them home.
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A Holiday Transformation
Over in Walt Disney World Resort, rides rarely receive overlays for special occasions, with one of the few changes being made to the Jungle Cruise at Christmas when it becomes the Jingle Cruise.
But over at Disneyland, The Haunted Mansion closes for several weeks in August as it is transformed into Haunted Mansion Holiday. The overlay is themed after Tim Burton’s classic 1993 movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack Skellington has wrecked the halls, and guests get to see what happens when two holidays collide.
The mansion is full of characters from the film, including Jack as Sandy Claws. But you must be careful, Scary Teddy loves to cause trouble along the way!
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The Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom also has an official gift shop — Memento Mori’s — but Disneyland does not, for now. Along with changing up the ride queue, Disneyland crews are also working hard to build a gift shop at the ride’s exit. The store was supposed to open in 2024, but it is unknown if it will be finished before the end of the year.
Overall, the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland and Disney World are very similar and equally creepy. Whichever version of the ride you prefer, you are sure to have a spooktacular experience!
Have you ridden The Haunted Mansion at both Disneyland and Disney World? Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
I have been to both WDW and Disneyland multiple times, and still prefer the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. Even though their are interactive items at WDW, the line moves quickly and you have multiple children crowding around the items and pushing buttons. This sometimes backs up the line going in. The Disneyland Haunted Mansion line, seems to move faster, and has a certain vibe to it, hard to explain, but maybe due to being the original Mansion.