The Haunted Mansion
Attraction Type: Slow-moving dark ride.
Location: Against the railroad tracks, in front of Splash Mountain.
General Description: This stately, pristine mansion overlooking the water is actually home to “999 Happy Haunts” – and they’re always looking for one more.
Will’s Review: Disneyland’s incarnation of The Haunted Mansion is one of the most storied development tales of any Disneyland attraction – and from its conception in the early 1950’s to even years recent, it’s ideas, themes, and back story have developed and twisted to rather odd proportions. Even though Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion did not open until 1969, the idea of a ‘haunted house’-type attraction was a part of the original design for Disneyland from the very beginning. The earliest Disneyland conceptual drawings featured a rather run-down, two-story manor, almost reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” house along the perimeter of the park near the train station. The concept for the haunted dwelling was put on hold while Disneyland was built, mostly as Walt Disney and his team of Imagineers went back and forth between creating a truly terrifying haunted house experience or a tongue-in-cheek version that may be more family-friendly. In the early 1960’s, plans were initially made for a small New Orleans-inspired land to be built along the Rivers of America in a vacant space between Frontierland/Indian Village and Adventureland. In a rare move of jumping the gun, Disneyland began promoting the new land with a haunted house walk-through and a wax pirate museum walk-through as early as 1962. Famed Disney Imagineer Ken Anderson was assigned the task of creating the New Orleans Square attractions, and had originally based his Haunted Mansion designs around the same rickety, run-down manor that Imagineer Harper Goff had conceptualized previously. However, being inspired by a trip to the stately-yet-creepy Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, Walt decided that the mansion’s exterior should be stately and well-kept, in keeping with the clean New Orleans Square theme. He wanted the only evidence of the “haunted” presence at the mansion to be on the inside (this tradition was kept for all Disney theme park haunted attractions, until the creation of Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris).
The original walk-through idea of a haunted house was rooted in the previously-designed, but never-built Museum of the Weird. This “museum” and walk-through attraction would have taken Disneyland guests past an array of international oddities and unusual antiques, all in a somewhat ghostly setting to play up their supposedly “haunted” nature. At the same time, however, Walt had felt his Imagineers had “learned too much” to be building walk-throughs, and while experimenting with the concepts of a boat ride for the pirates exhibit rather than a walk-through, he had his Imagineers take over a soundstage at the Disney studios in Burbank to experiment with a variety of special effects that could be employed in an actual ride for the haunted attraction. Without solidifying plans for the actual interior attraction, the exterior of the proper plantation manor was completed in 1963, along the banks of the Rivers of America. The rest of New Orleans Square would not be open until 1966, while the attraction inside would not be ready for guests until 1969. A couple factors contributed to the six-year delay of The Haunted Mansion’s opening. One reason was that Walt and his designers became heavily involved in the 1964 New York World’s Fair, designing four attractions for the special event (most of them large-scale, including “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” and “it’s a small world”). Walt’s declining health and eventual death in December of 1966 was another huge blow to the attraction’s progress.
Taken over after Walt’s death by Imagineer Marc Davis (a Disney legend in his own right), Disneyland’s haunted attraction began to take shape, focusing on a family-style tongue-in-cheek humor with a campy scariness that would better fit the attraction’s inclusion in the park. In order to create the fully-immersive, large-scale attraction that was needed to help re-establish the park after Walt’s death, a creative system for housing a large attraction in a small space was devised. The end result was that most of the huge attraction was built on a ground-level soundstage just outside of Disneyland’s western-most berm, allocating a space of land between the public area of the park and West Street (now renamed Disneyland Drive). The attraction that was built and that guests enjoy today is experienced in two-parts: a walk-through (in a nod to the concept of The Museum of the Weird) and a ride-through. The initial part of the walk-through involves taking guests into a haunted “stretching room” where the ceiling seems to grow and the room stretch. In actuality, this is a large-scale, roofless elevator that takes guests to a basement level. The large interior hallways of the mansion that are then walked is an underground passage that takes guests beneath the train tracks and into an underground loading area for the ride vehicles. Once aboard the vehicles – or “DoomBuggies” as they are affectionately nicknamed – they climb a staircase that takes guests back above ground to the soundstage.
As far as the actual ride goes, it is a Disneyland staple that is reminiscent of a time when original attractions were created that didn’t necessarily have to tie in with a movie or other Disney-related production. In essence, it could stand on its own. While the special effects seen today are admittedly dated (it’s not too hard to pick out “invisible” guide wires and projection beams in the Séance Room, for example), the attraction is key to experiencing the fun and a bit of the quirkiness that Disneyland is known for. As far as a storyline goes, this attraction – like its New Orleans sister, Pirates of the Caribbean – seems to have had a storyline (or two) tacked on after the fact. The current storyline exists for those who know what to look for, and while hints of it can be seen at many of the Haunted Mansion incarnations around the world, the actual storyline did not evolve into public consciousness until the creation of Phantom Manor in Paris. It was at this point, in the early 1990’s, that an extra effort was made to further solidify an essential plot.
The story goes that the “stately mansion on the hill” was the home of New Orleans shipping tycoon Master Gracey. According to legend, Master Gracey was out on a trip and came home a bit early, only to find that his young bride-to-be was occupying his manor with a strange new gentleman caller. In a fit of rage, Master Gracey killed his young bride, decapitated the young caller, threw his engagement ring out the window, and hung himself in the rafters of the manor. A bit macabre, especially for a tongue-in-cheek Disneyland ride? Yes, perhaps. However, this all ties into the “ghost host” seen hanging from the rafters in the Stretching Room, the red beating heart of the bride in the attack, the newly-installed portraits behind the bride in the attack, and the legendary Disneyland “Hatbox Ghost” – a short-lived Audio-Animatronic in the attic scene who would “lose his head,” only to have it re-appear in the hatbox he was holding. In addition, at the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World’s Liberty Square, a diamond ring can be found embedded into the pavement outside of one second-story window of the manor. The greatest tragedy, however, is that in his fit of rage, Master Gracey never stopped to learn that his beloved bride was not cheating on him – the gentleman caller was merely a salesman from the local department store, who brought over a variety of dresses for the bride to try on at the last moment, in an effort to surprise Master Gracey upon his return. Now you understand why the Mansion is haunted?
Every year since 2001, The Haunted Mansion transforms between September – December to become Haunted Mansion Holiday, a classic retelling of the attraction using the plot and characters of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Touring Tips: Busiest mid-day; lightest during Fantasmic! performances, but good luck on negotiating the crowds to get over there during that time. Visit just before park closing for the shortest lines.
Family Info: This is the attraction – along with (oddly) Snow White’s Scary Adventures – that gets the most complaints for scaring the little ones. Things are done in a tongue-in-cheek manner here, but a dark overlay in recent years has made things a bit more mysterious, especially in the attic scene. If your kids freak out on Jungle Cruise or Snow White, you might want to skip this attraction.
Variations: A variation of The Haunted Mansion can be found at all Disneyland-style parks with the exception of Hong Kong Disneyland. In Disneyland Park Paris, it is known as Phantom Manor. Even though similar in theme, the architectural styles and ride experiences differ dramatically from park to park. Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is the only version built in the French Quarter style, and the only one located therein. The Magic Kingdom (Liberty Square) and Tokyo Disneyland (Fantasyland) versions are both constructed in a Dutch Gothic Revival style, whereas Paris’ Phantom Manor (Frontierland) version is built in a ghostly Second Empire style.
Pirates of the Caribbean - Haunted Mansion - The Disneyland Railroad New Orleans Square Station
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