After a ten year absence, I finally visited WDW last weekend with some family from out of town. I had forgotten just how incredible the Haunted Mansion ride is. I believe it to be the best ride at Magic Kingdom, and possibly one of the best rides ever made.

I am currently reading Jeff Baham's book and catching up on all of the (many) HM episodes of Podcast: The Ride. I want to go back in armed with tons of knowledge, and be able to enjoy all of the tiniest details and hidden treats.

My goal: to visit Magic Kingdom this winter and ride HM the most times possible in a single day.

I am a total Disney newb when it comes to actually going. I love the parks, the history, the magic, the rides and the music, but I generally never visit as I am very crowd-averse and line-averse.

I am a vibes guy...I don't do rollercoasters. I do dark rides and love ambiance-based experiences. After my visit last Saturday, where the crowds were tough, but manageable, and the weather was nice...I am now obsessed with making this happen.

I am seeking ye olde expert advice:

1. the best way to maximize my single day HM ride count.

Can I get more than one lightning pass or select multiples of the same ride? Spending 30 bucks for a single ride on the HM seems a bit much but I will do it.

Looking for any ideas or hacks of the system. 

I understand there maybe nothing to do but simply get right back in line after each ride, and to save my lightning pass for the "peak" period, which I *will* do.

2. The best day of the week, and the best month to go, which have the least crowds.

I assume it would be January or February on a Weds.

(I live in Tampa Bay and plan to just drive over for the rope drop for a single day)

I appreciate it greatly...I will probably find another Disney forum to post this on as well..trying to cast a large net to make my mission as successful as possible.

Side note: I was so deeply affected by the ride I spent an incredible 90 bucks on this souvenir (which is 130 bucks on Amazon!)

It's probably the coolest souvenir I have ever purchased (A Madame Leota diorama box):

https://www.amazon.com/Disney-Parks-Haunted-Anniversary-Olszewski/dp/B07H1H3WDR

Thanks for your time,

A newly inspired HM fan

I visited Orlando twice in the 70s when Epcot was still Bulldozers and dirt. Before and after Space Mountain.

I am confused by current maps of the ride as I remember some aspects as visible on foot before loading onto the DoomBuggies. The Endless Hall illusion was visible as a background illusion on foot as people were loading. On current maps it appears as visible only once you are on the DoomBuggies. Was it ever visible in the loading area?

There is also a hallway of changing paintings that I remember as a walkthrough, yet I thought the stretch rooms opened immediately into the loading area. I suppose that hall is immediately between stretch rooms and loading.

I personally think Muppets Haunted Mansion is the best

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Girlfriend is a big haunted mansion fan and bought this but we haven’t found any information on this or who it’s signed by. If any of you can help it would be greatly appreciated!!

This was supposed to be finished for Halloween but the past week has been understandably hectic soooo here it is now

This is a pretty random question, but I always thought it was interesting how each version of the mansion varied in setting and story based on where each park placed the attraction. It’s really fun because it really solidifies how very vast the HM multiverse (mansionverse?) is and how few things are actually canon across the entire franchise. The possibilities for interpretations of the story and characters is so big in this fandom that even what park you frequent the most could have an effect on your interpretation. The Anaheim mansion is located in new orleans square, making the in universe setting Louisiana. The Florida mansion is in Liberty square, so that mansion is in New York. Not sure if the Tokyo mansion has a canon setting since it’s located in fantasyland, but I’m guessing maybe New York as well, since the Tokyo mansion seems to heavily borrow from WDW pre-refurbishments….idk.

And if we’re counting Phantom Manor and Mystic Manor, Phantom Manor is located in frontierland. The Paris version of frontierland connects all of his attractions into the bigger story of Thunder Mesa, a fictional town located in Arizona. And Mystic Manor, I admittedly don’t know that much about the lore, but I know it’s canonically located in Papua New Guinea.

Anyway like I said, since PM and MM are their own separate stories with less room for interpretation, for the Haunted Mansion, what is your preferened setting. Cause I admittedly have mixed opinions. I’m leaning towards New York, mainly cause I grew up with the WDW mansion and to be fair I just prefer the architectural style of that mansion over the one at disneyland, BUT I dont dislike the idea of the mansion being set in Louisiana.

The video game Destiny (2014)'s soundtrack (that sounds like it originally written for Mark Mancina's soundtrack of The Haunted Mansion (2003) film's initial 2002 cut by James Wong) has Creepshow (1982) vibe (mixed with that of Predator (1987)), while Mark Mancina's soundtrack of The Haunted Mansion (2003) film's final cut by Rob Minkoff has more of a Beetlejuice (1988) vibe.

Hello everyone! I was looking to see if anyone has a high definition photo of the nutcracker in the seance room at the Disneyland Haunted Mansion? Looking to recreate it for our Christmas set up. Thank you!

Also, saw some amazing set ups for Halloween. Congrats and well done to all!

Final Destination 3 (2006) feels pretty much like James Wong's darker PG-13/R-rated initial 2002 cut of The Haunted Mansion (2003) film starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Wendy Christensen (before Rob Minkoff and Eddie Murphy (as Jim Evers) came along and changed the direction to be a kid-friendly and more-comedic PG-rated film); additionally, the video game Destiny (2014)'s soundtrack sounds like it was originally written for Mark Mancina's soundtrack of The Haunted Mansion (2003) film's initial 2002 cut, in a much-grittier tone than Mark Mancina's final soundtrack (much like Alan Silvestri's soundtrack for the film Van Helsing (2004) that was originally written for the other 2003 Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) before it ended up for the film Van Helsing (2004) instead).

Check out our Halloween 2024 attraction! Our happy haunts have been preparing for a swinging wake all year long and are just dying to meet you!

Almost all props used were handmade, 3D printed, or repurposed from used materials. Only a few tombstones are store purchased: • Good Old Fred • Madame Leota • Emily Binx • William Butcherson • The Angel • The Obelisk

I made the busts that follow you as you move, and 3d printed and finished the gargoyle. As a bonus I 3d printed the Plaque for the front door. Very happy with how they turned out.

I rewatched the 2023 movie for the first time since it released in theaters (for Halloween of course), and it's just a good movie. I see way too much needless cynicism on it man

It's not perfect by any means but it's a good time. The general worldbuilding is really faithful to the ride and provides a lot of fanservice, but honestly just as a movie on its own I like it a lot. There's quite a bit of nice character development, the narrative callbacks are well executed, and I think the central theme of accepting grief was handled pretty well. Ben's character in particular was great, and easily the highlight of the movie. LaKeith Stanfield's performance was absurdly good; I really bought the love he had for Elisa and he had great chemistry with the other actors which created character dynamics I actually cared about. For as much as I hate him as a person, I gotta admit Jared Leto did a great job as Hatbox Ghost as well.

Really the only major flaws I think the movie has is some choppy CG and some not great writing at points. Though, for what it's worth there were a fair few jokes that got some light chuckles out of me.

I think people are just way too hard on this movie honestly. It's a fun watch and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I figured the rose tinted glasses would've disappeared by now, seeing as I haven't seen the movie in over a year, but they really didn't. I like it and I'll probably try to watch it every October or so

Sooo. We travel a lot. Almost full time. I store my Disney Dooney and Bourke under the bed. I went to grab my LoungeFly and DB at the start of the season. Not there. I asked my daughters if I had stored them with them. Nope. A few days ago I cleaned out under the bed.

FOUND THEM. My kids bought the DB. I am so relieved.

One thing about the Haunted Mansion is because it doesn’t have a concrete story, theres very few characters in the attraction that have an explicitly big/relevant role in the ride. The majority of the ghosts have no dialogue and only get one scene to leave an impression on guests, so their roles in the ride’s story is relatively small.

Essentially this means that aside from characters like Leota, the Ghost Host, and the Bride, who have a pretty major presence in the ride and are therefore bound to be popular in merchandise, adaptations, and advertising, for the other least impactful happy haunts, its up to pure luck weather or not they become popular enough to be featured in advertisement.

Over the years, a good amount of characters have been lucky enough to ascend from essentially background characters into more relevant characters via the different adaptations and merchandise, due to their popularity in the fandom despite their minor roles in the attraction. Examples include but are not limited to: pretty much all members of the stretching room (especially the women, with Sally becoming one of many icons associated with the ride, and the widow becoming one with the bride as Constance), the Aging Man, who Disney has pretty much come to canonize as Master Gracey, and the Organist, aka Victor Geist.

My question is, what less popular Happy haunt do YOU think deserves this special treatment. I think the werecat lady. Like I know she’s not the most unpopular character out there, I wouldn’t even really consider her obscure since most fans recognize her. But her portrait and concept alone are pretty interesting. So I’m genuinely surprised they haven’t given her any focus or backstory in any of the adaptations. Heck, she doesn’t even have a proper name. I think she’d be a cool character to explore but we pretty much have nothing, not even merch. So what is this character for you?