The Mystery Fun House

scottnj1966

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hi all,

Does anyone remember the Mystery Fun House? If not it was an attraction on Major Blvd from 1976 to 2001.
Here is plenty of pictures and info to remind you;

http://www.bigfloridacountry.com/mysteryfunhouse.htm

I bring this up because of a rumor I just received about a reboot of this place that may happen in the near future.
It is said the original building will be utilized but everything inside will be rebuilt using the latest entertainment technologies to make it even better.

I for one would love to see it reopen. It was some special four Orlando that just didn't get enough attention. I really think we are ready to try again. Orlando has lost so much of itself the last ten or so years and would love to see some of come back again.

Central Florida's showing signs of increased tourists and building. Lets hope we are going to see an increase of some fun things to do besides the big boys in town.

Anyone else hear anything?
 

MKCP 1985

Well-Known Member
Having been there, I would describe it as a lousy tourist trap. I hope it wasn't your family's business. It got thrown into tour packages which lulled unsuspecting tourists into going there for . . . 10 minutes . . . until they figured out how to escape.

When I was working at the Magic Kingdom in the mid-80s, I asked for (and was granted) a day off and my manager said in mock-sincerity, "you know, that's the day the Mystery Funhouse is going to be making its biggest push for our business and you are really going to be letting us down to be out." LoL All these years later, that is the thing I remember most about the place.

Nostalgia is fun and all, but the Mystery Funhouse is a step back in the wrong direction.
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
I remember it well. As a skittish little girl afraid of her own shadow, the place terrified me. I totally fault the macabre scene with the rats eating the lady alive for my life-long fear of rats & mice. Seriously. And at the end where you walked thru the dark passage and the scary disembodied head or face or whatever was glowing in the floor...OMG...I feel the breath leaving me remembering the moment I saw that the first time. I froze. I could NOT step over it. I thought it would get me. Totally took my breath away. I couldn't talk, scream, breathe, move, nothing. Complete terror. I believe the first time I encountered it my dad picked me up and placed me on the other side. Second & subsequent times I was shoved by my step dad and/or siblings. It ws the thing of nightmares. But really, that place was bound to be intense for me. I had serious, serious issues with fear as a little kid. Can't tell you how many nights I spent in my bed all night imaging all the ways death was upon me in that moment. Shaking and crying all night. Mystery Fun House was like all my crazy imagined terrors incarnate. I hated that place.
 

scottnj1966

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Having been there, I would describe it as a lousy tourist trap. I hope it wasn't your family's business. It got thrown into tour packages which lulled unsuspecting tourists into going there for . . . 10 minutes . . . until they figured out how to escape.

When I was working at the Magic Kingdom in the mid-80s, I asked for (and was granted) a day off and my manager said in mock-sincerity, "you know, that's the day the Mystery Funhouse is going to be making its biggest push for our business and you are really going to be letting us down to be out." LoL All these years later, that is the thing I remember most about the place.

Nostalgia is fun and all, but the Mystery Funhouse is a step back in the wrong direction.

I love Disney, I am a passholder and have been for many years but guess what, It is a tourist trap in its own right.
Many of my friends and even family cannot even afford it anymore.

We need more smaller places to come back to Orlando, if they don't all that will be left is Disney, Sea World, and Universal. Oh wait I think that's happened already. I miss the MFH, Stars Hall of Fame, Six Gun, and everything else that is long gone.

Mystery Fun House did become a mess in the late 80's and then its demise. It become a timeshare commercial. I do hope if it does come back it will be just a place to have fun with the family.

Orlando needs more fun. We should have many many choices. Your quote saying the wrong direction, well I am sorry but if your direction is just the big three, then I don't agree.
 

scottnj1966

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I remember it well. As a skittish little girl afraid of her own shadow, the place terrified me. I totally fault the macabre scene with the rats eating the lady alive for my life-long fear of rats & mice. Seriously. And at the end where you walked thru the dark passage and the scary disembodied head or face or whatever was glowing in the floor...OMG...I feel the breath leaving me remembering the moment I saw that the first time. I froze. I could NOT step over it. I thought it would get me. Totally took my breath away. I couldn't talk, scream, breathe, move, nothing. Complete terror. I believe the first time I encountered it my dad picked me up and placed me on the other side. Second & subsequent times I was shoved by my step dad and/or siblings. It ws the thing of nightmares. But really, that place was bound to be intense for me. I had serious, serious issues with fear as a little kid. Can't tell you how many nights I spent in my bed all night imaging all the ways death was upon me in that moment. Shaking and crying all night. Mystery Fun House was like all my crazy imagined terrors incarnate. I hated that place.


My friends Twin girls were scared of the dragon at the bridge. We had to hold them and run for it.
I never was scared of the place when I was a child even though it did have some scary things in it.
 

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
I always wanted to visit. I moved down in 2001...but didn't have my own car until 2002...and guess what I did when I had my car? Yep...drove out to Orlando to check the place out, only to find that it had closed months before.

It was a wacky tourist trap place from the looks of it, but those types of diversions are fun sometimes!

It sucks that Orlando has lost Mystery Fun House, Splendid China, Skull Kingdom, Water Mania, etc...all fun places!
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
@cheezbat, don't forget Stars Hall of Fame! LOL! My dad has a few pics of us on the mini-golf course outside Mystery Fun House. He also has a few outside Stars Hall of Fane. I'll try to remember to dig them out next time I'm at their house for a visit.
 

Krazyjoe

Member
Having been there, I would describe it as a lousy tourist trap. I hope it wasn't your family's business. It got thrown into tour packages which lulled unsuspecting tourists into going there for . . . 10 minutes . . . until they figured out how to escape.

........

Nostalgia is fun and all, but the Mystery Funhouse is a step back in the wrong direction.
I couldn't disagree more! My family loved the Mystery Fun House. It was a total blast. Yes, it WAS included in our vacation package when we stayed at Westgate Vacation Villas in 1989, and we went and the whole family loved it. About a year later I saw it on an episode of 'Superboy: The Series' and got very excited.
 

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