A new E-Ticket for WS - The Great British Ghost Tour

Spike-in-Berlin

Spike-in-Berlin

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Although I adore the HM (it's still my MK favorite) I always found it a little tame and too funny for a haunted house attraction. I know the history of the ride and why they built it this way. But since I did it as a kid I always had ideas about an improved Haunted Mansion that is more scary, is more a combination of walk-thru AND dark ride and is more adult. As a student of architecture I read and learned a lot about the imagineering and design of parks and attractions and now I want to design my first own attraction, the already mentioned improved ghost ride. I placed it in EPCOT because:

1) EPCOT and especially WS is just begging for more rides.
2) MK already features a ghost ride
3) EPCOT is a little more adult and teen orientated than MK and my ride is not suitable for very small children.

Storyline: The manor is the many centuries-old residence of a old noble family but in the last decades the old family had suffered from some financial problems (and some private turbulences) and the last Lord, the last of his family, lacks the fundings to keep the manor in order.
To save himself from losing his ancestors home, he finally decided to offer a ghostly vacation to thrillseeking tourists in his manor which was partially turned into a hotel for this purpose. Quite appropriate to make these vacations interesting for tourists his family is infamou..I mean known for…lets call it odd behaviour, strange and mysterious incidents and…some disappearances. And the manor and surrounding countryside is called the most haunted house and region in England.

The Great British Ghost Tour is located at the backside of the U.K-Pavilion in World Showcase. If you walk down the dead-end street to the west at the moment you get to a town square that is open to the north-west and south-west where trees seal of any optical intrusions.

This square is now changed to open on two sides to the park of an English manorstyle-house in a little distance, a mixture of tudor and elizabethan style-elements dating back to the 16th century. This manor is the entrance-building to the GBGT. The guests enter the park through a sinister looking gate and walk up to the entrance. The once representative park is now run-down and delapitated, the manors facade is decaying, everything has a aura of negligence and sometimes you even see (or believe to see?) some disturbing things in the park (queing line).

To be continued...
 
Spike-in-Berlin

Spike-in-Berlin

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Park:

From the queing line in the park there are 2 different areas visible were the waiting guests can see (or at least believe to see?) some disturbing things. The main facade of the manor features a lot of windows and sometimes there are, for only a second or less, ghostly, hooded shapes, dark shadows with some backlighting or just a pair of glowing eyes visible behind these windows. To the right of the cueing line is an overgrown and decrepit grove with old statues visible were similar sightings are possible, especially after dusk.

When the guests arrive at the entrance hall they enter without the interruptions at the entrance door of the HM, doors are always open, they just walk in. Real chills come later..

Main Entrance Hall:

The entrance hall, which is a mixture of several interior architectural styles and a little run down, was altered to include a small reception for the check-in of the guests. At the reception these are now seperated by the CM into 2 different groups of the same size, 15 persons. When a group is complete a CM dressed as a butler or a maid greets the group and leads it away from the reception area to the elevators at the end of the hall. There are two elevators and they all lead to a complete set of rooms with the same storyline so up to two groups can do the walkthru-part of the tour simultaneously.
The elevator arrives and the group gets in. The butler closes the door and the elevator goes up.

The corridor:

When the elevator comes to a halt, the doors open on a long corridor with a lot of doors that is completely quiet and dark to its end for a few seconds while the group leaves the elevator.
Suddenly there are some flashes of lightning and a thunder. At the far end of the corridor we see now some high windows with curtains blowing in the wind which were lighted up by the lightning. While the sound of thunderstorm outside echoes through the corridor the group follows the CM who tells the group that he will bring the guests to their rooms now.

He walks ahead for about the half the length of the corridor. Suddenly, like being blown open by the storm a door to his left or right side slams open. Which door opens depends because the rest of the walkthru is existing twice per corridor, which makes it possible to bring in the next group with the elevator much faster, while the first group has it's own encounter in their guest room. The CM asks the guests to enter the room. They enter a very old room with paneled walls, a fireplace, some furniture including a chair and a bed, a candle on a table, the only window is covered with old curtains. The only light in the room is the fire in fireplace and the candle on the table.

The apparition room:

Suddenly the door slams shut again. The noise of the thunderstorm is gone. (This is the moment when the next group can arrive in the corridor by elevator and take the other door to the second set.)
The CM tells the group that this will be the room for their ghostly vacation and they should please for their own safety remain after midnight in the room under any circumstances! And they never should...but before he brings the sentence to an end, a bell rings and he says “Pardon me, I am back in a moment”, opens a door in the wall and is gone.

When the guests are alone in the room for about 10-15 seconds the fire in the fireplace is beginning to grow smaller and smaller and finally goes out, the only light remaining is the candle. Then the candlelight grows smaller and smaller, the guests are in complete darkness...but suddenly they realize they are not alone...

To be continued...
 

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