Current Haunted Mansion Discussion

P

Prog

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Let me start by saying that I'm very happy with the current state of the mansion. All effects seem to work fairly well, and I heard audio tracks in the graveyard this past trip that I've never heard before outside of the soundtrack releases, namely the deaf ghost and his buddy. Heck, there were even cold running chills. I do have a few gripes though.

- The attic. I wish that they had at least sculpted a face for Constance. She looks like a manikin or slenderman. That's on top of the thematic issues that have been done to death.

- The preshow. Management just seems to treat it like part of the interactive queue, ushering guests through the first room/monologue, then rushing the end of the portrait scene, and then treating the loading area as the last stretch of queue and a free-for-all at that. Heck, the wait time counter is at the end of the loading bay.

-The exterior. It looks deliberately mildewy, which makes thematic sense but is directly contrary to the intent of Walt and its designers. Though the blacklighting is great.
 
TheOrangeBird01

TheOrangeBird01

Well-Known Member
I totally agree with the Constance comment. She's the worst looking effect in the Mansion and looks so cheaply made and thrown in. If they want to project her face that's fine, but they need to make it look like she at least HAS a face. Hopefully they do something about it for the 50th but I doubt it.
 
NearTheEars

NearTheEars

Well-Known Member
There's an audio issue in one of the stretching rooms. It's almost completely drops out at one point as it moves around the room, kind of ruining the effect. I have yet to go this month, but it was still like that in December.

Not that it really matters, as often people are still being ushered in and talking through the whole thing.
Thankfully they are paying enough attention by the end to scream hysterically when the lights go out.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
The attic scene just doesn't work. It's even worse in California, although the Hatbox Ghost makes it a little easier to forget about how bad the attic is.

RE: The Preshow, YES, Absolutely!!! Huge issue everywhere. Let's just push the people in, start the dialogue before people are even in the room, the assumption that people aren't going to listen anyway so it doesn't matter. People don't move any faster when you speed up the dialogue, they just tune out, and that hurts the ride and the effectiveness of the pre-ride portion. It's one of the only preshows that is actually GOOD. Ugh.

I also wish the changing portraits still changed slowly and gradually, and not with the lightning. There's something about it that seems off to me. I greatly prefer the subtle, slow change from one image to another.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Prog said:
Let me start by saying that I'm very happy with the current state of the mansion. All effects seem to work fairly well, and I heard audio tracks in the graveyard this past trip that I've never heard before outside of the soundtrack releases, namely the deaf ghost and his buddy. Heck, there were even cold running chills. I do have a few gripes though.

- The attic. I wish that they had at least sculpted a face for Constance. She looks like a manikin or slenderman. That's on top of the thematic issues that have been done to death.

- The preshow. Management just seems to treat it like part of the interactive queue, ushering guests through the first room/monologue, then rushing the end of the portrait scene, and then treating the loading area as the last stretch of queue and a free-for-all at that. Heck, the wait time counter is at the end of the loading bay.

-The exterior. It looks deliberately mildewy, which makes thematic sense but is directly contrary to the intent of Walt and its designers. Though the blacklighting is great.
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Well, it is the Haunted Mansion so if Walt is upset he should say something. He must be OK with it all.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
The attic scene also has a problem with the lights reflecting off the 'haunted portraits' making their SFX almost impossible to see.

Oh, and, hey, Madame Leota, if you want proof of ghoulies and goblins and spooks from beyond, I suggest you don't bother with tambourines, knocking, and horns... let's start with your disembodied head floating in a glass sphere.
 
Magicart87

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
I don't think the attic scene ever worked as intended. The show's pacing and story for this area probably never met the standards the Imagineers strived to create. It was (and still is) a limbo, transition room that had gone through many incomplete story ideas and failed effects. It's the most well-disputed room in the history of the attraction and admittedly the most boring, IMO.

The Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion illustrates a much more coherent storyline and show-pacing. When later Imagineers incorporated their own narrative for the Attic, making a "murderous" bride the central storyline it (IMO) destroyed the orginal concept of the Mansion, and it's 999 happy haunts.

I'm a HM purist but I'll fault the imagineers on certain things. This room and the Stretching Room (hanging corpse) has always been a bit incomplete or muddled.

That said; The attraction exterior/interior is the best it's been in 10+ years! Now if they can just work on addressing other things the original imagineers wanted to incorporate but didn't get around to doing.
 
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Otterhead

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
Magicart87 said:
That said; The attraction exterior/interior is the best it's been in 10+ years!
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The HM has always been a favorite attraction of mine, but I have a special fondness for the Attic... on a trip a couple of years back, I was traveling with some friends, one of whom was an eager fan, the other a jaded skeptic who kept complaining about going to a "kiddie park". I sat with her on HM, her first ride at WDW, and her grumbling quickly became giggles, then gasps and oohs and ahhs, and as we went up through the Attic she said, "wait... there's a Bride... and we're seeing her husbands... and we're jumping out the upstairs window and falling backwards... into the graveyard!" and at that moment, she totally got the concept of telling a story through the ride, and had a wonderful trip afterwards. The HM converted her from a jaded grouch to a little kid.
 
JustInTime

JustInTime

Well-Known Member
Otterhead said:
The HM has always been a favorite attraction of mine, but I have a special fondness for the Attic... on a trip a couple of years back, I was traveling with some friends, one of whom was an eager fan, the other a jaded skeptic who kept complaining about going to a "kiddie park". I sat with her on HM, her first ride at WDW, and her grumbling quickly became giggles, then gasps and oohs and ahhs, and as we went up through the Attic she said, "wait... there's a Bride... and we're seeing her husbands... and we're jumping out the upstairs window and falling backwards... into the graveyard!" and at that moment, she totally got the concept of telling a story through the ride, and had a wonderful trip afterwards. The HM converted her from a jaded grouch to a little kid.
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Yes!!! What a great story. Best ride I've ever ridden.
 
Matthew Hiester

Matthew Hiester

Member
HM is, hands down, my favorite attraction in all of WDW and it always has been. That being said, they really must fix the queue coming out of the stretching room into the loading area. I was there over the Christmas holiday and that queue was a nightmare. No one seems to quite know what to do and the sea of humanity gets funneled down to a singular line. It's chaotic and uncomfortable. It's a given that people will push and shove their way to the front. I still love the atttraction, but surely they can imagineer a better queue system. Not sure what it is, but someone should be able to figure it out.
 
mouse_luv

mouse_luv

Well-Known Member
I'm a HM purist to the max. The thing that annoyed me the most in January when we were there was that the pre-show (foyer/stretching room is my fave part) is rushed and impossible to hear b/c people won't shut up. Also, during the loading of the doombuggies, I miss when the butlers/maids used to just walk like a zombie on them and let people load, the butlers were SCREAMING at people directions the whole time. :grumpy: The interactive queue is a peeve of mine still to this day--it ruined the aura of the HM exterior.:arghh:
 
S

Sandurz

Well-Known Member
My biggest gripe with the attic scene is how terrible the piano sounds in the music up there. It's like the plainest Casio built-in cheap sound ever and really doesn't fit in in the slightest. Hate it.
 
Otterhead

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
mouse_luv said:
I miss when the butlers/maids used to just walk like a zombie on them and let people load, the butlers were SCREAMING at people directions the whole time.
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That's my only current HM complaint; in the last few years, they've started directing people to load rather than just say "two or three per buggy" and walking like zombies. I've had several really awkward incidences when I've been with a group of 5 and they've insisted on putting three in one and two in another... despite the fact that the three of us are clearly WAY too big to fit. "We won't fit," gets a firm "please be seated NOW." On more than one occasion, one person has been left outside a buggy and had to ride by themselves. Very awkward and poorly trained.
 

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