News Fix the Haunted Mansion Intro Timer

[matt9112]

The whole loading operation felt very rushed and pushy in November. There should be more of a sense of trepidation than cast members yelling “Go! Go!” I guess the faster they load the more people can post on Facebook that they rode the Haunted” House “ at Disney World.

got to pump those numbers up....its all math...guest experience takes a back seat to math.

 

[docandsix]

It keeps costing more and more, while the value and quality are rocketing downward. Too bad that the managers are more beholden to bean counting and crowd flow than to show, one of the few things that distinguishes Disney from all the other high quality theme parks around the world—or used to.

 

[phillip9698]

What a disgrace. I knew that they have been starting "when hinges creak" before everybody is inside the foyer for a while now, but the stretching room effect starting while the door is open is an abomination. I guess this is what happens when most people don't even care about experiencing the attractions anymore and would rather be posting pictures of it on Instagram.

It's an executive decision, nothing to do with guest satisfaction.

 

[raymusiccity]

Nothing like being in the stretching room while it's stretching and hearing the "Beep, Beep" of an ECV backing up in the doorway.

I think the ECV is much scarier. They should add that effect to the sequence

 

[NobodyElse]

I guess this is one of the advantages of the mansion at DLR. They can't start the pre-show before the doors close because it is an actual elevator!

I was going to mention this as well.

(The only time I did HM in Florida, they basically walked me straight through the stretching room. Pretty dumb, and as you note, impossible at Disneyland.)

But I'm not letting Disneyland off the hook. In the good old days, they would fill in the foyer and actually shut the door behind you. Then the foyer spiel would commence until one of the stretching room entrance doors would open. Once they closed, they would open the foyer door and fill it again. Rinse, repeat.

They've really slacked off on the foyer presentation for some years now. The door is rarely (never?) closed, and there's a chance that a guest might never stop in that room, moving straight to the stretching room (missing the foyer spiel).

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

I’m at the Magic Kingdom, and the Haunted Mansion’s intro audio is completely off-sync. This has been true for three rides since Sunday. The “When hinges creak...” audio is barely audible, the “Welcome, foolish mortals” cue plays almost directly on top of it, and the room begins stretching BEFORE guests have loaded into it.

This was not a one-off mistake by a new cast member. I’ve seen this happen three times since Sunday, and it’s probably happening for every single cycle. If the CMs are causing the problem, management needs to step in and fix this ASAP.

Sadly, this is now official SOP. The show start is on a timer and intentionally begins before guests have even fully loaded into the foyer. It's been this way for a very long time now and it's absolutely unacceptable. Also completely defeats the entire purpose of the preshow design of the attraction.

 

[sixbagelboy]

I'm sure it manages to keep the Load Hall a little more readily filled, but the negative impact on the show is palpable and the ride doesn't actually load any faster than it always has, so it seems like this is ultimately for naught.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the speed of the Doombuggies variable? If the original speed was slower than they operate it today, it makes sense they could push more people onto the ride today if it moves faster today than years ago, thereby pushing the people past the foyer and through the pre-show would be productive. Not professional or thoughtful...but productive.

 

[tirian]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the speed of the Doombuggies variable? If the original speed was slower than they operate it today, it makes sense they could push more people onto the ride today if it moves faster today than years ago, thereby pushing the people past the foyer and through the pre-show would be productive. Not professional or thoughtful...but productive.

DL solved the problem that way, and TBH it feels a bit too fast with the droll Ghost Host VO.

 

[pbrsaau]

When they upgraded the audio in the stretching room a few years back I wanted to hear the ghosts whispering at the end when you leave the stretching room. I was probably the last person in line to leave the stretching room. The cast member was not courteous at all in verbally pushing me out of the room. I told her I just wanted to hear the new audio and she said I had to leave (the room). It was very annoying for sure. There must be a huge disconnect between creative and operations departments.

 

[Magicart87]

I can think of a quick fix that might hurry us along but it requires the removal of a key show element that sets up the entire premise of the ride. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. In the PC world we live in and with operations eager to make guest throughput as quick as possible... Is it only a matter of time? I refuse to say what could be done. It's removal would certainly be detrimental to the mansion. It would lose it's identity. You can't have one without the other. But you do have to wonder... would Disney every do such a thing?

More importantly would the removal of "that" scene actually speed things along? Tin-foil hat time! What if; Guillermo Del Toro's movie stalled simply because Disney wanted a different storyline or plot point to replace the ride's intro scene? One that is PC friendly and (from an operations standpoint) could set up the ride in a shorter amount of time. Now that-that is out of the way:

What is to gain from using a timer vs a CM pushing a button? 5 mins or so. Sure it adds up but wasn't the "interactive queue" nonsense designed to alleviate wait time blues? What's 5 extra mins really? IDK, I think the whole thing is incredibly stupid.

 

[peter11435]

I can think of a quick fix that might hurry us along but it requires the removal of a key show element that sets up the entire premise of the ride. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened yet. In the PC world we live in and with operations eager to make guest throughput as quick as possible... Is it only a matter of time? I refuse to say what could be done. It's removal would certainly be detrimental to the mansion. It would lose it's identity. You can't have one without the other. But you do have to wonder... would Disney every do such a thing?

More importantly would the removal of "that" scene actually speed things along? Tin-foil hat time! What if; Guillermo Del Toro's movie stalled simply because Disney wanted a different storyline or plot point to replace the ride's intro scene? One that is PC friendly and (from an operations standpoint) could set up the ride in a shorter amount of time. Now that-that is out of the way:

What is to gain from using a timer vs a CM pushing a button? 5 mins or so. Sure it adds up but wasn't the "interactive queue" nonsense designed to alleviate wait time blues? What's 5 extra mins really? IDK, I think the whole thing is incredibly stupid.

As with most things; I blame Fastpass.

The stretch rooms aren’t really holding anyone up and do not negatively effect the capacity of the attraction.

When it comes to attraction operations seconds are huge let along minutes. 5 minutes is an eternity.

In this case manual would be better assuming you had cast members that acted properly and responsibly.

 

[ObscurityPoint]

After riding it friday, I can confirm that the audio of the entire ride is messed up. Hard to hear even the sound effects of the animatronics and the ghost host. Just seemed like a lot of jumbled, dead noise (no pun intended). Idk what happened, but it’s definitely a cluster.

 

[mouse_luv]

When they upgraded the audio in the stretching room a few years back I wanted to hear the ghosts whispering at the end when you leave the stretching room. I was probably the last person in line to leave the stretching room. The cast member was not courteous at all in verbally pushing me out of the room. I told her I just wanted to hear the new audio and she said I had to leave (the room). It was very annoying for sure. There must be a huge disconnect between creative and operations departments.

I've had the same issue. They'll have to push me out next time LOL!

 

[grim-grinning_toast]

The cattle shoot after the stretching room is the scariest part of the ride. You're being pushed from both sides and behind, and have no where to advance.

This! I was at MK on a relatively "slow" day, so I was expecting it to be a casual saunter out of the stretching room and into the omnimover queue. But nope! Families squeezing by trying to stay with their loved ones, one guy actually pushed my husband and I apart from each other so he could get in faster. It was really anxiety inducing! I hate to say it, but I'd rather bypass the stretching room at this point to avoid the mad dash to the second queue.

 

[LaughingGravy]

What doesn't make sense is rushing to get to the Doombuggies. The difference in time of the span of 5 cars is what, 20 seconds?
It's akin to to the driver next to you flooring it at the green light and then you coming up right next to them at the next red light or the one after it.

 

[mouse_luv]

I was going to mention this as well.

(The only time I did HM in Florida, they basically walked me straight through the stretching room. Pretty dumb, and as you note, impossible at Disneyland.)

Me if they tried to do this while I was there:

 

[tpmcmaho]

This past Christmas I was able to get my 83 yo mom to go to Disney World for the first time in her life. A once in a lifetime event for me. There weren't too many rides we could go on but we were really looking forward to taking her on Haunted Mansion. We all told her how neat the ride is. Past years I've been there, typically everyone is brought into the stretching room where the room is darkened, doors closed and everyone is made to calm down and become silent to listen to the intro. This time the girl in charge was screaming for everyone to pack into the room. Over and over she kept yelling through half of the introduction. Then the at the point where the strobe used to flash to make the room darker and the evil laugh, that never happened. I was so disappointed. These employees need to understand that although a lot of ppl are repeat customers, just as many are there for the first and maybe only time in their life and for the money they spend, they deserve to have the best experience.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The resulting operations snafus have everything to do with how Disney wields FP+ as a way to distribute Guests, yet doesn’t staff attractions to capacity, therefore keeping Guests in queues even on slow days.

The old paper FP distribution, numbers, and data don’t come into play here. I’m not talking about the idea of FP; I’m talking about the Ops cutbacks since FP+ was devised as a way to redistribute crowds without having to invest in new attractions. (And as you can see from the volume of new construction at WDW, the company soon learned NextGen wasn’t the answer.)

But this isn’t the proper thread to discuss the issue, and I’m tired of talking about it anyway.

You hit this with the second half of the first sentence. This is a staffing issue related to FP+.

 

[Kman101]

Dang. I haven't noticed this! lol. I'm terrible.

But I last went on the Mansion on 2/14 when I finally went to an after hours at the MK (I wouldn't pay again but it's an amazing feeling to walk onto literally anything and everything and have almost no one around you)

 

[phillip9698]

This past Christmas I was able to get my 83 yo mom to go to Disney World for the first time in her life. A once in a lifetime event for me. There weren't too many rides we could go on but we were really looking forward to taking her on Haunted Mansion. We all told her how neat the ride is. Past years I've been there, typically everyone is brought into the stretching room where the room is darkened, doors closed and everyone is made to calm down and become silent to listen to the intro. This time the girl in charge was screaming for everyone to pack into the room. Over and over she kept yelling through half of the introduction. Then the at the point where the strobe used to flash to make the room darker and the evil laugh, that never happened. I was so disappointed. These employees need to understand that although a lot of ppl are repeat customers, just as many are there for the first and maybe only time in their life and for the money they spend, they deserve to have the best experience.

This isn't on the employees. If they don't hurry everyone into and on the rides then when a manager does a ride check they may get in trouble for not operating the ride as trained. I'm sure the CMs value their jobs more than ensuring your optimal ride experience. That's just the way it is now.