Haunted Mansion Holiday Graveyard Scene

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Actually the DL version is in far worse shape than the MK version and I think the twice-yearly time crunch to get the overlay in and out is why. Locals have informed me it's gotten better in recent years but when I finally got back to DL to see their Mansion in 2012 it looked so miserable I wanted to cry.

You're right. There's no denying the upkeep at Magic Kingdom's is superior. Disneyland's unfortunately is fairly rundown these days. Basically, it functions, but it ain't pretty for the most part compared to WDW. What they have done right compared to WDW is not altering the soundtrack, changing out the Hitchhiking Ghosts or adding the interactive queue. I do think the overlay installation/removal takes it toll on the classic Mansion.

 

[Phroobar]

What exactly is broken or worn within the mansion when HMH is removed? It always looks pretty good to me until they fix the lighting a few weeks later.

 

[Djali999]

What exactly is broken or worn within the mansion when HMH is removed? It always looks pretty good to me until they fix the lighting a few weeks later.

To my eyes it's a whole range of factors which contributes to the impression. The lighting in the DL HM has always been 50% brighter than it has at MK and TDL. It's clear that having built the ride once, WED re-thought the way they wanted to approach the Mansion and simplified. The lighting in MK and TDL tends to be dimmer and colors tend to be brighter so everything seems to "pop" in a way it doesn't at Disneyland. This contributes to the impression. I like the DL HM's lighting, but I think they're allowed it to creep too bright in the last 8 years or so, through the entire ride but especially in the Graveyard. The ghosts look washed out and hard to see. They clearly haven't kept up with keeping paint on the ghosts fresh, and the combination of too-bright lighting and poor paint means that the scene looks like a real bummer. I worry that in all of that moving snow in and out of the graveyard they keep jostling around the lights and illuminating stuff you're not supposed to see. In a room hung with hundreds of feet of scrim, any "spill" lighting becomes a real liability.

The Attic at DL was never fully re-configured for Constance, probably due to the need to move the HMH stuff in and out of it constantly. It's far too obvious that the set dressing and lighting is on its 4th generation and was never really re-thought for the new scene. Combine this with the fact that DL is running a cruder version of the Constance effect (and seems to have no interest in updating it), and the scene is really unimpressive. I don't like Constance at MK any more than I like her at DL, but at MK the lighting, scene setting, audio and projection effect are all very well done and every part of the scene combines to have some impact.

But the real bummer is that DL has totally ruined their load area by letting the lighting get too bright and removing most of the theming. There's nothing special about the MK/TDL load area but it doesn't look like a big empty dusty room and it doesn't "break" the illusion of the house so catastrophically. In the old days when you got to the top of the staircase at DL it was pitch dark up there and the car turned and seemed to "fall" while all you could hear was the sound of those creaking steps, it was legitimately terrifying. Last time I rode that memorable effect was ruined because everywhere you could see the flat black ugly walls. DL needs to decide if they want to keep that room as a boundless void and actually commit to it or otherwise just turn it into a normal room in the house.

Having that room, which is a huge piece of real estate and situated right at a key point in the ride (coming after DL's superior facade, foyer, stretch room and gallery scenes), really drags the whole enterprise down. It's really become a poor show and I worry that all of the ride's year allocation of money is going towards installing and removing the huge draw of the HMH overlay. I've heard the show has improved some since last year - I haven't seen DL HM since August 2013 and am looking forward to seeing it early next year. It's the *only* thing at DL that I would consider to be in poor shape and I have no explanation for it besides HMH.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

The lighting is too bright throughout. You can see the walls and ceiling in the classic version where you're not supposed to and can't on the WDW version. Lighting is screwy, all the objects and figures need to be repainted, the ceiling tiles they removed above the seance room need to be replaced and these days, the attic really needs its lights turned down because ever since they added the Hatbox Ghost 2.0, they've overly-illuminated the section to the right of the Doom Buggy and you can see that there's just a wall there. I also believe that Constance was originally positioned further from the ride path, but lately she's like right next to you and looks ridiculous up close. Add to that damaged walls in the stretching room which took a long time to fix, peeling wallpaper in the corridor of doors, the graveyard pop-ups probably need to be repaired (are they supposed to pop up fast and drop slow like at WDW or pop up slow and drop fast like DL??), poor sound quality throughout and a sadly pitiful-looking load area.

The fixes seem simple enough, but DL's never gets a proper extended refurb.

 

[Andrew_Ryan]

Those flat, blank walls are the worst. I can't understand it. Make it look like a mansion, not a warehouse!

 

[180º]

The lighting is too bright throughout. You can see the walls and ceiling in the classic version where you're not supposed to and can't on the WDW version. Lighting is screwy, all the objects and figures need to be repainted, the ceiling tiles they removed above the seance room need to be replaced and these days, the attic really needs its lights turned down because ever since they added the Hatbox Ghost 2.0, they've overly-illuminated the section to the right of the Doom Buggy and you can see that there's just a wall there. I also believe that Constance was originally positioned further from the ride path, but lately she's like right next to you and looks ridiculous up close. Add to that damaged walls in the stretching room which took a long time to fix, peeling wallpaper in the corridor of doors, the graveyard pop-ups probably need to be repaired (are they supposed to pop up fast and drop slow like at WDW or pop up slow and drop fast like DL??), poor sound quality throughout and a sadly pitiful-looking load area.

The fixes seem simple enough, but DL's never gets a proper extended refurb.

The pop-ups aren't necessarily in need of repair, they've always operated roughly that way, a little different from WDW's. I wouldn't mind if they changed them to be more snappy, though.

As for everything else, that mansion needs a long refurb STAT. Ditto on the attic. It looks awful these days. The load area needs some clever lighting problem-solving to restore the boundless void effect. On the topic of upgrades, I'd like to see the WDW singing bust technique at DL and upgraded sound systems throughout the attraction.

 

[Phroobar]

I would like to see them add ballroom staircase to the loading area. It's always been kind of a big black box and the cloud effect has kind of sucked. I would kind of like to have an orchestrated soundtrack but realize that would change the feel of the entire mansion.

I guess an early plan for the loading area was to have us back outside again.

 

[Keys_of_Hearts]

As much as I love the Hatbox Ghost it's a bit weird seeing ghosts created with parlor tricks then BAM 21st Century technology and then you go back to parlor tricks. Though I can't really fault WDI on that because well, if they tried using Pepper's Ghost like the original Imagineers they'd just run into the same problem.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

At this point would it be such a bad thing if HMH went to Yesterland? I know in the beginning it was a big draw for the park but I suspect that Disney wouldn't see any change in demand if they nixed it now.

 

[captainmoch]

If it did go... I'd love it if Nightmare Before Christmas got its own dedicated ride. I have no clue where it would go, though.

 

[Stevek]

At this point would it be such a bad thing if HMH went to Yesterland? I know in the beginning it was a big draw for the park but I suspect that Disney wouldn't see any change in demand if they nixed it now.

I would have no problem with it going away...but I disagree to some extent about the draw. It's massive for them, full queue's, need for a fastpass. Mansion rarely has a 50+ minute wait on a mid-week day, it does regularly while HMH is up.

 

[Djali999]

As much as I love the Hatbox Ghost it's a bit weird seeing ghosts created with parlor tricks then BAM 21st Century technology and then you go back to parlor tricks. Though I can't really fault WDI on that because well, if they tried using Pepper's Ghost like the original Imagineers they'd just run into the same problem.

The 1969 HBG wasn't actually done with pepper's ghost - no place to hide the figure in the room! It was a mostly-static figure and the head illusion was created with strobing UV spotlights. With the exception of the internal projection head and the way the head is pulled down inside the HBG's body, what you see is very close to what it was supposed to look like.

 

[dweezil78]

At this point would it be such a bad thing if HMH went to Yesterland? I know in the beginning it was a big draw for the park but I suspect that Disney wouldn't see any change in demand if they nixed it now.

Sad to say, it's as big a draw as it's ever been -- maybe even more so. On the days I've been there since it's opened this year, it's surpassed 100 minute waits on all of them whereas the original HM rarely breaks 30 minutes.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Sad to say, it's as big a draw as it's ever been -- maybe even more so.

Sure, because it's also on through two of the busiest seasons of the year, but if it went away it's not like attendance would drop dramatically. In other words I'm questioning how many visitors, if any, are specifically going to DL just to see HMH. Would there be a revolt if it didn't return next Halloween?

 

[Phroobar]

Somehow I think every Disney web site would have a field day about it not being there. Anything for click bate.