Haunted Mansion to Return with New Enhancements and Magic :(

[Professortango1]

Huh??

I'm sorry, but have you ever actually been to the WDW Mansion, or are you just basing this on pictures? @lazyboy97o is right, you enter the home from a side entrance on the lower level. Nothing is "built into the side lawn," and nothing gives you the impression that it is. You walk right into the same house you've been queuing in front of.

View attachment 551442

That's us walking into the foundation. If you asked 100 people to circle the house, they would circle the terrace and up, not the foundation/hill. If WDW changed that front door to a doorway out to the veranda and extended the facade to the left with the front of the manor, then it would work.

 

[Professortango1]

From Boundless Realm:

"Actually our entrance is through a historically justifiable architectural feature, one which has essentially been made less and less obvious by decades of redevelopment of the basic queue area."

"Porte Cocheres, in history, were always situated on the side of the house, and never opened into a formal foyer but rather a sort of out of the way reception room. In other words, we enter the Florida Haunted Mansion not into a formal foyer, but through the visitor's entrance which would lead to the social areas of the house...we step directly not into a welcome area, but a sort of alcove off a larger room where, we imagine, hats and coats may be taken and stowed. Then we walk into a room with no understandable shape - walls just left and right and doors are randomly placed. There's a central fireplace with dying embers, presumably to warm our feet on a cold winter's night, but no other visible signs of habitation."

Porte Cocheres is where a carriage or vehicle would enter the building for guests to disembark and enter without having to be out in the elements. The HM entrance doesn't appear big enough to allow a coach in. These were essentially the early forms of connected garages. You park, hang up your heavy traveling clothes, and then walk into the main house.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

Florida's mansion feels scarier to me as I'm waiting in line than when I'm doing so in CA.

That’s because Walt Disney didn’t want Mansion to look or feel scary on the outside.

That's another victim of the newer management at WDW not really "getting it." When it was originally built by WED in 1971, the WDW Mansion also had a beautifully manicured lawn with nice landscaping. At some point in the 90s/00s (I believe), it was changed to look more run down and "scary." It's the same mindset that gave us the ridiculous extended queue a few years back where ghosts recite poetry and drown in bathtub crypts, despite the fact that none of them should be able to materialize in that way until Leota does her thing.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That's another victim of the newer management at WDW not really "getting it." When it was originally built by WED in 1971, the WDW Mansion also had a beautifully manicured lawn with nice landscaping. At some point in the 90s/00s (I believe), it was changed to look more run down and "scary." It's the same mindset that gave us the ridiculous extended queue a few years back where ghosts recite poetry and drown in bathtub crypts, despite the fact that none of them should be able to materialize in that way until Leota does her thing.

It is not our place to question, but rather to determine who The Twins murdered and to touch organ keys coated in virus and possibly get spritzed.

 

[Professortango1]

That's another victim of the newer management at WDW not really "getting it." When it was originally built by WED in 1971, the WDW Mansion also had a beautifully manicured lawn with nice landscaping. At some point in the 90s/00s (I believe), it was changed to look more run down and "scary." It's the same mindset that gave us the ridiculous extended queue a few years back where ghosts recite poetry and drown in bathtub crypts, despite the fact that none of them should be able to materialize in that way until Leota does her thing.

I don't mind a spooky and weathered Mansion. I mean, this IS my favourite piece of concept art for the Mansion. But yes, the playful and silly outdoor graveyard throws off the storytelling. The idea is that we are approaching this creepy house and wondering what scary sights we will see inside.

 

[lazyboy97o]

That's us walking into the foundation. If you asked 100 people to circle the house, they would circle the terrace and up, not the foundation/hill. If WDW changed that front door to a doorway out to the veranda and extended the facade to the left with the front of the manor, then it would work.

Have you really never seen a house built into a hillside?

Porte Cocheres is where a carriage or vehicle would enter the building for guests to disembark and enter without having to be out in the elements. The HM entrance doesn't appear big enough to allow a coach in. These were essentially the early forms of connected garages. You park, hang up your heavy traveling clothes, and then walk into the main house.

A porte crochere is a covered space adjacent to a building. It is not a garage.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

When waiting for the WDW HM it feels like you're at the set for the Bates House. Its a smaller facade up on a hill. It feels fake. And entering it feels like we are walking into the Bates Motel and suddenly seeing an interior for the House.

When you enter, you are entering what feels like below ground since the front door is seen to be above you and to the side. Such an entrance into a property would usually be something designed for staff/shipping and receiving. If they had themed the hallway to the staff entrance with us then entering the main house in a transition room, I'd be much more accepting. But as it is, it is a design flaw.

As for the canopy, it looks bad and also blocks the full Mansion from view at many times. Could WDW not plant trees and build some themed elements to provide pockets of shade? A vine covered arbor or a gazebo. Maybe a greenhouse towards the back? Instead of putting in a weird cartoon graveyard with ghosts interacting with guests before it makes sense, they could have built a shaded and wandering path.

I don't necessarily feel that it's a design flaw, but I can certainly understand criticism of it.

Also important to note is that none of the area that is now covered canopy was originally "queue" for Haunted Mansion. The gates to the Mansion were not originally there to act as a "property line" for the attraction, and that brick area used to just be an open area that was part of Liberty Square and ran in front of the house with a courtyard by the conservatory/exit crypt. Originally, the proper queue for the attraction started much closer to the entrance, near where the turnstiles are. Being an Omnimover with well-designed pre-shows, it never really required a long queue when it was ran as originally designed. With the larger crowds that eventually came and questionable decisions by Ops over the years to try to increase OHRC, the decision was made to extend what was originally a much shorter canopy down the path further to act as a "queue" for the spillover.

 

[Professortango1]

Have you really never seen a house built into a hillside?

A porte crochere is a covered space adjacent to a building. It is not a garage.

I have. Generally, in my experience, the facade of the house extends to the base of the structure when it is a main entrance. It is incorporated into the design of the house rather than being a doorway on the flat walled foundation.



A porte crochere is a structure connected to the building. This was updated to a car port. WDW's HM has a porte crochere-like structure, but its not connected to the house except for the ugly awning overhead. Nor does the hallway appear to sell that concept.

 

[owlsandcoffee]

When I rode it in 2004, as a young tyke, I just remember being really nervous about riding it. I even knew what it was (the 2003 movie sparked a lifelong love of the ride, weirdly enough) but the atmosphere was really well done.

I agree that the design is a little confusing, and it does kind of feel like you're entering through the Bilco door, lol. But in that sense I think you're supposed to get the feeling of being welcomed in a side door for the rabble, as opposed to the main foyer.

 

[TP2000]

Huh??

I'm sorry, but have you ever actually been to the WDW Mansion, or are you just basing this on pictures? @lazyboy97o is right, you enter the home from a side entrance on the lower level. Nothing is "built into the side lawn," and nothing gives you the impression that it is. You walk right into the same house you've been queuing in front of.

View attachment 551442

Yes, I've been on WDW's Haunted Mansion many times since the 1980's. I don't think I've ever taken a trip to WDW and not gone on the Haunted Mansion.

I get it that they tried to theme the entrance as a "crypt" or something set out on the lawn, but then you go inside and it's not a crypt but instead is a fancy foyer and then a portrait gallery. We're in the house, but we entered through some crypt out on the lawn. That's just odd.

The photo you added to your post above explains that concept perfectly, except at the audiences eye level it looks even more like you are going into a structure on the side lawn.

It's a setup that was forced on them by the swampy water table and their inability to just dig 100 feet down into the ground to get the same show you get at Disneyland. There are no elevators and no underground tunnel beneath the Railroad tracks.

The same logistics play out in Tokyo, but they changed it and reworked the queue enough that it all reads a bit better to the audiences eye in Tokyo compared to Florida. I've only been on Tokyo's version a handful of times (it's a ride I sometimes skip in Tokyo to focus on Tokyo-exclusives instead), but the 1983 redesigned queue and logistics work better there at eye level compared to WDW's 1971 version.

 

[TP2000]

That's us walking into the foundation. If you asked 100 people to circle the house, they would circle the terrace and up, not the foundation/hill. If WDW changed that front door to a doorway out to the veranda and extended the facade to the left with the front of the manor, then it would work.

Beautifully said.

That's it exactly.

 

[180º]

I’m going to settle this once and for all.

In Florida you really don’t have much sense of direction by the time you get to the door, and it is weird and it does kind of feel like you’re going underground.

I also happen to like it a lot.

Case closed?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I have. Generally, in my experience, the facade of the house extends to the base of the structure when it is a main entrance. It is incorporated into the design of the house rather than being a doorway on the flat walled foundation.

Nobody is saying this is the main entrance, it is a side visitors entrance. There’s nothing about the wall that identifies it as a foundation. Changes in material don't make something a foundation, especially in what is supposed to be an old masonry structure where the wall thickness would be substantial and even more substantial at the bottom.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yes, I've been on WDW's Haunted Mansion many times since the 1980's. I don't think I've ever taken a trip to WDW and not gone on the Haunted Mansion.

I get it that they tried to theme the entrance as a "crypt" or something set out on the lawn, but then you go inside and it's not a crypt but instead is a fancy foyer and then a portrait gallery. We're in the house, but we entered through some crypt out on the lawn. That's just odd.

The photo you added to your post above explains that concept perfectly, except at the audiences eye level it looks even more like you are going into a structure on the side lawn.

It's a setup that was forced on them by the swampy water table and their inability to just dig 100 feet down into the ground to get the same show you get at Disneyland. There are no elevators and no underground tunnel beneath the Railroad tracks.

The same logistics play out in Tokyo, but they changed it and reworked the queue enough that it all reads a bit better to the audiences eye in Tokyo compared to Florida. I've only been on Tokyo's version a handful of times (it's a ride I sometimes skip in Tokyo to focus on Tokyo-exclusives instead), but the 1983 redesigned queue and logistics work better there at eye level compared to WDW's 1971 version.

You are committed to bunk.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Not sure why Disney Expert is so hellbent on defending this oddity and proving our point, even stooping to gatekeeping by asking if we've even been to the WDW version in person. Have you even sat in my bench?

 

[Professortango1]

Nobody is saying this is the main entrance, it is a side visitors entrance. There’s nothing about the wall that identifies it as a foundation. Changes in material don't make something a foundation, especially in what is supposed to be an old masonry structure where the wall thickness would be substantial and even more substantial at the bottom.

An entrance designed for guests to enter your home would be a main entrance. Its not like guests are being escorted in via patio door or servant's door or a vault.

And the architecture does make it feel like foundation. There's no other portion of the house at this level. Its not like we see this is simply another level of the house with windows and architectural features that expand to this wing. Its a small flat wall which gives no indication of other chambers at this level. Its like heading to the parking garage built into the foundation of an LA building.

 

[unmitigated disaster]

Just as a quick comment: the elderly are not necessarily falling due to not understanding the buggy system, but rather because they can't walk fast enough to catch up to the buggies. My father nearly fell trying to get in last January, and would have had the cast member not been fast enough hitting the stop button.

 

[PiratesMansion]

An entrance designed for guests to enter your home would be a main entrance. Its not like guests are being escorted in via patio door or servant's door or a vault.

Disneyland's doesn't meet this criteria either. You walk right by what would be the front door of an actual house and enter through a side door instead.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

Not sure why Disney Expert is so hellbent on defending this oddity and proving our point, even stooping to gatekeeping by asking if we've even been to the WDW version in person. Have you even sat in my bench?

Pretty sure it was a conversation already in progress between other posters, but alright.

 

[celluloid]

An entrance designed for guests to enter your home would be a main entrance. Its not like guests are being escorted in via patio door or servant's door or a vault.

And the architecture does make it feel like foundation. There's no other portion of the house at this level. Its not like we see this is simply another level of the house with windows and architectural features that expand to this wing. Its a small flat wall which gives no indication of other chambers at this level. Its like heading to the parking garage built into the foundation of an LA building.

Disneyland's doesn't meet this criteria either. You walk right by what would be the front door of an actual house and enter through a side door instead.

Well that confirms it. The Haunted Mansion attractions feature prejudice culture material. We enter through segregated entry. Shut them down and change them.