News New Haunted Mansion Grounds Expansion, Retail Shop Coming to Disneyland Resort in 2024

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
HMH more than once a day? I’m good with once a year.
Yes, usually twice, once in the morning once at the end of the day (post Fantasmic Pirates and HM are the regular hits, BTMRR, Indy, Splash, iasw holiday and Sweep Train are the variables that come and go but the NOSq dark rides are always on that schedule.)
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
I figure if I'm there when HMH is there, I might as well embrace it, given that in my case it's a rare situation.

That said, no matter what Disney says I am a bit concerned that they're going to get more brazen about prioritizing HMH over regular Mansion now that there's precedent for it operating in July.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I figure if I'm there when HMH is there, I might as well embrace it, given that in my case it's a rare situation.

That said, no matter what Disney says I am a bit concerned that they're going to get more brazen about prioritizing HMH over regular in July.

I mean for this year I suppose some Mansion is better than No Mansion. Thankfully this is a rare situation due to the refurbs with the 70th coming up and Splash being down. We’ll still be stuck with it for 5 months a year though and that’s already way too long. But to your point Halloween does get earlier every year. I think they’ll start to see some diminishing returns the more aggressive they get.
 

Epcot81Fan

Well-Known Member
I mean for this year I suppose some Mansion is better than No Mansion. Thankfully this is a rare situation due to the refurbs with the 70th coming up and Splash being down. We’ll still be stuck with it for 5 months a year though and that’s already way too long. But to your point Halloween does get earlier every year. I think they’ll start to see some diminishing returns the more aggressive they get.
But the concept of the film/attraction is the citizens of Halloween Town celebrating Christmas. Realize most people don't get that with the Halloween iconography, but the entire point of the attraction (hence the Santa suit, snow, and gingerbread house) is celebrating Christmas.

To have that running in July is just another embarrassing example of a company where the concept of "theme" or "on stage" is become a complete joke.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
But the concept of the film/attraction is the citizens of Halloween Town celebrating Christmas. Realize most people don't get that with the Halloween iconography, but the entire point of the attraction (hence the Santa suit, snow, and gingerbread house) is celebrating Christmas.

To have that running in July is just another embarrassing example of a company where the concept of "theme" or "on stage" is become a complete joke.
Then why does the opening spiel of the attraction talk about the two holidays colliding as if mashed together and intertwined.
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Then why does the opening spiel of the attraction talk about the two holidays colliding as if mashed together and intertwined.
I think there's an argument to be made that the attraction skews more Christmas than Halloween. Christmas lights and trees strewn throughout, The initial scenes in the Stretching Room recall Christmas card scenes, the Merry/Scary Christmas sign, "We Wish You a Scary Christmas" being sung, Madame Leota's dialogue being based on a variation of "12 Days of Christmas", the Ghost Host's dialogue rhyming in an homage to "T'was the Night Before Christmas," "Ho Ho Ho" and "Merry Xmas" flashing signs in front of the singing busts until recently, Christmas presents and the giant Christmas list, a gingerbread house that changes annually, etc.

These are ultimately all *Christmas* Trappings, and they do not cease to be so because they are being "corrupted" by Halloweentown residents.

The argument could also be made that the default HM is about as Halloween/creepy classic Haunted House as you can get, and thus any addition related to HMH makes the attraction more "Christmasy" as a result.
 

VicariousCorpse

Well-Known Member
For those worried about the Christmas in July theming, I have the perfect solution! No more worrying about the classic mansion and we can have holiday overlays all year long!!!

Screenshot 2024-07-31 160515.png
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
But the concept of the film/attraction is the citizens of Halloween Town celebrating Christmas. Realize most people don't get that with the Halloween iconography, but the entire point of the attraction (hence the Santa suit, snow, and gingerbread house) is celebrating Christmas.

To have that running in July is just another embarrassing example of a company where the concept of "theme" or "on stage" is become a complete joke.

They already have it running every year in August which is of course way too early so I don’t see what the benefit would be of keeping it closed when the ride is ready and they can add capacity to the park. In other words, the cats already out of the bag. July, August - same difference. Why withhold the capacity?
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
I think there's an argument to be made that the attraction skews more Christmas than Halloween. Christmas lights and trees strewn throughout, The initial scenes in the Stretching Room recall Christmas card scenes, the Merry/Scary Christmas sign, "We Wish You a Scary Christmas" being sung, Madame Leota's dialogue being based on a variation of "12 Days of Christmas", the Ghost Host's dialogue rhyming in an homage to "T'was the Night Before Christmas," "Ho Ho Ho" and "Merry Xmas" flashing signs in front of the singing busts until recently, Christmas presents and the giant Christmas list, a gingerbread house that changes annually, etc.

These are ultimately all *Christmas* Trappings, and they do not cease to be so because they are being "corrupted" by Halloweentown residents.

The argument could also be made that the default HM is about as Halloween/creepy classic Haunted House as you can get, and thus any addition related to HMH makes the attraction more "Christmasy" as a result.
No doubt that it skews more Christmas compared to classic mansion which skews Halloween. But the idea is its a "colliding" of the two holidays, hence why they say that in the opening spiel.

Its not ideal that it opened a couple weeks early this year. But as has been mentioned, its better to have HMH than no mansion at all.
 

Epcot81Fan

Well-Known Member
They already have it running every year in August which is of course way too early so I don’t see what the benefit would be of keeping it closed when the ride is ready and they can add capacity to the park. In other words, the cats already out of the bag. July, August - same difference. Why withhold the capacity?
Heck, keep it that way all year long so you don’t have to take it down twice to install/remove. Win/win!

Christmas is in our hearts all year long!
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
We'll just have to see how early HMH opens next year. If something similar happens then, I doubt people will be singing the same tune that they are now.
I have a doubt they would open HMH prior to the Halloween season next year. So unless they move up the Halloween season into July but I doubt that will happen too. But I guess we'll see.
 

zipadee999

Well-Known Member
Best situation for us would be if they found a way to streamline the overlay process so that the transition took less time. This way they could close classic mansion the day after Halloween, and then operate HMH for most of November all the way until New Years.

It seems like Disney really favors HMH at this point. It’s always HM taking the short end of the stick in favor of HMH when it comes to refurbishment schedules. If the schedule needs to be changed or work needs to be done, HMH always seems to be extended with HM being snubbed. Is HMH really that much more profitable than HM?
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
I have a doubt they would open HMH prior to the Halloween season next year. So unless they move up the Halloween season into July but I doubt that will happen too. But I guess we'll see.
It could just be my own personal conspiracy theory, but I've long said, and stick by the notion, that if Disneyland thought they could ditch the original Haunted Mansion and just run HMH the whole year round, they would.

And while these are ostensibly unique circumstances, they certainly could end up setting a precedent.

Believe me, I would love to wrong, but HMH fits every single metric modern Disney values in an attraction more than HM does and is demonstrably more popular.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
HMH more than once a day? I’m good with once a year.

I left that off my list, but I meant to put that under The Bad category.

Why the heck are they celebrating Halloween/Christmas in July? Tacky. :rolleyes:

I can only guess that somehow this made sense in a TDA conference room as a gaggle of non-showmen stared at a PowerPoint on park capacity stats. But out in that real theme park south of their office building, the reality is that it's tacky and dumb.

I would also have to guess that when Haunted Mansion closes for its Holiday removal rehab in January, that it will have a much longer rehab than usual as they spend more time installing the new non-Holiday effects for the regular mansion. At least I'd hope so.
 

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