Walt Disney World Resort: A New World of Magic Awaits…

[KingMickey]

We continue our tour of the Magic Kingdom and head back to the Hub where we will begin our next land. To recap, we’ve covered Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland and the new Pirates Cove beyond it, Frontierland, and The Friendly Forest and Discovery Bay expansions around the Rivers of America. We now enter into our next land, a Magic Kingdom original.

“Beyond this gateway lies a humble village built on hope and courage. The hope to be heard. And the courage to listen and welcome new ideas. The hope for freedom for all. and the courage to fight for it at any cost. May all who step foot here be awakened by this same hope and courageous spirit.

This is LIBERTY SQUARE.”

Liberty Square is a land that evokes the spirit of colonial America in the historic period leading up to the American Revolution. Originally conceived as an annex to Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. on a side street named Liberty Street, the idea was revisited at the time of Magic Kingdom’s development in the late 1960s. The need arose for an area similar to, distinctly different from, Disneyland’s New Orleans Square, and Walt Disney Imagineering decided on an early American, eighteenth century theme with a distinct focus on the time period of the American Revolution. The town’s architecture is an interesting combination of America’s thirteen colonies, combining the designs of colonial New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and the others into one 18th century historical town found along a harbor that borders a great American river. After passing over the wooden bridge from the central Hub of the park, tall brick posterns with stone eagles atop mark the entrance to the town. Liberty Square’s buildings are designed to replicate colonial architecture, with brick facades, muted colors and period-appropriate details, like flickering lampposts and slanted window shutters with missing metal hinges - either stolen, traded or having the rare commodity of metal used for another purpose.

Not to start the post off on a high point, but the land also features a brown, rocky path that runs through the otherwise red pathways of Liberty Square. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, this brown pathway actually represents sewage. As there were no bathrooms during this time, people would toss the contents of their chamber pots out into the open streets, leaving it to be trailed and spread through the town by horses and carriages passing through. Coincidentally enough, the trail in Liberty Square leads right up to a set of windows. Yeah…I might be re-doing most of the Magic Kingdom, but this element of Liberty Square is absolutely staying and should absolutely remain in every iteration of this land, ever. Needless to say, the charm and quaint atmosphere of this colonial American square remains, so let’s cover what’s contained within.

Once making it across the bridge, there’s a fantastic view of Cinderella Castle with a pathway that leads up to Fantasyland. Starting off on the left side of the square is YE OLDE CHRISTMAS SHOPPE, a shop where you can celebrate the spirit of Christmas all year long. The shop features walls upon walls of detailed, ornate ornaments, Christmas decorations and other holiday merchandise for sale. The shop also offers artist customization on hand to make ornaments and holiday decor all the more personalized. The spirit of the holidays stays true year round in this shop, as winter garlands sparkle with light inside, the windows are lit with the glow of flickering candles and the jolly sound of Christmas tunes plays throughout the store. Outside of the store, artists that make silhouette portraits and personalized parasols can be located at their own carts under the shop’s awnings.

Next to Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe is a small courtyard where two of the land’s historical icons can be found. Taking cues from other revolutionary towns, Liberty Square features its very own Liberty Tree. The original Liberty Tree was located in Boston and was a place where the Sons of Liberty would meet to discuss ways to protest the Stamp Act in the early years of the American Revolution. In Liberty Square, the tree is a real, 135-year-old oak tree that was relocated across property to be featured here, where it has continued to grow and flourish ever since. The tree has thirteen lanterns hanging from its branches, each of them representing one of the thirteen original colonies. Just next to the Liberty Tree is the Liberty Bell, replicated from the original model found in Pennsylvania. For the United States’ bicentennial anniversary in 1975, fifty replicas of the Liberty Bell were cast with the idea that each one of them would be gifted to a state. With the original already being found in Pennsylvania with no need for a replica, Walt Disney World actually contacted the state and requested that their replica be used in the resort. Pennsylvania agreed and on July 4th, 1989, the state’s replica of the Liberty Bell found its home here in the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square. The Liberty Bell stands with thirteen flags around it, again each representing one of the thirteen original colonies, with plaques at their base that share the dates that each of those eventual states ratified the Constitution.

Beyond the Liberty Tree and Liberty Bell, back on the main thoroughfare that leads down towards the Rivers of America and Frontierland, we’ll find LIBERTY TREE TAVERN. The table service dining restaurant is housed inside of a late stately 18th century home and hosts an all-you-care-to-enjoy family-style meal of traditional American favorites. The restaurant is divided into different rooms that not only capture the traditional colonial American home, but are also named after famous figures from the Revolution, such as Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and Thomas Jefferson. The menu serves family-style platters that include roasted turkey, pot roast and oven-roasted pork served with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, seasonal vegetables and herb stuffing - sort of a Thanksgiving celebration meal all year round. Dessert is included and features the spot’s signature Toffee Cake served with ice cream and caramel sauce. The location makes for a great table service option for Liberty Square with its colonial-style home theming and its traditional American-inspired fare.

 

[KingMickey]

Heading back to the starting point bridge now on the right side of the square is SLEEPY HOLLOW INN & REFRESHMENTS. This counter service location is hosted within a quaint brick cottage and serves a host of savory and sweet snacks. Sleepy Hollow features an all-day breakfast menu that includes waffles with fruit and hazelnut spread, Mickey waffles and breakfast sandwiches that make a delicious start to your morning. For lunch and dinner, the location adds spicy fried chicken waffle sandwiches, waffle monte cristos and corn dogs to the menu. The location is also a great spot to find other sweet snacks, such as a variety of funnel cake offerings and a new favorite, deep-fried ice cream in a selection of flavors of your choice. Sleepy Hollow also offers a nice shaded seating section behind the cottage, under a trellis roof right off the pathway that leads behind Cinderella Castle and into Fantasyland.

Back behind Sleepy Hollow, a new store finds itself placed in the old ticket office space called OLDE WORLD ANTIQUES. This shop actually draws its’ name from an original Liberty Square shop that stood until the 90s when it was renovated into where the Christmas shop stands now. Today, the store features a variety of colonial American merchandise related to the history of the era. This shop sells items like replications of the Declaration of Independence, reproductions of eighteenth century American tinware and dishes, historical maps of early America, quills and inkwells, candles and quilts. The shop also serves as the exit point of the first two attractions we come across in Liberty Square.

In this version of the Magic Kingdom, the Hall of Presidents space will be utilized for two new additions instead. While the Hall of Presidents is another one of those attractions that is met with controversy - especially in today’s political environment - my reasoning for swapping the show out with something else has more to do with the fact that, honestly, it will most likely be something that is done sooner or later. It might be a distant ways off, but the truth is - at some point, be it too many president figures onstage to look pleasant or the show just not pulling in the attendance to keep it running, something about it will change. I could see it going two ways - either the show gets another revision where it decides to showcase a select few presidents and their stories, or the show is concluded to bring in something new - but my fear is that modern day Disney would try to shoehorn any type of IP into a very time-specific period and throw off the tone of the whole land (looking at you Cars driving through Frontierland).

Revised show or new attraction experience? I’ve decided to use that large theater space to do both. The first attraction will be a smaller, more compact show on the scale of something like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland that focuses on a rotating handful of presidents and other founding figures, while the majority of the large space of the theater will be utilized for a new dark ride centered around pivotal moments in America’s history that celebrates its evolution, strength and hope.

The two attractions are housed in an ornate, grand building resembling Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, with its brick walls, tall windows, domed gazebo roof and a central emblem that shows the year 1787. Guests walk into the lobby of the building, which is adorned with American flags, historical artifacts from the country’s past and portraits of former presidents. The lobby’s floor also features an emblem of the Great Seal of the United States, serving as a symbol of the nation’s heritage and the ideals of democracy.



It is in this lobby where guests can explore Independence Hall further, with the left of the lobby now leading to a secluded theater space where OUR FOUNDING FATHERS: STORIES TOLD BY AMERICA’S LEADERS takes place. As mentioned earlier, this is a new audio-animatronic and visual presentation show on a much smaller scale, but works to capture the essence of a meaningful show about American history and its leaders in Liberty Square. Having previously leant his talents to The Hall of Presidents, Morgan Freeman returns to provide the narration for this new show, as well as the adjoining new dark ride. In this new audio-animatronic show, key figures from the American Revolution share their personal stories, experiences and contributions to the founding of the United States. The cast includes George Washington, who shares stories of his leadership and the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson, who discusses the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin, who offers humorous insight into diplomacy and invention, Abigail Adams, who shares her perspective on women’s roles and advocacy for education, and finally, Abraham Lincoln, who discusses his vision of equality and freedom for all. Similar to other Disney animatronic stage shows, this show features our cast on a series of small, rotating turntables that are displayed in front of a large mural that turns into a visual presentation to coincide with Freeman’s narration and each of the figures’ stories. It’s a nice addition that feels very similar to the type of show like Hall of Presidents or Great Moments, that sort of good, old homage and tribute to historical America and its figures that Walt Disney would have included in his parks, but done on a smaller, intimate scale that frees up some space.

Of course, that extra space of Independence Hall is now home to a new bus bar dark ride attraction called GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. This new ride celebrates key achievements and milestones celebrated in American history with a focus on unity, progress and innovation. Similarly to the show next door, Morgan Freeman provides narration for the attraction, as the guests board carriages and set off through this historical attraction. Some of the key moments and scenes that are included in this attraction are the signing of the Declaration of Independence by our Founding Fathers, a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party, Abraham Lincoln discussing the Emancipation Proclamation and his powerful words about freedom and liberty for all, the Industrial Revolution, a montage of scenes that showcases inventions like the light bulb, telephone, aircrafts and railroads that helped change the world and a scene led by Susan B. Anthony’s fight for Women’s Rights. The finale of the attraction includes traveling alongside a mural vista of the country, highlighting its many sights, wonders and historical events to the narration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, using the finale to reinforce that the ideals of liberty, freedom and equality for all is an ever-evolving achievement to strive for. The exit of the attraction empties out towards the brick tunnel passage by the Olde World Antiques shop and Sleepy Hollow Inn & Refreshments.

This might seem like a better option to some but for a moment, I thought about using either the Muppets or Mickey & Friends to play the roles of the figures throughout the attraction. I know Muppets Presents: Great Moments in American History was a crowd pleaser and people enjoyed the Muppets’ comical take on historical anecdotes. Realistically, I don’t think Disney would ever make an attraction like this nowadays without an IP attachment to make it more “consumer friendly” for the theme park audience, but much like the rest of Liberty Square, I wanted to play it straight as a historical homage and I didn’t think that the ride needed to include an IP just for the sake of attaching familiar characters onto it to make it good or entertaining. The Muppets with their own small show in the land was one thing, but I don’t think they need to be the main players of the land’s central attraction.

Just beyond Independence Hall is LIBERTY SQUARE MARKET, a covered marketplace with an adjacent open-air seating section just off of the main center of the land. This snack location offers park favorites like turkey legs, hot dogs and Mickey pretzels, as well as healthier options like fresh fruits and veggies, bottled drinks, baked potatoes and grilled corn on the cob. It makes for a nice location and seating area for a quick grab-and-go snack. The street leads all the way up to the embankment of the Rivers of America where the LIBERTY BELLE RIVERBOAT is docked at the town’s boat landing. This attraction lets guests board a steam-powered riverboat that takes trips around the Rivers of America. The riverboat is a sternwheeler replica and actually uses steam converted from the rivers to power the large turning paddle wheel at the back of the boat. You board the Liberty Belle at the mid-level of the boat, but there are actually four different levels that the guests can explore to enjoy their twenty minute trip from. The four decks of the boat provide great vantage points to take in the sights of Liberty Square, Frontierland, Discovery Bay and the natural wilderness that surrounds the Rivers of America.

Continuing beyond the docked riverboat and past the market is the land’s counter service dining offering, COLUMBIA HARBOUR HOUSE. This location offers primarily seafood entrees but features other meals in a seaside New England-style inn off of a nearby harbor. Trinkets, portraits of the harbor town and ship artifacts and pieces adorn the walls of the seafaring house. the location also features a somewhat secretive second floor of seating, which offers an excellent escape to find a nice quiet place within the park, as its full of nooks filled with tiny coastal details that make this location really feel like a New England hole-in-the-wall. Some of the menu for this location includes shrimp, fish and chicken nugget platters, lobster rolls, chicken pot pie, maple-glazed salmon, tuna sandwiches and New England clam chowder. A dessert menu also includes Boston cream pies, a peach cobbler and fruit and granola parfaits. The counter service is a great location to enjoy some seafood entrees in a nautical coastline harbor inn and offers a great look out into the surrounding Liberty Square.

 

[KingMickey]

It is here where we’ve reached the final part of this small land and step up the stone pathways leading up to a foreboding mansion perched upon a hill that overlooks the river. Dead plants and twisted trees scatter the grounds and a wolf’s howl echoes through the air.



“Welcome, Foolish Mortals to THE HAUNTED MANSION…”

The Haunted Mansion is one of Disney’s most iconic attractions and a widely popular fan-favorite with its versions in Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and its entirely re-imagined iteration in Disneyland Paris’ Westernland, known as Phantom Manor, and Hong Kong’s Mystic Point, known as Mystic Manor. Guests board omnimover ride vehicles, aptly named “Doombuggies” and set off through the old remnants of a haunted mansion, inhabited by the spirits of 999 happy haunts - but there’s always room for one more! The attraction is hosted by our tour guide - our “Ghost Host” - who is voiced by Paul Frees and of course, features the classic song “Grim Grinning Ghosts” which was composed by Buddy Baker with lyrics by Xavier Atencio.

The attraction is considered to be popular and, similarly to Pirates of the Caribbean, the theme park ride launched its own franchise that includes two feature film adaptions, comic books, television specials and a wide array of merchandise. The idea for The Haunted Mansion actually pre-dates Disneyland and went through many different iterations of itself in the planning stages - first a walkthrough attraction in a run-down manor, then a “Museum of the Weird” exhibit and even a version of the attraction similar to ours today, but featuring the storyline of a murderous sea captain and the unfortunate fate of his bride. However, the idea of the attraction taking place in a stately, beautiful manor won out after Walt took a trip to the ornate Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California and soon, many different Imagineers joined the team to combine their efforts and ideas to create a great attraction - and they did.

Marc Davis and Claude Coats, two of the mansion’s main designers, disagreed on whether the attraction should be frightening or funny. Imagineer Xavier Atencio proposed they use both ideas for the mansion - with the guests first traveling through haunted, endless hallways, spooky parlors and grim, bleaks corridors, then moving to more “spirited” entertainment where the ghosts served as mostly comical characters in rooms filled with sight gags and lighter atmosphere, even for being a “spooky” attraction. Through its many adaptions, ideas and iterations that would be tossed around, the mansion we know and love today would end up being built and remains a classic.



The Haunted Mansion was an opening day attraction for Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, where duplicates of everything were made from Disneyland during their production and assembly of props phase. Florida’s version was decided to be slightly longer than Disneyland’s with a few additional scenes to be included, such as a portrait gallery, a haunted library and a gloomy music room. Paul Frees even recorded additional “Ghost Host” voice-over narration to be used for these extra scenes in Florida’s version of the mansion. Guests would begin similarly to Disneyland’s version by entering the mansion’s foyer, where a portrait of the handsome, young Master Gracey would slowly molt into a rotten, decayed skeletal corpse as the Ghost Host welcomes the guests into this haunted estate. The guests would then shuffle into a circular art gallery, depicting four portraits of one of the mansion’s former residents, before the entrance door seals itself shut behind them. The room begins to stretch with each of the portraits becoming elongated to reveal the grim, gruesome fates of each of the residents, as the Ghost Host challenges guests to find a way out of the chamber. The Ghost Host states that they can take “his way” out, before the room goes dark and a skeleton is revealed to be hanging from a noose from the cupola’s rafters, illuminated by flashes of lightning. The room goes dark again and a secret passage opens, leading guests down a corridor where they board their Doombuggies.

Once boarded, guests pass through a dark room and under a decrepit staircase, before proceeding down a hallway where portraits on the right change in turn with the flashes of lightning from the windows on the left. The Doombuggies then pass through a library where busts of ghostwriters stare them down and follow the guests as they pass, as books move from the shelves and a chair in the corner of the room rocks itself. They then enter a music room, where an invisible pianist plays a haunting rendition of “Grim Grinning Ghosts”, the shadow of the spectral being cast along the floor, illuminated from the strikes of lightning flashing from the large window at the back of the room. The Doombuggies then proceed up a ramp into a room surrounded by a series of endless staircases that twist, ascend and descend in all directions, where footprints can be seen and candelabras are extinguished by unseen ghosts. The guests pass through the darkness and a series of blinking, haunting eyes that fade into the mansion’s wallpaper, passing by a knight’s suit of armor that seemingly comes to life. They pass by an endless hallway, a candelabra hauntingly floating down into the abyss, before passing through a conservatory where a corpse tries to escape from a nailed-shut coffin, as a raven is perched on a dead floral display nearby. The Doombuggies proceed down a corridor of doors, haunted by the wails and groans of unseen specters as they try to push and pry open the doors as we pass. The guests move past a haunted, demonic grandfather clock that chimes as it strikes the 13th hour, the shadow of a claw passing over it.

The Doombuggies then enter Madame Leota’s seance room, where the disembodied head of Leota remains trapped in her own floating, crystal ball, reciting incantations to make contact with the spirit world and draw the ghosts out of the shadows to reveal themselves. Instruments, tables and a requiem bell float within the room in accordance with Leota’s commands and the raven from before now finds itself perched on Leota’s vacant seat. Just as the guests leave the seance circle, a green spectral plasma form is seen floating in the corner - a sign that Leota’s communication with the spirit world has been achieved. The Doombuggies then move onto a mezzanine that overlooks a massive ballroom, where many ghosts have come to celebrate a birthday party. Ghosts fly into the room from a crashed hearse and open windows, ghosts sit at a large table where the birthday girl blows out the spectral candles of her cake, drunken ghosts swing from the chandeliers, portraits of duelists come to life and fire their revolvers at each other and six ghostly couples waltz to the haunting tune played by an organ player, as ghastly wraiths fly from the organ’s pipes with each note. The guests leave the ballroom and enter into the cobweb-ridden attic that is filled to the brim with long-forgotten wedding gifts, a thick layer of dust forming on them. In the corner of the attic, a spectral shadow of a pianist plays a sinister, off-key rendition of the Bridal March and as we turn the corner, we see the the mysterious, haunting shape of a bride near the attic window. Her face is masked by shadows and her veils, but the thumping of her heartbeat is unnerving enough. The red glow from within her chest and a candle in her hand momentarily illuminates her beautiful face from the shadows, but when her heart beats again, her features have been replaced by the ghastly face of a skull, as she long awaits for her groom to return from what is certainly a grim, unknown demise. The Doombuggies drift out of the attic window and onto a balcony, passing by the Hatbox Ghost amidst a backdrop of gnarled trees and the night sky. As the guests pass, the skeletal specter let’s out a dark laugh and his head disappears from his shoulders, reappearing in the hatbox in his hand, only to return back to his shoulders a moment later.

The Doombuggies descend backwards down a ramp, passing under gnarled humanoid trees and the red-eyed raven, before entering into the gates of the graveyard where a spooked caretaker and his dog are frightened by the “swinging wake” that is taking place before him. Here, “happy haunts” have materialized from creepy, old crypts all over the world in a celebratory haunting bash across the mansion grounds, as ghouls pop up from the tombstones throughout the scene. In the graveyard are multiple comical sights, such as a group of ghost musicians playing the attraction’s theme song, a beheaded knight and an executioner, a duo of opera-singing ghosts, a ghastly tea party, a skeletal hand from within a crypt that that has accidentally bricked himself inside and of course, a group of five busts that sing out “Grim Grinning Ghosts” as the other celebrating haunts join in. The Doombuggies approach the entrance to a large crypt where the raven is seen for the final time and enter. The Ghost Host warns the guests about potential specters thumbing for a ride just as they pass three hitchhiking ghosts. In large mirrors around the corner, the Doombuggies pass and guests see that one of the ghosts from the trio has joined their buggy with them before they dissipate. The guests proceed through a gloomy mausoleum, where a small ghost known as Little Leota is perched on a ledge, encouraging guests to “hurry back” with their death certificates. The guests disembark their Doombuggies and exit through the crypts near the side of the mansion, passing by other entombments and even a pet cemetery. It is nearby where MEMENTO MORI is also found, a humble cottage on the outside, but full of shelves of ethereal, gothic bric-a-brac and adornments on the inside. This spot serves as the park’s location to find all merchandise for The Haunted Mansion and guests can even take part in their own ghostly gallery sessions, turning themselves into spectral souls for their portraits.



To conclude this segment, I will discuss some of the changes I’ve made to the mansion that were already highlighted in the description above. I think most of them are rather self-explanatory and things that most people have already suggested as minor ways to spruce up the mansion. Nothing too major going on. The first of these changes is the extended, interactive queue. I’m going to revise this space but keep it as an extended queue that weaves between the tombs and gravestones of notable former mansion residents. The “interactive” element of the queue isn’t something I necessarily hate, but I *do* feel like it changes the tone of the attraction from the get-go just for the sake of passive guest interaction. Disney was all about inserting these interactive queues between 2011-2015 in all of their new and popular attractions. The Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Mermaid, Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - they all got the interactive queue treatment. I don’t think it was a bad idea at the time, but now fast forward a decade later, a lot of those interactive elements are now removed, defunct or serve more as a distraction that makes the line longer than to mildly entertain guests for a couple of seconds (which I would bargain is a large reason why the “interactive queue” has become a bit antiquated in the theme park landscape. If something like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened with interactive elements throughout the queue, it might make a long wait slightly more engaging, but it also might make a long wait even longer). I don’t know, like I said I don’t hate the idea of them and some of them absolutely work better than others, but for Mansion, I would just much rather prefer a queue full of thought-out detail that sets the tone instead of distracting from it.

Now to get inside the mansion, just a few other changes here and there. The first interior change is a series of new, unsettling effects I’d like to see installed in the corridor of doors segment of the attraction. The hallway already features portraits of ghastly faces on the walls and disembodied spirits trying to open the bolted doors from within, but I think a neat and spooky effect would be to seemingly have some of these ghastly portraits come “alive” by having the specter within the image try to *push* themselves out of the frame itself. Imagine passing by the image of a ghastly specter and a head-shaped form bulges from within the frame, with hands seemingly *pushing* within the wallpaper on either side of the frame and this effect being repeated a few times down the hall. It’s spooky and fits with the mansion’s other effects, it matches the surroundings with the spirits trying to “break free” from their binds and it’s a simple addition that works to slightly “plus” a scene without doing too much or too little.

The second change is the relocation of the Hatbox Ghost to where he is in Disneyland’s version. From what it seems, his placement near the endless hallway in Florida was specifically done as a synergy move to tie-in with the 2023 film, where the character serves as the antagonist and makes his grand appearance in the endless hallway. Now, from reading comments on this site alone, people were in a tizzy over his location and honestly, I get it. Story-wise, in this section of the mansion, guests shouldn’t be seeing any spectral forms yet, as Madame Leota has not summoned them to appear. This is why every “haunt” we do see up until her seance is more of a ghost “hiding in plain sight” - a shadow, a floating object, a disembodied ghoulish echo, things we can sense, but hidden as the ghosts haven’t come out to play yet. Now, I think that a case *can* be made that the Hatbox Ghost may not necessarily be “bound” to the mansion the way that other ghosts are, so the same rules don’t apply to him for why we can see him…but then that deep dives into character backstory and a direct storyline that the mansion itself just doesn’t deliver on. (And that’s fine. It’s not supposed to. What I think makes Mansion so good is its whole cast of characters and ambiguous storytelling that leave just enough for guests to interpret *what* they think their stories are without the attraction needing to hit them over the head with it.)

The third change - also in line with keeping the story ambiguous - is a new attic bride figure. While I think Constance Hatchaway was an intriguing figure as a “black widow” bride that brutally did away with her several husbands in her pursuit of growing wealth and status, there’s just something I like about a mysterious, shadowed bride figure that remains observing us from the corners of the attic in all her unsettling glory. While she has a dark story, I think Constance seems more silly with her one-liners and “death to us part” puns. Even the type of “projected on a mannequin figure” effect seems more goofy than being spooky or chilling - and the attic should be spooky and chilling. No one likes attics for that very reason. So I’ve opted to replace Constance with a new bridal figure, masked in the shadows and her veil, a candle in one hand and a beating red heart burning in her chest, as she ominously watches the buggies pass, hoping for her lost love to one day return, knowing that the time for that has long passed. To add an additional chill to the figure, I’ve decided to utilize an alternate projection effect on the figure’s shrouded face. With every beat of the bride’s heart, her shadowed face alternates between showing the beautiful features she had when she was alive and then alternating to a grim, ghastly skeletal corpse. It’s an effect that pays homage to the portrait of Master Gracey in the foyer, perhaps linking the two characters and their fates together…

The final change I’m making to the mansion is the return of the practical Hitch-Hiking Ghost figures in the finale mirrors. It’s probably already been a decade since those figures were replaced with “interactive” computer-animated projections and I have to say, I hate them. This is a perfect example of less is more and why not to try to fix or change something that isn’t broken - unless it is an inherently GOOD change that can update the attraction without taking away from it. In this instance, I feel like it takes away from it and makes the overall finale with a ghost hitch-hiking a ride feel cheaper by making it a projected image instead of a legitimate, practical figure on the other end of the “mirror”. If anyone needs proof that the CGI ghosts are a downgrade, all you have to do is look at the Disneylanders BEG not to get them when their attraction reopens after its lengthy refurbishment. Projections can be used effectively quite well (and I think a great example of that is DL’s Fantasyland dark rides), but when they start to replace the physical set pieces and props that came before it, that’s when it loses its charm and appeal. So, I’m bringing back those Hitch-Hiking Ghost figures and that’s that on that!

With that, we conclude our tour of Liberty Square! Next up, we’ll be moving to the Magic Kingdom’s most magical land of all - Fantasyland. This next section will most likely be the longest of the whole park, as Fantasyland itself will end up being the largest land of the Magic Kingdom. Not only that, but MOST of the land is going to be seeing a massive renovation, similar to Disneyland’s 1982 rebuild of Fantasyland. There’s going to be some controversial moves, some big changes and I don’t think there’s a single building in Fantasyland that isn’t seeing a significant alteration - but it’s all to create a much better fairytale kingdom that Fantasyland deserves to be.

Truly a NEW Fantasyland for the Magic Kingdom…

_______________

-LIBERTY SQUARE-

ATTRACTIONS
1) Our Founding Fathers: Stories Told by America’s Leaders
2) Great Moments in American History
3) Liberty Belle Riverboat
4) The Haunted Mansion

DINING
1) Sleepy Hollow Inn & Refreshments
2) Liberty Tree Tavern
3) Liberty Square Market
4) Columbia Harbour House

SHOPPING
1) Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe
2) Olde World Antiques
3) Memento Mori

Thanks for reading along and let me know what you think! Hope you enjoyed it!