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Haunted Mansion

Welcome, foolish mortals! 999 happy haunts await you as you ride your Doom Buggy through one of the most famous and beloved of all the Walt Disney World attractions!
Location:Magic Kingdom, Liberty Square
Type of Attraction:Slow moving dark ride
Height Restrictions:None
Typical Wait Time:20-40 minutes
Is It Scary?Most of the ride is in the dark, and there are lots of ghosts, but the Haunted Mansion is more fun than scary!

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Magical Moments
Hidden Mickeys & Other Secrets
Did You Know…?
Touring Tips
Photo Gallery

Your visit begins as you are led into an octagonal room, decorated with paintings of some residents past. As your Ghost Host introduces himself, you’ll notice that the room starts to stretch, and the once innocent paintings now reveal their ghoulish secrets. After the Ghost Host reveals his suggestion for a way to get out, a door mercifully slides open leading to the boarding area where you’ll climb into your Doom Buggies.

It’s here that your tour really begins as you slowly travel down an eerie hallway and into the library. After passing through a spooky music room, an unending hallway and a macabre coffin (with a very unhappy resident inside), you’ll enter the seance room. As the head of Madame Leota speaks eerily from her crystal ball, instruments fly about the room as she calls for the spirits to arrive.

Next up is the ballroom where you’ll find a swinging wake—a gathering of ghoulish ghosts dancing, dining and causing great mischief. After a frightening trip to the attic (probably the scariest part of the ride), you’ll find yourself descending into the graveyard.

Grim grinning ghost of all shapes and sizes are having a great time (though the same can’t be said for the caretaker and his dog who’ve come to see what all the noise is about!). Once you leave the graveyard, you’ll find that your Ghost Host has one more surprise for you, a hitchhiking ghost who joins you in your Doom Buggy for one last fright!

Magical Moments

  • The Haunted Mansion is especially spooky at night, particularly if it’s raining. There’s nothing quite like walking up to the entrance with a thunderstorm raging outside!
  • Seek out Madame Leota’s tombstone in the graveyard (it’s the one closest to the entrance). Keep watching and soon you’ll see a creepy surprise…
  • The ballroom sequence is the most magical part of the ride. The spectacle of a myriad of ghosts dancing about and causing mischief is incredible and not to be missed! You’ll want to tour several times just to be sure you see everything.
  • The graveyard scene is also a (ghoulish) delight. Again, you’ll want to visit again and again to see everything.
  • Look for Little Leota perched above the graveyard exit.
  • Beware of hitchhiking ghosts! Part of the fun in experiencing the Haunted Mansion is seeing which ghost ends up joining you in your Doom Buggy.
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Hidden Mickeys & Other Secrets

  • In the ballroom scene, look at the lower left corner of the dining table to see three plates arranged to form a Hidden Mickey.
  • As you leave the graveyard, look for the ghost in the crypt next to the opera singer. In his raised left hand you’ll find a shadow shaped like Mickey.
  • Look closely in the interactive queue and see if you can find the Bride’s Ring embedded in the ground! The story of the ring actually goes back a bit. Years ago, as you exited the Haunted Mansion, you used to be able to find a mysterious round object embedded in the ground. Legend had it that it was the wedding ring of the Bride in the Attic. She supposedly flung it out the window in her despair before she died. In actual fact, it was nothing more than the remains of a post that had been removed at some point. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? Unfortunately, the “ring” was removed during the Haunted Mansion’s last major renovation, but Imagineers added an “authentic” ring to the new queue!
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Did You Know...?

  • The stretching rooms are an optical illusion created by the raising of the ceiling. Many people assume that they’re in an elevator and that they’re actually descending, but this is not the case. In Disneyland’s version of the Haunted Mansion, you do actually descend underground in the stretching rooms—this was necessary since guests needed to pass underneath the railroad tracks to get to the rest of the attraction. No such obstacle exists in the Magic Kingdom, but the rooms were so popular that it was maintained purely for effect.
  • The actual ride takes place in a large building behind the mansion (which guests cannot see from the outside).
  • Many people believe that the ornamentation on the roof is a set of chess pieces (minus the knight since it’s always night inside the Haunted Mansion). Alas, that’s not true, they’re just an architectural decoration with no special significance.
  • The Haunted Mansion is styled after 19th century Hudson River Dutch Gothic architecture.
  • The Haunted Mansion has the peculiar distinction of being the only attraction to appear in every Disney park but in a different land. In the Magic Kingdom the Haunted Mansion is in Liberty Square, in Disneyland it’s in New Orleans Square, at Tokyo Disneyland it resides in Fantasyland, and in Disneyland Paris the ghoulish ghosts haunt Frontierland.
  • The theme song “Grim Grinning Ghosts” was written by X. Atencio, who also penned the theme song for the Pirates of the Caribbean, “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate’s Life for Me”.
  • “Grim Grinning Ghosts” is sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, who is probably best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger! You can see him in the graveyard as one of the singing busts. He’s the one with the moustache who bears a striking resemblance to Walt Disney (who, in spite of the popular myth, does not appear in the Haunted Mansion).
  • If your ghost host’s voice sounds familiar, you probably just visited Adventureland. That’s Paul Frees, who also does the narration for the Pirates of the Caribbean.
  • The mausoleum by the exit contains some frightful funny puns. Here are a few examples:Asher T. Ashes
    Wee G. Bord
    Manny Festation
    Metta Fisiks
    Pearl E. Gates
    C.U. Later
    Rustin Peese Hap A. Rition
    Emma Spook
    Paul Tergyst
    M.T. Tomb
    Clare Voince
    Bea Witch
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Touring Tips

  • This is a FastPass+ attraction. Wait times usually run less than half that of the major attractions like Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. That means that you will usually encounter wait times of about 20 minutes on moderately busy days. Be aware that lines can grow rapidly when the nearby Hall of Presidents and Liberty Square Riverboat let out, if the line seems really long but the park isn’t busy you might just want to try back later when the crowd dies down.
  • Here’s the trick for being ahead of the crowd when you prepare to board your Doom Buggy. When you first enter the Haunted Mansion you will be in a small room with a painting on the wall. There are two hidden doors that lead to the stretching rooms, one on the left of the painting and one on the right. If you stand near the painting you will be among the first to enter one of the stretching rooms (they alternate back and forth). When the stretching room sequence ends, one of the walls will slide open, leading to a common corridor that is between the stretching rooms. Stand near the wall that’s underneath the painting of the woman holding the pink parasol. When the wall slides open you’ll be among the first to leave the room, allowing you to board your Doom Buggy without having to jostle with the crowd.
  • While you’re waiting to enter, be sure to look at the tombstones in the graveyard. Also, as you leave, check out the mausoleum.
  • The Haunted Mansion is also open during Extra Magic Hours. If you visit during the nighttime you’ll find that it gets a bit deserted in that corner of Liberty Square (especially as the night wears on). Now that’s creepy!
  • The Doom Buggies comfortably fit two adults. You may be able to squeeze in a small child with you, though at that point it’s usually better to have one adult ride with the child and one to ride alone (and besides, what could be spookier than riding alone in the Haunted Mansion?).
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Photo Gallery

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