Behind the Magic: 5 Secrets of The Haunted Mansion You Probably Didn't Know
At night, keep an eye on the windows, you may notice a ghost or two passing by. Image credit: Walt Disney Co.
Everyone knows The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom Park is a classic and one of the most beloved attractions at Walt Disney World Resort. The 999 happy haunts have been eliciting no-so-scary chills and shrieks since Walt Disney World Resort opened on Oct. 1, 1971. But here are some insider secrets that you may not know.
The Raven - Why He’s There:
In the original plans for the Haunted Mansion, the raven was going to be our narrator as we toured the attraction. It was even going to be a water ride at one point. But it was later decided to have Paul Frees be our ghost host, the voice that we hear today. You’ll still see our fine-feathered-friend four separate times throughout the ride.
We are first introduced to the raven in the stand-by queue just above the Ravenscroft organ. By the way, the graveyard in the queue area is full of references to Walt Disney Imagineers like X Atencio and Marc Davis, just read the tombstones. Thurl Ravenscroft, a voice actor also known as the original voice of Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes cereal, gets a little nod on the organ itself. He voices one of the singing busts in the graveyard scene in the ride, the one that resembles Walt Disney.
2. Chess Pieces on the Roof
It’s often said, especially on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour, that Imagineer Marc Davis, an avid chess player, cleverly hid chess pieces in plain sight on the roof of the Haunted Mansion as a nod to his favorite pastime. But in his book The Art of the Haunted Mansion, former Imagineer Jason Surrell writes that this was simply a design element that was popular when the Haunted Mansion would have been built. But Marc Davis is also credited for adding the scene in the Pirates of the Caribbean queue where 2 skeletal pirates are playing chess, deadlocked where neither player can make a move. No matter which version you believe, there are chess pieces on the roof, and they are hidden in plain sight. All pieces but the knight. Why? Because it’s always night at the Haunted Mansion.
Chess pieces are hidden in plain sight on the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World
3. Park Benches
There are a few park benches located just outside the Haunted Mansion. While most of us sit on a bench to rest relax for a bit, I can’t think of a bench that would make someone more uncomfortable. Look closely, the iron work is actually a serpent with red eyes.
4. The Stretching Room - are you actually going down?
Is this room actually stretching? Or is it just your imagination?
The stretching room is one of the best special effects of any attraction at Walt Disney World. Once inside, the room begins to stretch, leaving us to wonder if we are actually moving down in an elevator, or staying put.
I believe that knowing the effects enhances the magic at Walt Disney World, helping us to appreciate the details even more. But I would hate to ruin this for anyone who doesn’t want to know. If you wish to keep this one a mystery, skip over the spoiler alert below.
Spoiler Alert!
In the Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, the show building, where the ride actually takes place , is on the other side of the Disneyland Railroad tracks. In order for guests to access the ride, they need to take an elevator down to a tunnel, under the tracks. So in Disneyland you’re actually in an elevator. But in Walt Disney World, there is no need to move guests down, so the stretching room doesn’t actually move.
Speaking of the show building, here’s another secret that is sure to impress.
5. The Show Building
Most of us assume the ride takes place inside the mansion itself but this isn’t actually the case. What we see on the outside is simply a facade. Other than the stretching room, the ride takes place in a massive warehouse-style building backstage. And while the Haunted Mansion is set in Liberty Square, it sits right along side “it’s a small world” in Fantasyland.
Here’s a bonus secret: In addition to its home in the Liberty Square area at Walt Disney World Resort, The Haunted Mansion is featured at Disneyland Resort (in New Orleans Square), Tokyo Disneyland (in Fantasyland) and Disneyland Paris (known as Phantom Manor and located in Frontierland). It is the only Disney attraction to be featured in four different park “lands” worldwide.
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Haunted Mansion Hotel Room at Walt Disney World?
The Haunted Mansion - Walt Disney World
Glowing footprints appearing on the ceiling, “Floating” Doom Buggy beds, A sliding bookcase / hidden passage to the bathroom, ghostly apparitions appearing in the mirrors to “follow you home” and of course the infamous Haunted Mansion wallpaper on the bed linens. These were all part of an idea that was being kicked around at Walt Disney World Imagineering back in 2010 but the idea never came to be.
Haunted Mansion Room Concept for Walt Disney World Resort 2010
Haunted Mansion Room Concept for Walt Disney World 2010
The idea was brilliant: take the rooms furthest away from the lobby (the least desirable rooms) at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside and give them a magical makeover with a special Disney theme. Port Orleans. Riverside would be the perfect hotel, given that Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is located in New Orleans Square. And of course, Caribbean Beach would be perfect for Pirates of the Caribbean, which of course did come to fruition.
A survey had been sent out to some guests asking about what type of themed rooms they would like to see at Walt Disney World. Options included a Pirates of the Caribbean room, a Disney Princess room, a health and wellness room, and one based on The Haunted Mansion.
Concept drawing of the proposed Pirates of the Caribbean themed room at Walt Disney World
Actual pirate themed room at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort - Walt Disney World
Too bad the Haunted Mansion concept didn’t win out because there were so many creative ideas in the works. I think the Imagineers would have really had fun designing these rooms, more so than the Royal Rooms that we have now. They’re pretty neat too, though. Another nail in the coffin to the Haunted Mansion rooms is that they might not have appealed to all audiences. Can you imagine trying to get a toddler to go to sleep with ghosts waving at him in the mirror?
But they say no good idea ever goes away at Disney, so maybe we will see a version of these rooms return in the future.
What do you think? Would you want to stay in a room themed to The Haunted Mansion?