Food for thought regarding Haunted Mansion

[VonBaroketch]

There are a lot of opinions spanning the spectrum from love it to loathe it when it comes to the changes and enhancements being brought to WDW's Haunted Mansion. I want to share a resource I recommend that may help form one's opinion. It is a blog by Dan Olson (regular on the Doombuggies forum), and he is the Jim Korkis of Haunted Mansion appreciation and history. Be prepared to spend hours digging into the massive amount of content, but it will be time well spent! Check it out: Long-Forgotten

Lou, Dan would be a fascinating guest on an episode of the podcast. His blog has even gotten the attention of WDI (would have been nice if they consulted him prior to making permanent changes).

[Mike Fink]

Thanks for this.

I'm a bit queasy about the queue concept's radical break in tone. Used to be the outside of the HM was serious . . . at least in appearance. Here's the traditional gag: The old tombstones and crypts appeared realistic from a distance, but when you approached them their funny gags were revealed. A funny saying on something as -- dead serious -- as a tombstone. That works.

The new stuff doesn't play by this rule. With many of the new things the physical object itself is the gag. For example, the sea captain's tomb of a drunk guy lounging in a bathtub is funny. Problem is it is entirely unrealistic -- no real tomb would ever appear that way. This breaks the mansion exterior's tone -- with such absurd stuff surrounding it the mansion loses the effect of being a foreboding structure. Guests will not be intimidated by this new queue, therefore the mansion loses some of it's initial scariness.

That's a shame, because the scary exterior / wacky interior is the HM's ultimate gag. Kids used to be scared of going on the HM because it 'looked scary' and then were relieved to see how silly it could be inside. The outside isn't so scary anymore.

It's an old show business technique: tension and release. Now we have release / more release. It doesn't work.

[NC_WDW_Daddy]

Guess I'll have to check it out myself next month.

[Vadania]

Some of the changes made to one of my favourite attractions has me concerned about the Fantasyland expansion...

[MartianCrab]

A look inside the new queue at Disney World's Haunted Mansion
The link above features a video of the new queue features. See for yourself.

[the7thAve]

There are a lot of opinions spanning the spectrum from love it to loathe it when it comes to the changes and enhancements being brought to WDW's Haunted Mansion. I want to share a resource I recommend that may help form one's opinion. It is a blog by Dan Olson (regular on the Doombuggies forum), and he is the Jim Korkis of Haunted Mansion appreciation and history. Be prepared to spend hours digging into the massive amount of content, but it will be time well spent! Check it out: Long-Forgotten

Lou, Dan would be a fascinating guest on an episode of the podcast. His blog has even gotten the attention of WDI (would have been nice if they consulted him prior to making permanent changes).

Great blog. As a certified HM nut, I'm glad to find this. Thanks for sharing.

[wedway]

I don't understand the need for an interactive queue here. HM is a high capacity, fast loading Omnimover. It eats crowds. I've rarely seen a wait here. Pooh - I can understand even though I don't care for interactive queues because of all the 3 year olds with too much energy. But there's no reason at HM.

Will this affect load times, as people slow down to play instead of walking straight into the mansion?

[MartianCrab]

I don't understand the need for an interactive queue here. HM is a high capacity, fast loading Omnimover. I've rarely seen a wait here.
Will this affect load times, as people slow down to play instead of walking straight into the mansion?

I've never in my life waited more than 30 minutes to ride the HM. More times than not I just walk right in. I think the silly new toys will clog up the line.

[Vadania]

If people are busy with the interactive bits it may make it quicker for those wanting to go straight on to the attraction. From the videos I've seen people aren't waiting for those messing about to stop, they just kept going.

[InStitches]

I've never in my life waited more than 30 minutes to ride the HM. More times than not I just walk right in. I think the silly new toys will clog up the line.

I agree. I'll give it a shot though.