The Haunted Mansion

Ride summary

Disneyland

Guests enter the grounds of the antebellum mansion through its front gate and walk through the gardens containing a pet cemetery and a carriage led by an invisible horse. Already an instrumental of the ride's theme song, "Grim Grinning Ghosts", can be heard. Once inside the mansion's foyer, the deep voice of the invisible Ghost Host (voiced by Disney Legend Paul Frees) introduces himself.

A wall opens up and the Ghost Host leads guests into an octagon shaped art gallery. This room contains a quartet of paintings, each depicting a person from the chest up. The wall closes behind the guest and the room stretches vertically. As it does, the portrait frames appear to elongate, revealing the subjects' grim but humorous fates. This iconic Stretching Room is actually an elevator used to transport guests underneath the railroad berm to where the main attraction is located. The Ghost Host challenges guests to "find a way out" and cackles. "Of course, there's always my way" he says as the room goes dark. The ceiling vanishes and lightning flashes to reveal the cupola, in which hangs the Ghost Host's skeletal remains from the rafters by a noose. The room goes dark again, a shriek is heard, followed by the sound of bones shattering. The Ghost Host apologizes for frightening the guests "prematurely" as the lights dimly return and a wall opens.

The Ghost Host leads guests into a portrait corridor connecting the Stretching Room to the loading area. This corridor is actually a tunnel that passes under Disneyland Railroad and connects the facade to the ride building, where the actual ride takes place. The subjects of the portraits on the right flicker briefly into macabre versions of themselves when lightning flashes from the windows on the left. The Ghost Host notes "we have 999 happy haunts here" with "room for 1000". At the end of the corridor are a pair of busts who appear to "follow" the guests with their gazes due to the Hollow-Face illusion. In the loading area, black carriages called "Doom Buggies" descend one staircase and ascend another to the second floor, while fog is pumped into the back of the room. While most guests load their Doom Buggies via a moving carpet synced to the Doom Buggies, the carpets and Doom Buggies are frozen when loading and unloading wheelchair bound guests. There is also a brightly lit exit corridor accessible here acting as an official wheelchair exit, leading to an elevator back to the Mansion's entrance.

Once guests are loaded in their Doom Buggies, they ascend to the upper floor as the Ghost Host gives a brief (and bilingual) safety spiel. Guests then pass by a candelabra floating down an endless hallway. Near the hallway's entrance is a moving suit of armor and a chair with an abstract face. The Doom Buggies then turn to view a glass conservatory filled with dead flora where a funeral is set up. Inside a casket, the occupant is heard calling out for help to escape; his bony hands are seen trying to pry the casket lid open. The Doom Buggies then travel down a hallway of doors where sounds of pounding, calls for help, screams, knocking, and maniacal laughter can be heard from behind the doors. Knockers and handles move independently, and some doors appear to be "breathing." Guests then pass by a demonic grandfather clock, which chimes thirteen as the minute hand spins backwards and the shadow of a claw passes over it.

Magic Kingdom

The Haunted Mansion was an opening-day attraction at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, where it is part of Liberty Square. During the production and assembly of the props and audio-animatronics for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, duplicates of everything were being made for Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion. It was decided that the Florida version of the attraction would be slightly longer and more elaborate than its California counterpart with extra scenes such as the library and the music room. Paul Frees recorded additional voice-overs, including dialogue the "Ghost Host", to accompany the extra scenes in the ride. Because of the ample space within the park, the attraction's show building is much larger and not restricted by any railroad berm.

In the Foyer, there is a portrait of the Aging Man from the Disneyland version. Unlike its Disneyland counterpart, the stretching rooms are not elevators and instead have the ceilings rise. After this, the door opens to the Doom Buggy loading area.

Upon boarding, guests pass under the staircase, with a candelabra floating above, then pass the changing portraits as seen in the queue at Disneyland. An on-ride photo is taken in this section. Then the guests go through the library where busts of ghost writers stare and follow them when they pass by as also seen in the queue at Disneyland. Once they enter the music room, an invisible pianist plays a sinister version of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” and into the Endless Staircase, where footprints can be seen and candelabras are blown out occasionally by unseen ghosts.

Passing by bat-eyed wallpaper that glows in the dark, the guests see the Endless Hallway, but the Hatbox Ghost appears next to it from a blue door, his footprints visible in front of the Hallway. The conservatory and corridor of doors are similar to the California counterparts.

In the seance room, Madame Leota is seen floating and reciting her spell as instruments play. A green specter floats alongside the instruments. The Doom Buggies enter a ballroom scene near identical to California before proceeding to the attic. Here, the piano player can be heard, but not seen. Florida's bride character, Constance Hatchaway, gleefully recites twisted wedding vows and threateningly holds a hatchet. Voiced by Kat Cressida (who's best known for voicing Dee Dee in Dexter's Laboratory), Hatchaway is the inspiration for similar bride characters in Muppets Haunted Mansion and the theatrical 2023 film.

Tokyo Disneyland

The Tokyo Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion was an opening day attraction and is located in Fantasyland. This version is largely a duplicate of the Magic Kingdom version as it ran throughout the 20th century, without the changes it received during its 2007 refurbishment. Minor differences include a haunted painting of a man vaguely resembling Peter Lorre whose face pops out and stretches, a tall, legless ghost in the Séance Room, and more advanced lighting. To those unfamiliar with the Florida ride before its 2007 refurbishment, the most notable differences from the American parks will be the absence of Florida's Endless Staircase scene and a unique attic scene. Tokyo's attic is a sparsely decorated, with pop-up ghosts scattered about and a more enigmatic bride character without any dialogue or background lore. This attic is faithful to how California and Florida's attic scenes appeared throughout the 90s and early 2000s.

History

Development

The idea for the Mansion precedes Disneyland and WED Enterprises, dating to when Walt Disney hired the first of his Imagineers. At the time, the park they were developing the attraction for was supposed to be located across from the studios. In 1951, the first known illustration of the park showed a main street setting, green fields, western village and carnival. Disney Legend Harper Goff developed a black-and-white sketch of a crooked street leading away from main street by a peaceful church and graveyard, with a run-down manor perched high on a hill that towered over main street.

Disney assigned Imagineer Ken Anderson to create a story using Goff's idea. Plans were made to build a New Orleans-themed land in the small transition area between Frontierland and Adventureland. Weeks later, New Orleans Square appeared on the souvenir map and promised a thieves' market, a pirate wax museum, and a haunted house walk-through. Anderson studied New Orleans and old plantations, landing on an image of the Shipley-Lydecker House in Baltimore, Maryland. He came up with a drawing of an antebellum manor with features from the Baltimore house, overgrown with weeds, dead trees, swarms of bats and boarded doors and windows topped by a screeching cat as a weathervane.

Disney, however, rejected the idea of having a run-down building in his park. He visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, and was captivated by the massive mansion with its stairs to nowhere, doors that opened to walls and holes, and elevators. Anderson envisioned stories for the mansion, including tales of a ghostly sea captain who killed his nosy bride and then hanged himself, a mansion home to an unfortunate family, and a ghostly wedding party with well-known Disney villains and spooks.

In 1961, handbills announcing a 1963 opening of the Haunted Mansion were given out at Disneyland's main entrance. Construction began a year later, and the exterior was completed in 1963. The attraction was previewed in a 1965 episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, but the attraction itself did not open until 1969. The six-year delay owed heavily to Disney's involvement in the New York World's Fair in 1964–1965 and to an attraction redesign after Disney's death in 1966.

After the fair, many Imagineers such as Marc Davis, X Atencio and Claude Coats contributed ideas to the project. By this time, Anderson had left the project. Rolly Crump showed Disney some designs for his version, which included bizarre objects like coffin clocks, candle men, talking chairs, man-eating plants, tiki-like busts, living gypsy wagons and a mirror with a face. Disney accepted these ideas and wanted to make the proclaimed "Museum of the Weird", a restaurant side to the now-named Haunted Mansion, similar to the Blue Bayou at Pirates of the Caribbean. However, Crump denies this claim in a 2021 interview in SFGATE.

Debut

Employee previews of the Mansion were held August 6, 7, and the 8th, followed by "soft" openings on August 9 and 10 where limited numbers of park guests were allowed to ride. A "Midnight" Press Event was held on the evening of August 11. The Mansion opened to all guests on August 12, 1969.

In around 1977, WDI considered utilizing the unused designs, creatures and effects that Rolly Crump had originally created for the Haunted Mansion and the Museum of the Weird as part of Professor Marvel's Gallery—"a tent show of mysteries and delights, a carousel of magic and wonder," to be built as part of Disneyland's Discovery Bay expansion area. The idea was dropped when the expansion's plans fell through.

Updates

In 1994, Disneyland's Haunted Mansion was updated. A phantom piano player sat at a run-down piano in the attic scene, and the original faceless bride was given a full-fleshed appearance. In 2001, a newer, more-detailed safety spiel was added to the Doom Buggies' onboard audio as they left the loading area. Recorded by voice-over artist Joe Leahy in English and Fabio Rodriguez in Spanish, in a recreation of the character of original actor Paul Frees' Ghost Host, the bilingual spiel was part of a park-wide campaign to increase safety. The seasonal overlay Haunted Mansion Holiday also premiered in October, featuring characters from the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas.

In 2004, California's Seance Room was updated so the crystal ball with the talking head of Madame Leota floated above its table rather than sitting stationary on it, with the original projection-mapped effect replaced by a rear-projection effect within the ball. In 2006, the original attic bride was replaced by Constance Hatchaway and her unique storyline.

In 2007, the Florida attraction was renovated, with changes including the installation of the changing portraits and lightning-filled windows from the Disneyland version, and new vocals for most of the ghosts in the graveyard. An endless staircase scene was added in place of a previously dark space with spider webs. The portrait hall was originally decorated with portraits, known as the Sinister 11, situated on both sides and on a doorway, all of which have eyes that stared at guests as they pass through; these were later transferred to the load area during the refurbishment and their eyes no longer followed guests.

In March 2011, a new "interactive queue" debuted at the Walt Disney World location, with new crypts and tombstones honoring Imagineers; a murder mystery for guests to solve featuring the sinister Dread Family; the Composer Crypt, which features musical instruments that play variations of "Grim Grinning Ghosts" when touched, including a pipe organ made by the fictional "Ravenscroft" company, named for Thurl Ravenscroft, one of the vocalists for "Grim Grinning Ghosts"; the Mariner's brine-filled sepulcher, whose ghost sings and sneezes from within, and a crypt for Prudence Pock the poetess, which features haunted moving books and Prudence's ghost writing invisibly in her poem book. Guests can solve the unfinished poems by speaking into microphones located on the crypt. The FastPass+ line skips the queue altogether and leads guests straight to the Foyer doors. There is also an extended queue line that uses the former Mike Fink Keel Boats dock.

Other versions

Haunted Mansion Holiday

The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland is transformed into Haunted Mansion Holiday during the Halloween and Christmas seasons and has been since 2001, inspired by Tim Burton's 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Haunted Mansion is closed in mid August for a few weeks as they revamp the attraction before opening again in late August, replacing many of the props and Audio-Animatronics with characters and themes from the movie. The Haunted Mansion Holiday closes in early January to restore the attraction back to the original Haunted Mansion and reopens late January.

The Magic Kingdom does not have its own holiday edition of the Haunted Mansion and the regular ride operates continuously through the holiday season.

Related attractions

Disneyland Park Paris features Phantom Manor. Located in Frontierland, it is a re-imagined version of the Haunted Mansion. The house is a Western Victorian, in the Second Empire architectural style, based on the look of the Fourth Ward School House in Virginia City, Nevada. Along with the Western architectural style, the attraction uses a Western plot to fit in with the Thunder Mesa and Frontierland backdrop. Unlike the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom attractions which have English narration from Paul Frees, Phantom Manor features Vincent Price throughout.

Mystic Manor opened at Hong Kong Disneyland in spring 2013, and is located in Mystic Point. Unlike the Haunted Mansion or Phantom Manor, however, it does not include references to departed spirits or the afterlife, due to differences in traditional Chinese culture. Based on the Society of Explorers and Adventurers mythos introduced in Tokyo DisneySea, the attraction tells the story of Lord Henry Mystic and his monkey Albert. Having recently acquired an enchanted music box with the power to bring inanimate objects to life, Albert opens the box and brings all of the house's artifacts to life. The attraction's exterior is that of a large Victorian mansion in an elaborate Queen Anne architectural style, and the experience features a trackless system and a musical score by Danny Elfman.

Incidents

Disneyland

On October 5, 2025, a woman in her 60s was found unresponsive after riding The Haunted Mansion. Disneyland security administered CPR until Anaheim Fire and Rescue arrived. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy was not performed, and no issues were found with the ride itself.

Adaptations

Walt Disney Pictures produced two standalone theatrical live-action feature film adaptations based on the attraction:

The first adaptation, The Haunted Mansion, was directed by Rob Minkoff and starred Eddie Murphy was released on November 26, 2003.

The second adaptation, Haunted Mansion, was directed by Justin Simien and released on July 28, 2023. In July 2010, Guillermo del Toro announced that he was set to write and produce a darker film adaptation also based on the attraction, saying that it would be both scary and fun. The film was officially confirmed in July 2021, with Tiffany Haddish playing a hired psychic that attempts to commune with the dead and LaKeith Stanfield playing a lackluster tour guide in New Orleans's French Quarter.

In popular culture

In the 1970s, Lakeside introduced a "3-D board game" titled "Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion Game". A unique feature of the game were dancing figures linked as gears which, when rotated, would change the map of the game into one of four layouts.

In January 2014, Marvel Comics began publishing Seekers of the Weird, a five-issue miniseries and first under the Disney Kingdoms imprint. The miniseries was based on the Museum of the Weird, Rolly Crump's unused precursor designs for the attraction. In 2016 another miniseries was published under the same imprint, based on the haunted mansion itself.

In July 2014, it was announced that Disney Television Animation was developing an animated special based on the attraction, the project originally was going to be helm by Phineas and Ferb writers Joshua Prett and Scott D. Peterson with Gris Grimly as art director and executive producer, the project was later re-developed as a potential mini-series for Disney XD with Shannon Tindle as executive producer but executive changes at Disney Branded Television in 2017 shelved the production.

Madame Leota appears in the second half of the seventh season of ABC's Once Upon a Time, portrayed by Suzy Joachim.

From 2016 to 2019, Disney Press released Tales from the Haunted Mansion, a four volume children's horror anthology series presented as selections from the Mansion's library. Narrated by Mansion librarian Amicus Arcane, the stories ranged from homages to classic horror to origin stories for different members of the Mansion's ensemble.

In the 2018 film The Predator, the characters enter a large elevator room and a security guard recites part of the Haunted Mansion script "is this haunted room actually stretching?"

In October 2018, it was reported that the Magic Kingdom was turning into a popular place for families to deposit ashes of their deceased loved ones, with the Haunted Mansion picked as their favorite location. Disney considers this to be unacceptable and unlawful, and stated that anyone caught doing so will be escorted from Disney property.