Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/Latest.asp?I1=ID&I2=3375" target="_blank"><b>Latest: Haunted Mansion Holiday to soft open Wednesday</b></a> According to the LA Times Travel Blog, Haunted Mansion Holiday, which officially opens on Friday at Disneyland, will begin soft opening on Wednesday. <a href="http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/haunted-mansion-reop-2841/" target="_blank">Click here</a> for more info.
Originally Posted By oc_dean I'd like to know .... is this "Nightmare Before Christmas" for 2008 identical in every way to last year's? In the beginning ... it seemed each year the show elements get tweeked. I'm wondering if they are narrowing it down to one specific set of elements everyone is happy with .. and just stick with it, from this point on. Though .. I do like it when they make some subtle changes/enhancements to make each year a little more fresh. Now last year .. I noticed there was no music ... very little to know sound effects outside in the queue. But the year before they did. Does anyone remember the first year they had the grounds more decorated .. and one big tree was decorated in orange lights? As the years go by ... it seems they are doing less. Are they trying to be "artistically subtle"? Or is it some elements work .. others, they've found out, don't? The outside queue is all too important... it seems though they don't decorate as much .. nor do a heck of a lot in terms of some sound effects on the grounds outside the mansion.
Originally Posted By oc_dean This is that "spooky" "moody" time of year ... and as they say in entertainment - It's all about Show.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros From what I could tell, it's all pretty much the same as last year. They had the same toy-box music outside for the queue, which really doesn't do much for me, but it's been a long time since I've seen the movie so maybe it's a reference to that. It seemed like they might have tweaked the lighting in a couple places (I didn't notice the garage door in the attic, even with sitting on the left side of a car with 3 people), but other than that, it pretty much looks the same. The main difference I could tell was the gingerbread house in the ballroom, but that changes every year. The thing that threw me off, and made me really excited was that it smelled like gingerbread in that scene too! It was so unexpected and unnoticed at first that it worked amazingly well. Once I noticed it, I got really excited and basically yelled it to the people I was with, and we all sat there and smelled the gingerbread. I also noticed that the crashed sleigh in the ballroom had ghost presents floating away from it, where I believe it has been the normal ghost people there in years past. This seemed to make a lot more sense to me. One thing I noticed that was changed for the worse was the sound from my doombuggy was almost impossible to hear. The entire time, my head was about 6 inches from the speaker, and I could only hear mumbling. If I pushed my head against it, I could kind of hear it, but it was tough. It seems that they have this problem every year, since the holiday version is so much louder (especially near the beginning), and it takes a couple weeks to get it adjusted just right. Other than that, it was great.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS They do have a Halloween decorated tree to the left of the Golden Horseshoe. There is a plaque also explaining the significance of it. The gingerbread smell in HMH was definitely a suprise. Very cool. A special thanks to DLandDug for pointing out the New Orleans funeral gingerbread guys at the base of the centerpiece. We were so excited about the centerpiece and the gingerbread smell that we never even noticed the little guys the first two times we rode it!
Originally Posted By lesmisfan my dad and i noticed the gingerbread smell last night as well. it was great! i have to admit though i said the same thing to my dad, in years past they tried to do something better or add something new but now its almost the same thing every year except for the gingerbread house that changes every year. I also prefer the music from the very first year. it was more like a gothic xmas sound than the movie soundtrack that replaced it. and i miss having the scarols in the queue, that added a whole festive vibe that it doesn't have anymore.
Originally Posted By SBSBelle22 LOL okay I just realized that my post about going in 11 days is post number 11!!! SPOOKY!!!
Originally Posted By monorailblue Is it bad luck to post the 13th post? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
