Originally Posted By MousDad The scale is all out of whack. The interactivity is cheesy. The theme and vibe entirely contradict the attraction itself. The organ confuses and bewilders me so much, I can't even really put it into words. The sounds and music set a perfect mood for what is to follow (if what is to follow is a preschool halloween party). It's depressing to me that the perfection that has withstood the test of time for decades can be so quickly and casually thrown all out of whack. So, this is the Walt Disney World of the future. Welcome to the Happiest Waits on Earth!.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Is the bypass option permanent, or is it just for the soft openings? I can't imagine that it will always be like that, but that they want it running at a reduced capacity for testing. Some of the effect areas seemed to get pretty crowded with guests (and those are the people who volunteered to have a longer wait, so I suspect it is a minority of the total going into the attraction). With a full guest load, this area just seems even less fun.
Originally Posted By Expo_Seeker40 The new queue doesn't bother me that much. The Haunted Mansion went through how many redesigns before it was built?....and the final product was an attraction half ghoulish and half fun house?! Also take into account that it was supposed to be a retirement home for ghosts. There is no clear storyline. The inside of the mansion was supposed to look dilapidated, while the outside (still at DL) had a maintained exterior and grounds. As for the MK version, let's forget it also got the Disneyland treatment: A nearly identical ride, save for it's load and unload areas. The exterior was different, but what about it's former perfectly kept facade, clean bricks and stone, and the manicured foliage and lawn. It looked terrible. I can see the one in DL looking good on the outside...but a gothic Hudson Valley home perched on a hill that's supposed to look scary, but isn't? Come on.... Sometime in the early 90s, they let nature takeover. The trees were allowed to grow even more, as were the plants,grass, etc. In the 2007 refurb they aged the mansion even more. As for the queue, yes it's cartoony, and whimsical. Have you seen the inside?! You have a cartoony mummy sitting up and talking the in the graveyard. Opera singers, a hand repaving it's tomb, a cartoony looking demon clock, a "tomb sweet tomb" sign, and two ghosts drunk as skunks sitting on a chandelier. All the original tombstones are intact, some rearranged. I assume the queue will be used during busy times and remain as an option in the off season. As for looking aged...no it doesn't really look that aged, but neither does DL's pet cemetery in 2011. There is no clear story to the HM. What you have our numerous families and people associated with the estate over the centuries, plus the spirits who got some ghoulish tweet or text from another world such as the mummy and opera singers and they decided to spiritually relocate to the HM. The graveyard makes no sense, neither does the attraction itself. It doesn't have to in this case! So...let the people play in the queue...if anything it might help kids be less afraid of the HM...which isn't scary to begin with, it's supposed to be fun. I'll take this queue over DL's boring switchback queue any day.
Originally Posted By tashajilek The only plus i see is that the kids seemed to really like it. It looked really cluttered and as others said tacky. "I'll take this queue over DL's boring switchback queue any day." Good and visa versa.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Eh. I don't really mind the new trend in 'interactive' queues. It's not my cup of tea, I wouldn't really bother walking through it, but hey, you gotta keep little Jacob and Jessica happy at all times, ya know? That said, the location of the crypt seems a bit weird to me, and having so many of the headstones so close to people, just seems 'off.' And while the Haunted Mansion does have plenty of 'gags' -- many of these new crypts just seem a bit too cartoony. Also, the way Disney tourists beat the crap out of stuff that is touch-able (see: Mickey's House in ToonTown or some of the interactive queue elements in Indiana Jones), the upkeep on this is going to be a real challenge.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Maybe that's why it doesn't look very aged and antiqued -- the guests will take care of that in short order. I like what Skinner said earlier about constructing a little mausoleum to walk through. It would be a little more subdued. I prefer more of an understated sense of foreboding, unease, mystery... with the chills and stuff slowly revealing themselves as you move through the attraction. I think these could have been less cartoony and still whimsical by making them only a little off -- dark little bits of humor as opposed to an elbow in the ribs. It's kind of over the top that a grave marker would recreate the person's death (the drowned pirate). Inside the graveyard scene -- where things have been transformed because the place is haunted, that sort of thing works. Out front, in the mortal world, not so much. I love the faces of the busts on the headstones. But again it would be better to have a more restrained, "normal" look outside the mansion and perhaps these exaggerated "here's how he died" ones on the inside.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<There are plenty of things about this I don't really care for, but in the scheme of things I would say that this is an improvement over mile long series of boring switchbacks>> The switchbacks are still there in all their glory. This is just at the very beginning of the queue.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper My problem with it is that it makes the death bell of understated, classy, atmospheric things in WDW. Now it needs to be loud, obnoxious, wet, and geared towards the most ADHD in order to survive.
Originally Posted By Socrates How many people here have actually seen this? Socrates "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <How many people here have actually seen this?> Oh, Lord, here we go again...
Originally Posted By HMButler79 Expo, you are WRONG. There is no clear story inside. Well yes. Walt and WED wanted it that way. But it was ALWAYS cannon "We'll take care of the OUTSIDE, the ghosts will take care of the INSIDE". This has been Gospel even to the time of Phantom Manor. Leota was the one that "summoned" the spirits. This has all been torn up and flushed down for WDIs vanity and complete abuse of the Mansion mythos
Originally Posted By HMButler79 Again, WHY is the organ OUTSIDE? in COLOR? When its INSIDE? Why are the Hitchhikig Ghosts in the FAMILY PLOT? Why is Prudence TALKING when we're not even inside yet. 41 years of Mansion history destroyed.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA ^^^I would have to agree with HMButler79's assessment. WDI spends all kinds of time and effort to tell us all how well they do 'storytelling' and how they wrote the book on THEME PARK rules and regulations and things, (how they do it better than anyone else in the industry) etc... Then, they go and toss out the 'Disney Theme Park' rulebook when it's convenient. (see also: The lack of berm surrounding DCA, and the multiple visual intrusions, and the lack of any sort of structure to the Park) And we're not supposed to notice.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> 41 years of Mansion history destroyed. << What a tragedy. Someone call the Red Cross.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip You can criticize the short attention of today's kids and their demand for interactivity, but that won't change it. It is a reality that Disney has to deal with. Frankly I'd far rather have them change the queue than the attraction itself. The last thing we need is a HM where everyone has a laser gun to shoot at the spooks!
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan It's not the interactivity that's the issue for me. I think it's fun to have those sorts of things in the queue. I like the concept of the line being set up in cemetery/mausoleum. I just think there are ways to do that are more subtle and maintain more of that sense of "disquieting metamorphosis".
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "The switchbacks are still there in all their glory. This is just at the very beginning of the queue." Right, along with this new interactive stuff. In other words it's not just switchbacks and nothing else.
