No matter what form it takes, the Haunted Mansion and its cultural spin-offs top the list of my favorite Disney attractions. Maybe because it opened when I was too young and scared to ride it. Thus it became a symbolic conquering of fears. It’s also a decent balance of hot and cold running chills, as the Ghost Host would say.
Again, this is the first Disney park I’ve been to outside of Anaheim. While I suspect their Haunted Mansion is similar to the one in Orlando, it’s not note for note. That’s not just because the Ghost Host speaks Japanese. For a limited time in late Winter/early Spring, Tokyo Disneyland has rolled out “Story Beyond,” an AR adventure involving the living servants of the Mansion. While it seems odd that the living would be involved, the stretching portrait room does say its subjects are painted in their corruptible, mortal state.
Alas, not being fluent in Japanese nor Google Translate, I did not follow that adventure. But I did make a reservation to buy the attendant merchandise — both a bigger deal in Japan than Anaheim (by a hair) and better controlled. Reservations are required for a shopping spree, and the park limits many items to one per customer. At least they’re patient with the gaijin who couldn’t read the sign saying so. (I wasn’t hoarding, just intended to buy his and her shoulder ravens.)
As I write this, Disneyland in Anaheim has temporarily closed their Haunted Mansion in New Orleans Square for a massive makeover to their queue (and probably more). It’s overdue, because the hot summer sun has made long lines not just uncomfortable, but dangerous. It’s possible that the make-over will bring their Mansion closer to those of the Orlando and Tokyo parks.
Disneyland Paris has Phantom Manor, allegedly more in line with Walt’s original vision to scare guests. Because Chinese culture interprets ghosts somewhat differently than American audiences, their equivalent is Mystic Manor. Magic is fine; potentially disturbing ancestors is not. Hong Kong is on my bucket list; my wife has gone but I have not. Likely next though will be Orlando. I’m just waiting for Universal to open their third gate Epic Universe, then I’ll take two weeks to exhaust myself in every park possible.
Photos by Steph Rodriguez. Video by Derek McCaw.
End credit music — March of Midnight by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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