13 Cool & Creepy Facts About The Haunted Mansion

A musical crypt, a secret library and a gloomy ghostwriter are but a few of the supernatural experiences that await you along the eerily interactive queue of Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion, my all-time favorite ride ever! And I’m not alone. Millions of guests around the world have been thrilled and delighted by Walt Disney’s chilling concept of a retirement home for 999 happy haunts. 🦇

Climbing aboard my Doom Buggy for a supernatural journey through a maze of haunted chambers, chills run down my spine as I anticipate another rendezvous with these giggling ghouls.

Speaking of secrets, here’s 13 more:

1. The Haunted Mansion was originally imagined as a walk through attraction. 🦇

2. Several times a year people are caught trying to spread their loved-one’s remains inside the mansion. 🦇

3. Originally appearing in the 1965 film ’The Sons of Katie Elder’, the black horseless hearse now sits outside the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom. ’The Sons of Katie Elder‘ starred John Wayne and Dean Martin as two of the four sons who return to Clearwater, Texas to attend their mother’s funeral. 🦇

4. The names on the tombstones are real. 🦇

5. As you’re leaving the Disney World Haunted Mansion, there’s a small pet cemetery off to your left. If you look all the way to the back, you’ll notice a newer addition to the gravestones: Mr. Toad. The Disney World version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was closed and reworked into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The repurposed Toad figure is a tribute to the lost ride. 🦇

5. Ezra, Gus and Phineas, the Hitchhiking Ghosts, were given their names by fans. 🦇

6. Madame Leota in the Séance Scene is actually the face of the late Model Builder and Imagineer, Leota Toombs, whose face fit perfectly the dimensions for the crystal ball. 🦇

7. In the stretching room at Magic Kingdom, the ceiling rises. In the stretching room at Disneyland, you are standing inside an elevator that is being lowered. 🦇

8. On Madame Leota’s tombstone in the queue area, her eyes open and close and her face moves as guests walk by. 🦇

9. The creepy organ music you hear in the stretching room is actually “Grim Grinning Ghosts” slowed way down. From the time you enter the Mansion until the time you exit, you are actually hearing one song the entire time, which starts out slowly and gets faster as the ride progresses. 🦇

10. The raven you see several times throughout the attraction was originally going to be the narrator. 🦇

11. Many well-known voice actors can be heard throughout the Haunted Mansion. Chief among them is Thurl Ravenscroft, best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger and the singer of ‘You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch.’ Ravenscroft can be heard and seen as the deep-voiced member of the marble bust quintet that sings ‘Grim Grinning Ghosts.’ 🦇

12. The caretaker and dog in the Graveyard Scene are lit differently to indicate that they are living not dead. 🦇

13. There are 13 candles on the birthday cake in the Grand Ballroom Scene. 🦇