Five Disney theme parks around the world feature haunted house attractions. Having visited them all, give me Manors over Mansions, every time.
Disney's haunted house ride opened in 1969 with the original Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in California. The debut marked the completion of a long development cycle that included a 1961 announcement of a 1963 opening for the attraction. Obviously, that did not happen, and the Haunted Mansion facade sat unopened for six years. The 1967 opening of Tomorrowland's Adventure Thru Inner Space provided the Omnimover ride system that Imagineers duped as Doom Buggies, switching the Mansion from a walk-through to a ride with controlled viewpoints and clearing the way for the Mansion's debut.
A second installation of Haunted Mansion opened with Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in 1971. The show building for that Mansion is located entirely within the berm for the railroad, so the stretching rooms in Florida are not elevators carrying guests below the track level, as in Anaheim. In Florida, the ceilings rise in the stretch rooms, necessitating guests to enter the Mansion from what looks like its basement.
Tokyo Disneyland opened a copy of Orlando's Mansion when it debuted in 1983. But when Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, Disney tweaked the concept into Phantom Manor. Set in Paris' Frontierland town of Thunder Mesa, Phantom Manor substituted the Mansion's graveyard scene for several scenes inspired by concept drawings from Walt Disney World's never-built Western River Expedition ride.
Two decades later, Hong Kong Disneyland further tweaked the concept with its Mystic Manor. This attraction does away with the stretch rooms and the Omnimover in favor of a trackless ride system. Mystic Manor also abandons the bride storyline featured in the Mansions and Phantom Manor in favor of a story from Disney's Society of Explorers and Adventurers franchise.
In Hong Kong, Lord Henry Mystic invites guests to tour his museum of antiquities, including a music box that might be enchanted. Mystic's sidekick, the monkey Albert, of course opens this literal Pandora's Box when Mystic turns his back, sending us off into our magical adventure in the museum.
The clear storyline and enhanced theatrical effects make Mystic Manor my favorite of all Disney haunted attractions. A few direct references to the original Mansion remain, including the Hollow-Face illusion busts. But Mystic Manor's blend of practical animations and projection mapping, viewed from the ever-shifting perspective of trackless ride vehicles, plus the experience to make this one of the world's top dark rides.
Second place goes to Paris' Phantom Manor. This really is the best iteration of the original Haunted Mansion concept. With the vengeful story of the Henry Ravenswood, the man who founded Thunder Mesa after striking gold in Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor offered a more compelling and engaging narrative than the preceding Haunted Mansions, with their retconned "Constance Hatchaway" story. Here, Ravenswood's daughter Melanie wants to marry young train engineer named Jake, but Henry said - essentially - over my dead body... and Jake's, and those of a whole lot of other people whose graves we will see at the of the ride.
It's spookier than the other Mansions, especially with the creepy Phantom character revealing himself at the end. (Spoiler alert: It's Henry, back from the dead.) But I love it, especially with the addition of horror icon Vincent Price's narration in the foyer and stretch rooms.
Picking among the three Haunted Mansions is tough. Only Orlando offers the M.C. Escher-inspired Endless Staircase scene. Orlando and Tokyo also both have a library scene that is missing in Anaheim. Orlando and Anaheim both have the Hatbox Ghost, with Orlando placing it next to the Endless Hallway, but Anaheim has it between the bride in the attic and the transition into the graveyard. Anaheim's bride has a more ethereal look than the menacing Constance in Orlando or the old-school bride in Tokyo. There's also the shadowy piano player in Anaheim's attic, which when combined with the bride and Hatbox in succession, pushes Disneyland to the bronze medal position for me. Extra credit for being the original cancels out the lack of the minor extra scenes, for me.
Score Orlando in fourth place, then Tokyo in fifth. "Nightmare Before Christmas" fans might want to swap those positions since Tokyo gets the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay (called Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare) and Orlando does not. But if anyone wants to argue either of these locations over Anaheim, I am not going to object. It's a fair call.
But I think we can all agree on scoring a demerit to Shanghai Disneyland for not having any form of Haunted Mansion ride.
Previously: Which is the best version of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride? Up next: Disney's mine train rides.
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