Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tip Tuesday: Quick exit out of the Haunted Mansion's stretching room

Haunted Mansion

Welcome foolish mortals, to another Tip Tuesday. I am your host, your ghost... ok. Enough with the Haunted Mansion bit. Besides, Master Gracey does it best.

I'm back from Walt Disney World with many new tips for you.

This tip is short, sweet and to the point - and will help your beat a few lines, especially during busy times (like now).

When you enter the stretching room - you are surrounded by a series of portraits. After you hear the ghost host's spiel about having no windows and no doors, etc. (actually there are two doors), you eventually empty out into the loading area for the doom buggies.

As you enter that load area from the stretching room, it can feel like a stampede of cattle. That is, unless you're first out of the gate. So where's the gate?

It's pretty simple -- look for the portrait of the young woman holding the parasol (seen above). As the photo stretches, she is seen standing on a wire above a snapping crocodile. If you stand directly UNDER this photo, you will be standing right at the door that will open at the conclusion of the stretching room scene. This applies for both stretching rooms in the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion.

Just look for the portrait, stand under it (and away from the walls) and you can pretty much guarantee you will beat the throng trying to stampede to the load area.

Now for less crowded times, I always encourage guests to try to stick around after everyone has left to hear the eerie whispers. It's a neat effect. For peak times of the year -- don't bother. You won't hear it with all the gabble of talking guests. Just move on to the doom buggies.

One more bit of trivia. In Disneyland, the stretching rooms are actually cleverly disguised elevators transporting guests to a lower floor. In Walt Disney World, the floor doesn't move - the ceiling raises.

5 comments:

Karen said...

Pretty interesting about how the floor doesn't move at Disney World and how it is an elevator at Disneyland. I love to know the how they do that behind things.
Great tips on where to stand.

Anonymous said...

That's where you'll always find our family standing. That is a wonderful tip to share. You also just settled an disagreement between my husband and myself. I said it was an elevator at Disney world, but then I'm originally from California so I guess that's where that came from!

Grace said...

You are correct about the Disneyland Haunted Mansion being elevators (I used to work at the Haunted Mansion a very long time ago - at the time when they used to have a real knight walking around the mansion). As a matter of fact, only 1 elevator can be "up" in the foyer at any time -- something about the hydraulics. So the cast member in the elevator had to wait for the flashy light at the attendant console to flash to indicate that it's ok to bring the elevator back up. I can usually hear the other elevator coming down to the loading area so don't always have to rely on the flashy light indicators. Didn't know about WDW HM not being elevators though.

Carly said...

I'm a fan of hanging back until most of the people have left. It seems that the guests who are planning on taking flash photos in the ride all rush up to the front. No thanks!

Scott said...

I believe it is in REALITYLAND that the author describes a lawsuit brought against Disney for an injury caused by the "elevator" at WDW's Haunted Mansion. I don't know how far Disney let the case get before showing in court that the guests don't move and there was no actual elevator.

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