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.
