With just nine days until Haunted Mansion reopens at Disneyland for Haunted Mansion Holiday on September 1, the outdoor décor for the overlay is starting to take shape.
Pumpkins Added Outside for Haunted Mansion Holiday
While on a recent visit to Disneyland, we noticed various pumpkins were being added outside on the mansion grounds. Haunted Mansion originally closed on August 14 to begin the transition to Haunted Mansion Holiday.
One of the newly added pumpkins has its own Sandy Claws hat.
Here’s a closer look. You can see this pumpkin is perched on top of the hearse parked outside, which is why it can be seen from over the attraction entrance gate.
Here’s another, which looks to be located in the attraction’s pet cemetery.
Are you excited to see Haunted Mansion Holiday return to Disneyland Park? Or do you prefer the Mansion with no seasonal overlay? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Last year, Haunted Mansion Holiday was originally scheduled through early January before being extended for three more weeks. This wasn’t the first time the popular holiday overlay has been extended, but it doesn’t happen every year. When the holiday overlay is extended, it’s usually to help with ride capacity throughout the park when other attractions are already closed for refurbishment.
The overlay includes figures of various “The Nightmare Before Christmas” characters, including Jack Skellington, Sally, and Oogie Boogie. A unique gingerbread house is displayed in the ballroom scene each year. Lock, Shock, and Barrel were atop last year’s gingerbread house.
Watch our full video of the Haunted Mansion Holiday 2022 below:
The Haunted Mansion
This classic Disney attraction can now be found at several Disney Parks around the world. The first iteration opened in 1969 at Disneyland as part of New Orleans Square. Two years later, it was an opening day attraction in Liberty Square at Magic Kingdom, and in 1983, it was an opening day attraction at Tokyo Disneyland.
The Disneyland Paris version of Haunted Mansion is named Phantom Manor, and at Hong Kong Disneyland, Mystic Manor is a completely different attraction that draws some inspiration from Haunted Mansion.
The Haunted Mansion is full of famous ghostly characters like Madame Leota, the Bride, the subjects of the stretching room portraits, and the Hatbox Ghost.
The Hatbox Ghost was in the original Disneyland Haunted Mansion on opening day. Technology had not quite caught up to the ghost’s vanishing and appearing head, however, so the ghost only last a few weeks before disappearing for nearly 50 years.
The Hatbox Ghost returned to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in 2015. He appears at the end of the attic scene, after the Bride. He will soon be installed in the Magic Kingdom version of the Haunted Mansion.
Haunted Mansion Movie
The new live action “Haunted Mansion” film follows a doctor (Rosario Dawson) and her 9-year-old son (Chase Dillon) moving into the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans. Dawson’s character ends up calling in a priest (Owen Wilson) to exorcise the mansion. They also get help from a widowed scientist-turned-failed-paranormal expert (LaKeith Stanfield), a French Quarter psychic (Tiffany Haddish), and a historian (Danny DeVito).
Jamie Lee Curtis portrays Madame Leota and Jared Leto portrays the Hatbox Ghost. Curtis called the film “modern, fresh, old-fashioned, and scary, but not scary like a monster movie. It’s scary like a Disney ride, and funny. If you go on that ride, there’s a lot of humor as well as the scary, ghost-y stuff.” You can read our full review of the movie here.
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