Snow White/Indy/Mansion Renovations

[mouseketeer07]

I know we've all been hearing about the renovations on Snow White and Indiana Jones, and more recently the announced Haunted Mansion renovations, but I saw this article on Narcity.com with more of a timeline than I've seen anywhere else.

According to the article, Indy is returning in March 2020 and HM is returning in late March or April 2020.

Personally, I think it's such a shame that HM is down for as long as it is. It cites the HMH overlay as being the cause for damage to the original ride and facade, and I think it's absurd that they're still doing it. If it causes damages to the original ride, which causes the ride to be shut down for this long, why on earth would Disney continue to do it?

Maybe this signifies that the holiday overlay will be gone for good, but I doubt it.

Full article here.

[MAC1986]

Yea the overlay is extremely popular, I doubt they would stop doing it. It is the 50th anniversary, it’s great that it will get some tlc.

[Dsaastad]

Just asking to entertain the thought.

Would you prefer the current annual overlay or a year long overlay once every 5th year?

[Eagleman]

With all the renovations ,that going to happen
Guest would spend more time in SW/GE
Just a thought

[Zorro]

The Haunted Mansion is a non-negotiable matter for me. I will not even consider a Disneyland trip if it's closed for any reason so the Fox won't be going to Disneyland until early Spring at the earliest.

My preference would be for the Jack Skellington overlay to be done as a special once every three to five years. The HM infrastructure has suffered enough. Better yet, design and build somewhere a dedicated dark ride for Nightmare Before Christmas so the Haunted Mansion can be cured of this schizophrenia. For the record, I actually do like the HMH overlay, but I don't think it's worth sacrificing the classic Haunted Mansion experience every year from mid August to mid January.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

I personally go back and forth. Sometimes I'm not able to visit during the holidays and I miss seeing Haunted Mansion Holiday. Other times I feel like I miss the great attraction that Haunted Mansion is on its own. I'm not a purist one way or another.

Just from a business perspective, Haunted Mansion Holiday greatly increases the traffic through the ride every time it's installed. I would argue that it is the best ride overlay that retains the original ride underneath (besting it's a small world). Given its popularity, I think we're lucky Disney hasn't just left it on full time like they do with Hyperspace Mountain. It could be even worse and they could tear out the underlying ride a la Tower of Terror.

I know this is normally the offseason, but I can't help but wonder whether there is a hidden strategy here. If guests are waiting for Rise of the Resistance to open before visiting Star Wars Land, maybe they'll hold off a little bit longer if three other important rides are undergoing length refurbishments. That could help slowly ramp up the crowds for Rise of the Resistance after it opens at the end of January.

[Version 6]

Wait, when is Indy closing?

[TLand2055]

Wait, when is Indy closing?

I assume in January, after the holiday season. Same with Snow White and HM(which would close in January even without the refurb)

[Disneyidol]

I love Haunted Holiday for sure but who else thinks it could be equally cool to see the regular mansion be decked out for Halloween 🎃 ??? Even just once...

[mickEblu]

I would argue that it is the best ride overlay that retains the original ride underneath (besting it's a small world).

Madness. I’d argue it’s the worst in this regard. If you took a first timer on Hyperspace Mountain or IASW Holiday you could feel confident that they experienced the essence of those attractions. You can’t say the same for HMH. It completely alters the experience of the original. I wouldn’t worry about them getting rid of the original HM. They way things are set up now creates the most revenue. Going back and forth and creating the demand for both every single year. Plus the original HM sells tons of merch on its own.

[Mike_M]

This isn’t a huge shock to me. The first quarter of the year has always been refurbishment season and when the lowest number of out of towners are in the parks. It just makes sense.

With all of SWGE up and running by then, and no major refurb that I’m aware of in DCA, I don’t see this interfering with the plans of a majority of guests. Come spring, most everything will be in full swing again and the shiny refurbished rides will be impressing and fun as always.

[mouseketeer07]

I personally go back and forth. Sometimes I'm not able to visit during the holidays and I miss seeing Haunted Mansion Holiday. Other times I feel like I miss the great attraction that Haunted Mansion is on its own. I'm not a purist one way or another.

Just from a business perspective, Haunted Mansion Holiday greatly increases the traffic through the ride every time it's installed. I would argue that it is the best ride overlay that retains the original ride underneath (besting it's a small world). Given its popularity, I think we're lucky Disney hasn't just left it on full time like they do with Hyperspace Mountain. It could be even worse and they could tear out the underlying ride a la Tower of Terror.

I know this is normally the offseason, but I can't help but wonder whether there is a hidden strategy here. If guests are waiting for Rise of the Resistance to open before visiting Star Wars Land, maybe they'll hold off a little bit longer if three other important rides are undergoing length refurbishments. That could help slowly ramp up the crowds for Rise of the Resistance after it opens at the end of January.

Wait, is Hyperspace Mountain staying up full time? I knew they were leaving it up longer but the DLR app still says “for a limited time” and I hope they bring back the OG Space Mountain.

[Eagleman]

I hope they bring back the OG Space Mountain.

I with YOU.....bring Back **Space Mountain^^^**

[nickdean707]

I know we've all been hearing about the renovations on Snow White and Indiana Jones, and more recently the announced Haunted Mansion renovations, but I saw this article on Narcity.com with more of a timeline than I've seen anywhere else.

According to the article, Indy is returning in March 2020 and HM is returning in late March or April 2020.

Personally, I think it's such a shame that HM is down for as long as it is. It cites the HMH overlay as being the cause for damage to the original ride and facade, and I think it's absurd that they're still doing it. If it causes damages to the original ride, which causes the ride to be shut down for this long, why on earth would Disney continue to do it?

Maybe this signifies that the holiday overlay will be gone for good, but I doubt it.

Full article here.

I've never heard of this website Narcity until today. They cited the OC Register as a source for their article, but no where in the OC Register article does it mention HMH damages the ride. That's simply not true. Here's what the OC Register stated "The work will include paint and trim on the interior and exterior of the attraction along with lighting and mechanical work inside the ride building. The renovated ride will look refreshed, but no visual changes are expected to be made to the attraction" Disney is taking advantage of how many guests Rise of the Resistance can cycle per hour and providing some much needed TLC to some rides that need it. The layout of Narcity's website looks like one of those click-baity websites ads you see at the bottom of a Facebook article.

[nickdean707]

I with YOU.....bring Back **Space Mountain^^^**

I'm pretty sure once Rise is open Space Mountain will come back.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Madness. I’d argue it’s the worst in this regard. If you took a first timer on Hyperspace Mountain or IASW Holiday you could feel confident that they experienced the essence of those attractions. You can’t say the same for HMH. It completely alters the experience of the original. I wouldn’t worry about them getting rid of the original HM. They way things are set up now creates the most revenue. Going back and forth and creating the demand for both every single year. Plus the original HM sells tons of merch on its own.

I've had first timers prefer HMH even to WDW's Haunted Mansion. I wasn't so much as saying that the "essence" (whatever that means) of the attraction is preserved, but rather that Disney can change the ride back to normal without needing to close the ride for more than a couple of weeks. The only thing really lost in the overlay is the story, but it's not like any scenes are removed. Disney definitely spends more on this overlay than any other ride's, including adding multiple animatronics and custom gingerbread houses every year. I mean, the daughter of Leota Toombs literally recorded the Madame Leota scenes for HMH.

Compare that to poorly scaled projections on Hyperspace or the cheap set pieces added to Jingle Cruise, and this is far and away the gold standard for how Disney should do ride overlays. The only reason those rides retain their "essence" is because they have no story to begin with.

Wait, is Hyperspace Mountain staying up full time? I knew they were leaving it up longer but the DLR app still says “for a limited time” and I hope they bring back the OG Space Mountain.

I don't know about full-time, but this is longer than anyone thought or hoped. Last I was there I saw some signage bolted high onto the wall near the exit that looked more permanent than it did temporary.

[mickEblu]

I've had first timers prefer HMH even to WDW's Haunted Mansion. I wasn't so much as saying that the "essence" (whatever that means) of the attraction is preserved, but rather that Disney can change the ride back to normal without needing to close the ride for more than a couple of weeks. The only thing really lost in the overlay is the story, but it's not like any scenes are removed. Disney definitely spends more on this overlay than any other ride's, including adding multiple animatronics and custom gingerbread houses every year. I mean, the daughter of Leota Toombs literally recorded the Madame Leota scenes for HMH.

Compare that to poorly scaled projections on Hyperspace or the cheap set pieces added to Jingle Cruise, and this is far and away the gold standard for how Disney should do ride overlays. The only reason those rides retain their "essence" is because they have no story to begin with.

Paul Frees voice, original stretching room portraits and hallway portraits, The hitchhiking ghosts and soundtrack? All missing on the overlay. Have you been on the ride? I usually agree with what you have to say but I’m sensing a little bias here. I’m guessing you re in your early 20s and probably grew up with HMH? If so, it’s fine. We all have our biases.


essence = the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.

There is no story on the Haunted Mansion either. Just stories that second generation imagineers and fans retroactively came up with. The Gold of standard of overlays is IASW Holiday by far.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Paul Frees voice, original stretching room portraits and hallway portraits, The hitchhiking ghosts and soundtrack? All missing on the overlay. Have you been on the ride? I usually agree with what you have to say but I’m sensing a little bias here. I’m guessing you re in your early 20s and probably grew up with HMH? If so, it’s fine. We all have our biases.


essence = the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.

There is no story on the Haunted Mansion either. Just stories that second generation imagineers and fans retroactively came up with. The Gold of standard of overlays is IASW Holiday by far.

Very true that I am younger and wasn't even a teenager when HMH first debuted. I thought I was clear that I don't have strong feelings preferring a version, but I'm not going to shame WDI for investing good money and effort into a ride overlay. If you'd prefer nothing more than Christmas lights and minimal song changes that's fine, but I appreciate when we get entire animatronics and ride-specific additions with a fair amount of frequency, especially since they are in such short supply nowadays. We can just disagree about what makes an overlay good. That's all. I don't think it's right to say one way or another.

As for the story of the original Haunted Mansion, I always thought that we were a human guest being given a tour of a haunted mansion. We make our way to the mansion, Madame Leota contacts the ghosts, and then they put on a show and welcome us to their world. The other locations had true backstories, but DL's version at least has some linear progression. Small world and Space Mountain are more general than that, with just moving through scenes with things to look at or sensations to feel. Personally, I prefer Haunted Mansion's story format to most handholding we get nowadays. It strikes a good balance of not being just disjointed generalization but also not being overbearing (which is why I also think Indiana Jones flows better than even modern rides like Star Tours or ~*whisper*~ Rise of the Resistance).

[DarthBrett78]

I know HMH is popular with younger people and most of the mainstream masses now, but I am personally over it and wish it would go on hiatus. I would muh rather see the original durng Halloween and they just do it for Thanksgiving-Xmas every year. Or, as someone else mentioned, only do the HMH every 2 or 3 years.

The funny thing is I was a young teen when the movie first came out and loved it, so it isn't as though i didn't grow up with NBC. Then the movie gained a cult following and then became really trendy with Hot Topic and stuff and Disney realized that and capitalized on it. And the rest, as they say, is history. But I am just not really a fan of the NBC overlay going over one of my fav attractions, 2nd to only Pirates, for nearly half the year. I went to DW the last 2 Septembers, and it was really nice to be able to enjoy their HM that time of year. I actually really look forward to being able to ride HM in late summer and into early fall on my DW trips now lol

My opinion is not the popular one, but the HMH has overstayed it's welcome in my eyes and needs a hiatus and then should only come back every other year or 3 maybe. I know that will never happen, but it's what I would love to see happen.

I would also be more open to the idea of it not happening til immediately after Halloween if it is going to always remain an annual occurrence (which it obviously is and probably will remain). Then we would at least get the regular HM from Feb-Oct, and then the NBC overlay from Nov-Jan. A 9:3 month ratio of HM-HMH is way better than the current 7:5 month ratio it currently gets. Seems almost criminal that the original version can only be seen for essentially half the year now and can't even be experience during Halloween, the best time for the HM.

[Mr Wiggins]

^ This.