Haunted Mansion!

Bah! This ride was never my favorite, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time. Mostly because of the new additions!
First of all, I kept reading that it was based on mansions from the Hudson River Valley, which is where we live! Of course, I haven't seen many buildings like this.

Above are the headstones you first see as you enter. I just read in the updated Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World Planner by Susan & Simon Veness (a very excellent book!) that this was a new addition circa 2011! I knew it looked new! So now you have the option of getting on the ride, or walking through this interactive area in the graveyard and then getting on the ride.




Obviously I liked this one a lot since I took 3 pictures of it. Haha.

Then of course there are the old standards--the silly headstones! I took a picture of this one for my brother, David.



This one was cool--the headstone is a bathtub and bubbles overflow out of it!





Working at a bookstore, this one felt close to home. It's a stone bookcase with some books sticking out. When you push them in, others pop out! My coworker said it sounded just like re-sorting books at our store!


The ride was fun, and the songs were hauntingly jolly! My favorite part was the end, when they turn your "Doom-buggy" to face the mirror. This was a new addition for me--I'm used to a projection of a ghost sitting in the buggy with me. This time there was a ghost sitting on top of our buggy who reached down to our faces which became ghost-like. He then pulled them and it looked like our faces were stretching! Then they disappeared in a poof. It was thrilling :)

Here is the pet cemetery on the way out:


The dog on the left is holding keys, I wonder if it's the one from Pirates of the Caribbean? My favorite, though, is the one way in the back.


It's Mr. Toad! I'd never seen that before! I remember going on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride back when I was a kid (and it was kind of scary for me!) and a few years ago it was replaced by the Winnie the Pooh ride. I guess this is to remember him by!