Because of the new Haunted Mansion movie that premiered this past summer, there has been a lot of new merchandise at Magic Kingdom in Disney World. I recently went to Magic Kingdom twice over thesummer, and the new shirts, hats, and all the other fun new items they have really spruced up the store. I already have a shirt inspired by the Haunted Mansion ride that I got a few years ago and I love it. Today, I will be explaining what they have there, and how the movie relates to the park’s ride.
But I know what you are thinking- where even is the Haunted Mansion or what is the Haunted Mansion ride? The Haunted Mansion is located in the back right corner of the Liberty Square land in the park. It is a very popular attraction and a fan favorite amongst regular park goers like myself, and Disney park fans. This is because of the rich history about how the ride was created. Although the one here in Florida gets the credit, the original in Disneyland in California, looks completely different. Over there, it has more of an old, antebellum, southern charm feel with its outside architecture of plantation vibes. In both versions of the attraction, it tells the story of an old house where many- 999 to be exact- ghosts have retired there to party. But they are always looking for one more. Any volunteers? The ride opened in 1969 in California, but didn’t open in Florida till October 1, 1971, Magic Kingdom’s opening day. Walt Disney wanted the attraction to be more on the funny side with gags and surprises throughout, but Marc Davis, another head worker on the attraction, wanted it to be legitimately scary. My favorite part of the ride is the changing portraits. People know them for being in the stretching room- the part of the ride where you ride an elevator down to where you board your vehicle. Even on the walls, when you are in the boarding room, there are other changing portraits that were original ideas that they scrapped.
The new movie includes many parts of the ride like the seance with Madam Leota, the stretching room of course, and endless hallway, and the staircases. My favorite is a chair that one of the characters sits in. On the ride, if you look closely, it will look like a face! I was very excited to see every “easter egg” but that one was my favorite. The movie’s plot is about a woman and her son contact multiple mediums and experts after realizing that the house is haunted. They try to find out why, and what they will do about it since they are trying to move in.
That said, Disney World has a lot of new items to celebrate the movie’s release. They have a total of 9 items including a shirt, a sweatshirt, a trucker hat, a cup, crocs, backpack, a wallet, mickey ears, and even a fan. What I like is that they all have a similar color scheme of magenta, black, mint green, and blue. The prices for these items range from 25 to 88 dollars. In my opinion, their older stuff, the merchandise they had before the release, was better. This is because it had more of a vintage feel to me. For example the shirt I have is a dirty olive green color with the original ride poster on it from the 60s. While the new stuff they now have for the movie is fun, I hope they continue to keep the old stuff as well.
Not specifically going to that park though? I have also found the same exact merchandise at Disney Springs and Animal Kingdom, when I went this past summer. I have also seen it on Main Street USA when walking through the entrance of the park. If you didn’t know, not only can you find the more themed items that go along with each part of each park in their specific locations, but if there is a big release like this one, they will probably have that stuff there too. For example, when I was at Animal Kingdom, I went to the big, miscellaneous store that sells more of their general items from the park as well as some things from other parks and this was one of the things there. I was very surprised because unlike a place like Disney Springs where most things they sell are miscellaneous toys and shirts with favorite characters, this was in the middle of the Africa area of the park.
If you like Disney’s more unique rides like me, then you came to the right place! They might not have something for every ride, but most times they might. For example, they might have a new fun jungle cruise shirt, or mug with the different “mountain” roller coasters on it. I love this specific kind of merchandise they do, and I can’t wait to see what they do next!