The Haunted Mansion has undergone a disquieting metamorphosis. First announced in 2023, the Haunted Mansion grounds expansion materialized at the Disneyland Resort on Tuesday, with the attraction now featuring an expanded outdoor queue that will “immerse guests in enhanced theming,” per Disney Experiences. The newly-opened area is adorned with elements inspired by the 999 happy haunts within the mansion — Master Gracey and the disembodied medium Madame Leota among them — and builds on the story and lore of the dark ride, which marked its 55th anniversary in 2024.
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In regions just beyond the new Magnolia Park in Disneyland Park’s New Orleans Square section, foolish mortals will pass the pet cemetery and horse-drawn funeral hearse as the queue winds through new gardens on the expanded grounds of the Haunted Mansion. Its outdoor expansion now includes a personal garden retreat designed by the late Master Gracey (whose tombstone rests in the queue). Gracey’s garden features a fountain with the face of a sea maiden (perhaps a nod to the mansion’s original owner, Captain Gore), a wrought iron gazebo, and astrological armillary sphere.
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Before Madame Leota summons you into the moldering sanctum of the spirit world, you’ll see the Seer’s eccentric garden that seems to be infused with mystical energy. Leota’s garden is home to a small statuary of oddities — frogs, lizards, rats and a cymbal-playing monkey — and a collection of fortune-telling orbs. The courtyard is overlooked by a large oak tree decorated by Leota with colorful ornaments, chimes and bells that ring out in the breeze, giving an aura of foreboding before entering the mansion.
In addition to the new Haunted Mansion queue, Disney revealed the name of the exit gift shop opening in the winter: Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond. Themed to Leota’s carriage house that used to store the ornate carriage that is placed on the mansion’s front yard, the carriage house was once home to the mansion’s head caretaker before the spirit guide took up residence. Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond will be filled with eclectic furniture, including a crystal ball, feinting couch, and the original parlor chandelier that Leota used in séances at the mansion, as well as antique artifacts that will be on display among spirited merchandise.
Disney also announced that the Haunted Mansion, which is currently outfitted with The Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired seasonal Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay, is no longer utilizing the app-based virtual queue. Instead, riders will be able to experience the expanded grounds through the standby queue or access the attraction quicker with the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
Disneyland recently opened the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride, located next door to the Haunted Mansion and Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond, in the newly-renamed Bayou Country (formerly Critter Country) section of the park neighboring New Orleans Square.
