Haunted Mansion Holiday Opens August 23 with a Virtual Queue!

[keishashadow]

I have to wonder where the conspiracy theorists are who claimed it was going to open on July 9th as HMH with a virtual queue...

8/23 is the “drop dead date” for the HM to open.

Don’t know DL well, do know the parks in general. In all probability will be open in advance of the stated date

I mean, I have no expectation of it opening on July 9th, but I might bet a small amount of money that it'll open earlier than August 23rd.

I’d place $ on it being open for D23

 

[Aspencreek]

8/23 is the “drop dead date” for the HM to open.

Don’t know DL well, do know the parks in general. In all probability will be open in advance of the stated date

I’d place $ on it being open for D23

This happened with the Jungle Cruise refurb a couple years back. It was scheduled to re-open a few days or a week after we were going to be leaving the parks so we assumed we'd miss it for that visit. Then as we were walking past on one of our first days we saw boats running. Took a closer look and saw what appeared to be visitors and not just cast members riding. App still listed the ride as closed but the line appeared to be open. We sauntered on in figuring we'd probably get booted out (like maybe it was a special preview), but instead we were ushered right on with no line! So we felt like we got a little bit of magic that visit - with any luck HM will do that too!

 

[OlliePop27]

Thank you to everyone for the lively discussion about the exciting news that HM is reopening. People are bringing up great points about the possibility of it opening early for D23.

I want to apologize for the earlier post about the rumors that it might open in July. I edited to soften the language, as it's fun for people to speculate and that's part of the joy of these boards.

Simply, I was trying to make the point that there are some on the internet who have a vested interest in clicks and views for advertising revenue. I hope that people are able to come to these boards to have vibrant discussion about rumors, but we should be mindful that there are always people on here who legitimately do not know much about Disneyland. It might be hard to discern the fun but unlikely rumors from the verifiable official info.

I try posting to offer helpful info to people because I have a lot of experience with DLR. I thought the particular rumor about HMH opening on July 9th was a bit too far fetched, as much as I would like for it to be true!

 

[disneychrista]

I really can't believe Disney is so behind on a Q project

Who says they are actually behind? It is a huge project that they are doing. Installing an elevator, redoing the queue, installing a giftshop. I know the rumors were always that it would be done by Halloween but Disney never said it would be.

 

[OlliePop27]

Who says they are actually behind? It is a huge project that they are doing. Installing an elevator, redoing the queue, installing a giftshop. I know the rumors were always that it would be done by Halloween but Disney never said it would be.

Yes, huge project. It was also another rainy winter which probably didn't help!

 

[Lisa24jks]

Who says they are actually behind? It is a huge project that they are doing. Installing an elevator, redoing the queue, installing a giftshop. I know the rumors were always that it would be done by Halloween but Disney never said it would be.

Thank you! People got the rumors and speculation so etched into their minds about August 23rd that I think they didn't realize that Disney had never announced an official re-opening date or enddate for the ENTIRE project. It was always assumed that the ride would need to be open for the start of the Halloween season (and we now know it will be), but there has never been official word as to when the queue/shop will be finished.

This isn't like what happened with Toontown getting one re-opening date and then getting pushed a couple weeks. (And that was 100% due to bad weather slowing them down.)

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Who says they are actually behind? It is a huge project that they are doing. Installing an elevator, redoing the queue, installing a giftshop. I know the rumors were always that it would be done by Halloween but Disney never said it would be.

Because why would you start a project that you know would not be done by your busiest season?

I also want to remind people DISNEY choose to keep HM up later then normal and could have closed it the second week of January but they didn't and now we have to deal with a Virtual Q for one of the busiest attraction at Disneyland. Along with having all of CC closed at the same time

It's just not good planning and not good show. I love Disney but will call out things like this that make zero sense to guests, this in now way improves things and if it was not in the plan to open before Halloween then yeah its still not good because that's a bad plan should have hired more people or had more shifts to make this complete before HMH was coming

 

[brightlined]

Btw - just to point out something that I missed yesterday (which may have been clear to others):

When HMH is using the VQ, there's no G+, only the VQ. One entrance and one entrance only.

(Scott Gustin clarified that on X a few minutes ago.)

For some folks, that might actually be good news - less competition / a lot more spots for the 1pm VQ.

 

[brightlined]

Because why would you start a project that you know would not be done by your busiest season?

I also want to remind people DISNEY choose to keep HM up later then normal and could have closed it the second week of January but they didn't and now we have to deal with a Virtual Q for one of the busiest attraction at Disneyland. Along with having all of CC closed at the same time

It's just not good planning and not good show. I love Disney but will call out things like this that make zero sense to guests, this in now way improves things and if it was not in the plan to open before Halloween then yeah its still not good because that's a bad plan should have hired more people or had more shifts to make this complete before HMH was coming

I'd much prefer that they spend the proper time to do a new project well then to have them speed through it to get it open on an arbitrary schedule. And I'd especially hate for them to blow off a new project just because it couldn't be completed in a certain timeframe.

Right now, we don't know if this was a planned delay or if they've had issues. It would not be unexpected to find surprises around a 55-year-old ride. Even in my life - my complex has been trying to rebuild its pool for the last year, and long planned to open it on Memorial Day. But they had supply issues earlier this year, and then the county changed their minds and decided to consider it a new pool (rather than a rebuild), which added an additional month at the end for more required inspections. (Hiring more people wouldn't have helped - they had to completely stop working until those inspections took place.) People are screaming at the property manager that their "summer is being wasted" - but it honestly wasn't their fault.

The epitome of "speed through it"? Tiana's Bayou Adventure at WDW.

By all accounts, WDI wasn't expecting to finish the project until August, but WDW's management decided that it was "good enough" and wanted it to be open for Summer. It's been a sea of downtime during previews - which is especially embarrassing for a ride that was closed for more than a year. It's a borderline disaster - and that's ignoring the appearance to guests of things WDI might have cut to meet the deadline. (I'm hoping DLR is paying attention, and gives WDI the time it needs to get it right.)

I might be in the minority on this, but I also don't see that the VQ is necessarily a bad thing. The VQ itself wasn't designed to be used the way it has been to this point - blown out at 7am and blown out at 1pm. It was designed to be a rolling entry. Without G+ or ILL, I think it'll work a lot better. I'm almost hoping it goes well as a "test", if only because, if it works, I'd love to see them use it in place of some of the more annoying lines at the park (examples: Peter Pan, Peter Pan, and Peter Pan).

 

[OlliePop27]

I'd much prefer that they spend the proper time to do a new project well then to have them speed through it to get it open on an arbitrary schedule. And I'd especially hate for them to blow off a new project just because it couldn't be completed in a certain timeframe.

Right now, we don't know if this was a planned delay or if they've had issues. It would not be unexpected to find surprises around a 55-year-old ride. Even in my life - my complex has been trying to rebuild its pool for the last year, and long planned to open it on Memorial Day. But they had supply issues earlier this year, and then the county changed their minds and decided to consider it a new pool (rather than a rebuild), which added an additional month at the end for more required inspections. (Hiring more people wouldn't have helped - they had to completely stop working until those inspections took place.) People are screaming at the property manager that their "summer is being wasted" - but it honestly wasn't their fault.

The epitome of "speed through it"? Tiana's Bayou Adventure at WDW.

By all accounts, WDI wasn't expecting to finish the project until August, but WDW's management decided that it was "good enough" and wanted it to be open for Summer. It's been a sea of downtime during previews - which is especially embarrassing for a ride that was closed for more than a year. It's a borderline disaster - and that's ignoring the appearance to guests of things WDI might have cut to meet the deadline. (I'm hoping DLR is paying attention, and gives WDI the time it needs to get it right.)

I might be in the minority on this, but I also don't see that the VQ is necessarily a bad thing. The VQ itself wasn't designed to be used the way it has been to this point - blown out at 7am and blown out at 1pm. It was designed to be a rolling entry. Without G+ or ILL, I think it'll work a lot better. I'm almost hoping it goes well as a "test", if only because, if it works, I'd love to see them use it in place of some of the more annoying lines at the park (examples: Peter Pan, Peter Pan, and Peter Pan).

Great points, thanks for sharing. All of the speculation about HMH opening sooner than 8/23 also seems to be confirmed. Scott Gustin, a very reputable Disney journalist, is reporting that the ride is "likely" to open before 8/23 (without Genie+ as you noted). Congratulations to everyone who is going to be fortunate enough to ride it!

I love HMH and regular HM. It will be so great to get the ride back in whatever form! I also cannot wait for NOS Train Station to reopen, whenever that is.

 

[LKing]

I was in the process of writing that happens. @brightlined, you said it much more eloquently than I would have.

Personally, I would rather have a virtual queue than no queue at all.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

I'd much prefer that they spend the proper time to do a new project well then to have them speed through it to get it open on an arbitrary schedule. And I'd especially hate for them to blow off a new project just because it couldn't be completed in a certain timeframe.

Right now, we don't know if this was a planned delay or if they've had issues. It would not be unexpected to find surprises around a 55-year-old ride. Even in my life - my complex has been trying to rebuild its pool for the last year, and long planned to open it on Memorial Day. But they had supply issues earlier this year, and then the county changed their minds and decided to consider it a new pool (rather than a rebuild), which added an additional month at the end for more required inspections. (Hiring more people wouldn't have helped - they had to completely stop working until those inspections took place.) People are screaming at the property manager that their "summer is being wasted" - but it honestly wasn't their fault.

The epitome of "speed through it"? Tiana's Bayou Adventure at WDW.

By all accounts, WDI wasn't expecting to finish the project until August, but WDW's management decided that it was "good enough" and wanted it to be open for Summer. It's been a sea of downtime during previews - which is especially embarrassing for a ride that was closed for more than a year. It's a borderline disaster - and that's ignoring the appearance to guests of things WDI might have cut to meet the deadline. (I'm hoping DLR is paying attention, and gives WDI the time it needs to get it right.)

I might be in the minority on this, but I also don't see that the VQ is necessarily a bad thing. The VQ itself wasn't designed to be used the way it has been to this point - blown out at 7am and blown out at 1pm. It was designed to be a rolling entry. Without G+ or ILL, I think it'll work a lot better. I'm almost hoping it goes well as a "test", if only because, if it works, I'd love to see them use it in place of some of the more annoying lines at the park (examples: Peter Pan, Peter Pan, and Peter Pan).

But your ignoring this is because of poor planning

This is a Billion dollar company, they should have known issues happen so HM should have closed the second week of January.

Also its not the ride but the Q....a Q that is pushing them to behind and making guests have a worst experience. Since the ride has to allow people in Wheelchairs to access the ride, in theory its not even the new Q for that but just the new Garden area that is pushing this back

I don't want them to rush but I want Disney to plan better and don't allow issues like this to stack up, Disney has know for years they would need to upgrade the HM Q because of escalator for Wheel chairs.

If this was a one off issues cool but with all the issues the past few years like OBB tickets system, the dragon burning down, building new security area's and not updating them to move quicker by using tech at WDW/Universal and even Six Flags and so on. It to me seems like most problems are from leaders who just don't have the vision to make things happen.

If you and other's want to make excuses for them cool but while I won't attack CM's or the construction members, leadership is for sure not the best at the parks right now and would like people better suited with roadmaps in the future.

 

[disneychrista]

Because why would you start a project that you know would not be done by your busiest season?

Because it was always going to take a year or more to complete, regardless of when they started it.

One could ask the same question regarding Tiana's. It will be closed for not only one of the busy seasons for the attraction (summer) but two.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Because it was always going to take a year or more to complete, regardless of when they started it.

One could ask the same question regarding Tiana's. It will be closed for not only one of the busy seasons for the attraction (summer) but two.

Sure, but HM could have been done last year and be open now during construction of Tia's Ride along with Pooh and CC closed

I'm asking for Disney to plan things out, Disneyland isn't cheap and some basic planning would have gone a long way.

 

[brightlined]

But your ignoring this is because of poor planning

This is a Billion dollar company, they should have known issues happen so HM should have closed the second week of January.

You're basically using this project to channel all of your frustrations with management, except there isn't evidence to support the idea that the perceived issues here were due to bad planning.

Typically, they don't like having Small World and HM closed at the same time in January - in this case, it made sense to have SW go first. And, honestly, at the end of the day, would two weeks really have made a difference?

Also, WDI spent more than a year being actively attacked by Disney management over the Lake Nona debacle. Could they even have started this project while the team was being forcibly moved to Florida?

"They should have known issues happen" - they did. The way they're handling this is exactly how you accommodate unexpected issues. That they haven't announced an opening date for the queue is ideal. Imagine the mess if they'd announced an August 23rd date for it, and then had something happen. (For the record, I'm very, very happy that they haven't announced an opening date for Tiana's yet.)

They're doing the right things here. They're getting the building ready first, and working on the queue last, since they can clearly open the ride without the queue.

I think a lot of folks here would agree that management has made a number of questionable decisions in the last few years, but I don't think many would agree with you on this specific one.