is haunted mansion scary?

[luvthemouse71]

To me, the HM is what a "scary" ride should be ...creepy but not into gore. I love scary movies but detest what passes for a horror film these days. No one uses imagination anymore, it's all torture and violence on camera.


But HM has that perfect blend of creepy with some humor thrown in..I wouldn't think a child over 5 should be terrified of it, unless they are the nervous Nellie types.

 

[WheelCEO]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIlGYW3WcBA

 

[JerseyDisneyGirl]

To me, a 36 year old woman HM is not scary. We took DS age 6 and DD age 3 on the ride last year. I talked to a CM and was able to skip the room with DD I knew that would freak her out. Both kids were terrified the entire ride, they were so angry at us for putting them on the ride. DS loved Everest, but HATED this.

 

[LoveMMC]

My 21 month old baby went on everything- loved Pirates, Bugs Life and Snow White- everything that got dark and a little scary she was fine with.

but was scared during haunted house. I felt her shaking and cuddling into me - and that was the only ride that made her nervous.

 

[GenieCat]

I am in agreement with the previous posters who suggest starting with Dumbo and the carousel, and work your way up the scary scale to the HM and Pirates. Stitch now has a height requirement to keep the smaller kids out. The target market for Stitch is pre-teen boys and some (ahem) husbands, who like fart jokes.

The HM contains some of Disney's best Mickey Magic. Perhaps you can explain that Mickey's just joking you, and wouldn't really let anyone get hurt. HM is scary in a humorous sort of way, but only if you are old enough to get the joke.

Another spoiler alert here:
http://doombuggies.com

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Haunted Mansion has more neat effects, and isn't what I consider to be scary. Knoebel's Haunted House is definatly scary, and isn't anything at all like Haunted Mansion.

 

[mariepapa]

My now DD9 would not look at anything on the ride when she first rode it last year, she kept her eyes closed the whole time. The second time we went on she loved it though and wasn't scared at all. She had this idea in her head that it was much scarier than it was.

 

[chrisw127]

I think for small children, it's scary. I've seen little kids crying in the stretching room and when they got off. If there's any doubt, just avoid it. It's my absolute favorite attraction and it's very well done, but it's not essential that they see it. It will always be there.

 

[DisneyDetective]

it's not really that scary, the ride is a kind of fun/comedy take on horror. it's def one of my faves!!

 

[RumpleMom]

The always told our kids that Walt Disney made the Magic Kingdom for families to have fun together.

That there was fun in Disney magic and Mickey Mouse would never hurt children or their parents. HM was silly fun, like dressing up for Halloween.

There was nothing to be afraid of because we were at Disney World for vacation and we were all together.

If you show any concern, then your child will intensify his/her concern.

 

[okeydokey]

My DD went on it when she was about 6 and it scared her. It didn't help that the ride stopped for about 5 minutes and we were stuck there. She is 12 now and still won't go on anymore.

 

[Absolutely Disney]

It's a little creepy. But "fun-creepy."

 

[ibela]

It's one of my faves and I really wanted to go on with dd4. I showed her videos on youtube and tried to explain the ghosts weren't real and were trying to be funny. She laughed at the online videos days before the trip. In the stretching room she got terrified and refused to go on so I had to walk her out. She loves all the fast rides, laughed on EE, etc. Every kid is different but we will not be returning to this one (with her, taking turns definitely!) for a while.

 

[momcloud]

It scared me spitless when I was a kid, but both of my kids love it. The first time we took my DS he didn't want to ride anything that was in the dark so DH and I took turns staying w/him while we took DD on the rides. Funny thing was he loved Space Mountain, go figure! Oh and I love to ride it now, my favoerite part being the mirrors where you see a ghost in your car with you.

 

[bluejasmine]

Well only you know your kids.

I love it but my DS when he was 5 up until he was 16 refused to go on it, he went once and cried the whole time, but this is a kids who wouldnt even go into walmart while halloween stuff was out He finally did it last Sept and enjoyed it even did it again later in the trip but as you see it took over 10 yrs for him! LOL

I would think the worst part is the stretching room but once you get in a buggy its so cool! Lots of illusions and cute things..
Good Luck!

 

[sydneysmom]

personally, I don't think it's scary but I'm not a little kid.... we're taking our DD who's 4 next month and what we're going to do is tell her, in advance, what to expect and that it's all pretend and the ghosts aren't really there. And to tell her that it's not supposed to be scary, it's supposed to be silly....I can't say if it's going to work, but if she doesn't want to go on, we're not going to take her.

But as someone else suggested pulling it up on YouTube, that's a great idea. then you'll get a good idea what they think of it.

Have a great trip !!!

 

[RobinHoodGirl]

While now I do not find it scary my first two trips (I was 6 and 9 at the time) I was scared of the Haunted Mansion...

Though the first time the rode broke, I wasn't sitting with my mom (was with my older sister and aunt) and started to get nervous cause I couldn't see my mom and the second time I rode with my dad who was not above taking advantage of his little girl trying not to be scared and randomly poke my side

I now ride it on every trip at least once to show 6 and 9 year old me it's not that bad (and I'll be turning 28 on my next trip)

 

[ZephyrHawk]

As a 3 year old taking my first trip on my parents' favorite ride I was terrified. The stretching room was scary! The hitchiking ghost between me and my mom in the doombuggy made me scream. The little talking bride at the end freaked me out.

And then I stepped out into the warm Florida sunshine and it's been my favorite park ride ever since.

Please tell your kids the ghosts aren't real though....my parents didn't think it was necessary to point out that fact...even though they knew I believed in ghosts....it might have helped ease my fears a bit.

 

[texasmousketeer]

My son tends to be scared of things like that. When he was 8 and we were getting ready to go, I looked up websites on the haunted mansion. He was able to see pictures for most of the scenes in the mansion and read about how some of the effects were done. He was still a bit scared on it until we got to the graveyard scene and wouldn't you know it, the ride got stuck. We sat there for about 15 minutes and it was fabulous! I noticed one of the effects we had read about and pointed it out to him. He then started studying the other effects and creating theories of how they worked. After about 15 minutes of this, a CM came through and unlocked our doombuggies and we got to walk the rest of the way out. He was very excited to go back later and check everything else out.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that if you can give them advance knowledge of the ride, it makes it less scary.

 

[Donalyn]

My 3 year old DNephew was terrified by HM at DL this year. We thought he would love it - he loves the Nightmare before Christmas and all things Halloween. However, the thunder in the stretch room did him in and he cried (screamed) through the entire ride.

I hadn't done HM for a long time and I'd forgotten this effect, so I couldn't forewarn him, which may have helped. He was nervous for the rest of the trip, each time we went into a dark ride.