Walt Disney World is preparing to make some changes to one of its most iconic rides: The Haunted Mansion.
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This week, Disney Parks fansite WDW News Today posted a screenshot of a construction permit recently filed by Disney.
The address of the permit is listed as 1600 Magic Kingdom Drive, which is the street address for The Haunted Mansion in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park.
The permit is simply listed for “general construction,” however, WDW News Today speculates that the parts hiring of an outside company — rather than using in-house Disney Imagineers — may point to a substantial overhaul for the ride.
The Haunted Mansion Is Set to Undergo New Renovations
“The fact Disney is hiring an outside company that specializes in themed elements, including scening painting, implies that the planned project could involve exterior work as part of the planned expansions for Magic Kingdom rather than a standard ride refurbishment,” they wrote.
The Haunted Mansion was one of the first rides planned out by Walt Disney and his team of Imagineers. The Disneyland version of the ride opened in 1969, following by its Magic Kingdom counterpart in 1971. There is also a Haunted Mansion ride at Tokyo Disneyland, which opened with that park in 1983.
No details have officially been announced about Disney World’s Haunted Mansion construction. However, the Disneyland ride recently reopened after undergoing extensive renovations itself.
In addition to technological and cosmetic updates, parts of the Disneyland ride’s storyline were actually changed as part of the recent refurbishment. The ride now includes digital versions of the infamous “Hitchhiking Ghosts,” as well as a new bride ghost in the Haunted Mansion attic.
The character was previously a “black widow,” who wielded a knife after murdering her husband. Now, she is a more sorrowful ghost, holding a candelabra.
The Haunted Mansion Is Consistently One of the Most Popular Rides at the Disney Parks
“We thought, what if we change the story back a little bit to the original story that the Imagineers had about a lost bride in the attic mourning the loss of her husbands,” Imagineering creative director Kim Irvine told the L.A. Times of the update. “It was a sad thing. It was a story about lost love.”
“In this day and age we have to be really careful about the sensitivities of people,” Irvine added. “We were celebrating someone chopping off her husband’s heads, and it was a weird story. I know the fans — some will like it and some will say, ‘Oh, you changed something again.’ That’s our job. That’s what we’re here for.”