"The carriage that will carry you into the moldering sanctum of the spirit world, will accommodate you, and one or two...loved ones. Kindly watch your step as you board, please."
- The Ghost Host, describing the Doom Buggies in the Loading Area.
You first board your Doom Buggy in the Loading Area, which will be in a different location, depending on which version you are riding. For the original Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor, you board after the Portrait Hall. For The Haunted Mansion in Florida and The Haunted Mansion in Tokyo, the loading area is directly after the Stretching Room. Doom Buggies normally fit up to three people at once. After you board, the safety bar will come down on its own, as the Ghost Host says, "Do not pull down on the safety bar please. I will lower it for you."
Trivia
The Doom Buggy vehicle is a variation of the Omnimover, a ride vehicle first used in Adventures Thru Inner Space. The part that guests sit in, the "clamshell" is separate from the part that follows the track as seen on The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure located in Disney's California Adventure, so the seat can swivel around all the way while still going in the same direction. This makes the ride seem more like a movie because the car limits what guests can see, which makes it like a camera; each scene is controlled not only in what happens, but in what guests can see.
Doom Buggies are a play on Dune Buggies which are motorized vehicles that are driven on beaches.
In Haunted Mansion Holiday, the Doom Buggies are renamed as "Black Sleighs".
