Leota's Vardo is a cart located outside of the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland.
Description[]
Appearance[]
The Vardo serves as a form of small gift-shop located outside of the Haunted Mansion while the more legitimate and expansive gift shop, Port Royal Curios and Curiosities is located in one of alleys of New Orleans Square. It sells predominately Haunted Mansion themed merchandise though is known to sell Nightmare Before Christmas themed souvenirs. The cart is decorated to be the Vardo which Madame Leota would have used while still alive in New Orleans, alluding towards her backstory being that of a travelling Romani medium in the late 18th-19th century. The writing on the cart references her having performed seances, crystal gazing, performing parlour tricks, brewed potions, selling mysterious tomes and casting magic spells.
Coloured Concept art of Vardo
History[]
The Vardo is based on concept art for a Romani Caravan created by Rolly Crump for his never built Museum of the Weird attraction. This caravan later appears within the Disney Kingdoms comic, Seekers of the Weird which is an adaptation of the unbuilt attraction.
Trivia[]
- The text on the vardo identifies Leota as, Mme. Leota which is the French variant of Madame.
- A hidden symbol of Mickey Mouse's head (Hidden Mickey) can observed on one of the painted on hand of glory's fingertips.
- One of the symbols on the vardo is the Eye of Providence. In the Disney Parks, this symbol is notably affiliated with the Eye of Mara in Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye while in other Disney media it is affiliated with the villainous Bill Cipher in the show Gravity Falls.