The Main Street Haunted Hotel was an exclusive, seasonal attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland for Disney's Haunted Halloween event, which is located in Main Street, U.S.A..
History[]
The Main Street Haunted Hotel opened in 2007 and took up the Plaza Grounds, a sort of black box theatre-space found adjacent to the Plaza Inn restaurant. It was a seasonal attraction, being set up during Halloween and serving as a walk-through horror attraction which recycled many elements from the Haunted Mansion.
The experience lasted from 2007 to 2011 and was replaced by a similar attraction known as the Graves Academy, a haunted boarding school inhabited by the ghosts of its students. This only lasted from 2012 to 2014 and would be replaced with the much more popular The Nightmare Experiment horror walk-through where guests enter the Royal Laboratory For The Scientific Study of Phantasmagorian Phenomena and are met by the evil Dr. J.T. Wu who uses them to experiment on the nature of nightmares.
In the Nightmare Experiment, guests would walk through many scenes modelled after Disney Villains, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and the Princess and the Frog. This ride would be replaced by the Journey to Halloween Town attraction themed to the Nightmare Before Christmas where Jack Skellington takes guests on a tour of Halloween Town before they are ambushed by Oogie Boogie.
Description[]
Story[]
Unlike the Haunted Mansion in other Disney parks, the Main Street Haunted Hotel is a thrilling walk-through attraction, with living haunts and spectres appearing around every corner and hallway inside the hotel, and the ghost of Victoria Maxwell, who is still haunting the halls, and has been searching for fresh victims since 1889. The attraction is also filled with detail scene settings, audio, and theatrical effects in order to maximize guest's experience.
Attraction[]
Upon entering the hotel, guests walk down a narrow passageway, where up ahead you see two changing portraits. As guests walk to the right, they enter the lobby. A piano plays by itself and a rocking chair with nobody in it. Passing by the front desk guests are startled by a concierge, and later, a head in a potted plant.
After, guests move through the hotel's bar and into the library. Out from behind a portrait, a corpse lunges towards the guests. A bookcase opens to reveal a secret passageway. A cast member beckons people in. Next guests are led into an elevator. Halfway along the lift the lights go out and the doors open. Guests enter a garden. A cast member in the room points up to reveal a man being hung from the ceiling. Guests are quickly ushered into the next room.
Guests enter a long hallway, at the end of which is a wardrobe with an apparition of Victoria Maxwell materializing in front of it. As guests turn to their right they enter a bedroom. The bed opens up like a trapdoor and a corpse pops out.
Moving on to the bathroom a corpse in the tub comes alive and lunges at passing guests. Leaving the bathroom guests enter a closed-off bakery. An angry ghost chef opens a window and startles guests.
Finally, guests come to a secret laboratory. There is a man inside a cage running a metal pipe against the bars. The cage glows, and the man is electrocuted. After that, guests make it back to Main Street USA.
Haunted Mansion Elements[]
- The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland was originally planned to be found on Main Street, U.S.A. with concept art by Harper Goff showing as such.
- The Haunted Mansion was originally planned to be a walk-through attraction, notably in its Gore Mansion incarnation.
- Several vignettes found in the attraction are lifted from Ken Anderson artwork made for the Haunted Mansion, notably the corpse in the bathtub.
- The murderous bride ghost might have been inspired by the vengeful ghost of Priscilla from Ken Anderson drafts but might also have been based on the fairly popular character of Constance Hatchaway.
- The experience featured changing portraits, similar to those from the Haunted Mansion.
Trivia[]
- Many of the changing and static portraits were made by the The Ghoulish Gallery.
- A number of props and furnishings were purchased and recycled from the now defunct Rocky Point Haunted House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- The bellhops of the hotel are similar to those found in The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a Disney attraction found in Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World while having formerly been found in Disney's California Adventure.
