By Jimmy Wienholz

“Welcome Foolish Mortals, to the Haunted Mansion.” No matter which Disney Park you may be in, or what variation of that famous introduction you might be hearing, it’s quite hard not to get excited about the journey to come. The Haunted Mansion is one of the more infamous attractions WED Enterprises has ever conceived, and most people can’t help but get a smile on their faces when they think about going for ride in a “Doom Buggy.” However what some folks may not know is that there are actually 5 mansions world wide, and it has three variations that offer different creepy takes on the original concept. Today it is a true to pleasure to be your “Ghost Host”  (well at least in print) and take you on a haunted tour of the 5 mansions that will have you wanting to “Hurry Back” to the closest Haunted Mansion near you...

By EPCOT Explorer

When considering how a Magic Kingdom creates her environments, there are countless schemas of how the park goes about placing a guest, or a viewer, into a setting that is believable, compelling, and usually otherworldly. No matter the way an attraction positions itself and its thematics, the end result is the same: a believable place or scenario is created, implied, and enjoyed.  This is the crux of a Magic Kingdom: belief is suspended, and we, as willing participants in a fantasy, are taken to a destination usually rooted in the expected cultural conscious. This doesn’t mean the environments are conventional or expected, but they are built upon genres and a cultural wellspring. How else would we willingly accept the sudden changes of time of day, context, or environment, when stepping into a ride vehicle? An experience in the Magic Kingdom is meant to be trasnsportive and preclude some basic logic. Continue after the page break for more...