Theme park attractions are designed to create an illusion. They want to make you feel like you’ve been transported to another time and place, like a planet in the Star Wars universe. They create worlds that feel like you’re inside your favorite movie, or just a world of their own creation. But in the end, it is just a ride and the experience isn’t real. But seeing behind the curtain can still be quite weird, as one TikTok user has shown after being evacuated off Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.
Ride breakdowns are unavoidable. Anything with that many moving parts running nearly continuously over most of a day, every day, is going to sometimes stop working right. Such was the case with the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, which, thanks to TikTok, gives the rest of us a rare look at what’s going on during the Grim Grinning Ghosts sequence with the lights on.
@rickssterrr THE GHETTOOOOOO , BITCH MY anXIETY WAS THROUGH THE ROOF
♬ original sound - Ricky Gonzalez
While the Haunted Mansion isn’t specifically designed to be a “scary” attraction (it’s as funny as it is frightening), it looks decidedly less scary with the lights on as it turns out. The various animatronics, which are still pretty simple by modern standards, look exactly like the props that they are in the light. Far less like the partying spirits they are supposed to be.
If you’ve even been on a theme park attraction when it has broken down to the point of evacuation, you’ve likely had a similar experience. Space Mountain is a thrilling roller coaster in the dark, and it just doesn’t look the same with all the lights on. It looks like a roller coaster that was built in the 1970s. The lack of lights is specifically designed to hide the things they don’t want you to see. It can give away how the magic works and you might never see the ride the same way again.
Evacuations are far from unheard of but most of the time when Haunted Mansion stops unexpectedly it will only be for a few seconds. If lights are coming on and people are being escorted out the issue is more serious, though the ride was likely still back up in short order. Disney has become very good at fixing these things.
At the same time, ride breakdowns can also inspire and impress by showing off the things you don’t usually see. You can learn how things work, or, as you’re being escorted off the attraction, simply walk through parts of the show building you would never see otherwise, which can be pretty cool.
Still, it’s always annoying to not finish a ride. Maybe you’ve been on the Haunted Mansion lots of times but there’s a decent chance that somebody being evacuated off had never been on it before.
