When Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out To Socialize

6:45am Tuesday morning, a small group of "foolish mortals" from the Emporium dared to venture into a backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion.

As we walked thru the ride we were shown how it works and told the stories behind everything.

We were able to pet Lucifer.

Lucifer is the name of the raven on the wreath in this next picture. He was originally intended to be the narrator of the Haunted Mansion ride, but instead they ended up putting the voice inside of the doom buggies. 

Every morning when the cast members walk the ride they pet Lucifer. One morning a manager refused to pet Lucifer. That same day the ride broke down for 8 hours. The manager now pets Lucifer every morning.

Madame Leota is the head in the crystal ball. Disney has a patent on the technology that makes her work and therefore if you can sneak her out of the mansion you can make a lot of money! She is very well guarded but there have still been several attempts to steal her - most of the time ending in the 'want to be' thief hurt and arrested. 

The "Black Widow Bride" 

The Graveyard

The Hitchhiking Ghosts

From right to left:

Gus(prisoner). Means you will have a good day.

Ezra(skeleton). Means you will have bad day.

Phineas(traveler). Means your day can go either good or bad.

We even got to go down into the ballroom. Which was SO cool!! We learned that the ballroom dancing ghosts are wearing the original princesses' dresses from Disneyland.

After the tour I was made an honorary Haunted Mansion caretaker.

And I'm very proud of it!