bighouse2

...sooooooooooo...
I was pretty rattled, but I asked anyway..."has anything weird happened to people here????" Shelly's a pretty cool gal. She kind of laughed and said "we were wondering if anything was going to happen to you." Huh?!? Turned out that the veterans would just wait and see. Maybe it's due to the fact that not everyone is sensitive to the otherworldly. Once, some of us were comparing notes (of the haunting kind) after the ride had closed for the night only to be derided by one of the maintenace crew ("I've been in here alone at night for over 15 years and I've never seen anything---you people are nuts, there's no such thing as ghosts!")

Yeah, that's what I used to think.

After coming to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be able to see everyone who was in the ride, I just dealt with it. Early on, I heard footsteps around the control console and just for the heck of it said "STOP IT!!! I'm nervous enough by myself as it is!" and they stopped. Hey, I asked!

For the record, I'm not the only individual who experienced "stuff" at the big house. I'll throw in a few first names here and there, but I don't think anyone wants unsolicited e-mail asking for their own experiences. Let's just say that several people have seen, heard and felt our invisible friends. One of the craziest things happened to Carmen B. on my day off...

Another late night at the big house (why does this stuff always happen when there aren't a lot of people around???). Carmen was at Load 2 with another guy (whose name I forgot-sorry it's been awhile) and the last group was getting into the Omnimovers before closing. At the end of the line was a woman with her grade school aged daughter. As they climbed into the car, the little girl asked Carmen if the ride was really haunted. With a smile on her face, Carmen replied "nah, they're just Disney ghosts---the real ghosts don't come out until after midnight!" The shell shut, the car was on it's way and as Carmen turned to walk towards her coworker at the front of the load ramp, a white mist came out of the solid wall to the left of the track. It made a bee-line for Carmen, went right through her then straight toward and through the solid wall on the opposite side of the room. She told me that it all seemed as if it were happening in slow motion, but she wasn't frightened. Carmen said that as the mist enveloped her she felt a strange sense of peace. Can't say that the guy with her wasn't rattled. He was frozen for a moment, then ran up to her and asked if she was ok. Poor guy-Carmen said all the blood had drained from his face. Well, at least there was a witness to that one.

There have been a couple of times where something has happened but the individuals got so scared that they quit on the spot and refused to tell what they'd seen. Several of us had seen faces or a single face peering around the corner at the top of the Grand Staircase. I never bothered going after them, because I figured if I left them alone, they'd leave me alone (well, most of the time they did!). One guy decided to go up and investigate. He went up past the area where the endless hallway is and after a few minutes came running back out like a bat out of hell. Again bloodless face, again no explanation but a resignation. There was a teenage girl who just left from the Foyer...don't know what happened to her up there...she just walked out.

Another occassion when I was alone in the Loading area, I saw a guy walking down the portrait hallway toward my section. The hallway cue hadn't gone off, so I thought it was odd that I was getting bumped so fast. Maybe it was just someone coming from the outside emergency exit instead of the ER. My eyes never left him...he was over 6 feet tall, but I couldn't really see who it was because the light level is so low. He turned the corner, I saw his feet and lower legs walking toward the curtain then he stopped. I thought he was another wisenheimer trying to sneak up on me and scare me, so I went up the queue area and pulled the curtain back with a big flourish to say "boo!" Well, the boo was on me...like I said, I hadn't taken my eyes off of him, but there was no one behind the damn curtain, and I would have seen someone walking back up the way he came! He's turned out to be something else who has been seen often by different crew members at different times.

We've seen a tall man behind us in the mirror in the Unload section (it's there to make sure that no one gets back into the cars), sometimes hovering oppresively close, but when you turn to tell him to back off there's no one there. Look in the mirror and you see a tall guy with curly auburn hair and a white shirt, but no one's seen his features. Other times they touch you. When I was still acting, I would practice my vocal exercises when I was alone in sections and sometimes I would sing. After a song, they would actually stroke my face-what an odd sensation. I guess they liked it. From those who can "see," I've heard that there are three distinct ghosts hanging out in the ride at all times. One is an elderly man (we think it's the gentleman who died in the ride), another is an elderly woman (no clue who she is or what her connection is) and the third is a young man who seems to be a practical joker (I think he's the one who pulled my dress up!). There's another story connected with this guy...

This was back in the '80s. Sandy S. was working at the Foyer when a couple came up to her and told her they had a strange request to make. They explained that they were the executors of a friend's estate and he had recently died after an epileptic seizure. He had been an annual passholder and the Haunted Mansion was his favorite ride. In his will, he asked to be cremated and have his ashes scattered in the Mansion. They asked Sandy if it would be ok to do so and pulled an urn out of a backpack. She kind of hemmed and hawed and finally said "Look, officially, I have to say no. But there aren't any camera's in the ride *** so no one will see if you do or don't do something." ***No longer true!!! Cameras were installed around 1994. They entered, and after they got out of the ride, they went by and said thanks to Sandy before leaving. From the description they gave her of their friend, we started to think that he was the joker ghost inside the ride. I kind of feel for him...what was left of his mortal remains was probably vacuumed up by the cleaning crew right after closing time that night!