At Walt Disney World Resort, you inevitably will spend a great deal of time waiting in line.
How nice for you, then, that Disney has started to created interactive queues in order to make your time waiting more interesting.
Soarin' and Space Mountain have been outfitted with video games.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has an especially exciting pre-show and themed decorations to really get you in the mood for the ride as you wait.
Recently, Disney's Haunted Mansion ride has joined the list of attractions featuring these "enhanced" queues.
Guests are not required to enjoy the new additions, but rather can choose to wait in the traditional line, which is a bit shorter - or they can wander the new attractions that await them in a slightly more meandering line.
Though this line is a bit longer, it doesn't end up feeling that way since there is so much to do while you wait! New and Improved Queue What does this special new queue have in store for you? Well, when you first enter the new queue area, you will find yourself face-to-face with a series of busts of the Dread Family.
Though these busts do not talk or move, they are extremely realistic - you are allowed to touch and walk around them.
The pedestals on which the busts are mounted feature plaques with poems on them.
These poems are the clues to solving a murder mystery about who killed whom in the Dread Family.
Above and Beyond Besides this bust mystery game, some of the gravestones - also eerily realistic - have made their way into the queue for you to examine, and to scare the heebeegeebees out of you! One gravestone, sporting the name "Madame Leota" makes its way around the house and the new section of the queue.
In this new section of the queue, even the emergency exit is cleverly disguised as a creepy spiraling staircase that winds by tombs dedicated to some of the Imagineers whose hard work made this new "waiting in line" experience possible.
Interactive Queue Attractions Three of the family members get their own special attractions in this new queue.
First, a mausoleum filled with magical musical instruments that play when you touch them.
There is an organ called "Ravenscroft," which hails the name of the voice actor and singer to which the mausoleum is dedicated, and mists you with water at surprise intervals as you play it.
After this fun sidetrack, you get to explore the crypt of Captain Culpepper Clyne.
His tomb gurgles a medley of sea shanties, and eventually his tomb will begin to leak water from a series of holes.
You can spend time trying to plug them with your fingers, only to be surprised at where a new jet of water comes shooting out! After you get sufficiently cooled down in the two interactive attractions that seem dead set on getting you wet, you can explore the Poet Prudence Pock's mausoleum.
You will read a plaque describing her tragic death due to writer's block.
You will also walk by what seems to be carvings of library shelves, but don't be surprised when the books in the carvings start popping out intermittently.
Just as with the water spouts in the previous tomb, you can spend time pushing books back in, but to no avail - for each book that gets pushed in, it feels like 2 pop out! Lastly, you will see the poor poet struggling to overcome writer's block, even from beyond - and you get to help her.
As she writes, you can shout out lines to continue her work, and she will use them to continue her masterpiece.
Though this new queue is just a way to make waiting more bearable, it certainly does the trick.
You may find that you enjoy this new queue as an indispensable extended part of the ride.
Possibly you'll end up preferring the shorter, more boring line, but even if you end up feeling that way, the new and improved Haunted Mansion queue is worth giving a try - it is some spooky fun your whole family will enjoy!