Bad Experience in HM...

yankeesfan123;2424531 wrote: I always just looked for the red light on the wall!

When you enter the aging portrait room with the fireplace you either go left or right into the stretching room. If you go to the right of the aging portrait, you are entering the right side stretching room. The portrait of the girl with the parasol will be on your left. You will see the very small red light in the corner of where the door will slide open.

The stretching room on the left is just the opposite. The girl with the parasol will be on your right.

Knowing this you can either sit back and let your group move past you or be ready to move so you won't get run over when the lights are turned back on.

Good luck

Oh by the way, you were the one that wasn't been rude. You just hooked up with your family.

You've gotten great advise from everyone so far! Yes, folks can get quite obnoxious in lines.

We tend to stay single file with hands on shoulders of person in front and not rush. If we become separated from others on our party, whoever is in front draws off to the side, let others pass until the rest catch up. Not had problems when doing this at all.

And to keep others from getting 'overly enthusiastic' with their shoving, we just keep our arms bent so our elbows are protecting us. No one will get hit with them unless they try to shove.

What boggles my mind is how many parents will shove their children into other people! Do they really not like their own offspring?? The poor kids are dodging while dad or mom use them like a personal battering ram. Parent, child behind held by hand, parent behind that - no one gets hurt or lost. You don't need to walk side by side 5 deep. Really. ;)

LVT;2424391 wrote: You did the correct thing. I hate that chokepoint The dim lights contribute to it. A lot of people do not know what is happening. If anything, you are too civilized. NO SHAME:mickey:

I agree 100%, but being a self proclaimed HM "expert" my future advice to you is either gather your riders together under the gal on the tightrope over the crocodile or opposite that painting. If your under it make a quick exit as soon as the door opens to avoid the bottleneck. If your facing it, just wait patiently until the mass in front of you goes through it

I hate all the areas like that. The Laugh Factory and American Experience are others. In the AE, you best be quick to and off the escalators. I had some JA's try to want to walk up the escalators.

I've resigned myself to one day I'll get a lifetime ban for starting a melee in one of the lines.

Actually the shame is that the CM's could (and should) control this situation. There are three "control points" in the line. The first is at the door. The second is at the stretching room(s). The third is at the vehicle load platform. Crowds can be controlled by at any of the points, although it becomes more difficult the further in guests get. For example, to control overcrowding, the first line of defense is to simply not let as many people into the house at one time. This allows the stretching rooms to not be stuffed and the overflow to be less. However, say the "butler" lets in too many. That is when control 2 takes over and the stretching rooms divide the crowd into small chunks. If they are not run too quickly, or over filled, then the line after the rooms will not back up. However, if controls 1 and 2 are blown, then there is relatively little the loading CM can do to put people on the attraction more quickly. The ride runs at a set speed and the doombuggies hold a pretty much set number of folks. Now the downside to using control 1 and 2 is that people get stuck out in the heat longer, but wasn't that what those wizz-bang interactive elements supposed to help with? Just saying...

We had a situation in the HM back in March, when a family of 4 all large people, riding 4 EVCs through the que. Now those turns in the interactive area are quite tight and they kept having to back up the convoy and readjust their position. Well wouldn't you know when we get to the door, I thought we had good space between us and them, we enter the stretch room and whipping around the corner are 4 EVCs and the room was pretty full. Well they didnt fit and would not listen to the CM asking them to back out and wait for the next room to open. So the door would not close exposing the effect of the stretching room walls. And if that wasn't bad enough, they all had to ride in their own car, which meant 4 stops of the ride to let them on.

So sorry about your experience. :( You absolutely were not in the wrong, and the woman who yelled at you should have been bounced. This is probably a person who's miserable and mean all the time.

I wish they'd do a better job with this queue as well. Even in the slower seasons there can be a serious crunch there. We (family of 4) hold hands single file and don't worry about people getting in front of us or falling behind us.

I agree with what everyone has said...and I am so sorry for your experience. My wife has almost refused to ride HM again because of the "funnel". I wish they would figure out an alternative way to move guests after the stretching room.

DKA041177;2424822 wrote: I agree with what everyone has said...and I am so sorry for your experience. My wife has almost refused to ride HM again because of the "funnel". I wish they would figure out an alternative way to move guests after the stretching room.

They could redesign the internal queue area so that guests are forced into a line as they come out of the stretching rooms and well before they reach the current "funnel". There is plenty of room there and it works in rides like Dinosaur and Rock 'n Roller Coaster.

That's awful! I totally agree with you, the Haunted Mansion line is badly set up. I was just there about a month ago with my cousin, and it was total chaos. We had trouble staying together and everyone seemed to just push. That line has always been a mess but it seems to have gotten worse. The only thing worse than that is the jam after the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom.

Once you get into the Stretching Room, you are out of the general queue for the ride. You are going to ride almost immediately after leaving the stretching room.

While abhor people who cut in line to "get with my group/family" because I believe everybody should get in line together so you go as fast as your slowest party, once you are inside the show building, it doesn't matter anymore because the experience has started.

So, those people saying those things were jerks. Period.

My point, though, is that there is no need to redesign the line, it just needs to be run as designed. If it is managed properly, the crush never happens!

First of all....you did nothing wrong in rejoining your family....anyone should be able to see that. Secondly, let me tell you what we do here in the South....we say "well, bless your heart - have a good day" with a smile on our face that hides the sarcasm in our voice from such rude people. Don't let others mess up your fun!

Nut4DW;2425289 wrote: First of all....you did nothing wrong in rejoining your family....anyone should be able to see that. Secondly, let me tell you what we do here in the South....we say "well, bless your heart - have a good day" with a smile on our face that hides the sarcasm in our voice from such rude people. Don't let others mess up your fun!

I love "bless your heart." I happen to know what it really means. ;)

As for the design of the hall, I seem to remember, as a teen in the late '70s, that the amount of time in the stretching room took a little longer than it does now, so the rooms unloaded at a slower pace, resulting in less of a crowd in the hall. The pause between the lights going out and the scream of the ghost overhead certainly seemed longer, and so was the queue outside the building.

I wonder if anyone has any old video of how long the time in the stretching room took, to compare it with how long it takes now.

Aurora;2425483 wrote: I love "bless your heart." I happen to know what it really means. ;)

As for the design of the hall, I seem to remember, as a teen in the late '70s, that the amount of time in the stretching room took a little longer than it does now, so the rooms unloaded at a slower pace, resulting in less of a crowd in the hall. The pause between the lights going out and the scream of the ghost overhead certainly seemed longer, and so was the queue outside the building.

I wonder if anyone has any old video of how long the time in the stretching room took, to compare it with how long it takes now.

Exactly! This is what I'm talking about! If they ran the line slower, it would all work out!