Haunted Mansion and Haunted Mansion Holiday Differences

This is Haunted Mansion,   and this is Haunted Mansion Holiday .Before we get into details of the differences, this is a brief history of The Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion, which opened in 1969, was originally going to have a church and a graveyard on the outside. It was also going to be falling apart and would be walk-through. Walt Disney did not want it to be dilapidated. He based it on Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA.

The Hatbox Ghost is a ghost whose face disappears from time to time and reappears in his hatbox. It was taken out in 1969 because you could see the head in both areas. He was put back in early 2015.

The Hatbox Ghost in 1969, 2016 and during The Haunted Mansion Holiday:

Normal Hatbox Ghost

The hatbox here looks like a Christmas present that I would not like to receive.

The Hatbox Ghost was removed in 1969 because you could see both heads.

Disney started Haunted Mansion Holiday in 2001.

The Pumpkin King who turns into Jack Skellington at The Haunted Mansion Holiday.

The Haunted Mansion has the largest Pepper’s Ghost in the world. It is the dancing ghosts’ room. Pepper’s Ghost works by shining a light on something. In front of what the light is shining on, you put a sheet of plexiglass or other clear material. The result is a ghostly image somewhere in front of the plexiglass.

 

Some of the differences on the inside of The Haunted Mansion Holiday are:

1. The raven that follows you is now a toy.

   

   The white-faced toy is a raven on the normal Haunted Mansion.

2. The suit of armor waving his sword now has a pumpkin head.
3. The floating candles in the endless are now replaced with Jack’s dog, Zero.
4. The opening casket is replaced with a toy building the casket as a gift.
5. The clock has a tag that says: To Leota.
6. Leota now tells you the thirteen Days of Christmas even though there are only twelve.
7. Instead of items floating around her, there are cards floating.

   

   This is Leota. Can you see the toy again?

8. The dancing ghost scene is Christmas themed.
9. The attic scene now stores Christmas presents.
10. Constance is replaced with a snake swallowing presents.
11. The owl on the trees is now the toy building the casket.
12. The caretaker is replaced with Jack Skellington.
13. Some of the zombies popping out of the tombstones have Santa Claus hats.
14. The singing busts are now singing pumpkins.
15. The hitchhiking ghosts are now the trick-or-treaters: Lock, Shock and Barrel.

    

    Hitchhiking ghosts

16. The ghost that will follow you home is now a Christmas present.

Now that you see the difference in the scenery, there is also a difference in the music. The music is changed from Grim Grinning Ghosts song to Kidnap The Sandy Claws. If you don’t have Disneyland or Disney World passes, you can compare the two through YouTube. You can watch the normal Haunted Mansion here. You can also watch the Haunted Mansion Holiday here.

Whichever one you ride, whether it be at Disneyland , or Disney World, normal, or holiday, the ride is great! Tell me which one you like more in the comments.

If you would like to read about more visits to Disneyland, then see these posts:

Halloween at Disneyland

Disneyland… Again!!

Fun at Disneyland!

 

Visiting Sturbridge Village

One of the best days of our trip to New England was going to Sturbridge Village.

 After we paid for admission Sarah, Kate and me played in the Kidstory which is a play area themed to colonial times.

It is not real wood.

 After we played there, we went into the village itself. We arrived in time for a cobbler demonstration.

With the cobbler.

Wearing cobbler things.

 After that, my family toured the village which included the general store, the friend’s house, which is a Quaker meeting place, tin shop, Towne house the Townes were a family, the church and bank. We walked into another section of the village which contained, most notably, the blacksmith.

At the blacksmith

 His fire was extremely hot. They also had a sawmill, gristmill and carding mill.

Carding at the carding mill.

 After that all of us visited the schoolhouse and the beehives  We went back to the Kidstory and played some more. After that we went back to the village for a horse and wagon ride.

The horse and wagon.

  

Riley’s Apple Farm

On Tuesday, we did our weekly field trip at Riley’s Apple Farm. Here you can experience a homesteader’s life in the late 1890’s, pick apples and make cider. There is also Riley’s Farm which is different.

He is not smokeing. Fake pipe

getting water for the garden.

Bunch of apples for cider.

Cider making machine.

 It is a 2 hour drive from our house. Before the field trip started, the owner played banjo. I got to play triangle for one song! 

Playing triangle in the background. I don’t look happy because I was busy concentrating.

 When the field trip started, we went to see what a homestead would be like in the late 1890’s. The cabin was soo small.  There was just one room and one bed. I could live in it for about 5 minutes. There was also a garden. The way I watered it was using the frying pan they supplied and flung the water out. I didn’t use it the whole time, though.

I used a normal watering can in that picture.

 The coffee that they made for us was bitter. I used a rubber mallet with a head the size of a potato to smash the coffee beans. They had live chickens next to a house. In the house,we pretended zombies were going to attack us. After that, we got lunch. We assisted making a rope by being loops to keep the rope from going everywhere.

Making the rope.

 After that, the group made apple cider.

Bunch of apples for cider.

Cider making machine.

 The way we did it:

1. You select apples.
2. You press them.
3. You take the cider that comes though.

 Next, we went on a hike through the apple grove. We learned seeds of an apple grow into random types of apple trees. There are thousands of varieties! Finally, we shot bow and arrows. In other words, we did archery. I had the harder target, so, I didn’t do well. To me it didn’t matter. Since I will be a Boy Scout, I will have a lot of practice. Overall, it was a fun field trip, but that’s not all.

After the field trip, we left for Law’s Oak Glen Coffee Shop for famous apple pie.

Eating the pie.

 Then, came the long drive home.

 

Sailing

 

What is a typical Friday for me?

Our classroom, where we start our day before sailing, overlooks the harbor. The first segment is about 45 minutes. After the lesson, we go out and play a game on the lawn. So far, we have played Banana Tag, Red Light, Green Light and Sharks and Minnows.

 

 

Playing Banana Tag.

Each student will deliver or has delivered a presentation.

A snapshot of my presentation on roller coasters. If you would like to see the presentation click here. Since it is on Google Slides you can access it even if you don’t have Powerpoint. Click present to see it in full screen

After lunch, there is an experiment. Last week, we did Mentos and Coke. If you would like to watch somebody drink Coke while eating Mentos, click here. Finally, we start to sail

Preparing to sail.

or kayak.

kayaking

We kayak if the winds aren’t right for sailing. After about 2 ½ hours of sailing or kayaking, class is over. Sailing is very fun!

 

Planetarium

Last Tuesday, we went to the Tessman Planetarium at Santa Ana College.

Us in a picture with some of the pictures.

 Parking was hard to find at the college, so we parked in a nearby shopping center. We arrived 15 minutes before anyone else!! When they did finally arrive, the show started.

The group walked into a domed room that housed the show which was called How Rare is the Earth?  It started off simply enough and showed where the planets would be 10/5/2016. We learned about the planets and if there could be life on them. We skipped Earth.

Some of the things we learned were:

• Some of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons might have life.
• Buzz Lightyear has gone into space and boarded the International Space Station but didn’t quite explore as far as he wanted. He was confined to the ISS.
• There is a nebula that looks like the face of a witch.

At one funny moment, the music made it sound like we were at a beach party. The presentation was perfect except for when he put on the wrong music, but I wasn’t mad. It could have been a prank for all I know. Afterwards, we took  group picture with Dr. Eastman. I loved it and we went to Disneyland after that!

 

 

Halloween at Disneyland

One of the special times to visit Disneyland is at Halloween…

I wonder who carved these pumpkins?

The great pumpkin Mickey

Yummy… I’ll try not to steal it

As usual, we went with friends. Since Haunted Mansion Holiday is only for a limited time, we started off on it. The ride takes place under the hill behind the outside of the mansion. Disney decorated the passages with busts that can look at you.

I’m watching you…

There are singing flowers that we paused by after Haunted Mansion stopped. They do get annoying after a few minutes.

The singing flowers. Do you notice the toy with a hammer? He follows you around on the ride.

One of the main characters in the Haunted Mansion movie is Madame Leota. This is her head in the crystal ball.

If you look closely, you can see that toy that follows you.

When we finally got off Haunted Mansion, some of our friends were waiting at It’s a Small World. There was someone they met there so we went to go get ice cream at Clarabelle’s Ice Cream Parlor in California Adventure. We had a two scoop cone that we could barely finish eating!

I could barely finish mine! This is my  litle sister.

We met up with our friends at Boudin Sourdough and ate some free sourdough bread . Then we went on California Screamin’ twice. To read about a fun experience on Screamin’, click here. I did not vomit even though I had a giant ice cream.

The second time around!

Next, we went on Toy Story Mania.

The line is normally about forty-five minutes to an hour. We got on it in just thirty minutes. The results of one of the carts in our group was:

Mom                                        Sarah

After that, we went on Golden Zephyr which swings you around in a circular motion. And then- oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, we got Fastpasses for Ghost Galaxy. They were valid between 7:30 and 8:30. By the time we arrived at Ghost Galaxy, it was about 8:15. We were able to get on our space tour in time.

In line for Ghost Galaxy

The problem: there was a space skeleton waiting to attack us.  We did make it safely back into the space station and to our house. Overall, it was another fun day at Disneyland.

Nerf Modulus Tri-Strike Review

This is a review of the Nerf Modulus Tri-Strike. I would overall rate it  4 ½ out of 5 stars because the stock and the missile launcher are connected. I did order the Nerf Retaliator for a stock.

The Tri-Strike

http://amzn.to/2eLoxEc

I don’t like that because I want a scope for accuracy. You can buy separate parts.

http://amzn.to/2eOBDk7

 I have tested the accuracy and rated it 85%.  It would be good in a battle because that was against small targets. The accuracy against large targets would estimate 97% with the Elite darts.

Fighting my sister with the Tri-Strike

The Mega darts have a 60% accuracy overall. The missile does not shoot very far. The blaster can come apart into 4 pieces (Including the stock and missile launcher as one.)

The Tri-Strike in its separate parts

The Tri-Strike comes with a ten-dart clip, ten Elite darts four Megas, and one missile. I would recommend buying extra missiles because it only comes with one. If you plan to use the missile, you will definitely need the refill. The refill comes with three missiles and is right here.

http://amzn.to/2eODbL4

With all of the pieces that come with the Tri-Strike, the gun will weigh about 4 pounds. I can use it just fine, and I am 10-years old. I would recommend it for 8+. I did get a bullet stuck in it. I think since it is a Modulus there has to be some cons to it. Also, using the jam door requires you to cock the gun back. I might just be handling it, roughly, though. It has jammed multiple times but none as hard as that time. I can’t get it out. My friend at The Paper Master fixed it. Overall, I think it is a good gun despite the fact it was jammed.

Disneyland… Again!!

We had fun at Disneyland with friends… again! This time during the Halloween celebration. We arrived and rode on Space Mountain- Ghost  Galaxy. It is a Halloween-themed Space Mountain. The plot is you are in a spaceship and encounter a space demon. It attacks you, and you fly around to try and avoid the demon. The ship avoids the monster and makes it into the space station.

Better get away from it soon!

 After that, we toured the galaxy in Star Tours. There are two planets you visit. The best experience I had was on the second planet. It was Coruscant. In that one you go straight down during the Battle of Coruscant. It isn’t a roller coaster but a simulator. The mechanism works by tilting you straight down to make it like you are free-falling because that’s what is shows on the video. You are in the wrong lane when you stop falling. All the spaceships are coming towards you. There are a lot of ships, too. The battered tour ship lands in a secret hangar and the ride is over.

After that, we went to find our friends at Steamboat Willie. We thought they meant the Main Street Theater because it shows Steamboat Willie which was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. They meant the Mark Twain Steamboat, but we didn’t know it. When we couldn’t find them, we took a picture with the pumpkin Mickey head.

The great Mickey pumpkin.

 We found them outside the Golden Horseshoe. It is a restaurant in Frontierland. We didn’t eat there, but we met them there. All of us departed to The Haunted Mansion Holiday featuring The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is much more comical the normal one.

Outside the Haunted Mansion Holiday

 The stretching room shows paintings of people. They elongate to reveal they are in danger. For example, before it stretches there was a lady walking. After it stretches, that particular lady is in danger owing to the fact she is tightoping above an alligator. When it shows the skeleton on the top of that room in the normal Haunted Mansion,  Jack Skellington appears on the ceiling. After the secret passage in the stretching room opens, you find a hallway with some busts. Their eyes seem to follow you. The busts are in alcoves in the wall, but you can’t tell that unless you look closely. A few of the details include a clock with 13 hours, a ghost whose head appears in his hatbox,

The hatbox ghost with his head.. for now!

 and a floating head encased in a ball. You exit the ride through a tomb.

Say hello to him

Our family and friends then cruised over to California Adventure. While there, we enjoyed a milkshake at Ghirardelli Chocolate. After that, we went to Boudin Sourdough. Finally, we toured Monstropolis on Monster Inc. Before we left, the group went to an AP Days event and met Meeko the raccoon in Pocahontas. That was one of the best days at Disneyland