Boo-tiful Changes at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland
Welcome, foolish mortals! Since the announcement of the Haunted Mansion grounds expansion, fans of the attraction have been itching to see it completed. Disney has now shared new details and a first look at what’s coming to New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park. Dare to take a peek?
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Enhancements in New Orleans Square
The new Magnolia Park recently opened, situated in front of the train station between Tiana’s Palace restaurant and the Haunted Mansion. This beautiful, elegant park-like setting is shaded with some oak and Ficus trees, and is a great spot for guests to take a break with a Mickey-shaped beignet from Mint Julep Bar, or enjoy some live entertainment.
New, Expanded Grounds of Haunted Mansion
Just beyond the gates to the Haunted Mansion attraction are the new, cultivated grounds. This expanded area has an enchanting aura that calls guests to explore further!
When entering this new part of the queue, before discovering the expanded grounds, guests may notice a familiar Spanish fountain that once sat in the middle of Magnolia Park.
Guests will find that the new gardens are being closely guarded by a pair of stately ravens. Ravens often represent a connection between the world of the living and the spirit world. They will also encounter the crouching figure of a cat. The statue sits tucked away among the wispy grasses, as he appears ready to pounce.
Around the bend, guests will discover a personal garden retreat designed by one of the mansion’s inhabitants, Master Gracey. A fountain against the garden’s wall features the face of a sea maiden with unruly hair and startled eyes, as if she’s caught in a storm. Inside an old, wrought iron gazebo sits a bench, a well-read book, and astrological armillisphere and a smoking pipe that has been left behind. It’s the perfect place for Gracey to rest and ponder his past.
Further along the path, guests will find the eccentric garden of Madame Leota, the resident Seer. It seems as if the entire garden is dipped in a mystical energy; as if every plant, statue and trinket is under Leota’s spell. There is a small statuary of oddities – frogs, lizards, rats and a cymbal playing monkey – all frozen in time like they are under an incantation. The garden has a repeating motif of fortune telling orbs. The large oak tree that graces the center of the courtyard has been decorated by Leota with colorful ornaments, chimes and bells that ring out in the breeze.
And in the rear of the garden, guests will find the Mansion Greenhouse, belonging to all the mansion’s ghosts. An ornate structure of iron and glass, it gives residents with a “green thumb” a chance to cultivate the most unusual of plant species.
New Shop – Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond – to Open This Winter
As previously announced, an all-new retail shop next to the Haunted Mansion will be opening, adjacent to the exit of the attraction. Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond is expected to open this winter. 
Somewhere Beyond is a carriage house that used to store the same ornate carriage that now remains on the mansion’s front yard. It also contains a boudoir on the mezzanine level. At one point, it was home to the mansion’s head caretaker, but later Madame Leota took up residence. It is filled with her eclectic furniture including a crystal ball, feinting couch and the original parlor chandelier that Leota used in séances at the mansion.
When the first floor of the carriage house became a shop, Leota kindly lent her desks, cabinets and chests as antique artifacts to be showcased along with the merchandise. As a powerful medium moving between worlds, Madame Leota comes and goes a lot and is excited to welcome guests to her home, soon.
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