News about Phantom Manor

In October 2025 it became clear how strongly Phantom Manor continues to inspire people beyond Disneyland Paris. Filmmaker Johan Souply and his team raised more than 21,000 euros through the French platform Ulule for a short film inspired by the attraction and the fictional Ravenswood setting. That was more than double the original target of 10,000 euros.

The project is not an official Disney production, but the creators present it as a tribute to Phantom Manor's classic story. It will use several film sets, including an impressive exterior of the manor. Because the funding goal was exceeded, the team could plan seven shooting days instead of five. For the attraction's history, this is valuable fan context: Phantom Manor is not only a ride, but a story world that inspires fans to create their own art, films and interpretations.

In June 2025 Disneyland Paris once again adjusted details around Phantom Manor. On Boot Hill, the haunted cemetery beside the attraction, two cheeky gravestone texts disappeared from the graves of servants Jasper and Anna Jones. The old inscriptions played with a sexually suggestive joke about the master of the house. Disney replaced them with milder texts describing the characters as a loyal butler and housekeeper.

Two additional pet graves were also added, for the dog Goliath and the cat Thomas Gerald Ravenswood IX. For fans, this is classic Phantom Manor news because small gravestones and wordplay help define the tone of the area. The change also fits earlier updates, such as the removal of nooses in 2023. Disneyland Paris appears to be preserving the attraction's macabre humour while increasingly softening details that feel too sharp or dated.

In October 2024 Disneyland Paris gave fans new story context for Phantom Manor. In a seven-minute video, actor Bernard Alane, the current French-language voice in the attraction, narrated the history of the manor and the surrounding Thunder Mesa. The English-language voice remains tied to horror icon Vincent Price, who died in 1993, one year after the attraction opened.

The video followed the 2019 refurbishment, when Disney made changes intended to communicate the storyline more clearly. At its centre is Henry Ravenswood, made wealthy through the Big Thunder Mining Company, alongside his wife Martha and daughter Melanie. After an earthquake and a wedding that never happened, Melanie continues to wander the decaying house as a bride. For fans this matters because Phantom Manor's background had been debated for decades. The video turned scattered clues into a more readable narrative.

In April 2023 it emerged that Disneyland Paris had quietly altered several scenes in Phantom Manor. Two nooses disappeared from the sets. In Phantom Canyon, one had previously hung above a cart, paired with a projection of a ghost. A little further on, the Phantom stood by an empty coffin with another noose hanging from a tree behind him. Both set pieces did not return.

Disney did not publicly announce the change. According to insiders, it was a deliberate decision because the resort preferred not to confront visitors with references to suicide. A noose in the Stretching Room was still visible at that time during the lightning effect. For fans, the news stood out because Phantom Manor has long been known for its macabre details. At the same time, the change fits a broader Disney pattern of reassessing older scenes for tone, sensitivity and guest experience.

In October 2021 the content of Phantom Manor did not change, but the way guests could plan their ride did. Disneyland Paris added the haunted house to Disney Premier Access, the paid priority system that had replaced the free FastPass concept. From that moment, visitors could skip the regular queue for 5 euros per person. The total number of attractions with Premier Access rose to nine.

For fans, this showed that Phantom Manor, despite being a classic dark ride, was considered an attraction with enough demand to justify a paid shortcut. Disney presented the system as a way to offer more flexibility when planning a day in the parks, while the report also placed it in the wider shift toward paid shorter queues. In Phantom Manor's history this is not a creative alteration, but it is a significant change in the visitor experience around the ride.

In August 2019 Phantom Manor received extra depth beyond the attraction itself. Disneyland Paris released the book Phantom Manor - Decrypted, aimed at fans who wanted to know more about the ride's creation, story and recent changes. It included anecdotes, construction photos, behind-the-scenes images and previously unseen designs.

The timing was significant: Phantom Manor had recently been closed for almost sixteen months for a major refurbishment. The book explored the changes in detail and set out the full backstory of the attraction. The first print run sold out quickly, with a new availability expected in Disneyland Paris. For the attraction's history, this matters because the park was expanding the myth of Phantom Manor not only through the ride experience, but also through documentation and merchandise.

Shortly after Phantom Manor reopened, Disneyland Paris showed what had actually happened during the long closure. In a documentary of more than fifteen minutes, familiar Disney creatives appeared, including imagineer Tom Fitzgerald, creative director Beth Clapperton and show and production designer Björn Heerwagen. They explained how scenes were renewed, how the storyline was clarified and how new special effects were added.

The refurbishment had lasted from January 2018 to May 2019. Heerwagen stressed that respect for the original remained important, but the attraction's technology needed a major step forward after 27 years. The animatronics received particular attention, with mechanisms and control systems replaced. For fans, the documentary offered rare context for a refurbishment that was not merely cosmetic, but reshaped Phantom Manor's storytelling and technical foundation.

In December 2018 Disneyland Paris offered the first look inside the renewed Phantom Manor. The 1992 attraction had been closed for almost a year, and its reopening was then expected around March 2019. The scene shown was the load area with its grand staircase, now featuring the bride. That placed Melanie Ravenswood more prominently in the experience.

Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald linked the update to both technology and storytelling. Since the opening of Disneyland Paris, he said, many new illusions and techniques had been developed that could now be used in Phantom Manor. At the same time, Disney wanted to answer questions that had occupied fans for years: who is the Phantom, who is the bride and what happened to them? The image made the refurbishment tangible and showed that the attraction was being made narratively clearer.

In June 2018 it became clear that visitors would have to wait much longer for Phantom Manor than Disneyland Paris had first indicated. The haunted house had been closed since January for a major refurbishment and was originally expected back in October. Instead, Disney now spoke of a reopening in early 2019. The park did not give a concrete reason for the delay, aside from a playful reference to ghosts.

The postponement showed how far-reaching the work had become. Almost all sets and technical components were being renewed or replaced, while Disney also promised new scenes and special effects. For fans, this was more than routine maintenance: Phantom Manor has been one of Frontierland's defining attractions since 1992. After earlier large-scale updates to Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, this haunted house was receiving a refurbishment intended to carry it into a new era.

At Disney FanDaze in June 2018, imagineer Tom Fitzgerald shared the first real content details about Phantom Manor's major refurbishment. The attraction had been closed since January, and Disneyland Paris still expected it to return at the end of October. The most striking reveal was the return of archive recordings by horror actor Vincent Price, who had once recorded an English-language version of the manor's story.

Fitzgerald also promised new effects and the restoration of older ones. The storyline would change as well: Disney wanted to finally make clearer who the Phantom is. For fans, that was major news because Phantom Manor had always thrived on atmosphere, mysteries and interpretation. The announcement showed that the refurbishment was not merely technical or cosmetic, but also aimed to sharpen the attraction's narrative. It made the closure a turning point in how Disneyland Paris presented the haunted house.

By March 2018, Phantom Manor had been closed since 8 January for the biggest refurbishment since its 1992 opening. Because the haunted house would remain surrounded by scaffolding for months, Disneyland Paris chose a themed solution: a huge cloth in front of the facade. It showed the eerie manor itself, complete with dark clouds and lightning. The sides of the structure were wrapped in green camouflage netting.

The update shows how Disney tries to protect the atmosphere of Frontierland even during major construction work. For visitors, the cloth prevented a bare steel structure from dominating the view of Boot Hill and the manor. At the same time, it hinted at the scale of the refurbishment. Disney had not yet revealed many details about the work, but the visible construction made clear that Phantom Manor was receiving a substantial overhaul.

In early January 2018 Disneyland Paris turned the final days before Phantom Manor's major refurbishment into a small fan ritual. The haunted house would close from Monday 8 January for months of work, then still expected to last until autumn 2018. On the Sunday before the closure, visitors could obtain an exclusive farewell button, but only by saying the Latin phrase Non omnis moriar in the reception hall: I shall not wholly die.

The souvenir featured the attraction's logo, the date and the French text Dernier voyage avant l'interruption des visites. Only one button was available per person, while stocks lasted. For guests it was a playful way to say goodbye to the old version of Phantom Manor. For fans, the gesture underlined how much emotional value the attraction had built since its opening in 1992.

Phantom Manor returned to operation on 16 April 2016 after an unusually serious period for Disneyland Paris. The haunted house had been closed for about two weeks after a 45-year-old technician died on 2 April while working on a broken lamp. Colleagues found him early in the morning, before the park had opened to guests. Police then kept the Victorian manor closed while the investigation continued.

For visitors, the reopening meant that one of Frontierland's landmark attractions was available again, but the news remained tied to the gravity of the accident. The reopening date had been postponed several times in the preceding days, adding to the uncertainty around the ride. In Phantom Manor's history, this was not a creative change or refurbishment milestone, but a rare moment when the normal park experience was interrupted by a serious event behind the scenes.