Magic Kingdom Begins Haunted Mansion Refurbishment Amid Major Construction Changes

18 days ago in "Haunted Mansion"

Gallery / 6 Photos
Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

Posted: Tuesday January 20, 2026 10:04am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Haunted Mansion refurbishment work has started at Magic Kingdom, with scaffolding and scrim now covering a section of the attraction's exterior facade.

Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

The work focuses on the area near where the queue enters the building. A portion of the facade is behind scrim as crews begin what appears to be exterior restoration work. Additioanlly, all of the landscaping has been removed from the lawn.

Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

Disney is also expected to perform refurbishment work on the interactive queue area during this period.

Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

Major Construction Impacts Surrounding Area

The ongoing Cars and Villains Land projects are dramatically changing the area around Haunted Mansion.

Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

A large section of trees has been cleared just beyond the interactive queue. This removal makes the space feel considerably more open than usual.

The tree clearing is visible from multiple vantage points around the attraction. The change is particularly noticeable to guests familiar with the previous tree coverage.

Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

Boat Dock Permit Filed

A permit has been recently filed for work at the nearby boat dock. This permit relates to the Cars and Villains Land construction projects.

Haunted Mansion Exterior Refurbishment - January 20, 2026

The permit suggest additional changes coming to the Liberty Square waterfront area as Disney prepares the surrounding infrastructure for the new lands. Construction barriers and equipment remain visible throughout the area as work continues on both the attraction refurbishment and the larger land development projects.

The Haunted Mansion remains open during the exterior work.

Piston Peak Construction Site - January 19. 2026

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

EricsBiscuit1 day ago

MK’s Neverland scene is much more immersive:

Touchdown1 day ago

I prefer its London portion to DL’s, it’s more detailed with more actual buildings. Once we get to Neverland, DL’s is better.

Bocabear1 day ago

I would agree...the ride itself is I think the worst iteration of PPF around the world... For the amount of draw the ride has, it should be a much better ride...It needs to be bigger and longer... Or perhaps just better like the Shanghai version....

Kevin_W1 day ago

Unfortunately, it's been years since I've ridden Pan or ben through the queue, but when they opened it my wife and I thought the interactive queue was arguably better than the ride.

wdwmagic2 days ago

Here is a look at the exterior refurb

HMF18 days ago

I actually can respect that. most of the ones at the end are things that only the hyper-obsessives like me would notice and really don't hurt the attraction that much though I still don't think they were necessary and only done for uniformity with Disneyland.

James Alucobond18 days ago

It's this. Many of the complaints in the back half of the article simple don't bother me. Several just fall under "different but not worse" for me.

HMF18 days ago

Just out of curiosity which parts did you not agree with? Not that I am overly precious about my opinions, I am actually just curious. There are some things I am less precious about than others. Most of the 07 changes I was mostly fine with and most of the changes made really are nitpicks and not huge deals. PLQ and HBG are the only ones I firmly believe are at an attraction-ruining level

James Alucobond18 days ago

I don't agree with everything in the article, but the interactive queue is indeed visually unconvincing and stylistically inconsistent with the rest of the Mansion exterior. To top it off, it doesn't even have fun interactions. Despite people being down on interactive queues broadly, I'll personally defend ones that I think are fun distractions, like the one for Peter Pan's Flight.

FigmentFan8218 days ago

This is certainly a take

HMF18 days ago

No one is asking for a copy of DL's queue. As long as the PLQ is gone I am open to anything assuming it doesn't have the same conceptual flaws as PLQ.

aladdin200718 days ago

(shoving) what they could is more like it, with that and the hatbox ghost.

jmuboy18 days ago

Anyway, with all these questionable Piston Peak changes coming to Frontierland and Liberty Square, whether we like it or not, I would love to see: - Current HM queue in front of the mansion removed. - A walkway along the front of the mansion where the HM queue used to be. This walkway would run along the remains of the RoA and cut over to the Piston Peak area / Villains Land area just last the HM (as is vaguely show in the concept art released over the last few years). This would also finally our mansion an unobstructed street view like DL's has. - The HM queue is rebuilt into the the hillside on the left side of the HM with a quiet cemetery with punny tombs and over grown garden as the main thematic scenery (none of the awful cartoony current expansion queue should be kept) All that said, I am worried by how much they have deforested a dedicated parcel of land that abuts the current HM queue. It shoots off the old RoA land and appears like that swath was being intentionally cleared.

castlecake2.018 days ago

Agreed. WDWs queue ruins any ounce of surprise of what awaits you inside the mansion. WDI was too focused on showing what the could come up with instead of sticking to the storyline. ETA Disneyland’s queue idea, but made to fit thematically at wdw. I think what most of us are wanting is the removal of the obnoxious interactive pieces.