Are there really 999 happy haunts in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion? We counted them to find out. - SF Gate

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“Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here — but there’s room for 1,000,” the disembodied voice of the Ghost Host asks as you walk through the portrait gallery in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. “Any volunteers?”

As a lifelong Disney fan, I’ve heard this ominous greeting countless times. As a journalist, however, I had some questions.

Who are these ghosts, and why are there so many of them? Even if the mansion was built 200 years ago, as the architectural style of the New Orleans-style mansion indicates, 999 is quite the body count. Could there really be that many ghosts inside those heavy wrought iron gates?

I’m a stay-at-home-mom to three young boys and a theme park writer who obsesses over minutiae, like what’s in the Fuzzy Tauntaun that makes your mouth go numb (it’s buzz button flowers in the foam), so what else can I be expected to do in my free time but attempt to count all the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion? Turns out, it’s a lot harder than it looks.

In the spirit of accuracy, I began my count in the courtyard. Right away, it became clear this was going to be complicated. After you walk through the mansion’s gates, the first evidence of the underworld you encounter is a white, horse-drawn hearse. The floating bridle indicates an undead horse, but there is presumably also a driver holding the reins and a dead body inside the hearse. If the corpse was dead on arrival, would his ghost be haunting the mansion? Let’s presume yes for the sake of body count.

Then you come to the newly refurbished pet cemetery — the final resting place for 15 dearly departed critters. But what of the original pet cemetery along the mansion’s wheelchair accessible entrance? I confirmed with a Disneyland VIP tour guide that the smaller pet cemetery still stands. So add to that the five animals in the secret cemetery for a total of 20.

There are also some human remains “buried” in the courtyard, including 13 headstones that honor the Walt Disney Imagineers who worked on the attraction and 10 crypts near the secret entrance to the Haunted Mansion. For those keeping track, that’s 46 ghosts before you even get inside the mansion.

Once inside, you finally meet the Ghost Host who narrates the attraction and issues the invitation for riders to become permanent residents. Inside the windowless, doorless Stretching Room, you encounter four portraits of seven total people. Two of those – Constance Hatchaway and George Hightower — show up again in the attic scene. George was, unfortunately, Constance’s fifth husband and also possibly a relative of Harrison Hightower III, a Society of Explorers and Adventurers member and owner of the Hotel Hightower at Tokyo Disney Sea.

Before boarding your Doom Buggy, you pass by six changing portraits, but this spot is a little tricky in terms of ghost count. Five are obvious, but one is of a ship. Can a ship be a ghost? I stared at that ship for a good long time looking for a skeleton or other evidence of ghosts, but came up empty. I suppose it should be counted with the others, though, so that’s seven, counting the horse in the knight painting. There are also two extremely creepy busts whose gazes follow you straight into the load area.

The ride begins with a few safety rules from the Ghost Host before the on-ride ghost hunting begins. The suit of armor, floating candelabra, and weird haunted chair are obvious ones. As are the disembodied scream and skeleton screaming, “Let me out of here,” from inside his coffin. The raven standing nearby the coffin tripped me up a bit. It could be just an innocent raven who flew in through an open window, but those red eyes screamed ghost to me, so I counted him.

As you continue down the hallway, you pass eight doors in various states of knocking and movement. There’s a collection of portraits on the wall, but it’s impossible to know if each portrait is haunted or if they’re just innocent pictures of ghosts who reside elsewhere in the mansion. I chose not to count them. Any clock stuck on 13, on the other hand, is obviously haunted.

In the seance room, Madame Leota is accompanied by a bird and the shadowy figure of a large bat. If you account for each floating instrument as a ghost, that’s nine more. It’s impossible to know if each floating object represents the embodiment of a separate ghost, which is a common theme when trying to count the number of ghosts in this attraction. So much of it is up to your interpretation of what constitutes a ghost. I was hoping to get as close to 999 as possible, though, so I almost always erred on the side of “ghost.”

The swinging wake scene in the ballroom, the room you encounter next on the ride, is difficult to count because there are quite a few apparitions and they appear high and low around the dining room. I counted six ghosts emerging from the crashed hearse (which is odd when you think about it), five flying through the window, one on the fireplace, three on the chandelier, one on the rocking chair, six at the dining room table, two in an undead gun fight, twelve dancers and an organist. That’s 37 ghosts, a fine number for a dinner party if you ask me.

In the attic, where your Doom Buggy leads you next, there are only a handful of new ghosts to account for. You already saw Constance and George in the stretching room. There are also four other husbands and a harpsichord player. I’m working under the assumption the spirits of all five husbands are inside the mansion because I would haunt the heck out of that sorry excuse for a wife if I found myself on the receiving end of her hatchet.

As you exit the attic, you come across the legendary Hatbox Ghost. Until his reappearance in 2015, many speculated on whether he had ever been a resident of the Haunted Mansion at all. He could be seen in the attic when the attraction opened in 1969, but vanished soon after. A ghost of a ghost, if you will.

When you leave the attic, your Doom Buggy swivels 180 degrees for a backward-facing trip out of the house and into the graveyard. This was the moment in my quest when I almost threw in the towel. When they said “grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize,” they weren’t kidding around. One of the first things you see in the graveyard is a never-ending stream of ghosts flying toward the night sky. I had no idea how to go about counting these, but I did eventually develop a theory, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Adding to the difficulty of getting an accurate graveyard tally are the dozens of headstones (not to mention that even the trees appear to have faces). Does each gravestone represent a ghost or are those the graves of ghosts you can already see gallivanting around the mansion? Again, too tough to call. I tried my best to count moving headstones and those with ghosts popping out of them (the scariest part of the ride, in my opinion). Not counting the caretaker and his dog (who appear too scared to be ghosts), I came up with 52, which I feel quite certain is way off. Please feel free to fact check me here. I welcome it.

Three of those 52 include the infamous hitchhiking ghosts, who momentarily join you in your Doom Buggy before you disembark. You can also spy “Little Leota” near the end of the ride, named as such because she was voiced by Walt Disney Imagineer Leota Tombs, who is also the face of Madame Leota.

Just before encountering Little Leota, however, the Ghost Host reveals that a ghost will follow you home as you leave the attraction. Naturally, numbers began flying around in my head. According to the OC Register, the Haunted Mansion can handle about 2,500 guests per hour. Assuming a 12-hour day, that’s 30,000 riders in a day. Even if you assume an average of two people per buggy, that’s still 15,000 ghosts. So I’ve come to the conclusion that the endless stream of ghosts are the nameless ghouls who return home with you, which negates their spot in the official count.

So, what’s the grand total? 186. That’s a far cry from the 999 ghosts Disneyland claims reside in the mansion, which, according to the “Haunted Mansion” episode of “Behind the Attraction,” was first described as a retirement home for ghosts when it was under construction. “Enjoy active retirement in this country club atmosphere,” the sign outside the gates read, “the fashionable address for famous ghosts, ghosts trying to make a name for themselves… and ghosts afraid to live by themselves!”

When the ride opened on Aug. 9, 1969, there were even fewer ghosts, as there have been many renovations and enhancements throughout the years. I suppose you could get to 999 if you counted any instance of something creepy as a ghost, like the bat-topped weather vane atop the roof. Or if you take into account that you only took a short guided tour of the mansion and probably didn’t see every haunt in residence.

As it turns out, it’s practically impossible to count every single dastardly haunt in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, but I sure did have a good time trying. It seems the Ghost Host was right along. Maybe moving in and living among them is the only way to find out the true number of ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. There’s always room for one more, right?

Tarah Chieffi is a theme park and family travel journalist who helps travelers plan fun-filled family vacations. When she isn’t eating theme park food and riding roller coasters, she can be found cycling wherever her bike will take her, tucked under the covers with a good book, or planning her next adventure with her husband and three young sons.