Huge fans of the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom – such as Doctor Disney – always love to see the small nuances and intricate details that make the attraction so incredibly unique. Well, if you’ve been to the Haunted Mansion within the past few months, then you may have noticed that some things are missing.
About three months ago, I exited the Haunted Mansion and realized that one of my favorite tombstone markers in the pet cemetery was missing. It was that of Mr. J. Thaddeus Toad, who normally rests in the upper-left hand corner.
Upon asking a Cast Member at the Haunted Mansion about his absence, I was advised that he “was being cleaned because he had a lot of algae and moss all over him.”
Shouldn’t take very long, right? But…here we are almost three months later and he is still missing.
Rumors have floated around that the statue fell over and broke, and that Disney didn’t have a mold of it to remake it and put another in its place.
Personally, I find that an explanation that isn’t very logical since Disney gave out and sold replicas of that tombstone marker back in 2011 at the “Room For One More” Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary event.
I’ve got one sitting in my collection.
Lately though, word had gotten to me that something else was missing at the Haunted Mansion, and I needed to do a little field research to see for myself. This one just seemed really hard to believe and it didn’t seem feasible.
Low and behold, the rumors were true and as of my discovery on the morning of May 22, 2014, the wedding ring is indeed missing from its place in the cement in the interactive graveyard.
When this rumor floated my way, I found it to be strange because it’d be really hard for someone to steal it unless they had a lot of time, a hammer, and a chisel.
Upon noticing it missing this morning at the Haunted Mansion, a Cast Member simply smiled and said, “It’s being polished.”
If polishing the ring takes even half as long as it does to “clean” off Mr. Toad’s headstone, then guests and fans of the Haunted Mansion will be without two big-time icons for quite some time.
