Review: The Haunted Mansion Ghost Post Subscription Box #1

Earlier this year, Disney announced a special The Haunted Mansion subscription box, or Ghost Post. Limited to only 999 subscriptions at $199.00 each, is sold out within minutes. Those lucky enough to get a box also got a chance to unlock mysteries of the Haunted Mansion via the Phantom Radio app on iPhones/ IOS devices. My friend, and fellow writer for DisKingdom, Kristen was able to score one of the subscription boxes. However, without an iPhone or IOS device, she couldn’t unlock the mysteries. That’s where I came in, with my iPhone 6 and no subscription box. Last weekend, I met up with Kristen, and between her first month’s delivery and my iPhone, we unlocked some fun stuff. Here is a look at Ghost Post Box #1.

I would like to state outright that, without the interactive feature, I personally did not see the value of the items in the box. While these items are interesting to a Haunted Mansion collector, I was sort of expecting possibly prop replicas or something. Instead, the box contained pieces necessary to solve the mystery, but not necessarily collectible or even understandable without use of the app. This is especially true of the paper paraphernalia.

Here is a letter from the “Ghost Relations Department” asking some Foolish Mortals for help in their problem. Before we delve into all of that, let’s see the items.

Item #1: Teacup

Item #2: Brass Bat 

Item #3: Madame Leota Divination Cards (set of 10)

Item #4: Grim Gazette Vol. XLVI No. VIII 

 

Item #5: Bloodmere & Brooms Redusting Ad

Item #6: Constance “The Bride” Hatchaway’s Wedding Announcement

Item #7: The Phantom Radio (some assembly required)

Looks like we have a spot for the Brass Bat.

Phantom Radio App

For me, the value came in the form of the interactive element with the Phantom Radio app. Now, if your app is on an iPhone, you can use the radio box that you built as a housing for the iPhone, with the Brass Bat turning into a tuning dial (it works!).

 

From there (with the iPhone outside of the radio housing), one can scan the items that came in the box. Each successful scan unlocks new audio, and that audio paints the mystery surrounding (literally) The Haunted Mansion…

A great fog has enveloped the mansion, one that is concerning the spirits and even preventing the Hitchhiking Ghosts from following their human guests home. To combat this, the Ghost Relations Department, headed by Chief Spookeswoman Sarah “Sally” Slater… known to all of us as the Tightrope Walker in the Stretch Room, has sent out these Ghost Post boxes in hopes that they find themselves in the hands of some powerful human mediums that can decipher the clues and solve the mystery. Along the way, Madame Leota finds out what’s going on, and is not too happy. 

If you read this letter from the Ghost Relations Department, it tells that if the letter gets wet more ghostly messages will appear showing what to scan. Lightly dampening the letter worked, and once dried showed no staining.

Now, for us, scanning was weird. We initially overlooked things, we picked up scans that are actually meant for the other two months (this means that all three boxes are needed to fully experience everything), and finally found clues after close to three hours. It was a lot of fun, but at times a bit frustrating.

All told, we were able to pick up nine audio files: seven from 1st Month, one from 2nd Month, and one from 3rd Month.

1st Month:

~ Phantom Radio Instructions (scan instructions)

~ Phantom Radio (scan radio)

~ Grim Gazette No. VIII (scan Gazette, any page)

~ Leota’s Cards Month 1 (scan face of any card)

~ Redusting Ad (scan ad)

The ad, when combined with the “moon and stars” shows a message “keep this for waltzes next month”.

~ Wedding Announcement Room Temperature (scan announcement as is)

Hitchhiking Ghosts talk about Constance. Hint about cold being a factor with the announcement.

~ Wedding Announcement Chilled (scan announcement once placed in freezer for a time)

2nd Month:

~ Music Box

For some reason, the bottom of the teacup, when scanned, unlocked this audio for a music box. We assume that this will be a big thing for the second month, combined with the Redusting Ad about the waltzes.

3rd Month:

~ Teacup

Scanning the actual teacup instead got us some audio from the third month, in the form of a coded message telling us to place the cup on a location to reveal a different message. The final page of the Gazette had a spot that looked like a saucer and mention reading of tea leaves. Sure enough, in the mirrored surface of the cup read “Beware Madame Leota”. Looks like she will undoubtedly play a bigger part in the story. Also, a saucer was mentioned in the audio, so we believe we will be getting a saucer to match the teacup.

Want to hear the audio for these scans? Here are the audio files in video form. NOTE: Since the audio isn’t on the phone in any sort of order aside from how I scanned this, we just group the audio into batches of three for these videos.

Video #1: Phantom Radio Instructions, Wedding Announcement Chilled, Phantom Radio

Video #2: Leota’s Cards Month 1, Wedding Announcement Room Temp, Redusting Ad

Video #3: Teacup, Music Box, Grim Gazette

Overall thoughts on this subscription box: Like I mentioned before, if you got this subscription box simply for the collectibles, you might be disappointed. However, combined with the interactive feature, and I feel there is the worth there. That being said, there are boxes on eBay going for hundreds of dollars (last time I checked they were selling for between $450 and $500) just for the first of the three boxes. That is not worth it… why? You need ALL THREE boxes to complete the mystery, and there is not guarantee that the box specific code that you get to fully unlock the Phantom Radio app won’t be already redeemed.

Why is the code important? Without it, you can’t start scanning the items with the app, unlocking the audio. In addition, you wouldn’t be able to play the Disneyland Park in-park element. I am not too aware of all that is involved in this adventure inside Disneyland, seeing as I live in New York and have not visited the parks. However, I have seen pictures on social media where people used the app and cards given to them by Esmeralda (the fortune teller on Main Street) to save ghosts who are in trouble in the park. Here are screen grabs from the Phantom Radip app showing you locations to visit for the in-park feature.

 So, if you live near Disneyland or will be visiting soon, this subscription would be a lot of fun for you. Still, Kristen and I had a lot of fun with this first of three subscription boxes, and I look forward to the next one arriving soon.

Were you one of the foolish mortals that got the Ghost Post subscription box? What were your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.