Haunted Mansion event sells out in "minutes"

Recession? What recession?

To no one's (except Disneyland's, apparently) surprise, the Haunted Mansion's 40th anniversary event scheduled to be held on 9/9/09 at Disneyland sold out almost immediately. Tickets to the $475 and $430 packages were snapped up within 5 minutes of going on sale Tuesday, and the remaining packages at $250 and $85 were gone within 2 hours after going on sale Wednesday, according to the OC Register.

Server overloads caused the ticketing website to crash beginning at least 20 minutes before the tickets were even released for sale at 11:00 a.m. PST, and extensive frustration was evident among fans that weren't able to secure tickets.

Complicating matters this year is the fact that Disney recently implemented a single-ticket-per-purchase regulation, meaning that a number of attendees only were able to get a single ticket for their party - IF they were lucky enough to even get that.

Reporting that one ticket agent called the situation a "fiasco," a DoomBuggies.com forum member, who wanted to get the second member of her party on the waiting list for a ticket, said that the agents "were looking on in horror as all the problems went on, and [he] sympathized with me, even though there was absolutely nothing he could do to help other than put us on a waiting list that he informed me 'was so long at this point that literally every attendee would have to cancel for us to call you.'"

DoomBuggies is tentatively planning to host a party for Haunted Mansion fans that wish to congregate the evening before the official event near Disneyland Park, whether they are able to attend Disneyland's event or not. Stay tuned to the DoomBuggies.com forums for upcoming details.

Read a brief story in the OC Register here.

RIP.