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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

tayspru said:
There’s a lot of people approaching this form the lens of an enthusiast, not the GP

We all stopped to watch the pre show for our first experience because we had prior knowledge and knew it would enhance the experience, and better our understanding and enjoyment of the ride

A one time visitor wouldn’t know this, and this gets a poorer ride experience

I would really like in the closed season if they could rejig the furniture and add a wider platform facing the dolls house, so there’s more space for viewing the show
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I completely agree with this and it really wouldn’t need to be a drastic arrangement to make this easily work.

I mean it’s arguable Merlin investing in the outside Queue line if this wasn’t there intended purpose at some point.


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A lot of people are approaching this from the lens of the enthusiast...
Anyone would think it was an enthusiast forum!
Can't see any point whatsoever in making a non existent queue into one.
 
Rob speaks sense.
First time for everything.
Viewing space...absolutely fine, obligatory queue jam preshow, no thanks.
You would have a queue pre and post show, due to ride cars, not trains.
For no gain for 95% of riders.
 
rob666 said:
A lot of people are approaching this from the lens of the enthusiast...
Anyone would think it was an enthusiast forum!
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You're perfectly entitled to argue from a viewpoint of an enthusiast, however you have to remember that we make up a VERY small portion of actual visitor numbers to the park - therefore it should be the GP's ride experience that the focus prioritise, not ours.

We ride these rides consistently more than members of the general public, we spend our spare time reading and interacting with forums discussing these rides - we're the ones who know the most about these rides and therefore a compulsory preshow obviously isn't something that we need, but there's absolutely no arguing that there's zero indication for members of the general public to stand and watch the preshow to get a backstory on the ride currently, and in skipping the preshow members of the general public are missing vital pieces of the narrative puzzle and will therefore get off the ride feeling confused.

That's not the case for us, obviously, as most of us already know all of the ins and outs and finer details as to what happens on the ride and the story that the ride is supposed to tell - but for people who don't religiously sit on the forums all day or have a passion for theme parks, there's absolutely nothing to tell them that they're missing key parts of the narrative by blitzing past the preshow.

Yes, in an ideal world this story would've been told in the ride itself - but the showbuilding is only so big. Filling up half of the ride with a backstory would make for a very short story arc. Once the backstory narrative is complete, there wouldn't be much ride track left to complete the ride narrative without it feeling rushed, which would also leave riders feeling like "was that it?".

The ride length currently is perfect - the pacing is spot on (the dark spots on the ride still need attention).

Whether they make the preshow compulsory or add something to the preshow to indicate that people are missing out on key elements of the story by bypassing it is totally up to the park - but the way it's executed currently is poor. I feel so horrendously awkward standing there as people stare at you stood in the middle of the queue, not moving - especially if the preshow hasn't started yet.

The bridge either needs widening and a sign saying "wait here for the preshow" (or something more fitting narratively), or the preshow needs to be made compulsory in my opinion. This was never an issue previously because The Haunted House or Duel were never narratively-led, however The Curse at Alton Manor most certainly is narratively-led, therefore missing out on crucial bits of information (like those given in the preshow) detracts from the overall ride experience massively.

Again - things need to be made better for members of the general public, not us enthusiasts. These people visit once, maybe twice a year at most. Standing in a compulsory preshow once, maybe twice a year would not be the end of the world for the majority of the general public. I can see how it would be an inconvenience to us enthusiasts, but like I said at the start... we make up such a small percentage of the actual numbers - so who cares!
 
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Missing vital pieces of the narrative puzzle?
Nobody cares, its a nice haunted dark ride...that is what the "general public" think, god bless 'em.
Only a few thoosies give a damn, personally, I don't think anybody else really cares for a lost narrative at all.
 
Many people do care - the main complaint that the attraction gets is that people don't understand the narrative (and that there's too many dark spots, but that's a different issue completely), but in reality if they just stood and watched the preshow it would explain the entire concept and therefore their complaint would be moot.
 
rob666 said:
Rob speaks sense.
First time for everything.
Viewing space...absolutely fine, obligatory queue jam preshow, no thanks.
You would have a queue pre and post show, due to ride cars, not trains.
For no gain for 95% of riders.
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For Wicker Man, you queue pre and post-show… just saying. ;)

I can see arguments for and against. I personally feel a closed pre-show would work better, but really this thread can keep going round and round in circles, and is starting to do just that.
 
The narrative is one of the most basic horror stories. Girl is abused, get possessed by a vague entity, gets vengeance, wants friends, foolish idiots explore the old abandoned house, tale as old as time.

Let's not pretend the narrative is a well layered story that cannot be easily picked up and needs force feeding down people's throats.

Would feel like a solution to a non-existent problem. And you'd hope that they considered it during the design phase of it and presumably came to the conclusion that a full blown "proper" pre show would've been difficult to implement without massive changes to the layout and design of the building. Which would've been out of the constraints of the budget no doubt.
 
James said:
For Wicker Man, you queue pre and post-show… just saying. ;)

I can see arguments for and against. I personally feel a closed pre-show would work better, but really this thread can keep going round and round in circles, and is starting to do just that.
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Yup, and that preshow isn't worth repeat viewing...But...it does an effective job of train unit batching...if done properly...the after show ride queue clears quickly...pretty much straight on the train...with a full train service.
That simply would not happen with the Curse...lots of small cars need filling, not one large train that clears the lot.
Can't be arsed going round in the same circles again and again, the ride doesn't need a preshow, it would simply slow down an otherwise efficient queue muncher.
My humble opinion.
 
Benzin said:
Let's not pretend the narrative is a well layered story that cannot be easily picked up and needs force feeding down people's throats.
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Nobody is implying that, it's a nice aspect of the ride experience and I feel some people miss out on it when they would actually appreciate seeing it, that's it. However I do agree with you that they've probably already considered this, it's just something that would require a higher budget at the time, something they didn't have.
rob666 said:
Only a few thoosies give a damn, personally, I don't think anybody else really cares for a lost narrative at all.
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I get it, you don't enjoy it, but I'm tired of this opinion that everyone who isn't a forum dweller isn't likely to care about or enjoy these extra elements to the ride experience.
 
The original Haunted House was good in it's time - but on-going investment was not made to keep things fresh and up to date when they broke. It needed updating, so we got Duel, which I would imagine a lot of the general public enjoyed.

A "shoot them up" ride can last the test of time if done properly (& with a proper budget that Merlin would want to spend). Example being Men in Black: Alien Attack at Universal Orlando. 23yrs old now and IMO extremely re-rideable & fun - also the air-conditioning is very welcome in the Florida heat. Another example of a ride that can stand the test of time is Spider-Man at Islands of Adventure - again it has been looked after well & has had an expensive HD projection upgrade. So spend the money on a decent well executed ride in the first place and maintain it properly.

I have yet to ride The Curse of Alton Manor & will approach it with an open mind in a few weeks time. From what I have read on several forums the pre-show room is effectively too small (& cannot easily be made larger). Guests in groups will just chat amongst themselves as they pass through it & not pick up on the information / clues that help them understand the ride better & subsequently come off it with very mixed views.

If you wind the clock back to the days of the Webmaster Ice show at Towers - this was a brave move as guests had to watch it & follow the storyline to understand it. It started to get poor reviews after little only over a season so was replaced with Cirque du Halloween for Spooktacular & Fireworks - which went down a storm with guests as they didn't have to think to follow the show. It was basically Robbie Williams & other well known tracks on ice alongs with stunts. The Circus then continued for a further two seasons.

What we need is immersive indoor queuelines like other parks have where guests can be kept dry in inclement weather (welcome in the UK!) and be fed a story as they queue. I can't see this happening - and I bet most of the Horizon queue will be outdoor.
 
Craig said:
I think we can move on from the preshow argument now as we're going round in circles. Clearly some want watching it to be "enforced", others don't. I doubt those opinions are going to change either way, so let's leave things there. Thanks :)
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It's as if we're back to closed season again.

Numerous details throughout Alton Manor are designed specifically to be re-rideable. The preshow amongst them.

I for one am just glad that effects that were originally installed are now being activated through whatever testing has been done to ensure they work correctly without tripping whatever alarm this time.

Also hoping to see some other ideas that were floated about come to fruition in future "hopefully" plus I'm hoping for the loss of the "Hide & Seek" scene eventually, as much as I completely understand the concept and as to why it exists, it just never gelled with me and I hope for the realisation of some concept ideas.
 
It is in general a slight problem with stories in theme parks.
I love them, and it’s great, but the devil shouldn’t be in the details when it comes to rides. You can have specifics for fun, but get real, most people switch off their brains when at a theme park.
That’s why the haunted house worked so well. You broke into a haunted house. You kinda subconsciously assume that. However, the 5th dimension (originally) was a cool concept, but in execution left guests scratching their heads (I know they had also never seen a dark ride before but oh well..)
Also, ghost train. They spent so long explaining stuff like “the leader of the cult was a fierce military leader” but tell me why that is important

So maybe a simplification is necessary. I know it’s simple, but guys, just look at the average chav. Would you trust them with that? Don’t we have an entire page on the wiki about that?
 
Issues with the curse again today. It didn’t open until about 1.30pm. Wasn’t open long before they evacuated the whole ride and it probably didn’t open again for another hour or so.

I had a few rides on it when it had reopened and it’s probably my worse rides I’ve had in terms of effects not working.

I noticed the lights on the moving walls were off, the light which lights up on the wall before the trommel, as well as the laser.

The lighting bolt above the hearse was also off.

We also had one ride where the whole finale didn’t work other than the flash of the camera.

However did get the smoke effect before the trommel, but it’s a bit none event, just one blast of smoke from the left hand side of the trommel before you go in.
 
Visited Alton Manor for the first time yesterday and I just have to say I was really blown away. The ride itself imo is easily one of the best and most effective haunted houses I’ve ever been on. The storyline following Emily is brilliant, compared to just random scares. What I really love though is the entire area outside the Manor; simple but also effective, especially the remote doll pram running around entertaining everyone, and a couple of live actors - plus the themed treats right outside were superb - Alton need more of these all over the park!! Great quality and such good value for moneyIMG_8639.jpeg
 
rcandrew said:
Visited Alton Manor for the first time yesterday and I just have to say I was really blown away. The ride itself imo is easily one of the best and most effective haunted houses I’ve ever been on. The storyline following Emily is brilliant, compared to just random scares. What I really love though is the entire area outside the Manor; simple but also effective, especially the remote doll pram running around entertaining everyone, and a couple of live actors - plus the themed treats right outside were superb - Alton need more of these all over the park!! Great quality and such good value for moneyIMG_8639.jpeg
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Just watch out for the Grim Reaper black ice cream! 🤣
 
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