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[2023] The Curse at Alton Manor

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Rick said:
I am somewhat loathed to ask this question but I am going to. Was the trommel even that cool ? I don't recall it being a stand out feature of the Haunted House, nor was it particularly unique.
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I never cared for it particularly.

Its a cool illusion but was an overused gimmick in many rides. But obviously it was better working than not working, so people were pretty vocal about it in Duel.
 
ChristmasPud said:
I never cared for it particularly.

Its a cool illusion but was an overused gimmick in many rides. But obviously it was better working than not working, so people were pretty vocal about it in Duel.
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Agreed ( o_O ) it just feels like it became (in)famous because it was broken, rather than because it was a highlight of the ride.
 
When the trommel worked properly, with the accompanying slanted tunnel effect in the distance it worked really well as an illusion. This was sadly dumbed down when the Duel re-theme came along in 2003, as the lighting was ruined and the effect was never the same again.
 
AstroDan said:
When the trommel worked properly, with the accompanying slanted tunnel effect in the distance it worked really well as an illusion. This was sadly dumbed down when the Duel re-theme came along in 2003, as the lighting was ruined and the effect was never the same again.
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I only rode the Haunted House for the first time in 2002, but I don't think the lighting in the tunnel changed at all between then and 2003. What did change was the split head was moved to the end and the fire exit beside became very visible.

It didn't help either that the addition of guns rather changed the guest's perspective from one of audience (subjected to illusions and effects) to one of participant, hunting things down (ignoring or seeing through the illusions/effects in that pursuit).

It always felt like a rather basic effect to me, I wouldn't mourn it if it has been removed.
 
WillPS said:
I only rode the Haunted House for the first time in 2002, but I don't think the lighting in the tunnel changed at all between then and 2003. What did change was the split head was moved to the end and the fire exit beside became very visible.
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I think that is the change that Dan is talking about. Adding an extremely bright stobe-like light, to illuminate the split head at the end, effectively nullified the lighting effects of the tunnel itself.

It's much like how the LED target themselves ruined a lot of the other lighting effects by adding light into areas that should have been dark.
 
Squiggs said:
I think that is the change that Dan is talking about. Adding an extremely bright stobe-like light, to illuminate the split head at the end, effectively nullified the lighting effects of the tunnel itself.

It's much like how the LED target themselves ruined a lot of the other lighting effects by adding light into areas that should have been dark.
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Fair enough, I guess my point is that I don't think it worked particularly well in its later years either, the lighting felt kind of tacky (and there was too much of it compared to the rest of the ride).
 
AstroDan said:
When the trommel worked properly, with the accompanying slanted tunnel effect in the distance it worked really well as an illusion. This was sadly dumbed down when the Duel re-theme came along in 2003, as the lighting was ruined and the effect was never the same again.
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Yep, over the many times I did the original Haunted House up until its removal/re-theme in 2003 I had no idea it was just an illusion. I actually thought the cars tilted (pretty stupid looking back).

That effect was ruined and subsequently switched off in the end.
 
Ryan said:
Ok, this is stupid - when I was little I thought that when you were asked "how many?" the car that came through the curtain into onload was selected for you based on that number. We were always a group of 6 😅
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Surely you saw several other identical vehicles, some with parties of other sizes?
 
Not really no, the ramp clearly isn't wide enough to have two queues using it, so I suppose this option makes the most sense.

I'm surprised they've gone with an option that requires building work, though, rather than a second queue parallel to the main queue. But I guess, for the length needed, it wasn't possible without interfering with the access road.
 
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