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[2023] The Curse at Alton Manor

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rob666 said:
We do know that the basic ride system is not being replaced, and the shed remains to be open again at some point next year.
I know you are being pedantic, but such simple, basic facts remain.
No Mystic Meg, no "hopeful expectation" just common sense and obvious logic, something sadly lacking in this topic in recent months.
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It depends what you define as ‘new attraction’ doesn’t it?

If your definition of that means that it needs to be a new ride system, then no, it almost certainly isn’t going to be a new ride.

Personally, particularly with dark rides, I consider the hardware to be a relatively insignificant part of it. In Fantasy Land at Disney there are numerous dark rides with very similar ride hardware, the difference is the experience within the building which is dependent on the theming etc.

If it is the intention to keep the majority of the theming, but remove the older stuff, get some newer bits in and keep the experience largely the same, then yes, I’d agree with you. But everything we’ve heard, including an interview with Wardley recently, suggests that it is going to be more comprehensive than that.

It’s purely down to opinion, but personally if we get the vast majority of the interior gutted and replaced then I would consider that a new attraction, albeit one with the same ride system and genre as the previous one (but probably a revised theme as, again, Wardley has mentioned it will have new back story).
 
RIPCorky said:
If you look into it logically. MMM van only appeared around the middle of last year? Ride closed in September, is that really long enough to completely gut a ride and rebuild? Is 6-7 months long enough to completely redesign every set, have all the props and scenery made off site, then installed and painted/finished and tested?
The ride never looked a hive of activity, it should have looked like a building site if indeed it was one. I'd have thought we would have heard more by now if it was a big enough change, same with sub terra. I'm sure they'll release something soon so people book some park tickets, must be a massive drain on finances over the winter.
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I think people are assuming that it'll be completely different because MMM managed to transform Bubbleworks into the Gruffalo River Ride during that 7 months between 7th Sept - Opening day of the 2017 season. It makes perfect sense if you look at it like that, but many seem to forget that a big portion of the Bubbleworks set pieces are still intact but boarded up behind the walls, while a big chunk were auctioned, probably for time consumption. I might want to bring up as well that Bubbleworks show building is a lot smaller than the Haunted Houses, which is much larger than Bubbleworks, and the point that you brought up of it not being that busy behind the ride at all.

John Wardley stated in the interview by Lift Hills and Thrills (Great video by the way) that what's happening now is the ride is being maintained to modern standards with the Original Ethos of the Haunted House. Personally, I'm betting for a half and half, half of the old sets are gone, the other half are staying while the new sets are being put in to modernise the ride while keeping the theming and style of the original, hence potentially keeping a lot of the old theming as well to go along with the new scenes. It makes sense to me anyway.
 
rob666 said:
No Mystic Meg, no "hopeful expectation" just common sense and obvious logic, something sadly lacking in this topic in recent months.
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But also needless cynicism from people who have zero interest in this development anyway.
For other people who enjoy dark rides and are interested in the Haunted House this is the development we've waited about 20 years for!

RIPCorky said:
If you look into it logically. MMM van only appeared around the middle of last year? Ride closed in September, is that really long enough to completely gut a ride and rebuild? Is 6-7 months long enough to completely redesign every set, have all the props and scenery made off site, then installed and painted/finished and tested?
The ride never looked a hive of activity,
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I mean a van parking up doesn't herald the start of a project. They couldve been working on this for years for all we know and it could be a hive of activity inside there all winter. Just because a fan hasnt taken a photo of every activity doesn't mean it didnt happen.

How should we know how long it takes to build a dark ride?
 
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If I remember correctly, Duel only really got radio advertisement and nothing else really, no TV adverts etc but was still marketed as a new ride.

I think this will be the same. It'll be marketed as a new attraction. But won't have a heavy marketing campaign. Maybe an online presence. But I don't think it'll get anything like an advert for TV. I'd be surprised if it did.
 
Trooper Looper said:
many seem to forget that a big portion of the Bubbleworks set pieces are still intact but boarded up behind the walls, while a big chunk were auctioned, probably for time consumption. I might want to bring up as well that Bubbleworks show building is a lot smaller than the Haunted Houses
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Let's not go round in this circle again. We still don't know what we don't know!

The sets were completely changed for Gruffalo. The old walls just had more walls built in front, so adding time not reducing. It makes no difference.

Auctioning has nothing to do with it, it probably took only a week to remove the props. It would be same for Duel.

Bubble Works was still huge though isn't it.

All we know is the garden, trommel etc at least are being changed.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I think people are assuming that it'll be completely different because MMM managed to transform Bubbleworks into the Gruffalo River Ride during that 7 months between 7th Sept - Opening day of the 2017 season. It makes perfect sense if you look at it like that, but many seem to forget that a big portion of the Bubbleworks set pieces are still intact but boarded up behind the walls, while a big chunk were auctioned, probably for time consumption. I might want to bring up as well that Bubbleworks show building is a lot smaller than the Haunted Houses, which is much larger than Bubbleworks, and the point that you brought up of it not being that busy behind the ride at all.

John Wardley stated in the interview by Lift Hills and Thrills (Great video by the way) that what's happening now is the ride is being maintained to modern standards with the Original Ethos of the Haunted House. Personally, I'm betting for a half and half, half of the old sets are gone, the other half are staying while the new sets are being put in to modernise the ride while keeping the theming and style of the original, hence potentially keeping a lot of the old theming as well to go along with the new scenes. It makes sense to me anyway.
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The thing is if you leave half and half then you end up with something that doesn't remain consistent all the way through, kind of like two people writing a letter, it all needs to look the same and keep the same "style" of artwork.

Given they have nothing else new, thought they may have pushed this a bit more.
 
AT86 said:
The original HH building was water tight in Sep 1991 I believe (based on the info in the Smoke & Mirrors book). That would have given them a similar time period to install and theme the entire ride for its March 1992 opening.

Considering it is likely that at least some portion of the existing theming will remain it’s not beyond the realms of possibility for a realistic March 2023 opening.
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Yes, the ride must have gone through significant design before hand.

For all we know all the props, design, music was already sorted and it’s a case of putting the pieces in place to complete the puzzle.

This seems different in some way. Like others have said, if it was a total gut they would have gone in on day one and ripped it out. We’ve seen bits and pieces and nothing more.

Capacity is important but the park won’t peak in numbers until mid spring. I hope it opens March though. We may have Sub Terra back, Enterprise? And possibly some new fairground rides. Would provide ample coverage.
 
Don't rise to it @rob666. I agree that this is Not a new attraction. Heck I'll be happy if it's a more than half arsed refurb to honest.

Merlin will of course market as brand spanking new.

I pray for lighting strikes..... Burn the thing down. And take Nemesis with it.
 
I've asked once today, I shouldn't have to ask again. We don't need to get into this pointless discussion about what's classed as new. It'll be marketed as "new for 2023" whether some of us like that or not.

Now again, can we get back to some sensible discussion please. Any off topic posts moving forward will just be deleted. And yes, that includes the repetitive posts about not liking the topic...
 
Speculation is fine and all but I think the reason this thread is so repetitive and doesn't seem to be moving on is because we really don't know a lot if you think about it. Since we had all the clues around the ride when and after it closed and pictures of a skull being skipped, we don't know a lot else in reality and haven't done for quite some time.

John was good enough to give his time recently to tell fans how excited he was about it and how great he thinks it's going to be from his viewpoint of being one of the original designers who is also collaborating with others on this new iteration of this attraction. But in reality, in true professional entertainer style, he didn't let loads of cats out of the bag (and nor should he in my opinion as that makes it more exciting for me personally) and his comments could easily be over analysed to suit a certain viewpoint of people's own wishes and desires.

For these reasons, I don't think anyone can be sure of what work is going on and at what pace so I'm unsure why we keep going back to banging the same drums. Nemesis closed later and isn't re-opening until 2024 and we probably have a better idea of what's going on with that at this stage. Without wanting to just slag the thread off (please don't take it that way and scold me for it @Craig as that's not my intention following what you just posted) there seems to be a disproportionately heavy amount of repetitive noise based on not a lot news?

Duel was so brand damagingly bad for me towards the end, as soon as I found out it wasn't going to be a typical Merlin screen based IP monstrosity and was actually having some love and attention put in to it, I was pretty much sold. From what we know so far, it's likely going to have a lot of care and attention put in to it and therefore much improved on what came before it, regardless of the old Vs new stuff ratio and attempts to really go to town trying to mine gold nuggets from very little information and news developments. They could have skipped the lot for all we know, if it didn't happen on a day when a fan was there with a camera or a drone, we wouldn't know about it.

HH was special to me and I'm excited to see what they're doing with it. I don't share the enthusiasm of some others about the direction the park are going in with other shenanigans at the moment (far far from it), but this ride I'm pretty optimistic about! I know I won't be able to help but look when we do know something new, but at the same time I'm enjoying the not knowing so far.
 
zeock said:
Seems a bit unnecessary if you ask me. Don't have Twitter or Instagram so I wouldn't know about the quantity of emojis John Burton uses in his posts.
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It's a thing a lot of people do on Social Media, I don't understand it either. Bit curious why John B didn't mention that John W originally designed the ride back in 1992 as the HH. He decided to mention nemesis, but not the HH...
 
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