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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

I do think Curse improved some areas from even the original Haunted House (in my opinion) such as the bats area into the shadow scene, the spiders scene which was originally reliant on UV to hide a lot of black walls becoming the attic and the mirror corridor being a better replacement for the failed flying ghost.

But yeah The Haunted House was a lot more ambitious with the biggest loss being the swamp finale which was disappointing to see Curse rely so much on the old Duel ending. The Curse opening day was one of the best days I've had at Towers though helped by with it being indoors it was a genuine surprise, hopefully to be replicated one day if project Horizon gets off the ground!
 
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Two of the newest and arguably best effects, the disappearing mirrors and swinging Emily, are both poorly executed in that people seem to miss the mirror effect as they don’t look to their right and follow each mirror/screen and similar with swinging Emily. Due to its position and lighting, your attention is drawn away in front.

Which in my opinion is a real shame as they’re both great
 
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The_bup said:
Also that now curse has something duel never had:

Effects.
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Duel’s new effects were quite awful but something nobody seems to have picked up on is almost all the new animations in the Curse are repurposed from the zombie animations from Duel, so it can’t have been all that bad.

The new finale is also a big downgrade from Duel in terms of scenery, although of course Duel’s finale had mainly static props where CAAM has screens etc.

My main disappointment with CAAM is the scenery in many places is quite basic looking or just walls of printed vinyl graphics.

Overall though it’s a more entertaining ride than Duel, which was a very rushed incoherent project.
 
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Trevnrob said:
Trommel not in action on today's visit
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Yeah visited today too, few things not working.
Trommel obviously.
Curtain at the start was blowing, unsure if that's the norm.
Fire effect on the trommel not working.
Finale with emily props lighting was off, and the drop down to reveal it was already down. Think that's about it lol.
Bit sad to see.
 
What is the general reliability for manor? Only been on it once since it opened and whenever I'm at the park it always breaks down just before we enter the plaza, we leave, it re-opens, we go back and its broken again,

going next sunday can hopefully get back on!

Also my one ride on it in May 2023 the ride broke as soon as we left the station, so we were stationary for about 20 minutes, and then the effects were out of sync!
 
WickerWonder18 said:
Yeah visited today too, few things not working.
Trommel obviously.
Curtain at the start was blowing, unsure if that's the norm.
Fire effect on the trommel not working.
Finale with emily props lighting was off, and the drop down to reveal it was already down. Think that's about it lol.
Bit sad to see.
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That’s a shame, all of those were working on my visit less than 2 weeks ago.
 
Manchester1894 said:
Surely a trackless RFID thing like Disney use must be a longer term aim.
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If they were going to make such a major upgrade I imagine they'd have done it when they were doing the re-theme. Of course, they could install a new trackless system and just have the new vehicles follow the same linear path as the current ride, but at that point they'd just be spending a lot of money for no benefit. They'd need to do a major re-design in order to take full advantage of the capabilities of a trackless system and I suspect that's very unlikely any time soon.
 
I've been on at least 20 times this season so far, my ride a week or two ago was the best I've had since it opened in 2023 (every single effect working great, including both flying heads timed correctly), but then this past Sunday was my worst.

Most of the effects were working, except for the trommel... not a huge deal, however it was stopping in the flying heads section that got me, as it was pitch black and the bass from the garden section was incredibly loud. Only stopped for a minute or two so it was probably just a pause for disabled guests, it was just a bit too loud for me.
 
Trommel still not working today. But most other effects seemed to be working, including the fireplace effects.

Took my partner on for the first time since it’s opened and he much preferred it to Duel. Loved the consistency of the theming and the way they’d repurposed props like the spider. Still a really fun ride, but I do hope they can get the trommel working again at some point soon.
 
My wife has a cheap convertible, and no willy.
It is handy for transporting six foot cordon sweet peas...quite handy really for transporting tall items.
And old ones are often cheaper than their conventional car...more to go wrong and leaky, hence cheaper.
Nothing to do with the topic though, blame the bloody pirate.
On topic...why bother with trackless, the ride is fine as is.
 
If you're gonna go trackless, build it from the ground up and make it worthwhile.

There's not many that really take advantage of the fact out there. Retrofitting one would probably require so much more.

Main benefit is the spinning so people could actually see certain effects instead of completely missing them. Don't think the system would work for a Haunted House style attraction though.
 
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