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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

It was certainly broken when I went on 28th July. It was disappointing; that effect was possibly one of the strongest in the ride for me, and definitely the strongest reused effect!

On that note, my ride on the aforementioned visit was only my second ever go on Alton Manor, with my first being only the week after it opened in March 2023. My thoughts remain quite similar to when I first did it; it's a nicely done refurbishment of Duel overall. It has some absolutely excellent set design, with some of the new sets being wonderfully detailed and surprisingly big and the reused sets working well within the new theme. It's got a nice, cohesive storyline. Some of the new effects are really cool additions and executed well, with the ending and the mirror scene being particularly cool ones for me, and I also think that projection mapping is used to great effect in parts of the ride and works very well. Furthermore, I also liked some of the new additions compared to my last ride, particularly the enhanced hide and seek scene.

With that being said, I do not think the ride is perfect. I think the screaming heads scene still doesn't work very well in this iteration of the ride, and I also think that some of the later added (post-opening) screen and projection mapping stuff doesn't work that well. I'm mainly thinking of the random projected skull on the wall before the screaming heads and the projection of Emily popping out of the coffin in the hearse; I'm not personally a fan of either of these effects, and I don't think the ride would lose anything without them. With the projected skull in particular, I'm convinced that's just some generic royalty free video, as Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach had exactly the same projection in their Haunted Hotel ghost train 2 weeks later...

It's not an absolute personal favourite of mine, as I'm not the world's greatest horror fan (Duel wasn't either), and I do perhaps not rate the ride as highly as some. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my ride on Alton Manor and I think it's been a successful revamp overall.
 
TBoy535 said:
I do feel they should allow a small budget each year for this attraction to keep it exciting by adding new scenes and updating props etc.


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Totally concur. Once you’ve ridden it a couple of times it looses the novelty as you know where the jump scares are - etc.

Problem is imagination - surely there are only so many changes that could be made before the ride looses the original story ? And becomes a mish mash (again)
 
Do they have to constantly update to keep it fresh and surprising for regular visitors though? Is there any other examples of dark rides regularly changing and updating? Or do they just need to make sure it all works as seamlessly as possible to keep impressing?

Really it should be just one of a number of similar quality support attractions.
 
I don’t think Alton realise the skillset and experience you need for fixing effects over maintenance are totally different.

The issue could be structural, mechanical, electrical, control or all combined. This isn’t predefined annual activities and clearly requires someone or group with advanced capabilities. (And they can’t go back to the original manufacturer. Good luck finding the drawings)

Rotating drums seems to be something Alton struggle with…
 
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It would be helpful if folks reporting things not working clarified how many times they went through the attraction on a given day to say something ‘is broken’

These things trigger thousands of times a day. If you only ride once and it didn’t go off it doesn’t necessarily mean it is broken.

Effects not triggering happens on all rides every now and then.
 
AT86 said:
It would be helpful if folks reporting things not working clarified how many times they went through the attraction on a given day to say something ‘is broken’

These things trigger thousands of times a day. If you only ride once and it didn’t go off it doesn’t necessarily mean it is broken.

Effects not triggering happens on all rides every now and then.
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Trommel is constantly turning isn't it?
 
AT86 said:
It would be helpful if folks reporting things not working clarified how many times they went through the attraction on a given day to say something ‘is broken’

These things trigger thousands of times a day. If you only ride once and it didn’t go off it doesn’t necessarily mean it is broken.

Effects not triggering happens on all rides every now and then.
Click to expand...
3 times, once at around 11, then again at approximately 2pm and 5pm.

Trommel was broken on all three runs, as well as the pepper’s ghost.

As stated, don’t think it stops turning if it’s working correctly.
 
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