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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

Whilst the trommel was operating which is a plus it also seemed to be a bit more reliable with no noticeable downtime. I do feel it’s slowly creeping into the usual Merlin standard of maintenance however which Duel was heavily criticised for.

The other issues I noticed:

The “I’m over here” corridor the animatronic was broken/ stuck hiding and then later in the day stuck showing. With one run through in total darkness.

Jack in the box head on left side of ride in the finale, the head was completely ripped off its mechanism and turned around facing the opposite direction. Then Sunday the effect was off.

No other changes that I could spot other than some tweaks to the lighting in the flying heads part so you can see them a bit better.

Was hoping to see far more work on this ride to add some more bits into the blank spaces. Seems as though we will need to wait a bit longer for that to happen. Still feel it’s just far too static.
 
Whilst the trommel was operating which is a plus it also seemed to be a bit more reliable with no noticeable downtime. I do feel it’s slowly creeping into the usual Merlin standard of maintenance however which Duel was heavily criticised for.

The other issues I noticed:

The “I’m over here” corridor the animatronic was broken/ stuck hiding and then later in the day stuck showing. With one run through in total darkness.

Jack in the box head on left side of ride in the finale, the head was completely ripped off its mechanism and turned around facing the opposite direction. Then Sunday the effect was off.

No other changes that I could spot other than some tweaks to the lighting in the flying heads part so you can see them a bit better.

Was hoping to see far more work on this ride to add some more bits into the blank spaces. Seems as though we will need to wait a bit longer for that to happen. Still feel it’s just far too static.

Almost as if having a good proportion of their behind the scenes staff “looking for work” is a bad idea.

I’m convinced the place with be a soulless husk by the end of the season.

And this isn’t local managements fault, it’s everywhere in Merlin.

I really hoped they’d get TCAAM right and look after it, Christ maybe improve it, they just can’t. They don’t have the capability. They don’t know how too. Much like teaching an Aramark chef how to make a jacket potato.
 
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I was re-reading some of John Wardley's book "Life After Nemesis" last night, and he stated on page 67 that John Burton's backstory for The Curse At Alton Manor was that Emily felt ignored by her parents as a child, and - if I am understanding it correctly - became consumed by hatred and evil spirits which killed her parents in response?

I personally wasn't crazy about this backstory, because it makes her sound evil and thus less sympathetic; I personally would adjusted the storyline to have her become infected with a disease (e.g. tuberculosis), her parents callously disregard her symptoms, have her tragically pass away, and her tormented soul continue to haunt the house in the afterlife (granted: this storyline is somewhat cliche, though).

P.S. Some riders were evacuted from the ride on Friday and Saturday; there is some backstage footage of the ride in the YouTube video that I posted a link to yesterday in the Ride Availability thread, if anybody is interested.
 
With all these evacuation events happening on Alton Manor, I'm honestly surprised no one has jumped on the Creepypasta bandwagon for that or any Towers ride. Has potential if anyone had the imagination for it.
 
I was re-reading some of John Wardley's book "Life After Nemesis" last night, and he stated on page 67 that John Burton's backstory for The Curse At Alton Manor was that Emily felt ignored by her parents as a child, and - if I am understanding it correctly - became consumed by hatred and evil spirits which killed her parents in response?

I personally wasn't crazy about this backstory, because it makes her sound evil and thus less sympathetic; I personally would adjusted the storyline to have her become infected with a disease (e.g. tuberculosis), her parents callously disregard her symptoms, have her tragically pass away, and her tormented soul continue to haunt the house in the afterlife (granted: this storyline is somewhat cliche, though).

P.S. Some riders were evacuted from the ride on Friday and Saturday; there is some backstage footage of the ride in the YouTube video that I posted a link to yesterday in the Ride Availability thread, if anybody is interested.
No themed experience would be complete without a bit of tuberculosis woven into the story!
 
With all these evacuation events happening on Alton Manor, I'm honestly surprised no one has jumped on the Creepypasta bandwagon for that or any Towers ride. Has potential if anyone had the imagination for it.
That bandwagon has looooong set into the sunset pardner…

Nothing will top cloggy. Maybe we need a staff member to wear a stupid hat or something so Alton can have some of it.
 
I personally wasn't crazy about this backstory, because it makes her sound evil and thus less sympathetic; I personally would adjusted the storyline to have her become infected with a disease (e.g. tuberculosis), her parents callously disregard her symptoms, have her tragically pass away, and her tormented soul continue to haunt the house in the afterlife (granted: this storyline is somewhat cliche, though).
She is still a victim in the storyline, The spirit took advantage of her loneliness, Remember the spirit not only killed everyone in the house but took her with it and trapped her in this weird dimension between time and space. From context clues it appears as though she made contact with the spirit thinking it was some sort of friend who would help her before it eventually went wrong. She's kind of got a split personality now between her and the cloaked spirit that I believe fuels her anger and by doing so gets a stronger hold of her
 
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